Losing our Home Through Foreclosure

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Перевод foreclosure с английского на русский

1 foreclosure , фин. потеря [лишение\] права выкупа* foreclosure of a mortgage — лишение права выкупа заложенного имущества foreclose, foreclosure sale * * *арест собственности за неуплату долга: лишение заемщика, нарушившего условия кредита, права собственности на заложенную собственность (через суд) в пользу кредитора; различают “арест по закону” (statutory foreclosure), т. е. арест собственности без обращения в суд на основе законодательства, и “жесткий арест” (strict foreclosure), при котором навсегда запрещается выкуп должником собственности, которая в дальнейшем продается на свободном аукционе для удовлетворения требований кредитора; если продажа обеспечения не обеспечивает погашения долга, то кредитор может получить решение суда (deficiency judgment) и требовать возмещения оставшейся суммы; default; лишение должника права выкупа заложенного имущества обращение взыскания на заложенную недвижимость; отчуждение за долги; отчуждение заложенной недвижимости; переход недвижимости в собственность залогодержателя; потеря права выкупа заложенного имущества потеря права выкупа заложенного имуществалишение заемщика, нарушившего условия кредита, права собственности на заложенную собственность в пользу кредитораАнгло-русский экономический словарь > foreclosure
2 foreclosure foreclosure лишение должника права выкупа заложенного имущества foreclosure юр. лишение права выкупа закладной foreclosure потеря права выкупа заложенного имущества English-Russian short dictionary > foreclosure
3 foreclosure

FR

лишение права выкупа заложенного имущества Юридическое право кредитора в том случае, если заемщик не возвращает полученные деньги или часть их в положенные сроки. Кредитор должен обратиться в суд для получения разрешения на продажу собственности, которая была заявлена в качестве залога за долг.

Суд назначит новую дату выплаты задолженности постановлением “о потере права выкупа заложенного имущества, если не”, т.е. вступающим в силу с определенного срока, если до этого времени обстоятельства не изменятся. Если заемщик снова не смог вернуть деньги, кредитор волен продавать имущество.

Такая процедура может применяться в случае, когда залогом является дом, в котором проживает должник по ипотечному кредиту/залогодатель, который не выплачивает взносы по ипотеке кредитору по ипотечному кредиту/залогодержателю (банку, строительному обществу и т.п.). Тогда банк и т.п.

лишает закладную права выкупа заложенного имущества, выселя должника-держателя закладной.

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How to Keep Your Home and Avoid Foreclosure

Losing our Home Through Foreclosure

If you fail to make your mortgage payments each month, your bank or mortgage lender may take action to repossess your home.

After all, it’s not technically your home until you’ve paid the mortgage in full. Until that time, you AND the bank own the home. So if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, the bank could come knocking. And the news won’t be good!

The legal proceeding is known as a “foreclosure,” and will result in the loss of your home, foreclosure fees, additional legal fees, and possibly a deficiency judgment if your outstanding liens exceed the current value of your home. Your credit will also be shot when all is said and done.

The foreclosure process usually goes something this:

Become ill or lose your job (or mortgage adjusts significantly higher)
Fall behind on monthly payments
Once you’ve missed 3 mortgage payments lenders can file NOD
And begin foreclosure proceedings
At any point you can try to save your home in a number of ways

You lose your job, become ill, or simply fall behind on your mortgage payments after your adjustable-rate mortgage resets. Unfortunately, these aren’t typically valid reasons to miss your mortgage payment(s).

When you originally applied for your mortgage, you probably verified asset reserves to prove to the bank that you could afford to pay the loan for a certain period of time, even if you failed to receive additional income for some period of time.

Once you miss your first payment, the bank or lender will hit you with a 30-day late. At this point your credit will take a huge hit (how long does a foreclosure stay on your credit), and a representative from the bank or lender may call you, or send you a notice in the mail regarding your failure to pay on time.

It Shouldn’t Come as a Complete Surprise

Along the way you’ll be notified of late payments
And potentially offered a forbearance plan
Which allows you to get your account back in good standing
If you ignore the warnings you could eventually lose your home

The bank or your loan servicer may also discuss a forbearance plan with you to resolve the missed payment and get you back on track. This is basically a special payment plan the bank/servicer sets up with the borrower to either lower payments or suspend payments so you can continue paying your mortgage.

