Beg, Borrow or Steal, Make that Mortgage Payment

One of the most common things I hear when a prospective client contacts us for a mortgage refinance is "I just missed a mortgage payment and I want to refinance before it's too late". When I ask them about their credit, most of them reply "Oh I pay everything on time, I just got behind this one month on the mortgage".

It breaks my heart to tell them that in many cases, it already is too late. The reason is simple if you really think about it: If your home is your biggest investment, your greatest potential asset and your largest current liability, there is nothing more important than showing that you are able to make the payment on it every month. If you are in a cash crunch, you're better off missing or underpaying almost any other payment, such as a credit card bill, even your utility bill, instead of missing or even delaying your mortgage payment, because missing one mortgage payment can cost you tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

When you miss a mortgage payment, your credit score may not go down dramatically. But your mortgage credit quality will take a serious beating, and you'll carry it around for years. When you start out with a mortgage, regardless of what your FICO credit score is, you are rated an "A", meaning you make your mortgage payments on time. If you miss a payment, and even if you're just late enough to qualify as 30 days late, the lateness is recorded and you will become an "A-" or a "B". Just one mortgage lateness can keep you out of the refinance market for up to two years by automatically locking you out of the lowest payment programs such as Option ARMs or low-rate fixed mortgages, and you can forget about stated income programs, you will now have to prove where every penny comes from and you'll need more of them too. If it sounds a bit like high school, it is, but this time its for keeps. Keep missing or delaying payments, and you'll quickly see your mortgage quality decline to a "C" or "D", which could prevent you from refinancing entirely by eliminating your eligibility from even standard rate programs. I have seen customers who started out at 6% wind up at 10% or more solely because they chose making payments on cars or credit cards over making their mortgage payment on time.

This hurts the most when you refinance or are ready to buy a new house, because you are usually borrowing more money than you were previously, either to pay off bills or make home improvements, or because you're getting a bigger house. So not only are you moving to a higher balance, but your now derogatory mortgage credit will force you into a high rate. If you need the cash to pay off bills and improve your credit urgently, or to purchase a home in a new area because you are relocating for work, you can wind up in a horrible Catch 22, very often disqualified for financing entirely, or with financing so unaffordable that you would rather not.

So what can you do about this? If you do better with automatic payments, sign up for direct debit payment with your lender, or arrange for your bank to automatically pay your mortgage every month on a specific date which far enough ahead of the due dates for your other bills that you won't be tempted to pay something else. The day after payday is a great day to do it. And the date should be far enough ahead of your due date that the bill is paid and posted on time. It might hurt that first month, but it will even out once you get used to the new schedule.

And if you are even thinking that you might miss a mortgage payment, call up a loan officer, and not one who works for your current lender, and get refinanced today. Not only will this put a little extra cash in your pocket and help you pay off your other bills, but it will usually allow you to go a few extra weeks without making another payment out of pocket. In fact, for qualified borrowers, we even have Zero Payment & Zero Interest for 90 Day loans which are perfect for people who are at risk of missing their next payment. Because there are no payments for up to 90 days, this is a very popular product amongst our customers. Fixed-Rate Option ARMs (Hybrids) are also excellent products for people who are having trouble making ends meet temporarily, but expect to get back on their feet within a few months or a few years.

Loans generally take 15-30 days to close, so you really need to think ahead a little bit, which is hard for all of us. But instead of freezing up, or scrambling around looking for money, call up an experienced professional and get out of that jam before you get into trouble. You're better off dealing with the issue in the present instead of regretting the past. And no matter what, make sure you satisfy your mortgage payment obligation. Everything else on your credit report can be repaired, negotiated, but not your mortgage lates. Don't wind up in a situation like many of my callers are in, ready to dance but too late to the party, plan ahead and as always, protect your financial future today!

Tristan Hunt is a seasoned financial professional with a wealth of experience in the mortgage business, advising clients on their biggest single investment at Refinance One, one of the nation's leading specialty mortgage companies.

Phone: (800)515-8443
Email: Customers@RefinanceOne.net

Favorite Topics Include: Adjustable Rate Refinance, Fixed Rate Refinance & Fixed Rate Cash Flow Mortgages

Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance

A mortgage is often the single biggest financial commitment that many people make during their lifetime, yet fewer than half of all residential mortgage holders choose to take on protection of their mortgage repayment ability with mortgage protection insurance.

