Stop Foreclosure Answer

Many people facing foreclosure are embarrassed.  They are embarrassed of the situation they are in.  They are embarrassed that they could not do anything to prevent it.  Many times they feel they should have done something to prevent it even when there was nothing that they could have done.

 

Frequently they isolate themselves because of the embarrassment.  They don’t want their relatives or friends to know what is happening.  So they avoid them.

 

They feel that they are alone.  They can’t imagine that other people have been through this before.  That is where they are wrong.

 

Foreclosure only pertains to mortgages.  For most of our country’s history, mortgages as we know them today did not exist.  So foreclosures only have been common in the last 70 years.

 

However, there have always been bankruptcies.  The only difference between  bankruptcy and foreclosure is that a foreclosure is tied to a mortgage.

 

Last year we all heard that Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the Tonight Show, was facing foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home.

 

Let me tell you about some of the other famous people who have gone thru bankruptcy.  I think that you are going to be surprised.

 

First, there was Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and principal author of the Declaration of Independence.  Following his death his estate, Monticello, and all of his possessions were auctioned off to pay his debts.

 

Then there was Thomas Paine, a counterpart of Thomas Jefferson and author of Common Sense in 1776.  This pamphlet advocated our independence from Great Britain.  

 

The great painter, Rembrandt, and the author, Mark Twain, also declared bankruptcy in their lives.

 

Presidents were not spared.  Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Gant and William McKinley were bankrupt at some points in their lives.

 

We all know the problems General Motors has now.  Not many people know that William C. Durant, the founder of General Motors, was bankrupt in the years after he founded the company.

 

Milton Hershey, the founder of Hershey Foods which makes Hershey Bars, went bankrupt prior to founding the company.

 

Larry King, the Talk show host, and Dorothy Hammill, the Champion Olympic figure skater, also declared bankruptcy.

 

Then there was Rock and Roll pioneer, Jerry Lee Lewis, and singers, Mick Fleetwood, Willie Nelson and Wayne Newton.

 

Actors were not spared.  Don Johnson, Burt Reynolds and Mickey Rooney all filed for bankruptcy.

 

Even Walt Disney and Donald Trump experienced bankruptcy.

 

Abraham Lincoln and many of the others declared bankruptcy earlier in their lives and didn’t allow it to hold them back.  They went on to accomplish great things in their lives.  Many also reacquired wealth after recovering from the bankruptcy.

 

If you are facing foreclosure, just realize that you are not alone.  Take charge of the process.  Do everything you can to save your home and maintain your dignity.  Remember – don’t try to handle it on your own.  Get the help you need for a lawyer or an expert in the field.  You will have a greater sense of peace throughout the process.  You will also have greater success.

 

Much Success,

 

Mark Elkins    

Sometimes lenders don’t seem to have the brightest customer service people working for them.  Maybe I should say that the people working for them are just content with putting in their hours and having a job.  They are not really passionate about giving great customer service to the people who contact them.

 

You know what I mean – the kind of people that are just putting in their 40 hours every week.  The only reason they are working in the job they have is to get their pay every Friday.  They have no desire to help people.  They would rather be working someplace else.  Yet because of their attitude this was the only job they could find.

 

I have heard of people who are having financial challenges and struggling to pay all of their bills on time.  They have kept paying their bills on time; however, they have gone through all of their savings.  Then they have gotten advances on their credit cards to make their payments.

 

They are now at the point where their savings are exhausted.  They are at the limits on each credit card they have.  There is nowhere else they can go for additional money to pay their bills.  Soon their payments will be late.

 

Their financial situation may be temporary.  Their crisis may have been caused by unemployment and now they are on the verge of getting a new job.  The new job won’t pay them as much as the old one but they will be able to pay their bills.  They may have had a home which they could not sell.  They have decided to rent it.  When the rent money comes in, they will have more than enough to pay their bills.

 

They just need help short term to tide them over until the money comes in.

 

They contact their mortgage lender and talk to a customer service representative.  They explain their financial situation to them.  The customer service representative checks the mortgage record.  The payments on the mortgage have been made time up to this point.

 

The customer service representative advises them that since their record is current, nothing can be done.  If they were two months or more behind on their payments, they might be able to get a loan modification.  However, right now they cannot.

 

Duh – does that make any sense? I don’t think so.

 

These people don’t want to fall behind on their payments.  They just want the lender to work with them.  Yet the customer service representative implies that the lender won’t do anything until they fall two or more months behind on their payments. 

 

By going by a strict interpretation of the guidelines the lender will not be paid as quickly.  The mortgage may go into foreclosure.  The people lose all respect for the lender.

 

It really upsets me to hear about customer service representatives who do this.  Rather than helping they are making the situation worse.  In the long run they are costing you and me money because if people in these situations go into foreclosure, the lender loses.  We pay with our tax dollars to bail them out.  We also pay in the form of higher interest rates on mortgages.

 

I hope that you are not caught in this situation.

 

Much Success,

 

Mark Elkins