Foreclosure Prevention: Insights from a Note Expert

00:00:08:03 - 00:00:31:13 Speaker 1 Hey, foreclosure fix family. And welcome to another episode of the Foreclosure Fix podcast, where our goal is to help 1 million homeowners successfully navigate foreclosure. I'm your host, DJ Olojo and I have the pleasure of interviewing my good friend, Chi Nguyen today. Welcome to the Foreclosure Fix family. How are you doing?

00:00:31:15 - 00:00:33:17 Speaker 2 I'm doing well. How are you?

00:00:33:19 - 00:01:01:13 Speaker 1 I'm doing phenomenal. Phenomenal. Thanks so much for being here. I'm excited to introduce you to our family. She is a notes expert. She is the director of asset management for a note fund. She's also a real estate investor, a multifamily investor. But I think the coolest thing about she is that she is a surfer. You are. She gets up almost every morning and she is out there surfing the waves.

00:01:01:13 - 00:01:05:18 Speaker 1 So I think that's so cool. She thanks so much for being here.

00:01:05:21 - 00:01:11:14 Speaker 2 Thank you. I appreciate it. I like that. I like that intro. I love the service, the surf. Right?

00:01:11:16 - 00:01:34:27 Speaker 1 Yeah. No, it's it's really cool because you are actually one of the first surfers. I know. Like, I know a lot of people now who surf, but, like, you were the first, like, legitimate person was like, Oh, yea, I got a wetsuit. I got different wetsuits on my. So this is like really a thing, right? Oh, yeah. But on today's podcast, we are diving into just the state of the distress note market.

00:01:35:00 - 00:02:09:12 Speaker 1 But then also the mindset that homeowners should have as the amount of foreclosures actually increases year over year. I was looking at some data from Adam Data where it said that and Q3 124,539 foreclosure filings happened, which is actually 28, which is actually up 28% from the previous quarter and 34% from year over year. And when we look at September or September was actually up 18% year over year.

00:02:09:14 - 00:02:25:08 Speaker 1 So she as someone who is actively in the market looking at tapes and reviewing note files, what are you seeing in the market for your fund as it pertains to the volume of activity both in the performing and non performing sides of the house?

00:02:25:10 - 00:02:32:20 Speaker 2 Good question. So you mean, are we how are we seeing in terms of the breakdown of our portfolio, in terms of performing work before me?

00:02:32:22 - 00:02:54:27 Speaker 1 Absolutely. So I'm seeing I'm talking about the breakdown in your specific portfolio. But then also as you all review different assets that you're looking to purchase, too. What do you see there as as it pertains to the delinquency increasing, decreasing or just the overall quality of what you see coming across your desk?

00:02:54:29 - 00:03:18:09 Speaker 2 Sure. Yeah. Right now, we actually have quite a bit of performing notes in our portfolio just because we've worked them out and we have strategies in place and I guess methods of getting our notes to re perform. And so our breakdown is actually heavier on the performing side right now, which ethnically we're always wanting a little bit more nonperforming.

00:03:18:11 - 00:03:40:22 Speaker 2 So we we're changing the mix up of our portfolio right now so that we can have a higher IRR and zero for our portfolio in general in terms of product that we're looking to buy. I think that it's interesting, though, what you said earlier about say, to the market. I think it's interesting because the state of the market really depends on your vantage point, I want to say.

00:03:40:22 - 00:04:04:03 Speaker 2 So if you're a mom and pop investor, you're going to see, say that there's not a lot of notes in general performing or non performing right now. If you're, you know, a $5 million fund, you're going to see a different level of availability. Ours is $150 million. So we have actually created quite a few relationships in the industry where we're able to see purchases now starting at the direct, direct to bank level.

00:04:04:06 - 00:04:24:09 Speaker 2 The banks that I have spoken to getting to your question, have been telling me that their their sheets are clean. They don't have anything to sell really right now. But what's funny is every single one of them will say that and then they'll say, Well, reach out to me in about 12 to 18 months. So I think everybody feels like there's something coming down the road there.

00:04:24:09 - 00:04:36:05 Speaker 2 It's just a matter of time. And so banks that don't have a special assets department where they can do workouts and loan modifications, there gearing up to potentially sell to third parties, if that makes sense.

00:04:36:08 - 00:04:54:18 Speaker 1 That makes a lot of sense. And what it sounds like you're saying, I think it's the same thing that others in the industry have been saying is that this is maybe the calm before a bigger storm. We did a podcast a couple of weeks ago in regards to the student loans coming back online and what that means for borrowers.

