Chances are You know Somebody

in Las Vegas facing Foreclosure

I was in a Las Vegas community showing homes that I specialize in and happened to be driving by a friends home when I saw the signs posted on the garage and the front door. I knew what they were right away… eviction signs posted by the bank that the home had been foreclosed on. This happened this past Wednesday and quite honestly… it’s a pretty depressing feeling.

Not Reaching out to a Friend in

Foreclosure is also Sad

Foreclosure is never happy for anybody involved. With the amount of Las Vegas homes in foreclosure, chances are you know somebody facing the same thing.

I had sensed that my friend was going through some hard times but I never addressed it with her. She is highly educated with a Bachelors degree from an Ivy league school so I sort of automatically assumed that if she needed help, she would have told me. But… like so many Las Vegas Homeowners that don’t want to admit they need help and let the depression take over, she never contacted me.

I think the biggest travesty currently taking place is that Las Vegas Homeowners are scared to reach out due to the stigma involved. Personally, I certainly understand her situation with the slowdown in the economy and what this has done for the business she is in. She paid over $550,000 for the home that is currently only worth $230,00 in today’s market values for her Las Vegas Home. She bought it brand new straight from the Las Vegas New Home builder with no outside real estate representation at a pretty heft price. Like many other homeowners in Las Vegas that are finding themselves in a bad situation with payments for her Las Vegas Home higher then what she could keep up with for a home now half of the value of what she owes, she made the decision to let it go and start over. It probably even hurts more since she put so much money down on the property that is all now gone.

I knew business for her could not be too good in the current economic conditions and in the end, she just came to the decision to let it go. She tried doing a loan modification but in the end, the lender only offered to just extend out the mortgage by another 10 years and payments were still too much for a home that had lost half of it’s value.

I know her street very well since so many homeowners have also let their homes go to foreclosure and I’ve shown a lot of them once they’ve become bank owned and put back up for sale. She held out for far longer then many of her neighbors.

If I would have been paying attention to the signs… I would have looked up the property on my foreclosure reports and reached out to her for help in doing a Las Vegas short sale.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for her. Her credit is now shot and she will not be able to buy another home for at least five years instead of two years if she would have done a short sale. I’m pretty sure she would have easily qualified for a short sale since she did have a pretty significant loss in income. In other words, there is no way she would have qualified for a $400,000+ mortgage today.

There is Nothing Wrong with Doing a Short Sale

I should have been paying attention and reached out to one of my friends. I don’t like to be nosy and research my friends but I certainly sensed that she was not her normal happy self for the past several months.

Personally… I find myself siding with Las Vegas homeowners who were taken advantage of. I know how this particular homebuilder built a list of over 1,000 “VIP” buyers and used the phase selling to entice buyers in. Don’t want to buy it today or want to think about it? Then move on… the 900 people behind you will and we’ll put you at the back of the list. Looking back… I think everybody can pretty much agree that those long lines and “Phase” price increases were a big mistake.

So what do you do about it if your income has gone down, you lost your job or need to relocate to take another job?

You do a Short Sale.

There is NOTHING wrong with doing a short sale to get out of an overpriced Mortgage considering the circumstances that took place. NOTHING. Lenders are guilty of rubber stamping loan applications for anybody which resulted in prices for Las Vegas Homes going up in price far above what homes were really worth. Without all of this money given away… less people would have been able to buy which would have meant less sales, lower demand and lower prices.

Perhaps you or somebody you know is in the same predicament… It’s not a great feeling to find out afterwards that there is a better way to get out of foreclosure and rebounding faster.

The Worst Thing you can do if you or somebody you know is in a dilemma.. is doing nothing.

Please contact me with the information below.

Paul Francis, CRS
Prudential Americana Group – Realtors®
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058