Consumer Foreclosure Tips: You Still Have Options

Many homeowners across the  metro area are facing foreclosure and don’t know what to do – it’s stressful, scary and often embarrassing,  but contrary to belief there are things that can be done.

If you are like millions of Americans and you are having trouble keeping up with your mortgage payments or your property has already gone into foreclosure, you have options. Foreclosure doesn’t happen overnight!

STAGE 1 – YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE KEEPING UP WITH PAYMENTS AND/OR HAVE MISSED ONE OR MORE PAYMENTS

1)     Don’t ignore the problem! 

Open all letters and take all phone calls from your lender so that you have all of the information. Often the first notices have foreclosure prevention options but it is imperative to react immediately.

2)     Contact your lender immediately to discuss a loan modification program.

Explain your situation and what you have been doing to resolve it. There may still be time to make one payment to prevent yourself from falling three months behind.

3)     Contact a housing counseling agency toll free at (800) 569 - 4287.

Be sure to contact an HUD approved housing counselor to avoid scams.

STAGE 2 – YOU HAVE RECEIVED A FORECLOSURE NOTICE (MISSED 3 PAYMENTS OR MORE)

1)     Contact a housing counseling agency toll free at (800) 569 - 4287.

A housing counselor can still help and a loan modification may still be a possibility.

2)     Take phone calls from your lender.

Explain your situation and what you have been doing to resolve it. There may still be time to work something out with the lender. The time between first notice to sale varies by state but foreclosure is NOT the only option at this point. You have until the date of the sale to make arrangements with your lender or pay the total amount owed.

STAGE 3 – A PUBLIC TRUSTEE’S SALE DATE HAS BEEN SCHEDULED

1)     Contact a Realtor who Specializes in Short Sales (The experts at Short Sale ProLogic can provide a list of referrals)

After all other options have been explored, the next step is to sell your home in a short sale. A short sale is where the lender agrees to sell at a moderate loss rather than pursuing foreclosure.  Proceeds are turned over to the lender.

2)     Avoid Foreclosure at all Costs

Homeowners often don’t know that they will be responsible for all legal fees incurred by the lender in addition to losing their home and damaging their credit scores. Foreclosure is the WORST option and also an avoidable option. Contact a realtor to determine your short sale options.

Foreclosure Friday Report

Short Sale ProLogic Foreclosure Friday Report

 

Today we searched the zip code 80104 for Castle Rock, Colorado using Short Sale ProLogic and found within a 3-mile radius, 208 properties are currently going through the foreclosure process. ONLY 14 of those properties are actually listed. That is just 6%.

Realtors: you can help! Not only does this information present you with a very profitable opportunity, but it also gives you the tools to actually help guide the people going through this painful process to achieve a better ending. 

www.shortsaleprologic.com

Avoiding Foreclosure: How To Help

Going through the foreclosure process? If not you, do you know someone who is? Unfortunately, chances are you do, but you don't know it yet. Here is a testimonial from a Realtor who has just begun using Short Sale ProLogic:

A person near and dear to me recently went through a painful foreclosure on her family's primary residence, all the way to the point of having the home sold at auction and getting the eviction notice posted on her door.  They had been working for months in advance trying to forestall the inevitable, but, strangely enough, I don't sense that they ever truly believed a foreclosure and eviction could become a reality in their lives until it was, literally, at their doorstep.  

At that point, it became scramble time when they had to swallow the hard pill of reality and scurry to find a rental and then box up their life before the authorities did it for them.  I honestly don't believe they ever thought about taking the short sale route and I'm quite certain no Realtor ever approached them to educate them about that option.  We didn't even know they were facing this problem or I would have pointed them in your direction [ShortSaleProLogic.com]. 

I think this painful and embarrassing crisis could have been avoided had a knowledgeable and gentle real estate counselor offered a better solution.

Think if this Realtor had only known about this person's situation before it was too late.  Short Sale ProLogic gives Realtors the tools to find the properties in foreclosure in an particular area and get the necessary training to be able to approach the family with compassion and knowledge of the foreclosure process. This way, they are able lead them in the right steps to save their credit, short sale their home and help save the market values of other homes in the area.

Don't wait until it is too late.  

The Bleakest Year in The Foreclosure Crisis Has Only Just Begun

Two reports from separate credit rating agencies are drawing the same conclusion: foreclosures will reach new heights this year, even after setting records in 2010.

It was hoped until recently that mortgage delinquencies and subsequent foreclosure filings had peaked. Until the peak occurs, the stockpile of properties facing imminent default -- the so-called "shadow inventory" -- will continue to glut real estate market supply, depreciating home values.


Standard & Poor's currently estimates that the principal balance of distressed homes amounts to about $450 billion. S&P expects that it will take 49 months to clear the supply of distressed homes on the market in the U.S. -- an 11 percent increase over the previous quarter and a considerable 40 percent increase from 4Q 2009.

Associated Press reports that "the bleakest year in the foreclosure crisis has only just begun." Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006, according to AP.  About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.


"2011 is going to be the peak," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. The firm predicts 1.2 million homes will be repossessed this year.

The blistering pace of foreclosures this year will top 2010, when a record 1 million homes were lost, RealtyTrac said Thursday. One in every 45 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last year, a record 2.9 million of them. That's up 1.67 percent from 2009.

One in every 17 Arizona households got a foreclosure filing last year, while one in 18 received a notice in Florida. California, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top ten states with the highest foreclosure rates.

This is markedly different from the situation one year ago, when tax incentives started to have what turned out to be a short-term effect on the housing market.

Foreclosures have affected not only local homeowners, but local economic development projects, as well. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America is in the process of clearing the final hurdles to ramp up construction on the new regional cancer hospital in Newnan.


Construction on the new 50-bed, 200,000-square-foot hospital was originally supposed to begin last month, but the CTCA filed for a one-year extension due to problems with gaining access to the land title. The state Department of Community Health approved that request, setting a new date of Dec. 17, 2011, for construction to commence on the $179,767,423 facility.

Economic and housing experts tend to agree that the slide in the real estate market will likely extend through at least the end of 2011, and probably even longer. Nationally, for almost two years now, foreclosures have remained above 300,000 per month, an unprecedented event in American history.

Visit www.shortsaleprologic.com today to find the properties going through foreclosure in your area and what steps to take next.
From Times-Herald.com

No Property Price-Point Immune to Foreclosures

 

Myth: most foreclosure properties are located in low-income housing areas.

Fact: Within a 3-mile radius of Cherry Hills Village (where the average home price is $1,241,748), 352 properties are currently going through the foreclosure process.

No property price-point is immune to the foreclosure crisis, giving Realtors hundreds of opportunities in ANY area in the state. Even better (sort of): how many of the distressed properties within the 3-mile radius of Cherry Hills Village are actually listed?

22. That is just 6.25%. 

Realtors: head to ShortSaleProLogic.com and see how this extremely powerful tool can help you.