Put A Stop To Foreclosure!

Put A Stop To Foreclosure

The recent surge of foreclosures has been getting many of today's homeowners nervous about their home mortgages.  The reasons being that many of them are approaching reset dates on their adjustable rate, interest only, or option payment loans.  And on top of that, there are far too many people that live in homes that they never should have qualified for in the first place.  They live in homes that they were barely able to make mortgage payments for in 2004, and now they definitely can't afford to live in it today.  In 2006, the US saw 1.26 million homeowners file for foreclosure.  Only halfway through 2007 there have already been over 2 million foreclosure filings.

Your first measure towards preventing foreclosure is to ensure that you don't miss a payment.  Your second measure towards preventing foreclosure is to ensure that you do not miss any mortgage payments.  For obvious reasons, if you don't miss a payment, you'll never have to worry about a foreclosure.  And ideally, most people took out there mortgages with every intention of being responsible homeowners; making their mortgage payments on time, keeping your homeowner's insurance current and taxes paid.  Nevertheless no road is without its bumps and the road of life is no different.  Throughout the course of your 30 year fixed-rate you may lose your job, become seriously injured or ill, experience a death in the family, experience a birth in the family, or even have ever too common exorbitant car expenses; and there are very few conundrums quite like choosing between paying your mortgage or repairing the car that takes you to the job that pays your mortgage.

So if you know that you will be missing a payment, the worst thing that you can do is hope that nobody will notice; instead, be proactive. A temporary mortgage shortfall because of an unexpected emergency is quite different from an ongoing problem resulting from a job loss or overwhelming debt. If the problem is short term, maybe there are adjustments you can make; can you slip other payments - utilities, student loans, credit cards? None of your creditors are going to take a missed payment well, but some will be easier to deal with than others. Contact them all and find out what accommodations they might make. Will these adjustments allow you to squeak out the mortgage payment? A great solution as long as you can catch up with everybody else in a month or two.

Incase you do miss a mortgage payment just remember to not ignore letters from your lender. If you are having problems making your payments, call or write to your lender's Loss Mitigation Department without delay. Explain your situation. Be prepared to provide them with financial information, such as your monthly income and expenses. Without this information, they may not be able to help.

If you don't take action after missing a mortgage payment foreclosure may occur. 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 HUD an additional amount.

Both foreclosures and deficiency judgments could seriously affect your ability to qualify for credit in the future. So you should avoid foreclosure if possible.

I am a Senior Loan Officer for Carteret Mortgage Corporation. If you would like to receive my "FREE" monthly newsletters, you may sign up on my website at www.oaklandmortgageadvisor.com