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Foreclosures
What to Do If It Happens to You
By Shel Franco
Foreclosure is not a situation to be taken lightly, and hiding it from your spouse or family members is not a good idea. "Often I work with couples where one spouse handles all the money and the other really has nothing to do with it," says Doug Charney, president of The Charney Investment Group in Harrisburg, Pa. "That is not a good way to go." You end up with one spouse that has no clue of what's going on and the other is hiding it or afraid to discuss it with their partner, he says. All of a sudden there is a problem and that will cause trouble.
"Once it has come to the fact that you can't afford to be in the home, it is better to get it over with right away and do it in a way that won't impact your credit report as much," Housser says. "In the long term it is going to be for the best to get you into a home you can afford for the next 30 years." You can actually avoid foreclosure if you give your house back to the lender, or sell it yourself.
"Take comfort in knowing the lender does not want to take your home," says Megan Smith, with First Lenders Data, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based provider of settlement service solutions to the mortgage lending industry. "Your lender is not the enemy." Let them know of your stress level and let them know you are willing to work it out at all costs, she says. It is better to deal with it before it snowballs.
