Foreclosures

Forbearance allows borrowers to pause mortgage payments for a limited time while they rebuild savings, increase income or decrease debt after experiencing financial difficulties. The payments aren’t erased, but there are plenty of options to resolve the delinquency: repayment plans, loan modification, deferral, partial claims, etc.

While this won’t be an option if you’ve already begun the foreclosure process, refinancing can also be a solution. If you fear you’re headed toward foreclosure, refinancing into a more affordable payment can help you avoid defaulting on the loan. This can only really be done if you’ve yet to miss a payment, so unfortunately this option isn’t feasible for everyone.

Unexpected life circumstances happen to everyone, but lenders and servicers are aware of this and will work with you to find a solution before your home has to be foreclosed upon. If you faced financial difficulties for a time that have since resolved themselves, contact your servicer about what options you may have.

Similar to the repayment plan above, if your financial hardship has passed and you have the means to repay your mortgage normally going forward, you can also ask for mortgage reinstatement. Under mortgage reinstatement, you make a lump-sum payment for all of the payments you missed, and your mortgage will once again be current.

If you can’t catch up on mortgage payments or don’t qualify for any retention loss mitigation option and know you won’t be able to go forward, you can still sign a deed in lieu of foreclosure and avoid the repercussions of the typical foreclosure process. When you sign a deed in lieu, you voluntarily give your lender the deed to your home.