What I Know About Foreclosure

If you’re having trouble making your payments, there are very few people you can trust.  Believe me, I know.  In this case, you may be overextended because your interest rate jumped, because you lost you job, because a family member is ill or incapacitated… the list goes on and on.  What I can tell you is always true is that there will be a great deal of ‘interest’ in your situation.  Most of the people who offer “help” are vultures.  They want to take advantage of you in some way or another.  There will also likely be a very small number of honest, ethical people who want to help.  Just because they’re going to make a small profit helping you doesn’t necessarily make them bad people.  [For example, you don’t resent a repairman for fixing your broken air-conditioning just because he’s capitalizing on your misfortune.]

The problem is, from your perspective, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to tell the difference between the vultures and the honest people.  For this reason, if you’re having trouble, I suggest you read as many free resources as possible and always remain skeptical of peoples’ motives.  Start here:

http://www.hud.gov/foreclosure/index.cfm

The US government doesn’t have a whole lot of reason to defraud you, so you can trust their advice.  Some of that advice is geared only toward those who have FHA loans, but most of it is applicable to anyone.

Most importantly, as you search for help, don’t be afraid to ask people what’s in it for them.  They should be willing to tell you what they’re getting out of helping you, and if they can’t or won’t give you a straight answer, that’s a red herring.  WALK AWAY!  You should take the time to figure out how each business transaction you involve yourself in is going to help you and everyone else who’s a party to it.  If you don’t take the time to do that, you’re very likely just going to get burned.  And given that you’re already in a bad spot, you should probably be avoiding further problems like the plague.