00:04:54:24 - 00:05:12:08 Speaker 1 Also, when we look at credit card debt right now, credit card debt is at all time high. And so when we look at all those different symptoms of maybe a bigger problem coming down the line, people think that it may hit the housing sector a little bit later. So it's a little bit more delayed. And so that's why the foreclosure fix is here, Right.

00:05:12:10 - 00:05:37:07 Speaker 1 We want to help those folks who are looking at their bills and they're mounting up and saying, okay, what do you do? And so before you are in a large hundred $50 million fund, you also had your own notes and you also had your own situations. Right. And so help people understand that different mindset between someone who is just an investor and has a few notes to now that you run a fund.

00:05:37:12 - 00:05:38:21 Speaker 1 The mindset there.

00:05:38:23 - 00:06:01:09 Speaker 2 Yeah. So the I guess the mindset on the fund level is you kind of got a give and take quite a bit more and you have a little bit more leeway to do that as well. Previously I was working with my own funds and so there's already inherently a limit their rates in terms of how much I can invest and how much liquid cash I have.

00:06:01:12 - 00:06:26:25 Speaker 2 I would say, though, I think that the reason why the fund was kind of a seamless transition to me was I was kind of already thinking at that level. I know that some investors, when they start off, they buy a lot more lower dollar value notes. I never went for that. I always went for higher dollar value notes on nicer properties because I know that the ultimate P or pay or sorry on the note is the property.

00:06:26:28 - 00:06:46:08 Speaker 2 As an investor, you always have to mitigate the risk and you always have to think about what the worst possible outcome is. The worst possible outcome for a lot of note investors is take the property back. So I need to know that the collateral is nice and on collateral that's nicer. They typically typically have higher equity and so you're able to kind of go with that.

00:06:46:08 - 00:07:12:27 Speaker 2 That's actually what we are doing at our fund is we're going towards higher dollar value notes because if you really think about it, at the end of the day, whether it's a $50,000 note or a $500,000 note, as long as you do your due diligence and the risk profile is the same, I would much rather have one $500,000 note than multiple $50,000 notes because it's the same amount of work per note, but a much lower payout on the $50,000 note, if that makes any sense.

00:07:12:29 - 00:07:35:17 Speaker 1 That makes a lot of sense. So you mentioned the collateral. So our listeners are homeowners facing foreclosure. Our listeners are maybe newbie real estate agents who kind of want to get a better understanding of the market. And just the overall community in general may not understand what you mean by collateral as a fund and as an individual when you say collateral.

00:07:35:19 - 00:07:38:06 Speaker 1 Help our listeners understand exactly what you mean.

00:07:38:09 - 00:08:07:15 Speaker 2 Sure. It's funny because there's actually two definitions. What I was referring to then just now was the actual properties. So the tangible property taking it back because that's what we are given as collateral. If you don't pay it on the note, we take your property back in the note investing side. We also refer to collateral as the paperwork, the documentation that we get when we purchase a note, which is the note, the deed of trust, and then the longe chain and the assignment of mortgage chain.

00:08:07:22 - 00:08:19:02 Speaker 2 Everything that we would need to be able to go to an attorney who can then represent us in front of a judge in court saying that we are owed this money and this debt is owed to us from the borrower.

00:08:19:05 - 00:08:37:23 Speaker 1 So you mentioned collateral. And the collateral in which I want to stay on is the actual property. Right. So you've been in a lot of situations where you are are looking at a tape and a tape. For those who don't know, it's basically a list of loans. So as we talked about in previous episodes, the bank doesn't want your house.

00:08:37:28 - 00:08:54:09 Speaker 1 And when they look at assets, they look at them on a spreadsheet. So they're not looking at your house and saying, oh, the pictures are so beautiful. And it's so nice. You are just a number in a line on a spreadsheet. So just keep that in mind as you think about the bank, because they're looking at so many different files.

00:08:54:11 - 00:09:21:29 Speaker 1 But when you talk about the collateral, there's been times I know in your career and in my career where you have a no and you own a no, and the collateral is supposed to look one way, but it looks very different, Right? And those scenarios help listeners understand what to do if you're collateral, that being your home is not in great condition, but your mortgage company is still saying, hey, I want this full payoff.

