Check the totals of your bills. For many of us, the monthly mortgage payment is one of our biggest (if not THE biggest). So it only makes sense to do what you can to reduce that amount.

Again, for many of us, the value of our real estate has plummeted. In numerous cases, the home’s real estate value has dropped below the value of the mortgage itself. This appalling consequence leads many desperate property owners to conclude that they would actually be better off with a foreclosure. Sometimes the only obvious alternative is to pack up and move to a cheaper house. During the great recession, Baltimore movers were very busy moving customers’ belongings from large houses to smaller digs as people tried to get out from under unaffordable mortgages and rents

All sorts of different circumstances can occur that result in a dire financial situation. Take for example a maritime seaman who suffers a serious injury while working aboard a US flagged vessel. The loss of the major wage earner in a family is bad, but add on the medical expenses that will result from the injury plus rehab time, that family’s finances could be in deep trouble. The first thing the injured seaman or other family members should do is hire an experienced maritime injury lawyer. They will utilize various maritime laws including the Jones Act that allows a maritime lawyer to bring legal actions on the behalf of an injured seaman, against ship owners, ship captain, or other crew members after an accident has occurred. Since maritime lawsuits are complicated, a good maritime lawyer will be able to make sure you receive the compensation you deserve. The monies will not only help with medical bills, but also for dealing with the mortgage payments and other expenses.

But before you reach that point, do some research to see if home mortgage refinancing puts you on a more even financial footing. If you’re new to all this, a refinance basically replaces the remaining balance of your mortgage with a new loan for the same amount. Unlike payday cash loans, which are very short-term loans that use your next paycheck as collateral and require a fast pay back, mortgages use your home’s value as collateral. Payday cash loans, unfortunately, would be of little value to you in helping with your mortgage problems. However an advance cash loan might come in handy if an unexpected expense occurred that needed immediate attention and you didn’t have any spare cash.

With your home’s value decreasing, refinancing wouldn’t make sense if every detail of the new mortgage were exactly the same as the old mortgage. Refinancing probably wouldn’t help and you would just be paying all that extra money for the lawyer and the bank’s paperwork that is involved with refinancing a loan. However, interest rates are almost certainly lower than they were when you took out your first mortgage. In fact, they hit record lows recently. But having shown signs of going back up little by little, so it would be best to move quickly to lock in that lower rate.

Also, if you have managed to reduce the balance of your loan (which is very likely, unless you took out the mortgage very recently), the total amount will be lower, which gives you more flexibility with monthly payments or terms.

Keep in mind that the mortgage value is regardless of the value of your home; the loan amount remains the same and is unaffected by changes to the state of the economy. There are also some instances where homeowners have been treated unfairly. In these instances, if communicating with the bank becomes a problem, there are times when publicizing the unfair or unethical actions of the bank can work in your favor. Posting your story to a website or blog can work wonders when the framing of the problem is done properly. Consider using an article writing service if you feel you do not have the communication skills necessary to achieve a good result. Be careful to use only factual arguments, and consider running your article by a lawyer to make sure you are presenting an appropriate framing.

In more cases than not, people are able to refinance, taking the financial hardships of paying an exorbitant monthly mortgage amount to something that is more reasonable