Missouri Bankruptcy Attorney James Brown brings more than 15 years of experience in foreclosure and debt relief to his writing. He started his own firm, Castle Law Office, with his wife and best friend, Sherrie. Since then, they have helped over 15,000 families get relief from their debt. His other activities include golfing, coaching youth hockey, and spending time with his three kids.
Your First Move after a Foreclosure Notice
Receiving a notice that your home is going into foreclosure can be absolutely devastating. While debt is hard to move through, foreclosure makes you feel like you no longer have any moves to make. The good news is you’ve still got options after you receive a notice of foreclosure. So what is the most important advice I can give you after 15 years of experience? Don’t Wait.
Don’t wait to do what?” Don’t wait to explore your options. There are often three avenues you can take when you are in foreclosure. First, you can choose to try and modify your loan with your mortgage company. This is often the first move for a lot of people. Unfortunately, this economy is causing loan modifications to be harder to obtain. In fact, America’s largest lender is only approving about 4% of the people who apply for the modification. What about the other 96%? Well, they get a notification that there isn’t anything that can be done to help them. That notification may not come until weeks or days before a foreclosure date—and then you are left with little time to pick another option.
You can also look into debt settlement to try and free up some of your money and make your mortgage payments but, since so many have been turning to debt settlement, the amount of scams have been steadily rising. It also only offers to settle some of your debt. There are other options that can actually eliminate your debt and give you legal protection from your creditors.
Bankruptcy is a third option to think of when going through foreclosure. Bankruptcy can actually stop a foreclosure immediately. A study this year actually proved that almost a quarter of the people who filed bankruptcy did so to save their homes. It is most definitely the safest option out of the three. Not only will it stop your foreclosure but bankruptcy will also stop harassing creditor calls, wage garnishments, and car repossessions. No wonder the number of bankruptcy filings has hit an all time high this year.
Whatever option you choose, it is important not to wait. If you wait to decide what move you will make, it could leave you without enough time to let any option help you save your home.
Tags: After, first, Foreclosure, Move, notice