Having Trouble Paying Your Mortgage? (Part 2)

If you’ve already tried talking to the bank to renegotiate your loan and you aren’t getting anywhere, there are still a few things you can do to alleviate your pain. The most obvious one is to sell the home. For many, that’s an emotional decision. It brings feelings of fear and failure. However, it might be better to sell the home and preserve your credit (and your sanity) if you’ve gotten in a little over your head. Look, things change. You may have bought your home with an unwritten guarantee of values always going up. By the way, that’s what Wall Street believed when they were selling all those sub-prime mortgages as high rated securities so you’d be in good company. You may have experienced a job lay-off or relocation God forbid; you may have even suffered a death of a co-borrower. Perhaps your interest rate is adjusting upward beyond what you expected. The point is, weather you feel that it was something you had control over or not, selling your home is nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes just you need to hit the reset button and agree to re-engage in home ownership in the future when your circumstances improve. The obvious catch is that first you have to have enough equity in your home (or cash saved) to enable yourself to sell it. How much does it cost to sell a home? It varies, but I’d use a guide of about 7% of the sales price. If you don’t have that much cash or equity to close the gap, there are other options. Stay tuned for Part 3. Questions? Try me at www.GaryNobile.com