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If you are in trouble with your mortgage payment, you may be applauding recent government programs to help you negotiate a loan modification.  You may have already been helped through Making Home Affordable or through a similar program at your bank.  Now with recent program changes that encourage principle reduction and offer help making payments when you are unemployed, you may feel assured that you will make it through a tough time with your home intact.

This is great news, but there is a down side.  In the process of saving your home, you may lower your credit score. Anytime you are delinquent, have your payment adjusted or loan terms adjusted, you take a credit score hit.

Some homeowners who opted into a trial modification under Making Home Affordable are finding this out the hard way.  They make a few payments at the lower amount, only to find out their score has dropped.  Being in the trial program is no assurance they will even be accepted for permanent modification, yet they are penalized about 100 points just for asking for help.

The credit industry is, of course, quick to defend this practice of penalizing those who even ask for a change in loan terms.  The government realizes this is a side effect.  Consumer advocates deplore the practice on the grounds that people should not be zinged for trying to do the right thing.  All of these parties encourage people in trouble to ask for help before their homes go into foreclosure, but the credit score drop is a disincentive to many.

However, for most who seek help, this is an irrelevant side effect, especially if they are already behind on payments and close to losing their home. It’s like telling people on the sinking Titanic that they will be billed more if they chose a red lifeboat instead of a blue one.  If you’re drowning, you might prefer the blue one, however, if the red one is the only one in sight, paying more for red seems pretty reasonable.

Remedies such as loan modification, bankruptcy, and even short sale or foreclosure are last resort remedies that you might choose when you have no other options.  In a perfect world, you would be able to pay your bills without needing help.  In the real world, if you need help, your best option is to use the help accessible to you.  The time to ask is - as soon as you need it.  There may be a credit score impact with any remedy, but the impact is less the earlier you ask.

Express Homebuyers will buy your home for cash.  Call us today at 1-877-804-5252 or check out our helpful website.  We will make you an offer on your first call, provide free reports to help you make your selling decision, and even offer options to chat with one of our helpful consultants.

The obvious: Foreclosures have affected whole neighborhoods in areas that have been hit hardest by the housing bust. There are homes that have been left empty, abandoned and decaying beyond repair.

The not-so-obvious: We are seeing more deferred maintenance in light of the recession.

Many homeowners these days are putting off doing regular up-keep and repair to their homes. Maybe they can’t afford to replace the roof, or they’re underwater on the mortgage and don’t want to put money into seal coating their driveway when they might not be able to afford the home anymore. They might buy a $5 furnace filter but skip the annual service on the furnace.Whatever the reason, must-do repairs aren’t being done, to the detriment of owners, future owners, and neighbors alike.

We’re seeing the evidence at home improvement stores. Home Depot’s third-quarter 2009 net sales were down 8 percent from the previous year, and Lowes reported a 29.5 percent drop in net earnings in the same time period.  This is interesting as some people who might ordinarily sell their homes are renovating instead. Apparently, this remodeling trend is not enough to offset the effects of the recession.

The homeowner hopes to get by without incident. Sometimes this works out. Other times, something like a simple leak from a pipe in the wall can go from an inexpensive fix the homeowner couldn’t afford to a disaster he really can’t manage.  This situation is adding to the number of distressed properties on the market. Deferring maintenance will only make a home harder to sell and negatively impact its value.

Condo and apartment buildings are affected by recession-inspired deferred maintenance too. When owners don’t pay their condo or homeowner association fees, building maintenance doesn’t happen which brings down the prices of all units in the building. When renters don’t pay their rent in a timely manner, owners may not have the cash flow to do either preventive maintenance or make improvements.

Washington says the recession is over but homeowners with no jobs or shaky finances aren’t buying it. They certainly aren’t buying the goods and services necessary to keep their homes in tip-top shape.  This may be the reality of the current economy, but the resulting deferred maintenance will impact housing prices and neighborhood conditions.

If you need a break from the pressures of home ownership, Express Homebuyers can help you.

We will buy your home as-is and on-time – maybe even before another payment is due.  Contact us today at 877-804-5252 or visit our website to get the process started.  We can wrap up your deal in a couple weeks and even offer you a $2,500 cash advance to help you plan your move.