There would be less home foreclosures if people would work harder to stop a foreclosure before it even starts. The problem is that lenders up until now were unwilling to help people to have their loans modified to better suit their new economic status and refinancing wasn’t always an option due to the decline in real estate value.
So, how do you stop a foreclosure before it starts now? The first thing you need to do is talk to your lender if you are having trouble making your payments. The first time your mortgage is due and you are struggling to pay the entire amount is when you need to be on the phone discussing your alternate payment options. If you have never been late before, your lender may not believe you are hitting an economic crisis, so you may need to provide proof, but you have many options now that you might not have at a later date, so as soon as you wind up struggling to make your mortgage payment, you need to act so that you can stop a foreclosure before it happens.
* If your crisis is a short term thing, see if you can make part of your monthly payment for a couple of months and stretch out the remaining balance over a period of time. This will help protect your credit rating and ensure that your lender knows exactly what your plan is and how you plan to repay your back amount owed.
* Another thing you can do is see if your lender will let you skip a couple of monthly payments now and put them on the end of your loan, or re-amortize your mortgage. This option is only for short term financial crises and you may still be required to pay something toward your mortgage in the mean time.
* Look into refinancing if you have some equity in your home, so that you can have a lower monthly payment that you won’t be struggling to pay each month.
* If you’re looking at a long term financial crisis, such as a layoff and want to stop the possibility of a foreclosure, you should consider a loan modification, which can change the terms of your loan, or stretch the term of the loan out a little more so that you can afford to keep your home and make your payments on time, even without your job.
These are the ways to stop foreclosure, by attacking the problem before it begins and making sure to stay in contact with your lender at all times so they are aware of your efforts to ensure that you are not faced with a foreclosure in your future. Lenders want to help if you will let them and even though sometimes your customer service representatives may not be able to help you, a supervisor probably can either help you or can refer you to someone who works with your lender who can help you to stop foreclosure
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