1 month behind on my mortgage
Question: I am having some difficulty catching up on my mtg I have been in my house for 15 years and never missed any payments we had some unforseen bills this winter like the price of fuel to heat our home which but us back a little bit in our finances we don’t owe a lot of debt or spent a lot but I just can’t seem to come up with the money to pay the mtg at the end of the month we have been cutting back on everything but the mtg has been running about 1 week late for 2 months know any suggestions.
Answer: You have a number of options.
First, you could talk to the mortgage company and ask them to allow you to defer one payment; they would take the payment you are behind, and add it to the end of your mortgage. By deferring one payment you are now current with your mortgage. Of course you now have an extra mortgage payment at the end of the mortgage, but if you believe you will be able to stay current from now on, this may be a good solution.
Second, you could renegotiate your mortgage. If you currently have 20 years to run on your mortgage, you could ask the bank to increase the amortization period to 22 or 25 years. This would lower your monthly payment slightly, and therefore may make the payment more manageable. Of course this also means you have just added 3 to 5 years of payments to your mortgage, which greatly increases the long term cost of the mortgage.
Finally, if the cost of the house is too great, you could consider selling the house and moving to a smaller house, or finding a place to rent. No-one wants to sell their house, but if you are afraid that you will continue to fall behind on your payments, it is better to sell the house now while you are not too far behind, rather that waiting until you are far behind and the bank forecloses on your mortgage.