Santa Clarita realtor Richard Szerman of Alta Realty Group talked to KHTS about how he and his team saved a family from losing their home after they were informed they owed over $200,000 — years after they thought the second mortgage was charged off.

Szerman and his team have saved over 1,000 houses across Santa Clarita from being foreclosed due to what he calls “zombie second mortgages.”

“We do foreclosure defense for free, and the objective here is to save the house,” Szerman said.

Related: Santa Clarita Realtor Believes ‘Zombie’ Second Mortgage Crisis Has Reached Epidemic Levels

Szerman said many homeowners with second mortgages on their houses received letters during the real estate market crash around 2008 stating that their loan had been “charged off,” “discharged,” or a similar language.

Many homeowners interpreted this to mean that their second mortgage debt no longer existed and moved on with their lives, when in reality the bank had taken a tax write-off on the debt and sold it to a third party for pennies on the dollar, according to Szerman.

These third party “banks,” which Szerman described as collection agencies, typically have held onto the debt for the last 10 years, making no effort to collect monthly payments while interest accrued heavily without the homeowner’s knowledge.

Now that the real estate market has improved and many of these homeowners have equity in their homes, the collection agencies are surfacing and attempting to collect the entire amount of the original debt, in addition to accrued interest, or they foreclose on the house, according to Szerman.

One Santa Clarita family called Szerman after they were informed that their $60,000 second mortgage they thought was charged off had grown to over $200,000, and that they either had to pay the money in 90 days, or lose their home.

“They thought there was no way out,” Szerman said. “They were told by everybody that they were going to lose their house.”

However, there were more options available for the family than they realized, and Szerman acted on them. He said that in these instances, it is all about presenting a case to the bank that makes sense to them in terms of dollars and cents.

“We put defenses in place,” Szerman said. “We made it very expensive for them to try and go after this family.”

The family now is able to live in their home and pay off their mortgage through a more affordable plan, instead of all at once.

Szerman has been offering default servicing, loan modification services and foreclosure defense to the Santa Clarita community and beyond completely free of charge for almost two decades, and encourages anyone who had a second mortgage that was charged off years ago to act immediately.

“(What) it really comes down to is, people have options that they don’t know they have,” he said. “You have options you don’t know you have. Give us a call and we’ll help you out.”

Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group is a Santa Clarita realtor who offers several innovative programs that help clients buy a house, sell a house, and even save a house from foreclosure. The Rental Rebate Program gives clients back 10 percent of the rent that they’ve paid to go toward buying a house. The Resale Renovation Program gives clients money to fix up their house so it can be sold at a higher list price. The free Loan Modification Program helps clients at risk of foreclosure save their home by obtaining a loan modification. Not your average realtor in Santa Clarita, Rich Szerman answers phone calls and text messages 24 hours a day, and can be reached by email as well. 

Rich Szerman, Alta Realty Group

27451 Tourney Road, Suite 140

Santa Clarita, CA 91355

661-714-1400

RichSzerman@Gmail.com

Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group, Santa Clarita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JjUTQC7vo&t=119s

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