On March 29th, Alex Charfen from the CDPE Institute did a webinar with Rick Sharga from RealtyTrac – the leading online market place for foreclosed properties.
Besides the fact that foreclosure activity has increased on a year-over-year basis for 52 consecutive months from January 2006 through April 2010 and 2010 set a new record with 2.9 million home receiving foreclosure notices there was a number that was more disturbing to yours truly…
February 2011 Foreclosure Rate Heat Map:
About 60% of all home owners who were foreclosed on never contacted the bank as to foreclosure alternatives. You might react, well a lot of people never got through to the bank when they called. After thinking about this, I am not so sure about that. Every time you call the loan servicer, the person you talk to asks your loan number, your SS number etc to make sure you are the home owner or person who is either authorized on the loan and they put the call into their system… This means that the 60% should be fairly accurate, give or take some.
About 2.5 years ago this percentage was 62%… So with all the government programs, the advertising etc we only gained 2%… That is disturbing… But then again, everyone responds different to financial distress and a lot of distressed home owners do NOT open the mail sent by the banks to inform them about the help available.
This means that friends and family members need to help… If you have a feeling your friend or family member is in trouble financially, have the courage and share them info about help available and tell them to open the mail from the bank.
As a CDPE trained agent, I am offering help to all the people who are referred to me ad I know of many other great Realtors doing the same.
“It is trouble that “never comes” that causes the loss of sleep.” -Chas. Austin Bates
Mirjam