Chrystina Tovani, Sacramento Home Loans

Saving Your Home From Foreclosure - Home Loan Modification or Short Sale

Well, it has been a couple of months since I wrote my article, Home Loan Modification - Is it possible?

At the time I was terribly frustrated with what I was hearing from those seeking assistance and getting no where. I wonder if there have been any significant changes to the system that is supposed to help people who desperately want to remain in their homes. I say, don't give up.

Whatever your situation may be, don't just walk away. The first place I would visit is:

www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov.

If they are unable to help you, the second thing I would consider is a short sale. At least with a short sale there are some benefits that are better than the alternative, which is foreclosure and all the pitfalls that go along with it. You can still do a short sale if you are current on your mortgage payments.

I have an excellent resource for information about short sales. Here in the greater Sacramento area we have a short sale guru. Her name is Elizabeth Weintraub. I don't know Elizabeth personally but I have had some interactions with her on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. We often read and comment on the same blogs. She is also a writer at About.com and specializes on short sale information.

People who live in the greater Sacramento area often contact me asking for mortgage help. When they owe more on their home than it is worth, all I can do is offer them resources. I wish I could do more.

So, now you have two things you can consider before foreclosure.

Here is a good video that explains HOW to go about getting a home loan modification.

Buying a home in today's market?

It takes patience and tenacity and wishing on a star.

I just finished reading an insightful article on the CNBC blog about Big Banks Accused of Short Sale Fraud. You can read about it by following the link.

The article is discussing how second lien holders have been taking cash on the side from the real estate agents or the buyers outside of the escrow so that the first lien holder would not know that they were getting paid in order to drop the lien.

That is not legal.

Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure! Everything is to be disclosed. No secrets, no surprises.

Under no circumstances is there to be any compensation from any party that is not listed on the HUD statement.

(RESPA is the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the 2008 law requiring that consumers receive disclosures at various times in the transaction. It outlaws kickbacks that increase the cost of settlement services. RESPA is a HUD consumer protection statute designed to help homebuyers be better shoppers in the home buying process, and is enforced by HUD. Read more about it here.).

One of the things I missed when I moved to Sacramento from the bay area was the ability to walk to most of my shopping centers or to easily take public transportation wherever I wanted to go. Being more densely populated, the bay area was built to accommodate walking, riding a bike or taking the bus. There are more restaurants and stores mixed within the housing communities so it's more convenient to walk or take the bus than to drive a car and try to find parking. Foot traffic brings business to local merchants and walking, riding bikes or taking the bus is much less expensive than driving a car. Safer too.

Sacramento was built around farms and orchards. It is more spread out. People have more room, but tend to be less inclined to using public transportation or walking to their destinations. Instead we drive everywhere. We drive to big shopping centers, we drive to eat and drive through to pick it up too. Makes me think of the people in the movie, Wall-E, where everything was automated and everyone sat in chairs that floated around to take them to their destinations.

My grandmother used to travel all over the place to do her shopping and run errands well into her 80's after she stopped driving. She lived in Carmichael, CA, which is connected to Sacramento and has neighborhoods that are close to shops and cafes and other services. So she got out and walked and took the bus for years. It IS possible. Hopefully now that "green living" is the in thing, our city planners will make changes that will enhance the public transportation and development of communities that are more suited to foot traffic and better health.

There are communities in Sacramento that are more walkable than others. Not only is walking good for the heart, it's good for the environment. It's nice to get out and greet people. Know your community.

A study in Washington State found that the average resident of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood weighs 7 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood.¹ Residents of walkable neighborhoods drive less and suffer fewer car accidents, a leading cause of death between the ages of 15–45.

Want to get an idea of how walkable your Sacramento neighborhood is? Check out this site: WalkScore.ccom

Walk Score also shows public transit locations in Sacramento where public Google Transit Feeds are available.

Is your neighborhood making you fat? Definitely something to consider when deciding where you want to live. Before you purchase your next home, check out the neighborhood to see how walkable it is. What shops are close by? How often can you get to shops, local cafes or coffee shops and interesting places, without using your car. It will not only benefit your health but will also be good for the environment.

Photo from flickr.com

The Bribe Reward: 1200 points. Okay. I'm in on this one. =) For my readers, I'm being rewarded 1200 Active Rain points for writing this article. See the article under this one.

There has been a great deal of discussion and debate going on at the Active Rain Real Estate Network lately about the pros and cons of paying companies for leads. Bob Stewart believes we could all get better at turning leads, no matter where we get them, into clients. So, together, the Active Rain community is discussing what works best for us.

One company I worked with did purchase leads and provide them to the loan officers in our office for follow up. I can say from personal experience that most of the leads I received did not turn into clients. Many never returned my phone calls or emails. It felt like a waste of time and money. Some of the leads were days old by the time they were handed out to us. The company canceled the service because of the poor results. Maybe we could have done things differently, I don't know. Perhaps if I had been on Active Rain back then I would have learned more. But that was before AR.