Mortgage protection insurance, or mortgage payment protection insurance, is a form of insurance that ensures mortgage repayments are met should the mortgage holder become unemployed, fall critically ill or be unable to earn income due to an accident. This type of protection insurance product is quite cheap to maintain, and allows mortgage holders to set an insurance amount for monthly protection pay-out that covers mortgage costs and additional expenses up to a set percentage above mortgage outgoings.

Most mortgage payment protection insurance policies are strict on protection insurance claims. For instance, should the mortgage holder become unemployed through their own free will, then they would not be covered by the mortgage payment protection insurance policy. However, redundancy does qualify for payment through the protection insurance policy, providing that the mortgage holder actively seeks new employment. Additionally, mortgage protection insurance may not pay out if the claimant takes on voluntary or part-time work, although the protection insurance terms & conditions relating to this area will vary with each type of mortgage payment protection insurance product.

Typically, mortgage holders will have to endure a mortgage payment protection insurance qualifying period before receiving payment protection pay-outs. The qualifying period on mortgage payment protection insurance policies is normally 90 - 120 days. If the mortgage holder is still eligible for mortgage payment protection insurance after this period, then protection payments are commenced on a monthly basis.

Insurance companies often require holders of mortgage payment protection insurance to renew their mortgage protection insurance claim every month by completing a form. Sometimes the insurance companies will request evidence from the mortgage holder so they can evaluate the mortgage holder's eligibility for the continuation of mortgage protection insurance payments. This could be a doctor's note of illness or copies of job applications if claiming mortgage payment protection insurance pay-out because of redundancy. Mortgage payment protection insurance pay-outs are normally paid directly into the mortgage holder's bank account one month in arrears.

Pay-outs on mortgage payment protection insurance are often limited to a set insurance period. Depending on the insurance company, monthly protection payments over six months or twelve months from the first mortgage protection pay-out is normal. As two out of every ten people who are made redundant take over a year to re-establish themselves in a new job, mortgage payment protection insurance could mean the difference between keeping your home or losing it.

About The Author
Gary Tallon has been writing in the finance industry for over 10 years and is currently working with life insurance http://www.powerinsurance.com for PowerInsurance.com.

No Down Payment Mortgage Loan - Ways to Buy a Home with Zero Down

If you want to buy a new home, but have little money in the bank, there are ways to get approved for a home with no money down. New homebuyers have a multitude of mortgage options available to them. These options make buying a home with little out-of-pocket expense more attainable.

Understanding Traditional Mortgage Loans

Prior to the flood of new mortgage loans, buying a home required waiting until you had the ideal circumstances. This usually meant saving enough money for a down payment (about 20% of the home price), building a high credit rating, and having adequate funds left over to pay closing fees.

Unfortunately, the prefect circumstances rarely present itself. Thus, several home loans have been established to help people achieve their goal of owning a home. Although new types of home loans are common, traditional mortgage loans have not become extinct.

There are advantages to traditional home loans. Typically, these loans involve a lower interest rate and better terms. However, meeting the qualifying requirements is difficult. Moreover, traditional mortgage loans require some form of down payment.

First Time Home Buyer Loans Programs

Several local housing departments have programs setup to help new homebuyers acquire a home loan. In some cases, homebuyers must successfully complete a home buying workshop.

Afterwards completing workshop, homebuyers become eligible for down payment assistant programs and government grants. Unfortunately, some cities establish income restrictions. Thus, if the annual household income exceeds a certain amount, you will not qualify for down payment assistance.

No Money Down Home Loans

If seeking a conventional home loan, there are many programs offered by Veteran Administration and FHA that involve no money down home loans. In either case, the lender financing the home will likely approve the homebuyer for 100% financing.

Try using one of ABC Loan Guide's Recommended No Money Down Mortgage Loan Lenders.

Buyers may also obtain funds for more than the purchase price, which is usually enough to pay for closing costs and home repairs. These loans are labeled 103% and 107% financing. If using a prime lender, good credit is required. Homebuyers that do qualify for prime rates may obtain up to 103% financing using a bad credit mortgage lender.

View our recommended lenders for Mortgage Financing. Also, view our recommended sources for Home Loans For People With Poor Credit.

How to Lower Your Mortgage Payment and Avoid Foreclosure With Obama's New Stimulus Package

The stimulus bill can help you lower your mortgage payments. There are no qualifications or lengthy paper work and there are no strings attached. All you have to do is get a loan modification. Let me explain.

