I am often asked when working with homeowners with a distressed mortgage, "What are my options to avoid foreclosure?" As a Short Sale Agent and Short Sale Specialist in Houston Texas and surrounding areas, I provide the homeowner with a number of options to stop, postpone or avoid foreclosure; each with its pros and cons. This allows the homeowner to decide which option to avoid foreclosure is best suited to their particular needs.
This is a five part series to discuss, in detail, the various options the typical homeowner has when facing a foreclosure on their home.
When the American Dream Has Turned Into a Nightmare.
Owning a home is a big part of the American dream. It is a place where you can put down roots, raise a family, and create a lifetime of memories. But in today's difficult economy, homeowners face more challenges than ever before. It is not only more difficult to finance a home, it is rapidly becoming more difficult to keep up with payments and stay in your home.
More and more homeowners from every income level now realize that their dream has turned into a nightmare. Mounting debt, job losses, falling home values, and other widespread economic factors have combined to create a no-win situation. And most people have no idea where to turn for help. Even the most educated have little idea on their options to avoid foreclosure.
In this Series Entitle: Options To Avoid Foreclosure, we will take a look at why foreclosure is a growing problem in America and what many of your options are to avoid losing your home and credit. And we will show you what the Federal government has done to pave the way for a new program that may enable you to get out from under your mortgage debt and rescue your credit rating.
Why Are More and More Homes Foreclosing?
For years, most people assumed that foreclosure only happened to the "other guy." And in truth, foreclosure was a rare problem.
Today, foreclosure is happening to people at every economic level. In fact, many middle class families, who otherwise pay their bills and manage their money carefully, are shocked to discover that they may be forced to go through foreclosure and lose their good credit rating.
While it is true that a few homeowners have taken on more home than they can afford, in most cases, the struggling economy has created the problem.
For one thing, American jobs have been going overseas for many years. Cheap labor in other countries encourages U.S. companies to export their work force, including management and middle management positions. Layoffs, forced retirements, and salary cutbacks can play havoc with your budget and turn a previously affordable home into a financial liability. If you are a two-earner family, you can be devastated when one person loses a job.
Another problem is that if you financed your home with an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), you may now be watching your loan rate rise, along with your monthly payment. You may not have expected to stay in your home long enough for this to be a problem, but since the housing market has slowed and buyers are hard to find, you are stuck with high mortgage payments you cannot afford.
Then there are unfortunate situations, such as divorce or injuries on the job which often create financial hardship. In the case of an injury, you could be out of work for weeks or months with little or no pay.
To make matters worse, lenders seldom have programs in place to help their customers. They may have gladly collected a fortune in interest, but when you miss just a few payments, they will begin the foreclosure process without hesitation. This leaves the homeowner with little understanding of their options to avoid foreclosure.
This is the 1st of a five (5) post series on Options To Avoid Foreclosure. For more information, please refer to the following sequence of articles:
If you are at least 30 days behind on your mortgage payments, call your local Short Sale Agent or Short Sale Specialist as soon as possible. The sooner you call, the more options to avoid foreclosure you will have available to you. Every day that passes makes it less likely that you will be able to avoid foreclosure and rescue your credit rating.
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