Living After Foreclosure

If you look at the demeanor on the faces of the people over at YouWalkAway.com, you might think that getting foreclosed on is downright enjoyable.  A walk through the park with your spouse and child, as it were.

It even seems a bit empowering.  You don’t get foreclosed on; you walk away.  Kind of like “Take this house and shove it.”

Who wouldn’t be enticed by the prospect of “[living] payment free for up to 8 months or more and [walking] away without owing a penny?”  It’s more like you can be kicked out once things are official (it doesn’t have to be 8 months) and you’ll not owe but no lender will entertain lending you money again for a while at anything close to a good interest rate.  That, and it’s likely that you’ll feel like a failure.  (But that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.)

The sizzle they’re selling is a brief period of peace of mind and the prospects of a fairly quick recovery.  The steak is hand-holding through a process that can be done for free, with the end result being the same: a foreclosure on the credit record, and a couple hundred points or more off of the credit score for a while.

If foreclosure is the only option, then it’s the only option.  I’m all for paying someone to solve problems, but paying someone almost a thousand bucks to alleviate things temporarily doesn’t really seem like a good deal.  And how people can justify the expense when it’s already clear they can’t afford their housing doesn’t make much sense either.

• Stripped for copper Abandoned houses attract a lot of things: partying teenagers, mice, rocks through the windows, the elements. Now, with the houses rotting away in varying states in the foreclosure process, these houses are now attracting black-market commodities dealers.  The houses are broken into and stripped of their copper pipes and wires. ......
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• Recognizing the signs of a family facing foreclosure Free Money Finance recently had an acquaintance of his go into foreclosure, and the signs of trouble were clear in retrospect. People don't advertise that they're facing foreclosure, at least not outwardly.  Even if money is getting really tight, people can compartmentalize the worry when they're interacting with others.  One......
• HUD tips for avoiding foreclosure: Part 1 The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has some good advice for people that are in danger of losing their home through foreclosure. Here are a couple of items from that list, with some discussion. Don't ignore the problem. "The further behind you become, the harder it will be......

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• Removing the HELOC temptation Lenders are starting to pull the plug on borrowers' home equity lines of credit in light of the falling value of the collateral properties.  They're lowering limits or freezing the accounts, preventing the homeowners from borrowing more against their equity.Banks have certainly not been shy about giving borrowers more rope......