00:09:22:04 - 00:09:28:26 Speaker 1 But you know that even if you went and sold it on the open market, you could not get that. What should homeowners do in that scenario?

00:09:28:28 - 00:09:49:12 Speaker 2 I suppose they can go get an appraisal, actually, if you want to get creative with it and then send it to the servicer who then can share it with the lender and say this is actually all that the property is owed. We can take it to a short sale if we if that's the way that you want to exit the scenario that you're in and that will actually help the lender.

00:09:49:15 - 00:10:17:01 Speaker 2 The lender and the bank will always still get their own BPO or appraisal BPO as broker price opinion, which is essentially just an agent that comes out and looks at the property and gives you the about the value of the property as is as it stands today. But if you were to already do that upfront and then share that with the servicer, that would bring quite a bit of gravity to your argument that you would want to do a short sale if that's.

00:10:17:03 - 00:10:18:21 Speaker 2 Yeah, that makes sense.

00:10:18:23 - 00:10:49:29 Speaker 1 No, that makes sense. So basically you're saying like, hey, if you think that the value of your property is not equivalent to the mortgage balance, oh, your best next step is not to just say, Oh, it's not worth that. It's to get some some verification to get either broker's price opinion, which basically what you can do is contact the local real estate agent or broker and ask them to provide you with the price opinion of your house or pay a professional appraiser who is licensed in your state to do a professional appraisal on your property and get a value.

00:10:50:02 - 00:11:15:12 Speaker 1 And those two things or one of those two things actually help provide more credibility, more credibility to your argument that your house is not up to the value of your mortgage. In addition to that, in a subsequent episode coming up in the next couple of weeks, we're actually going to dive into all the different ways that you can value your property, both expensive and inexpensive ways to get a value of your property.

00:11:15:15 - 00:11:41:23 Speaker 1 So definitely stay tuned for that. She Let's talk about your experience with nonperforming notes. So now performing notes for you and the borrower borrowers you've worked with in the past. Yeah, let us know kind of how you view that process and the things that homeowners who are facing foreclosure can do to get the best possible resolution from a fund like yours.

00:11:41:25 - 00:12:08:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, that's that's a great question. I would say that communication is always key to getting things up front in terms of if you're already running into let's say today, in October of 2023, you're looking at your savings account. You just lost your job. You have a family of four that you need to provide for and you have all these bills you're familiar with How much you need to spend per month to keep your family afloat, even if you need to cut down certain expenses.

00:12:08:04 - 00:12:26:01 Speaker 2 You look at your savings, you're like, okay, I really only have six months worth of savings left and that at that point I would suggest any time that you kind of like see that before it happens, that you might not be able to make a mortgage payment, I would go speak to your lender and say, Hey, I just happened to lose my job.

00:12:26:07 - 00:12:51:18 Speaker 2 I'm working on getting another job. I'm going to get on unemployment. First of all, get on unemployment for sure. Don't forget to do that and and say, hey, I would really love like a maybe like a forbearance or so. I don't have to make payments for a few months so I can get back on my feet or work out some sort of payment plan with your lender or some sort of modification before your lender finds out that you're not paying.

00:12:51:20 - 00:13:14:22 Speaker 2 Because as soon as you go 90 to 120 days delinquent, the the lender is going to send a notice of demand via an attorney on a law firm's letterhead saying, hey, we're going to foreclose on your property because you haven't made a payment. So this is what you owe and this is what it will take for you to get your loan back to its status of current.

00:13:14:24 - 00:13:32:14 Speaker 2 The reason why I say that, and I think that a lot of borrowers don't understand this, and I actually tell my team to tell the servicer, to tell the borrower this or to tell the attorney to tell the borrower this is that every time the attorney has to do anything, in most states, those costs are recoverable. We call them foreclosure fees.

00:13:32:21 - 00:13:50:01 Speaker 2 They are the fees that we incur upfront. We will pay the attorney to do a certain action or pay them a retainer or so they can pull from that retainer and pay for the actions that they're about to take to put you into foreclosure. You actually have to pay for that as the borrower. The lender does not pay for that most of the time.

00:13:50:01 - 00:14:07:27 Speaker 2 If you read your deed of trust and your note or your mortgage statements are paperwork, I should say, it will say that if the lender has to go after you for nonpayment on this debt, that you will be liable for the lender's costs.

00:14:07:29 - 00:14:09:07 Speaker 1 Yep, absolutely.

