Escaping Foreclosure: Effective Strategies for Communicating with Servicers

DJ Olojo [00:00:06]:

Welcome foreclosure fix family to another episode of the foreclosure fix podcast where our goal is to help 1,000,000 homeowners successfully navigate foreclosure. If that mission resonates with you, please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and tell someone who may be in need of the information. I am excited about today's guest. It's my friend, Shante Duffy from BIFI Loan Servicing. Shante, how are you doing today?

Shante Duffy [00:00:35]:

Good. Good. It's almost the weekend. I'm very excited. How are you?

DJ Olojo [00:00:39]:

I'm doing phenomenal. Welcome to the foreclosure fixed family. We appreciate you stopping by the podcast today. And one of the reasons I'm excited to have you on is because I know you have over a decade worth of experience in the servicing industry. You understand the compliance side of it, the day to day operations of a servicer. You've worked with different types of clients, both institutional and individuals. And so you bring a wealth of experience and background to our listeners around the servicing side. In our previous episode, we talked about clients who have and borrowers who have what we call decision inertia. Right? So they're in that situation. They know they need to do something, but they just have quite made a decision yet. Right? And so I wanted to bring you on because I know your experience in the industry has given you direct view at all the different ways a borrower can rectify their situation. all the different ways a borrower can breathe life back into their finances. Right? And so that's the perspective. I hope you can share with us today. And so just kicking it off, maybe just give our listeners a little bit of background around BFI, around what you do, and around what you've seen for borrowers who are in distress.

Shante Duffy [00:02:07]:

So I'm Shante Duffy. I am the director of business development and one of the founders of BIFI Loan Servicing. as you already stated, we've been in this for a little over

DJ Olojo [00:02:16]:

10

Shante Duffy [00:02:16]:

years now. Bifile is still new. We're about two years old just about. So this was an adventure in the past 2 years. And, yeah, over the years, I've dealt with many different borrowers, many different lenders as well, being a servicer and facing foreclosures with them. It's always a sad moment for borrowers. I'm not gonna lie when they kinda get those attorney generic letters in the mail. It kinda raises the hair on the back of the neck. The seer comes involved That's usually when, you know, I hear the most from borrowers, especially if they don't hear from them before and then being a servicer being the point of contact for these borrowers. So Those demand letters really kinda kicking off to where borrowers either respond or they don't. And I always help you. When you get those letters, you know, foreclosure does take time. It's not something that happens overnight. So it's not, you know, when that demand letter expires, you lose your home the next day. That's not actually how that works across the board. but I always tell borrowers to communicate. We understand as servicers, even lenders. I'm an investor myself as well. There's hardships. Life happens. You don't have children, they lose jobs, you know, sending kids off to college, you get divorced. There's so many different variables as to why you know, has a homeowner as a borrower, you're facing these legal courses that your lenders are starting. So I always tell borrowers communication. It's the most most important. That's how your lenders and your servicers are able to actually work with you.

DJ Olojo [00:03:35]:

You got a good point. Communication is key. Right? So answering the phone, replying to correspondence reaching out proactively. So communication is priority, but let's take it a step further. I'm a borrower. I'm having some financial distress. I've missed a couple payments. And maybe I've already received that demand letter saying, hey. You owe this money or you're delinquent. Right?

Shante Duffy [00:03:58]:

Uh-huh.

DJ Olojo [00:03:58]:

What is available to me at that point?

Shante Duffy [00:04:01]:

