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Don’t waste time
This is probably a good life lesson in general, but I’ll put it in context here.
I was attending a local foreclosure auction recently when a man approached me asking where the auctions were held. I told him that he was in the right spot and he proceeded to tell me that he was trying to stop his OWN auction. Unfortunately, he had gone to several “wrong places” first and missed the actual auction. This works out okay for him in North Carolina, I explained, because he still has ten days to pay the bank and not lose his equity. So, he goes on to tell me that he has all this great land worth over a million dollars, but needs a buyer. The only problem is, he had no idea how this process worked and didn’t know what to do.
I spent probably the next hour or so explaining the foreclosure process to him and then several more hours that afternoon working on his case (trying to find buyers, investigating the property, etc). I did not come up with any silver-bullet fixes, but found buyers who might be interested and generally tried to do what I could to help this man. So, a few days later, after I had some options worked out, I called the man (who had given me his phone number) and left a message that I wanted to see how he was doing and could he please call me back. I did this again the following day, but to no avail. I don’t know what happened to that man and his house, but this illustrates an important point. Don’t waste TIME!
When you are in this situation, you only have a very limited amount of time to find the fix. Every other resource is available in abundance (EVEN MONEY), but time cannot be stopped or slowed… not even by the most wealthy of us. Worse yet, if you’re going to waste your own time because you just don’t give a crap about your house, don’t waste someone else’s time TOO! When you waste my time, it just makes me less likely to help the next guy who might actually appreciate that I’m doing what I can to find a solution to his problem. If you want to sit on your ass and let your house go, then do so, but don’t give other people the impression that you’re doing anything but that. If you won’t take proactive steps to save yourself (such as calling people back), then why should we take steps to help you?
So, lesson: don’t waste time. It’s the only thing that we can’t get back or make more of in this life, and therefore, if you waste mine, I consider it a very serious offense.
Interesting article should shed light on this forelosure issue.
Foreclosure statistics
Foreclosure statistics from 2006 show some frightening trends in the numbers of foreclosures and loan defaults. Foreclosures appear to be up nearly 40% from 2005, and almost 75% from the first three months of last year.
Americans are anxious in recent months to take on mortgages and real estate prices are rising fairly rapidly and dramatically. Housing has doubled in many cases, in both cost and in value.
Americans appear to be willing to go completely in debt to own a home, and are not always borrowing wisely.
Many will borrow vast sums to own a home they are ill able to afford or pay for, purchasing using such tools as interest only loans, which give them the right to make payments of interest only for the first several years, then balloon to include more than the interest. When first time buyers are being faced with not being able to own a home for a time, many are choosing more risky means of gaining access to that home, among them, such loans as interest only.
Banks and financial institutions are looking for ways to continue lending, particularly in light of the rising market values and their hopes that the market values will continue to rise rather than level off or fall. Each financial institution wants a piece of the action, and so they make the risky loans.
The problem with that is, that home prices are not guaranteed to continue on the upsurge, and buyers and borrowers are going to be faced, eventually with that shock when the actual payments begin.
After the five year interest only aspect of the loan, the payments could raise as much as 30 to 50%, and many borrowers will be ill equipped financially to deal with that. They will then be prime targets for default or foreclosure, being unable to meet the newer raised payments. Most will adopt another strategy. Prior to the costs and payments rising, they will hope to refinance their payments at the end of the interest only time period, and shop for new financiers. Many, who are unable to find one, will be enmeshed in payments they cannot afford, or party to a foreclosure action.
The reason for many foreclosures is high risk borrowing by those who absolutely cannot afford the payments on the home they choose, yet choose to purchase it anyway and to find a risky way to afford the mortgage. Research and realistic thinking will serve to prevent many foreclosures, making you one less statistic to be reported.
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