Stop Foreclosure

Five Tips to Stop Home Foreclosure

2007-01-21T16:09:00.002-08:00

Advice for Homeowners That Want to Save Their Home

Facing a home foreclosure can be a very scary experience. While foreclosure laws differ from state to state, good foreclosure advice can help almost anyone in this terrible situation. In this article we will explain 5 of the most commons things you should know if you plan to stop home foreclosure and remain in your home.

Five Tips to Avoiding Home Foreclosure

1. Do Not Avoid Your Lender

It is human nature to avoid any situation we feel we are not equipped to deal with. However, if you are behind on mortgage payments and need to stop home foreclosure to remain in your home, avoiding the situation is only counterproductive. Once the foreclosure process has begun, the only thing that will stop the foreclosure process is for you to do something. If you choose to avoid your lender and do nothing to stop the foreclosure, then the foreclosure process will inevitably take your home. Stay in touch with your lender, and provide them with current and accurate contact information.

2. When You First Fall Behind on Your Mortgage Payments, Write Your Lender a Hardship Letter

Lenders are people just like you and I. If some owed you money and could not pay, you would feel much better if they communicated with you and explained their current situation and when they may be able to repay you. Lenders are no different. Many homeowners who refuse seek foreclosure advice do not realize that by writing a Hardship Letter and sending it to your lender, you may me able to delay or even avoid foreclosure. If your financial situation will be improving soon, your lender may decide to give you some additional time to catch up your payments. The best way to stop home foreclosure is to avoid foreclosure altogether.

3. Ask Your Lender if They Can Offer You About Any Foreclosure Advice or Foreclosure Alternatives

You are not the first person to fall behind on mortgage payments, and you won't be the last. Many lenders have Workout Departments that can give free foreclosure help that can help you stop home foreclosure or avoid foreclosure altogether. Before you talk to an attorney or consider filing bankruptcy to stop foreclosure, find out if your lender can offer you free foreclosure advice and get you back on track.

4. If You Get Foreclosure Advice From a Third Party, Avoid Foreclosure Scams At All Cost

The big problem with a scam artist is that they look and sound like legitimate business people! There are more "Avoid Foreclosure" and "Pay Us To Stop Home Foreclosure" scams than ever more. As foreclosure rates rise and more and more owners seek foreclosure alternatives to help stop home foreclosure, the number of scams will only increase. The best way to avoid foreclosure scams to make sure you are dealing with a company that will at least provide an initial free consultation, references, and has been in business at least two years. Avoiding foreclosure scam artist that can ask for large amounts of money up front or promise to stop home foreclosure as soon as they receive payment can save you time and money.

5. If Possible, Keep Your Other Bills Current

There are many legitimate companies that offer financial help or loans for people in foreclosure. They can help stop home foreclosure by loaning the money you need to catch up on your mortgage payments or by refinancing your property with a new loan, thus paying of your lender and avoiding foreclosure. If you are behind on all of your bills, your credit score will most likely be too low to qualify for this type of loan, called a Foreclosure Bailout (a special type of loan designed specifically for people in foreclosure). I have seen consumers with a mortgage and several other small monthly payments (less than $20) lose their home because they stopped paying all of their bills. Avoiding foreclosure with a loan is one of the best ways to save your home, so if you can stay current on your other bills this is a viable option to stop home foreclosure and is some of the best foreclosure advice anyone can give you.

About the Author
This article was submitted by the Loss Mitigation staff of ILMG. We offer free advice on how to stop home foreclosure and can aid you with free foreclosure advice today!

Foreclosure Scam Season

2007-01-21T16:09:00.001-08:00

Earlier in the month, we got a call from a former client of a foreclosure scam. Hopefully, sharing this story will help anyone reading this blog realize the enormity of the criminal activity that goes on in the foreclosure relief industry. Only by being aware and knowledgeable can you hope to avoid all of the unscrupulous individuals and companies that are only trying to harm you.

Again, we recommend that you should do all you can to stop foreclosure on your own, and never use a third party to get involved unless you have already tried saving your home yourself. This story should be an example of why we recommend this.

The victim of the scam was facing the possibility of sheriff sale in early March, 2006. He contacted a number of possible foreclosure assistance companies and was finally "sold" by one of them which was run by a certain woman. To begin the process, he was required by the scammer to send $2,000, as a "retainer" for future services, including loss mitigation and locating a lender. The victim sent $2,000, by certified funds.