I always tell people step first. What is your intention? That's why your servicer shops will be asked If you stop making your payments, we don't know that, you know, you're facing hardship or you lost your job. Or the first question we wanna know is what do you want? Do you want to stay in your home? Do you not? Do you even live in your loan? There's plenty of loans that we see in borrowers that get foreclosed on, like, a rental property. So it almost doesn't affect them as much, but then there's tons of borrowers where this is home that brings my family. And this is where my kids are raised, and they wanna keep it. So we're always gonna ask, like, what is your plan? What do you want to happen here? because there's many different ways to almost avoid full pressure. Even though the demand leader started, there are numerous different options. So the obvious and the one I tell every borrower in these situations. When they get that demand letter, they know they've been struggling. Contact your servicer. Ask for loss mitigation options. And what that's gonna force your servicer to do is actually send you, like, a hardship package, a financial application, a retention application, an all caught something a little bit different, but they all generally need the same thing if we gather the same information. We wanna know what your hardship is. We wanna know if this is even something we can work out to avoid foreclosure. So it's really important that when you're facing that and you're scared, don't be scared. Your services are there to help you. And I know that's really hard for people to believe because I'm like, no. They sent attorney out on me. We don't get to make those decisions. Your lenders do. Your lenders just wanna see some momentum. the servicers are in middlemen. So when you're facing that, contact your servicer and let them know what your intentions are. Say, hey. I would like to stay in my home. The current mortgage payment isn't working for me. I have this hard shit. Let them know as much information so that they can turn around and say, okay. We wanna see if we can work something out with you. You know, it's a win win. That's what my first ever employer in the servicing space used to always say, and I still live by that. We need a win win to you. We need the borrower to be happy. We need the lender to be happy. So lenders like the borrowers communicate. So ask them, hey. I'm struggling. I wanna keep my home with you lost your job, or there's a change in pay, that affects just everyday payments. And we understand that you also have a life. Part of this retention package outlines your hardship, but also outlines your finances. How much income do you actually get, and where do you actually spend it? Because the real part of that is if you only are bringing in x amount of dollars, but Your expenses are costing more on paper. It doesn't look like you can afford this home. So it's one of those if that's what you want to do, start there. There are also other avenues that I feel like servicers, and I'm gonna call myself guilty on this one too. We don't share enough with you guys as borrowers. in the sense of there are government and state assistant programs that US borrowers can apply to. that will help you reinstate the loan to bring it current. Sometimes it's just loans get bought and sold, and they get transferred to other servicers, and you guys don't know who to pay. It's not always a hardship. It's generally just confusion sometimes when it gets to a point of foreclosure. So there are programs that are here to a assist borrowers. I know in a lot of the states that buy buy services in, we make sure that we registered with the homeowners assistance funds in each state. And we actually recommend our borrowers to, hey. You're struggling. We don't wanna see you go through foreclosure. You have a huge reinstatement to at least bring this account current. It'll help you to avoid foreclosure, especially if they're able to maintain the mortgage payment moving forward, we just need to pick up the back end. Apply. We can apply for you but you guys have to apply so that we can then turn around and let that state know I live in New Jersey. So let New Jersey state New Jersey know, hey, Chantee needs some assistance. This is her loan information. This is how far behind she is. If not, she is facing foreclosure, your servicer, hands over all that information. to these assistance programs to be able to help you, they will actually send payments directly to your servicer. As long as you qualify and apply,

DJ Olojo [00:07:48]:

So that is a phenomenal point. Right? And I think a lot of people don't know about those programs, and a lot of people don't take advantage of them.

Shante Duffy [00:07:54]:

They don't.

DJ Olojo [00:07:56]:

DJ is a borrower in need. Right? I am 90, a 120, maybe even 180 days late on my loan payment. My house is my primary residence. I was out of work for a little bit, but now I got my job back, right, or I was out of work or my Social Security benefits change or whatever. Maybe case, my disability benefits change, whatever.

Shante Duffy [00:08:16]:

Uh-huh.

DJ Olojo [00:08:17]:

And I'm getting back on my feet. Right? Or I got a loan from somebody that's helping me out. Whatever may be the case. What is my process? Help me walk through step by step what I need to do to apply for these funds or where I need to go or where I should be checking to get some of the access to those resources.

