The mortgage foreclosure crisis is still swallowing local homes,
but Realtor Lori McClellan and others in the real estate business
said they’re trying to fight back.
Hollister – The mortgage foreclosure crisis is still swallowing local homes, but Realtor Lori McClellan and others in the real estate business said they’re trying to fight back.
On Tuesday night, McClellan – herself the owner of Realty World Providence Properties – pulled together representatives from Ann Phillips Appraisals; Bianchi, Kasavan and Pope; the Golden Eagle Mortgage Group; and Stewart Title of California for a workshop aimed at local residents in danger of losing homes.
“We’re not out of the woods on this,” McClellan said at the workshop.
She credited appraiser Ann Phillips with the idea. Phillips suggested that real estate professionals have a duty to respond to the growing problems.
According to Irvine data firm RealtyTrac, there were 193 foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2007 in the county, compared with 68 during the same period of 2006. Real estate experts have told the Free Lance that many of the homes being lost were purchased with subprime loans now resetting to higher monthly payments. There are more homes that will reset to higher interest rates in the coming months, McClellan said.
But with sound advice, McClellan is hoping she can save some homeowners. In some cases, Phillips said people are going to lose their homes no matter what, but she still thinks they can “stop it from being quite as bad a train wreck.”
McClellan said she sent postcards for the meeting to 143 homeowners whose mortgages have reset or are about to reset to higher rates. She acknowledged that she’d like to see more than four people show up, but she’s hoping that the event will grow as word spreads.
The homeowners had plenty of questions for McClellan and the others, from general queries about the difference between a prime and subprime mortgage to a series of detailed questions about the effect of bankruptcy on a foreclosure.
McClellan said her big message is simple: “Call your lender when you’re in trouble. Talk to the loss mitigation department.”
Despite the turnout, McClellan said the meeting was a good start to a series of monthly foreclosure workshops. It was a challenge promoting the first one because it’s a tough subject.
“But at the same time, I think once you get into a meeting like that, then you start hearing other people’s stories,” McClellan said. “And you say, ‘Oh, I’m not the only one.'”