00:14:09:09 - 00:14:32:00 Speaker 2 Yeah. So every time I mean, I even just had one of our borrowers said, Hey, can you extend the foreclosure date out three months or six months or whatever so that I can figure this out? And I said, Sure, we can let him do that. Tell him I told our servicer to tell him that he could we could do that.

00:14:32:03 - 00:15:10:24 Speaker 2 But every time that happens, the borrower is going to be paying $300 in that instance. So when the borrower's payment to us is, you know, only $600 a month, that's a sizable cost that the borrower's incurring. So I would just say if you can form a relationship with your lender through your servicer by keeping the lines of communication open and being open, the conversations on how to work together to solve whatever financial situation you currently find yourself in, I think that you being able to save your home, there's a much higher chance of that.

00:15:10:26 - 00:15:41:10 Speaker 1 So foreclosure family, listen to what she just tells you. If you delay and you wait, the foreclosure action, the foreclosure process, the communication from the attorney cost you more money. So if you're already scratching your head and saying, hey, I don't have enough to even make my mortgage payment or I don't have enough to to pay my bills, you are just adding more fees and cost to your life by not communicating, by not responding in foreclosure.

00:15:41:10 - 00:16:00:11 Speaker 1 The only person that wins are the attorneys, because those are the only people who make you get a lot of money out of the process. So y'all keep that in mind. If you're facing foreclosure, your goal is to try to start communicating with your lender and your servicer as early and as quickly as possible in the process because it's going to be is going to allow you to get the best possible outcome.

00:16:00:13 - 00:16:24:25 Speaker 2 Mm hmm. I would also add that, I mean, maybe take some budgeting classes or or financial literacy classes. I, I have some borrowers who actually just don't didn't know how to budget at all. So when a borrower responds to our notice of demand, to our foreclosure action, saying, Hey, I actually want to keep my home, what can I do?

00:16:24:27 - 00:16:57:21 Speaker 2 We all typically send out a financial hardship application, which means that the borrower has to fill. I don't know. It's somewhere between maybe four or five pages that tells us about their financial situation and their hardship, what they're going through. And then they have to submit their bank statements as well as utility bills, any of their bills. We can take a look at and for one of our borrowers, actually is one of my borrowers back in when I had this portfolio, I still do, but I think this borrower's already kind of figured it out, but figured out we've already figured out her situation.

00:16:57:26 - 00:17:27:05 Speaker 2 When I took a look at her financial hardship application, all of her bills were for meals out. There are zero bills for groceries in a span of 3 to 4 months. And to me, I mean, we told I told my servicer to talk to her and say, hey, I mean, you could literally just by cutting out your meals out, you can probably make your mortgage payment just buy more groceries.

00:17:27:07 - 00:17:53:13 Speaker 2 I know that's hard for some people to do because maybe they're busy. But I mean, to me, at the end of the day, I think having a roof over your head is probably one of the most important things. And I personally can probably skimp on like nicer food or like nicer dinners out, you know? So just being able to kind of do the math and realize, hey, yeah, I should just cut out all these other extra luxuries in life.

00:17:53:15 - 00:17:58:24 Speaker 2 Yeah, we have we have countless, countless examples of that, but that's just one of them.

00:17:58:26 - 00:18:29:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, I think definitely that is one area I have seen too, just across my portfolio is people really not understanding the budgeting piece, but then, but just also understanding priorities, Right? So is it is it a priority that, hey, Christmas is coming and I need to get Christmas gifts for all my family? Or is it a priority that I have, you know, somewhere to live that is safe and secure and maybe everybody gets like a Christmas card or electronic, you know, you know, Christmas card.

00:18:29:23 - 00:18:54:00 Speaker 1 And so I think a lot of times when the things that we talk about on this podcast and our now sit here when things that we talk about a lot in the foreclosure fix book that's coming out early next year, it's all about that mindset of being seasonally selfish. And there's some previous podcast on the topic of being seasonally selfish and a podcast on how to fill out a loss mitigation package or a hardship package.

00:18:54:00 - 00:19:09:28 Speaker 1 So definitely check those out. But it's times like this when you are facing foreclosure that you have to be seasonal and selfish and you have to say, Hey, I'm the most important person to me right now, because if you don't take care of yourself, if you don't do the things that are hard and difficult, you may lose your house.