Shante Duffy [00:08:34]:

So depending on the state that you live in, it's a simple Google search. Again, let's pretend you're in New Jersey. Search New Jersey homeowners assistance fund. or ask your servicer, how do I apply? They should be sharing that information with you. You do as the homeowner, as the borrower, you do have the responsibility of actually applying. Your servicers cannot do that. It has to be you. That is the only number one big push that we can't do it for you. It has to be done by you, and then we kind of pick up the back end. When you apply, you need to let your servicer know I just applied to this. It doesn't take too long. We promise you I I'm not expecting it to be super you do it online. I'm not expecting it to be super computer savvy or anything like that. but you need to let your service know. So if you know that you're gonna go apply for this, call and say hi. My name is DJ. I'm struggling. I'm actually gonna go see if I could qualify for some from seeing New Jersey. Let them know so that we could actually put that foreclosure on hold, and we don't keep moving forward with the attorney on it. We do wanna give you the fair chance. to be able to apply. The moment you apply, you should be getting confirmation. Share that confirmation with your servicer. Hey, Chantee. I just applied. I want you to know because that means that we should now be hearing something very soon from that specific state. We now work as a servicer with that state. And at this point, Stay on top of your servicers. I tell everybody this no matter what side you're coming up, stay on top of your servicer. Give them a week. Hey. Have you heard anything with the status update? Where are we at? Don't just assume that you applied and don't just let it go because it doesn't always mean that you're also approved. And that's not -- -- servicer's responsibility. That's what they see on how much you're approved for.

DJ Olojo [00:10:11]:

Now are these funds like post COVID related funds? Are they always available? Is it

Shante Duffy [00:10:18]:

Good question.

DJ Olojo [00:10:19]:

Not to get political. Is it, like, democratic versus Republican state specific? Like, you know, help me understand.

Shante Duffy [00:10:24]:

To be a 100% honest, I only really discovered this specific program was in the past few years, and it's in the states. There's always help. I wanna make that very clear. Before COVID, there was still assistance. There was hardest hit funds, and that was a short term. where states were given x amount of dollars to be able to help borrowers. So it's one of those first come first serve. A lot of those are no longer active, but it almost seems like it switched to homeowners assistance. To be honest with you, I'm not sure where they get that funding from, which I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one because I've never actually put thought behind that.

DJ Olojo [00:10:59]:

No. It's no problem. Hey. As long as the funding is available, look, it's like, I don't get --

Shante Duffy [00:11:03]:

Yeah. And that's that's always ride floaters.

DJ Olojo [00:11:05]:

I'm not really caring who picks to check as long as you know, it's not on my tab. Right?

Shante Duffy [00:11:09]:

It's not a loan. I do wanna make that very, very clear. It's not a loan that borrowers or holders have to pay back. It's generally assistance for you. It's not like you're taking out another loan to cover back payments. Think of it more like a grant. There's also grants and stuff like that out there as well. You just need to find your specific state and what your state offers because certain states, most of them offer a homeowner's assistance fund program, but they also have other programs that they offer that might fit.

DJ Olojo [00:11:36]:

So we have sometimes government assistance programs or state assistance programs, but now sometimes people may have churches, people may have family members or whatever who wanna help them or who wanna support them. How does BFI or services you work with in the past deal with that type of situation.

Shante Duffy [00:11:54]:

It's a sticky one. I'm gonna be honest because it sounds really good if DJ, you're sitting here. Hey. My grandma's gonna help me. Hey. My church is gonna help me. The question we're asking is what are they exactly helping with? This is how much you owe to bring your account completely current. Here's how much you owe for a payoff. The first question we're gonna ask you though is can you actually afford your regular monthly payment? because at some point, you defaulted. Whether it was 6 months ago, whether it was year ago, how 5 years ago, especially if you haven't been paying recently. The concern is can you even maintain it? If you can maintain the payment and that makes sense, you just fell behind, And you can borrow money, that's great, but you have a small window of time to kinda gather that. So when you're letting your servicers know, be honest with them, say, hey. Look, you know, I gotta every Sunday, I'm gonna ask on Sunday, but then I'm gonna expect that servicer turnaround call you on Monday and ask you out church on Sunday. They are in viable options if you have people in your life or in your community that are willing to help. I always, you know, recommend that. I also understand, though, There are some situations, you know, you could borrow from your mom, but then your mom may expect you'd pay back. That is a little nerve wracking. We don't necessarily care where you kinda come up with the money, but we want you guys as borrowers, you know, to be secure and to not default again. We don't wanna get you through all this process, save you from the foreclosure, and then another 6 on the re line, we're doing the same thing.

DJ Olojo [00:13:13]:

100%.

