Stop Michigan Foreclosure

“They Broke Into The House & Changed The Locks!”

Yes, that’s exactly how the first part of this conversation with one of our new sellers went. The rest of the story is unbelievable, but we managed to turn it into a good ending (so far). But first, a little education for you so you can understand this story…

Redemption period – what’s that? A redemption period is a number of days or months after a foreclosure auction during which time you may redeem the property. At the auction, the house is sold back to your lender (most of the time) – by redeeming, you are claiming the property back so it’s yours again. Michigan is one of only 10 states that boasts a redemption period – ours is generally six months.

Sounds pretty good right? Here’s the catch: the amount owed must be paid in full during those six months (plus interest & attorney fees), so, if you were to receive a large monetary gift, or win the lottery, you might be able to redeem the house.

Or, you could sell it.

Thing is, every seller in Michigan has redemption rights (unless he or she chooses to sign a deed in lieu of foreclosure with the lender which gives up those rights). That is something no business, individual, or entity can take away from you – you are protected by Michigan law.

So our new seller was in this very situation; unfortunately, a local business that wishes to attain her house sooner rather than later (they don’t want to wait out the six months), seems to have aggressively pursued their goal by unethical means. The property was broken into and they tried to bully her – for lack of a better term – into foregoing her right to redeem the house herself. They were likely playing the odds she would not know her rights or contact a third party. Sad to say there are people out there who prey upon those in financial hardship.

The good news (because we taught her how to deal with these bullies) is she’s now exercising those rights and intends to redeem the house.

I just wanted to take a few moments to stress how important it is for you as a seller in foreclosure-ridden Michigan to know your options and more importantly your rights – both in prosperity and hardship.

If you’re faced with a similar situation (or anything else related to Michigan foreclosure for that matter), give us a call – we’re all happy to help!

Melissa

I’ve spoken to a few families that wanted to not do a short sale and ride out their redemption period.  Why? Not because it was the best for them, but because the thought of the dreaded winter move was “impossible”. I’m here to say, no it’s not. I just did it and I’m still here to tell the story. More than that, you have to understand that a short sale isn’t a fast process. If a short sale is right for you, and we start the process now, chances are pretty good that the snow will be gone by the time you move.

Don’t let the idea of the dreaded winter move stop you from making the best choice for your family. If you’re not sure what your options are when facing a Michigan foreclosure,  give me a call. I’d be happy to discuss all of your options with you.

Emily

If you’re anything like me, when I was trying to stop my Michigan foreclosure by myself, the worst part was trying to get through to the mortgage company. People often ask me why I’d want to spend all day at work on the phone waiting on hold to talk to someone from a lender. Well that’s a simple answer- it’s easy, because it’s not part of my job!

Melissa  is the one who spends countless hours on the phone negotiating short sales for our sellers. Honestly, I’m not sure how she does it. Not only does she do it, she does it well. She has ways of not just getting through to an actual human being, but getting results! After all, our success rate is 85% over the last 6 months (compared to the national average of only 10% of short sales closing).

If you’re looking for help and tired of wasting time on the phone with your lender, give me a call. I’m happy to discuss your options with you.

Emily

I just received a call from someone who realized that they need our help. She lost her job and was feeling so overwhelmed, that she didn’t want to address any of her financial issues. The only problem: once she did start to address her problem, it was too late. She said she’s known in the back of her mind that she’s needed a short sale but was just so overwhelmed, she didn’t even know where to start. Now that she’s realized that a short sale is her best and only option, it’s too late for us to help her.

Why? Foreclosures are very time sensitive. Once the lender refers the matter to an attorney to start the foreclosure, there is a legal process they must go through. However, unlike many states, the process before the foreclosures auction is relatively quick in Michigan taking weeks instead of months like some states. While we can still help you after the foreclosures auction (another relatively unique feature of a Michigan foreclosures) that time period is also dictated by law and goes incredibly fast considering everything that has to happen (contact lenders, get house listed with a REALTOR®, find a buyer, waiting for an answer from the bank, etc.). Although they vary from case to case, every minute wasted is a minute that we could have been helping you stop your Michigan foreclosure.

If you’re trying to sort out your options, please give me a call. It’s never too early to call me; I’m glad to help and to also explain your timeline to you as well as options and resources to help you make a good decision about the best plan for you. Please don’t wait to give me a call – it just may be too late if you do!

Emily

I recently took a call from a seller who had their hours at work cut in half and wanted to do a short sale to prevent a foreclosure on their house. They met all of the criteria for us to do the short sale. As we were finishing our conversation, they told me that they wanted to sell the house to their brother, who was going to rent it back to them. Uh, oh. No can do. I told him that he can go ahead with the short sale, but could not sell it to a family member and reside in the house again. Benefiting from a short sale would be considered mortgage fraud. This is a federal crime and the FBI is all over things like this. He was shocked, and grateful that I had told him about this as he didn’t want to break any laws or end up in a federal prison.

They decided that the short sale was still their best option and that they would work with us to find a buyer for the house- who of course isn’t related to them.

If you’re facing difficult times and need help preventing a foreclosure on your home, give me a call. I’d be happy to discuss your options with you.

Emily

This is a follow up to a blog that I wrote before about a Michigan foreclosure that I went through several years ago. I had a family that we’re currently helping ask me this week “Why in the world would you put that out for everyone to read, it’s such a personal issue?”

Great question. The answer- I want other people to know that they’re not the only ones who are going through a Michigan foreclosure. As much as it is a personal matter, they don’t have to go through it alone. Most importantly, as I stated in the previous blog, I want people to know THERE ARE OPTIONS!

