When Selling Your Home Is A Rescue Plan

Foreclosure talk is back, and we keep hearing the same scary line: “foreclosures are rising.” We slow that down and look at what “rising” actually means when the market is coming off near record lows. If you’re a homeowner feeling squeezed by higher property taxes, rising homeowners insurance, or the general cost of living, the most important move is not panic, it’s clarity: where do you stand on equity, what are your timelines, and what options do you still control?

We also dig into recent reporting on a scaled-back borrower assistance program and why changes like tighter eligibility rules can lead to more foreclosures, short sales, or something that caught our attention: a “voluntary sale.” That phrase matters because it’s often the difference between protecting your financial future and losing it. Jason shares a real sheriff sale story where silence cost a homeowner roughly $250,000 in equity, plus the mental toll we’ve seen when people shut down under financial stress instead of asking for help.

Then we get practical. We talk through early conversations you can have with the right pros, including appealing a high tax assessment, shopping insurance, and running refinance numbers when mortgage rates dip into the low 6s or high 5s. Mike also explains a strategy we’ve seen work: selling to access equity and wiping out credit card debt to dramatically lower monthly payments. We close with our legal minute on a common Minnesota landlord mistake around accepting partial rent before eviction, and why details in a lease clause can change everything.

If you know someone quietly struggling, share this show with them. Subscribe, leave a review, and send us your questions so we can tackle what you’re facing next.

You can always find U. S. Home Talk and connect with the hosts and the community at their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/U.S.HomeTalk/ or at our website, USHomeTalk.com

Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

Marcus Walgrave 0:14

Good afternoon and welcome back. This is US Home Talk. We are your go-to real estate podcast. Whether you are buying, selling, investing, or simply wanting to learn more about real estate, we got your back. We're your host, Marcus Walgrave, with the South Dakota Home Team, powered by Haig Realtors, Jason Walgrave with the Walgrave Real Estate Group over at Remax Advantage Plus, and Mike Overson with Illuminate Bank. Also in studio is our amazing producer, Evan Little, and also our insurance guru. Anything and everything real estate, don't forget to send us your real estate questions to our real estate hotline, which is 612-234-7585. If you guys want to find our information, our contact information, you can find us online on our website. Super awesome website, ushometalk.com. Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are we doing today?

Jason Walgrave 1:09

Great to be here. Good afternoon. Ah, just every week, guys, the weather keeps getting better and better and better. It's a beautiful thing.

Mike Ouverson 1:18

It can only go one way when you're coming out of winter in Minnesota. It can only go one way.

Marcus Walgrave 1:27

Even though we're almost to summer.

Mike Ouverson 1:30

Yeah. Even though it's like we're nearing summer, it's like it's some nights, some nights it still feels like it's we got

Why Foreclosure Headlines Mislead

Mike Ouverson 1:35

a little hint of winter in there.

Marcus Walgrave 1:36

Little hint.

Mike Ouverson 1:37

Little hint.

