
Yes, the word “homework” makes us shudder too, but this time the reward is much bigger than memorizing geometry theorems or the periodic table. You’re finding a home but you’re also making a financial commitment you’ll have to live with for years: get the best deal you can. Research loans, rates and brokers exhaustively before you sign or commit to anything. Doing the hard work now will pay off down the road with a better rate and terms.

Typically forbearance agreements have a deadline, after which the holder is expected to begin paying the monthly mortgage again, in full. In this regard, they are a sort of band-aid fix - great for emergencies, but no good if you expect that the emergency situation is going to become permanent. Once the forbearance period has expired, you have three courses of action:


If you do not shop multiple lenders, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Even if you are sure this is the lender you want to use, getting quotes from other lenders can help you negotiate a better deal. Not every lender will give you the same mortgage rate, or closing costs. This is why shopping multiple lenders is very important. Getting at least 3 or 4 loan offers is recommended.
It’s a loan with your house and land used as collateral. If you don’t pay back the loan, the lender will foreclose. That doesn’t mean the bank owns the house until you pay it off. It means they’ve got a lien against the property. A lien is the right to take possession of someone else’s property, in this case your home, until a debt is paid off. So you really are a homeowner even if you have a mortgage. You just own a home with a lien. Zillow’s Mortgage Learning Center offers extensive information about mortgages and is a great resource for anyone in the market for a home loan.

The federal government’s Making Home Affordable program is working with various banks and lenders to ensure that they provide millions of homeowners with loan modifications. In some cases the government may be subsidizing fees and interest rate reductions. Learn about this and other programs, all of which can ensure people get relief from their mispriced mortgage payments. The other option is the Homeowner Affordability and Stability, which is part of Make a Home Affordable.
Selling Your House: Your servicers might postpone foreclosure proceedings if you have a pending sales contract or if you put your home on the market. This approach works if proceeds from the sale can pay off the entire loan balance plus the expenses connected to selling the home (for example, real estate agent fees). Such a sale would allow you to avoid late and legal fees and damage to your credit rating, and protect your equity in the property.
Investopedia’s Mortgage Calculator is based on a complex formula that factors in your mortgage principal (how much you are borrowing), the interest rate you’re paying and the duration of the loan to determine how much that monthly mortgage payment will be. It lets you try out different scenarios of how much you might borrow and what varying interest rates will do to the amount you’ll be asked to pay. Read below to understand what each of these terms mean.
Hybrid Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs): Mortgages that have fixed payments for a few years, and then turn into adjustable loans. Some are called 2/28 or 3/27 hybrid ARMs: the first number refers to the years the loan has a fixed rate and the second number refers to the years the loan has an adjustable rate. Others are 5/1 or 3/1 hybrid ARMs: the first number refers to the years the loan has a fixed rate, and the second number refers to how often the rate changes. In a 3/1 hybrid ARM, for example, the interest rate is fixed for three years, then adjusts every year thereafter.
Keep Your Home California defines “cash out” as monies disbursed to the borrower, or paid to a third party for the benefit of the borrower (e.g., debt consolidation, home improvement, tuition, etc.), when the combined amount of those disbursements exceeds 1% of the new loan amount. Reasonable and customary costs associated with refinancing (e.g., appraisal, processing feeds, title insurance, origination fees, etc.) may be financed in the loan and are not considered “cash out.”
Yes, if a homeowner becomes fully re-employed while they are receiving Unemployment Mortgage Assistance benefits they are required to contact Keep Your Home California in writing. Homeowners should send notice of re-employment to Keep Your Home California Funding Department at Funding@KYHCA.org. Please be sure to include the first date of employment, employer name and monthly gross income amount along with your Homeowner ID number, property address and name. Benefit assistance will end no later than 90 days from the date the homeowner notifies* Keep Your Home California that they have become fully re-employed and are no longer receiving EDD benefits.