No guilt or shame in a Short Sale

More often than not, when I meet with a financially distressed homeowner to review what options are available in order to correct their finances and avoid foreclosure, the homeowner is apologetic.

Throughout our lives we've been used to working, meeting our bills, and at some lucky times, saving or investing a little bit. Now, due to toxic loan products, the homeowner suddenly notices that they're falling behind, there's not as much money as there used to be. For a while there is borrowing, not acknowledging this as a temporary fix,.

Eventually there's the harsh reality that something has to give.

Could we manage our money better? I know that the answer for me is an absolute yes. Could better money management have avoided this situation. Probably not.

We were sold toxic loans. Financing is complicated. Often, when we're sitting across the desk from a lender we don't ask enough questions, we don't want to appear stupid. Unfortunately there is some extremely important information in that fine print. We remember that we were warned that we would probably need to refinance in a few years.

But in that time, the “collapse” had begun and property values were in decline and now homes weren't appraising for enough to provide enough equity for the refinance.

This video gives a good overview of how we got here:








The homeowners  didn't create the situation. Now they need to figure out what the best solution is for themselves. That's also why homeowners should not feel any guilt or shame because of this.