Alternatively, there’s the possibility you could take advantage of a special refinancing or loan modification program to make your payments more affordable going forward. But you will still need to prove to them that you’ll be able to handle the new financing terms.

If you fail to speak with your lender/servicer, and continue to miss mortgage payments, you will be hit with a 60-day late, followed by a 90-day late. That will impact your credit pretty significantly, and any chances of refinancing or seeking a forbearance plan may be lost.

Once you hit the 90-day late mark, the bank or lender will send a Notice of Default. The NOD essentially states that you have 30 days to make the payment current, appear in court, or face the risk of a foreclosure. If 30 days go by and you fail to appear in court or make your payments current, the court can schedule an auction to sell your home within 7 days.

If the auction ends without a buyer, the bank or lender will gain ownership and ly perform maintenance on the property, clear up any title issues, then put it on the market.

After paying legal fees, foreclosure fees, late fees, and losing your home, you’ll be hit with a huge ding on your credit report. A foreclosure will drop your credit score dramatically and prevent you from borrowing from A-paper banks for many years to come.

There Are Various Ways to Stop a Foreclosure

The are plenty of ways to stop foreclosure
But you have to be proactive and resourceful
If your lender or loan servicer won’t help you
Consider speaking with a HUD approved housing counselor
Or contact state housing finance agency

The scenario above is just one way late mortgage payments can end in foreclosure. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can stop foreclosure, though not all of them will allow you to keep your home. They include:

– Refinance – Forbearance Plan – Partial Claim – Pre-Foreclosure Sale (also known as a short sale)

– Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure

– Loan Modification
– Short Refinance
– Short Sale

As I mentioned above, a refinance may lower your payments and get you back on track. But you will need to qualify and exhibit the ability to make the payments. Some borrowers were able to take advantage of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) despite having underwater mortgages, but it required borrowers to be current on their home loans.

Your bank may also be able to save you from foreclosure by putting you on an interest-only home loan or a shorter-term ARM to lower the monthly mortgage costs. Ironically, these will reset in the future and could land you back in a tough spot. However, it would buy you some time to get back on your feet.

A forbearance plan is a payment plan set up by your lender/servicer to ease or even suspend payments until you are current again. It can be helpful if you’re simply experiencing a temporary hardship.

A partial claim allows the mortgagee to advance funds to the mortgagor (the borrower) in the form of a promissory note.

So long as you are not delinquent over 12 months, HUD may grant you a partial claim (for FHA loans), which will bring your mortgage payments current.

It is essentially a second mortgage behind your existing lien that collects no interest, and is not due until you pay off your first mortgage or sell your home.

A pre-foreclosure sale, such as a short sale, will help you avoid a foreclosure, but unfortunately at the cost of selling your home, ly for much less than it’s worth. It will also ding your credit in the process. But it could lessen the blow, and help you avoid any deficiency judgments after the fact.

Another option is a deed in lieu of foreclosure, which allows you to sell your home back to the bank that financed your mortgage. It is a great way to avoid foreclosure proceedings, but again results in the loss of your home.

It must be voluntary, and both parties must act in good faith. The bank/lender must buy the property for at least fair market value, but will usually not proceed if that value exceeds the existing liens.

There’s also the possibility of getting a loan modification, such as one through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) offered by the government. But if you don’t qualify for that, your individual loan servicer may have a proprietary loan mod program as well.

Ultimately, you really have to hustle and exhaust all options if you’re serious about saving your home and avoiding foreclosure. No one said it was easy, nor is there a one-size-fits-all solution. So expect a long and hard journey.

Speak with an Independent Housing Counselor

A legitimate housing counselor
Such as a HUD approved or state housing finance agency employee
Can provide assistance to help you prevent an avoidable foreclosure
They should never ask you to pay any fees for their services

You can also contact a local HUD approved counselor for help in foreclosure matters. Click the following link for a list of HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agencies.

Or look into non-profit programs and services offered by your state housing finance agency. For example, in my home state of California there is an organization called “Keep Your Home California,” which is a federally-funded free service for struggling homeowners who need help staying in their homes.

They work with a large number of loan servicers to achieve affordable mortgage payments and help homeowners avoid foreclosure. There are similar agencies in every state throughout the nation, so be sure to consider that route as well.