Obama has allocated fifty billion dollars of the stimulus package to lowering loans for homeowners facing foreclosure. In the past banks have cut back on issuing modification negotiations because of the tough economic situation. However, these attempts have resulted in even more foreclosures and even more losses for banks. This plan will alleviate this crippling situation by benefiting both banks and homeowners by allowing both to avoid foreclosure- the worst situation possible. The way the plan works is that Obama will distribute the money to major banks as an incentive to lower interest rates and negotiate more lenient payment plans for those in a bind. This means that banks will be more likely to accept your negotiated proposal.

Do not miss out on this opportunity. There are other ways to take advantage of this new stimulus bill but getting a your loan adjusted has the least restrictions. For example, Obama has devised a plan to lower your tax credit. However, this plan is only applicable to individuals who make less than 75,000 dollars per year. Those who meet the restrictions will be given priority.

Even if you have been unsuccessful in the past, you should still try to negotiate a modification again. Banks will be more generous this time around because of aid from the stimulus package.

A loan modification is always your best choice over a short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This is the only way that you can reduce your debt while still keeping your house.

This article is written by Timothy McFarlin - an experienced loan modification attorney. Tim has many years of loan modification and bankruptcy experience and has helped many corporations and people with securing a better life. You can visit his website at McFarlin and Geurths LPP Law

Four Ways to Lower an Expensive Monthly Mortgage Payment

Many homeowners would be able to afford their mortgages if not for a temporary financial hardship or an inopportune interest rate reset. They are not facing a serious long term change in their income, but were only temporarily unable to make a payment. Interest rate resets on adjustable rate mortgages may be even more unfortunate, as it is clear so many borrowers did not understand and were not made aware of the fact that the cost of the mortgage would drastically increase a few years after they bought their home.

For families in this situation, it would seem easy enough to identify the goal that would allow them to keep their home; namely, they must lower their monthly mortgage payment. Of course, this is much easier said than done, but there are a number of routes that borrowers can take to try and obtain a more affordable payment, even if they have bad credit or they have recently changed jobs. While using a foreclosure lender is a viable option, in times of a credit crunch and lower property values, it may be wise to consider other solutions first.

Before they try anything else, all homeowners should call their lender and ask the loss mitigation department what is needed to qualify for a mortgage modification. Borrowers will probably have to send in a number of financial documents and fill out bank forms proving they can make a reasonable payment every month. This solution may significantly lower the payments but will typically not lower the total amount owed on the loan, as a modification is usually just about reducing the interest rate in order to make the monthly cost more affordable.

Borrowers may also want to consider the use of a foreclosure help company to do the services listed above. If they do not have the time to spend on hold with the bank for hours a day, then they might want to unload this part of the process to professionals. The owners can do pretty much everything else to qualify for a workout solution on their own, but banks currently have so many foreclosure cases that they need to be called almost everyday until the homeowners are given an answer to their application. If the borrowers can not make that call everyday, the should seriously consider paying someone else to do it on their behalf.

Another, more speculative, option is for homeowners to default on their loan completely and hope that the bank sells their mortgage to the government. The government will probably step in and negotiate the balance down and reduce the borrowers' monthly payment before selling the loan back to some other bank to collect the payments. Wall Street banks are being bailed out for hundreds of billions of dollars of foreclosure victims' money -- homeowners behind in payments might as well get in line to get a piece of their own money to save their homes.

Finally, as one last option to lower monthly payments dramatically, homeowners can try to fight the foreclosure in court for as long as they can get away with. It may take years for the legal process to be over, if borrowers answer the initial complaint and demand that the bank show proof that it can foreclose on the house and has been in compliance with all the applicable laws. There are so many regulations that banks will have violated some clause in a state or federal law, or lost the original mortgage note. In any case, some homeowners have lived mortgage free for nearly a decade while they file motions in court, wait for hearings, and file appeals at every step of the process. Even if they lose the house in the end, they will have a long period of time in which to save money and pay down other debt.

Families who experience a temporary setback in their income may find it almost impossible to get back on top of their mortgage payments, with little help offered from the mortgage company itself. The banks make it difficult to do so, as they begin accelerating fees and interest in an attempt to eat up as much equity from a house as possible, if it goes to a foreclosure sheriff sale. But homeowners do have options to lower their payment, either through modification of the loan, a potential government bailout, or fighting the lender in court, not to mention refinancing with a specialized foreclosure lender.

