Falling behind from your monthly mortgage payments is a serious situation. Consecutive delays with your mortgage payments can lead to foreclosure.

But sometimes, despite your best efforts to submit your payments on time, financial difficulties can prevent you from doing so.

What can you do when faced with such situation? How can you best deal with your mortgage lender?

This article focuses on how you can negotiate with your mortgage lender to keep yourself from losing the home property you worked so hard for.

Talk To Your Mortgage Lender

At the first sign of trouble, the first thing you should do is talk to your lender right away. Don’t wait for a few late payments to pass before you start taking action. The question is, to whom do you talk to?

Some borrowers try to explain problems about their mortgage to the wrong department. This is a waste of time because people who are not in charge to handle customer issues cannot do much for you. You might even be told that there’s nothing they can do for you.

So how do you get the right person to talk to? Every mortgage lending company has a loss mitigation department or a similar department that specializes in handling repayment issues. Sometimes they’re called “modification department”, “reinstatement department”, “workout department” or other names. The important thing is to ask for the department that handles repayments or restructuring of the loan.

Getting Over the Hurdles

In reality, it is not always too easy to get in touch with these departments. You may be confronted with a busy number a couple of times or you may be put on hold for a long time. Be patient until you get in touch with the right representative who can help you.

Generally, you will be required to submit a written form to provide details about your mortgage. Be honest in giving information to your lender. You may have to reveal some personal details about yourself or your present financial situation, but this is crucial if you really want to come up with a good negotiation.

Make sure that your lender understands why you’re having a hard time keeping up with your payments. Tell them the steps you have done and the steps you plan to do to avoid defaulting from your loan. Most lenders would be willing to make adjustments on your repayments terms rather than push through with foreclosure. Foreclosures can be a long and rigorous process and many lenders prefer to help the borrower than go through that.

The type of help or repayment option you can get depends on your lender. You may be given an extended time to submit your payments, reduced interest rates, or you may be allowed to reinstate your loan instead.

In any case, the new repayment terms should be clearly put into writing and signed by both you and your lender. Going through these steps may be an inconvenience for you. But it is definitely worth the effort if you want to keep your home and avoid further problems.