How To Tell If A Fiscal Therapist Can Help You In Your Housing Recovery

If you have ever had to have orthopedic surgery (like knee/ankle/shoulder/neck/back surgery), then you likely understand the long term commitment required before and after the surgery takes place.

Sure, we all wish the Doctor would prescribe us some quick-healing pills to take, but the reality is that these types of surgeries require a significant amount of physical therapy.

After one makes significant (or even minor) changes to a major part of the body, a serious commitment to a recovery plan that includes a lot of blood, sweat and tears is an unfortunate requirement.

The Physical Therapist won't seem like your friend, but she or he will push you to take the necessary steps to get you back to the quality of life that you enjoyed before you were injured.

This is also true when you suffer a major financial setback, there is a period of healing that is required and there likely won't be some magic pill that makes it all go away.

For this reason, I encourage people with damaged and recovering credit to see a qualified real estate buyer's agent who will serve as their Fiscal Therapist, serving to help them recover and move back into home ownership.

Why You Must Go Through Fiscal Therapy

Fiscal TherapistJust as physical therapy is only needed after a major change to your body, fiscal therapy is for those who have suffered a major financial setback.

If you have lots of cash or excellent credit, you are healthy and do not require "therapy."

But if you have gone through a foreclosure, a bankruptcy, and/or a short sale in the past few years, then I want to let you know that the therapist is ready and waiting to beat you back into shape.

Therapy Is A Process

The first thing you have to acknowledge is that this will take some time. You didn't screw up your credit overnight, so there won't be an overnight "pill" that you can take to get back into the good graces of the lenders.

Therapy is a process, not a drug (and certainly not an event). You must work with a qualified fiscal therapist to take you through some smart ways to recover your credit.

Fortunately, part of this process will include home ownership, and possibly right away.

Your real estate buyer's agent will talk you through some creative options for buying a home right away, but this is where the analogy of a fiscal therapist really comes into play.

You are not likely to get the same house and same deal using creative financing as you would if you were a cash buyer, so don't set unrealistic expectations for yourself. Just as your first steps after a knee surgery will likely be with a cane, so too will your first steps back towards homeownership involve some pain and difficulty.

4 Fiscal Therapy Exercises

There are many tools and exercises your real estate professional might recommend, but here are four that you are likely to encounter:

  1. Credit Repair - Everyone with damaged credit should immediately consult a credit repair professional. It is cheap and you'll regain your borrowing ability at a much faster rate than you would by doing nothing.
  2. Hard Money Lenders - If you have bad credit but access to some cash, a hard money lender might be willing to lend you the difference. Don't expect to borrow 80% of the home's value if you use a hard money lender, so you do need to have some cash (or a friend or family member with cash).
  3. Owner Financing - Not many exist, but some homeowners are willing to finance the sale of their home.
  4. Lease Purchase - There is a decent number of homeowners who will delay closing for the right deal. You give them a down payment, you lease the property for several months (years), and then you close at the agreed upon purchase price.

With any of these methods, it is possible to purchase a property that will serve to help you restore your credit at a faster rate, perhaps with the ultimate goal of purchasing your favored home several years down the road.

Again, just like physical therapy, doing "nothing today" will cause the recovery to take more time.

If you have gone through a tough financial time in recent years, but have been a homeowner in the past, then fiscal therapy might very well be right for you. Wanna know for sure? Just drop me a note and we can schedule a time to review your situation, your wants, and your needs and help you decide if there is a current cure for you.

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