Nationwide foreclosures are highest in California, New Jersey, and Illinois. Lake County in Illinois has some of the greatest numbers of foreclosures. Most homeowners will do everything in their power to save the home they worked so hard to purchase. At Newland & Newland, LLP, we offer a variety of creative ways to modify your existing loan through firm negotiation with your lender. An experienced real estate attorney can guide you through the process of a loan modification.

Modification Options

Before you reach any sort of agreement with your lender, you should consult with a real estate attorney who may be able to attain more favorable terms on your mortgage loan agreement. It is also important to understand your current financial situation and if it is likely to improve in the near future. The following are some creative ways we utilize to modify a mortgage loan:

• Forbearance – This is a temporary suspension of your monthly payments. Interest will accrue and the principal in forbearance is due before the house can be sold or when the loan term ends.  

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Purchasing a home is probably the biggest investment you will make in your life, and when you find your dream home you are probably going to be excited about locking it in with a big down payment. But online scam artists are ready to take your hard-earned money. Wire fraud is now the fastest-growing scam in the United States, up more than 1,000 percent between 2015 and 2017. If you are buying a home a skilled real estate attorney can guide you through the process and help you avoid any pitfalls.

The Scam: Fake Wiring Instructions

The FBI reports there are phishing scams to divert your down payment and closing costs into a fraudulent account. Typically, it comes across as last-minute changes to your wiring instructions. The scams are astronomically successful and translate into nearly $1 billion in real estate transaction losses.

Closing Funds

The lender will give the buyer the closing disclosure three days before closing. It contains an estimate of the amount necessary to close. The actual amount is usually obtained by the real estate closing attorney who informs the buyer.

There are many reasons why a family may struggle financially, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. If you are having difficulty making mortgage payments, and you do not expect this to change in the near future, you will likely worry about your ability to keep your home. If you default on your mortgage by missing one or more payments, your lender may begin the foreclosure process. Fortunately, you have options, including seeking a new loan to refinance your home. It is best to take action as soon as possible, because once your lender initiates foreclosure proceedings, addressing these issues will become more complicated and costly.

Options for Refinancing

Refinancing differs from other types of loan modifications. When you refinance your home, you will be obtaining a loan that will pay off the balance on your current mortgage. Since this is a completely new loan, you will be required to pay closing costs and fees, and you will need to show that you have a steady income. You will most likely also need to own some equity in your home.

Since you will need to meet a variety of requirements to qualify for a new loan, it is important to begin the refinancing process before defaulting on your current mortgage. Missed payments are reported to credit bureaus, and this will lower your credit score, which will make it less likely that a lender will approve your loan.

Have you missed a few mortgage payments because of COVID-19 or for any other reason? If so, you might be inching ever closer to defaulting on your loan, which means that foreclosure could soon become a possibility. While many lenders—including most federally sponsored lending programs—put a moratorium on foreclosures during the COVID-19 health crisis, these moratoriums will soon be coming to an end. With this in mind, you will need to address any payments that you might have skipped, regardless of the reasons.

The good news is that you will almost certainly have options that can help you get your loan back in good standing so that you can keep your home. One of the most common of these options is a loan modification, and an experienced Libertyville attorney can help you with your application.

Be Proactive

Put simply, a loan modification is an amendment to the conditions and terms set in your mortgage loan agreement. The purpose of the modification is to allow you to catch up and bring your mortgage current. Loan modifications can take many forms. For example, you might qualify for a loan extension that reduces your monthly payment, an adjustment to your interest rate, or an approved capitalization of the payments you have missed. The different types of loan modifications all share at least one commonality: a modification will not be granted unless you ask for one.

Homeowners get themselves into financial trouble for a variety of reasons. Maybe you have recently lost your job or suffered a significant injury, straining your financial resources to the point that you have begun to miss mortgage payments. Depending on the gravity of your financial situation, foreclosure might seem like it is your only option.

It is not. In many cases, struggling homeowners can keep their houses by working with an experienced foreclosure defense attorney to determine how they can remain in their homes. It can be difficult and require you to make personal sacrifices, but the payoff is the ability to remain in the home where you have lived and loved.