Some people think of investment properties as being much different from other properties that you have – including the home you’re living in – but when it comes to making payments on them they are essentially the same. If they are about to be foreclosed upon you must do something quickly, because foreclosure of an investment property will appear on your credit just like foreclosure of your main home will. It’s very important that the payments on an investment property stay up to date, and in the tight credit market and the recession that this country is facing it can be hard to know from month to month whether you’ll be able to make the payments or whether you’ll get behind.
Investment properties were very popular back when the housing market was booming, and everyone was buying and selling them. Flipping them and reselling them was popular, and so was renting them out for the income. There were waiting lists and houses that went to the highest bidder because people were so eager for them.
It’s become almost impossible to give some properties away now, though, and no one seems to want them. Some cities, like Detroit, have homes that can be bought for only a few hundred dollars, not the thousands or tens of thousands that they would normally go for. If a person was lucky enough to pick up and dispose of a lot of homes when the credit market was hot and everyone was buying he probably did very well, but what happened to those people and those properties when the market bubble popped and things weren’t selling anymore?
If you’re stuck in the situation where you’ve got investment properties and you don’t know what you’re going to do with them, you are definitely not the only one and you’ll find that there are a lot of people with whom you can talk and commiserate about what happened to the market at exactly the wrong time for you. You might also find that things aren’t improving for you just yet and that you’re starting to get behind on the payments that you’re making to the mortgage company for the investment property that you can’t sell, can’t rent, and can’t seem to do anything with. If you’re facing this kind of problem your options are limited mostly to hanging on (if you can) until the market improves and trying to get out of the property in any legal way possible before it completely ruins your credit rating.
As for your credit rating, it’s possible that there will be some damage done already, but stopping that as quickly as possible would be the thing that you would want to focus on, since the sooner you get away from late payments and other problems and the shorter amount of time that they show up on your credit report the better off you’ll be. If you aren’t able to complete avoid the damage to your credit, lessening it is the next best step and to do that you’ll have to work with the bank or lender that you’re paying for the investment properties. Find out what you owe on the property, what it’s worth through an honest appraisal, and what the bank will help you with to get out from under it, since you might be able to do a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure instead of having an actual foreclosure and letting your credit take such a hit.
Talking with your bank or lender and being honest about your financial difficulties is one of the best and smartest things that you could ever do when it comes to an investment property that otherwise might be facing foreclosure. Ideally, you should talk to your lender before you really get behind, but a lot of people wait much longer than that because they think that things will turn around and they’re embarrassed to admit that they’re having a problem. Don’t let embarrassment or discomfort ruin your financial future and your good credit rating – talk to your lender right away as soon as you see that there might be a problem.
Being up front shows the lender that you’re making a good faith effort, and that makes most lenders more willing to work with you and try to get you a better rate, a longer term, or something else that will let you keep the property and make the payments. If it’s obvious that the property can’t be paid for, talk to your lender and see what options the two of you can come up with. It’s very important to try to keep an actual foreclosure off of your credit record, so checking with your lender and talking through all issues is vital to your financial life.
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Written: Aug 27, 2009Tags: Finance