Tips on Avoiding Foreclosure
Since so many ForeclosureListings.com blog readers are involved in foreclosure and real estate investing, we felt it would be a good idea to provide some advice on how to avoid becoming a statistic in the growing foreclosure trend sweeping the nationwide market. We know that some of you out there have probably gotten involved in the past few years in Adjustable Rate Mortgages with the hopes of selling quickly, and with interest rates rising as rapidly as they are, we know it might be tough to keep up. So here’s some advice to help you stay on top of your mortgage situation, so that you can avoid foreclosure and be ready to deal with any problems that may arise.
The following information is taken from FreddieMac.com, where you can find more information on programs available for helping you avoid or deal with foreclosure:
-Do not ignore your lender. Contact the loss prevention department of your mortgage company as soon as you realize you are unable to make your payments. Tell them about your circumstances. Your chances of keeping your home are most effective when you are only one or two payments behind. Lenders prefer working with clients rather than moving to foreclose.
-Contact a nonprofit housing or credit counseling agency. They can help you organize a budget to repay the mortgage, or help you find local services or programs that provide financial, legal, medical or other support.
- Sell your home yourself or with a real estate agent. If you can’t sell your house for the amount you owe on the mortgage, your lender may agree to a ‘’short payoff” and write off the portion of your mortgage you still owe.
-Do not sign anything you don’t understand, and find a consumer attorney to review complicated contracts. Beware of contracts containing unreasonable repayment terms for loans, high interest rates and unfamiliar or undefined fees.
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September 29th, 2007 at 1:44 am
The best tip to avoid foreclosures is to save some money, and be conservitive. Don’t get yourself into a position where foreclosure is even possible. Its common sense really, but too late for most.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Okay here is a different situation that perhaps someone might provide some input on. Our house burned down August 2008. We are currently being provided temporary housing for 6 months as the insurance company is paying this. We had to make an addendum to the temp contract for us to pay an additional 6 months beyond that so we would have been able to get the rental unit. Now we were just given the dollar figure amount to re-build/repair our home. Our home was purchased in 2006 for $380,000.00 we gave over $40,000.00 down and currently owe $332,000.00 the market value on our home is now roughly $250,000.00. My wife and I were planning on giving the house back to the bank with the adjuster’s $239,000.00 amount to repair the home plus give them the land (1/3 of an acre) and remaining structure of the home. We feel that this is worth their while since we do not want to rebuild and we won’t have to foreclose since our home is also under the market crunch. Since it is a loss on our part and on top of that there are currently homes under foreclosure in our sub-division we are wondering if the bank would take under consideration what we will be offering them but also feel worried that the bank will say “no way in H___.”
My family is still traumatized by the fire ordeal and do not want to reside in that home and additionally we just do not have the time to watch over contractors to see if they are doing the job right. I received a contractor’s bid to repair the home and in his contract it stated that if we were to sue them we would have to pay for all their legal fees. (A no-win situation).
A Unique situation, What to do?