So I was watching this show The Millionaire Inside on CNBC and the episode featured Donald Trump talking about real estate investments. One of the audience members asked Trump if he thought it was a good time to buy real estate since there were so many foreclosures. Trump’s response was interesting. Before he answered the question he addressed the foreclosures. He said if you you are being foreclosed the first thing you should do is ask the lender to work something out. Ask if you can change the mortgage terms to save the home or property. He went on to say that he’s seen way too many people walk away from properties when they get the foreclosure notice without trying to negotiate. The last thing a bank wants, according to Trump, is to take over a property.
Wow. That kinda floored me. Of course, ask. Talk to the bank. Have we really gotten so far away from the human element? There’s a lot of power in speaking with someone and you never really know what will happen until you ask. Negotiating, whether for a house or a car or a DVD player at the electronics store, doesn’t have to be some hard-nosed battle. It can be two people asking for what they want and figuring out what it will take to get a deal done.
As long as you are being reasonable it doesn’t hurt to ask for something you want in a deal. You may get that extra speaker cable thrown in, or the mats for your car, the batteries for an electronic device, the extra set of prints. Or maybe you’ll be able to keep your home!
Let me know if there’s been any situations where you asked for something and got it (and you wouldn’t have otherwise)!
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I doubt a bank would just re-term their mortgage because you asked them to. Besides, what are the odds that the original bank still owns the loan! They usually get re-packaged and sold shortly after they are signed.
My point isn’t that a bank would let you keep your property because you asked. My point is that you have to at least ask. At the first hint that you may not be able to make your mortgage payments you should be contacting your lender to let them know and see if you can work something out. The same thing can be done with credit cards. If you are really tight one month you should call them up and see if they can extend your payment date. Some debt you can’t work around but at the very least see if a lender, or whomever else, will meet you part of the way.