00:19:09:28 - 00:19:35:11 Speaker 1 And we never want you to be in that situation. Yeah. So she when you think about your best type of borrowers, what do they look like besides obviously paying the mortgage on time? But I say best borrowers from like the ones who started off as delinquent or non-performing and have now rebounded at them performing well. Characteristics. What traits do you see in those people that allowed them to rebound and be successful moving forward?

00:19:35:13 - 00:20:21:04 Speaker 2 I think just honesty, I know that sounds kind of simple, but honesty, a good work ethic, a good head on their shoulders. Being reasonable, I think that the borrower that started off delinquent when we purchased the loan typically is a borrower who does want to be current. Now, that being said, we do have borrowers who don't want to be current and they want to play the game because it's just something that I don't know where they learned it, that, you know, lying, cheating and stealing gets you ahead and, you know, I guess for the other side of the the borrower who was eating too many meals out, we've had borrowers who have filed foreclosure or

00:20:21:04 - 00:20:36:03 Speaker 2 sorry, filed bankruptcy a while when we filed foreclosure and lied and said they couldn't make any payments. But then our attorney hired a PR, a private investigator, and found that they just purchased a Land Rover and a Range Rover.

00:20:36:05 - 00:20:37:07 Speaker 1 Wow.

00:20:37:09 - 00:20:57:29 Speaker 2 Yeah. So to me, it doesn't make any sense. I think that when people try to game the system like that and they don't have honesty and they're not playing by the same moral code that we're playing by, it hurts you in the long run. I feel like people think it's fun to some of these people think it's fun or like to cheat the system or kind of get one on the mat or something like that.

00:20:57:29 - 00:21:21:24 Speaker 2 We're not the man. We're also human beings that are just trying to run a business and helping most homeowners get current again. But yeah, it doesn't that part doesn't really make sense to me because it will be found out. You know, just just be honest. Make sure you're honest in your loss mitigation package or financial hardship package because your lender is going to pull credit and they're going to see where your money's going and how you're spending it or not spending it.

00:21:21:27 - 00:21:44:12 Speaker 2 So if you're dishonest and not cooperative, they're going to be less likely to work with you. Then you will lose that home, most likely, or have a higher likelihood of doing so. And then you will have this mark on your credit score for, I think, eight years, seven or eight years. And in America, where we live off of our credit score, I mean, that really can impact the rest of your life.

00:21:44:12 - 00:21:51:26 Speaker 2 So your revenue for then for the next several years. So I would say just honesty and willing to work with the lender.

00:21:51:28 - 00:22:18:16 Speaker 1 I love the fact that you said honesty, because I think that that honesty piece is the key thing that I've seen in borrowers who have been able to rebound successfully. And when I say rebound successfully, it's the ability to say, I am here and I want to be here, right? Like I don't have the money, but I can get the money or, you know, this is the most I can pay and I can do everything.

00:22:18:16 - 00:22:39:18 Speaker 1 And I can guarantee you that this is the most I can pay, right? And so I can we do modifications and we do work out and we are looking at the best possible situation for the borrower. It's always interesting because those people who are deceptive and dishonest, they get the worse outcomes to me because either one, the modification doesn't happen or it doesn't go through.

00:22:39:20 - 00:23:08:12 Speaker 1 Number two, they potentially lose their house to foreclosure, or they have to just find a way to like make the big lump sum payment because the modification is taken off the table. We have a borrower in our portfolio now that we are in our fifth conference. This is in the state of New York and so we are not far fifth conference and they ask for a modification at the first conference and we gave them great modification options that were very favorable.

00:23:08:14 - 00:23:30:26 Speaker 1 And then it just sat no communication, nothing, nothing. And for those of you who don't know, New York is a very long foreclosure state, so it can take in excess of two years to foreclose in New York sometimes depending on what's going on. And so five conferences later, they still have not done anything with the modification options. And now we have filed for the final judgment to be able to foreclose.

00:23:31:01 - 00:23:52:19 Speaker 1 And they're asking us for new modification actions. And the thing about it is, is that we are going to provide them with modification options again, but the modification options now are going to look very different than they did, you know, a year and a half ago when they could have had a very favorable term. Now that these are higher now, they're going to have to come up with a significantly higher dollar payment.

00:23:52:22 - 00:24:12:11 Speaker 1 And they incurred probably $10,000 more in legal costs from letting this drag on. And so it's never in a borrower's favor to play that game, because you may think you're winning by not paying a mortgage, but you're losing because all those fees and costs and interest are now going to be paid by your house and not necessarily, you know, by you.

