“Dear Steve,
I’m in Fairfax County, VA area. I am 4 months behind on house mortgage (HFC – foreign owned). Own tree service and am a partner in a small struggling marketing firm. Anyway, I have been in the tree service for almost 12 years and while it is always slower in the winter, yet at some point in March we start working everyday. This hasn’t happened and winter was also very dead. I took the partnership with the marketing firm and made a few thousand over the winter but that just became survival money due to the tree service being so dead…
I investigated bankruptcy a few years ago and found that laws had changed. You have to go to classes now, etc.
Do you have an attorney(ies) you recommend for mortgage modification and/or bankruptcy? I’m nervous because of all the scammers out there. I was on the phone with Nationwide Law Center this morning and looked them up and found out they are not solid in reputation (which is how I found you, by the way). Please help. Thank you.
Ann”
Dear Ann,
The best advice I can give you on the fear of bankruptcy is contained in this article. Don’t make assumptions about bankruptcy. And while you do have to take a B.S. class before you can file, you do it online. It’s no more than a pain in the butt and an inconvenience. The classes cost as little as $5.
If you are looking for mortgage help I suggest people contact a free HUD Housing Counselor as a good place to start to understand if a modification is even possible for you.
The good news here is that you are starting to take action to resolve the underlying financial difficulties. While that does not remedy the reduction in income, every dollar you can save offsets a dollar you would have had to earn.
Let me know what happens next for you. Keep me posted.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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