Just make sure they are the official housing agencies backed by the state or the United States Department of the Treasury. These government-backed agencies will never request that you pay fees for assistance, which is a good indication you’re working with the right type of organization.

One final thing to note is that despite all the available, regulated, and honest means available for saving your home from foreclosure, many foreclosure scams are also prevalent.

These scam artists will do their best to contact you during pre-foreclosure to rip you off using a variety of tactics including bait and switch schemes, equity skimming, fake bailouts, and overpriced help that leads nowhere. So always do your due diligence when seeking foreclosure help to avoid making matters even worse.

How Do Foreclosures Affect Property Values in Your Neighborhood?

They say for each foreclosure that occurs
Nearby property values will drop about 1.5%
If multiple foreclosures take place in a small area
The impact can be even greater

Many real estate professionals note that for every foreclosure that occurs within a neighborhood, the value of the homes around it drop by about 1.5%.

While typically not very significant as foreclosures occur somewhat infrequently, if multiple foreclosures occur within one neighborhood in a short period of time, a crippling value drop can take place.

Imagine the areas suffering the most from the recent housing bust, such as the inland Central Valley of California or Las Vegas, Nevada.

The problem with these areas and many them is that they were built up too quickly, creating huge inventories and a housing supply that simply couldn’t be met.

To accommodate the builders, banks and mortgage lenders nationwide created aggressive mortgage programs to get new homeowners into these new developments, often pitching 1% option-arms and other high-risk loans.

But once the housing boom had gone bust and most of these loans had lost their initial low mortgage payments, many of these unwitting homeowners were forced to sell or face foreclosure.

And because multiple foreclosures took place in these areas, a large drop in home prices exacerbated an already bad situation.

This is yet another reason why location is so important in real estate – many metropolitan areas in the United States such as Los Angeles and New York City are saturated, and new development is rare because it’s cumbersome and riddled with bureaucratic red tape.

Such areas will ly retain much of their value through a crisis as there will always be buyers, and limited inventory means it won’t be able to get too control.

Read more: How long after foreclosure can I purchase a home?

Источник: //www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/foreclosure-help/

How To Handle the Blow of Losing Your Home

Losing our Home Through Foreclosure

Despite the fact the housing collapse was years ago, people still lose their homes to foreclosure every day. More often than not it’s due to either outrageous medical bills or over spending paired with a sudden loss of employment.

It’s a devastating experience for the homeowner.

Taking control over the situation during this difficult time is what will get you through the process so you can start rebuilding your life in a new place to live.

Let’s imagine the chain of events.

You’ve been unable to pay your mortgage for a couple of months, so finally the bank sends you a foreclosure notice. Unable to find the money and pay what you owe on the loan, the bank takes your home. You’re left feeling defeated, guilty, ashamed and probably a whole host of other emotions.

Other than losing a loved one, I don’t know what’s more devastating to someone than losing their home. You’ve been given a kick to your self-esteem, and your pride is in the toilet. The feelings of shame, embarrassment and humiliation run so deep it can take a long time to recover.

It’s important to remember that losing your house can and will give you a psychological kick in the pants — not just a financial one.

When faced with losing one’s home, many people go through a grieving process similar to what one might experience if losing their marriage or career.

In her groundbreaking book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five stages patients commonly experience when given a terminal prognosis. To a much lesser extent, when someone loses their home they go through these five stages as well.

1. Denial

I remember when I was falling behind in my mortgage payments. The bank started calling on a regular basis and what do you think I did? I ignored the calls. It wasn’t until I got the formal notice of default that I woke up and started paying attention.

Unfortunately, many people do the same thing. They ignore the calls, letter and warning signs, hoping that something — anything — will come along and change the situation fast!

What To Do Instead: Don’t ignore the calls and letters. Have a discussion with your lender and see if there is anything that can be done to have you get up to date on payments and keep your home. You won’t know unless you answer the calls.

3 Things I’d Tell Myself About Money {If I Could Back In Time}

2. Anger

When I woke up from the fog, I got mad. I was pissed off — at myself mostly for being so stupid to have ignored this problem for so long!

A lot of people at this stage of the game get mad at things besides themselves — their spouse, the lender, just about anyone will do because after all, it must be someone’s fault they are in this mess. I remember a client telling me how it was the lender’s fault they signed a variable interest note on a house they couldn’t afford.

