Bart Marchioni, a Realtor at Keller Williams Realty - Silicon Valley, and a member and author of 3 Oceans Real Estate , one of the best Blogs on the real estate industry in California,
wrote an excellent 3-part series on "How to Avoid Foreclosure" which I recommend to all home sellers and buyers.
He reports on "11 Options for Homeowners facing foreclosure " which you can request report from Bart at his site - he breaks down your options into the following 3 parts:
- Things you can do to try and keep your home
- Things you can do to sell your home,
- And finally, some "last resort" options.
Here are some immediate recommendations which he explains in much more detail
Arizona and the Metro Phoenix area , is a bit different than California as we do not have mortgages. We have Deeds of trust. As a result, reinstatement is not an option.
Here's what you should do 1st.
Contact your lender to make them aware of the pending problem. You may be surprised of their understanding and willingness to work with you to keep you in your home prior to a bank foreclosure.
If you contact a Realtor. Make sure you work with a foreclosure or short-sale specialist. It is a complicated, time consuming process which requires a lot of communication and due diligence with your lender.
Try to remain as stress free as humanly possible. It is an emotional time. You did not do anything wrong. You are not alone. You will get through this with the other 3 million Americans.
---------------------------
Copyright © James Wexler, *Avoid Foreclosure - know your options*
Contact James Wexler (480) 221-8080 for all your Phoenix Arizona and Scottsdale AZ Real Estate needs.
Related Posts
wexler - great list.
There are a lot of things you can do, starting with loan modifications if you want to actually stay in your home that are working due to government demand for banks to work with people in their home.
Loan Modifications and other loss mitigation programs are being pushed as part of the whole homeowner rescue package.
If you want to stay in your home, contact your lender and start the loan modification process. Get a low fixed rate amortized out over 30+ years and the arrears added to the back of the loan
James,
What a great list. I know many people in your area will find it extremely helpful. It breaks my hear each time I see a foreclosure sign...Thank you for taking the time to put together this information.
Cherimie - unfortunatly, we have more sad stories here in AZ then most of the country leading the home price decline nearly 31% for the last 12 months alone.
I wish I had more stories like yours with your US Marine client.
I recommend everyone reads Cherimie Crane's blog
james - I am not in the loan modification business, however, get an attorney based loan modification company
banks seem to react more quickly to the letters and packages submitted on legal letterhead (surprise, surprise)
Scott - I know there is a little more cost involved with attorney based loan modifciations.
, since there is a time crunch to get the loan modification done prior to a foreclosure sale, you need the time efficient method.
Not sure if the are, though, If attorney based loan mods are handled more quickly, then you are right, go that route.
James ,
I just want to warn clients that there are a lot of loan modifciation companies that are popping up over night and have no experience at all.
They just take your money and make promises they will not be able to meet
Barbara ,
loan modification companies are new and are unregulated. Remember that word. Unregulated. There are 99% honest and reliable people. Though, there will always be the 1% who smell blood in the water.
loan modification companies , except for attorney loan modification companies, for the most part, cause there are exceptions, are just preparing a short sale package for you , and charging you an arm and a leg for something you can do yourself, unless of course there are some predatory lending allegations
Creative Market - like in any unregulated and new business, there will always be the unsrcupulous people who try to take advatage of the desperate .
, I may be naive, however, I think that the vast majority are honest people providing a valuable service
Loan Modifications seem to be the most popular form of loss-mitigation, surpassing short sales as buyers are starting to realize a short sale does them no good, as they still lose the house and gain no monetary benefit
James Ladarski - good point about short sales. We are seeing a lot of sellers not even bothering with a short sale as they get almost nothing in return.
Yes, you get a lower tax liabiltiy which they could care less about since they are in pretty poor shape, for the most part , financially as it is