00:24:12:11 - 00:24:21:20 Speaker 1 And so that is the big, I think, key takeaway that you hit on when you talk about honesty. I think that just triggered me because I got an email from the attorney about it today.

00:24:21:22 - 00:24:47:02 Speaker 2 Is the letter dear. Oh God, no. I have something that I want to add to that because I love what you said. They're being providing fair terms for a loan modification. I actually have a really good example of that in my own portfolio where, you know, I think that as a borrower, you have to realize that when you submit a financial hardship package or loss mitigation package, you have to, like we said, be honest.

00:24:47:02 - 00:25:15:27 Speaker 2 If you're not honest, things don't add up and that will delay your loan modification workout right? But when you do submit one that's done and fully executed and done well and done right, then you will probably get really reasonable terms because you have to think about it from the lender's perspective. We are putting together these loan modifications with the thought in mind that it will get in front of a judge some day.

00:25:16:01 - 00:25:47:00 Speaker 2 Right? Potentially. And the judge can say, oh, you are taking advantage of that borrower. We never want to do that. That I mean, that makes no sense. That's like being very short sighted on our own. We don't try to squeeze the blood from every single Leonardo deal. We try to be very fair. And so in my own portfolio, when I first got started, I had a borrower who her normal her original payment I think was like $1,000 or so, maybe maybe eight.

00:25:47:01 - 00:26:12:13 Speaker 2 Actually, I have let's say it was 850, and so she couldn't make the payment. And so I gave her a loan modification of I think $625 or something like that a month. And said and she honestly was just so, you know, I guess I'll say intense or very difficult to work with the whole time. So she told my servicer to go kick rocks basically.

00:26:12:18 - 00:26:34:18 Speaker 2 Really? That's a nice, nicest way I could say of what with her. And so I was like, Well, okay, I mean, I don't know what else to tell you that I'm giving you the nicest terms ever while like barely getting a decent return myself, I wasn't being greedy at all. And so she decided to wait all the way until the day of foreclosure.

00:26:34:18 - 00:26:53:15 Speaker 2 And then she filed bankruptcy. And I knew that she did that to spite us. Right? To try to spite us. And kind of joke's on her because that case then went in front of a a judge and the judge said, Oh, you can afford to pay this, Leonard 1250 $1,250, which is double what I told her. She could pay me.

00:26:53:18 - 00:27:12:24 Speaker 2 And so her attorney came running back to my attorney and was like, do you still have that deal on the table? And I was like, I don't know, man. Maybe we can meet in the middle. So we ended up having her pay like 950 a month, which she would have been so much better off if she had just taken a look and been like, okay, this person, I'm not trying to be greedy.

00:27:12:24 - 00:27:37:08 Speaker 2 It's already a lot lower than what I was already paying. And and she could make the payments like she had the income. She had the right borrower profile to make it so you have to, I guess, more or less. I know that the lender is trying to work with you. They're not trying to game you. They know that if they don't write the loan, the right write the correct loan modification terms, they could get in trouble and it's not worth it to us.

00:27:37:13 - 00:27:39:05 Speaker 2 So yeah.

00:27:39:08 - 00:28:05:01 Speaker 1 She that Segway leads us to my favorite part of the podcast, which is the bow tie round right where our listeners get to tie one on with our guests. She knew when so she the bow tie stands for your best Advice for somebody facing foreclosure. The oh stands for one thing you are grateful for right now and then W stands for your wildest or most interesting foreclosure related story.

00:28:05:06 - 00:28:10:27 Speaker 1 All right, so the B, what's your best advice for somebody facing foreclosure?

00:28:10:29 - 00:28:26:25 Speaker 2 Get ahead of the problem. Take a look at your finances. Take a look at your budget, get together a spreadsheet, learn how to do it. And if you're running into an issue, then contact your lender immediately and say, Hey, I might have an issue. Can we ask for your help?

00:28:26:28 - 00:28:42:18 Speaker 1 That's amazing. That is amazing. So get ahead of the problem. Yarder loud and clear. Do not wait, Don't delay, don't stop, don't pass. Go Get ahead of it. Right. One thing you're grateful for right now, in addition to being on the foreclosure fix market.

