Though they are only a river apart, Missouri and Illinois have completely different sets of laws. Foreclosure, while it doesn’t vary wildly from state to state, is slightly different in Illinois than in Missouri. It is important for any St. Louis, Missouri bankruptcy attorney to understand that, if he or she wants to provide protection from foreclosure for an Illinois family, he or she must know the processes in both states. Continue reading

Getting protection from foreclosure is neither an easy nor a slow process. From the day you receive a foreclosure notice in Missouri, you typically have around 21 days to make a decision about your home. While you could have more time in Illinois, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to foreclosure. If you’ve done any research at all you’ve probably come up with two possible solutions: Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Missouri and Illinois or Loan Modification. So, which one is better? Continue reading

Any mark on your record can raise your interest rates and make it harder for you to secure a loan you can afford to buy things like a car and a house. If you try to secure a loan with a foreclosure on your credit report, you will surely be charged close to the cap, if not the cap itself. To make matters worse, the cap as of now is… Continue reading

While the foreclosure crisis is clearly on Obama’s list of changes, it seems that the loan modification program isn’t pulling through quite as well as everyone had hoped. Foreclosure rates for 2009 were dismal at best and foreclosure rates in 2010 are not expected to be any better. In fact, experts are predicting the housing market to get any better until joblessness lets up in mid-2010. Even with the new loan modification program, America’s biggest lender was only able to approve 4% of requests. Only 750,000 homeowners were even able to complete the loan modification application process. Unfortunately, those statistics can’t help the one in three homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth. Continue reading

CitiMortgage has continued their suspension of foreclosures through January 17th but other lenders may not be as generous. Bank of America and Chase have only suspended foreclosures through January 3rd. And I’m sure there were plenty of borrowers who woke up Monday morning to the harsh reality of 2010: their very own foreclosure notice. Needless to say, it isn’t a good way to start the New Year. And foreclosures aren’t even expected to peak until the end of 2010. So, what’s your next move? Continue reading

Chapter 13 bankruptcy may just have been the thing Nic Cage needed to keep his homes from being gone in sixty seconds. Both of his New Orleans properties were sold at auction recently for between $2.2 and $2.3 million each. What caused him to lose his property? Cage owed $6 million in unpaid back taxes dating all the way back to 2007.

If I were licensed in the state… Continue reading

The current recession is taking its toll on property owners. The economic boom in the 90s and early 00s gave a lot of people the confidence—and cash—to buy a few properties. Now, those very people are finding themselves upside down in their mortgages and unable to maintain their rental properties. In fact, more than 1/5 of the properties in foreclosure are rental properties, according to a study done earlier this… Continue reading

Receiving a notice that your home is going into foreclosure can be absolutely devastating. While debt is hard to move through, foreclosure makes you feel like you no longer have any moves to make. The good news is you’ve still got options after you receive a notice of foreclosure. So what is the most important advice I can give you after 15 years of experience? Don’t Wait.

I’m… Continue reading

An article that I read addresses a concern I’ve tried to address for years: Foreclosure doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone around you. The most heart wrenching part is that it affects our innocent children. We typically think of divorce or family quarrels as the hardest for children to understand but it isn’t just our marriage problems that are causing trouble for the kids in America.

Experts… Continue reading

According to a report from RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings continue across Christian County, Missouri, but are not as prominent as they were in 2008.

For the first half of 2009, there were 79 foreclosure filings in the county, which is a decrease of 28 percent from the 100 the county had during the same period in 2008.

That accounted for one filing out of every 375 households… Continue reading