You have a lot of bills to pay every month, but one of the most important ones is likely your home mortgage. You know that you need to stay current on this mortgage so that your home doesn’t go into foreclosure. Home prices have certainly gone up lately, so buying another home could be difficult.
But what happens if you miss a payment? Maybe you simply forgot to send it in. Perhaps you have had some other financial challenges, so you were unable to pay. After you miss that payment, is your lender automatically going to try to foreclose on the home and resell it?
You typically get 120 days
All lenders have different policies and contracts are written in various ways. But most lenders will give you 120 days, or four missed payments.
What this means is that you don’t need to worry about losing your home over one missed payment. The lender would rather give you more time to get back on track. It is far simpler and more cost-effective for them to have you pay off the loan, rather than going through the complicated process of foreclosing on your home and selling it to a third party.
But after you’ve missed four payments or more, the lender may determine that it is unlikely you will ever pay again. In a situation like that, they simply want to reclaim as much of the value as they can. That’s when they will finally decide that it’s time to foreclose on the home.
Even if you get to this point, you certainly do have legal options to consider. Make sure you know exactly where you stand and what steps you’ll need to take to protect your future.