It’s no secret that our country’s economy is having problems. There are many people who have lost their jobs. They find themselves unemployed or underemployed, struggling to pay their bills. When so many people were one paycheck away from the streets, there are folks all over who are finding themselves wondering how they will make their house payment this month not to mention the month after that. Banks are foreclosing on properties everywhere maybe even next door to you.
What Can You, The Homeowner, Do?
First of all, have the habit of paying your mortgage on time. Try to never have any late payments. If you need to, find a way to get ahead so that your mortgage can come out of your check before the one it comes out of now, so that late payments are something you never have to pay. Not only are they expensive, but they show up on your credit report, hurting your credit and affecting how willing your lender will be to work with you if you have a reason to need a bit more time to pay your mortgage payment. Even if the bank could begin foreclosure on your property, they are more likely to cut you some slack if you tend to pay on time but are just temporarily struggling.
If you do find you are struggling for a bit, consider juggling which bills you pay when. Many utilities will gladly give you an extension on an overdue bill, often even through an automatic phone system, rather than having to talk to a person and feel like you’re begging for a stay of execution. Other bills, like payments of credit card bills, etc., may have a firm due date, but the late fee (for delaying a payment) is better to pay than the late fee for a late mortgage payment. If the bank foreclosed on your house or property is much worse than a few late fees here and there, so it is usually smart to do whatever you need to do to to continue making your mortgage payment.
Another option for helping avoid a bank foreclosure on your property is to refinance your property. Refinancing can help in a couple of ways. First, you can usually get your new mortgage payment to be less than your current mortgage payment. That can ease the crunch of monthly bills in many ways. What would you do with a few extra hundred dollars a month? The other way a refinance can help is that with some refinances you can get a bit of cash out of your equity when you get the new loan. This can give you some money to catch up on bills, and hopefully some to keep in reserve for when times are tight. Remember, though, that you are paying interest on that money that you’ve borrowed, so using it to keep the bank from foreclosing on your property is the best use of the money not just taking a vacation. Remember, though, that all properties are not going to be eligible for a refinance…it depends on your own situation money owed on house, amount of current loan, prepayment penalties on current loan, etc.
If you’re getting notices threatening foreclosure from the bank about property, there are things you can do to protect your home. But taking measures before they foreclose is the smarter way to keep your home, even in difficult times.