Is Foreclosure Creeping Up? Share your Pain!

March 10th, 2008 paris911 Posted in Foreclosures, Paris911 Code, San Fernando Valley Real Estate, Santa Clarita Real Estate, Santa Clarita Valley Real Estate Search, Santa Clarita Valley Schools, Santa Clarita Valley and San Fernando Valley, Saugus Real Estate, Short Sales, Southern California Real Estate Search, Uncategorized 5 Comments »


I am not sure whether or not those that have not been through a foreclosure understand the emotional drain that it is.  If you are single, you have to face friends and family.  If there are children in the equation, children old enough to understand the moving process, then you have a huge amount of stress to deal with.  What I can say is you do need time to grieve, you need time to let it hit you and understand that you are not alone.  I suppose if you were the only person in the world that Foreclosure has happened to, then that might be a different story.  But there are a lot of people that become involved in very uncomfortable circumstances with Death, Divorce, Disease, and Job Loss - the major 4 problems associated with Foreclosure.  I can feel your pain.  You now need to feel your pain, share it with someone that you trust, so you both can come away stronger from the sharing.  Might I suggest a Priest, Confidant, Spouse, Realtor, or maybe even in a anonymous chat room?  But you need to not keep any of this bottled up and get it out in whatever way you can that is healthy and without tragic consequences.
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Foreclosure in the Santa Clarita Valley and Beyond - Be Sure to Share Your Pain!
In a majority of foreclosures, one of the homeowners hides it from the spouse. Usually, the partner keeping the secret is the person responsible for paying the bills and is (or feels) responsible for causing the problem and fixing it. This partner may feel like a failure for not properly managing the finances or for overspending, or the person may be using the family finances to support an embarrassing and costly habit.
Attempting to sweep the foreclosure under the rug can compound the problem in any or all of the following ways:
·         Makes you more susceptible to becoming a victim of foreclosure rescue scams. One of the con artist’s most powerful strategies is divide and conquer. They will offer ways to avoid foreclosure so your partner “never has to know about it.” They are afraid that the more people “know about it,” the more likely they will get caught.
·         Removes one of your pillars of support. As a couple, you have a much better chance of improving the outcome than by acting alone. Your partner may have some excellent ideas and resources to help save your home.
·         Wastes time. The longer you try to keep the secret without taking positive steps to resolve the problem with your lender, the less time you have to save your home, sell it, or pursue other options.
·         Leads to distrust with your partner, who will eventually find out anyway.
Remember, your partner is going to eventually find out about the foreclosure. It’s always better if your partner finds out earlier from you rather than later from a stranger… like when the sheriff shows up to evict you and your family from your home or the person who purchased the home at auction shows up at the front door.
Communication Is Key
If you and your partner can’t have an honest discussion about household finances and troublesome behaviors, then your entire relationship is already at risk. Look at the foreclosure as an opportunity to become open and honest and build intimacy. Either your relationship will not survive, meaning it was not worth trying to save in the first place, or it will deepen and become more rewarding over time.
Financial Setback + Communication Breakdown = Loss of Home and Equity
What is equity? Equity is the amount of money that you get to keep after you sell your home and pay back the debt you owe on it.
Adding communication back into the equation gives you and your partner a much better chance of addressing the underlying financial shortfall and ultimately saving your home or selling it to cash out enough equity to make a graceful exit.
Whether you’re currently facing foreclosure or have just missed one or two mortgage payments, tell your partner immediately. Losing your home in a vain attempt to avoid an uncomfortable discussion with your partner is the wrong approach.
Avoid the Worst Options
The worst option in foreclosure is to try to sweep the problem under the rug. Well, actually there are three “worst” options:
·         The absolute worst option is to deal with a con artist who’s out to steal your home through some foreclosure scam or strip you of the equity in it.
·         The next worst option is to do nothing. When you do nothing, the lender forecloses, the property is sold, and you’re evicted. You can say “so long” to both the property and any equity you built up in it.
·         Another bad option is choose a solution that puts you right back on the path to future foreclosure. Some people, for example, borrow money to reinstate the loan – that is, bring the payments current with the bank. This is a viable solution if the financial setback was temporary and you will have sufficient income to start making payments on your mortgage and on the money you borrowed to reinstate. However, if you are unable to make the monthly payments, you will probably be better off selling the home and finding more affordable accommodations.
Overcoming Your Fears
If you are afraid of telling your partner, then ask another family member, a close friend, a financial counselor, a marriage counselor, or someone else that you and your partner both feel comfortable talking with and that you both trust to help you break the bad news.
An unbiased third party can act as an intermediary, laying out the facts more rationally, so arguments do not get in the way of a full disclosure. You want to come clean and lay all the facts and figures on the table so you and your partner know what you are dealing with.
Remember, what has happened is in the past. You and your partner can do nothing to fix what has already happened. You can only make things better now and for your future together.
About the Author: Ralph R. Roberts, GRI, CRS and his team of foreclosure experts regularly assist families facing foreclosure and have authored Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons).
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It is paramount that you learn to deal with this and make sure you make good decisions.  Realize that you are not alone in this process and that if you have good advice from others that do not want anything but what is best for you, then you are going to become accomplished in the healing process.  Remember, that alone we are not anywhere near as powerful as in numbers.  Together we can bond together and survive any tragedy.  But people that are alone do funny things, and sometimes things that leave a whole multitude of people in pain and that is a Problem - CONNOR with HONOR

