If you find you cannot stay current on your property tax and homeowner insurance payments, you must do the following: Don’t panic! Take action!

Foreclosure is not good for anyone, you, the bank, the government. Everyone wants to take every possible step to avoid it.

If you are in arrears, you will receive a letter from your servicer informing you that you have 30 days to begin a process to cure your default. The letter will advise you to contact a counselor and provide you a list of counselors and their phone contacts. Also included will be a suggested repayment plan of up to 60 months.

HUD has trained 125 counselors around the country to help borrowers in default; contact information is available here. The counselor will go through your monthly income and expenses to determine if there is a time period over which you can catch up on your obligations. The counselor will also go to the BenefitsCheckup.com web tool to search for any possible grant money for which you may be eligible.

If there is remaining equity in your home, the recommendation to you may be to refinance into a new HECM and use part of your proceeds to pay off back expenses.

The most important thing is that you do not wait and let your obligations build to a level where there is no viable solution.