What to Do If You Owe More Than What Your Jacksonville Home is Worth?

What if you owe $300,000 on your home whose worth is just $250,000?

In that case, we can conclude that your home is underwater.

And trust me when I tell you, nobody, wants to be in this situation.

You might be looking forward to getting your financial life back on track. On top of this, you might be wondering whether to hold on to your home or put it up for sale.

So, what exactly should you do here?

First of all, I’d like to let you know there are various options that you can take into consideration.

And that’s exactly what we will be taking a look at here.

In this blog post, we will be shifting our focus towards the top options you can try out if you owe more than what your Jacksonville home is worth.

Well, then!

Let’s dive in straight away.

Here’s What You Can Do if You Owe More Than What Your Jacksonville Home is Worth

Listed below are the options we will be discussing:

• Stay Put
• Refinance
• Opt for a Loan Modification
• Short Sale
• Walk Away/ Foreclosure

Let’s take a look at each of these options one at a time.

Stay Put

Stay Put!

That’s the best option you can take into consideration.

Despite you owing more than what your home is worth, there are tons of reasons you might want to keep making the payments.

Chances are that you might be attached to your home and would want to avoid foreclosure. On top of this, you might be worried about damaging your credit score, as a result of delayed payments.

And trust me when I tell you, your home’s value will eventually recover.

However, stay put only if you like your neighborhood or have any strong reason to keep your house.

What if you and your spouse have to move to another city due to job relocation? Or what if you recently had a divorce?

If you really need to sell your house, let’s take a look at other options you can go with.

Refinancing

First thing’s first.

Refinancing won’t help you bring in profit.

However, it will provide you that much-needed relief as you will then be subject to a lower monthly payment and a lower interest rate.

But wait! Here’s the problem:

Most of the mortgage lenders will have a requirement that the owner should have at least 20% equity in his/her home.

If you don’t, then chances are that your refinancing application won’t be approved.

However, you can opt to the Federal Government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is commonly referred to as ‘HARP.’

This program grants the lenders financial incentives, in case they refinance the home loans of the owners whose home is way less worth than what they really owe.

Opt for a Loan Modification

This is another one of the options that will help you stay afloat.

You may opt for a loan modification if you find your payments to be really high.

Opting for a loan modification will help you make sure that your monthly payments are lower. Despite that, you will find yourself paying comparatively more money in the long-term.

When should you go with this option?

You should go with a loan modification, only if you aren’t too far in the red on the home’s value.

Short Sale

In this case, you will be selling your house for a comparatively lesser price than what your home is really worth.

It’s a good alternative for the ones who are dealing with foreclosure and aren’t allowed to do a traditional sale.

However, in order to be eligible for a short sale, you will have to ask your lender’s permission.

Some lenders grant permission, while some don’t.

Short sales can be quite challenging.

Your lender will even be required to approve the offer you receive.

If he/she rejects it, you can’t sell the house.

A short sale will have a negative impact on your credit score.

Walk Away

And that’s the final option.

All you need to do is to walk away and let your lender/bank foreclose.

While it’s a pretty straightforward option, there are people who don’t quite know what foreclosure is.

You may know all about foreclosure right HERE.

You need to know that a foreclosure will deeply affect your credit score.

You will be able to rebuild it in the near future. However, you will find it really hard to buy a more affordable and cheaper house.

Conclusion

If you owe more than what your Jacksonville home is worth, you may be really confused and might not even know what steps to take.

First of all, we’d like you to calm down. Take a deep breath. And relax.

Secondly, there’s nothing more we’d love to do than helping you out throughout the entire process.

All you need to do is to get in touch with us and our experts at BuyingJaxHomes will be at your assistance immediately.