Behind on Your Mortgage Payments?
Missed a payment, or know you cannot make the next one? This is the stage with the most help available. Here is what exists, how to get it, and what to watch out for.
The short answer
Missing a payment is not foreclosure. A late fee is added, and at about 30 days it is reported to the credit bureaus — but under federal mortgage servicing rules your servicer generally cannot make the first official foreclosure filing until you are more than 120 days behind, roughly four missed payments.
That is not permission to wait. It is the widest your options will ever be. If your loan is federally backed, your servicer generally has to evaluate you for help and tell you the outcome in writing — and most homeowners are never told the full list.
Not sure what your servicer should be offering you?
You do not need your paperwork in front of you to call. We will tell you which of the options below you can realistically reach, and get on the phone with your servicer alongside you — at no cost, with nothing to sign.
The help that exists at this stage
When the hardship has passed
A repayment plan
The missed payments are spread across your next several payments, so your payment goes up for a while. It works when your income has recovered and can carry a little extra. Nothing about the loan itself changes.
When the hardship is temporary
Forbearance
A temporary pause or reduction in payments. The part people miss: forbearance does not erase what you owe — it postpones it. What happens at the end depends on your loan and your servicer, so confirm how the paused amount will be repaid before the last month, not after.
FHA loans
A partial claim
HUD advances the money to bring your loan current and places it as a second lien against the home, with no monthly payment and no interest on it. It comes due when the mortgage is paid off or refinanced. It is the FHA tool most homeowners have never heard of — and the one whose rules changed most in 2025.
When the payment itself is the problem
A loan modification
The terms of the loan are rewritten — rate, length, sometimes balance — to make the payment affordable. Worth understanding properly: unpaid interest, escrow shortfalls and fees are often added back to the balance, and the new payment can end up higher than the one you could not afford. Ask for the number in writing.
When the money is available
Reinstatement
Paying the arrears in one lump sum to bring the loan current. Nothing about the loan changes, and it is the fastest resolution when the money is there.
When the payment no longer works
Protecting the equity you have built
If the payment was not affordable before the hardship, none of the options above make it affordable afterwards. Where there is equity in the home, there are ways to extract that equity and transition to a lower cost living situation, rather than watching it disappear at the courthouse.
“Is there a program that will just pay my mortgage?”
Usually not in the way people hope — and anyone promising one should make you careful. The help that actually exists runs mostly through your own servicer: the options above. For FHA loans, the partial claim is the closest thing to someone else covering the missed payments.
Be wary of any company that charges an upfront fee to “save” your home, guarantees a result, or tells you to stop talking to your lender. Federal and state regulators warn about exactly this. You should not have to pay anyone to find out what your options are.
The rule that changed in October 2025
Before October 2025, if you fell behind there was usually another program waiting. Since October 1, 2025, you must complete three consecutive trial payments before a partial claim or modification is approved — and roughly half of borrowers do not clear that trial period.
If you fail a trial plan, you generally get one further attempt at a different workout. Fail that too and these options close, with eligibility for another workout roughly 18 to 24 months away. Do not start a trial payment plan you are not certain you can finish — under the new rules a failed trial costs far more than it used to. The full detail is here.
What the months actually look like
- Around 30 days — a late fee is added and the missed payment is reported to the credit bureaus. Your servicer starts calling and writing.
- 60 to 90 days — your servicer is required to tell you about the loss mitigation options available to you. This is where the most doors are still open, and the stretch most people spend avoiding the phone.
- Around 90 to 120 days — you may receive a demand letter or a notice of intent to accelerate: the lender’s formal warning that it intends to call the entire loan due.
- After 120 days — the first official foreclosure filing becomes possible.
Then Texas moves fast
Texas foreclosure is non-judicial: your lender does not have to sue you or appear before a judge to sell your home. Once the formal notices start, it can run in as few as 41 days — at least 20 days to cure the arrears, then at least 21 days of notice before a first-Tuesday auction on the courthouse steps. The first four months feel slow, so people wait. The last six weeks are not slow at all.
What happens when you call
A real person answers, 24 hours a day. We will ask what is going on, find out what your servicer has actually offered, and tell you plainly which of these options are open to you and which are not — including the ones that do not involve us at all.
There is no fee, no retainer and nothing to sign. We are not attorneys and not financial advisors — we are DFW foreclosure specialists and have been doing this since 2017. We will never tell you to stop talking to your lender; we will get on the phone with them alongside you.
Keep reading
- Understanding your loss mitigation options — every option in depth, and the 2025 rule change.
- How to stop a foreclosure in Texas — if a notice has already arrived.
- How long foreclosure takes in Texas — the full timeline, stage by stage.
- Your foreclosure notice, explained — which notice you got and what it means.
Federal mortgage servicing rules (12 CFR § 1024.41) generally bar a servicer from making the first foreclosure notice or filing until a borrower is more than 120 days delinquent, and set out loss mitigation evaluation and notice requirements for federally related mortgages; some loans and circumstances differ. FHA trial payment and workout eligibility rules reflect HUD loss mitigation policy effective October 1, 2025. Texas notice requirements and first-Tuesday sale dates reflect Texas Property Code § 51.002. This page is general information about the process, not legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Find out what help you can actually get.
One call tells you which options are open to you before the formal clock starts.
No cost, no obligation, nothing to sign. Se habla español.