Yahoo Answers Ernesto Question:

I’m going true a hard time and i can’t pay the full Monthly Payment of my mortgage, i have never make a late payment yet but this month i think is going to be hard for me,someone told me to call the bank and try to negotiated my monthly payment what should i do? please give me and advice.

Answer:

Hi Ernesto, It’s tough times for a lot of people right now. I’m sorry you are struggling so much. Here’s my feedback on your Situation. There are a few possible solutions to your situation..

1) Your lack of adequate Cash Flow is temporary and will increase back to its previous level. In this case you should definitely contact your bank, explain to them that you are experiencing a temporary setback in cash flow, and set up a repayment plan for the portion of the mortgage payment that you couldn’t make. They’ll take that portion that you missed and divide it equally over a period of time – say 12 months. You’ll receive some new paperwork from the bank stating the new agreement – you sign it return it to them and then start making your regular monthly payment again along with the additional monthly installment you agreed to… voila!

Another option your bank may choose if its severe enough is to just add the portion of the payment that you couldn’t make to the back end of the Loan – in other words they add it back into the principle balance of the loan and you make a few more payments. There are lots of options if your situation is temporary – contact your bank and let them know what your situation is and they’ll let you know about the programs they have available.

2) Your cash flow is more of a long term ongoing situation. Now you need to look at another solution all together. You can do nothing – and… you’ll end up loosing the house to foreclosure because you broke your mortgage contract OR, what a lot of people are doing right now is requesting a Loan Modification. This is where the bank makes a permanent change to the terms of your loan to reflect your new lower income. This usually involves permanently lowering your monthly payment through a lower interest rate, extending the repayment period, forgiving some of the interest on a portion of the debt (a forbearance), or forgiving a portion of the principle all together (rare but it does happen).

Look, your bank doesn’t want to take your house – they just want you to make your payments. Call them and see what you guys can work out together. If you’ve got one of the big banks as your lender they’ll have programs available for you that you can access. If you do opt for loan modification be aware that there are professional services that exist that are there to handle this for you.

Loan modification can be a bit tricky unless you are well versed in finance and real estate law. If you’re not, if your not comfortable with these issues and you do opt to go for a loan modification you should check into using a professional to get the best results. After all, this is your home we’re talking about here… she deserves the best!

If you’re interested I maintain a blog “All About Loan Modifications” at https://surefast.wordpress.com

Best of luck to you!