After being called and given daily updates on the status of his file, the victim believed that the scammer was working hard for him. The scammer said she was contacting the bank, trying to stop foreclosure for the client, and attempting to work out an affordable repayment plan. The client believed all of this and trusted the scammer to do all of the work for him, even though he kept receiving phone calls and letters from his lender and their attorneys, and the property seemed to be slipping further into foreclosure.

Once the property reached the end of the line and was going to sheriff sale, the scammer had the nerve to contact her victim and try to wring more money out of him. Horribly, she convinced the victim to send her another $7,000, via wire transfer. According to her, she was going to take the $7,000, fly to the corporate office of the client's bank, hand them the $7,000, and establish a repayment plan on the spot.

If this sounds utterly incredible, it should. The client ended up sending the scammer a grand total of $9,000, over a period of a few months. And what did he get out of his $9,000, investment?

If you guessed less than nothing, you would be correct. The sheriff sale went through. The property was sold back to the lender. The client was publicy humiliated by being physically evicted from the property in front of all of his neighbors. The $9,000? It has another story. In fact, a couple of stories.

Story I. When the client finished wiring the second payment of $7,000, and the payment plan was not established, the victim reasonably asked what had happened to his money. The scammer first told him that the employee who had been entrusted with depositing the $7,000, had never returned from the bank and had walked off with all of the money.

The only problem with this story is that a wire transfer does not require a physical deposit of the funds. It was transferred directly into the scammer's bank account. This story didn't last long.

Story II. The scammer told her victim that the money had been stolen from her office, as a result of a burglary. This also proved to be false, as the scammer could not keep her facts straight, and, most blatantly of all, no police report was filed.

After spewing out lies and giving her client the run-around, the scammer finally stopped communicating at all. The client would call and not be spoken to, have his phone calls go straight to voicemail, and would not be called back. The last attempt was for the victim to send a letter via Certified Mail, stating all of the facts of the case and that he was demanding his money be returned to him. He even offered to accept partial payments of the $9,000, paid over a number of months.

This letter was returned to the client unopened. The scammer never even bothered to pick up the letter from the post office and refused to sign for its receipt.

And what happened to the $9,000? Where has it gone? What has it been spent on? These might be impossible questions to answer... except for one fact: on the scammer's voicemail, she states that she will be out of town in Las Vegas for the holidays.

How many expensive meals can be bought in Las Vegas for $9,000? How many hands of blackjack? How many Cirque du Soleil shows?

How many times will the scammer be able to insert another quarter into a slot machine, all because she tricked someone into sending her $9,000? Thirty-six thousand times. She will have thirty-six thousand chances to win the jackpot in Las Vegas. And if she loses all thirty-six thousand times, she can just continue scamming desperate homeowners whose trust she gains.

Don't let your holidays be ruined by some scammer who takes your money, lies to you until the sheriff evicts you from your home in front of your neighbors, and has a grand old time in Las Vegas spending your money, while you're trying to find some way to make the holiday season cheerful again.

Just take responsibility, learn how to stop foreclosure yourself or work with a third party without being screwed, and give yourself the gift of continued homeownership this Christmas season. No one else will be able to give you that gift, and some people, as sad as it is, will even try to take away the gift.

About the Author
ForeclosureFish.com provides homeowners with resources to stop foreclosure on their own, with or without the assistance of a third party. We maintain a website at http://www.foreclosurefish.com/ to help homeowners learn about the foreclosure process.

