Calgary has approximately 300 K homes. Recent data show that the Calgary’s home ownership rate in 2011 was 67.9 percent, which is slightly lower than 2010’s 68.9 percent. Whatever the conditions of the housing market or the circumstances of your personal life may be, you never have to worry about selling your home when the time comes because trusted house buyers in Calgary can help you out. Why sell your house? People choose to sell their homes for a variety of reasons, some

Once you have gone through the emotional stress and traumatic process of foreclosure on your home, you may wonder, “hat next?” There is life, a good life in fact, after this financial disaster! First, put it all behind you and begin with a fresh new start. As with other past stumbling blocks in your life, you must learn from them and move forward. Write down what caused you to get in that situation, whether it was from the housing market, a loan you could not possibly have fu

If you are you are having financial problems that lead to foreclosure or short sale, your credit report will tell the story long after you have moved on. What is the impact? Is there a difference in the impact of foreclosure vs. a short sale when you sell your home? Recently, Equifax Canada, the company that produces the credit score used by many lenders to evaluate credit worthiness, offered some surprising answers to these questions – and added some new insights as well. Ba

Every new wave of the Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP), as well as every wave of foreclosures, puts the banks in the spotlight in ways they seldom want to be. After many banks received TARP bailouts, some have not acted the way many expected them to, whether they got a dime from the Feds or not. Their Slow Response to the Crisis… HAMP was conceived promptly to meet a crisis, so banks had to prepare to implement it quickly. Participation in the program was voluntary and e

Once you have gone through foreclosure, your moving date is inevitable, right? Not so fast. A growing trend around the country is for the bank to foreclosure but not take possession of the property. Banks are now walking away from homes they own and taking no steps to evict the former owners. This means people can keep living there, basically rent free until the bank shows up to claim their property. When the house is worth less than the cost of foreclosing, banks basically h

“You can prevent foreclosure” is the manta of most people who want to help troubled families. Yet, many people at risk of losing their homes do not seek help until it is too late. Why is this? The Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Calgary, AB attributes this reluctance to get help to fear or confusion, which leads to inaction at the very point when they still have time to get help. What are some of these common fears? If I let the mortgage company know I am having

Most people these days know that foreclosure, short sale, or deed-in-lieu are the big three weapons that lenders use to prevent further loss. but there is a lot more in the lenders’ arsenal. Other remedies for troubled homeowners include: Modifying the length of the loan or the interest rate Waiving penalties and fees Deferring payments to the end of the loan and making it longer Applying past due amounts to the loan balance and slightly increasing each monthly payment Holdin

If you are in financial distress and fear you will lose your home, you may feel frustrated and hopeless. Some of the alternatives presented to you may seem pretty much the same: you will lose your home. You can do a short sale, let the bank foreclose, or file bankruptcy. Your choices may have the same import as waiters on the Titanic asking diners sitting in water to their waists if they preferred coffee or tea. Being in this situation is not what you anticipated when you scr

Suppose you are in a bad situation and you fear you will lose your home. You are up late fretting about this, when all of a sudden, as you are trying to channel surf your problems away, you hear an infomercial that someone has the answer to your housing woes! They will share it with you, if you just call for free mortgage help. Operators are standing by… It is too good to be true. Though all the great economic and social thinkers in the country are struggling to find a solut

There’s a new F-word these days, and it isn’t the one you’re thinking of. “Foreclosure” is the term those of us struggling to hold onto homes hate to hear. The worst-case scenario many people envision when they consider the effects of the current recession on their lives. You’ve heard the horror stories: a major hit to your credit score (usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-300 points), and a 7-year impact on your credit report. Important Steps to Avoid Foreclosure at