subject: Stop Foreclosure In Austin Tx! We Will Buy You House Now! [print this page] Facing Foreclosure? Don't sit there, DO SOMETHING!
As I sit here this morning writing this, I am thinking about a client who will lose their home to foreclosure in the next 2 hours.
Yep, in the next 2 hours, their house will be auctioned off on the courthouse steps. This story is a sad one and I wanted to write about this experience because I want people to understand that you have to take action when you are in foreclosure so you dont lose your house, money invested in the property, your credit and your most importantly your families home!.
For easy reference, let's call my previous client "John" to keep things simple and anonymous.
In the last 6 months, John has faced some personal hardships. Six months ago, John's wife passed away quickly and unexpectedly. When John started to fall behind in mortgage payments, he contacted his bank to work out a loan modification. For those of you who don't know what a loan mortification is, its where you renegotiate your loans interest rate, balloon payment, back payments, anything and everything you can renegotiate. However, here is the kicker; you must first, re-qualify, for your loan. The bank wants to make sure that IF they renegotiate your loans terms that you can actually pay the bill each month, you basically have to apply for a "new loan" to proceed.
John's bank recommends a company that can help him with his loan modification.
Now, you can either conduct a loan modification yourself or pay someone to do it for you. As an investor that has seen these transactions unfold, I suggest that you find someone that is reputable and that knows what they are doing to help with the loan modification. Most home owners don't know how to play the banks games and when many people attempt to work out their own loan modifications, they are denied. Most individuals just don't know how to navigate the minefield the bank has set up before them. Hire a company that has a record of accomplishment that KNOWS what they are doing and KNOWS how to deal with the bank. This is the best chance in saving your loan. I always suggest that you hire people that are specialized in specialized situations because it will increase your chance of a successful loan modification. Just make sure you do your due diligence with a company before you pay them anything.
So with all that said, John's banks refers him to someone to help with his loan modification. This new loan modification company tells John to STOP making payments and just pay partial payments to the loan modification company. SCAM ALERT! Sometimes, the bank will not require you to pay anything when you are going through a loan modification however you can NEVER, let me repeat this NEVER pay partial payments to the bank. The bank will not accept those payments. John paid this loan modification company partial payments for 4 months only to later find out that the company was closed by the Attorney General in Florida and that this company never sent any money to John's original mortgage company.
This now brings us to just 2 weeks before the scheduled auction sale of his home. In a hurry, John contacts a Realtor to help him list the house. If you are two weeks away from auction, putting a house on the market most of the time is NOT going to work because it typically takes someone 30 days to qualify for financing before the new buyer can purchase your house. Even if you find a buyer that same day, chances are that you will not close with a conventional loan by the time of the auction. You need to find someone who will pay cash for your house. If you can find a Realtor that has cash buyers that can close in 48 hours, then do it. Otherwise, contact a real estate investor who has cash and make things happen quickly. Look on the internet for "Sell my house quick" or "Pay cash for my house" or even call the road side signs that you see that say "We Buy Houses CASH!" Calling those road side signs can be a great way to connect with an investor, just make sure you do your due diligence and research the company to ensure that meet your personal standards.
Johns Realtor decides that the best thing to do is a short sale on the property. There are 2 problems though, this is all being done the week of New Years and no one, I mean no one is responding to phone calls in a quick enough fashion and the other problem is that John only owes $61,000 on is house and its worth $100,000+! No way a bank would do a short sale on this home, he only owes 60% of the houses value! I will talk about the difference between a Realtor short sale and an Investor short sale at a later time however, trying to postpone action at the last min, during the holidays, with lots of equity in the home, yea RIGHT!
On New Years Eve at noon, John receives a hand written letter from our company that states that we are interested in buying houses in his neighborhood. John immediately calls our offices and requests that someone from our office come out immediately, because his house is going to action in less than 4 days and he wants our help!
When we arrive at the house, we conduct a quick inspection of the property of then sit at the kitchen table with John to discuss his options. John said that his Realtor is getting no where with the bank, he is in poor health, this entire ordeal has him stressed out and he is losing sleep and running out of time.
