Fighting Foreclosure

Fight Foreclosure! offers a practical, step-by-step system for taking action to prevent foreclosure on your home before it?s too late. If you?re having trouble keeping up with your payments, the worst thing you can do is nothing. This book explores all your options, weighs the pros and cons of each, and explains the pre-foreclosure process in detail. Plus, it points out the too-good-to-be-true credit repair offers you should avoid and gives you real, practical alternatives that help you help yourself before it?s too late.

In the depths of the Great Depression, when foreclosure rates skyrocketed across the United States, more than two dozen states passed mortgage-extension or -adjustment laws to help farmers and homeowners keep their properties. One such statute in Minnesota led to the most important property law case of its time and still casts a long shadow upon constitutional debates and our own era's severe economic downturn. Fighting Foreclosure marks the first book-length study of the landmark 1934 Supreme Court decision in Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell, which, by a 5-4 vote, upheld the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act. On the one hand, Blaisdell validated efforts by states to offer legislative relief to citizens struggling to keep their farms and homes. On the other, it caused an outcry among banking interests and conservative legal theorists, who argued that these laws violated the Contract Clause of the Constitution and interfered with our free market system. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes argued that the reasonable and limited nature of the law and the unusual severity of the emergency it addressed placed it firmly within the "police powers" of the states to protect the health and safety of the people. In a strongly worded dissent, Justice George Sutherland argued for a consistent and strict interpretation of the Contract Clause regardless of economic exigency. John Fliter and Derek Hoff provide a concise history and analysis of not only this landmark case and the reasoning behind its sharply divided decision but also of the entire history of the Contract Clause. They trace closely the agricultural crisis, political pressures, and farmer-protest movement that produced the Minnesota law. And their study contributes to scholarly debate about the origins of the Constitutional Revolution of 1937, by which the Supreme Court accepted the New Deal, as well as to public debates about constitutional interpretation and the role that government should play in providing relief to distressed citizens. In the midst of our nation's ongoing suffering from massive foreclosures and bankruptcies, Fighting Foreclosure also offers a potent reminder that the High Court's decisions often revolve around lives at risk as much as abstract legal debates.

"Includes state-specific foreclosure laws"--Cover.

Facing foreclosure? Put together a plan. Take action. Foreclosure can be an intimidating and scary experience. The stress of potentially losing the family home can drive people to make mistakes, either by doing the wrong thing or failing to act at all. You need to know your options if you're having trouble making your mortgage payments or are already in danger of foreclosure. Your actions are vitally important if you want to keep your home or at least get through the process with as little anxiety as possible. This book has essential tips on what to do--and what not to do--if you're facing a foreclosure. Don't wait to take action if you're behind in mortgage payments and facing a potential foreclosure. The Foreclosure Survival Guide covers your options for avoiding the loss of your home or at least delaying it. The strategies and useful information in this book will give you the tools you need to develop a plan to try to keep your home or decide if it makes sense to move on.This guide can help you learn how to navigate foreclosure and potentially stay in your home. It gives you the practical information you need, including: the ins and outs of foreclosure how to decide whether you should try to keep your house what loan workout programs are available to potentially save your home and how to apply for them how to bring your loan current in Chapter 13 bankruptcy if you can't stay in your home, how to avoid unnecessary costs by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy what alternatives for giving up the property, like short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure, are available, and how to avoid becoming the victim of foreclosure rescue scams. This book's powerful yet practical advice also explains the 120-day foreclosure waiting period before foreclosure starts, how the foreclosure process works in each state, potential tax consequences, and more. This edition is updated with the latest information on mortgage-assistance programs for homeowners, federal mortgage servicing laws, relief for victims of natural disasters, and recent court decisions affecting homeowners' rights.

This book explains everything you need to know to locate and purchase real estate bargains from banks, public auctions, and other sources. It will guide you through every step of the process including finding properties, negotiating, and closing on your first deal.

This guide provides you with strategies for getting legal advice, keeping current on your mortgage payments, negotiating temporary delays in payments, restructuring loans, refinancing, filing for bankruptcy, and creating and sticking to a budget. You will learn about debt counselling and income maintenance, tax abatement, and public assistance programs. This book also provides details on the March 2010 modifications to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) programs offered by the federal government to assist homeowners who have been affected by the economic crisis through no fault of their own. In addition, this book will show you how to decide if your property is worth saving, how to figure out how much time you have to act, how to use the courts to stop foreclosure, how to decide whether bankruptcy is your best option, and how to use your military status to prevent foreclosure. You will also learn about foreclosure rescue scams, non-judicial foreclosure, judicial foreclosure, and notice of default. Also included is an explanation of the alternatives to foreclosure, such as special forbearance, mortgage modification, partial claim, pre-foreclosure, and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. With foreclosures on the rise, it makes sense to know how to protect your home. The guide also provides you with tips, tricks, strategies, and secrets to prevent your home s foreclosure now before it is too late.