CHASE SVP Offers Tips on Dealing With Foreclosure

Foreclosure
is just an unfortunate reality these days. According to a recent Wall
Street Journal study, the United States government has spent upwards of
$2 trillion trying to alleviate the housing crisis. Many African
American neighborhoods have been especially hard hit. Ironically, the
current real estate woes are actually opening the doors for many people
of color looking to finally purchase their dream home.

Rolling
out connected with Chase Senior Vice President, Thomas Kelly who shared
valuable tips on how avoid foreclosure and, on the flip side, how to
use the crisis to your advantage if you have some savings. – gavin philip godfrey

Tips for Facing Foreclosure

1. Speak to your lender: “The
   first thing you do is talk to the servicer, the people who sent you the
   monthly bill and find out if you qualify for the Obama Making Home
   Affordable Plan. That really is a terrific plan which gives incentive
   to the borrower to try to make their payments, it gives incentives to
   the investor who owns the loan service or trying to collect, to modify
   the loan, make it affordable for the homeowner and keep it in the house
   whenever possible.”
2. Short-Sale: “Sell
   the house for less than you owe the bank. You call the lender or
   servicer and you say, “Listen, I can’t afford the house and I’m going
   to see if I can get somebody to buy it and I owe $150,000, will you
   take $130,000?’ They’ll say, ‘Well, get a buyer, we’ll do an appraisal
   and see where we are.’ If you do a short-sale, you end up owing more
   than you can pay – that hurts your credit, but not as bad as a
   foreclosure.”
3. Deed Renewal Foreclosure: “Again,
   if you can’t afford the house, you can basically turn over the deed to
   the servicer as opposed to going all the way through a foreclosure
   process. Again, that’s a mark on your credit, but it’s not as bad as a
   foreclosure.”

 Tips On Benefiting from Housing Crisis

1. Less is More: “If
   you’re an investor who owns a home you might actually be losing money
   because home prices have been going down. If you’re a would-be
   homeowner – somebody who wants to buy house or somebody who wants to
   invest in a house – there is an opportunity today because prices are
   less than they were.”
2. Early Birds Get the Worm:
   “There are a few people who can buy homes, there’s people who are
   losing their homes – in both cases that’s pushing down the value of
   homes. If a house has been foreclosed on by the bank or by a servicer
   because the borrower couldn’t afford it then the bank and servicers
   would be interested in maybe selling the house quickly so you’ll maybe
   get a better deal than you would.”