You don't have to lose your home; contact your mortgage servicer to see your options to keep your home. There are new covid mortgage relief programs like the mortgage forbearance options discussed in this video by Andrew Leavitt, which apply to Nevada FHA loans, Conventional Loans, and VA Loans in Las Vegas and all over Nevada. New this morning, owning a home. Part of the traditional American dream, but with the moratorium on eviction set to expire this week, many Nevadans are worried about losing that dream, of course, after missing mortgage payments during the pandemic.
There is some good news. 13 Action News anchor, Todd Quinones, speaks with some local experts about what you need to know to avoid foreclosure. Nerve-racking, just given the uncertainty of what we were expecting. Las Vegas homeowner, Gene Pena, admits it was scary when he fell behind in house payments. It all started at the very beginning of the pandemic. There was writing on the wall about my current employer. There were already a series of layoffs. I just knew I was going to be on the next lineup. The good news is Gene found help, even when he had thousands of dollars in overdue mortgage payments.
It just took a little while for me to be able to catch up, but there were some solutions provided by PIF Lending.
There are a lot of options that are still available. Andrew Leavitt is the broker and owner of PIF Lending. He says relief starts by contacting your mortgage lender. Depending on where they're at in the process, if they are 12 months behind or less than 18 months behind, they can go ahead and look into getting additional extensions on that forbearance.
A COVID related mortgage forbearance allows you to hit pause on making payments for your mortgage. The best part of all, missing those payments won't impact your credit score. For those able to make a partial mortgage payment, there is another option. There are modifications available to the mortgage to where they'll change, what that payment originally was, redo it, and bring it to a point where you can make it.
Leavitt says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the entities that regulate the industry, are making sure loan services provide you with assistance.
They're instructed to automatically do a lot of this, to go ahead and preserve that house from being an actual foreclosure. Just remember, there's more than one way to face foreclosure. It's absolutely something to be concerned about. You can lose your home to your HOA, even if you're current on your mortgage payment.
Consumer rights attorney Peter Aldous, with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, says beware if you are behind on your HOA fees.
You need to reach you out to your HOA or the management company and find a way to get caught back up on those assessments.
The good news is your servicer can also help cover third-party expenses related to your mortgage, including taxes, insurance, and those HOA fees. As for Gene, he's happy to be back on track and hopes his story now inspires others to reach out for help. The thing is that you don't want to sweep this under the rug. It is something that you do want to confront at some point. Coordinate with your mortgage broker to find out all those options that are available.
Todd Quinones, 13 Action News. KTNV.com.