Shante Duffy [00:13:14]:

That communication is more important than any other communication because you're telling me that someone you personally know is willing to help you. We don't necessarily talk to the other person unless you want us to. You'd have to fill out an authorization form for us to talk to a third party because they're not on your loan. they're not actually who's responsible. If you want us to give them, you know, figures and things like that, we can do that. But again, it's one of those, like, there's only so long that we're gonna be able to sit and wait for that as well as a viable option. Be honest, say, hey, I'm gonna go ask. It doesn't mean you're gonna get it, but Make sure when you're asking whether it's friends, family, you know, your community, anything. Ask also for a time frame. And be honest when you're asking, let them know you're facing foreclosure. you know, sometimes that's a time sensitive scenario. There are time frames for that. So just be really open and honest with everyone you're talking to. It's not that they can't help you, but we're not gonna sit here and wait 6 months for somebody to gather money for you.

DJ Olojo [00:14:11]:

So, Shanti, in that same vein, What is a creative solution that you've seen from a homeowner that was facing foreclosure?

Shante Duffy [00:14:20]:

I've had homeowners go to their churches. That's actually funny because I never I'm not super religious, so I really go to church every day, but I've had them get donations put together. I've had their brother-in-law and sister-in-law, you know, step parents actually assist them I've had them cash out their 401 case on their job. They've kinda pulled resources, especially when they know and again. A lot of homeowners are facing foreclosures without a 100% like knowing and understanding. Again, loans get service transferred all the time and borrowers have no say in that. So when you're getting hello letters and goodbye letters, you don't know who to pay anymore. And when that starts and when that stops and late penalties, I feel like the most creative is people who are able to go and ask people that they know who don't go through an assistance program who somehow figure it out, whether it's from family and friends, whether it's from a 401k, I've had people who have not been that far behind. Cost wise, like dollar amount wise, and they've asked for their vacation pays to be advanced because they haven't taken them. and it's one of those that kinda, you know, ramp up, they are able to find something. There are plenty of borrowers who can't fully reinstate the entire loan, but can let's say you're $10,000 behind, But they have 5. There are lenders that are willing to work with that 5 and say, okay. We're gonna work on a forbearance agreement for the next year to where you make up that same 5 the additional

DJ Olojo [00:15:39]:

5.

Shante Duffy [00:15:40]:

and then, but also keep you on track to, you know, stay current. So there are options for, you know, other than just, like, modifications and There's plenty of options for homeowners to, if they're in certain situations, how they can work around it.

DJ Olojo [00:15:54]:

Gotcha. This podcast, I I like to share dirty little secret Right? You know? And so I I want the real. I don't want the professional. I want the stuff that you talk about with cocktails and, you know, with your colleagues in the industry. Right? So help our listeners understand if I am calling my servicer or talking to my servicer, what things can I do to get favor for my servicer? Like, what things will allow the services to say, well, this DJ guy is a nice guy. Let's hold off a couple more months or the investor, you know, to say, hey. Let's hold off a couple more months. What things can I do?

Shante Duffy [00:16:27]:

It's be honest about your hardship. Be honest as to why you stopped and be honest with your intention. It's funny because you get these calls and my team for years, every team I've ever been a part of in servicing, it's funny because we'll all hang up the phone and be like, man, this borrower did this this in this, and that's why they have it paid, and we feel bad. One of my favorites. This one, it's not funny. I don't even know I'm laughing because it was so unbeli I didn't believe you. but it was the reality. This woman got to have really bad car accident, and it actually ended up killing her granddaughter who was in the car with her. And to me, it just the way she's talking about it was so outlandish. I don't know. I expect her to cry or do something. And then when she started to submit, like, reports, in obituaries. It was like, wait. So we kinda had to tell the one that, like, we have to hold on because this is a that's a mental toll on somebody. and do the physical, we're glad that she's okay. She also lost a family member. There was a lot building up. Be honest about your situations, and it back it up. I tell her, back it up. If you're telling me that you got fired and you're sitting here trying to find jobs and, hey, I'm collecting unemployment right now, be honest. You can't call it an employee for forever. We know that. Okay. Are you applying to jobs? People will call I have an interview tomorrow, Shante. Just want to let you know. Okay. -- builds a relationship. That's how you get the favor in the a little bit more of the sweetness. The servicers aren't the ones that get to a 100% to It's the lenders. So we work at the hands of lenders. So when we chat around and say, hey, we talked to DJ and, you know, he's unemployed right now, and he starts his new job on August 15th. Okay. We wanna sit here and get you in, you know, your job for about a month. I will I always ask them, prove your offer letter or something. Show us what you actually started, and Hey, can you start making these payments start September 1st? Be honest. Be real. You be human. We're human.

