The owner of the barn where I board my horse recently lost one of his properties to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, it’s the property adjacent to the barn, so we’ve been using the pasture for the horses and as a makeshift riding arena.  The loss of this property is going to have a huge impact on my horse’s boarding arrangement, and I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to move him because of it.

The barn owner’s situation is a prime example of why you shouldn’t wait too long to seek help when you’re in financial trouble.  It wasn’t until he was months — and thousands of dollars — behind on his mortgage that he actually tried to talk to the bank about it.  In fact, I don’t think he actually tried to talk to them until they started calling him.  Bad move.

Because he was a landlord and the property was used for two different businesses — the house as a rental unit and the pasture for his horse boarding business — the barn owner probably should have sought out business debt negotiation to see if there was anything he could do to legitimately buy himself some time.  Sometimes business debt reduction can actually help to put you back in the black again.

The bottom line is, don’t be stupid about debt when your business is at stake.  If you are going through a rough period, talk to your lenders or get a third party involved to negotiate on your behalf.  If you don’t, and you lose property to foreclosure or have to declare bankruptcy, you will only hurt your business in the process.

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