Marcus Walgrave 1:39

We are going to have a great show here today. Um this is a uh I'm pulling back from a show that I hosted uh in December. And uh so in speaking of past shows, if you are watching our show here today and you're like, mm, topic not interested, we got a lot of great other topics. We have an awesome library. Check out our website, ushometalk.com. You can find today's show or any of our past shows on our website. So um, you know, if if foreclosures isn't your cup of tea, um, you know, last couple weeks we were talking about uh the individuals who are selling for the first time, first-time home sellers. Uh some great tips for you guys there. Those are two parts, so make sure you see one and two. Uh and and uh awesome finance information. You know, we got some great finance uh information that you can find on our past shows that Mike hosts. So make sure you check out our old topics on our website, ushometalk.com. December. Host of the show. It's called 2026 rising foreclas for uh foreclosures. And um the reason why I wanted to talk about that topic in December is because we saw, or at least I saw, uh, uh uh kind of an uptick on that on that specific topic in our media, uh, our major media outlets. Um I think I came across a really good article from MarketWatch.com. I came across another article on cnbc.com, and it was talking about the the the forecasting that foreclosures were going to be up on the rise in 2026, mostly because of um uh um cost of living, is is is you know the affordability. Um there are people who are feeling a financial burden, hardship right now, and and then with and then we also see insurance go up. You know, we're starting to see real estate taxes go up. So there's some expenses that maybe people weren't really planning for, you know, two, three years ago that we are seeing a pretty good increase in, and and they're like, hey, full foreclosures are on the rise. And and the reason why I talked about it in December and and and we you know commented on that was you know, we we kind of wanted to tell the big picture, right? Because if you just read the headline and maybe read the first two, three paragraphs of these articles, you know, you're kind of like, whoa man, this doesn't sound good. You know, foreclosures are on the rise, like that's not good. It's like, yes, are they on the rise? They are on the rise. However, at any given moment, the uh historical average, you know, you're gonna have about 300,000 properties that are in foreclosure on our market. And as of like this December, we yeah, across the US. Cross the US, okay, yep. Yep. And then and then as of December, we were at near record all-time low. You know, we were, I think it was like under 100,000 properties were in foreclosure. So yes, they were on the rise, but we're talking about significantly less than what an average year would have for foreclosure. So when you just catch that that that you know that headline, right? Read a couple first couple paragraphs, you might think to yourself, oh my goodness, you know, we're we got we got a foreclosure problem. Right. Wasn't the case in December. And and you know, we're gonna be kind of talking about here today, uh, in in the month of May, and and and not really the case now, but still there's gonna be some kind of some interesting you know things to touch on. Um when we looked at the uh the CNBSC article, the Market Watch article from at the end of 2025, you know, they were just kind of forecasting it, right? Um and and then I just saw uh

The Real Numbers Behind The Trend

Marcus Walgrave 5:30

here in the last week or so, maybe it was a couple weeks, but I read a good article from the Wall Street Journal. Carol Ryan wrote an article out there talking about foreclosures and how they're on the rise. And now this one was kind of specific to a uh uh Biden-era program that was in place to help people, borrowers, distressed borrowers to uh stay in their homes. And and more or less what it was, it was a program where if you were a distress distressed borrower having a hard time making your payments, you could apply for this program and either you know get some assistance with making your payments, maybe like a uh restructuring the loan. Uh, and then in some cases, there was you was even getting a a you know no interest uh uh a second loan was being given to you to help you know make these payments. Well, that just got scaled back. And and and so you know the the point of this article was because this program that existed during the Biden administration is now scaled back, that we are going to see uh uh uh an increase of foreclosures. Now, in there they you know the there was a um a stat that they thought that 250,000 homes over the next 12 to 18 months were gonna come into the market due to foreclosures, short sales, or voluntary sales. And I thought it was interesting, right? Because they added that that phrase in there, the voluntary sale. Yeah, voluntary sale, right? I I haven't, you know, when talking about like distressed borrowers, um, you know, that I haven't really caught that phrase or had anybody use that phrase before, um, not saying that it's a new phrase, and and and uh uh maybe maybe it it's something that's you know commonly used in other markets, but it just caught my attention. I was like, okay, I I want to talk about foreclosures here today, um and and get your guys' two cents on it. And and first, you know, kind of to give a little bit more uh context between that that scaling back of the binary. Uh from my understanding of of it is that you know, before you could apply for it, if you weren't you know having a hard time making your uh payments, you could apply for it, and then you could be, you know, uh if you were eligible to be part of the program. Um but then there that was it. There wasn't really like you just had to to uh uh uh um uh um what am I trying to say? You had to um show that you were a distressed borrower and that you were eligible for the program. Now there's the scale to back, and now there's a little bit more rules to it. One is that you can only use the program once every two years. And and that was a big piece because you know they used one example, there was a borrower out in Massachusetts that over a five-year period had used that program six times.

Jason Walgrave 8:29

So they were able to accumulate six properties or six mortgages?

Marcus Walgrave 8:33

No, no, one property that they would just continue to apply for this program.

Jason Walgrave 8:38

Oh, gotcha.

