NY Foreclosure Law Blog Is Online – The Secret Is Out, You May Have Alternatives

     Welcome to the NY Foreclosure Lawyer Blog! It’s my hope that this blog will be useful to homeowners and real estate investors who are behind on their mortgage payments. I have been dealing with this for nearly 20 years now (since 89′ as an attorney). There actually seems to be very little information available online for the New Yorker with this problem. In trying to decide what to call my blog, I knew there were a few rules to follow, starting with don’t make the reader think. People have little time to find what they want on the net. I had so many cutesy names and ideas. Red Ink Realty. Foreclosure Handbook. I own the domains. But in the end, I settled on the NY Forclosure Law Blog because it gets to the point and it means what it says. No thought required. And while my target audience is the New York homeowner, I suppose that lenders and their lawyers will benefit as well. Never hurts to know about your adversary’s legal rights and strategies. Having worked for large firms and represented lenders and trustees, as well as homeowners, I think I know all of the “players” here pretty well. Their inner most thoughts. About foreclosure that is. I’ve been the New York foreclosure lawyer as plaintiff and defendant countless times.

     So, having chosen my blog’s name, I had to figure out how to install and use the blogging software called wordpress (which is free by the way to anyone who has the patience to learn), but I digress. Since this blog is not about blogging, I won’t bore anyone with my learning curve. In the end, all that matters is that I got this thing online and you’re reading it now!

     I figured a good starting point would be to see what else was out there. It’s easy enough. I ran some Google searches. Keywords like foreclosure, foreclosure help, stop foreclosure, avoid foreclosure, foreclosure blog, foreclosure law. You get the idea. What I found was that there was precious little real help for the property owner in trouble and almost nothing for New Yorkers. I hope this blog will fill that void.

     So what is out there? Certainly there’s lots of stuff about foreclosure. A million sites tell you how to find foreclosure deals, buy lists of properties, and make money. To me, most of them seem exagerated or full of wild unsupported conclusions. After all, if someone knew the secret of getting rich off of foreclosures, why would he be trying to get rich selling courses or advice online or in seminars. And none of those sites tell anyone how to get OUT of foreclosure, if you’re the one suffering.

     Other sites are just plain misleading. Some googlers will find themselves on sites with no apparent human being involved. There are no pictures of any owners or advisers. Just some stock photos of smiling people who solved a problem, or people who look like they have a headache and need help, or maybe a pretty girl with a headset ready to answer your calls. But there is no name on the site anywhere. Anonymous.com. These sites are set up to appear “corporate.” They’re not. To me they are a scam. Many are set up by individuals looking to aquire the troubled homeowner’s property. That is their only goal. There is no intention to help anyone, but that is often not obvious to a homeowner who is unfamiliar with this area. If you see a site without a human face or name, click the little “x” in the top right corner of your screen.

     Other times googlers will end up at a lender or mortgage broker’s site, although that is also not immediately apparent. A little digging or maybe a call to the toll free number and you’d find out that the owner of this site only wants to loan you money. Nothing else. Why? Because of the magic of “points.” They make money. Why can’t they just call it 1% instead of a point? Points are a normal part of lending. I don’t have a problem with that. Lenders take risk and do preliminary work and want to be paid. They have overhead costs and often are not paid back. Mortgage brokers earn legitimate fees too.   Some are honest and hard working.  The problem I have with these sites is that they are single minded. They do not discuss other alternatives. Or, when they do discuss something different, like Chapter 13 bankruptcy for instance, they denigrate it without disclosing possible benefits that it might offer. The problem is that these sites are trying to steer the visitor to refinancing without any evaluation of other options. And, its not like they could evaluate those options anyway, since the site is usually not run by a licensed attorney.

     Some foreclosure sites are basically out of state companies set up to practice law in New York without a license. Paying them is dangerous. Caveat emptor. Many of my clients have told me horror stories of having paid $2000 to some company who promised a forbearance agreement but didn’t even return calls, leaving the client that much closer to an auction date.

     Very few sites actually explain the foreclosure process. The timing. The laws that govern. The defenses that might be asserted. There is really a void online for foreclosure defense. There is the one question that is asked by clients more than any other: how much time do I have left? I will explore the answers to that in upcoming posts.

     Some sites are run by lawyers who try to sell bankruptcy. Just like the refi sites, the bankruptcy sites tout the bankruptcy solution to foreclosure over all else. It reminds me of the diet and exercise debates that never seem to end. Low carb or not? To me, these sites all do a diservice. There are many alternatives for the property owner to consider. Yes, sometimes there is only one viable or affordable choice. But at least think about all of them first! So, I guess that is why this blog was born. There are choices. I often tell my clients, I don’t push bankruptcies. Yes, I can do them. Have done them. Lots of them. But I offer choices. Chapter 13 is just one choice. There are others. Litigation. Refinancing and payoffs. Workouts (reinstatement, forbearance agreements, loan modification, and loss mitigation). Selling. Leasebacks. Some choices are better than others. You may have several choices, one, or maybe none. There are lots of scams out there. And there are websites that steer you to one option only. Be careful what you read and who you believe. You may have alternatives. Learn what they are!