How To Deal With a Foreclosure Situation
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Foreclosure, short sale, loan modification, why are all of these terms becoming so common, and what do they mean to an individual home owner?
Real estate values are down forty percent or more in some areas from their peak values and unemployment in California is easily in the double digits. Throughout the country, over 30 percent of mortgage holders owe more than their homes are worth. Better than one out of every eight home loans are delinquent in some respect, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
If you are in the position of defaulting on your loan, you basically have three options: loan modification, short sales and foreclosures. The pressure these days is toward short sales, as they offer an upside for real estate agents, lenders and buyers. But is a short sale really your best option when looking at a potential default?
Usually, it really is not the best option to pursue, although others working with you during this time of need may lead you to believe it is.
Let?s look at this in more detail. The first question is what to do when you realize you can no longer pay your home loan. What happens should you suddenly stop paying?
An immediate consequence is that your credit will be harmed. That score is needed to show to future lenders who might decide at some later point just how good a risk you are, and may require you to work with private money if you should need a loan. Additionally, your credit score is also being used by employers and landlords, to name a few. It’s not a figure to be taken lightly.
The score itself is figured using outdated and proprietary methods that use information collected throughout your life as a borrower. The people in charge of these scoring systems say that they are supposed to be an indicator of how likely someone is to stop paying on a debt or loan during the first two years.
There are a number of other companies out there other than the big three reporting agencies that have their own scoring models, most running numbers between 400 and 990. If you stop making payments on all of your loans, most of these formulas will drop your score below the 600 mark.
If your credit is in under 680 based on one of the major credit reporting agencies in today’s market, finding a loan for any purpose can be very difficult (except for the more expensive money offered through private hard money lenders). When sitting down to make your decision on which way to go, short selling your home will not keep your credit in pristine shape, despite what many may want you to believe. So is there really a beneift to going through a short sale?
The main benefit is getting out from under the debt you currently owe, and avoiding a foreclosure on your credit. A short sale likely will impact your credit about the same as a foreclosure, but by going through the short sale rather than a foreclosure, you will be able to get another conventional home loan in about two years or so, rather than 3 or more with a foreclosure.
A better option is to look at loan modification. This can be a lenghty process to work with the banks on, but if you desire to stay in your home and save your credit, a loan modification may be a great solution to explore.
You have to do your own research before you make a decision about which direction or option you are going to take. Depending on what state you are in, there will be different ramifications for the various options. Find a highly reccomended real estate professional and/or real estate lawyer, sit down, and look at all your options before you make a decision. When making this decision, make sure you are comfortable with the direction you choose, good luck!


