Stay and fight, or let it go?
FOR those caught up in the grim reality of foreclosure, losing one’s home can be painful, humiliating and stressful, notes author Lloyd Segal, to say nothing of the potential economic damage.
As foreclosures continue to dog the real estate market -- numbers are at their highest in more than a decade -- and send an icy draft through Wall Street, the Beverly Hills mortgage broker and attorney has written this timely how-to book.
How to keep a roof over your head when the sky appears to be falling right through it. How to negotiate with your lender. How to refinance. How to use the law to save your home. And how to employ other strategies, such as bankruptcy, to fend off foreclosure.
But as Segal notes, sometimes none of those measures really applies. Owners just have to accept that the math doesn’t add up and they either don’t want, or cannot afford, to keep their property.
That’s where his book shifts direction from dodging the foreclosure bullet to getting the monkey off your back. The new goal is to maximize financial returns and protect credit ratings -- according to Segal, nothing dooms a credit score quite like foreclosure.
His upbeat message for homeowners is that even if you fall behind on your payments and the dreaded letter arrives threatening to pull the plug on your loan, you still have options.
First, he says, do not panic, do not be intimidated and do not give up without a fight.
Homeowners in this state have some time -- an average foreclosure in California takes about four months to conclude -- and Segal shows how to make the most of that window.
He starts by walking readers through the initial process of deciding whether the property is actually worth keeping, asking hard questions about equity, future financial prospects and the possible effect on credit reports.
He discusses four main options for owners who decide to get rid of their homes and details strategies for those fighting to keep them, beginning with how to negotiate with lenders.
Contrary to popular belief, homeowners are likely to find they’re dealing with sympathetic lenders. Segal says foreclosure is about the last thing financial institutions want -- it’s an expensive hassle for them too -- so wherever possible they try to cooperate with distressed owners.
If that doesn’t work, alternatives may include refinancing, bankruptcy, a lawsuit to stop foreclosure, or taking advantage of the special protection surrounding home loans for military personnel on active duty.
About 20 poor-quality, generic photos serve no obvious purpose in this book, which shows other signs of padding. For example, the last 66 pages, devoted to a summary of every state’s foreclosure laws, for some reason include maps of each state.
A bigger issue, though, is the author’s unflinching belief that the average homeowner can handle the demanding workload surrounding foreclosure; only occasionally, and almost as an afterthought, does he suggest consulting legal or financial professionals.
Although the endless stream of paperwork, official documents, legal nuances and stilted jargon may be second nature to a seasoned mortgage and loan officer such as Segal, most people -- already freaked out by the ticking foreclosure clock -- are going to need much more help than just this book. Still, this is a starting point.
