Many Americans face challenges as the interest rates and monthly payments on their home mortgages have increased. There are resources available to let you avoid foreclosure by through loan modifications through your financial services company. However, these options work best when your loan is only one or two payments behind. The farther behind you are on your payments, the fewer options are available.
Contact Your Mortgage Lender
Don't lose valuable time by being overly optimistic. Contact your mortgage lender to discuss your circumstances as soon as you realize that you are unable to make your payments. While there is no guarantee that any particular relief will be given, most lenders are willing to explore every possible option.
Finding Your Lender Check the following sources for lender contact information:
- Your monthly mortgage billing statement
- Your payment coupon book
- Search the web
- Directory assistance or phone book.
Information to Have Ready When You Call: To help you, lenders typically need:
- Your loan account number
- A brief explanation of your circumstances
- Recent income documents such as pay stubs, Social Security benefits statements, disability, unemployment, retirement, or public assistance. If you are self-employed, have your tax returns or a year-to-date profit and loss statement from your business available for reference)
- List of household expenses
Expect to have more than one phone conversation with your lender. Typically, your lender will mail you a "loan workout" package. This package contains information, forms and instructions. If you want to be considered for assistance, you must complete the forms and return them to your lender quickly. The completed package will be reviewed before the lender talks about a solution with you.
Don’t Ignore Calls from Your Lender
Your lender will try to contact you by mail and phone soon after you stop making payments. It is very important that you respond to the mail and the phone calls offering help. If your lender does not hear from you they will be required to start legal action leading to foreclosure. This will substantially increase the cost of bringing your loan current. Do not ignore contact from your lender.
Other Resources
There are a number of resources like HOPE NOW – an alliance between counselors, mortgage companies, investors, and other mortgage market participants – to help you avoid foreclosure. Visit the HOPE NOW free counseling help page to find counselors who are certified by the Housing and Urban Development department to provide you with in-depth debt management, credit counseling and overall foreclosure counseling.
