In this ever changing real estate market there are many homeowners upside down with regards to their mortgages.  Anyone who purchased or re-financed in the past several years know this all too well.  Homes are worth less than what they currently owe!  Foreclosures now seem to be the norm and not the exception. We all know someone who has or is currently going through one.  It seems like at times you can be helpless in this situation, but you are not.  Even if you are not behind on your payments but you think you can not sustain making the payments for much longer, I recommend calling your mortgage company and try working out a solution with them.  In the past they would not even speak to you about a modification or loan solution unless you were at least one or two payments behind.  The problem with that is once someone’s credit starts to go bad, they just give up and let the foreclosure process happen.  Lenders are realizing it is in their best interest for them, and the borrower, to try and work something out before this happens, and from what I am hearing, they are.  There are even companies out there that will negotiate, for a fee, a loan modification and they are very efficient in doing so.
Some may wonder why the banks would be willing to do a modification or some type of loan solution.  The bottom line is foreclosures are very expensive for them.   In some cases it could take twelve to sixteen months to complete the process and in the end they have a property that has such a diminished value in some cases they have to bring money to closing just to dispose of the property. 
Don’t get discouraged if you call your lender and don’t get a response or a satisfactory response.  In some cases I am hearing it takes several months and many phone calls to get the help you need.  Just make sure you keep a call log of whom and when you speak to someone and what was said and make sure if they make you any promises that you have it in writing!!

Chris Yatooma, President
Real Estate Investors Association of Oakland