When the phone is ringing every day and the bank is threatening to foreclose your home, because you are behind on payments, it is easy to believe that the banker is drooling over the possibility of foreclosing on your home. But you should know that the bank stands to lose a lot of money if they are forced to foreclose on your home. Read this article to learn the real truth about banks and foreclosures.
With what I have learned about banks and foreclosure over the last couple years, the information that I am about to share with you now, could have helped a few of my friends avoid losing their homes. Because I could not help them in their time of need, it is my hope that I could help you now, in your time of need.
I know that my initial suggestion that “banks do not want to foreclose on your home” may seem far-fetched to you now, but by the time you have read this article in full, you will recognize that you have more power over the bank than the bank would care to admit to you.
The Truth Is In The Numbers
Let us suppose for the sake of this story that you paid $100,000 for your home. And let us suppose that you put a full 20% down on that home five years ago. In this scenario, your bank loaned you $80,000 to help you purchase your home, and at best, you have probably paid $10,000 towards the principle of your home loan.
In the past year, you suddenly found your finances stretched for one reason or another. Perhaps you changed jobs, or your business contracted with the economy. Perhaps you had a financial emergency that required a lot of cash to solve, and now you find yourself struggling to catch up on the rest of your bills.
In the end, it really does not matter the reason for your current financial crisis. It will have little bearing on the outcome of this story.
This is where most people make a mistake in their understanding of the banks’ motives in threatening foreclosure. The bank is not threatening foreclosure because they want your house. The bank is threatening foreclosure, because they want to spur you to action, to fix your current financial crisis.
I know you are thinking that the bank will sell your home for its full retail value, but they won’t, because they cannot afford to hold onto your house for a long period of time. In order to sell a home for full retail price, the bank would need to commit to holding the home, perhaps for years, until that perfect buyer arrives to buy it.
If you force your bank to foreclose your home, your bank will put your house up for auction at a sheriff’s sale. PAY ATTENTION… this is important. When your bank puts your house up for auction, they will generally only get 35 to 40 cents on the dollar for your home.
The bank is currently out 70 cents on the dollar against the retail value of your home, but if forced to auction, the best the bank can expect to get out of your home is half what the bank has invested into your home!
In the scenario I have outlined here, you owe $70,000 on a $100,000 home. But if you force the bank to foreclose your home, the best the bank can hope to achieve is to get $35 to $40,000 for your home at auction. Do the math. If your bank forecloses your home, your bank will lose between $30 and $35,000, when they sell your home. Ouch!
This is the key information that you will use to stop the foreclosure of your home. As you can now recognize, your bank needs you to stay in your home, more than they desire to foreclose on your home.
Leverage
As should now be obvious, you as the homeowner have a lot of leverage over your bank. And if you play your cards just right, you will not have to lose your home.
If you find yourself behind on payments and you are looking for a way to save your home from foreclosure, you need to speak to a company like National Foreclosure Counseling Services (http://nfcscorp.com/). NFCS is a company, which can help you negotiate a repayment plan or loan modification on your behalf.
When NFCS contacts your bank on your behalf, your bank knows that you are interested in taking whatever steps are necessary to get back on the straight and narrow with them. When banks realize that you are serious about staying in your home, they have to weigh the options of negotiating a loan modification or losing an average of $30,000 when they foreclose your home.
If the bank has someone in a home that wants to stay in the home, then the bank stands a chance of retaining some of their profits on their original loan, if they are willing to renegotiate the terms of that loan. However, if the bank is forced to foreclose on the property, then chances are good that the bank will lose a lot of money.
Think about it. Your bank does not want to foreclose your home. It is in the best interests of your bank to keep you in your home, period.
National Foreclosure Counseling Services (http://nfcscorp.com/) has a proven track record (with documentation) of helping families such as yours renegotiate with their banks to help them to stay in their homes. In just the last 90 days, NFCS has helped 600 families renegotiate with their banks to avoid foreclosure.
The Most Important Step In This Process
You have the power to save your home from foreclosure, if you simply decide that you want to exercise your power of self-determination.
Who knows? You may have decided that you don’t want to try to hang on to your home for whatever reason. So long as you understand that a foreclosure will hurt your credit for at least ten years, perhaps preventing you from being able to buy another home, then by all means, it is your choice to accept foreclosure or not.
The current real estate crisis will not last forever, and housing prices will rebound eventually. Even if you see yourself upside-down in your home now, you may just find that if you hang on to your home another five or ten years, then housing prices will bounce back and you will survive the current real estate crisis without great financial loss.
But if you are like most people, you probably cannot bear the thought of losing your home and the equity you have so far built up in your home. If you desire to hang on to your home, then you alone must take that first step towards saving your home from foreclosure. You must either visit the NFCS website at (http://nfcscorp.com/), or you should call NFCS at: 1-800-824-4459.
Author’s Note: This article was originally posted at: http://cash-advance-payday-loans.org/blog/banks-do-not-want-to-foreclose/2009/01/
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Arlo Mooney has dedicated himself to helping people properly manage their personal finances, by helping them to understand the gravity of their personal financial decisions. With his background in economics, he strives to help people understand complex economic principles. Read more of his work at The Financial Side of Economics blog at: http://cash-advance-payday-loans.org/blog/
Read more articles written by Arlo Mooney
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