Saving Your Home From Foreclosure

This morning as I was reviewing my various news and blog feeds one of the first headlines I saw was, “How to Save Your Home from Foreclosure” posted by WikiHow.com (which by the way is a very cool site that I highly recommend). Given my post from yesterday I naturally had to check this story out.

It ends up that this article is full of tips and suggestions of ways to avoid foreclosure and is written with the real estate consumer in mind and qualifies for the RECA seal of approval. Some of the highlights include suggestions such as prioritizing your debts and making your mortgage payment a top priority; contacting the lender as soon as you know you are going to have problems; suggestions for restructuring your loan; the potential for extending grace periods or even skipping payments; discussing selling your property “subject to” versus offering the property back to the bank in lieu of foreclosure and it even touches on the subject of bankruptcy as a last resort.

The one thing I want you to keep in mind is that the banks are not in the real estate business. They do not want to foreclose on your property and then have to deal with it. So, for those of you who are either facing foreclosure or concerned that you may be soon, I recommend that you check out this posting (which you can get to from here) and be proactive in finding a solution.

Foreclosures, 2.2 million subprime loans can't be wrong

The Foreclosures are coming, the foreclosures are coming! I keep reading and hearing about the coming wave of bank foreclosures and I’ve been asked recently by a number of folks, “what does this mean?” “Is there an opportunity here for me to make some money and if so, how?”

Before I answer that question I think it’s important to spend just a minute explaining why there is so much chatter about the subject and why it has become such big news in the press. I mean between the USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, I must have read half a dozen articles on the subject of foreclosures and related issues such as subprime lending, and subprime loans yesterday alone.

Now I’m not going to go into a lengthy discussion here on how the mortgage industry works but, the basic issue is this. Over the past few years the mortgage industry loosened their standards for borrowing money and as a result a lot of people were approved for loans that several years ago they never would have received. To compound issues, many of these loans carried adjustable rates and low initial teaser rates which enabled borrowers to qualify. This pool of mortgages is what is referred to as subprime loans.

Well now the rates are adjusting, monthly mortgage payments are increasing and it’s time to pay the piper. The problem is it’s forecasted that the borrowers, to the tune of 2.2 million of them, don’t have the money and won’t be able to make their payments. If they don’t’ make their payments then the loans go into foreclosure and the borrowers lose their home and have their credit ruined. Although, I don’t know that this means much considering most of these borrowers didn’t have much credit to start with.

So, what does that mean for you, or me, as a real estate consumer??? Are there opportunities here to make money, save money, prevent a foreclosure or help someone out? Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Over the next few days I’ll be writing from these various points of view and discussing some different real estate buying, selling and investing strategies and options available. Please be sure to keep coming back and as always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

InMan Wiki

Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting in on a teleconference hosted by Brand Inman to learn about his latest project, the InmanWiki. Unfortunately, he experienced some technical difficulties early on but kudos to Brad and his team for holding their composure and getting things back on line pretty quickly.

For those of you who don’t know, a wiki is essentially a tool or website used to promote community based user generated content. They typically allow visitors to add, remove and edit content without having to register. There are numerous “wikis” on the web and what Brad Inman and his team are attempting to do is create the world’s largest real estate wiki. I’ve spent a little time on the site since the call yesterday and have to say they have done a nice job of pulling together a lot of useful information, articles and tools. This site is RECA Approved and I encourage you to check it out.

What is the RECA Seal of Approval

As the leading real estate consumer advocate I felt the need to come up with a seal of approval for designating sites, people, products and services as consumer friendly. That is, I believe these sites, services, etc. provide meaningful information and value to the real estate consumer first and foremost. They are not some scams designed to lure you in with a taste of something and then turn around and start spamming you to death with a bunch of useless junk. I will be working on creating an official seal that I’ll use in the future but until then, I’ll simply use the term “RECA Approved.”

Where to go for HELP!

Who (or where) do you turn to if you have a question about real estate? I mean the median price for a home these days is over $200,000! That’s a lot of money to most of us. I am a real estate junky so I read everything I can get my hands on not to mention I am very fortunate in that my work centers around real estate and my wife, Jackie, is a Realtor. Even still, each time I sign a contract or go to a closing I still get a few butterflies and ask myself if I did everything right? Are my bases covered? Did I get the best financing possible? Etc. etc. etc. If you are thinking about buying or selling an investment property, a personal residence or perhaps even a 2nd home who do you turn to for advice? How do you make sure that your bases are covered and get comfortable with the deal?

I’ve started to create a list of links and resources to sites that I have come across and believe are helpful. Most importantly, I believe these sites have qualified for the RECA (Real Estate Consumer Advocate) seal of approval. What I mean by that is I believe these sites provide meaningful information and value to the real estate consumer first and foremost. They are not some scams designed to lure you in with a taste of something and then turn around and start spamming you to death with a bunch of useless junk. If any of you who read this blog have other sites that you feel should be included on this list, please post a response and let us know about them.

Welcome

Hi, I’m Doug and I’m the VP of the Professional Education Institute's Real Estate Products and Services business, the leading consumer advocate of the real estate industry. PEI has been working with Carleton Sheets for over 23 years and in fact he is one of the 3 founders of the company. Over the past 23 years his infomercial has aired every single day. Can you imagine? And over that time we have received thousands and thousands and thousands of letters, e-mails and phone calls from our customers telling us of their successes and their failures. I’ve been working at PEI for 8 years now and I’m very proud of what we have been able to help our customers achieve. In fact you read about some them right here if you're interested.

You see for many years the thought of being able to buy a home without putting any of your own money into the transaction was truly remarkable. I mean most people couldn’t fathom or understand how that is even possible. Well now, as most people know, pretty much anyone with okay credit can walk into a bank and finance 100% of the purchase of their home. No Down Payment is not so remarkable anymore. I would like to believe that our efforts these past 23 years in some way helped to shape and form that realty.

So now what do we do? That is the question I would like to pose to you, our readers. I am going to continue posting to this blog and keep you updated on our progress as we develop the next generation of real estate education and training. I have a number of thoughts on what we could do and develop but, in the end it really doesn’t matter what I think we should do, what matters is what you think we should do. So give me your thoughts, ideas and wishes and let us know what we can do to help you become successful and achieve your goals as it relates to real estate.