August 22, 2000 is a day I will never forget as the events on that day have shaped my life in ways I could have never imagined and took me on the rollercoaster ride of my life! Everything happened just wrong… Everything… And it was my fault because it was I who had hugely miscalculated. This was the day I closed on the house that ended up nearly killing me!
To start, this home needed a whole mountain range of work. I didn’t do my homework and I completely underestimated the repairs. The fix up and repair costs ended up being 3 times what I had estimated… but at the time I thought it was a great deal so I signed on the bottom line. I was naïve enough to believe the seller (who also happened to be someone I trusted as an advisor and mentor at the time) about what the value of the house was. When I went to sell it many months later I found that the top value for houses in that area was 80 percent of what I needed to sell my house for, just to break even.
To make matters worse I let myself be conned into taking out a loan with a 15% interest rate (because my “advisor” told me to. I also believed him on what the fix up costs would be). Frankly, just typing all of this into the computer is a little embarrassing because most of the people who are losing their home didn’t do it out of stupidity and greed like I did.
Then my low blood sugar blood sugar problems flared up to a point where I could barely get out of bed. I was truly lucky if I could simply work on the house for a couple of listless hours in a day. I was deeply depressed. I was frustrated. I despaired. I didn’t see any way out. I had borrowed many thousands of dollars from my family desperately trying finish this project. My girl friend and I had just broke up… and…
I got behind on my payments. I found myself in the deepest darkest most trying time of my life. I was not living the dream I had envisioned… I felt guilty. Guilty for being stupid. Guilty for not making my payments and most of all guilty for putting a hardship on my family members who had lent to me in good faith… and I couldn’t pay them back. I remember one moment clearly. My dad, wanting to see his son succeed had cosigned on the expensive renovation loan with me. He also maxed out the equity line on his personal home to lend me money to complete the project that had gone massively over budget. I remember standing with my arms around him as he sobbed in desperation, thinking that he was going to lose his own personal home, his credit and everything that he had worked for in his life. I wasn’t crying… I was too numb and overwhelmed and physically and emotionally exhausted for that. I felt horrible because it was my fault and I felt too sick and weak and powerless to make a change… and I felt completely alone with no one to advise me. My life was a train wreck and this is just the quick summary. In this post I can’t give you all of the details of my long road to recovery. But as Winter turns to Spring and then to Summer, so my life changed completely around. It started with a conviction that… NO MATTER WHAT!… SOME HOW!… I must absolutely get myself out of this situation.
Slowly things started to turn around. I was able to work hard and use diet to get my health more stable. I secured a job working with an experienced and trusted real estate professional that I could learn under and make money while doing it. I was able to work out an arrangement with my lender and get caught up.
I stumbled on a creative marketing technique that allowed me to sell my house for a fantasticly premium amount (after a year and a half on the market) and barely pay off the money I had borrowed on the house. Through the recovery process I have learned a great deal of information (sometimes the hard way) that I would love to share with you. This information was very expensive for me to acquire and I have used it to help many other people, like you and I, to take their lives off pause and START LIVING AGAIN.
I have completed many thousands of dollars in specialized training, courses and seminars regarding all aspects of real estate sales, real estate finance, loan originating, appraisal, creative financing, marketing, negotiating with banks, negotiating defaulted debt, judgments, real estate title, bankruptcy and credit repair.
I’ve reinforced this training with thousands of hours dealing with these issues in the field full time… helping people out. I am currently a licensed real estate agent and was formerly a licensed loan officer. Having this experience has given me purpose and drive in helping others. I am committed to making sure that others don’t go through the anguish that I did.
To that end I offer you this blog. My experience specifically centers around working with people in foreclosure keeping or selling their homes in the North Eastern Ohio and the Cleveland and surounding suburbs. Much of this information will center around that experience however I will attempt to taylor it to apply nationwide.
If you have questions for me to address on this blog and you are not in my area I would be glad to research the answers and post them on this blog if I don’t allready know them. I currently have a free ebook called “The Foreclosure Loopholes Report” which I will be slowly phasing out as I put it piece by piece on this blog. In doing so I will be expanding and updating and giving others the opurtinity to contribute and respond to these articles on how best to Stop Foreclosure.
If you are in the North Eastern Ohio area and want to keep your home I will talk to you on the phone for free and will give you assistance on how best to reach your goals of doing that. All I ask is that you fill out the Keep My House form on this website and allow me to read over your information call you back for an informed discussion. If you aren’t in Lorain County or Cuyahoga County or one of the surounding counties you can fill in the Keep My House form and I will direct your information to a someone in your area that can assist you. Of course anyone can reply to this blog and I will try to respond with helpful answers in a timely manner. Also at some point in the next three months I will be producing a stop foreclosure audio mp3 for you ipod people that will discuss much of what I talk about in an audio format.
If keeping your home is not an option I can sell your house as a licensed agent and realtor. I have a special plan for people in foreclosure where I can actually bill your lender for my brokerage fee and at the same time I have them lower the balance of your mortgage so you can sell your house quickly in a market that is very slow. Nearly all lenders will work with me on this and this service doesn’t cost you anything. My clients love the fact that their lender pays for me to represent them and they don’t have to pay a dime. I will talk more about this in upcoming posts. I also offer a lender negotiation service for out of state clients as well. Again the best thing to do is to fill out the Sell My House Form and allow me to call you back as soon as possible. This blog is designed to be able to educate you about your options. Its intent is to give you information that will guide you in making a good decision about your current situation. I wish you the very best.
Sincerely,
Andy Morris
P.S. Obviously things have gotten much better now since this all happened. Here is me with my bride Jenelle. As of this post we’ve been married nearly 2.5 years. Here is allso the after picture of that first house.
