Mortgage Help During

COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to recent issues with the spread of  the COVID-19 Pandemic many homeowners are finding themselves without income and are worried about making their mortgage payments.  We are outlining some resources below to help you with how to defer mortgage payments and help with taxes.

At this time of this BLOG post - it is super important that you know while the Government is taking steps to help people - the deferred payments are NOT AUTOMATIC.   You MUST contact your Mortgage company to work out the deferment.

Help is becoming available for anyone that has been affected by job loss due to COVID-19 - you do not have to be sick - just loss of your job due to it.

What is a Deferment:

A deferment allows your lender to lower your monthly mortgage payments or stop them for a set time period. ... Once the deferment period ends, you can pay back the deferment amount by making 1 lump-sum payment, small incremental payments or by adding the monthly payments to the end of your mortgage term.  The terms of your deferment will be determined by your Mortgage Company and what arrangements you negotiate with them. 

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all have announced a freeze on foreclosures and evictions for at least 60 days as well as forbearance or disaster relief options for homeowners who can’t afford their mortgage payments.

Important Things to Keep in Mind:

1)  Make sure you are going to a goverment site for your information or to your indiviudal mortgage companies website as this information will change over time .

Here is how you know a site is Official and Secure:

The .gov means it’s official. 
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Look for the Secure Symbol at the top left hand corner of your search bar as shown below. Do not enter any personal information into a site that does not have the Secure Symbol.

Government Link Below:

Housing and Urban Development 

2)  Make sure that you call your Mortgage Company or Servicing Company if you can't make your house payment.  They will not automatically stop your payments or defer them.   

3)  Keep in mind that the company that you pay your Mortgage payment to may be a Servicing Company and not actually the company that owns your home loan.  You may really need to find out who owns your loan and that is who will arrange for deferment payments.  We saw this previously with short sales and foreclosures.

4)  Mortgage Companies and Servicing Companies are not prepared for this - some may not have systems in place yet.  This is new to everyone - so be patient and diligent.  There will be long wait times on hold, and delays in answers.  This is unprecedented and you will need to give the worker at the Mortgage company grace and yourself some grace.

5)  Be prepared to show paperwork and how you have been impacted by your job loss and COVID-19.

6)  Did you file for Homestead Exemption?  Are eligible for a Senior Discount, Disability, Military Member etc. .  These will become super important discounts going forward to help you lessen your payments.

Did you make any changes to the how title is held to your property.  If you did - you may have had your Homestead Exemptions and other Exemptions drop off - so make sure they are still in place.

CHECK OUT OUR BLOG ABOUT HOW TO FILE FOR HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION AROUND METRO ATLANTA

7)  Unemployment - the government is working to help people with a loss of employment during this time.

Link:  US  UNEMPLOYMENT 

8)  For GA Residents here is the link for medical update from the Georgia Department of Health

LINK :  GA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

As always we are here to help.