A lot of people hope that a forbearance agreement can help them to avoid foreclosure, and it often can. However, it should not be seen as an easy way out of a difficult situation. In fact, if you are facing foreclosure and you want to consider a forbearance agreement, do make sure you speak to a specialist like Stephen Buzzi first, so that you increase your understanding of what it is, whether it is right for you, and whether or not you can comply with the terms.
How Can a Forbearance Agreement Help?
Essentially, under this agreement, you will be able to receive special terms on your loan for a set period of time, usually no more than three months (although extenuating circumstances can increase this to a year). After that period of time, your normal payments will return, with an increase to pay back the payments you have missed.
Essentially, this agreement gives you a little bit of breathing space to your finances back in order. At the same time, however, it is very risky because, once your term is up, your payments will increase, and often substantially so. If, once your forbearance agreement is up, you cannot make the new repayments at any point, the lender will be able to proceed with foreclosure.
Another issue that you have to be aware of, is that your foreclosure agreement will be reported to the credit bureaus, and it will look as if you have been delinquent on your payments. Hence, your credit score will be negatively affected. Should your rating already be less than perfect, you could find yourself in a high risk category. While this may not seem so big of an issue now, if you were to find yourself with further difficulties at a later stage, you will struggle to find any help suitable for you, including foreclosure prevention.
Furthermore, forbearance agreements impact your escrow. This means it also impacts your property taxes and your insurance. Every installment, some money is placed into escrow to ensure annual expenses are met. Should you have a forbearance agreement in place, no money will be able to go into escrow and this means that you could end up not having enough money to pay taxes and insurance. When that happens, the forbearance agreement can be voided, and foreclosure can commence.
Should You Avoid Forbearance?
The above makes it sound as if forbearance should be avoided at all costs, which is definitely not the case. It is an excellent option for people who find themselves in a short-term difficult situation and who want to avoid foreclosure. It is simply very important that you are fully aware of all the risks that are out there, and what these types of agreements really mean. Naturally, if you speak to Stephen R Buzzi first, he will assist you in making sure that you know exactly what the agreement means, and that you are sure that it is a suitable solution for your particular situation.