DJ Olojo [00:18:18]:

you made a good point, and I think it's something for us to point out to the listeners, because a lot of listeners don't know this, right, because they're like, well, every time I call, I'm not talking to Shante. I'm not talking to DJ. I'm talking to maybe somebody in different country. Maybe a person in Texas one day and then a person in India the next day. Right? I'm talking to people who don't know me. Right? But one of the things that all servicers have, and one of the reasons why you hear that disclosure state when you call into your server, servicer saying that this call may be recorded is that they keep servicing notes. And, basically, the servicing notes are a synopsis of the conversation you had with that particular person. And so if I talk to Shante today and I say, hey, Shante. I got a new job. I'm starting in 1 week. Right? That goes into the servicing notes records. And then when you call back in in a week and a half and say, hey. I get paid every 2 weeks, my next paycheck is coming this day, that's gonna be in the records. And so the lender, although they are not servicing the loan, they will be able to log in and verify what Shante has told them about you as the borrower. And so I think that's something that all listeners should know is that even if you're talking to different people, that information is still being recorded and still being kept.

Shante Duffy [00:19:31]:

Documented. Yeah.

DJ Olojo [00:19:33]:

And so, Shante, in that same vein, right, I want the tea, right, on how a servicer knows that somebody's playing games. Right? Like, you were just kinda stringing me along, and you are not really gonna do what you say you're gonna

Shante Duffy [00:19:45]:

do. still a point where you can't produce it. The how I've been able to determine, and it's taken me years to kinda master it. And those times, I was still like, I don't know. Depending on who I'm talking to, It depends on how active you are in your communication. Are you calling me more than I'm calling you? I like those people. Those people, but, no. No. They're serious. They mean business because it's a priority of yours now. Those borrowers that I get them calling all the time, those are the ones that this is my primary home. My kids were raised here. My grandkids are now living here. Whatever the story is. Beading are almost more willing and open to, like, divulge why their home means so much and why they actually need help. Those pointers do matter. Your lenders are not cold. I promise you they're not cold, but at the end of the day, you signed a promissory note that outlines that you are promising to make payments that you have not made. So you have to remember it's a double edged sword here sometimes, and us being a servicers were the middlemen. I also feel like in Barbara's call and Hey. I'm gonna go do this, and then I don't hear from you. And I'm now calling you multiple times a week to figure things out. It gets to a point where we turn around and say, hey, lender. I've been calling, you know, DJ for past 3 weeks. He's not answering why'd you just pick up and proceed moving forward with the foreclosure? We are gonna entertain loss mitigation where you're communicating with us. You're telling your game plan is, whether you want a modification, a forbearance agreement, trial payment plan to reinstate to apply for government assistance to ask friends and family We will put your foreclosure on hold. We won't actually move to, like, the next steps with the attorneys. We will stop to give you enough time. but you're not gonna sit here and have 6 months worth of time. It's kind of one of those if you're applying for someone, you could you should hang up the phone and apply that day. should apply within 24 hours or when you told me that you were doing it. And you should turn around and say, hey, Shantay. We applied to this in, you know, what's the next steps? If you wait 30 days to apply up, there's no guarantee that that's gonna go in our favor because you have to remember there's other parties now involved when you're applying for and assistance program. Now we have to worry about the state too. When you're talking to other people, we're not having those conversations. If you're not keeping us updated, We work with you and say, okay. You know, we'll give you a week to shop around with friends, family, and churches, and just local community stuff, but we're gonna call you back in a week and say, where are you at? This is not something that can go on for forever. And it every week that we start calling this, you know, around week 3, week 4, it doesn't See that you're not serious. So then at that point, we're gonna ask you further questions. There's plenty of times that bars are facing foreclosure, but they don't even live in the home, or they don't walk the home anymore. They know they can't maintain it. You can avoid an entire foreclosure on, like, your record if you sign the property over to the lender. If you sign a deed in lieu, it's a deed in lieu of foreclosure. That's what that actually is. And it's I'm gonna just hand you this property instead of you legally taking it from.

