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Local professionals create Foreclosure Relief Team

They analyze your situation and offer free, personalized advice.
John Kwiatkowski just dodged the foreclosure bullet.

Report by Dick Berry - email

(WTOL) - Turmoil in the economy is causing more folks to go into foreclosure. In fact, the home foreclosure rate in Ohio is twice as high as last year.

That's why a group of local realtors is teaming up to help folks avoid personal and financial ruin.

John Kwiatkowski just dodged the foreclosure bullet. Earlier this year, he accepted a job transfer to Texas moving his family there and into an apartment.

John's south Toledo house with it's $1000-a-month mortgage sat empty and on the real estate market.

Between his Ohio mortgage and Texas rent, things got tight and John worried about foreclosure. "We were still able to make our bills, but we were living paycheck to paycheck," he says.

That's why John turned to the Remax/Masters foreclosure relief team. The team is made up of realtors, a lender, title company and CPA. They analyze your situation and offer personalized advice. "We're trying to stabilize the market. Trying to help people save themselves from foreclosure. We're saving neighborhoods, communities and families one home at a time," says realtor Cindy Keil.

The team helped John do a short sale to his bank, which assumed $23,000 in losses he had on the place. Realto Brett Varner says, "A foreclosure costs a bank $80,000 in legal fees. It's cheaper to take a short sale than forclosure."

Now John is packing up and moving to Texas relieved of a mortgage he worried could ruin him. "Plus, foreclosure stays with you forever," he says, "It's a permanent part of your credit records."

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