Marcus Walgrave 8:39

So they

Help Program Scaled Back

Marcus Walgrave 8:40

pretty much, you know, just didn't make any payments, just kept on applying for the program, and now they were pretty much structured on like it was like a um uh um something like a five hundred thousand dollar purchase or a four hundred thousand dollar loan, and and had applied for this program several times and has gotten it down to where they're only really having to make a payment on a loan that's a hundred thousand dollars less with a restructured uh interest rate. And and so then that that that's kind of one of the things that's getting scaled back. You can only apply for this once every two years. And then the other thing is you have to make three consecutive payments. So because of this, this re- you know, this scaling back of this program, you know, there there's this idea that there's going to be more foreclosures, short sales, or voluntary sales. And and I wanted to focus on the voluntary stale uh sales because um there's real financial hardship is is real in the US. I mean that there's no that that's not like it's a a secret. Um a lot of people are you know having some tough times right now. If you are a homeowner and you maybe bought something, bought your house prior to 2020, you know, this is kind of this this voluntary sales term. And and and what I want to just let everybody know out there, like, hey, if you are a homeowner out there and you feel like you are going through some real financial hardships, reach out to your real estate professional because there's a really good chance that you have a nice big chunk of equity into your home. To where maybe maybe you do need to step away from home ownership for a couple years, sell the property that you have, get your finances in order, and then get back into the real estate game, you know, whether it's a year or two down the road. And and that's where you can be proactive and say, Cow, I I I I love being a homeowner, you know, but there's just some unexpected causes, whether it's real estate taxes or insurance, whatever the case might be, but just right now is just not the time for me. You know, where do I stand in terms of if I were to sell you my house today in

Voluntary Sale As A Smart Exit

Marcus Walgrave 10:50

today's market? If you're one of those individuals, don't wait till you get into a point where the bank's calling you up and say, hey, you it's a short sale or a foreclosure. Those are your options. Because if you can maybe make a move on it now and and avoid that, you know, there's a good chance that you have enough equity built up, especially if you bought before 2020, you know, where you can get uh um you you can sell the home that you have, get your financials, financials in order, and and prepare yourself to get back into real estate in the upcoming years. So you have you guys been seeing that? I mean, have you guys been hearing um maybe some individuals saying, Oh, you know, we bought in in 2018, and you know, we weren't really expecting these type of expenses. So this is the reason why we're selling or wanting to sell. You know, what does my net look like? You know, what's the process of selling? Um, I feel like you know, I've I've I've started to see some of it down here in Sioux Falls, but I also kind of feel like sometimes you know the people who are in these financial hardships, you know, they kind of stay silent. You know, may maybe they're just like, I don't really want to share what's going on. They're you know, I don't really know the process, so I'm gonna hopefully I can kind of get out of this. But what do you guys see?

