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From the April KATV interview with Scott McElmurry and Alyson Courtney
No Headphones. No Problem. See Below for Transcript.
From the station that's on your side
this is channel 7 news good morning
Arkansas you may have heard about the
mortgage relief options during the
crisis but should you use them and
should they be your first stop we'll
answer those questions coming up after
the break
[Music]
welcome back during this truly
unprecedented time of a global pandemic
many have lost their jobs and income the
last thing you should be worried about
is losing your house too if you have a
mortgage you may be crunching the
numbers to see how long you can make
your mortgage payments there are many
resources and tips for homeowners during
the Cova 19 crisis here to discuss the
homeowners options
Scott McElmurry the President
and CEO of Bank of Little Rock Mortgage
so what Scott these are really trying
times for a lot of people a lot of
uncertainty a lot of people questioning
their finances where will I be tomorrow
would be like in a month or two six
months down the road for you guys I'm
sure you're getting a whole lot of
questions from a lot of your clients we
are yeah so much of it surrounds
obviously like you said what's gonna
happen in the future and so many people
are affected not just financially but
obviously in many other ways and so I
guess first off thanks to the first
responders right because they're just on
the front lines and and we just
appreciate like all that they're doing
but when it comes to mortgage finance
the cares Act that Congress passed gives
some relief to people who have been
affected by the by cope in nineteen
financially and it allows for something
called forbearance now you've got to be
careful about that because there's
really no question about whether they
can get it now it's only on government
loans so that means anything that was an
FHA or a VA or maybe a rural development
or one owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie
Mac those get a six month forbearance
agreement basically by just attesting
that you've been affected by koban 19
now I caution people on taking that
because it's not a forgiveness
forbearance basically is in the context
of the carers Act it's six months or up
to six months that you can essentially
defer payments what then happens is in
other words you don't have to make a
payment for six months or up to six
months or you can negotiate a partial
payment or something along those lines
but after six months there's a reckoning
essentially you have to basically
reinstate the mortgage and that means
bring the the deferred payments current
or come up with some other to forego
range Minh
let's assume your payments a thousand
dollars and you take the six month
deferment you have six thousand dollars
that still now do and you have to make
payment at some point or on some and and
the reinstatement means that you have to
pay it basically after this exponents
register check for six thousand dollars
if you can't do that then you go into
other options of of a work out situation
of how to get that back as well as start
making your payments again now the cares
Act allows for after six months if you
still can't still effected you get an
automatic an additional six months but
again you're just adding to the problem
you're pushing the problem down the road
because it's not forgiving it is just
deferred and it's not a situation where
oh well we'll just tack it on to the end
of the loan and you just you added six
months or 12 months to your loan it's a
matter of we have now again in my
example up to twelve thousand dollars
that we now have to get back in a in a
quicker period of time so if it's a year
you've just added made potentially a
thousand dollars to you monthly house
payment there's got what's your advice
to people who may be suffering from a
loss of of income right now and worried
about that mortgage what should they do
well the first thing they need to do is
contact their service or meaning who
they're making their payments to look at
their mortgage statement determine if
they can a lot of times the statement
will tell you if it's an FHA loan or a
VA loan or some type of loan if it's a
government loan the first thing I do
whether it is or not is contact their
servicer and just understand what their
options would be and then determine you
know making a budget can you continue to
make your mortgage payment if you can
that's the best advice I can give is to
continue to make that payment if you
need payment relief you certainly want
to discuss your options and and
understanding that at some point you're
going to have to pay this down the road
so you want to make sure that you're not
just making it a lot easier on yourself
now to have pain in the future and we've
heard the the stimulus packages that are
being looked at and that are actually
coming along the way so if people can
can hold off and wait and get some of
that and not do some of the things that
could end up costing them more in the
long run then that would be your advice
right now absolutely to make the payment
continue to make the payment this has
really made for people who maybe had a
total job loss or someone who obviously
the sitting on a restaurant right now
obviously we know that they're
struggling and so they need some kind of
financial relief but it really should be
a last-ditch effort or or last kind of
option for them and then it's there for
them to utilize and then work out down
the road and that's what it's made for
it's for a short-term or temporary
disaster relief
prior to Covid this this was an option
when there were short-term disasters
again for things like Katrina or or
other you know type of weather-related
disasters this program was in place it's
just been enhanced now because of Kovac
doesn't mean you necessarily need to use
it or should use it you use money for
different different things you still
need to try to make that mortgage
payment how has office changed for you
guys Scott there I'm sure you're still
taking calls and maybe some of you guys
working from home well you're just if
you want to say there's a silver lining
or positive impact I've covered it's
really driven interest rates down
substantially and so we're extremely
busy refinancing a lot of people's loans
and that's the other thing when it comes
to forbearance if you go into
forbearance it really stops a lot of
your options going forward until you get
out of that forbearance in other words
if you're in forbearance now I cannot
refinance your loan or potentially if
you sold the house and there was some
forgiveness then you get into a distant
situation where you may not be able to
finance the new home that you're buying
so again it's it's only meant for people
who really really need it and it could
cause you more problems than than what
it solves if you have the ability to
continue to make your payments but you
know we're like everybody else we're
social distancing where we're doing a
lot of stuff remotely and so you know
it's it's been a challenge certainly
because the efficiencies that we've
always enjoyed maybe are a little less
but it's also made of stronger I think
and I think as a country will be
stronger because it's made us do some
things that were available to us that we
just put off because we didn't need to
and so you know we've got a lot of
remote workers and we're pushing people
home but but we're still able to
continue on and hopefully others will be
as well we you know get this thing
behind us quickly thank you so much for
your advice a lot of questions you've
answered today that I know a lot of our
viewers have so we appreciate your time
absolutely Thanks
