A foreclosure is not a process that is private. In fact, it is quite public. A notice may be published in the newspaper, and a sheriff can show up at your door and give you a notice that you must vacate your property. Police have been known to enter a home and start moving furniture out into the lawn in order to vacate homes when people ignore the deadline on their notice. Can you imagine how humiliating it would be? Imagine living in an upscale neighborhood in San Diego, only to be thrown out of your own home while your neighbor stares on in disbelief from the driver’s side of his BMW. Foreclosures can happen in any neighborhood and in any economic market.

The nightmare of the foreclosure doesn’t end when you vacate your property. In fact, the long-term financial devastation of a foreclosure is probably the worst part. It will remain on your credit for at least ten years. This is not a small blemish, either. It isn’t like a missed credit card payment or a forgotten phone bill. A foreclosure can even prevent you from renting a home for yourself or your family. If you couldn’t buy a house and no one would rent one to you, where would you live?

The credit scar isn’t isolated to home buying. Even if your financial state bounces back and you are making double the money you were when your house was foreclosed, you will have a very difficult time finding an auto loan or any other line of credit. If you do, you will pay tremendous interest premiums on any amount of money you borrow because you will be considered a high risk.

It is important to note that when a home is in default, mortgage companies often will not accept less than full payment. For example, if you mail them a check for $300 but you owe $2500, they will often mail the check back to you.

Because the process is different at every mortgage company, the foreclosure process can take anywhere from two to nine months before you will be kicked out of your home. But, it doesn’t have to turn out that way.

You have options. Know that people specialize in helping preforeclosure homeowners. For example, a realtor can step in and negotiate on your behalf with your mortgage company. They will attempt to get the amount of your debt reduced so your home can be sold quickly. This process can spare you the awful experience of a foreclosure. Rather than waiting for someone to drag your sofa out into the street, call a reputable agency that specializes in foreclosures, and let them help you out of your perilous financial situation.

Kari Shea, of Shea Real Estate & Investment Group, is an accomplished business professional and community leader in the San Diego, California area. With more than 45 years of collective sales, marketing and consulting experience; the Group are master negotiators in the marketing and selling of real properties. Learn more about their services at: shea-realestate.com.

Unfortunately, there is a lot more involved in a monthly house payment than principle and interest. It is these extras that can make the difference between making mortgage payments with ease, and foreclosure.

In this article you will find out how to calculate a mortgage payment the right way, in its entirety. By doing this, you will borrow an amount of money you will be able to pay back without stress. This will make it easier to budget your money without fear of getting behind on your payments.

Principal and Interest are the Starting Point

$100,000 financed for 30 years at 7% requires a mortgage payment of $665.30. Knowing this in today’s market gives you a heads up when you need to quickly estimate a mortgage payment. Of course, the mortgage payment you will be estimating will be the interest and principle only. This is the starting ground from which your monthly house payment will be calculated.

For simplicity’s sake, we will say you are thinking of buying a home where you will need a mortgage of $200,000 and the going interest rate is 7% and, like almost everyone else, you will be financing for 30 years. This means your principle and interest payment will be 2 times $665.30 or, $1,330.60 a month. Now, what else will be added to this amount each month?

Taxes and Insurance

Most lenders make sure you have homeowner’s insurance. They will also see to it you pay your property taxes. They do this, not so much because they are nice guys, but because they don’t want somebody else to take your property away from them. How could this happen?

If someone got hurt on your property and successfully sewed you, they could take everything you had, including your house. This would give your lender a legal burden they wouldn’t want or need. To prevent this from happening, the lender usually collects money from you each month to pay for your homeowner’s policy. This way you and they will be protected against this kind of suit.

Another entity that could fight your lender for ownership of your house is the local government and this is exactly what they will do if you default on your property taxes. For this reason, the lender will collect money from you every month to be used to pay your property taxes.

You can figure your yearly property tax will cost you at least, 1 to 2% of the worth of your home. So, on a $240,000 property, you can guess you will be paying $2,400 to $4,800 a year. This calculates to $200 to $400 a month.

This amount will depend upon where you live. You should be familiar with a town’s mill rate before you buy a home there. Your homeowner’s policy will cost about $700 to $1,000 a year, so you can figure around $75 a month for this expense.

Water and Sewer

Another pair of monthly housing expenses are water and sewer. If you live in the city, this is a classic case where they get you coming and going. City water will easily cost you $50 a month and the sewer, which is just another word for tax, will cost you, in some cities, about $1,000 a year, which figures out to $85 a month.

If you live out of the city, your water and sewer charges become the cost of the upkeep of your well and septic system. However, after all is said and done, one problem with either one of these things will cost you an amount that will be close to what the cost is for city water and sewer.

These costs will come at much larger intervals than a monthly expense but they will be much greater amounts. In other words, it all evens up in the long run. Or should I say it all comes out in the wash?

Your Payment is Bigger Than the Calculator Told You

The end of the story is, to pay this $200,000 mortgage; you will need to pay $1,330 a month for interest and principal. Plus, you will be paying, let’s say, $300 a month property taxes and $85 a month for homeowner’s insurance. So far, this amounts to $1,710 monthly. Then add $50 for water and $85 for sewer and you will come up with $1,850 a month for your real mortgage payment.

Of course, there are more expenses required to live, but taxes and insurance, along with water and sewer are things that people who rent don’t ordinarily pay. It is knowing about these expenses in advance that is the key to realizing you could be overextending yourself financially thus, risking foreclosure. So, be sure to calculate your complete monthly mortgage payment before you say, “I’ll take it!”

Ed Lathrop is a successful Real Estate investor. He has developed EzCalculator, a Mortgage Calculator that shows you how to save $100,000 on your mortgage. Come visit this free site at Free Financial Calculator. Also, find out how to get your amortization schedule and use it to save big money at: Amortization Schedules Free. These sites are not owned by any lender, so no one will harass you for visiting!

