One Of The Best Ways To Prevent Foreclosure
One of the best ways to prevent a foreclosure is to sell your home so you can pay off your mortgage fast. Though handling your mortgage this way still means losing the home, your credit isnt as impacted, and you may even walk away with money to start over again.
Reputable home investors are perfectly positioned to help you. To understand why, you first need to understand the North Carolina foreclosure process.
The Stages of Foreclosure
The North Carolina foreclosure process moves very fast, and you have to move quickly too if you want to respond. If you dont, it can take as little as 45 days for you to lose your home.
The first step is the receipt of a Notice of Default letter. This letter tells you that the loan is in default. The lender typically tries to call you or mail you to remind you of missed payments prior to sending this notice 30 days prior to the date of the notice of hearing.
Your options at this point are to bring the loan current, to look for a loan modification, or to declare bankruptcy. You can also start thinking about selling your house at this point, but if you want to keep your home you should at least look into loan modification before taking any drastic steps.
Remember, allowing a foreclosure to proceed all the way to a sale and eviction will make it harder to find a new place to live. The foreclosure will be on your credit report, and when it comes to finding new housing that mark on your record can make things difficult.
Selling Your Home
The Best Ways To Avoid Foreclosure
By Staff Writer
We are in turbulent times and many homeowners are struggling to make their mortgage payments. If youre having trouble with your mortgage payments, you might be concerned that your lender will foreclose on your home. This can be even worse if you are underwater on your home .
Fortunately, you have a few options to avoid foreclosure in Omaha or in any city. The most important thing is to take action quickly so you can control the outcome, protect your credit rating, and possibly save your home. If you delay, you may lose control of your situation.
Lets review the best ways to avoid foreclosure in Omaha with your home mortgage.
The Best Way To Prevent Foreclosure Increase Your Income
I could tell you that the best method of preventing foreclosure is topay your mortgage payments on time, but that wouldn’t make for a veryuseful article. Here are some foreclosure prevention tips that you canreally use if you are in danger of falling behind on your mortgagepayments or even if you are already a little behind.
First, you need to cut out all of the extras. You already know this without me telling you. If you’re like most people, there are things in your budget that you really don’t want to cut, but they just aren’t necessary. Yes, we’re talking about satellite TV and Dominoes Pizza. Maybe even beer and cigarettes. Now, I know that’s rough but there have been times I’ve had to cut the Mountain Dew out of my budget to pay the important bills. It was hard but I lived.
On the bright side, if you follow the advice in the next tip, you might not have to do this for very long. Before you know it, you’ll be able to afford the things you want as well as those you need.
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What To Expect When You Speak With Your Loan Servicer
Under the new CFPB rule, your loan servicer typically must provide you with your forbearance end date, your options for paying your missed payments, and information about free housing counseling services. After confirming some details regarding your current financial situation and what help you may need, then your servicer will present the options based on your loan, McArdle says.
But communicating with your loan servicer may not always be easy. Blackmon says she struggled to get consistent information from their servicer. Sometimes, system notes from previous conversations were nowhere to be found the next time she called, she says. So the Blackmons started to get everything in writing. This way, we can hold the company accountable if one rep said this and another rep said that.
Work It Out With Your Lender
This is a good option if you had a temporary setback that prevented you from making your mortgage payments for a period of time and are now able to continue making payments in full each month, but cant afford to pay back the missed payments in one lump sum.
Your lender may be willing to work out a repayment plan to get your past-due loan back on track, provided you wont have trouble continuing to make payments going forward. As part of this repayment plan, the lender will take the amount you owe in missed payments and add increments of it to your regular monthly payments, allowing you to pay back what you owe over a specified time period.
As you work with your lender to create a new payment plan, be sure to honestly evaluate what you can afford to pay back each month and dont agree to pay more than what you know your budget can handle. Ask about other mortgage relief options. Depending on the situation, your lender may offer one of the options below.
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Tips To Avoid Foreclosure
Created by FindLaw’s team of legal writers and editors| Last updated February 05, 2021
If you fail to make your home mortgage payments, foreclosure may occur. Foreclosure is the legal means that your lender can use to repossess your home. When this happens, you must move out of your house. If your property is worth less than the total amount you owe on your mortgage loan, a deficiency judgment could be pursued. If that happens, you not only lose your home, you also would owe your lender an additional amount. Both foreclosures and deficiency judgments could seriously affect your ability to qualify for credit in the future. Below are some tips on avoiding foreclosure.