Equity Lost When People Go Silent

Jason Walgrave 12:03

Yeah, it it's a great question, Marcus. And and you know, Mike and I have have been doing this real estate thing since you know 1925. And um we've been doing it a long time. But but you go back to 07, 08, 09, and even into to 2010. Um we did uh a lot of short sales and a lot of foreclosure sales. And and I mean I'm talking in the hundreds, right? And so what what we what I learned through that process is that when folks get into um financial stress and and they have they have financial hardship um it it is uh incredibly debilitating um mentally, right? Uh you got you got people calling you all day long, you know, and you know, bill collectors and collection companies and or in this case the the the mortgage company, the bank. And and what often happen and happens today is that people just they shut down. They're just like, I'm out. You know, they're not taking calls, they're not taking, they're not returning messages, emails, text messages, mail, you know, mail, nothing, right? And and what we what we try to do for folks back then and and you know and and today as well is is show them that they have options. And and if you purchase your home pre-2020, it's a very high likelihood that you have equity in that house. And and so, you know, one of the biggest mistakes that that homeowners made is they stopped communicating. And so, you know, we had I'll give you an example, Marcus. There was um at a a buyer last fall and and he he'd been driving by this house must have it was in his neighborhood and uh and but then he saw in the paper there was a sheriff sale. And so um sheriff sale occurred um and and so he said, Hey, can you do some research on this for me? He goes, I I I'd really like to to buy this house. It it's got a fantastic lot. Um I don't we didn't know what the inside looked like because you know that wasn't available uh to see, but you know, he liked the neighborhood, liked a lot. And so I did some research on it, found out that the house sold at sheriff sale um for man, I mean, it was it was like 400 grand. Uh there was only one mortgage on it. Sold at sheriff sale for 400 grand to the first mortgage company, and and the house is worth it's worth six fifty. You know, it's it's worth six fifty i if it's in like okay condition. If it was in mint condition, it was above seven hundred. Probably wasn't, probably was in okay condition. So the this this particular seller, I mean, we tried, I tried everything. I called, I emailed, I text, we door knocked four times, you know, we dropped off, you know, information, just trying to connect with the seller. But I believe that this seller believed that once the sheriff sale occurred, game over. All of his equity is gone. And and the reality is it wasn't. We have an additional six months to sell that home, and he gets to collect that equity. So in this case, it was a $250,000 that was left on the table because he he disappeared. He didn't disappear, he lived there all the way up until the six-month uh redemption period ended, but he lost all that equity, $250,000 out the door. And because he believed that he didn't have he didn't have any choices, he didn't have any options. And so, you know, a a top agent that that understands foreclosures and short sales and distress situations, um, understands voluntary sales, uh, they they can they can show you what your options are. Look, hardship occurs. It occurs to everybody in every situation. You you know, nobody's immune to it. Things can happen. People can get sick, uh, people can lose their jobs, um, there can be death, divorce, uh, I mean, there's just you know, business goes, you know, under whatever the case is. People they don't they don't want to talk about it. It's it's very uh, you know, they feel embarrassed, they feel stressed, they they and they just shut down. But the one message that I want to send out is talk to somebody that knows what they're doing in this area and find out what your options are. You will be surprised that that you have options, probably options that you didn't think you had. And and this this guy, I still feel bad for him. It's like I mean he left 250 grand on the table. If you're in a distressed situation, he probably has other you know financial stresses that he's dealing with. What would have that 250 grand done for him? How how would have he been able to start over more quickly if he had that money? It's a it's a it's a life-changing situation, right? And and we weren't able to we weren't able to connect with him. And so um, folks, you you probably have options, and even if that option is is a short sale, you know, maybe you bought your house in 21 or 22 and and you know, and you don't have any equity. Well, you know, short sales are generally better for you than a foreclosure. You're able to recover faster, you're able to buy a another home someday quicker, you know, and and there's you know, there's things you talk about settling the debt, and you know, and there's a whole there's so many things that go into it, which makes it really confusing, and and one of the reasons why people don't want to talk about it, they just think it's it, game over, you know, and and and game probably isn't over, but you gotta talk to the people that can help you, uh, the ones that have uh experience and expertise in this world, and and just ask the questions, find out what your options are because it probably in most cases is not as bad as you think it is in your mind, um, but you gotta talk to somebody about it.

Marcus Walgrave 17:54

Yeah,

Practical Moves Taxes Insurance Refi

Marcus Walgrave 17:55

and I think too, or you know, you talk about that having that conversation in our last couple shows, we were talking about um you know first-time home sellers. And the the you you made a comment, Jason, the beginning of that that first show was just like, hey, if you're looking to sell, whether that's today, this fall, next spring, two or three years, like reach out to us. And that's gonna be the same thing. Like, if you feel like there were some unexpected costs that came onto home ownership that that you didn't really see last year and you're feeling this year, and you're like, okay, if this continues, you know, if the if my cost of living continues to go up, you know, another 10%, I know I'm gonna be tight next year. You know, reach out to your real estate professionals and say, hey, I'm gonna see how this year goes. Everything's still good, but if things you know continue to get more expensive, you know, what are my options? You know, what's the process? What should I get ready this fall if I need to go to the market? And then we can start, instead of being like, okay, you have all this stuff to do and you got 30 days to figure it out, you know, you can kind of plan that over the next six months as long as you start that conversation. And we talk about the increase of real estate taxes. There's ways to reach out and and to you know uh uh uh um argue that your your taxes were were assessed too high. You know, there's there's chances you can get that assessment back down to lower your real estate taxes, you know, by filing an appeal with the county. Um there could you reach out to somebody like Evan and say, hey, Evan, my insurance provider, I mean theirs went super high. Is there anybody else out there that is a little bit more affordable? You know, start having those conversations about maybe going with a different insurance career. And then I think how like with Mike, you know, maybe you were a buyer that did buy in like 2022 to early 2023 and and you bought a house with a 8% interest rate. You know, have you had the conversation about whether you qualify for a refinance? Because I mean the rates are now what, six and a quarter, six and a half. I mean, if you are in an eight and you could refinance down into six point five, I mean, holy buckets, how mean how much how much more of an attractive of a monthly payment would that be?

