***7 Ways to Stop Foreclosure***
If you have NOT missed a payment yet, but know you are going
to, the first step you must take is to contact your lender and let them know
your situation. If you’ve lost your job have or some other type of hardship
going on, let them know. They can give you time to help get your life back
together, but you must call them as soon as you know you’re going to miss a
payment. The longer you wait, or if you wait until you actually miss your
payment, it makes it more difficult to ultimately get the problem
solved.
Ask for forbearance. This allows you to delay payments for a short period of
time, with the understanding that another option will be used afterwards to
bring the account current…for example; if you know you’ll have the funds to
bring your account current by a specific date because of a guaranteed sum of
money you’re receiving.
Ask for a repayment plan. This is where the lender agrees to add, a certain
amount of the first missed payment onto each of the next subsequent two
payments. These plans provide some breathing room for you, if you only have
short-term financial problems, such as a sudden expensive repair, or a medical
expense that makes it too difficult to pay your mortgage for one month.
If you have already missed two or three payments and owe a couple thousand
dollars in lender legal fees, the lender of your mortgage may still try to
arrange a repayment schedule. But you will likely have to pay a third to a half
of the delinquent amount upfront, and then pay off a portion of the remaining
balance each month for a year or more. Also, never ignore the lender’s letters
or phone calls. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. -- and if you’re
going into a foreclosure process, there are other fees and costs involved and
ignoring them only makes these worse.
You may also be eligible for a loan modification plan, designed for people
that can’t afford repayment plans. In a modification, the lender actually
adjusts the terms of the loan to make it affordable. It may lengthen your
amortization schedule or lower the interest rate to cut the monthly payments, or
roll the past due amount into the loan and re-amortize the new balance, so you can pay the additional debt back
over time.
Some companies may be willing to offer you a "short refinance," too. With
these, the lender agrees to forgive some of your debt and refinance the rest
into a new loan. This way, the lender still gets more money than they would by
foreclosing on you.
A Deed in Lieu of foreclosure (DIL) is an option in which you voluntarily
deed your property back to the lender in exchange for a release from all
obligations under the mortgage. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this
without hurting your credit, unless you get the mortgage company to report your
mortgage account as paid in full. You may face income tax issues resulting from
the lender forgiving part of the debt (which the IRS will likely treat as income
to you, even though you don’t receive any cash in the transaction), but you
might be able to get yourself out of the hole and start over again sooner rather
than later.
If you can afford your normal monthly mortgage payment, but can’t afford to
make up the delinquent amount and legal fees because your lender offered a
really harsh repayment plan, you may want to consider filing Chapter 13
bankruptcy. Doing so temporarily halts the foreclosure process and can force the
mortgage lender to accept a more friendly repayment plan. This is a last resort,
and will still negatively affect your credit.
If none of these strategies work, there is still one other option.
As you may know, a foreclosure is devastating to your credit rating and can
affect it for 7 to 10 years. What’s more, buying or even renting another home in
that time period may be impossible for you. But, there is one more option where
I may be able to help you personally.
Even if you can no longer afford your home, you can still protect your equity
and keep a good credit rating.
Here’s how:
Up until a few days before the bank forecloses on your property, you have the
opportunity to stop that process by having someone purchase the property.
I may be willing to do this for you. I arrange creative, legal and ethical
ways to buy property or assume mortgages from people who need help. I may even
be able to let you stay in the house, depending on your situation. The bottom
line though is this; if your situation allows it, I can stop your foreclosure,
and often put money BACK in your pocket so you can start over in a more
affordable home.
If you don’t have the money to pay the lender off, and see no real chance of
making up the payments & costs, and you would you be open to discussing
opportunities that could relieve you of this burden, please do the following for
me:
Go to contact me and fill out some information, please leave the following information so I can see in advance if
your property fits the criteria that can allow me to help out your
situation.
I’ll need to know:
• How much is still owed on your mortgage and how many payments are
overdue?
• Does the payment include the property taxes and if not, are any tax
payments overdue?
• Has the bank sent you a list of additional expenses owed to them for the
foreclosure process?
• Address of the property or at least the closest major cross streets.
• Rate the house from poor to great condition.
• And of course your name, phone number (cell phone as well) and the best
time to call you.
making up the payments & costs, and you would you be open to discussing
opportunities that could relieve you of this burden, please do the following for
me:
Go to contact me and fill out some information, please leave the following information so I can see in advance if
your property fits the criteria that can allow me to help out your
situation.
I’ll need to know:
• How much is still owed on your mortgage and how many payments are
overdue?
• Does the payment include the property taxes and if not, are any tax
payments overdue?
• Has the bank sent you a list of additional expenses owed to them for the
foreclosure process?
• Address of the property or at least the closest major cross streets.
• Rate the house from poor to great condition.
• And of course your name, phone number (cell phone as well) and the best
time to call you.