Options Where You Dont Keep Your Home
Deed in lieu of foreclosure To avoid foreclosure, you agree to turn over the deed to your home to the lender. In exchange, the lender agrees that you no longer owe any additional debt. The agreement should say that the deed in lieu of foreclosure is in full satisfaction of your debt. This allows you to walk away from the home without a Deficiency Judgment, and without a foreclosure sale on your credit report.
Sell home, negotiate short sale If you are unable to sell the house for an amount that covers your debt because your debt is more than the value of your home, lenders will sometimes agree to a short sale. In a short sale, you sell the house to a third party at fair market value and the lender agrees to accept less than your full debt in satisfaction of the loan. The agreement should say that the lender waives its right to a Deficiency Judgment.
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Stop The Foreclosure Sale Date
If you are deep in the foreclosure process and in a position that your foreclosure date is coming up soon, the options below may not be available. If you need to stop your foreclosure immediately, we have an option. We have attorneys that can stop your foreclosure all the way up to the week of the scheduled sale. You can read more on our Stop Foreclosure Immediately page or contact us today to learn more.
Organize Your Financial Information
Along with the loan documents, you should gather and organize your financial information. Collect your recent pay stubs or a profit and loss statement if you’re self-employed, bank statements, federal tax return, and supporting documentation for any other income you receive, like Social Security, rental income, and alimony.
You should also figure out your total monthly income and your monthly expenses
Your servicer will need this information to determine whether you’re eligible for an alternative to foreclosure.
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Ways To Stop A Foreclosure
Once youve missed 3 or more months of payments and are in default or in preforeclosure, your options for stopping the foreclosure process will depend on how far along you are and what your financial situation looks like. Its best to speak with your service or about options as soon as you know that youre going to miss payments so they can see what they can do to help you get back on track and possibly refinance to avoid foreclosure.
Consider A Short Sale
A short sale is a way for all parties involved to sell a home and resolve the outstanding debt. You would request that your lender accept less than the total amount owed on the mortgage due to the home being sold for less than the remaining mortgage balance.
Not all lenders will agree to a short sale, but if you follow this process, it can be less bad for your financial situation than foreclosure.
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Why Should I Avoid Foreclosure
Foreclosure damages your credit history and score for the seven years that it remains on your report, making lenders less likely to see you as qualified to receive future credit like a new mortgage or other . Foreclosure also results in your needing to find somewhere else to live.
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How Can I Stop The Foreclosure Process
Up until the time your house is scheduled for auction, there might still be a chance to halt the foreclosure process. The key is communicating with your lender. The sooner you talk to your lender, the better. Many people feel intimidated by calling their lender and would rather avoid this uncomfortable situation by putting it off, but that can only hurt you in the long run.
Itâs not uncommon for people to face financial problems, and most lenders are sympathetic to that. They might ask you to provide proof of hardship or other financial information to help you work out a plan. There are also government agencies that offer counseling and other assistance one such organization is Making Home Affordable.
However, you should watch out for mortgage scammers that prey on desperate homeowners. Make sure anyone you talk to is calling from a number you can verify. To find a legitimate housing counselor, you can visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentâs website to get a list of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies.
âIf someone has approached you offering a quick fix and asking for money, it could be a scam,â Salazar says. âCall your local elected official or local nonprofit to understand what help is available to you, and do not hand over any money.â
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Increase Your Income By Starting A Business
Sure, that’s easier said than done, right? Maybe, maybe not. There are many things you can do to earn extra income. Do you know someone who needs a babysitter in the evenings? Maybe there’s someone on your street who can’t seem to keep up with mowing their yard. Would they be willing to pay you to do it?
Beyond the typical odd jobs, it’s time to think about really increasing your income. Have you ever thought about running a business? What skills do you have? Is there something you could do in the evenings to earn extra money using the skills you already have? Could that eventually be turned into a business, maybe even one that pays more than the job you have now? Embrace this country’s entrepreneurial spirit and take a stab at the American Dream.