Mike Ouverson 20:07

Yeah, I mean, and I had one client actually this year, uh, excuse me, last year is last fall, kind of reset their finances by buying a new house. And everyone's like, well, they reset their finances by buying a new house. Yeah. So when you're looking at doing a cash out refinance, the max you can borrow against your house is 80% of what it's gonna appraise for. So you gotta leave 20% equity on the table. They wanted to be able to access like 90 to 95% so they could wipe out a bunch of credit card that they had stacked up. So I said, well, and one option is you can sell your house now that you have now, right? Now you're gonna get that money in your pocket. We're gonna use we're gonna use some of that money to go buy another house. All you need is 5% down to go buy that next house. All the leftover money, and it was like 87 grand worth. The 87 grand that's left over after you keep your down payment that you need for the next house is gonna go pay off credit cards. And we paid off $88,000 worth of credit card debt, and they knocked out like $1,700 worth of monthly payments from their monthly deal, right? And so now they're into a new house, all their credit card debt is is gone from buying a new house, right? And so they just flipped their monthly, they just flipped their monthly by a little over two grand per month. Wow, which and they're just like they're like, we didn't know we could do that. And I said, Well, numbers don't lie, here's what it's gonna look like. So if you if you can find another house that you want to live in, here's the payment on that house, we're gonna get rid of all this debt. That's how you restructure that, and they that's what they did, and it worked out great, and they love it.

Jason Walgrave 21:35

There's there's an we have partners that we work with where they'll go in and and they'll purchase a home. Um it, you know, in this example where it's in a distress situation, um, and maybe the seller, you know, maybe they've got maybe they got a kid that's got one year left, you know, in school, and or they just you know, they want to stay in that house for another year. There, there's deals that they've that they've done where they buy the House, they they satisfy the debt and and the folks stay there for free for an entire year. You know, and gives them a whole year to to plan the next step with eliminating all the stresses of the debt. And and so there's man, they just you got options and and you got more options if you got equity. Um and so you just you gotta you gotta make that call, you gotta have the uncomfortable conversation, because it is initially, but if you're working with someone that's got experience in this area, they're not gonna make you feel bad. They're gonna they're gonna show you, hey, look, here we got options. Let's explore them.

Marcus Walgrave 22:34

We

Legal Minute Partial Rent And Eviction

Marcus Walgrave 22:35

are talking about rising foreclosures in 2026, just following up with a show that we did in December. Before we finish today's show, let's go ahead and jump into our legal minute of the day.

Jeff O'Brien 22:46

This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hush Blackwell with the U.S. Home Talk Legal Minute. For residential landlords in Minnesota, one of the most common mistakes made with a non-paying tenant is accepting part payment of rent prior to an eviction action. Minnesota law is clear that in order to accept partial payment of rent and still be able to pursue an eviction action, the lease must contain a clause which explicitly permits the landlord to do so. If such a clause is not included in the lease, the landlord's acceptance of partial payment constitutes a waiver of the landlord's right to evict the tenant for the month in which part payment is made. However, the landlord can still pursue a civil action against the tenant for a money judgment, regardless of the acceptance of partial payment for any month or months. This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hosh Blackwell with a U.S. Home Talk Legal Med.

Marcus Walgrave 23:26

Thanks, Jeff O'Brien. Good information about that. Um we are talking about 2026 rising foreclosures, uh, just a uh a follow-up from a December um show that we had on this.

