Mortgage Trouble? You Have Options

Many times we get a call from someone and it's too late. Lots of people today are having difficulty with making all of their payments and the house payment is added to the list.  We understand that and up until 5 years ago, there were not many options, other than to lose your home in foreclosure.

Today, it is vastly different and there are loan modifications options and the short sale option. The most important thing with any and all of these is to contact a professional and get some advice and help immediately. Don't wait until you have the sherriff sale documents, that's not the time to start looking at your options.  You need to have been working on this for some time.

I mentioned loan modifications. If your job hours become reduced, and you now find it difficult to make your bills, contact your mortgage company and talk with them about a loan modification. Lots of options exist to reduce the monthly expense or extend the loan timeframe or make interest-only payments for a time. Again, discuss these options with your mortgage company as soon as possible.

If you don't qualify for the loan-modification programs, you may need to go through a short sale. The difficulty here is that now you won't own a home and your opportunity to qualify for a new home loan may be delayed due to the short sale. If you again don't speak with a professional REALTOR or real-estate attorney, then you will not know your options.

As a REALTOR, I am licensed to sell real estate in the state of michigan, I use a real-estate attorney to help with the negotiations to protect you and your future financial security with the bank because of all of the legal issues associated with a short sale.

While many REALTORS have taken additional education and training on the short-sale process and programs, myself included, we are not licensed as attorneys to explain the legal ramifications associated with the short sale. 

One other item I want to mention today: Walking away from a home when the borrower owes more than its worth, even when they can afford the mortgage payments, this is called Stategic Default. Fannie Mae announced in 2010 in a news release that it will not only refuse to guarentee a loan for any applicant involved in a strategic default but it will also take legal action to recoup the outstanding mortgage debt.

This is fraud and if you do something like this it may end up costing you more than what the mortgage was in the first place.

You have options, please contact a real estate professional, a mortgage-loan officer, or real estate attorney to talk about your options — the sooner the better

Until next time . . .