Living After Foreclosure

Here’s the last installment of Liz Pulliam Weston’s tips for dealing with the possibility of foreclosure:

• Offer a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This is an option if the shortfall between your house’s value and what’s owed on it isn’t too much.  The lender can say, “Yeah, I’ll take the deed back, and you won’t owe anything.”  It’s similar to solving a disagreement through arbitration instead of going to court: It’s less costly for both parties.
• Negotiate a short sale. If the lender stands to lose a lot of money through a foreclosure, then a short sale may be possible.  The lender agrees to release the mortgage for less than what’s owed, and the deed is transferred to a third party.
• Allow the foreclosure to proceed. There may be no other option, and your credit rating will be absolutely trashed for a while, but sometimes it’s not possible to avoid.  Foreclosure is never the end of the world, though.

• Now we have to worry about our neighbor's finances This article by Liz Pulliam Weston, entitled Foreclosure Nearby?  It's your problem, brings up the "friendly fire" aspect of foreclosures:  a foreclosure nearby hurts everyone in the neighborhood, not just the personl foreclosed on. A neighbor who's in financial trouble probably is worried about their house, but it's almost certain......
• 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......
• Steps to take if you're facing foreclosure, Part 1 Liz Pulliam Weston wrote recently on steps to take if you're facing foreclosure.  There are smart ways to go about it, and not-so-smart ways.  Here are her first three suggestions with some of my comments: Make a budget.  If there are places that can be cut in your budget that......
• Big jump in foreclosures: Who's immune? Probably not too many people.  Though California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida are still the poster children for the housing carnage, Idaho, Illinois, and Oregon are up-and-comers.  Foreclosures for February 2009 are up 30% from February 2008 levels.  Seven hundred thousand properties owned by banks haven't been put on the market......

• How to Make a Few Fast Bucks If you need some cash relatively fast to buy a present, fund an outing, or fill the gas tank, there are fairly easy ways to go about it. Forget get-rich quick schemes. Forget multi-level marketing and pyramid scams. Forget investing any money at all. If you have an object or......
• Part-Time Jobs - Short Term Overload After struggling to get more than one part time job for the past two years, I now have the opposite problem - too many part time jobs at the same time. I had five seasonal part time jobs in March, down to four by the end of April, and was......
• So, how do you tell if you can actually afford that home you want? Since I only have a few minutes this morning, I wanted to quickly post this article about affording your new house that I found online. Sorry I don't have time to comment on it, but I have to run out for the day. Hope everyone has a great one. According......
• How to Have a Successful Garage Sale A successful garage or rummage sale may at first seem like a quick and easy way to make some cash. And while this is true, if you want to earn some decent income for your efforts, you need to tackle this project using some basic garage sale tips. Duration While......