YouWalkAway.com: Where Are They Now?
Encinitas, CA (PRWEB) April 16, 2014 -- YouWalkAway.com's direct relationship with underwater homeowners made them an unlikely authority on the housing crisis for the last six years. They recently checked in with former clients to see how they've fared post-foreclosure or short sale. Surprisingly, many are happy to report rejoining the ranks of homeowners much sooner than they thought possible.
Today, Jeff Melemed is thrilled to be a homeowner again. But his experience with homeownership has not always been a positive one. In 2007, he purchased a property close to the height of the market. At the time, he was stably employed as a licensed financial planner at Washington Mutual, the largest savings and loan institution in the U.S., and had no reason to believe his steady income would decrease any time soon.
Soon after the onset of the financial crisis his employer notoriously filed for bankruptcy, leaving Jeff unemployed in the process. Having no income and dwindling savings made it difficult to keep up with his mortgage payments. Eventually, he fell behind. After six months of repeatedly sending in duplicate documents and updated financial information, his lender offered a modification that would cure his default, but increase his payments by roughly $1,800 per month. This was not feasible, and as a result, the Melemeds had no choice but to short sell their underwater property.
His situation was not unlike many underwater homeowners during the financial crisis. Former client Jay Barry also originally defaulted as a result of extended unemployment. In August of 2009, he was able to secure employment but this meant relocating his family from Las Vegas, NV to Monterey, CA. Even after securing employment, the need for a rental in CA made it impossible to cure and maintain the mortgage payments. He defaulted in June of 2010 and his property was sold at auction in August of 2011 for less than 35% of what he purchased it for.
After the foreclosure, Jay decided to take early retirement and relocate to small town in west central Idaho - a place where rents were less than half of what they had been paying in California. Their rent was paid on time, all bills were kept current and credit card debt was completely paid off.
In May of 2013 he began to take action to repair his credit. It was reporting as a dismal 563 at that time. By October, it was 595. By January 2014, it was 647. This month, it was reporting as a vastly improved 703. He was recently pre-approved for a mortgage loan, had an offer accepted and happily refers to himself and his wife as "boomerang buyers."
Even those who were both professionally and personally involved in real estate during the crash have had a surprising turn of events. By 2006, Steve and Zoe Thomson had built a portfolio of 10 investment properties while both working as busy Realtors. Dishonest developers, rapidly rising HOA dues and heavy assessments ultimately led to the foreclosure of 6 properties by 2011 - also their first year with virtually no income. Luckily, by March of 2012 Zoe obtained a position with a national home builder and has been very successful during the last two years. Last year, they were able to obtain a high interest loan (9.5%!) with a private money lender; something that many choose to do after major events that disqualify them from traditional lending. But after almost a year of grossly inflated payments, they realized the need to find another option. They visited AfterForeclosure.com, YouWalkAway.com's new website designed to help people in their situation, and took a quick and easy pass/fail test that revealed there was hope for their situation. After being contacted by Jon Maddux of AfterForeclosure.com and going over their situation in more depth, they were fully pre-qualified and eventually able to refinance into much lower rate of 4.625%.
The Melemeds, it turns out, were also grateful for the help of the experienced professionals at AfterForeclosure.com. After coming the realization that renting was just not for them, they reached out to AfterForeclosure.com and were pre-qualified to buy again - years before they thought they'd be able to.
With close to 5 million foreclosures having occurred since the onset of the housing crash and still more in the ubiquitous pipeline, these buyers could be truly essential to the recovery of the market. This is why it's so alarming to that close to 80% of those polled were unaware of programs available to help those who have gone through foreclosure purchase a home much sooner than the seven year ban quoted by many traditional lending institutions.
AfterForeclosure.com’s Co-founder Jon Maddux says, “Knowing this is what prompted us to launch our site. We truly believe in homeownership and buying under the right circumstances.” Of those who participated in last year's AfterForeclosure.com poll, 64% report that their income is higher or the same as when they first purchased, 63% report that their other debt obligations are lower or significantly lower than the last time they purchased and 46% report the desire to purchase in a lower price range this time around. Maddux continues, “Our goal is to give people hope and let them know that we are not going to turn them away just because of their past mortgage blemish.”
More post-foreclosure stories available at http://www.afterforeclosure.com/youwalkaway-com-where-are-they-now/
Monica Long, YouWalkAway.com, http://www.YouWalkAway.com, +1 (760) 230-8066, [email protected]
Share this article