Foreclosure Story of Wain Family

Posted in Foreclosure, April 7th, 2008 |

It is reads like a story book tale – except that it is true to life. Rick and Lisa Wain were shocked to find one fine day that their mortgage payment had spiked by $750 per month. They knew of course that their interes-only payment was to go up but they were hoping to refinance. This became impossible when the value of the house began to fall – and kept on falling. To add insult to injury – Rick who had two jobs, lost one. Lisa fell ill and could not go out for work. It was the perfect model of a financial failure. Time had run out. The couple would have to leave without delay. They have five children whom the have reared in this house that was their home for years recently they had acquired the ownership from Lisa’s mother and taken out a mortgage. They unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the bank only to find that the bank had sold the mortgage to another party.

A friend tried to help the couple by buying on a short sale agenda but the bank wanted more than the friend could offer. The friend aimed at buying the house and then renting it out to the Wains and thus helps them to keep their credit ratings by avoiding a foreclosure. The end of the story is tragic – the Wains are moving out. For Lisa it is more agonizing than the others. For the most part of her life she has lived in this neighbourhood with known faces of relatives and friends around her. Her grandfather set up home here when he came from Sweden in 1909. He built this house in the 30’s and for 75 years this attachment has remained with his descendents. Lisa feels she is leaving behind her grandparents.

In a rented house they will start life from less than zero with a bad credit rating. No advice will be of help to the Wains but they can give advice by warning all and sundry about the pitfalls of foreclosures. A nice guy turns up to sell a mortgage – always be on the alert. This is exactly what happened when Rick’s salary was inflated to allow him to qualify for the mortgage. The best thing is to engage a lawyer while dealing with these ‘nice guys’. The next thing – seek help as soon as clouds appear and do not wait for rain to fall.