If you lost your home in a foreclosure or short sale, tell your story!

Use the links below to open and save a copy of a template to your desktop. The template provides a model for presenting the facts of your experience in the media and in congressional hearings.

We advise anyone who lost their home to collect the specific details of their case, and present the information in the clearest form you can manage. The details of any foreclosure or short sale offer powerful evidence that the banking system is no longer serving Americans in a fair or responsible manner, and is willing to gamble away our future for their short term profit.

State the details of your case, and describe the impact of your experience on your life in the most honest, direct and simple form you can manage. If it reads like a legal deposition, you've hit the mark. When you're ready, send hard copies to the Senate and House banking committees, and to your elected congressional representatives. Post your story in an appropriate location, and make sure your lender is not allowed to leave their actions in a past you cannot escape or forget.

There are more than four million of these stories in America, according to the statistics. If all of us take the time to present the facts, and deliver a mountain of testimony to their doorstep, perhaps they will take meaningful action.

Templates
Choose a format:
 

 Word
 OpenOffice
 Text

Save the template to your desktop, open the file, and use the content and examples to help you tell your story. In the template, directions are enclosed in angle brackets (< >) and examples are set in normal text. The template offers a starting point: please modify it to serve your purpose.

Print copies of the final version, and send them to your legislators, your lender and others responsible for policy definition:

CC: Tim Johnson, Mike Crapo
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Jeb Hensarling, Gary G Miller, Maxine Waters, Spencer Bachus
House Committee on Financial Services
2129 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Your Lender:
Bank CEO, President and Legal Counsel
Street Address
City, State, Zip

Edward Lazear
The Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
c/o The Department of Economics
1126 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637