Do not go gentle…

From Jack’s Winning Words 10/22/08 comes this apropos post - “Hope is the poor man’s bread.” (George Herbert) One of my grandsons recently asked me, “How does today’s economic crisis compare with The Great Depression?” I had a chance to talk to him about poverty, and our responsibility to help the needy. I told him how people helped one another in those difficult times.

I could pervert Jack’s words a bit to make the case, based on my recent posts, that hope is also becoming the poor man’s mortgage; at least the FHA’s Hope for Homeowners program might become his mortgage within the context of our current recession. The FHA program and workout programs that more and more of the lenders are starting to roll out may provide the only hope for many struggling homeowners. I certainly hope so.

I talk to way too many discouraged homeowners who have given up hope and have just accepted that they are going to lose their homes. To them I would offer another famous quote; this one from the famous Dylan Thomas poem –

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

It is misplaced rage that currently causes otherwise rational people to trash their own home on the way out. Rather that you should turn that rage into a fight to keep the house or to at least sell it and to keep more of your credit rating intact. Putting your energy into doing something that feels positive, that feels like you still have some control, will make you feel better about the situation than just accepting defeat by the temporary circumstances in your life that have caused this mess and waiting passively for the foreclosure process to run its course.

So check out the Hope for Homeowners program, and call your bank and see if they have a workout program that might fit for you; and, if all of that fails, go to http://www.shortsales.net/ and see if you might qualify for a short sale as a way to salvage what you can of your credit rating. Do not go gentle into this foreclosure nightmare.