Here are two suggestions for businesses that are easy to start. The first is cleaning houses. Oh yeah, I can see you rolling your eyes. Well, guess what? People who clean houses usually make a pretty decent amount of money for doing it. For that reason, it’s worth considering, even if you don’t like cleaning.
So how much can you make on Hubpages? Like anything, it depends on how hard you are willing to work. It also depends on your subject matter. I got lucky when I started writing about foreclosures. It’s just something I know something about, but it also happens that the ads in this niche pay pretty decent.
To Avoid Foreclosure Prioritize Your Mortgage Payment
If youre struggling to make your mortgage payments, its time to take a close look at your monthly spending. Print out your monthly checking account and credit card statements and highlight all the expenses that can be eliminated, including entertainment subscriptions and home maintenance services. Reach out to your local utilities to see if they offer payment plans or discounts for people experiencing financial hardship. You can also consider consolidating consumer debt, which could help you put more money toward your mortgage. If youre still falling short after cutting back in every way you can, prioritize your mortgage over other loans, including credit cards, to avoid putting your home at risk.
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Ask The Lender To Approve A Short Sale
A short sale is when you get permission from your lender to sell your property for less than the mortgage balance. If you live in a state where mortgage holders can sue borrowers for the difference between the mortgage balance and the sale price, youâll want to make sure that your mortgage holder agrees in writing not to sue you for this deficiency balance. You may want to hire an attorney who focuses on short sales to help you through the process.
If you have any second mortgages or a home equity line, youâll have to get permission for the sale from those lenders, too. That may be difficult because these entities â called junior lienholders â wonât gain much, if anything, from the sale. If you have tax liens, you will also need to get permission from the tax authorities holding those liens. Short sales have the same potential for income tax liability as deeds in lieu, so youâll want to talk to a tax advisor to see if you qualify for an exemption.
Apply For A Loan Modification
Federal and state laws prohibit lenders from proceeding with foreclosures when a loan modification review is in process. Loan modifications are when the lender agrees to adjust the terms of your loan to lower the payment, rate, loan amount, or some combination of these factors to make the loan more affordable to you.
The Making Home Affordable Program is a government initiative that offers loan modification programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. There are several MHA loan modification programs available that can help you lower your monthly mortgage payments or find an alternative a way out of your mortgage.
Hardship is the primary driver of loan modification decisions. Your loan modification application is much like a normal loan application: it will involve a lot of documentation, showing and explaining exactly what caused your hardship, how long its expected to last, what your income is now, and what your income might be in the future.
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They Understand The Law
There are more than a few laws that govern foreclosures, contracts, mortgages, and the rights of borrowers. Having an experienced foreclosure attorney like Carlos M. Armor on your side provides you with information about the law and what options you have.
Foreclosure law is always changing, so you need an attorney who knows what these laws are and stays abreast of the updates and revisions that have been made.
What Is Preventing Foreclosure
Another finance option is debt consolidation. Reducing or consolidating all your debts is a good way to simplify your personal finances. When matched to your financial situation, debt consolidation could help you meet all your loan repayments and ultimately avoid home foreclosure.
How long after foreclosure can I get an FHA loan?
three yearsTo qualify for a loan that the Federal Housing Administration insures, you typically must wait at least three years after a foreclosure. The three-year clock starts ticking when the foreclosure case has ended, usually from the date that the homes title transferred as a result of the foreclosure.
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How Do I Know If I’m At Risk For Foreclosure
You don’t have to be seriously delinquent on your mortgage payments to be considered “at risk” for foreclosure. If you’re having difficulty making your payments every month, even if you haven’t missed one yet, you can still consider yourself “at risk”. For example, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck and have very little discretionary income at the end of the month, you could be one extra expense or overtime cut away from missing a mortgage payment. Just barely scraping by every month could turn into a problem that’s much harder to get out of at missed payment number four than it would have been earlier on in the delinquency. Foreclosure is something that, while it should be prevented altogether, can be avoided even when you’re close to losing your home.
Best Way To Avoid Foreclosure
Each persons situation is unique and there isnt a Best Way. You need to talk with a professional to explore all of your options and determine the best solution.
Our team can help you evaluate all of your options to determine the best option for you. There is never any obligation or fee for our time. We have the experience necessary to successfully complete a short sale on your property. Contact us today to learn more. We can make things easier than they seem and will assist you in finding the solution that makes the most sense for YOU.
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