Then there came a time when my phone was ringing off the hook and it was usually lead company trying to get me to pay for their services and sometimes the sales people on the other end were rude and obnoxious so it really turned me off to using this kind of service.

Being present in the here and now!

What I found to be most reliable as far as leads go, and now I am going to stop referring to them as "leads" but "people", are the people who find me by reading my blogs. I have a real estate loan site in the Sacramento, CA area and several blogs that have a variety of relevance from my personal blog, to the VFW Post blog and then there is my outside Active Rain blog for Sacramento home loans. I can be contacted from any of them. I'm here now! Call me, email me. I am reachable.

The first thing I do when someone calls or emails me is to respond immediately. I make contact while my name is fresh on their minds.

With so much information that we absorb constantly, it is easy to forget what websites I have visited and if I have inquired about something, I may forget in a day or two if I have not heard back from the person I contacted. So, that being on my mind, I jump into action and make sure to make contact as soon as possible. I also send a personal email, not a form letter. Some people are more comfortable with email and some want to talk on the phone so I do both so that they feel they are getting the attention that they need.

Oh, and YES I do Google them. I like to know about who it is I'm talking to as well. I have not added prospective clients to my face book as I tend to use that for keeping in touch with friends and family. I don't know that my clients would be interested. But I'll keep an open mind to that.

Once we make contact, I find out what they want to do and ask questions pertaining to achieving their ideal goal. Sometimes I may have to do some research for loan products that will fit the circumstance and help them the best way I can. Ultimately, I make an appointment for them to meet with me at my office and bring along any necessary paperwork to get started and we go from there. blah blah blah...

I have had much better luck receiving contact from my own sites. It seems that when someone has read what I have written they feel like they know me better and are much more receptive to my calling and emailing them than they are when they have never heard of me. I have not tried video yet. I don't like looking at myself on video so if I can get over that, then maybe I will. I met Lisa Hill on You Tube and she got me started on Active Rain. So video is a great way to reach people. Lisa lives in Florida and I am in California so we would never have met if not online. I have even gotten to know her daughter.

I believe in quality over quantity.

When a person sends me their contact information. They are expecting ME to contact them which feels much more comfortable. I have already been introduced. It's like I am invited and I'm not crashing the party.

I have never been comfortable doing cold calling and I rarely did it in the past and never do it now. It didn't matter how many times I would hear that it's a numbers game. I don't like being called by an uninvited solicitor and I don't want to be one either. My number one pet peeve is a sales person using a script and inserting my name in the blanks. "Would that work for you, <insert name here>? Well, <insert name here> we have a list of products..." DON'T DO THAT!!!

I am very interested to hear from real estate professionals about their experiences and how they approach prospects and turn them into clients. I'm sure there is much I can still learn. First and foremost, I want my clients to feel safe, secure and confident in my abilities, that I will respect their time as I do my own and to give them the service that they WANT. If I could increase my client base without being intrusive, I would love to do so. Just give me a magic wand. I'll be Glenda the good witch of the east... Just kidding.

When I think of "Lead Companies," I recall a few insulting comments the sales people told me when I told them I wasn't interested in buying their goods. Leaves a bad taste behind. I would never want to make anybody feel worthless for not using my products/services. That is not the way I want to run my business.

I trust the value of sharing what I know and learning from my peers. Emulating people I respect.

I want to put my true self out there, be transparent and be real. I feel that if I am communicating who I am I will attract the person who wants to work with someone like me. If you want a loan consultant who is sensitive to your needs, to guide you through this stressful process, I'm the person to call.

I recently started working for Stanford Mortgage and when our general manager was introducing me to people in the office he was telling them all about Active Rain and my Internet presence. I am in the top two Loan Officers for Sacramento County on Active Rain. He knew that! I looked at him kind of surprised and he grinned and said, "I looked you up!" I thought that was very cool indeed. He had never heard of Active Rain until he met me. I'm in the habit of raving about Active Rain to any real estate professional who'll listen. LOL!

I think my best opportunity to get more clients is to stick to what works but be willing to make adjustments. I am open to hearing what others have to say and will certainly look at new ideas. One thing I know from working in this industry for so many years is that we must be versatile and open to growing and changing everyday.

For other methods of converting internet leads, be sure to check out giftofshift.com/activerain where you can purchase a limited edition hardcover of Gary Keller's book SHIFT, which comes with a free version of the eBook Soci@l: Attract Friends, Followers and Connections to Your Business, written by Ben Kinney and Jay Papasan (in which Ben shares his 'ten days of pain' lead conversion method) as well as free audio versions of Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Millionaire Real Estate Investor all for $19.99.

Royalty free photos by BigStockPhoto