Nick writes for the ForeclosureFish website and blog, which aim to provide homeowners with foreclosure advice and solutions they can use to save their properties while they still have time. The site describes numerous options to use for this purpose, including foreclosure refinancing, mortgage modification, deed in lieu, short sales, and more. Visit the site today to read more about how foreclosure works and how best to avoid it in your situation: http://www.foreclosurefish.com/

Behind on Your Home Mortgage Payment? Work with Your Lender!

When you get behind on your home mortgage payment, it can be a scary proposition. The chances are good that if you're like most folks in that situation, your house payments aren't the only financial obligations you're behind on. You're being stressed, emotionally and financially, and your home life may be suffering as a result.

If you're in that situation, it's important that you do the one thing that 2/3 of Americans DON'T do--reach out, talk to your lender, and work out an alternative plan. It's an amazing statistic, but a recent survey by Freddie Mac and Roper Public Affairs and Media has showed that more than half of all borrowers faced with foreclosure of their homes never talk to their lender at all during the process.

On the other hand, ¾ of those borrowers do remember having been contacted by their lending institution. There was a significant percentage of reasons people gave for not following up those contacts with their own attempts to work out alternative payment plans, but the most often cited was a belief that their lenders couldn't help them with late house payments. The next most-often reasons cited involved pride, fear, and embarrassment. Borrowers thought they could take care of their problems themselves or were afraid to call because they simply didn't have the money to make their payments. Another common reason was that borrowers didn't know who to contact for help.

That last reason, although cited significantly less often than the others, is still important, because some 61 percent of delinquent buyers responded that they didn't know a person could work out an alternative payment plan to help them out of their short-term financial bind. The survey showed that 92 percent of those borrowers would have talked to their lender if they had known that such an option was open to them.

The survey found that demographics made no difference in borrower responses. Whether the borrower was male or female, white, black, or Latino, the survey showed that there is a genuine need for educating borrowers as to how to work out temporary plans to avoid foreclosure.

So if you find yourself in a financial bind that is difficult enough to threaten the loss of your home, don't be afraid or embarrassed. Lenders are in the business of lending money. It's not their job to become homeowners. So they'd rather help you keep your home rather than have to deal with taking over and then reselling a foreclosure.

Don't ignore the correspondence from your letter if you get into trouble. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by talking frankly with your lender about working out a plan to save your house. You'll be surprised at how willing most lenders will be to help you stay in your home, even if you are behind on your mortgage.

Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher

FREE Credit Help Teleseminar. Get expert advice on building your credit from mortgage brokers and real estate college instructor Jeanette Fisher. More free credit tips http://worryfreecredit.com

Wind Inspections Reduce Your Mortgage Payment - Homeowner's Reduce Your Monthly Payment

Wind Inspections are helping homeowner's reduce their mortgage payments by applying for credits on their homeowners insurance policy. Eligible credits include new home discounts, wind mitigation credits, type of construction discounts like concrete block with rebar, and alarm discounts like fire or burglary. In Florida every county with a coastline has areas considered high wind borne debris zones. Because of this classification, homes have to be constructed to withstand high winds and wind blown debris. That means each roof truss must have a metal strap tying it down to the walls and the walls have to have reinforcing bar if made of cement or cement block and stud bolts through the bottom plate if they are made of wood. These bolts and rebar secure the home to the foundation slab preventing a strong wind for lifting or twisting the structure.

Other important building designs include the use of 8-10d nails to fasten the roof deck, bracing on gables or hip roof construction, hurricane shutters over all the openings like windows and doors or the use of impact and wind resistant products. The roof construction is generally the best reason to get a wind inspection because it corresponds to the largest reduction in a homeowner's premium. Since every home built after 2002 and many built prior to that have the high wind type construction. If you had your roof replaced in the past year, new Florida legislation made updating the roof construction mandatory. That means many Florida homeowners are sitting on an opportunity to reduce their mortgage payments and don't even know it.

In today's economy, reducing your monthly mortgage payment can mean the difference that keeps you in your home. And it is as easy as getting a wind inspection. Some homeowners can qualify for inspections at reduced prices. If you want to have a wind mitigation inspection conducted on your property some inspectors are helping to make it easier by offering their services for a discounted fee. Outside of installing shutters and hurricane-proofing your home, you can shop your policy and get the best premium for the same coverage or more appropriate coverage that fits your needs.

J. Malan is the owner of Malan Group LLC. Brevard, FL's first choice in water damage repair and emergency water removal and remediation. Malan Group LLC offers a free wind inspection on all claims they handle. When you experience an insurance claim, we can handle all your repairs and settle directly with your insurance company with no out of pocket expense to the propery owner. http://www.malangroupllc.com