Our solution to John was simple. We would pay the $6,600 to reinstate his loan. We would allow John to live in the home for 90 days as he found another place to live. We also offered to pay John $1,000.00 to help paying for moving expenses when it was time to move. We would help save the home from foreclosure, John would have his credit saved and he would not have to worry about being homeless if he was forced out of his home. Based upon our agreement, once I caught up the loan, I would have the right to purchase Johns home for what he owned. Once John moved out of the home, I would fix and restore the home to a sellable state. Once I sold the home, I would make my profit 4-6 months down the road.
We signed all the contracts and were in full agreement right as the banks closed on New Years Eve. The clock was running out and we just missed the wire transfer deadline to the bank and since it was soon to be a bank holiday, the banks would be closed that Friday and we had to wrap all this up by Monday to save the home from going to auction on Tuesday. Time was of the essence and we all had to move quickly.
We contacted the Realtor and released the listing, done! We contacted the bank and verified what the total payoff was to bring the loan current, done! We then lined up all the money, contacts and contracts and everything was put in motion to have our company help John stay out of foreclosure first thing Monday morning.
Now this brings us to the day before the auction. First thing in the morning, I contact Johns bank and state that we will be making all the back payments today and to stop the auction, the bank states they cant stop the auction without payment. I contact our company lawyer to discuss how we can conduct this transaction. He tells me there is another hurdle that we have to overcome. When Johns wife died the estate never went into probate! In the state of Texas, this means that when Johns wife died without a will, John gets 50% of the house and this three kids split up the other 50%. This now means that we need to have all three of his adult children sign the contract to sell his home and we only have 5 hours to act and make payment to save the home.
Now we all have to hustle to make this work. Johns 1st son states that he does not want to sell the house however, he knows that this is best for his father at the present time. The other child went on vacation that day and we were frantically tracking her down to sign the contract in Washington! It now comes down to the last son to sign on the dotted line and we save the home from foreclosure.
Well Johns son wants to be the hero in this story. Johns son says that he knows how the foreclosure process works and he states that he is going to borrow the money from his retirement account to save dads house at the 12th hour. This leads us to the biggest problem of them all, dealing with someone who thinks that know everything, when they know nothing of how the foreclosure process works. Additionally, this son says that he is going to borrow the money from his retirement account at noon on the day before the auction! It takes weeks or days to get money out of a retirement account and the bank needs CASH in the next 4 hours!
Johns son says, Dad, dont worry about a thing, I have everything under control. "These investors just want to make money off of you, don't do it." Well of course we as investors should make a profit from this, we are saving the house in the final hour because if it goes to auction, John is homeless with ruined credit! We are assisting him to accomplish his goals and we are accomplishing ours. In addition, we are experts of the foreclosure process in Texas, this is our business, and we know what we are doing!
The day before the action, I called John 1 hour before the banks were scheduled to close, this was coming down to the last 60 minutes of John saving his house. I told John that if his son could raise the money, it would be best however, he needed to act in 1 hour and if he could not perform, we would be happy to save his home from the auction block the following day.
Johns son told his dad again, "...don't worry about a thing, I know what I am doing.
As I type this email, the house is being auctioned at the courthouse steps and John will lose his house, credit and worst of all, his home.
When you are in foreclosure, work with experts in the foreclosure field. Don't try to do it on your own and don't have people represent you that don't know what they are doing, regardless if they are family members or someone close to you.
John is losing his home because of 2 main reasons, he waited too long before he contacted foreclosure experts and at the last minute he chose to take the advice of an inexperienced loved one over the advice a professional who deals with these issues every day. John's own child cost him his home.
This true story has a sad ending however, I hope people reading this can learn something from this article. When a loved one is facing foreclosure, start researching your rights, how to work with a bank and how you can engage a professional to assist you through the entire process. Assist a loved one by becoming educated on what is happening to you!
Take action when you are facing foreclosure. Don't sit idle until the last minute. Become educated on your options quickly and take some sort of action, otherwise, you can run the risk of losing it all.
Be smart out there and become educated and know your rights!
by: Curt Maly
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