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Can’t Afford the Payments? Free Mortgage Advice from a Realtor

Guest post by: Bud Gragg

Article Overview: If you've gotten into a hard place financially and are having trouble affording your mortgage payments, the last thing you need is bad mortgage advice. Your lender will tell you to pay that mortgage no matter what you have to do, from taking on 4 simultaneous part-time jobs to selling your plasma. Paid “consultants” will charge you an exorbitant fee to give you advice and help that you could have found online. Obviously, you don't want to listen to your lender or some high-priced mortgage scam artist. But you also don't want to take advice from anyone else who might have a financial stake in your decisions! Even people with the best intentions in the world can't help but be biased if they have something to gain or to lose.

Can’t Afford the Payments? Free Mortgage Advice from a Realtor

If you've gotten into a hard place financially and are having trouble affording your mortgage payments, the last thing you need is bad mortgage advice.

Your lender will tell you to pay that mortgage no matter what you have to do, from taking on 4 simultaneous part-time jobs to selling your plasma. Paid “consultants” will charge you an exorbitant fee to give you advice and help that you could have found online.

Obviously, you don't want to listen to your lender or some high-priced mortgage scam artist. But you also don't want to take advice from anyone else who might have a financial stake in your decisions! Even people with the best intentions in the world can't help but be biased if they have something to gain or to lose.

So whom can you trust? Well, you're here for a reason. And we will give you the best mortgage advice we can, as Realtors and as people who have gone through what you're experiencing now.

If you absolutely can't pay your mortgage at your current rate and you really want to keep your home, apply first for a mortgage modification. We don't want you to hold out any real hope for this, though, because only 2.8% of the people who have applied so far have been approved.

If you're approved, there are 3 options available. The first two decrease your monthly payments, but you'll end up paying even more for the mortgage in the end than you would under the original terms. The third option may be helpful to you as it involves cutting the interest rate on your mortgage.

But now we have to ask you something—do you have an adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM? Take a look at your mortgage paperwork to find out.

We're asking because, if you have an ARM and you're having trouble making your mortgage payment now, we have some bad news for you. Your lender may not have explained this very well at the time, but the “A” in ARM stands for “adjustable.” That “adjustment” in your mortgage is a reset that's supposed to happen after 1, 3, 5, or 7 years (whatever your term is) and then every year thereafter, to put your payment in line with the rate of inflation.

This means that your monthly payments may well be about to head up, not down.

So now we've given you the bad news—mortgage modifications aren't as widely available as some of the people out there would have you believe, and if you have an ARM, you may be about to get screwed.

Now let's talk about the good news. You have options. You can negotiate to do a short sale, or you could decide to foreclose. You have to be prepared for either option. You'll have work to do if you go the short sale route, and with both options, you're going to need to plan your new life so you have a place to live and otherwise are ready to move on after your house is gone.

And this is the best and most optimistic mortgage advice we can give. We know it's possible to have a decent life after a foreclosure or a short sale, because we're living one. And we know as Realtors that a lot of our clients are doing the same things we did.

So please, don't let anyone steer you into taking mortgage advice that might not be in your best interest. Most of the advice we have to give you is free, and of course, there are other sources out there that will tell you many of the same things we will. Just stay calm, realize you do have options, and don't worry. This may feel like a life-or-death situation but believe us—it isn't!

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Article Tags: bank short sale, home short sales, house short sale, how to do a short sale, how to short sale, mortgage short sale, short sale, short sale definition, short sale foreclosure, short sale help, short sale information, short sale process, short sale training, what is short sale
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