DJ Olojo [00:22:27]:

Awesome. Sean Tay. A lot of times, I have worked with homeowners who have a home, and they never expected to have that home. And what I mean by that is that maybe mom died and dad's already deceased too. And now they don't know where the bill is coming or the bill was coming out of account. They got closed or something, and we get a foreclosure notice. And I'm the child. And I wanna call in and ask about that account, but I'm not on the mortgage. Right? What can we do besides pay it all?

Shante Duffy [00:23:02]:

Had -- get certificates ready. Gotcha. Usually, loans go through a prorate and a state planning, and it breaks road. That's how it goes. But first proof, not all servicers know that these borrowers are deceased. It could have happened a month ago. You don't know that. Like, you don't call us and tell us that something has changed. for whatever reason, we don't know. So if you go ghost and we don't realize that you that, you know, the homeowner, your parents are deceased at this point, It just looks like we stopped making payments. Yeah. We don't have anybody else to call. We don't know. So if that's happening, you do need to notify your servicer and let them know Hey. My parents on this home. Prude to have the true be here at the EST. We could submit everything to us. I know they sound very, you know, morbid. And, not saying that you actually wanna share with your mortgage servicing company, but it lets us know that, okay, this is where this is out. John Smith's no longer here. The next question to you guys as the Arizona as the children of this property is what's the intent? It it still goes back the same cycle. What do you wanna do? Some bars flatter. Like, we don't want the property, and they have the ability to sign over and Adena will avoid foreclosure. Foreclosures is Nick. you, because you're the child, it's not gonna be in your name. There's plenty of times where the children don't care, and they do actually let the foreclosure go through. It depends on what you really want. If you plan on moving in and living in that, you neff you have to call your servicer. If you plan on just maintaining the regular mortgage payment, that's up to you, but just know when that mortgage is paid off and you get a lien release or a satisfaction because it shows it's paid off, it's not gonna be in your name. It's gonna be in your parents' name. Which is why probate needs to happen when, you know, there's deceased borrowers with heirs.

DJ Olojo [00:24:43]:

You have worked with homeowners.

Shante Duffy [00:24:45]:

Mhmm.

DJ Olojo [00:24:46]:

but then you also work with institutional investors. Right?

Shante Duffy [00:24:50]:

Law ones. Yeah.

DJ Olojo [00:24:52]:

Yeah. What I hear a lot of times from homeowners who I'm talking with and people who find themselves in a tough spot is I hear the bank just wants my home because it's gone up in equity. or because of gentrification, now the bank is trying to foreclose on me. Right? What is the mindset of the investors that you have worked with, the people who own the notes in the paper, like, what is their mindset when you're either talking to them about these delinquent borrowers or your conversations with them. I'm

Shante Duffy [00:25:25]:

gonna be 100% honest with you, and I'm investor myself as well. So I had to sit here and face and deal with some foreclosure stuff that Most of the investors I had crossed paths with over the past 10 years, they don't actually watch your home. We don't even live in this state that your home is actually located in. We're not trying to foreclose to kicking out so we can win and move our families in. We don't want that, but the rule of thumb is either the house pays or the homeowner pays. somebody has to pay. So if you as the homeowner are not paying, there's consequences. You don't get to, you know, just live free either. You didn't pay off the loan. You've made a promise. You didn't pay off this loan. You can't just stop paying. And if you don't plan on well, wait a minute. I'm the lender, but we're the ones that lent you out this money to buy this home. You owe this back to me. So when you stop paying, you almost push a lender into a position where they don't have choice. That's not what we wanna do. We don't wanna deal with attorneys as investors. Most investors I talk to, they're like, oh, it's added cost to us. And what a lot of borrowers don't realize is that every time in a lot of these notes and mortgages and dates of trust that are being generated and created, A lot of the fees that we have to pay as investors as lenders, we add them back to your home. Even if you turn around and save it, if you made me go a hire an attorney, to start this and you wanna save it. For most scenarios, it's not just the principal balance and the missed payments you've made. It's now also I had to sit and pay an attorney for this because you stopped paying and it didn't include that means you also stopped paying your escrow in a lot of these loans. That means your taxes are delinquent. Your insurance is delinquent or your insurance lapsed, and I had to buy a force based insurance policy, which only covers me as the investor and not use the homeowner. There's added charges when you go delinquent.

