If Investments Are Hurting Your Credit, It's Time To Cut Your Losses
When a lot of people think of investment properties they seem to assume that they are treated much differently from the home that you live in, but that's not true, especially where issues like payments and foreclosures are concerned. Any investment property that's facing foreclosure is a serious problem because that will go on a person's credit like any other foreclosure. The payments on the investment property have to be kept current and that can be hard to do in a recession and a tight credit market where an investor might not know from month to month whether the money to make the payment will be available.
Investment properties were very popular back when the housing market was booming, and everyone was buying and selling them. Flipping them and reselling them was popular, and so was renting them out for the income. There were waiting lists and houses that went to the highest bidder because people were so eager for them.
Now there are properties all over the place that no one seems to want and the people who have them as investment properties can hardly give them away. In Detroit and some of the other hardest-hit cities there are properties that aren't going for tens of thousands or even for thousands of dollars, but that are going for only a few hundred dollars, instead. People who were lucky and bought and sold when the market was good made a lot of money, but there were people who got stuck with a lot of properties and it left them wondering: what were they supposed to do next?
If you're in that 'I don't know what to do with this investment property' situation, you're definitely not alone, and you'll find plenty of other people to commiserate with, most of whom have lost a lot of money to an uncertain and very volatile market. You could also be one of the people for whom things have gone from bad to worse and you're finding that your investment property is costing you so much that you're getting behind on the payments and can't make them for much longer. If that's where you are, you have two choices: you can try to stick it out because the market is showing some slow signs of improvement or you can try to sell the property and get out from under it before it totally destroys your credit rating.
Even if there's already been some damage to your credit, the less damage there is and the shorter the period of time where late payments and other issues show up the less costly it will be to you in the long run when your credit is checked by a company that you're trying to use to finance something. The main thing is to avoid the damage, but if you're not able to do that the next best thing is to cut your losses and do some damage control in the form of getting rid of your investment properties before they can harm your credit and/or your financial future any more than they already have. To do that you have to know what's owed on them, what they're worth, and how you can most easily and quickly get rid of them - either by a deed to the bank in lieu of foreclosure, a short sale, or some other method.
Talking with your bank or lender and being honest about your financial difficulties is one of the best and smartest things that you could ever do when it comes to an investment property that otherwise might be facing foreclosure. Ideally, you should talk to your lender before you really get behind, but a lot of people wait much longer than that because they think that things will turn around and they're embarrassed to admit that they're having a problem. Don't let embarrassment or discomfort ruin your financial future and your good credit rating - talk to your lender right away as soon as you see that there might be a problem.
Being up front shows the lender that you're making a good faith effort, and that makes most lenders more willing to work with you and try to get you a better rate, a longer term, or something else that will let you keep the property and make the payments. If it's obvious that the property can't be paid for, talk to your lender and see what options the two of you can come up with. It's very important to try to keep an actual foreclosure off of your credit record, so checking with your lender and talking through all issues is vital to your financial life.
Investment properties were very popular back when the housing market was booming, and everyone was buying and selling them. Flipping them and reselling them was popular, and so was renting them out for the income. There were waiting lists and houses that went to the highest bidder because people were so eager for them.
Now there are properties all over the place that no one seems to want and the people who have them as investment properties can hardly give them away. In Detroit and some of the other hardest-hit cities there are properties that aren't going for tens of thousands or even for thousands of dollars, but that are going for only a few hundred dollars, instead. People who were lucky and bought and sold when the market was good made a lot of money, but there were people who got stuck with a lot of properties and it left them wondering: what were they supposed to do next?
If you're in that 'I don't know what to do with this investment property' situation, you're definitely not alone, and you'll find plenty of other people to commiserate with, most of whom have lost a lot of money to an uncertain and very volatile market. You could also be one of the people for whom things have gone from bad to worse and you're finding that your investment property is costing you so much that you're getting behind on the payments and can't make them for much longer. If that's where you are, you have two choices: you can try to stick it out because the market is showing some slow signs of improvement or you can try to sell the property and get out from under it before it totally destroys your credit rating.
Even if there's already been some damage to your credit, the less damage there is and the shorter the period of time where late payments and other issues show up the less costly it will be to you in the long run when your credit is checked by a company that you're trying to use to finance something. The main thing is to avoid the damage, but if you're not able to do that the next best thing is to cut your losses and do some damage control in the form of getting rid of your investment properties before they can harm your credit and/or your financial future any more than they already have. To do that you have to know what's owed on them, what they're worth, and how you can most easily and quickly get rid of them - either by a deed to the bank in lieu of foreclosure, a short sale, or some other method.
Talking with your bank or lender and being honest about your financial difficulties is one of the best and smartest things that you could ever do when it comes to an investment property that otherwise might be facing foreclosure. Ideally, you should talk to your lender before you really get behind, but a lot of people wait much longer than that because they think that things will turn around and they're embarrassed to admit that they're having a problem. Don't let embarrassment or discomfort ruin your financial future and your good credit rating - talk to your lender right away as soon as you see that there might be a problem.
Being up front shows the lender that you're making a good faith effort, and that makes most lenders more willing to work with you and try to get you a better rate, a longer term, or something else that will let you keep the property and make the payments. If it's obvious that the property can't be paid for, talk to your lender and see what options the two of you can come up with. It's very important to try to keep an actual foreclosure off of your credit record, so checking with your lender and talking through all issues is vital to your financial life.