What To Do Instead: Truth be told, you’re in this situation due the choices and actions or in-actions you’ve made. Blaming others isn’t going to change the situation.

At some point, you have to realize it’s all on you. Stop blaming and start taking responsibility for what’s happened. Once you can do this, you’ll have an easier time finding solutions to your problem.

The energy you’ve spent blaming can now be redirected to problem-solving.

Read: How To Let Go of Anger {When You Don’t Want To}

3. Bargaining

Anger always leads to negotiation. You start making deals with God that sound something , “Please God, if you let me keep my house I promise never over to spend again, and oh, I’ll go and get a second job, too.”

The problem with this approach is it rarely, if ever, works. The time to have procured that second job has long passed. Negotiating with a higher power or with one’s self won’t work.

What To Do Instead: Use those bargaining skills to see if you can make new arrangements with creditors. Find a reputable attorney and see what your legal options might be. I’m not advocating bankruptcy, but it might be a viable option for you. Consider all solutions and then decide what’s right for you.

Read: How To Throw Creditors Off Their Game

4. Depression

The closer you get to the actual event, and as the reality of the situation sinks in, some people will become physically ill from the stress and be unable to deal with the daily strain and constant grind. This can lead to feelings of depression.

What To Do Instead: If you feel this way, seek counseling and support from a qualified mental health specialist. This will take time. Be kind to yourself and remember, everyone makes mistakes. This is just a mistake you’ll learn from and come back from someday.

Read: How To Love Your Money: Managing Debt

5. Acceptance

Eventually, that state of “I don’t care” leads to a state of acceptance that the foreclosure is coming and must be dealt with.

This leads you to search for a new place to live; consider a plan to fight the foreclosure; a visit to discuss the situation with a bankruptcy attorney; or to remain in the house for as long as you can, payment free. The point here is you finally start taking action.

What To Do Instead: Hopefully you began working on problem-solving and negotiating with lenders before you get to stage five, but if not, now is the time to take action.

These steps can take days, weeks or months to go through; everyone is different.

The sooner you start taking action, the better off you’ll be if you are faced with losing your home.

Instead of feeling a victim to life circumstances, you can begin to take control over the areas of your life you can control.

It’s not the worst thing that can happen to you, but it can be far more painful if you fail to act at all.

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Источник: //adebtfreestressfreelife.com/handling-the-psychological-blow-of-losing-your-home/

What Is Foreclosure? – Foreclosure Center

Losing our Home Through Foreclosure

Foreclosure is what happens when a homeowner fails to pay the mortgage.

More specifically, it’s a legal process by which the owner forfeits all rights to the property. If the owner can’t pay off the outstanding debt, or sell the property via short sale, the property then goes to a foreclosure auction. If the property doesn’t sell there, the lending institution takes possession of it.

To understand foreclosure, it helps to keep in mind that the word “homeowner” in this case is actually a misnomer. “Borrower” is a more apt term. That’s what a mortgage, or deed of trust, is: a loan agreement for the purchase price of the home, minus the down payment. This document puts a lien on the purchased property, making the loan a “secured loan.”

When a lender loans you money without any collateral (credit card debt, for instance), it can take you to court for failure to pay, but it can be very hard to collect money from you. Lenders often sell this sort of debt to outside collection agencies for pennies on the dollar and write off the loss. This is considered an “unsecured loan.”

A secured loan is different because, although the lender may take a loss on the loan if you default, it will recover a larger portion of the debt by seizing and selling your property.

So what happens in a foreclosure? The specifics can vary according to state law, but we can break it down into five stages.

Stage 1: Missed payments

It all starts when the homeowner — the borrower — fails to make timely mortgage payments. Usually, it’s because they can’t, due to hardships such as unemployment, divorce, death or medical challenges.

If you’re in this tough situation, it’s essential that you talk to your lender as soon as possible. There are several options to help keep you in your home. The foreclosure process costs the lender a lot of money, and they want to avoid it just as much as you do.

Sometimes, a borrower may intentionally stop paying the mortgage because the property might be underwater (in other words, the amount of the mortgage exceeds the value of the home) or because he’s tired of managing the property.

Whatever the reason, the bottom line is that the borrower can’t or won’t meet the terms of the loan.

