Solo Practice

This is a quick tip for those who practice bankruptcy or are investigating foreclosures.  Consider participating in the new foreclosure fairs...fairs designed to help people prevent foreclosure and populated with lenders, realtors, accountants, counselors and lawyers.  What a great way to meet potential clients for not just foreclosure, but bankruptcy and real estate.

More and more family friendly foreclosure fairs, where mortgage lenders and counselors offer advice to desperate homeowners, are taking place in Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Columbus, Ohio, and other hard-hit cities and towns across the country. This month began a series of "Homeownership Preservation Forums" sponsored by HOPE NOW, a collaboration of non-profit, corporate and government partners, including the Housing and Urban Development.

The fairs help homeowners who may be too paralyzed with fear to pick up a phone and call their lender as they fall behind in their mortgage payments and risk foreclosure. "Studies show that homeowners respond more quickly to community and non-profit groups than to lenders and banks," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a recent speech in San Francisco.

Organizers of the Merced fair had worried that attendance would suffer from too little notice; instead, they were overwhelmed by the response. That same day, another 200 mobbed a fair in Los Banos, an old farming city of 35,000 residents, also in Merced County. Five percent of Los Banos' 10,000 houses have already foreclosed and another five percent are expected to foreclose in the coming months, Cardoza said.

I think lawyers with particular expertise to assist those with foreclosure, avoidance of foreclosure and/or bankruptcy might very well offer tremendous assistance while gaining clients and networking among those who can refer you business.

Check out the article here.