Realtors Team Up to End Texas Mortgage Foreclosures

Are you at risk of losing your home?

Right now, a record number of people in the state capital are facing default on their Texas mortgages. But a couple of Austin realtors are sharing their solution for saving homeowners from foreclosure.

As a husband-and-wife realtor team, Stacey and Michael Spickes spend a lot of their time helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.

“And when you help one family after another after another avoid foreclosure how can you be stingy with the tools and the knowledge that we’ve developed over the last four years?” said Stacey Spickes.

The couple is now sharing the strategy they’ve developed for carrying out a short sale.

In class, Michael tells students, “A short sale occurs when a homeowner owes more on the property than the property is actually worth.”

Naturally, this is a problem. It begins the long, difficut process of defaulting on a home mortgage loan for many owners.

In addition to teaching classes, the Spickes have also published a book. What started as a way to buy property below market, has grown into a successful strategy that other realtors are eager to learn. Realtors in turn use short sale skills to help clients facing hardship situations often known as the 3 D’s: death, divorce or disease.

“Years ago, I was in a position where I almost lost my house,” said Debra Lief, a successful realtor who traveled from Dallas to attend the class in Austin. “I’m hopeful that I can give people an avenue that they would not normally know about or know that they have recourse.”

Short sales work for homeowners who are upside down on their mortgages - meaning they owe more than their house is worth. The bank agrees to accept less than what is owed as payment in full, and that prevents foreclosure.

“And by replicating what we’re doing, so many more people are being able to be helped now and that’s the whole idea,” Spickes said.

Despite all this advice, though, there’s a good chance record foreclosures will continue as bad credit home loans are applied for … and then adjusted before borrowers are prepared.