By Admin on Sep 15, 2011 in Financial Services
I have an 82 year old friend who is facing foreclosure because he is behind on his payments. Unfortunately, I do not know the details. He will probably be homeless. Reverse mortgage is out because he does not have enough equity in the home. He has lived there for many years and took out a mortgage (not sure if it was a second) to help finance his business. Any suggestions as to what he can do? He claims that his accountant says that there is nothing he can do and to expect foreclosure.
To stop foreclosure, no matter what any one else says, there is only one place to get real foreclosure assistance. In fact, this is the only agency recognized by the government and most lending institutions as a qualified mortgage consultant for home owners facing foreclosure.
Contacting HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) is the thing you want to do after figuring out your finances and if you should keep your house.
If you do nothing else, make sure you contact and meet with a HUD counselor. Do this if he is goint to try and keep the home or get rid of it. HUD can be reached a few different ways;
hud.gov/local/
hud.gov/foreclosure (this is probably the best and easiest way)
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/i_want_to/talk_to_a_housing_counselor
http://hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/fc/ (This is for foreclosure avoidance counseling.)
Also, I recommend starting here to make sure he has everything he needs to work with HUD;
http://www.u-can-stop-foreclosure.com/foreclosure-gettingstarted.html
I hope this helps.
Ross Falcone
BiggRoss | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
If he can’t manage his own personal finances, maybe he shouldn’t be running a business off them either. Guess he’ll have to become a bum, become a leech, or try harder.
Wertle Woo | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
His accountant is right. The ONLY way is to pay the loan.
Common Sense | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
There are programs, HUD approved or certified, some run by nonprofits
He should not rely on accountant
If he has income, he may be eligible for a loan modification
The first step is to start with his lender, ask what they are doing under the Making Home Affordable programs, ask about loan modification
Expect long hold times, many tranferred calls
Keep written log of calls, follow up, follow up
chatsplas | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
If is is unwilling to repay the money he can either allow the foreclosure or sell the place. So, he does have those 3 options, pay, sell or foreclose. The ball is in his court, he is the one that decides.
Landlord | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
Do short sale or deed in liue.
Karie Iversen | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
He can come up with the money to pay the mortgage current or he can face foreclosure. There isn’t a third option.
Insurance Pickle.com | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply
The reverse mortgage may be out because he is underwater and would need to bring funds to the table in order to close; it isn’t because he doesn’t qualify. I assume that if he hasn’t been making his payments, that he doesn’t have the funds to cover the shortfall at closing. One suggestion would be to see if the existing lender would be open to a short payoff. If the existing lender can see that your friend is guaranteed the reverse mortgage, and that they may be repaid a fair amount of the debt, they may prefer to write off the difference as bad debt in order to get out of the loan and not get into the expense of another foreclosure on their books. It would depend on the existing lender, and how short he actually is to close. Worth a try if foreclosure seems likely anyway. Just a suggestion.
MRA | Sep 15, 2011 | Reply