17 Foreclosure Strategies to Stop, Stall or Walkaway with Cash
Foreclosure
John Brooks, is the author of the soon to be released book 17 Foreclosure Strategies to Stop, Stall or Walkaway with Cash which he wrote to help underwater homeowners or homeowners facing foreclosure. Brooks noted that “Most homeowners are being pressured by the government and the lenders to keep paying on a useless asset. Well-meaning, but misinformed friends also pressure the homeowner by telling them it is their obligation to pay the mortgage even if a short sale or strategic default would be a better option”.
This advice is frequently wrong and is dangerous to these homeowners’ financial health. Homeowners following this advice may be foreclosing on their on financial future or their kids’ future by continuing to pour money down the drain. The wealthy and financially sophisticated cut their losses and get out of the obligation as illustrated in the book which shows the average homeowner how they can also use these methods to protect their financial future.
Shattering Foreclosure and Strategic Default Myths and Misconceptions
You may be facing foreclosure, considering walking away from a house that is upside-down (you owe more than it is worth), or wondering whether you should file bankruptcy. It can be very challenging trying to sort through the different options and frequently homeowners in this position feel overwhelmed. They are harassed by creditors and worried about their situation and their family’s future. They are given half-truths, double-talk, and misleading information and may even be told that it is their moral obligation to keep making payments. Frequently they feel like there is nothing that can be done and just ignore the situation or worse, they start tapping their lines of credit and retirement accounts in a desperate attempt to keep making the payments and just hope for a miracle.
There are nine basic strategies that can be used to stay in a house or stall the process of leaving. There are eight basic methods that are used when the homeowner needs to get out of the obligations of the house. You are probably familiar with the standard solutions, such as strategic default, short sale or foreclosure but there are many techniques and solutions the average homeowner and most real estate agents are not familiar with that can help.
You do have options. For instance, there are homeowners struggling with payments on their house or who decided that it no longer made financial sense to pay on a worthless asset and they have:
This book is intended to guide you through the potential solutions available so you can choose the one that will benefit you the most. It will help you avoid the banksters connivances and lies so you can determine the best options for your family – and not be manipulated by lenders focused on their profits and bonuses.
I wrote this book to help homeowners who were being systematically manipulated by the financial industry (banksters) learn how to protect themselves and their family from the banksters and other shysters that are scamming or misleading homeowners.
At the same time that homeowners are being bludgeoned by the banksters to keep making payments regardless of the family’s circumstances, the banks are deliberately manipulating the system to systematically defraud homeowners, school districts, insurers, and even the unemployed through fraud and deceit. For an excellent account on the massive scale of the financial industries fraudulent practices, read the Rolling Stones article by Matt Taibbi entitled Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail, which documents the monumental corporate criminal activity that continues to get a pass from regulators.
For a more scholarly approach, check out the expert testimony from Laurie Goodman, Senior Managing Director at Amherst Securities, to Congress on May 12, 2011 on conflicts of interest by the mortgage servicers and how they manipulate the process to maximize their revenue without any consideration to the homeowner, including purposefully pushing the homeowners into foreclosure. The bankers are paying millions to lobbyists to protect their interests – and fat bonuses – at the expense of the average homeowner. Don’t get caught up in their lies and deception and moral double-talk about obligations. The big banks and lenders engaged in blatant fraud and abuse and deliberately manipulated the system to take advantage of the American public.
The book will give the struggling homeowner a better understanding of what is happening in the real estate and banking industry, as well as the current government programs to stop foreclosures. More importantly, it levels the playing field and gives them the insider strategies that businesses and financially sophisticated homeowners are using to eliminate debt, get rid of overleveraged assets and emerge from the downturn in a stronger financial position.
There are some great real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and bankers etc. that are in the business. However, remember that just before the Great Recession, the professional associations for these groups were telling everyone that there was no problem with the loans they were issuing and that housing was a great value.
In February 2006, David Lereah, the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), published a book titled “Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust – And How You Can Profit From It: How to Build Wealth in Today’s Expanding Real Estate Market”. In the book, Lereah states that we are far from having a real estate bubble and we are experiencing a healthy expansion that will keep housing strong far into the foreseeable future.
So, this is the chief economist for the largest real estate group in the United States and he couldn’t figure out we were heading off a cliff or shockingly, perhaps he was lying to help his organization sell more houses. He later said that he manipulated his forecasts at the request of the NRA to give a rosier picture of the housing market. Of course, these were the forecasts published in the newspapers and used by real estate agents to convince buyers that there was nothing to worry about.
In the current market, there is a lot of misinformation, rumors, and partial truths floating around. Sometimes this is due to ignorance of the current laws and regulations governing foreclosures and short sales since there have been substantial changes over the last few years; sometimes it is due to the fact that the “expert” has a financial interest in persuading you to adopt a particular course of action.
Thus, real estate agents immediately rush to offer a short sale, bankruptcy attorneys advise bankruptcy, and so on. Each of these solutions works in the right situation, but no solution is appropriate for all of the struggling homeowners. The book is intended to help you evaluate your situation and your goals to allow you to pick a solution or solutions that meet your needs – not to line some professionals’ pocket. In the end, you may need professional assistance, but at least you will know which professional to call and what options you may have.
I have been working with homeowners in this type of situation for many years (since before the Great Recession) and know that the worst thing homeowners can do in these situations is to ignore the problem, or to not realistically evaluate both their individual situation and the trends in the lending and real estate industry, which will affect them. These macro trends are critical to understanding your situation, but they are complex and quickly changing. For instance, a leading real estate industry analyst suggests that of the 55 million mortgages in existence in 2012, more than 10 million may go into foreclosure. For perspective, there have been about four million foreclosures since the start of the Great Recession. Information like this is critical so you can better judge where the market is headed. For those that think that we are well on our way to recovery and in a few years we will see housing values shooting up, there will be disappointment.
Please understand that you have choices and a lot better options than most homeowners know about and industry professionals will admit. You can emerge from a bad situation in a much stronger financial situation than you think – in many cases, a foreclosure or strategic walkaway is the best option for you and your family.
Whether you decide to stay or move, the choice should be the one that makes the most sense for you and your situation. This book will help you figure out the best way to implement your choice and how you can best prepare for and benefit from your chosen solution.
Get help at www.SoCalHomeownerOptions.com or pickup a copy of the book on Amazon Kindle and see us on our YouTube Channel HomeownerSolutions https://youtu.be/L9K982nNys4
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