3 things to know if your mortgage is sold

If you’re a new homeowner or thinking about buying your first home, be ready for change. Owning your own home is a lot different than renting. If you were previously in an apartment, you may not own a lawn mower. You also probably didn’t stress too much when you had small plumbing or HVAC issues. When you’re a homeowner, those are your problems to fix.

You may think it’ll be a breeze, once you’ve adjusted, and you might be right. But something stressful is bound to happen sooner or later. Once such situation is when your mortgage lender/servicer decides they don’t want the job anymore. Within the first year in my new house, my mortgage changed hands twice. Just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, they throw you for a loop. If this happens to you, don’t sweat it. Take a deep breath and know this…

It’s going to happen to pretty much everyone. The main thing to remember is that the terms of your mortgage cannot change. Really the only change will be what URL you have to surf over to in order to pay your mortgage every month.

You should hear from both parties. Whether your lender sells off just the servicing of your loan (happened to me the second time) or sells the entire loan (happened to me the first time), you should be contacted by both companies involved.

Don’t let yourself get scammed. Make sure you’ve heard from both groups before you start sending money to your “new” servicer. You may mail off a check and then get a bill from your “old” servicer. Save yourself the headache that comes with sorting that out.