00:28:42:20 - 00:29:03:09 Speaker 2 Oh gosh, just how well our our team is doing. I think I, I yeah, I love the team that I work with now. They're all really good people with really good hearts. And we are trying to help homeowners stay in their homes. So I think it's just a feel good business if you can if you can get the the lines communication open on both sides.

00:29:03:11 - 00:29:10:14 Speaker 1 Amazing. The last thing is your wildest or most interesting foreclosure related story.

00:29:10:16 - 00:29:15:06 Speaker 2 Okay. Wow, this does that or do you just meet up? I love that.

00:29:15:08 - 00:29:21:21 Speaker 1 I love said wow. Like it's wow, you're a surfer. It's a wicked. I don't know.

00:29:21:23 - 00:29:22:26 Speaker 2 Why.

00:29:22:28 - 00:29:25:11 Speaker 1 You're right. Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:25:14 - 00:29:54:09 Speaker 2 I think I think this is not necessarily the craziest story of foreclosure. I think it is one of my favorites because of the heart good, heartfelt ness that came into it. I had purchased a loan into my own portfolio and the borrower was paying the whole time. I purchased it as a profit paying, paying asset, but when I bought it, I switched servicers from the seller's servicer to my servicer, and the borrower completely stopped making payments.

00:29:54:16 - 00:30:15:04 Speaker 2 Mind you, this was one of the very first notes I've ever purchased. I just had a gut feeling that this borrower just didn't know where to make her payments and that she was still paying the old servicer potentially. And we were three weeks away from foreclosure. And I just yeah, I sent a door knock out there to talk to her.

00:30:15:10 - 00:30:35:12 Speaker 2 She turned around and spoke to the door knocker, but turned around and showed him the stack of attorney letters that she had that she had been ignoring because she was scared of being spammed or scammed, I guess. And in the end, we were able to get her re performing and getting her to put her payments to towards the right servicer.

00:30:35:12 - 00:30:53:10 Speaker 2 So I think my moral of that story was trusting my gut. I almost foreclosed on this lady. But again, that was never my true goal. I want to keep homeowners in their home. And so I kept racking. My brain knows I don't care what can I do, and it just turned out to be a really happy story because she she cried.

00:30:53:10 - 00:31:12:12 Speaker 2 She spoke to my servicer and was like, I'm so thankful for you guys like you. I mean, thank you for taking the time out to help me and not lose my home and to teach me where to make new payments. Because honestly, she could have been out on the street since she was in her sixties and I would not have been a man in a nice ending.

00:31:12:16 - 00:31:13:18 Speaker 2 So.

00:31:13:20 - 00:31:38:25 Speaker 1 Yeah, that story touches my heart strings because it's something that happens more often than people know, right? It's loans are always bought and sold and servicers change. And when servicers change, they don't always take over your information, right? They don't always just move it over automatically. And these servicers are dealing with so many different files, so many different loans that yours again, it's just a number.

00:31:38:25 - 00:32:04:24 Speaker 1 It can get lost. And so especially for older folks who may still write a check or mail a check to the same place every month, we see it happen all the time. So please make sure that, one, you do stay vigilant and don't get scammed because there are tons of different scams out there. Number two is if your loan servicer changes, make sure you update your information.

00:32:04:26 - 00:32:23:19 Speaker 1 And number three is make sure you keep tuning in to the foreclosure. Fix podcasts for the latest and greatest information on how to protect and save your home sheet. We are so grateful to have you on the podcast day. Please let our listeners know how to get in contact with you if they want to reach out or connect.

00:32:23:21 - 00:32:35:27 Speaker 2 Oh, they can probably check out our website. That's uww. Dial the number seven, the letter E investments dot com and I think we have some contact information up there and you can reach out to the team there.

00:32:36:00 - 00:33:01:08 Speaker 1 Awesome. So you heard her. If you want to get more information about their fund or if you just want to know more just about notes and helping folks, definitely check out 70 investments dot com y'all. My name is Nigel Ojo and I am so grateful for all of you all tuning in, listening in. If this mission resonates with you to help a million homeowner successfully navigate foreclosure, please do us a favor.

00:33:01:12 - 00:33:25:07 Speaker 1 Like subscribe and check us out. Leave us a review, leave us a comment. Let us know what questions you have, what things we can answer, and how we can bring you the best information to help you save your home. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless you and I will talk to you soon. The views and opinions on this podcast are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.

00:33:25:15 - 00:33:30:04 Speaker 1 If you have a specific legal question, we highly recommend you contact a qualified legal professional.