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Avoid a foreclosure: you have options, and how do you choose the right person to work with?

By James Manning

Real Estate Agent with STL Real Estate

February 15, 2010 06:56 AM

If you are facing a foreclosure, it is important to understand that you have options.

Some of the options that you have available are:

A short sale, deed-in-lieu, forbearance, mortgage modification, mortgage refinance, sale fo your property (for those few of us that have enough equity), are a few of your options.

Click on this page for great information on how to stop a foreclosure.

Just as important as realizing that you have options, and you don't have to just settle for letting the bank foreclose on your property, is choosing the right real estate professional.

When your house is on the line, you should be very careful with who you choose to stop your foreclosure from happening.

Make sure that

1. They don't charge any upfront fees for their services.

2. They are licensed real estate agents

3. They don't outsource the short sale mitigation process (by mitigation I am referring to the short sale negotiations with the bank)

4. They have experience with short sales. You don't want a rookie handling your short sale, or someone that simply knows how to do one because he took some sort of class. Only use experienced professionals to ensure you have the highest chance to stop your foreclosure.

If you want more foreclosure prevention information, I strongly recommend you visit this foreclosure rescue site.

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Larry Lawfer

YourStories Realty Group - Newton, MA

"I listen for a living." It's all about you.

This is good advice, but some good agents do ask for a small fee to start the process. What you are talking about is the process some non-realtors were doing early on where the promised to save the house for the client and needed the entire 1500. up front. Payments should be in keeping with what the banks are receiving from the government to complete the process. Having completed a couple for clients I can tell you that it is a long, time consuming process and the banks are horrible about taking notes and following through. Good luck

Feb 15, 2010 07:00 AM

James Manning

STL Real Estate - Saint Louis, MO

You are right. Some quality agents do charge a small fee upfront. This is by no means meant to indict them of any wrongdoing.

However, when fraud happens it occurs when companies charge people facing foreclosure upfront fees.

Therefore, as a general rule of thumb, if you are facing a foreclosure I can't advise you to pay someone an upfront fee.

I also question the confidence level of agents that charge an upfront fee. If they really thought they could execute the short sale correctly and prevent a foreclosure, why would they need to charge a fee in the first place?

A great short sale real estate agent that won't charge you anything upfront is Ryan Wessels.

Feb 15, 2010 07:45 AM

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James Manning

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