Read this and learn from it my friends, this is the true foreclosure tale of a family in Western Massachusetts. I won’t mention their real names or where they live, but will share the general story so that you can avoid having this happen to you!
Mr. and Mrs. Smith had fallen behind on their mortgage payments and their lender had begun foreclosure proceedings. The lender hired me as their agent to represent the property for sale, but first they wanted to try to come to terms with Mr. and Mrs. Seller to see if they could re-instate their loan. The bank asked me to visit Mr. and Mrs. Smith to talk with them if they were home or leave a letter. I visited the home three times and was unable to make contact with the sellers. At the same time the lender was mailing important deadlines to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which also went ignored.
Soon the attorney for the lender contacted me and notified me that the foreclosure had gone through and we needed me to make an occupancy check to see if the Smith family had moved out of the home, yet. Upon this visit, I found Mr. Smith in his driveway. We had a brief conversation where he informed me of his desire to re-instate ownership by paying off his mortgage. I informed him that I feared it was too late for this, but put the message through to the appropriate channels.
Next came an email from a man wanting to purchase the home. He stated that he was the brother of Mrs. Smith and was going to liquidate some of his assets to purchase the home back for his sister. After a lot of paperwork and some time, he was able to accomplish this purchase and Mr. and Mrs. Smith remained in the home.
Sounds like a happy ending, right? WRONG.
While it is wonderful that the Smith family gets to remain in the home they love, they made an extreme error. The payoff amount on the mortgage that they allowed to go into foreclosure was roughly 1/3 of the fair market price their brother had to pay to obtain the property.
Please, if you are a homeowner in distress, do not ignore the lender or let the property go to foreclosure without trying to sell first. You may not have a brother who can pay off your mortgage, but there are good real estate agents (like me) who specialize in helping people to sell their home with a short sale to avoid foreclosure. Learn from the Smiths and be pro-active with your situation!
photo courtesy of Casey Serin on flickr.com
Absolutely! We see the same situations here in the South. Yes, the banks are scary! Yes, their correspondence is confusing! Call an agent experienced in short sales immediately to discuss your options.