The answer to the most commonly asked question
If you read my first two posts, here and here, you know how I feel about waiting to confront your foreclosure problem. Don’t do it. It will end up costing you in ways you’re not even thinking about yet. So that brings me to the question I hear the most from people facing foreclosure: how much time do I have? It’s a reasonable question, after all. You know that you took out a loan to buy a house, or that you refinanced your original mortgage along the way. Maybe you wanted
The devastating consequences of ignoring your mortgage problem
Last time, I told you that when you fall behind on your mortgage, the first person you need to speak with is a real estate agent. That’s because the first thing you need to figure out is whether you have equity in your home. I also told you to swallow your pride and sell your house ASAP so that you could walk away with as much of that equity intact as possible. Now let’s say you ignored that advice. People bury their heads in the sand when things go wrong, desperately hopi
The biggest mistake people make when they fall behind
You’re a proud homeowner. You scratched and saved every penny until you could afford to put a down payment on the house you wanted – the one in the right neighborhood, with maybe a little bit of room to grow into. Then, you did what everyone does. You went to a bank and applied for a mortgage for the rest of the purchase price. You listened carefully while the lender or broker explained the terms, you made sure that the monthly payment was going to fit into your budget, a
