March 23, 2020
Are you worried about losing your home during the financial trouble caused by COVID-19 and the global coronavirus outbreak? There are some important steps you can take to save your home and avoid foreclosure.
FHA borrowers should know that the FHA and HUD have issued a 60-day moratorium for eviction and foreclosure action associated with FHA mortgages.
But that is a TEMPORARY delay and borrowers should not expect to avoid foreclosure without making arrangements with their lender.
If you are in trouble with your mortgage, there are important steps you can take to avoid foreclosure after the 60-day delay in FHA loan foreclosure action has expired. What are they?
- Contact your lender as soon as you know you are having financial trouble.
- Make arrangements with your loan officer and see what options are open to you.
- Keep making payments on your mortgage unless you have a specific plan that you have worked out with your lender.
- Do not respond to third-party emails, phone calls, text messages, or messages on social media that you did not initiate that offer to give you a loan modification.
That’s right, you read correctly–there are scammers preying upon people during the coronavirus outbreak. DO NOT RESPOND to emails or other messaging (including regular mail and telephone calls) that YOU did not initiate. You should only deal directly with your lender UNLESS your lender tells you to do otherwise.
The most important thing you need to do to save your home? Do not miss payments unless told by your lender to do otherwise. If you already HAVE missed one or more payments, contact your lender NOW.
You cannot save your home if you don’t work with your creditor, the lender. You cannot save your home if you don’t have an arrangement with the lender not matter what you read in the headlines.
No government bailout or mortgage loan relief program allows you to skip payments without making arrangements directly with the lender. No government program allows you to skip payments without an arrangement.
It may sound like we are being repetitive here, but in the current confusion, we find that the most clear, direct messaging is required to get the information across.
You CAN save your home. You have more options by acting quickly. Some borrowers miss too many payments and have not recourse but to have a short sale or actually go through with a foreclosure depending on how many payments are missed.
Do not let that happen to you.
Bruce Reichstein has spent over three decades as an experienced FHA and VA home loan mortgage banker and underwriter where he was responsible for funding “Billions” in government backed mortgage loans. He is the Managing Editor for FHANewsblog.com where he educates homeowners on the specific guidelines for obtaining FHA guaranteed home loans.
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