Stephen Elias Attorney - The Foreclosure Survival Guide: Keep Your House or Walk Away With Money in Your Pocket

Facing foreclosure? Know your options!

According to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, "the number of homeowners paying more than half their income on housing rocketed from 6.5 million in 2001 to 8.8 million in 2006… The number of homes entering foreclosure nearly doubled to 1.3 million in 2007 from about 660,000 in 2005."

If you're having trouble making your mortgage payments or are already in jeopardy of foreclosure, The Foreclosure Survival Guide compassionately gives you the practical information you need, step by step.

An essential tool for anyone at risk of foreclosure, The Foreclosure Survival Guide provides key information about:

mortgages, including adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs)short sales deeds in lieu of foreclosure judicial and non-judicial foreclosure credit counseling liens, and using bankruptcy to deal with foreclosure. The Foreclosure Survival Guide gathers all the information Attorney Stephen R. Elias has used to help hundreds of clients over 30 years of practicing law and shows you how to deal with foreclosure. Like many hardworking people facing foreclosure in this rough economy, you deserve answers to your pressing questions. Thorough and easy to understand, The Foreclosure Survival Guide can help you stay in your home or walk away with money in your pocket. Summary: Great info but educate yourself on every aspect too!Rating: 3This is great information. One thing that I would like to mention is that I would have liked more information on is what happens when you get a deficiency judgement from the bank or a promissory note? For those of you in preforclosure make sure you educate yourself on this because it can save you thousands. Google IRS form 982 and learn how you can use that to walk away from the house free and clear and be able to really move on with your life. Hope this helps.Summary: If your home is at risk, or will be soon, this book is a must-have for youRating: 5When you are worried about losing your home, you can become paralyzed with fear. Sometimes you don't even want to open your mail because it is such a terrifying thought: what else is going to happen now? You are afraid to answer the door because it could be a bill collector or maybe even the sheriff, there to evict you. Your imagination runs wild, and you sometimes feel like your feet aren't even on the ground. The stress is enormous, and you feel lost, not knowing what to do to save your home. Unfortunately, I speak from experience. The stress is debilitating and paralyzing….you just don't know where to turn or what to do to save your home. If that is you, get this book, now. In it you will find comfort, support, and solid legal answers on how to proceed down the long and scary road of saving your home. I have always had excellent experiences with NOLO books in the past, and this one surpassed my wildest expectations. It is solid legal information and advice, in easy-to-understand format, with lots of supportive and practical comments throughout. I highly recommend that you get this book, which will both hold your hand and tell you what to do in order to survive a foreclosure. Take that first step out of the fear and into the solution. Best of luck to you!Summary: THE FORECLOSURE SURVIVAL GUIDERating: 5This book saved us from foreclosure and answered questions when we couldn't get answers from our lawyer or creditor.This book is written in a easy to understand manner. We were very frustrated waiting to have questions answered about the foreclosure process, by our lawyer. A lot of paperwork has to be filled out , by the client, before you can even get in for a consultation on a foreclosure case.We no longer felt comfortable talking with our creditor at this point. In just a short while, I was able to find the rules for the state of Georgia, and what type of time table we could expect on the length of r the foreclosure to take place,and what our options and rights were. We did not know that we had the option to make up the payments you are behind on and pay any lawyers fees already in process ,and that you can stop the foreclosure right up to before the auction of the property in Georgia.I highly recommend this book. Thank youvery much, Mr. Elias. Summary: Very Good Overview of AlternativesRating: 4I would like to commend the author, Stephen Elias, on tackling a complex topic. It is challenging enough in that laws vary by state and it is made more difficult in that the issue is somewhat of a moving target in light of recent Congressional action. The Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008 and other more recent, and pending, legislation makes this a dynamic topic. After I read a book I like to scan the Amazon reviews to see what others' perspectives are and to see if they have additional insight to offer. It was encouraging to see the author respond to some of the reviews. It is admirable that he considers the book a work in progress and already has plans to address further issues with future editions. I encourage you take the advice he offers at the beginning of the book by checking his blog at bankruptcyforeclosureblog for numerous important updates of key legislative changes and there are also other resources at Nolo. A reading of the book shows Mr. Elias is compassionate about this critical issue. More impressively, a reading of his replies to comments on the Amazon reviews shows a refreshing candor related to this topic compared to others. His comment that some people would have been (and will be) better off as renters is powerful and I agree that some people need to reassess what the American dream involves. I respect that the author targeted this book to a specific audience that might not always be able to afford an attorney in light of the circumstances of their situation. The approach is to give them an overview of their options while not providing the definitive source for all foreclosure information. It just gives them the basic information to help them make more informed decisions while avoiding the scam artists out there trying to further aggravate the situation. That being said it does give an effective overview of the process of foreclosure while letting people know their main options. It demystifies the process