Recently, I received a call from one of our clients who purchased a home two years ago.  He wanted to know why he was unable to refinance the current mortgage on his home.

After taking a look at recent sales in his neighborhood, the answer was crystal clear.  There had been some properties in his community that were sold as foreclosures.

So, how do foreclosures affect your home's value?  Well, it is important to know that when a home is foreclosed on, the bank has taken back the home and the people who owned the house were forced to move out - so the bank now owns the home.  Obviously banks do not want to own homes - they want to make money on the interest charged on the mortgages that come from homeownership, so they want to sell these properties quickly.

Often times, this means that the house will be sold at a price much lower than it would typically be sold if a person owned the home and had to pay off his mortgage from the proceeds of the sale.

Every time that a home is sold for a low price, it lowers the appraised value of all of the similar type properties immediately surrounding it.

In a nutshell, foreclosures lower fair market value making it hard for people to sell their homes at fair prices and making it hard for people to refinance their homes as well.

If you know someone who is having difficulty making his mortgage payments, help him avoid foreclosure by telling him about our "We Care" program.  Jesse is a Certified Distressed Property Expert and is qualified to help those people who are having trouble in these difficult times.

Wishing you sunshine everyday and the home of your dreams,
Jeri