Yes, going through a Michigan foreclosure was not one of the shining moments in my life, but, I made it through it- AND YOU WILL TOO. Don’t do what I did and try to figure it out on your own. By the time I realized that I needed an expert’s advice it was too late. Fortunately, now I have a vast knowledge of the foreclosure process, and I’m here to share it with you. Don’t wait any longer – call or email me now.

Emily

This week we got an email from “Jeff”. Our team was negotiating a short sale for Jeff when his financial situation changed for the better. He decided to attempt a loan modification with his lenders and cancel the short sale (despite the 6% success rate).

Jeff had been having some trouble getting through to someone who could help him or tell him anything definite about his options, so he decided to contact us in the hopes that we could help point in him the right direction.

I was able to quickly tell him which department to call and what to tell that department when he did call. After he’d tried the number I gave him, his email back to me read, “I don’t know how you guys can handle talking to banks day in and day out. I get so frustrated, mainly because I get absolutely nowhere when I call. And this was after you gave me the right number to call and told me exactly what to say! You guys must have the patience of saints…”

I’ve never thought of myself as particularly saintly, but I got to thinking about what he’d written. Many lenders are so huge and have so many departments that navigating through the maze of their phone system is difficult for me, and I’ve been doing this for three and a half years! I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have to figure that out as a first time caller.

If you find yourself needing a short sale and don’t have the patience of a saint, give us a call, and let us handle the navigation of your lender’s phone system…and the short sale for you.

Melissa

We heard “The Blizzard of December 2009” was coming for days. It was the top news story for several days. Family members who lived in other states would call up and say “The blizzard is coming, better stock up on bread and milk”. Schools and businesses prepared to be closed.

Then it hit. And while we did get a lot of snow (10” in my back yard), it really just seemed to be another snow storm to me. I never saw the “white outs”, or felt the 50mph winds. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe they just weren’t there.

As I was shoveling the snow this morning, it reminded me of how we often anticipate the worse in life and it never really is as bad as we expected. Maybe it is because we were prepared, our awareness heightened. Or maybe the thing we feared didn’t warrant the fear and energy we spent on it. How cool it would be if the unknown was known so we could deal with it and go on with our life. For example, if the weatherman had said “it’s going to start snowing about 3pm on Wed and pretty much snow on and off through early Friday morning. However the road crews will keep up with it and if you drive between these hours, roads will be empty & clear and the visibility will be reduced but not horrible. Basically, it will be just another Michigan snow storm”. That doesn’t sound so scary, does it?

Facing a Michigan Foreclosure can be the same way. People give you advice based on what they have heard or seen other people go through. The media talks about it constantly making it sound ominous. You don’t know what will happen, you don’t know how to prepare or lessen the blow. You spend sleepless hours worrying about what to do.

Stop spinning your tires and give us a call. We have been studying this “storm” and dealing with it for years. We can show you a path to sunnier days. We can answer your questions and make the unknown, known. We have knowledgeable staff that will give you advice based on fact and experience, not heresy. We will help you weather the storm and get back to better days.

Ann

Over the last few years, many families (including mine) financed their houses with an adjustable rate mortgage or as I like to call it, the ARM of Sorrow (okay… I just made that up.) If you fall into this category, people may ask you why you would take on a mortgage you might not be able to afford after the interest rate increased. There are a few reasons you might have done this. The main reason is that you were probably under the impression (influenced by your lender) that you could refinance at a lower rate before your ARM adjusted. At the time you purchased the house, you might not have qualified for a conventional, low interest mortgage for several reasons (one being less than perfect credit, which may improve over time.) Then the time comes to refinance your mortgage – and you can’t! Why? There are many reasons:

1. Your house is no longer worth what you owe on it. You bought the house for $150,000 in 2005, and now it is only worth $125,000. There is no longer enough equity to get a loan for $150,000 – but of course, you still owe that much.
2. Your house is no longer worth what you owe on it because you pulled out some equity that was once there, but isn’t anymore. For whatever reason (pay off other debts, buy a car at a low interest rate, make home improvements) you might have taken out an equity loan or line of credit on the house. If you bought the house for $150,000 and took out a $20,000 equity loan, this brings the total amount owed up to $170,000. If the house is worth less than $170,000 (which is likely due to the rampant decline in property values) no bank will refinance it..
3. You no longer make as much as you used to. Unemployment rates across Michigan (and many other states) are astronomical, and there’s a chance that it’s affecting your line of work. You may have had your hours reduced, taken a pay cut, or have lost your job altogether. Because of this, there’s a good chance that the banks do not like the amount of debt you have in relation to how much money you make (called “debt to income ratio”), and will not refinance your mortgage.
4. Life happened. Maybe you had an illness or death in your family. Maybe your car was involved in an accident, and you had to get a new one in order to get to work. Maybe there was an urgent and major repair that needed to be done to the house. Sometimes, no amount of scrimping and saving can get you back on track.
5. You didn’t know the facts. Maybe you, like many of our sellers, weren’t completely informed about what was going to happen. Many of our sellers didn’t know just how high their interest rates were going to skyrocket once their ARMs adjusted. Increasing a $150,000 mortgage from 6% to 11% adds an additional $530 a month to a house payment!

If you are one of the many people who are facing a Michigan foreclosure because of an “ARM of Sorrow” and have realized that you can no longer keep the house, give Emily a call at 269-685-5921. We can help you out. We take a very complicated task – getting your bank to accept less money than you owe – and we make it very simple for you. Of course, it’s still hard on us, but that’s our job… and we’re good at it!

Holly