DJ Olojo [00:27:07]:

100%.

Shante Duffy [00:27:09]:

So be honest and upfront. There's some lenders who, you know, borrowers a month are too behind. Can we just push the next due date? Can we put it to the end, or can I pay you an extra $100 every month until I catch this up? Yes. Not all the time, do you need like a formal agreement if you wanna send in more money to make up for differences? Cause you're not that actual leave far behind. to where homeowner's assistance may deny you. You don't have somebody who can just go ask for, you know, extra $1000. That's okay too. Just show that you're willing to work this. Now that's what you want because your lenders don't want your home. They probably should they don't. Most of it, like,

DJ Olojo [00:27:42]:

99%

Shante Duffy [00:27:43]:

of them do not want the home, but they have to weigh their options when you're not paying because can't foreclose on you if you're paying, so you shouldn't actually worry about it. When you're not paying, yeah. Now we had to go look at the properties. The property worth anything. investor at the back end. They don't wanna get stuck with the loan when it goes through foreclosure sale. It ends up now they're stuck with an REO property, which is why they have to factor in the value of the whole because when they end up with an REO, leaves lenders with smaller options, but we don't actually want your whole. We just want you to keep paying. We want you to honor your promise. It's the best way to put it.

DJ Olojo [00:28:15]:

No. So either the house pays or the homeowner pays. We get it a 100%. Well, Chantay, this brings us to my favorite part of the podcast ass, which is the bow tie round where our listeners get to tie one on with you, Sean. Right? So the b in bow tie stands for your best advice for someone in foreclosure. The o stands for one thing you are grateful for right now. And the w stands for your wildest or most interesting foreclosure or workout related story. Right? And so, you know, let's go ahead and tie one on. So b, what is the best advice you have for our listeners today?

Shante Duffy [00:28:55]:

Communicate and be honest. That gets you a lot further. Don't play games. please, because the I promise you it'll make life smoother. I notice scary. but you need to be honest and ask your servicers. That's their job. That is their job. So be honest, but communicate. There's something you're not understanding Be blunt. I don't get it. What do I need to do? I need help. I don't expect anyone to know this stuff, but that's what your service is looking for. So be honest and communicate is always my advice in any sort of real estate situation for homeowners because it'll get you a lot further.

DJ Olojo [00:29:26]:

Now awesome. one thing you're grateful for, like, let us know.

Shante Duffy [00:29:30]:

I'm just grateful for the opportunities that I've had, especially in my career. That's a big thing for me right now. is something that I don't think I've given enough gratitude for, but to kinda look back in over the past, you know, decade or so and just kinda see where I'd come, you know, where I started and where I landed and where I'm still going. Like, I'm still in this upward peak. I'm grateful for that because it gives me an opportunity to do things like this, share knowledge, help people I like to actually help people and not in the sense of like I want to be a doctor, but knowledge is power. And I don't think people use that enough. So I am very, very grateful for my hard work and being able to share it with everybody else and it keep growing. I'm very grateful for the opportunities.

DJ Olojo [00:30:09]:

Now our listeners are definitely grateful for you joining our podcast today. So your wildest or most interesting foreclosure related story or workout?