Stage 2: Public notice

After three to six months of missed payments, the lender records a public notice with the County Recorder’s Office, indicating the borrower has defaulted on the mortgage. In some states, this is called a Notice of Default (NOD); in others, it’s a lis pendens — Latin for “suit pending.”

Depending on state law, the lender might be required to post the notice on the front door of the property. This official notice is intended to make borrowers aware they are in danger of losing all rights to the property and may be evicted from the premises. In other words, they’re in danger of foreclosure.

Stage 3: Pre-foreclosure

After receiving a NOD from the lender, the borrower enters a grace period known as pre-foreclosure. During this time — anywhere from 30 to 120 days, depending on local regulations — the borrower can work out an arrangement with the lender via a short sale or pay the outstanding amount owed.

If the borrower pays off the default during this phase, foreclosure ends and the borrower avoids home eviction and sale. If the default is not paid off, foreclosure continues.

Stage 4: Auction

If the default is not remedied by the prescribed deadline, the lender or its representative (referred to as the trustee) sets a date for the home to be sold at a foreclosure auction (sometimes referred to as a Trustee Sale).

The Notice of Trustee’s Sale (NTS) is recorded with the County Recorder’s Office with notifications delivered to the borrower, posted on the property and printed in the newspaper.

Auctions can be held on the steps of the county courthouse, in the trustee’s office, at a convention center across the country, and even at the property in foreclosure.

In many states, the borrower has the right of redemption (he can come up with the outstanding cash and stop the foreclosure process) up to the moment the home will be auctioned off.

At the auction, the home is sold to the highest bidder for cash payment. Because the pool of buyers who can afford to pay cash on the spot for a house is limited, many lenders make an agreement with the borrower (called a deed in lieu of foreclosure) to take the property back. Or, the bank buys it back at the auction.

Stage 5: Post-foreclosure

If a third party does not purchase the property at the foreclosure auction, the lender takes ownership of it and it becomes what is known as a bank-owned property or REO (real estate owned).

Bank-owned properties are sold in one of two ways. Most often, they are listed by a local real estate agent for sale on the open market. Zillow lists bank-owned properties for sale. Also, some lenders prefer to sell their bank-owned properties at a liquidation auction, often held in auction houses or at convention centers.

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Источник: //www.zillow.com/foreclosures/overview/what-is-a-foreclosure/

That Time the Bank Foreclosed on Our House

Losing our Home Through Foreclosure

Several years ago, we foreclosed on our home. I hope you will learn from our mistakes with these tips to avoid a home foreclosure.

Up until now, I’ve only said it in whispers–and only to close friends.

Whenever someone would ask what happened to our house in Mississippi, my heart would sink a little, and I’d twist my mouth and slide my eyes into a cringe.

Several years ago, we foreclosed on our home.

It was something I never imagined I would do.

I grew up in a fiscally responsible (and conservative) household.

And I’ve always been a penny pincher myself.

But in our newlywed days, we bit off more than we would later be able to chew–in the form of a 1,300 square foot house.

The Road to Foreclosure

Oh I could make excuses–and perhaps some of them are valid.

We thought that by buying a small home with a monthly mortgage we could afford (at the time), we would be OK.

We bought at the height of the market, in 2006.

In 2008, around the time the housing bubble burst, we needed to move.

Still, we held onto that little house for four more years.

We rented it out to three different tenants. We didn’t make money on it, the rent all went to pay the mortgage. Meanwhile, we struggled to pay rent on the house where we were living in a different state.

We tried to sell the home in between renters. We prided ourselves that our meager savings and tenants had enabled us to never miss a payment.

By this time, we had gone from a two-income couple grossing around $60,000 per year to a single-income family with two toddlers, a third baby on the way, and barely surviving on $1,800 per month, 10 months the year (because my teacher husband didn’t get paid during the summer).

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And then suddenly, without warning, our renter moved out. No one wanted to buy the house, and, this time, no one wanted to rent it either.

During those four long years, the neighborhood had declined, and the house was now valued at much less than what we owed.

We didn’t want to resort to this, but our real estate agent suggested we try a short sale.

Even though we knew we would be losing money, the offer we received soon after–albeit an offer for $50,000 less than we owed–came as a relief.

Until we checked off the one box on the paperwork that would seal our housing credit fate: Had we ever rented the house out?

