June 2012 - InMaricopa.com

24m REAL ESTATE InMaricopa.com
June 2012
Workshop offers advice on
rebuilding financial lives
BY CHRISTINA SAMPSON
Foreclosure, short sales and bankruptcy
can have a devastating financial and emotional
impact on the people experiencing
them, but credit scores — and lives — can
be rebuilt.
“There is definitely hope,” said
Pat Lairson, a real estate agent at
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.
“Eventually, the short sale and foreclosure
will be removed from your credit.”
The complicated part is figuring out
when that will be and how to rebuild
credit.
In Maricopa, residents facing this
issue can attend a free workshop called
Road to Recovery hosted by Suzie Rotter,
a real estate agent with Clear Skies Realty
and Renee Gerke, a lender with the
Peoples Mortgage Company.
Rotter and Gerke started the
workshops about six months.
“People don’t know what they can
do after these situations,” Gerke said.
“Nobody is giving out information; it’s
not common knowledge.”
“They’re talking to their friends and
neighbors about how to go about fixing
their credit or what they should do,”
Rotter said. “And these people are giving
them information that may have been
pertinent to their situation, but is not
pertinent to everyone.”
“Unfortunately, in the credit world
there is not a one-size fits all,” Gerke said.
Too many people are making poor
decisions based on myths or unfounded
advice seen on television, the Internet or
even well-meaning loved ones, the experts
said.
One mistake: People deciding to stop
paying the mortgage when the first sign
of real trouble appears.
People do this, Lairson said, because
they think “it’ll take a really long time to
foreclose.”
That’s not always true, she said.
“Another myth is that if you’re going
to do a short sale then you should stop
paying your mortgage,” Lairson said.
“If you’re having trouble making your
payments, the first step is to call your
bank,” she said.
“And it’s usually the last thing people
do,” Lairson said. “They bury the bill or
they think, ‘Well next month, I’ll just pay
a little more,’ and then they’re in no different
shape so then they don’t respond
to calls.”
Gerke said the first thing to do after
a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy is
for the person to get hold of their credit
report. “Because you need to make sure
that everything’s being recorded correctly,”
she said.
Once the credit report is squared
away, it is important to build a variety of
credit.
It is crucial payments be made, and
made on time.
“(Paying) utility bills is establishing
credit,” Lairson said. “It’s not all about
credit cards. (Credit bureaus) look at
a variety of loans. Even to build up a
savings helps your credit, because that
shows up.”
Open communication with the bank
is key.
“Go into a bank, meet with a bank
person — not for a loan — and just talk to
them about it,” Lairson said. “They often
will have something they can give you to
help build it up again.”
One example is a collateral credit
card.
“These are credit cards accounts
where you can place, like $300 in a
savings account, and then you can get a
credit card for $300,” Lairson said. “So
they will hold the money, and it’ll be a
small limit, but that will really help build
up your credit.”
There is a waiting period for
mortgages, Gerke said. “It depends
on whether you had a short sale, a
bankruptcy or a foreclosure, but there
is a waiting period for each one of
those events before you can get a new
mortgage.”
The waiting period can be anywhere
from two to seven years.
Getting the right information is key.
That’s one of the reasons Rotter
described the response to the workshops
as “very favorable.”
“They’re thrilled with the
information because they didn’t know it
prior to coming and they get a lot of their
questions answered,” she said. “Renee is
very knowledgeable.”
The next Road to Recovery Workshop
is 7 p.m. on June 12 at 41600 W. Smith-
Enke Blvd. in Building 12, Suite 128.
480-231-4849
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