I built things for thirty years before I ever sold one.
That order matters. It's why I look at a house at risk of foreclosure the way I'd look at a wall that's out of plumb — not as a lost cause, as a problem with a sequence to it.
I started in construction and contracting, eventually founding and running my own company out of Chicago, leading crews on large commercial installations for years. That work teaches you two things fast: everything has a sequence, and skipping steps to save time almost always costs more later. I bring both of those into real estate now, licensed as an associate broker with HomeSmart here in Colorado Springs.
These days I'm also acting as my own general contractor on a custom home build — hand-laying a cascading stone staircase out back, framing the basement, the whole process. So when I talk to a homeowner about "what's actually load-bearing here versus what can wait," I'm not reaching for a metaphor. It's how I think about problems generally.
I moved into pre-foreclosure outreach specifically because I kept seeing the same thing: people assuming a filing meant it was already over, when in most cases it just meant the clock had started. My approach is built around that gap — closing it with information first, free resources first, and my own services only where they actually fit.
- Free, HUD-approved counseling comes first — always
- Licensed associate broker, HomeSmart, Colorado Springs
- 30+ years in construction and contracting before real estate
- Currently general-contracting my own custom home build
- No pressure, no obligation to list, ever
Pre-foreclosure attracts people who aren't looking out for you. I try hard not to be one of them.
If you're in this situation, you've probably already gotten mail, calls, or door knocks from people offering "help" that's really just an offer to buy your house for far less than it's worth. I'd rather you know exactly where I stand: I make my living as a broker, which means I only get paid if we list and sell. My first move is still to send you somewhere that costs you nothing — because the right outcome, most of the time, doesn't involve me at all.