Don’t Hide From Your Mortgage Payments, Get proactive and Communicate With Your Lender

Between a massive pandemic and, apparently, murder hornets, you’d think we have enough on our plates to worry about. However, we are also feeling the side effects of the virus; the financial health of the country is in dire straits. As a result, many people are considering simply missing payments on their mortgage in the hopes that they can make it up when things get better – this is a bad idea. The bottom line is it will damage your credit and potentially cost you your home; but banks would rather have your money than a home, so they are likely to work with you if you go through the proper channels.  
As evidence that many people are trying to find ways to avoid paying their mortgage (in a responsible manner), the percentage of mortgage loans in forbearance in March 2020 was .25%, on April 12, 2020 that number was 6% and by April 19, 2020 that number was 7%. 
Failure to pay your mortgage can result in foreclosure, which means the bank takes your home and you’re out on your rear. Many states have placed a moratorium on foreclosure proceedings, but that foreclosure-pause will likely end as soon as stay-at-home orders are lifted. 
Failing to miss your mortgage payments will adversely effect your credit, which means you might as well be throwing money away (the lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate on loans, the higher the interest rate on loans the more money you pay in interest over the life of the loan; a higher mortgage means less interest payments). After 30 days, your lender will likely file a notice of default and report the nonpayment to the various credit reporting agencies (“CRAs”). Fail to pay your mortgage for a significant period of time and you’ll get penalties and a foreclosure notice eventually. Generally speaking, banks will work with you to avoid foreclosure (at a cost) for the first 6 months, after that you could lose your home. 
If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage in these difficult times, do not hide under the bed and wish for things to get better. The first order of business is to communicate with your lender, they would rather have money than your house.
Some of the options available (depending on your lender) are: (1) forbearance, which allows you to pause payments during a short-term inability to pay without the risk of late fees; at the end of that period you are expected to pay the full amount owing; (2) modifying your loan is an option when your entire financial situation has been altered as a result of this virus; lenders are willing to do this because they prefer money over property; and (3) asking for a repayment plan, which many banks will allow provided you aren’t several months behind on payments. 
At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and knowledge of how to keep your home despite a shaky financial landscape is powerful knowledge indeed. At the Chernov Team we know that whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with he most, and the Chernov Team always leaves the table with the most.