Mr. Chris Prang has had an interesting and diverse background. A background that includes experience in fields of Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Real Estate, Mortgage Finance, Wealth Creation and Customer Satisfaction. Chris has helped hundreds of clients in one or more of the following ways; to buy and/or sell a car, purchase a home, finance a home and develop sales and marketing agendas.

Chris' professional accomplishments have included: achieving 100% Customer Satisfaction with Honda Motor Company, been one of the top salesman with Acura for Sales and Customer Satisfaction, Chosen as one of the top Acura Sales Consultants to participate in the development of Acura's Total Luxury Care program, and has been certified by NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association).

Chris is a graduate of The Origination Pro Mortgage School ("The most intense, comprehensive training available in the mortgage industry.").

He is also a member of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, and is an Affiliate Member of the Charlottesville Association of REALTORS.

A native Virginian, Chris now lives in the Charlottesville Virginia area with his wife Andrea and three children. His other interests include: Business Development & Entrepreneurship, Helping people create wealth, Teaching Christian Business Principles, Reading on personal, business & financial development, Song writing & musical composition, Patriotic History and Golf.

A Testimony About Our Foreclosure

Greetings Everyone,

I wanted to take the time to give you an update as to how our home and financial situation is going. I also want to thank you for the prayers, the encouragement and wonderful support that we have received from our friends, neighbors and church family.

It has been an incredible experience to see how God has poured out blessings upon us through the lives of many of you. God is indeed faithful in richly supplying all of our needs. I cannot tell you how humbling and joyful it is when others you know and love come to your aid to help you financially and physically when it comes to packing up your house and helping you move.

I know that some of you are familiar with what has transpired in our lives over the past several years. But for those of you who are not familiar with our story, I thought you might enjoy learning about how God as worked in our lives and through our challenges.

In July of 2004 my father was killed in a car accident. This left my elderly mother a widow and alone several states away from me, her only child. In December of 2004 my mother was nearly killed in a car accident of her own. The police were called to do a fatality report, but she miraculously survived and is alive today. After going through the loss of my father and the near loss of my mother, our family decided to bring my mother into our home and take care of her in her later years. My mother was diagnosed with dementia and was not able to properly care for herself anymore.

It had been our desire for many, many years to move to Charlottesville, Virginia. So in the summer of 2005 we purchased a home in Charlottesville that would suit our family and provide a handicap accessible living space for my (then 83 year old) mother. In order to afford this home, my mother agreed to use some of her income to supplement the housing expenses.

After a while it became very clear that my mother's dementia was becoming worse. She was becoming confused and sometimes became lost in our house. She also is very social and craved association with her contemporaries. While we provided two days a week at the Senior Center so she could participate in various activities, this was not enough for her outgoing, social nature. We realized that if she was going to need assisted living care, that she needed to go while her short-term memory was good (allowing her to learn the way to the dining room, activities room, and back to her room). We discussed her needs and finances with her and we all agreed that it was in her best-interest for her to move to an Assisted Living facility.

This decision affected us financially in two ways. We no longer had her contributing to the household expenses, and her pension does not entirely cover her expenses at the assisted living facility. This created a $3500-4500 increase in our expenses every month. And that meant our home was no longer affordable to us. While we were able to keep up with the payments for a while we knew we had to sell it. So we put it on the market in March of 2007. By December of 2007 we were simply unable to keep up with the expenses of the home. The well had run dry so to speak. I notified the mortgage company prior to ever being late on a payment. Prior to December we had never been late or delinquent on any debt. We did everything in our power to sell the home. The home was listed $50-100,000 below market value and we did not receive one offer in the thirteen months it was on the market. We came very close to selling it, but in the end the bank foreclosed on our home. While we could have come current on the mortgage, it would have been only a matter of time before we were unable to keep up with the mortgage once more. We sought both financial and legal counsel and were advised that if you can't sell it, then let it foreclose.

In the end, I had the choice of making sure my elderly mother with dementia was happy and being properly cared for and losing the house, or keeping the house, but not providing the proper care for my mother. I couldn't do both and I chose to look out for the best interest of my mother and not myself. And if I had to do it again, I would. My mom is far more important than a house.

While it has certainly been a challenge going through this, we have sought to "count it all joy" as we went and are still going through this trial. It wasn't long ago that we owned two homes and had a significant amount in savings. I sought to overcome our financial challenges by striving after more money and material possession...instead of simply trusting in God and following His plan.

While we lost our home, God has amazingly provided another home for us in a nice neighborhood and was without a doubt the best priced rental property in the area. If someone had told me that we would soon be living at this house, in that neighborhood, for that rental amount, I would've said "no way!"

As I said earlier God has shown Himself in new and wonderful ways to us. He has made it clear that He is the one that supplies. He is the One who we should trust in and not in ourselves and our own effort. That doesn't mean we don't have to work, but if we believe that our striving for material gain to overcome our challenges is the answer, then we are sadly mistaken. God has shown us, that while our intentions may have been good to care for my mother, we have way too much stuff. And that stuff is just wood, hay and stubble and amounts to nothing when it comes to eternity. These material possessions in the end just encumbered us and make it harder for us to serve God and others.

Because God had blessed us so much financially we always sought to help others in financial need and be blessing to others. And now we've had people come to us to help us financially. Something we didn't expect and have been greatly blessed and encouraged by. This has allowed us to see how much others trust God when it comes to their finances, especially when you know that those who are giving to you abundantly or not wealthy.

While there has been some ridicule from those on the outside, even some claming to be part of the body, for the most part what we have received and experienced is encouragement and offers of help. Not only from those in the body, but from neighbors as well. What a blessing it was to have six of our neighbors help us in our move. If anyone should be upset that our house was foreclosed on, it should be them.

I have to say, the two things that burden me the most are, I am the mortgage guy, the one that has over the years advised people on handling their money properly. It doesn't look good when The Mortgage Analyst loses his home to foreclosure. The other burden is the reproach that I have brought on the Body of Christ. It is always our desire to be a good testimony and to be above reproach and it doesn't appear good to the world when a Christian loses his home to foreclosure.

What all this has brought about is a greater desire to help others financially, especially when it comes to financing their home and getting out of mortgage debt. I know a lot about mortgage financing and how for the most part home owners have been duped into an endless stream of financing their home and never really getting ahead. So right now I am putting together what I call The Solomon Principle^TM. And will let you know about that shortly.

In the end, while it is not necessarily fun to go through, it has been a blessing. Plus when we put this in perspective, we realize that there are many others out there that are going through far worse circumstances than we are. We may have lost our home, but we know of others who have lost loved ones. Our loss doesn't come close to their loss. And we know and trust that God has a great plan in all of this for us and in the end we will be refined and better off. If I was still an atheist, I don't know how I would have handled this. Plus I would have never seen and experienced how a sovereign God works in my life.

The one thing I wish I could change is the ability to properly care for my mother in our home. I do believe as her son it is my responsibility to care for her and ideally that should be in our home. And there are times that I think about trying again. I want my children, especially my son to see how I care for my mother. That way when the time comes and my wife, their mother needs to be cared for, then my son will bring his mother into his home and care for her.

Thank you for letting us share!