Well, yes, we had. We had been renting it out for four years. But we hadn’t made any money on it (although we did claim it as income on our taxes).

It didn’t matter. The property was now considered a real estate investment, and, unbeknownst to us, our loan had forbade us from that.

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Our only option was to pay up the $90,000 we still owed (which was impossible) or foreclose.

There are so many details of this story I’m leaving out, but suffice it to say that foreclosing on our house was one of the most humbling things we have ever been through.

We thought we had done things all right, but sometimes things can still go all wrong.

Never in a million years would I imagine we would be buying another house after our foreclosure on the first one. In all reality, my husband and I thought we might never buy a house again– both fear and lack of finances.

But I can say without reserve that God redeems the most broken of situations, and He brought so much light to a dark tunnel that seemed to have no end.

How we bought the house where we are now living is another story for another day. But for now, I want to share how we learned from mistakes–in the hopes that others can learn from them as well (and not make them we did!).

1. Don’t buy a house if you don’t have a good down payment

Financial guru Dave Ramsey recommends that home buyers make a down payment of at least 10%–and better yet, 20%.

When we purchased our first home, we didn’t have a down payment at all. At the time, we thought it was cheaper to buy than to keep throwing money down the drain through renting.

But while our monthly payment was cheaper than if we had been renting, we did not consider all of the other, longer-term responsibilities that home ownership would require.

With our current home, my husband and I took things a step further and made a 30% down payment. Yes, I know this is not always doable (at all!), and, yes, it can take years (or many, many, many late nights of working side jobs).

The main reason we put down 30% was because we wanted to avoid PMI (private mortgage insurance) because this would have upped our monthly payment.

But we also just feel much more secure with knowing we are starting out with way more equity than we did the first time around.

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2. Pay close attention to the rules of your loan

If we had paid closer attention to our loan’s rules, we would have known early on that we could not rent out the home. We had a first time homeowner’s loan that forbade it.

But we had not read all of our paperwork.

If we had realized that we could not rent out the home, we would have taken what we saw as a low-ball offer early into the time our home was on the market.

It was for $10,000 less than what we owed.

Yes, we would have taken a financial hit, but it would have been much less detrimental to our finances and my credit (the house was in my name) than the foreclosure.

We also could have short sold the home (and faced fewer consequences) if we had not rented it out.

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3. Buy below your means

Yes, I didn’t even say at your means. I said below your means. And when I say below, I mean you better make sure it’s below your means!

At the time we purchased our home in Mississippi, we actually did think we were buying it below our means. But there was so much we didn’t take into consideration: namely, a job loss or a move.

You never know when your means are going to lessen. It just takes one illness, one tragedy, one job loss.

Believe me, we’ve been there.

The circumstances surrounding our move are not something I need to share (but suffice it to say it was an extreme trial), but, regardless, we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where we owned a home in one state and were renting a home in another–at a time when we could barely put food on the table, much less pay the equivalent of two mortgage payments.

We now live in a 2,000 square foot home with a monthly payment that is low enough that we could still afford it if I were to stop working from home.

Would things be tight? Yes, things would be tight on my husband’s teacher salary if we had to live solely on it again, but we could make it.

If we were to have purchased a home the income I bring home as well, we would be living in a much larger house in a different subdivision.

But you know what? We are happy with where we are, and it’s thrilling to see a mortgage that is low enough that we could realistically pay it off one day.

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4. Make sure you have enough money for home repairs and upkeep

Renters have it easy when it comes to this. Most landlords make or pay for all home repairs.

This is not so when you are a home owner!

A week after we moved into our home, we had a leak in a wall. The very next week an upstairs bathroom flooded and destroyed the kitchen ceiling!

It is vital that home owners have some wiggle room in their budgets for both expected upkeep and unforeseen repairs.

Our current home–a wonderful blessing from the Lord.

5. Buy a house that will be sellable down the road

This was a major mistake of ours the first time around. We bought one of the smallest homes in the neighborhood, and it only had two bedrooms and no garage.

We found out later that two-bedroom homes without garages are extremely hard to sell!

This time around, we made sure we found a home with a garage. We also wanted at least three bedrooms (we ended up with four!).

Although I’ve been embarrassed for people to know about that time we foreclosed on our house, my hopes are that by telling our story someone else will be encouraged–and may even avoid a home foreclosure themselves.