"DAMAGED"
Foreclosure can do more damage to your financial credibility than bankruptcy.
1. Your Home
Foreclosure results in the loss of your home. Your entire family suffers the emotional toll caused by having to leave their home as a result of foreclosure.
Foreclosure advocates argue against the excessive damage a foreclosure will do over an unreasonably long time.
2. Your Financial Credibility
Foreclosure can do more long term damage to your financial credibility than a bankruptcy. Your credit rating alone suffers for a minimum of seven years.
Foreclosure appears forever on public records. Public records are now commonly researched by anyone with a computer and internet connection.
3. The Fresh Start
Mortgage holders in default, who avoid foreclosure by finding another way to satisfy their lender are rewarded with the opportunity to make a fresh start. They can quickly recover from their financial setback and resume leading their family into a bright future.
Most homeowners are not directly responsible for the circumstances that led to their foreclosure, but they learn a valuable lesson about their finances. What good does that do anyone if they don't get a second chance?
4. Never ending damages.
Just when you think you have suffered through all the damage a foreclosure could possibly do... usually ten or fifteen years later, when something financially positive finally happen, your lender has the legal right to slam the door shut on the rest of your future. They can return at anytime with a civil lawsuit seeking the unpaid balance of the loan that resulted in foreclosure. They can and will do this when the first sign of wealth appears in your life.
Mortage lenders are in business to earn a profit. They won't hesitate to use every bit of power the legal system allows to collect money that they perceive as wealth that they are owed. There is no way to defend yourself from this.
5. Priceless.
Foreclosure takes an emotional toll that you can't put a price on. Husbands, Wives, Daughters, Sons, Grandparents, Grandkids, even the family pet suffers from being dislocated from the roots of their family.
leaving behind your friends, classmates, boyfriends, girlfriends... it all weighs heavy on every member of the family...but none as much as the head of the family who feels like they have failed. Divorce and suicide are the ugly results from foreclosure.