Florida Real Estate Blog

A great article was found in the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday May 18th by Vicki McClure and Mary Shanklin titled THE SUBPRIME MESS: IT'S ALL AROUND YOU. It is time well spent reading it. I hear time and time again the banks made the mess now they are paying for it, well it seems according to this article they moved most of the exposure off to investment brokers.  Yep we may find out that some of our long term investment hits we have seen this year are tied to the banks lax standards on loaning money.  It never fails to amaze me how money makes money with very little risk. I can go on and on but the reason for this blog is to offer direction to those that are caught in this Sub Prime mess.  Maggie and I have worked a number of short sales and we understand the emotional stress this puts families through.

After reading this article I learned a few things that I will share with future clients and I will share a few that the article did not address but I feel are very important when you are contemplating leaving the home you have a mortgage on. So here we go.

1.  Never ever leave the home. Once it is vacant the insurance company if they find out will either drop you or raise your insurance.  If they drop you or you stop paying the Bank will purchase a policy (that you will be billed for) that is at least double what you would have paid.  So never leave the home.

2.  Maintain the home and pare down to the bar necessities. Those are the bills you need to survive. Shelter, food and utilities.  Credit Cards will kill you with interest but those three are must haves.  Stop using credit cards.

3. Contact your lender or lenders better to talk to them before you miss a payment or after you missed one than waiting for them to catch you after 120 days.  You need help and they can offer work out plans.

4. Call a housing counselor: these are folks that will review all you financing and provide a plan. They are free.  If they want a fee you must flee. Please remember that there are bottom feeders out there waiting to work you over. Hope Now is an alliance of Nonprofit groups, lenders and others, offers its service free. Their hotline number is 888-995-4673 they staff it 24 hours a day and the counselors are all certified by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (not my research this came from the article).

5. Last beware of scams, people will come at you with many different ways to get out of this. If it sound to good it is.  Talk to Hope Now or a Lawyer before signing anything.

If this informed you or helped you in any way. Please drop us a email.  God speed you on this lovely journey.  We all have are valleys to pass through in life. Always remember it is one valley with many more opportunities to come.