1 – For starters, do not ignore the problem. As you become further and further behind in your finances, the more difficult it will become for you to reinstate your mortgage loan. The harder it becomes to reinstate your mortgage loan, the more easily your lender will find it to take your home from you.

2 – Contact your lender as soon as you know that there is a problem. Nothing dictates that you have to wait until your lender plans to foreclose. In reality, lenders do not want your home; they would rather you simply paid your mortgage on time so that they can be paid back for their investment. Because of this, most lenders offer options to help borrowers through a number of different financial difficulties.

3 – Keep in touch with your lender in every step of the process. Open and respond to any and all mail from your lender, because the first notices that you receive will offer a lot of vital information regarding the foreclosure prevention process. By failing to keep in touch and to open the mail that your lender sends simply will not be a good enough excuse when you finally end up in foreclosure court.

4 – Know your rights and your options when it comes to foreclosure. You can find a lot of valuable information relating to foreclosure prevention or loss mitigation online. Make sure that you know your rights, as informed decision making is the best way to prepare yourself for this challenging process.

5 – Use your assets to the best of your ability. Do you have assets like jewelry, a second vehicle, a whole life insurance policy, or other types of assets that you can use to sell for cash? Selling items that you can bear to part with will allow you to reinstate your loan. Using your assets to the best of your ability can have a huge impact on your ability to repay your mortgage and to save your home.

6 – Avoid companies that charge money to do what you can do yourself. You should never have to pay exorbitant fees for help with foreclosure prevention. Use that money to pay your mortgage off instead. For profit companies will contact you with a variety of wild claims regarding negotiating with your lender, but they are doing this hoping that you do not realize that you can negotiate with your lender all on your own without their help and overpriced services.

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When things get bad, it’s tempting to stick our heads in the sand and pretend our problems will all just go away if we ignore them long enough. Of course, this kind of attitude never solves anything, so face the issue head on. If you know you are behind on your property tax obligations, or have missed mortgage payments, waiting will only make you situation worsen.

In the case of house payments, contact the lender right away. It is to your lender’s advantage that you remain in your home and work out a way to keep making payments; if you act in good faith and don’t procrastinate the inevitable, a lender will be much more willing to help you find a way to stay put. Don’t throw away any kind of mail from your mortgage company! It may contain their suggestions for how they might be able to negotiate your keeping your home.

You do not have to accept everything your lender tells you at face value. It is your responsibility to know your rights under the law, and under the terms of your loan. Take out your loan documents and go over them carefully. This will greatly help you during any negotiation process, because you will already know the ins and out of your mortgage.

Every state has different laws concerning the time parameters of a foreclosure action, so check with your state’s Government Housing Office for more information about how much time you have to act.

Not all foreclosure scenarios involve missing mortgage payments: people who own their homes outright may still face losing them if they are delinquent in paying the property tax on them. If this is your dilemma, paying off that tax debt should become a top priority. There are reputable companies that can offer property owners relief through providing property tax loans. County governments demand all missing monies upfront, whereas a lender can negotiate a way to repay the debt through payments over time.

Whether you cannot pay mortgage obligations or are one or more years behind in paying property taxes, there are solutions out there for enterprising people who have their eyes open and are willing to look for them. The important thing is to never delay: face your problems intelligently and in a timely manner, and you may never have to face your own foreclosure nightmare.

If you are in a bind, and need questions answered concerning Texas property tax loans, contact the professionals at Texas Property Tax Loans (texaspropertytaxloans.com/). Art Gib is a freelance writer.

Step 1 – The Bank Records Notice Of Default

The first step of the foreclosure process is when the bank officially records the notice of default. This is the first day you miss the payment on your house. This usually does not really occur on the first payment but after a few missed payments. This depends on the bank and how they do the foreclosure process. Some banks begin the foreclosure process after two payments while others begin the process after three or four.

Step 2 – Reinstatement Of Loan

The second step to the foreclosure process is the reinstatement of the loan. The loan can be reinstated by you. This means that just because the foreclosure process has begun does not mean you have lost your house. You don’t technically lose your home until the home has sold through an auction. If you can come up with the money to pay the missed payments and the late fees then you can reinstate your home loan. This is possible to do up until 5 days prior to the sale of the home through an auction.

Step 3 – Bank Sets Date Of Foreclosure

The third step of the foreclosure process is that the bank will set a date of foreclosure. This is usually 3 months after the notice of default is set or around 90 days. The home owner can continue to live in the home until this date. No one will come and evict you out of the home before this set date has arrived.

The next thing that will happen is that the notice of trustee sale prepared. It is also published as public information that the home is up for foreclosure. A copy is mailed to you and posted on the home.

Step 4 – Selling The House At The Foreclosure Auction

The final step to the foreclosure process is that the house is sold at the foreclosure auction. This can go two ways. Someone may bid at the auction on the home and the purchase it at a lower price than what you owe on the loan. If this is the case then the new owner will immediately have you removed from the home. This eviction can happen in less than 24 hours by the sheriff. If the home does not sell at the auction then the bank will still own the home. The bank may work toward evicting you right away. However, banks usually hire a company to take care of the home until they can sell it. This could give the home owners a few weeks.

Conclusion

So in summary – how does foreclosure work? The ideal time frame for a foreclosure to occur is around 3 months for a bank. This is what they would tell you. However, the actual time frame for a closure can take from 6 months to a year depending on how long the process takes and if the home sells at the auction. If you are going through the foreclosure process you don’t have to move out of the home right away.

Wondering how does foreclosure work? Don’t fall victim to foreclosure! Learn unique methods that will help you secure your financial future today.
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