WHY DO HOMEOWNERS WAIT UNTIL ITS TOO LATE?

I ask myself this question at least 10 times a day. I know denial is a powerful remedy to a lot of our daily struggles but somethings can't be denied. I talk to Homeowners everyday and I always ask this very question "why did you wait so long to call"? Most of the times their answer is, "I thought we would be able to get caught up". The rest of the time its " I don't know, I wish we would have called sooner". I think the biggest misconception about foreclosure, which I will affectionately call "the F word" from now on, is that homeowners think the bank would like to take their home from them. That is the LAST thing the bank wants to do. I costs banks an average of 40K to go through the full "F word" process on every home. For every non-performing asset the federal government requires banks to keep between 3 to 7 times the amount of that particular loan in reserve. So if they have one non-performing loan for 100K they would have anywhere between 300K to 700K in a reserve just for this one property. Not to mention the thousands its costing them to pay attorney fees, court costs, real estate broker fees and all the holding costs involved in taking back a property. Now imagine that scenario times 100,000 because that is about how many homes some banks are stuck holding. Banks are in business to make money not spend it, so it would behoove them to do everything in their power to assist the homeowner with bringing their mortgage current. Last month I encouraged a lady to contact her lender since she was about to miss her first payment due to her ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) adjusting and her payments went up significantly. She is a do-it yourself and if I can't I will call you type person, so I gave her a few tips to use when calling her lender. I saw her the other day and asked her about her home and she told me " Ryan, I called my lender and told them I wasn't going to be able to make this month's payment or any future payments because I just cant afford to". Her lender told her, "well Ms. Moore, I'm glad you called because what we can do is refinance you to a lower fixed interest rate, wrap your late payment into it and your next payment wont be due until July 1st". Had I not let her know of her options and how flexible lenders are getting nowadays she was ready to give up on a home that she had been in for over twenty years and move into an apartment when her redemption period was up. All to often I see homeowners get frustrated and give up when all they had to do is seek help. I do my best to make it as comfortable a situation as possible, its not always as bad as it may seen and there is always a bright side to any situation. The trick is finding someone who is actually going to provide real help and who is not out to make money off of someones else's misery. I hope that this article will inspire someone to seek assistance or encourage someone to contact their lender and see if they can work something out. Even if you have to sell your property, short sales are great options. If for some reason your home does not sell then your lender can allow you to deed the home back to them in-lieu of "the F word". What this means is you avoid the heavy damage to your credit, you avoid having your wages garnished because of having a deficiency judgment brought against you for the difference in what the property eventually sells for plus all the cost the bank accrued and in most cases with a little credit repair you'll be ready to buy another home in a year or two. St. Luke 1:37 says "For with God nothing shall be impossible". I truly believe that and I pray you do to. Don't ever give up, go all the way!!!!!