2026 Outlook And Final Takeaways

Marcus Walgrave 23:39

And um, you know, I I think it's just in kind of conclusion and kind of get you guys um uh thoughts as well on this too. But you know, I I don't think we are going to see a flood of foreclosures. Um excuse me. I think that the story to be said in 2026 and 2027 is that if you are in real financial hardship, you're a homeowner, and you feel like maybe the ownership of property is one of the burdens that you have, have that conversation with your real estate professionals in your market, see what your options are, and and maybe fall into that that term as a voluntary uh sale. Like, yeah, I would love to keep my house, but it just isn't the right time. You know, maybe I should sell. What does my equity look like? Do you know what kind of net proceeds am I looking at? You know, start having those conversations, especially again, especially if you bought before 2020. You know, that there's we we we have um past shows about you know how important it was for those individuals who not important, but how much uh um um beneficial gain that those individuals did who were in 2020, they're like, you know, I'm not gonna listen to this this crash stuff. I'm in a position where I can buy a house. I'm going to buy a house, and uh because history has proven that real estate is going to appreciate. Yeah, I think we showed a chart over since like the 1950s. There was like what only four or five years where as as a uh the real the home uh uh the home market as a whole in the US where it saw a a decline in value over you know and so like the odds are in your favor that if you own real estate, you own a home, that that home is likely going to increase in value year over year. And and so um you know you got you got options, and and the like I said, there's a good chance you might have a lot of equity in your home right now. Mike, when when we kind of look at you know the the the financing piece, I mean I know you know, like here just in the last couple days, we've been seeing some articles about the uh uh mortgage applications have come down a little bit. Um, I mean, are you still seeing a good amount of people when they do get attractive, like in the low sixes, um, where people are still calling up asking about refinancing?

Mike Ouverson 25:55

Uh yeah, we have a fair amount now. I mean, refinancing is still not huge. I mean, we we had a lot of people that bought, you know, in a time period where their rates are six, seven, five to seven and a half. Okay. So if you were seven and a quarter, seven and a half on the top end of that kind of space there, um, you probably, you know, you probably could benefit from your finance right now. You're gonna drop a full point, right? We can run some numbers, see if it makes sense for you. Um excuse me if I'm gonna sneeze there. So if you were on the lower end, right? So if you were on that six, seven, five uh six, seven, uh, five side of the coin there, right? Well, refinancing down to six and a quarter, probably not making sense with the type of cost you have to pay to refinance, right? It's probably gonna have to get a little bit lower. So we did have a little bit of run of refinances there for a hot second. Um, when rates, you know, touch. I was doing some at 599, maybe even a couple at 5875. Now with rates at six and a quarter, people are kind of holding off, just say, hey, we think they're gonna drift back down, hopefully to the high fives at some point, or or maybe even the mid fives eventually, and we'll refinance then, which is which is fine. I think it's reasonable to think that we'll get there uh at some point. Um but um overall refinances, yeah, they kind of a little stale right now just because you know we haven't seen enough uh decrease in interest rates for the uh numbers to make sense for them.

Marcus Walgrave 27:14

And then Jason, you know, we kind of talk about too in terms of like you we always hear those those hot phrases, buyer's market, seller's market, right? And and sometimes an entire market will will get uh uh one defined as one specific you know, this is you you're it's it's a uh seller's market in the Midwest. And and you know, that's probably a somewhat fair comment, but I mean when you look at like the the price range from a s from a starter home to the luxury home, I mean we're talking about millions of dollars of a difference from a starter home to uh uh you know a high-end luxury home. And so, you know, you you gotta be more specific if you're an individual out there who might be feeling some some um real financial hardship and you may need to sell, you know, it may not just you can't just come into it with the assumption like, hey, I I I'm stuck in a buyer's market, you know, or I'm stuck in a I'm I'm I'm definitely in that seller's market, so I'm gonna I'm gonna do well in this. It it could really depend on where where uh the price range is with your home.

Jason Walgrave 28:13

It's and and it's neighborhood specific. Neighborhood, yeah. I mean it really is. You can have one neighborhood that's just so hot, it's always been a seller's market because it's you know it's everyone wants to be there. Everyone wants to be there, and you know, and so um you know price point and and and neighborhood are gonna drive that.

Mike Ouverson 28:31

Yeah, like Jason's neighborhood is saying Jason's neighborhood is no, it's dead. No one wants to live next to Jason. That's the thing.

Marcus Walgrave 28:37

Well, it's all my neighbors have lost. That's like bot choice. It's it's the you know it's got a good neighborhood, but but it's the cul-de-sac that Jason.

Mike Ouverson 28:47

Jokes of the code.

Marcus Walgrave 28:48

If you guys ever want to try to get our conference uh uh our contact information, you guys can find us on our website, ushometalk.com. As always, when our show comes to an end here today, we want to thank you for taking the time to listen to us on U.S. Home Talk and of your support of our show too. Um, we are your hosts, Marcus Walgrave, Jason Walgrave, and Mike Overson. Have yourself a blessed week.