Foreclosure Recap – Week #25
News radio 106 in Philly fives us the story via the Internet of how the Sheriffs departments there are trying to help during this trying time for homeowners. They have teamed up with Chase bank to help slow the rate of foreclosures and to try and keep people in the homes that they already own and are nearing foreclosure. The deputies deal with the issues that can be caused to a family due to the stress of foreclosure and they are now handing out a brochure with the foreclosure paperwork and it gives them the information needed to help them to sit down and go face to face with the lender to try and iron out a solution to the problem and stay the foreclosure.
The Examiner this week posted an article geared towards helping people understand loan modifications and what they can do for them and how to go about getting one. As I read it the article struck me as a must read. It explains the intricacies of loan modification in plain English and in terms that people can understand. It shows you that there truly are two sides to the story and if you really want a load modification you should know and understand both how you feel and where you are coming from and you should be able to see the bank or lenders side as well. If you can do that it is much more likely that you will be able to come to an agreement that will work for both parties. And if both parties are happy then it will be a smooth and successful modification.
The New Hampshire Sentinel Source has a story that really makes you look at the crisis from another point of view. We all think about how it affects the family that is losing a house, we read how the pets are affected and even how heartless the lenders can be. We see the stories about different agencies coming in and trying to help people stay in their houses and how the homeless shelters are over flowing with people that couldn’t make it. This story hits a new angle. How would you like to be the person on the phone listening to as many as a hundred people a day tell you their story and asking for help? Hearing them cry and knowing that in the end the only thing they can do is move on. The story puts perspective and compassion into a side of the news that is often overlooked and I think needs to be read by everyone.
One of the nations largest paper the Baltimore Sun, ran a story this week that shows how a local real estate agent has changed her focus from trying to educate people on how to go about buying and owning their own home to teaching them the things that they need to know to be able to keep the home. It is basically a nice human-interest story with a little new information that people might not know that is sort of hidden in the text. For example most folks know that it takes a little while to get the lender to actually respond to you about a refinance or a loan modification. This story actually lets you know the amount of time can vary from between 60 and 90 days. That means that if you are even possibly going to default, you have to start the process at least three months before you anticipate the event.
This story from the Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan is based around how a new program uses federal money to try and spruce up neighborhoods that have been on the high end of the foreclosure numbers. The hope here is that the clean up the neighborhoods by painting the foreclosed homes and mowing lawns may have the effect of driving home prices up enough that it could stimulate sales of the foreclosed properties which would be a winning situation for everyone. The foreclosed numbers would drop and more people would be in the homes and as a result property values should start to rise. The story is something that is worth taking a few moments to go over and if it actually works, might be something to implement elsewhere.
The state of Massachusetts has taken aim at businesses that are claiming to help people save property that have gone into foreclosure. These companies are claiming that they can save distressed properties from falling into the state of foreclosure. It seems that many of these companies are targeting people and are paying on the weakened state of minds of families that have little to no hope left. They ask for fees upfront to which they say they can save the property for the homeowner. The claims are mostly just false promises and the family’s usually only end up losing what little money that they had and the house as well.
This one is particularly unusual. The town of Mesquite is a quaint and rather picturesque city. The problem as pointed out by this article is that one of the first and largest signs that you see when entering the town is one placed by a pair of local realtors advertising the services they offer for specializing in foreclosed real estate and properties. Many people in the town agree that it is not the sign that is objectionable. It is the overall size and location that causes issues. One of the first things you see when arriving in Mesquite when getting off the interstate on exit 120 is a huge sign that tends to show how bad things are there. Not something that instills a lot of confidence in the local economy or job prospects if someone was looking for a place to move.
It brings up a lot of valid things to look at and things to contemplate should you be in the need to rent something or lease a home during this crisis. There are lots of people out there in a bad place and it appears that these desperate times have forced some desperate measures to be used.
This week’s celebrity foreclosure article is on Evander Holyfield’s 54,000 square foot Atlanta mansion with its 109 rooms sitting on 254 acres of land falling into foreclosure for yet a second time in one year. This shows how mismanagement of funds and then the downturn in the market can affect someone that has made over $248 million dollars in his sports career.
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