The Colorado Springs housing market is filled with homes lost by well intentioned owners who simply got in over their heads. The best action is to decide to sell the house before the lender threatens foreclosure.
If you’ve asked yourself ‘How did I get myself into this mess’ you aren’t alone. Hundreds of thousands of Americans find themselves in the position of home ownership that appears to be far too much to handle at this point.
You may be behind on your mortgage payments, or are paying them by sacrificing your family’s grocery budget or doing without other necessities. You may have had to sell personal items to keep up, but soon you’ll run out of things to sell. What then?
Finding yourself in this type of situation is, needless to say, stressful. It can affect your finances, your future credit and ability to use credit for purchases, and even your family’s sanity. Being in a constant state of scraping for money would leave even the toughest of homeowners wondering how to get out of it.
The trick is to get out of it gracefully. You can certainly just let the house go, allowing the lender to take over and foreclose on you, but that’s not the best way to protect your future and your credit.
The trouble for many began when the lending practices were loosened up to the point where almost anyone could qualify for a home loan. Some loans were given without qualifying income, credit checks, or other documentation supporting the applicant’s ability to maintain the payments needed to support the home.
This has created a huge problem for the home buyers and the lenders alike. Homeowners are losing their homes, lenders are stuck with the loan they’ve paid out but with no way to get the money back, and that means the banks now hold hundreds of thousands of properties that are deteriorating every day that goes by.
Whether you obtained a loan without credit checks, income verification, and a down payment, or you borrowed money from a relative for the down, and had a job that you’ve now lost, you risk losing the house if the payments can’t be kept up. Letting the house go back to the bank shouldn’t be an option, as you will need decent credit to rent or buy a new residence, get a new job, or apply for insurance. A foreclosure stays on your credit record for years.
The best option would be to sell your Colorado Springs house before foreclosure, well before you fall deeply into the credit hole and can’t get out. Act as quickly as possible when you see no light at the end of the tunnel to get the house sold and the lender satisfied.
