The Other Side of Home Foreclosures

The deeper reality of people losing their homes is something that only really sinks in when it happens to you or when you face foreclosure yourself. Possibly a parent's worst nightmare: having to uproot their child from the family home. As the adage goes - "Home is where the heart is." But, apart from the proverbial heart, a number of other items can be attributed as to how a "house" ultimately transforms into a "home."

Home is where her friends are. If your family has lived in the same neighborhood since your child's birth, chances are, all the friends she has made live close by. The idea of moving to a place, full of strange, new faces, could be very daunting to a child.

Home is where all the familiar places are. She knows your neighborhood like the back of her hand. She knows where the pet shop, hospital,ice cream parlor, and playground are. The inevitability of relocating to a new neighborhood wherein she could get lost may seem forbidding to a child.

Home is where her memory reservoir is. Here is where she lost her first tooth...where she buried her first pet... where she planted her first tree. A door may always remind her of how she hid on Mother's Day, waiting for the perfect chance to surprise you with her homemade card. A wall may be filled with graffiti from her toddler years... an "artwork" the whole family agreed was too precious to rub out.

Home is where her routine pivots on. It's like clockwork - she wakes up, pads to the bathroom, takes a shower, hops 12 steps down to the breakfast nook, plops down on her favorite red stool, munches on her pancakes, rides her bike over to her best friend's house, then they race on to the playground a block away. Letting go of all these is painful to a kid.

Foreclosure could set all of these in motion. Is it inevitable? You have two alternatives: come up with your payments promptly or sell your property. Personally, I think that simply walking away is not a choice. This merely affects your credit scores, hurting your chances of acquiring another home mortgage in the future. Straightforward options to a gargantuan dilemma.

See my blog to learn more about forclosed homes and read more about buying foreclosures.