Foreclosure and Short Sales News

Posts Tagged ‘freedom foreclosure prevention services’

So many people are asking why I left FFPS, I thought it was time to go public with my reasons for resigning as Webmaster. First of all, yes it is true, I left – quietly, so it would not cause a panic. Almost a month later, the reasons and impact of that decision are detailed below.

The Venture Begins

In September, 2003, together with Jeff and Canela Segal, I helped form Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services. I created all the initial website designs and structures, along with the Members Only Area that so many raved about. The “What’s New” page was filled every month of the changes that were happening with all the sites and supporting documents. My involvement with the company was stated as a “partner”, but that agreement was only verbal; nothing was ever documented on paper.

Outsourcing Designs and Programming

Eventually the requests for high-end programming and design became overbearing, so they were outsourced to another team. That team reprogrammed the sites in a way that they became over-complicated and a big problem to make any updates by standard means. At times it took me several hours just to find where to update a word, link or sentence within one page.

Requests for guidance from the programming manager were ignored, except to say his programmer would take care of it. That meant more waiting time, additional company expense and potential problems when other things got messed up in the process. Yes, that happens all too often, so I gave up my title as Project Manager and turned it over to Jeff so he could handle the programmers.

Work and Income Stop

By September, 2008, there was little left for me to do, other than monitor support tickets. The volume of tickets related to programming issues were increasing, so I created an account for the programming manager to handle those requests.

That left me with nothing to do, which translated into nothing to be paid for, so I submitted my resignation as Webmaster on September 24, 2008. I did not announce it to the world because it would cause panic amongst many of the consultants. Some were already leaving and canceling their web hosting that I provided for them through Website Managers.

Since large percentage of my new clients were FFPS consultants who set up blogs or lead capture pages, those cancellations had a large impact on my hosting business too, so that also went away. My servers were transferred either to Host Gator, the company who houses and maintains them, or to other clients who wanted them.

I also disabled all my FFPS websites because I did not feel comfortable promoting the consultant program since I was no longer involved with FFPS, plus the commission payments were being delayed to a point where I knew there were internal problems. Although delayed, I got paid for my last 2 referrals.

No Work + No Income = Time to Move On

By the time I resigned, I had formed another company, Short Sale Holdings, to process short sales. Those leads would initially come from the declined Loss Mitigation applications at FFPS. Once the site went online, I was approached by Donna Atwater, CEO of American Loss Mitigation Services, to help sell their Short Sales Investor Training program. I have seen short sales training before, so I investigated to see why this one is different.

The training is more detailed than ANY I had seen previously, but they had no marketing set up to promote it. Being that I felt comfortable helping with the sales, I gathered as much information as possible about it and built a sales page on my new site. That was accepted so well that Donna and her partner chose me as their exclusive vendor for their training program.

Moving Forward

With all that in place, there is no reason to return to FFPS and every reason to move forward. Sure it is a big change, from setting my own business aside for 5 years and relying on a single source of income, to starting over. I am confident though that it was a good change and look forward to building the business into one that will once again provide not only for my family, but also for those who join and help us promote the services.

Jim Hutchinson, Founder / CEO
Short Sale Holdings, LLC
Website Managers, LLC

Foreclosure rates reached 30 year highs in 2006 and 2007. Now well into 2008 foreclosure rates have increased from last year. With foreclosures rates climbing, opportunities will arise for generating an income while helping others. However, as most of us have seen during crisis, many scams evolve and con artists emerge. How is one to separate a legitimate business opportunity from the scams?

In the past three years newspapers have been riddled with articles relating to the arrests, charges and shut downs of many companies claiming to offer foreclosure prevention solutions. In a time of desperation, homeowners are exposed and vulnerable to these sharks that have no other interest than to take their home and take their money. There are companies that claim to provide training, whether full or limited, that neither have the knowledge, nor the experience to provide such training that would give an individual the tools needed to ethically and affordably help homeowners.

Ethical opportunities are out there for both mortgage and real estate professionals, including the entrepreneurs, in which they can truly have an ethical foreclosure prevention business. When looking to involve yourself in the foreclosure arena, it is important to consider the effects your services, whatever they may be, will have on your client in the long run. Be sure to research all foreclosure options and make sure you are well-equipped to provide as many as possible. A client should be able to turn to you for education and guidance.

The most viable and amicable way of avoiding foreclosure is the use of Loss Mitigation services. Loss Mitigation services are the use of a third party negotiator that works for the homeowner and not the lender. This third party will negotiate on behalf of the borrower to find a more financially suitable solution that fits the needs of those homeowners. This will allow them an appropriate time frame in which to catch up on payments that they fell behind on. Not all programs are the same and not all lenders have the same criteria for the qualification to these programs.

A unique way of getting involved in loss Mitigation is finding a company that provides the training, client pre-qualification, plus initial client handling and interviewing. Once this is complete and the company that you have chosen to work with has approved a case, the client will then be handled by the company, who should be the actual loss Mitigation service provider.