while discussing whether they should attempt to stay in their home or walk away and whether they should pursue loan modifications, non-profit counselors, or go through chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. You even have an attorney giving an honest representation of when one should use an attorney and what one can do on their own. It also deals briefly with other less common alternatives. The glossary of terms is comprehensive and yet concise as is the attempt to summarize the unique situation in each of the 50 states effectively. While it is impossible to touch on every situation while also controlling the cost, and size, of the book this approach allowed the author to take a more tactful encouraging "coach's" approach to the process. I think this achieved the right balance. I will digress for a moment and be less tactful for a moment. I am disgusted by what I perceive as Congressional actions over an extended period of time that, at best, contributed to this mess. I think creating an environment that allowed lenders to dramatically relax the debt-to-income ratio beyond their traditional levels of 28% to 36% (the book mentions 25% to 33%) is nauseating. Couple this with basically 7 million of the 14 million mortgages issued during the peak of this frenzy involving 2/28, 3/27, interest only, negative amortization, no doc, alt-a, or other forms of creative finance ARMs and we had the recipe for this disaster. Fannie, Freddie and Wall Street buying these loans and the excessive use of piggyback loans to avoid PMI could have been, and should have been, prevented. However, political and economic motives got in the way. The inability of the above parties to be proactive is problematic enough; however, their attempts to be reactive have oftentimes been even more troublesome. Add the lobbyists for the banks and their role in all of the above, as well as their successful efforts to change the bankruptcy laws right before the bottom fell out and we see why there is so much mistrust. This is all water under the bridge and I think it is important to look forward and offer solutions rather than dwell on the past and I am glad this book took the high road even though I felt compelled to mention the above. I don't know if I share the rosy outlook that recent legislation will somehow wave a magic wand and make lenders more willing to entertain short sales. Even with recent legislative actions, the universe of people that qualify for loan modification programs is still severely limited and by the time they are eligible, damage has already been done. Plus, the bottom line is loan modifications are problematic no matter what moving part one examines. I view extending the amortization period to 40 years as something that benefits the banks / mortgage servicers and the ultimate investors in the MBS/CDOs more than the homeowners. It buys them time while the homeowner might just be postponing an inevitable foreclosure and the ability to start their life over. I view reducing interest rates as a noble effort, but not something that will make the monthly payments affordable enough for most people. Finally, while the courts have been granted more authority to modify loan amounts and the author is an advocate of doing so for both chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcies, I have a philosophical distaste for this solution, even though I tend to think it might be needed at this point for the best interests of all. I think home prices will still move down further in most markets and as more people become upside down (or even more underwater than they already are) more people will just walk away. It's human nature, they have no skin in the game, and they have little-to-nothing to lose. I do have a few specific suggestions for improvement on future editions that might benefit readers. First, recourse vs. non-recourse loans was specifically mentioned at the beginning of the book and they are alluded to in later portions of the book. I think many people would benefit from a more thorough discussion of this concept. I appreciate that this concept varies and can be hard to summarize for all 50 states; however, I think the ramifications of recourse loans needs more attention. Next, I really like the effort to expose some of the common scams that prey on people facing foreclosure. I have noticed the deplorable individuals behind these scams have gotten increasingly aggressive in their tactics and I think some of the more recent scams should be highlighted. Finally, I do think a few pages on credit consequences of the alternate courses of action should be highlighted. It should be summarized and distinguished how some of the different actions will remain on one's credit report for seven years, for ten years and indefinitely. I admire, and agree, with the assertion that some people will be better off without credit anyway, and maybe this can be part of the summary. One final point on the American dream mentioned in the book. I agree that home ownership is overrated and the true holding and transaction costs of home ownership are grossly understated by most. I applaud the effort to take some time to deal with the emotional effects of foreclosure instead of just the financial impact. Amen to defining the American dream in the context of democracy, freedom and education and not just the cliché of owning a home. I have not had to deal with foreclosure nor will I; however, I am not naïve enough to state that this crisis does not affect me. This crisis directly, or indirectly, impacts all of our assets and more importantly all of our lives. We are in this together and though discussion, debate, and time, we will find our way through this crisis as we have all past challenges. Summary: Enjoyable to read; Full of useful informationRating: 5This book is surprisingly enjoyable to read although the topic is obviously depressing. The very useful information provided will make a reader feel more confident in overcoming the challenges of a potential foreclosure. At the end of the book, I discovered that the author is a lawyer. That must be the reason why he's such a good writer. I looked him up. He's a graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law, one of the best law schools in the nation, and has been practicing law for almost 40 years.

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