Many people every year lose their home to a foreclosure. Medical expenses are one of the top reasons people lose their house to foreclosure. Instates like Georgia, which is a non-judicial state and does not require a judge to approve the process, a foreclosure can take as little as four weeks.
As a foreclosure notice is sent out to the homeowner, a notice to default announcement of the foreclosure is also sent to the local news circular to be printed for four consecutive weeks. The first Tuesday of the following month ( in Georgia) will usually be the time the trustee performs an outcry at the courthouse steps as part of the foreclosure process.
If the homeowner does not resolve the default by that time, the house will be sold to the highest bidder or taken by the bank. The foreclosure will be reported to the homeowner’s credit profile and will stay on the report for seven years. After this point, it is very hard to fixyour credit.
We have saved a few families from getting a foreclosure on their credit report. A foreclosure can be stopped with a little help from us at Real Estate Problem Solver. Let me tell you what we did and you can decide if you want to take your chances (for free) with us or handle the foreclosure process yourself.
Case in point
Lee Street was a house in our area that was owned by a single mom. She fell sick and required medical treatment and a few days in the hospital. She is much better now, but the ordeal drained her finances. Her saving and much of her retirement funds went to paying back her medical expenses. This is not a problem specific to any one person. This type of problem happens a lot. If it were allowed to continue, she would have lost the house to foreclosure, which was scheduled for the following Tuesday (we started working on her problem the Tuesday before foreclosure). As luck happened, she received one of our letters. She said, “I figured you couldn’t make it any worse than losing my house, so I called”. At worst, she still gets a foreclosure on her record, at best, we fix the problem.
We met with the homeowner and bought the house. We got the foreclosure stopped the Monday morning before the foreclosure. She was not able to keep her house (most people can’t afford to anyway, that’s why many get in this situation), but she was able to save her credit and find a new home more affordable to her needs. We have kept in touch with her and she is still glad she called us. I regularly use her as a reference.
This house is a typical example of life changing and the homeowner NOT doing anything about it. Not doing anything causes more problems than necessary. Financial situations change all the time and sometimes money gets tight like; one spouse dies, the company you work for downsizes, you’re on a fixed income but the house expenses keep going up. There are many reasons people lose the ability to pay for the house they are currently living in. LIFE HAPPENS! Here are some of the situation we have dealt with.
– Military personnel PCSing next week. They can’t get the house sold fast enough and can’t afford two mortgages.
– Retired widow lost her part time job and Social security could not pay all her expenses.
– Homeowner tried to sell their house for two years for the mortgage balance. Value of the house dropped below the balance they owed (referred to as “underwater”), no one would buy it. Could not afford two mortgage payments anymore.
– Job transfer required seller to move BUT they just bought the house they had here. There was no equity to pay for the expenses of selling the house. They couldn’t afford to come out of pocket to sell the house. They were going to abandon the house and let it go to foreclosure.
These are just a few examples of situation we have fixed for homeowners. Don’t face a foreclosure alone. It’s nothing to be afraid or embarrassed about. BUT it will cause more problems if you let it go unchecked. Give us a call. Advise is free.