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Valencia School Drop off and Pick up Problems

March 10th, 2008 paris911 Posted in Santa Clarita Valley Schools No Comments »


I cannot say that this issue is localized to Valencia California Schools.  I have worked a Traffic Safety Unit with Valley Traffic Division, for 5 years when I was on Motors.  I was a complaint officer that worked in close relationship with a few of the Local Los Angeles Council Offices.  My responsibility was to take calls and attend community meetings with community members and work on their traffic complaints.  I did so in Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Studio City, West Valley, and throughout other cities in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

I was frequently summoned to the local schools that had a horrific traffic pattern problem.  With parents in a hurry, dropping off their children on the wrong side of the street, double parking, and driving too fast after the package was delivered.  These problems could result, and have before, in the hurting or worse, death of children.  That is not too far fetched because I have witnessed this tragedy first hand at one of those local schools that had traffic issues.

What is the solution?  I drop my eldest off at Rio Norte Junior High in the mornings, I leave the house at 0700hrs, and want him there early, so I can get a jump on our business.  There is not much traffic at that time, but sometimes I run late or he does not get up as I would like, therefore it causes me to drop him later, approaching the 0730 mark.  Now the school bell rings around 0740hrs.  From 0730 hours to 0740hrs, the traffic seems to back up a bit. 

Pick up is another issue, due to the morning times and the parents not all coming to release their children all at the same time, it is not very much of an issue.  At the Pick Up times at any of the southland Schools, you will see something completely different.  Usually there is only one time where the school is released.  Even if there were more than one time, that split would not be sufficient to control the flow of traffic.  At Rio Norte, the end of the day comes at 1400hrs.  Traffic starts building about 15 minutes until that time each school day.  Now the drive way is in a horse shoe configuration, and becomes one way during drop off and pick up.  The rest of the school day it is two way.  During drop off and pick up there are two lines of traffic, an interior and exterior line and there are cones that separate the two lines.  You enter in a counter-clock wise pattern on the north driveway and exit on the south driveway.

If you are on the exterior side, you drop off your child and the crossing guard stops traffic intermittently and get your children safely to the interior side of the horse shoe where the school is located.  In the PM there is a Sheriff’s Deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that does a great job in the controlling of traffic and keeping everyone honest.  There are also a lot of other Educational folks that help with the safe crossing of children and traffic concerns and complaints, these Rio Norte Employees are FANTASTIC. 

One of the issues with picking up in the afternoon is with the traffic blocking the city street that leads to the school grounds.  Emergency vehicles and personnel would not be able to get to the other side of the school if folks during pick up are bending the rules and stopping on the city street.  You must pass by and come around again to be in compliance. 

What is the solution, try making 4 different times of school starting and ending, that would not work due to union issues and it would also be difficult to start that process.  I cannot imagine how logistically that could be handled.  With this particular school there are four sides that would work for drop off.  I am wondering if all of the parents that were dropping off, would be issued a card with one of the first four letters of the Alphabet on it.  A would correspond to the front, B, would be the north side, C, would be the west side, and D would be the south side.  Then those times with pick up and drop off might be reduced in the amount of vehicles that are occupying those streets.  The problem with this suggestion is one of personnel.  That would now take more people to work on all of those other sides of the school.

I suppose that the best issue is education and maybe some enforcement to keep everyone in check.  When I was that complaint officer that I mentioned earlier, we used the three E’s of Traffic, Education, Enforcement, and Engineering to address traffic issues at schools. - CONNOR with HONOR

 

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