However, selecting a company should be done with thorough research. You will want to align yourself with a company whose staff has more than 10 years experience, who has a strong presence and one who is well established. The company should be more than 5 years old. This will ensure that they were around before the foreclosure hike; it also indicates that they are truly providing a real service unlike those that have set up shop overnight.

Why would you want someone else to handle the actual loss Mitigation for you? Loss Mitigation is very rewarding and it is a great service. However, the amount of time involved during the negotiation process without the proper knowledge can prove to be extremely detrimental to a client losing their home. In addition, there is a certain amount of liability involved when someone doing the negotiations or providing the service loses a home.

Keep in mind that sending your clients to a company that is well established and has a great track record will serve you best as you will have more time to help more clients. Many of us do not enjoy paperwork, which can be time consuming. The right company will handle this for you. For someone working on the front end of the deal, you should expect your commissions to range from 20%-40% of a case fee.

In addition, you want to ensure that the sole service of that company is Loss Mitigation. They may have a referral network of professionals that they work with for other services, but not handle these other services in-house. A company that is ethical will want to focus on saving homeowners from foreclosure and keeping them in the homes.

Remember that there are many companies out there, but few that can actually be trusted and relied upon. To learn more about becoming a Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant with the company I chose, you can visit our website and see how you can really earn a good income per month by truly helping homeowners prevent foreclosure.

Jim Hutchinson
Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant
Prevent Foreclosure

Suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to debt. James Scurlock’s brilliant documentary, Maxed Out, features the families of two college students who killed themselves after being overwhelmed by credit card debt. “All the people we talked to had considered suicide at least once,” Scurlock told a gathering of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in 2007. According to the Los Angeles Times, lawyers in the audience backed him up, “describing clients who showed up at their offices with cyanide, or threatened, ‘If you don’t help me, I’ve got a gun in my car.’”

Death is an effective remedy for debt, along with anything else that may be bothering you too. And try to think of it too from a lofty, corner-office, perspective: If you can’t pay your debts or afford to play your role as a consumer, and if, in addition — like an ever-rising number of Americans — you’re no longer needed at the workplace, then there’s no further point to your existence. I’m not saying that the creditors, the bankers and the mortgage companies actually want you dead, but in a culture where one’s credit rating is routinely held up as a three-digit measure of personal self-worth, the correct response to insoluble debt is in fact, “Just shoot me!”

The alternative is to value yourself more than any amount of money and turn the guns, metaphorically speaking, in the other direction. It wasn’t God, or some abstract economic climate change, that caused the credit crisis. Actual humans — often masked as financial institutions — did that.

Source: Suicide Solution – By Barbara Ehrenreich

Many of the distraught home owners can be helped by Loss Mitigation Consultants who reach out to them. The problem is that there are not have enough consultants to find all of the home owners in trouble. This is where you can help.

Request a free business overview at PreventForeclosure.net and see how you can help us prevent foreclosure for more home owners.

Jim Hutchinson
Independent Loss Mitigation Consultant

On Tuesday, July 15, 2008, General Motors announced their plans to cut 20% of its 40,000 salaried workers jobs in North America, suspend common stock dividends, cut retiree medical benefits, plus close or sell 5 US manufacturing plants.

With the automobile sales being dominated by more fuel efficient vehicles, most of them by foreign auto makers, the US market will have a tough time keeping up. General Motors has a huge overstock of gas-guzzling vehicles, such as the Hummer.

What this means for the foreclosure crisis

In about 2-3 months from now, many of those 40,000 salaried workers will face tough decisions on their mortgage payments. Some may file for bankruptcy. Others will find new jobs. Many, if not most, will be searching for ways to prevent foreclosure.

This is where you can help. Our consultants reach out to home owners, interview them to see if they are in a
position to be helped, then get them into our system. From there the Loss Mitigation Division of Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services starts negotiations with the lenders.

To learn how you can get started, visit PreventForeclosure.net

Jim Hutchinson

Source: Reuters

CNN reported today, June 6, 2008 that 350,000 jobs have been lost in the past year. In May alone, 49,000 jobs were lost. In order to sustain our economy, CNN reported that 100,000 jobs have to be created every month. Obviously this is not happening, forcing the unemployment rate up to 5.5%, a full 1% higher than last year. This pushes the foreclosure crisis to new record levels.

May, 2008 had the largest monthly unemployment jump, .5% in 20 years. To prevent foreclosure, the homeowners must have an income. Without an income, there is nothing to use for negotiating with their lender. Many homeowners find new employment, but only after falling behind on their mortgage. That is where you come in – helping us reach out to those homeowners and let them know that there is still hope to stop foreclosure on their homes so that they will not have to move.

To learn how you can help by becoming a Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant, or Joint Venture Manager, visit PreventForeclosure.net.

Jim Hutchinson
Independent Certified Loss Mitigation Consultant
Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services