Do not ignore the problem and figure it will go away. It won’t, unless you catch up and stay current with your monthly mortgage payments. The further you get behind, the bigger the problem will become, and the more likely that you will face foreclosure.
Call or write your mortgage lender as soon as you realize that you have a problem in making your payments. Lenders are not in the real estate business and do not want your home. But they do want their loans paid, so most mortgage lenders will try to work with you. However, you need to understand that while most mortgage lenders will work with you, they are not required to. And some won’t.
Be sure to open and respond to all mail from your mortgage lender. The initial letters will be demand letters wherein your mortgage lender is demanding payment. These letters will sometimes contain the contact information for someone at your mortgage lender’s office who may be able to help you. Your failure to respond to or contacting your mortgage lender will only cause your file to be moved more quickly to the legal department for foreclosure.
Learn your legal rights. You may want to get out a copy of your mortgage or deed of trust and read it. There is a lot of legal writing that is difficult to understand and you may want to contact a lawyer licensed in your state to determine your legal rights. One point here is to contact several lawyers because their consultation fees will vary.
If you are served with legal documents, go to a lawyer immediately. There are two points here. One, legal service may be made by mail or by anyone handing you the documents. Do not think that you have not been served legally because you were not served by a constable or a sheriff’s deputy. Two, there are important time deadlines and you do not want to miss them by talking to a lawyer after the deadline or not giving your lawyer time to meet the deadline.
You need to sell what you have to produce cash. What can you sell for a little extra money? An extra car, perhaps? Motorcycle? That RV that you haven’t used in two years? Do you have life insurance that you can borrow on? Remember, sacrifices must be made in order to avoid foreclosure in Austin. However, if worse comes to the worst, you may actually consider selling the home. This is in the worst case scenario where you couldn’t reach a consensus with your lender. In such cases, you might require the expertise of a real estate professional to ensure you sell the house at competitive terms and probably even make a financial gain on it.