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Sunday, August 23, 2009

You Can Cut Your Investment Losses And Save Your Credit Rating

By Justin Flint

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.

When the housing market was doing so well, investment properties were a huge business and everyone wanted a piece of it. They were rented out for the income, and they were flipped and resold by people who could do the work themselves and save money. Some houses even had waiting lists and/or went to the highest bidder because they were so very popular.

Now, though, there are some properties that are almost impossible to even give away. Cities like Detroit and others are allowing people to buy property that nobody else wants for amounts only in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands or tens of thousands. If you picked up a lot of investment properties when the market for them was really hot you probably did very well, but what happened when the bottom fell out of the market and you suddenly weren't doing so well 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.

When you're up front about things that are taking place financially a lender will generally be more likely to try to work with you and help you renegotiate a better interest rate, a longer term to pay back the loan, or something that will be able to help you continue to keep your property for investment. If it's obvious that there isn't any way for you to keep your property, you'll want to talk to your lender about the other options that you might have. Keeping a foreclosure off of your credit record is really important, so find out what all of your options are and choose the one that will be best for you financially and that will have the lowest chance of doing severe damage to your credit rating. - 23200

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