Using Smart Financial Management To Stop Foreclosure

2007-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

If you're a homeowner facing the threat of bankruptcy in the near or even distant future, the single most important thing you can do to protect your assets is to stop foreclosure. The loss of a job, cuts in hours or overtime, retirement, the death or illness of a family member, and several other factors can threaten your assets as a homeowner, but taking careful and deliberate steps in dealing with your creditor can potentially stop the home foreclosure process and get out of debt altogether.
As simple as it sounds, many people facing imminent or even distant foreclosure proceeding fail to do the simplest thing possible to avoid the process; contacting your mortgage lender as soon as financial problems arise which would prevent you from paying all or a portion of your mortgage on time. Surprisingly, this happens more often than not. Most of us would feel embarrassed faced with such circumstance and don't even thing to let the bank know about whatever situation may have befallen us for fear that they will attempt to expedite the collection process and take as much as possible as quickly as possible; leaving us impossibly in debt and facing no other option than to declare bankruptcy. In fact, this assumption could not be further from the truth, and is the first mistake most make faced with this situation. Far from wanting to harm their customers, creditors and banks very much want to assist their customers in regaining financial control over their life. It is, after all, in their best interest to be receiving payments from you in some regular variety, not possible should you decide to declare bankruptcy. If worse comes to work, the bank has the right to foreclose on your property, but this too is a last resort for the banks if for no other reason than the unwanted obligation it ties them to. When the bank forecloses on your home it must then either sell it to a private buyer or auction it off. Both processes are expensive and time consuming.
Most every bank and the majority of private lenders have programs available to their clients designed to keep them in their homes. Again, though, these payment plans are usually only available to debtors who are two payments or less behind. The more behind you are on your payments to the bank; that is, how long you've been in default, the less options you have.
Many Americans are unable to save for their retirement because they are over burdened by debt, the majority of which has been built up over time as a result of high interest credit card debt. No doubt they all work hard for their money (in fact, the majority earn more than enough to live comfortably) yet some cannot qualify for mortgage financing because their debt to income ratio is too high. Unfortunately for most people, much of their hard earned dollars are consumed paying credit card debt that never seems to disappear. This sort of compounding debt can easily spiral out of control and for many hardworking Americans can result in foreclosure of your assets.
There are many services being promoted which promise complete elimination or drastic reconsolidation of your credit card debts, mortgages, auto loans and even student loans. It's wise to exercise extreme caution prior to dealing with such agencies and organizations. As with any financial situation, due diligence should be preformed in order to eliminate the possibilities of being taken advantage of. These programs often do more harm than good to their customers and, while they may be able to lower your monthly payments, they will ultimately raise the interest paid to their organization drastically over time. Debt elimination is just one alternative to dealing with the problem of debt.
Instead of engaging in a confrontational mortgage elimination program, many organizations offer services that may well work more efficiently with your bank to help you eliminate mortgage payments by paying off the mortgage using funds generated from a new promissory note. Though it helps in the process, you may not even need a mortgage to participate in such programs. They can be used to pay-off auto loans, student loans, medical bills, credit card debts, unsecured loans, and any other kind of debt, secured or otherwise, imaginable.
Put as simply as possible: failing to pay any of your debts can seriously affect your credit rating. Whenever possible, any income available after paying for food and utilities should be used to pay your monthly mortgage payments. If your employment income has been stopped or reduced, first consider eliminating or reducing your other expenses (such as dining out, entertainment, cable, second automobile, or even telephone services). Take any responsible action that will save cash - you'll be very thankful you did.
There may come a time prior to foreclosure when it may become all too apparent to you that you can no longer afford to keep your house. Typically in this situation your lender will usually agree to give you a specific amount of time to find a purchaser and pay off the total amount owed. You will be expected to obtain the services of a real estate professional who can aggressively and successfully market the property in the short timeframe allowed to find a qualified buyer.
If the property's sales value is not sufficient to pay the loan in full, a second sales option should be available to you; your lender may be able to accept less than the full amount owed as settlement for the account. This option can also include a period of time to allow your real estate agent to market the property and find a qualified purchaser. Monetary assistance may be available to satisfy additional lien holders and/or help toward paying a few moving costs.
Explore every reasonable alternative to avoid losing your home but beware of scams. Keep an eye out for equity skimming (a buyer offering to repay the mortgage or sell the property if you sign over the deed and move out) and phony counseling agencies: offer counseling for a fee when it is often given at no charge. Remember that information is your best defense against becoming a victim of predatory lending especially for a desperate homeowner.
The foreclosure process can be among the most embarrassing financial situations you'll ever face. Keeping in mind these few helpful hints can not only make the process bearable, but tip the scales in your favor.
About the Author
Gary Carraghan is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.super-mortgages.com/ who provides money-saving tips on mortgages. More information on home mortgages can be found at http://www.super-mortgages.com/Residential-Mortgage-Loans.html .