LaTonya Johnson (YouTube, Feb 17, 2020) gives practical advice for people facing homeownership issues during divorce. She outlines three plans: (A) contact your lender to request options (e.g., placing missed payments at the back of the loan, forbearance, loan modification), (B) generate cash flow via a side hustle (example: mobile notary) to keep paying the mortgage, and (C) list the house for sale as a last resort. She lists documents lenders commonly request and directs viewers to download forms via a link.
Questions this video answers
February 17, 2020
Up to 12 months (with possibility to extend another six months in some cases)
$100 to $175 per closing
41 days
Last year's tax returns, pay stubs, a financial statement, and a hardship letter
Chapters
So when you go through a divorce, all kinds of stuff happens. I get it. One person is trying to be mean and not paying mortgage payments. You're there paying all these payments by yourself. Listen, you do not have to lose your house. But the first thing that I want you to be honest about is can you afford this house by yourself? That's the first thing that you have to ask yourself. And if not, don't continue to let the mortgage payments accrue. Because we have another plan if you can afford it, whether you can or you can't. This is. We're gonna go through three plans that I'm gonna give you. Plan A, contact your lender. Whether you can afford this place or not, contact your lender, let them know what you're going through, because they can.
Put all of your missed payments on the back of the loan. They can also give you what's called a forbearance where they suspend your mortgage payments for up to 12 months. Sometimes if you call them, they can go over that right, and do another six months. So they don't want your house. They are more than willing to work with you. Trust me on this. Call them and whatever y' all can work out, work it out. If you Plan B, if you cannot afford to keep your house, you gotta get a side hustle of some type of what is something that you've been wanting to do. One of the things that I have is a mobile notary company where we go and help people who are closing on houses sign their documents in their home, at their job, so they don't have to leave the comfort of their own house. That's called Elite Mobile Notary. And mobile notaries get paid anywhere from 100 to $175 per closing. You do five of those in a day, which is not that hard once you get to know lenders, it's not hard and you're good. Good little side hustle that you can put towards your mortgage. But figure something out where you can begin to cash flow. I don't care if it's making jewelry. You need cash flow. You need extra cash flow if you're going to keep the house. If you can afford to keep it again, call your lender. Work something out where they can put the payments on the back end, right? Or they can restructure your loan through a loan modification where your interest rate drops. All kinds of choices that they have. And I actually wrote a book about every choice that you can think of so that you'll know what to ask your lender. But we'll get to that at a later time. Your plan B, all of this is emotional, and I get it. But you got to make some critical decisions right now. One of those decisions is I got to put my house on the market. Now, I'm telling you right now, you don't have to sell your home. This is just a plan just in case everything else falls through and you do have to sell it, because you cannot wait with foreclosure till the last minute. The whole process in Texas at least, only lasts 41 days. So it's too hard to wait till the last minute, try to find a buyer. All of that, you lose money and walk away with nothing. It's especially if you have equity in your home and you've had your home for a little while with principal, or the market has changed, man. Please don't walk away from all of that. Contact your lender, put your house on the market just to see who bites, so that you'll have a ready pool that you can pull from in the event that you do need to sell. And you do see that, that's your last option. Okay? So all the documents, when you contact your lender, they're gonna ask you for a couple of things. They're gonna ask you for.
Last year's tax returns, pay stubs. They're gonna ask you for a financial statement, a hardship letter. I have all of that for you. So have no fear. Don't worry about it. I have that. And if you click that button below, you can download it the next page, and you'll get all that information and then continue answering these questions. There's another question after you download that so I can get some more information, because this, what I'm doing, is specifically geared toward your situation. Okay? So go on and go through it. Click on the other page right down there. We got this.
