With all of the upheaval in the world right now, more people than ever are having major financial stress surrounding housing or are worried about the prospect of losing their homes. Even before these unprecedented times, a home foreclosure wasn’t something that was necessarily an extremely rare occurrence. So if this is the situation in which you find yourself, there are some things that you might want to try.
To help you know what these things are, here are three things to do when you’re nearing foreclosure on your home.
Talk With Your Lender
As soon as you realize that you’re having financial troubles that may cause you to miss a payment on your home, USA.gov shares that you should immediately get in touch with your lender. The sooner you’re able to start a dialogue about what’s going on and what kind of situation you’ve found yourself in, the more options you’re going to have. So while this can be embarrassing to admit or can be a scary conversation to have, talking with your lender first is going to be the best bet for you.
Try To Modify Your Loan
After you speak with your lender, you should know more about what options are available to you for keeping your house or making some adjustments to your financial responsibilities.
One common concession, according to Jeanine Skowronski, a contributor to Credit.com, is to get a loan modification. With a loan modification, you may be able to get some leniency in certain areas that will make things a bit easier on you financially. For example, one modification you could ask for may be to temporarily reduce your monthly payment until you’re in a more secure financial position. While this might seem like a big ask, you never know until you try, so try to come to some kind of compromise with your lender before an actual foreclosure takes place.
Consider A Short Sale
If you’re at the point where you know that your home is going to be foreclosed on soon and there’s no other financial options that you can come up with, Tara Mastroeni, a contributor to Forbes.com, suggests that you consider a short sale.
With a short sale, you’ll speak with your lender about settling for less than the home is actually worth so that you can get out of your financial responsibility without taking such a huge hit to your credit. In a short sale situation, you won’t make any money off the sale of the house and will still have to move out, but it may put you on better financial footing than a foreclosure would.
If you’re getting close to having your home foreclosed, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you figure out what some of your options are.