A Client’s Story

I had an Initial Consultation with an older person that was having trouble paying for his home equity loan.  Why?  Because his health and income changed over the life of the home equity loan.

In order to make ends meet and stay in his house, he is having get his sons to give him almost $400 a month.  Guess how much his home equity loan payment is?  Almost $400 a month!  What happens if his sons stop contributing?  You guessed it – Foreclosure.

I asked him if he obtained the home equity loan to pay bills.  He said “yes.”  He agreed when I told him that he should have considered ALL his options, including bankruptcy, before getting that home equity loan.  He said that several friends told him to consider bankruptcy, but he didn’t want to file bankruptcy.  But who did he come to see when times got tough?  A bankruptcy lawyer.

I told him that I just made a TV commercial addressing the issue of home equity loans, and I asked him if he would look at it and give me his opinion of it.  I showed it to him right there in my office on my computer.  He said that the TV ad gets to the heart of the matter, and that it hits home with what a lot of older people are trying to do, which is to get a handle on their credit card debt.  The message in the TV ad is “Protect your home, and say “NO” to a home equity loan.”  He said that we should show that TV ad often during the times that older persons would be watching TV so that they avoid making the mistake of getting a home equity loan to pay bills like he did.