Shante Duffy [00:30:19]:

I don't think it's really wild. I think what blows my mind every time. It's more of, like, really? We had to go through all this to get to this, and it drives me nuts. It it truly does. Foreclosures don't happen overnight, as I said, a little bit a little while ago. So you get a demand letter. You're getting called from servicing company. They're still trying to, like, hey. You're canceling out. You're still getting monthly statements from your services. That doesn't stop. So your own was just ignoring all this communication. when some foreclosures and certain states could take 12 months. Let's just use a simple 1 year mark. If I started foreclosure last year in August and my sale date is August 4th, so that's tomorrow for me. What drives me nuts is that today, John Smith, Mary Jane, whoever you wanna call her, is gonna go file bankruptcy. You've had a year to try to figure things out. One whole year, I am less than 24 hours away from a sale date, and you wanna file bankruptcy. It blows my mind because You need an attorney to help you with that. So you have the money to pay an attorney, but you don't wanna pay for your whole. It never made sense to me. It's something that drives me up a wall, especially when it's it just when it's, like, the day before the sale. Bankruptcy is alternative for some borrowers, and sometimes they need to. It's a restructuring of their finances and case like that. But every time, you know, every loan that I've ever serviced, it's like, oh, they filed bankruptcy via stop the foreclosure. I'm like, I'm and I usually don't find out, like, the next morning, when it's a foreclosure, it's like the sale that's happening at

DJ Olojo [00:31:48]:

10.

Shante Duffy [00:31:48]:

And it's 9:45, and it's, oh, shot. Yeah. This bar fell for, you know, chapter 13 or chapter 7 bankruptcy. I'm like, are you kidding? because now you can't. as lenders, bankruptcy always protects it protects borrowers. We can't do anything until you go through that process. So you kinda just left our hand side. We're not even allowed to call you. That's how much protection bankruptcy has for partners. So For me, it's just it's wild that we wait till the last second. I'm not saying it's not necessary. I just don't know why we're waiting when I you had 12 months to kinda make those options, and we could have completely avoided the foreclosure. You generally needed to file bankruptcy, but it does affect us because there's a loan.

DJ Olojo [00:32:28]:

I totally understand exactly what you're talking about. And I have been in on both ends of that equation. I have been on the end where I'm advising a borrower, Hey. You need to file bankruptcy tomorrow. Otherwise, you're gonna lose your house. And I have been on the end where I've been the lender and somebody has filed bankruptcy on us right before for --

Shante Duffy [00:32:49]:

And you can't do anything.

DJ Olojo [00:32:50]:

I don't know if Shante did this intentionally or accidentally, but she did give our listeners a secret. And this is dirty little secret. And I gotta tell you, bankruptcy is the nuclear option. So if you are in foreclosure and your foreclosure date is coming up tomorrow and you filed bankruptcy today, that will automatically stop or stay your foreclosure. And so keep that in mind. Now as Shante said, it is frustrating for, lender. it definitely adds fees for you as the borrower, and it can mess up your credit.

Shante Duffy [00:33:20]:

It will. Yeah.

DJ Olojo [00:33:21]:

Yeah. We will have some podcast episodes going deep into bankruptcy in the coming months. And so please stay tuned because we'll talk all through that. But that is one thing you can do if you need a a nuclear option at the last minute to save your house. So, Shante, we are so grateful for you swinging by the podcast today and for you sharing your insights. We really appreciate you and and are grateful for you and your team over at buy file loan servicing. Let our listeners know if they wanna get in contact with They wanna follow your journey. Let them know how to do that. Yeah.

Shante Duffy [00:33:53]:

I always thought you'd email me. Email me at sduffy@bifils dotcom. Or feel free to give us a call.

DJ Olojo [00:34:03]:

888-217-7652.

Shante Duffy [00:34:05]:

And ask to speak with me. I'm here to answer questions. Help out Your alone might not have to be here, but if you want some further information, I could at least point you in the right direction. because as I said, knowledge is power, and I love sharing.

DJ Olojo [00:34:16]:

Awesome, Shante. This wraps another episode of the foreclosure fixed podcast. Please do us a favor to like and subscribe and tell somebody who can benefit from the information. You can find us on the foreclosure fix podcast.com or on your favorite listening platforms. Until next time, folks, this is DJ Lojo signing off I love you, and god bless you. The views and opinions on this podcast are for informational purposes only. should not be construed as legal advice. If you have a specific legal question, we highly recommend you contact a qualified legal profession.