Coronavirus| How to Get Mortgage Relief during the Covid-19 Epidemic

2020 has been an interesting year nonetheless. From raising our newborn and bringing her into the new year, to dealing with a global epidemic. The real estate market has been in a frenzy, with the covid-19 preventing people from paying their mortgage payments on time. Luckily, I’ve been able to adjust accordingly to these new changes going on.

First things first, I advise you if you haven’t already put your mortgage into forbearance and get some type of relief… Do it! Millions of Americans are blowing up lenders phone lines to the point where you won’t get through and will have a hard time. You may just give up, procrastinate, and not do it at all especially since the percentage of requests to postpone mortgage payments jump nearly 2,000%.

Fortunately after what seemed like 15 to 20 times, I was finally able to put my investment property into forbearance for 3 months. I believe in the phrase, It’s better to be safe rather than sorry and if we get passed this whole epidemic faster than we expect, then i can just take my mortgage off of forbearance. If you happen to also be putting your mortgage into forbearance, beware of rules that may come into play. Your lender may not allow to forward your mortgage payments to the end of your loan. So after your 3 months of forbearance is up, you may have to pay those missed payments in full. Put your money to the side, and be ready to pay in full. 

Banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase have outright said that customers have to repay those postponed payments in a lump sum once three months are up. It all depends on who your lender is, this unexpected demand could put homeowners deeper in debt as millions are laid off and watching their retirement savings plunge with the stock market. So if you do plan to enter forbearance please be smart, and have reserves to tap into.

After being allowed to put my mortgage into forbearance, I took advantage of current mortgage rates being super low, and I refinanced my primary residence. This drops my mortgage a little under 200 dollars, putting less pressure on my wallet. From doing this refinance, I was also granted a month void from paying mortgage. One free month, to save money  and add to my emergency fund. 

This was definitely a win- win situation because I’m off the hook from paying my 1st mortgage, and because of the refinance I’m lowering my monthly payment and also able to skip a months payment. If you’re in this predicament where you have one or two mortgages, follow this case study and get ahead of the curve, until we flatten this curve.