Buying or Refinancing After a Forbearance
A forbearance is not a foreclosure and it is not a bankruptcy. On several programs, if you kept making your payments, there is no waiting period at all.
Quick answer
Saxton Mortgage does. On at least one FHA refinance program we offer, if you kept making every payment during forbearance, those payments count as on time as long as you exit forbearance before closing. If you missed payments under a forbearance plan, you must have exited the plan and made at least three consecutive payments within the month due since. At least one non-QM program we offer also looks for at least three timely payments after missed payments were resolved through loss mitigation.
Forbearance has its own rules
It is not lumped in with the serious credit events.
- Where all payments were made as originally scheduled during the forbearance and the account is reinstated, at least one program states the borrower is eligible for financing with no waiting period.
- Government guidelines say a borrower who kept paying is treated as on time, provided the forbearance plan is terminated before closing.
- Ask how your servicer reported the plan, since recent payment history is what a lender reviews.
- If payments were missed, the account has to be reinstated and a set number of payments made after the plan ends. Three is the most common figure.
- You can have missed more than three payments, or had them added to your loan balance, and still be eligible.
- The forbearance has to be over. Active forbearance is an ineligible status across the programs we work from.
No waiting period path
Three payments after missing
Government and conventional
Jumbo and non-agency
Deferred balances addressed
Twelve on-time payments before FHA cash-out
How Long You Actually Wait
The number varies more than almost anything else in underwriting, which is why lender selection matters here.
Across the programs we work from, the required number of payments after exiting forbearance runs from zero to three to four to six to twelve. Three consecutive payments is the most common on government purchase and rate and term transactions. Six months of satisfactory payments shows up on jumbo. Twelve months appears on some non-agency programs, and a few investor-specific programs go considerably longer for events unrelated to the pandemic.
Loan purpose changes the answer more than most people expect. On government financing, a purchase or rate and term refinance generally needs three consecutive payments since the forbearance ended, while a cash-out refinance on the same program needs twelve. Two documents from the same investor even disagree on whether falling short means a manual review or an outright decline, which tells you how much the specific lender matters.
A modification is treated as a separate event from a forbearance. If your forbearance ended in a loan modification, guidelines generally want at least six payments made under the modification agreement, and one program treats a modification that moved payments to the end of the loan as a credit event with its own multi-year waiting period.
What determines whether you qualify now
Six things that decide how soon you can move.
Whether You Actually Missed Payments
This is the single biggest factor. A borrower who took a forbearance as a precaution and kept paying is in a completely different position from one who skipped payments, and several guidelines say so explicitly.
Whether The Plan Has Been Terminated
You have to be out. Guidelines require the forbearance to be reinstated or terminated before closing.
How The Missed Payments Were Resolved
Payments added to the end of your loan balance are handled differently from a formal modification. A deferred balance seasoned more than twelve months may be allowed to stay open on some programs, while a newer one has to be paid through closing.
Which Loan Purpose You Need
Purchase and rate and term refinance carry the shortest requirements. Cash-out is consistently the strictest, and on government financing that gap is three payments versus twelve.
Whether It Resulted In A Modification
A modification restarts a different clock. Six payments under the modification agreement is the common threshold, and where the modification involved hardship or debt forgiveness the wait can be years.
Three Payments After Forbearance
For FHA home purchases or refinances without cash-out, fewer than three consecutive monthly payments since the forbearance plan ended means a manual underwrite.
Hear From Homeowners Like You
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions from borrowers who took a forbearance.
Saxton Retail Mortgage arranges home loans after a mortgage forbearance through several loan types we offer, including FHA and non-QM. Rules differ: FHA looks for three on-time payments after the plan ends, while one non-QM program wants the forbearance resolved over a year before closing.
Yes, FHA treats you as if you were never in forbearance when you kept paying as agreed under the original note, as long as the forbearance plan ends at or before closing. You are not considered delinquent or late.
Often yes, because FHA judges the forbearance months by the plan’s own terms, and a borrower performing under the plan is not counted as delinquent. One non-QM program is stricter: a forbearance completed within 12 months of closing is treated as a 90-day late and is not allowed.
For FHA underwriting, a forbearance you followed as agreed is not counted as delinquent. One non-QM guideline allows forbearances, modifications and deferrals finished over a year before the note date, provided your housing history shows no 30-day late in the past year. Learn more about foreclosure and short sale.
Yes, though an FHA cash-out needs 12 consecutive monthly payments after the forbearance plan ends to avoid manual underwriting. On a VA cash-out at one investor, a borrower who made five payments before forbearance must make six more in a row afterward to meet seasoning.
FHA reads your late-payment history under the modification agreement for the months it covered, and an FHA no cash-out refinance needs at least six payments under the modification. One non-QM program ties loan size to modification seasoning, from $2,000,000 after two years to $3,500,000 after four.
Yes, one HELOC program asks for six months of satisfactory payments after the forbearance is resolved. At another program, your first mortgage cannot be in an active forbearance or deferment period when the line is opened.
FHA asks for a copy of the forbearance or modification plan and proof of the payment amounts and dates during it, when the mortgage shows plan payments within a year of FHA case number assignment. A forbearance plan is not required if the forbearance was due to COVID-19.
Find out what you qualify for
The question is never just whether you had a forbearance. It is whether you missed payments, how they were resolved, and how many you have made since. Tell us those three things and we can usually tell you same day whether you qualify now or what date you will.
Get Pre-QualifiedSeasoning requirements after a forbearance, modification or deferral vary substantially by loan program, loan purpose and investor, and are subject to change. Loans in active forbearance are ineligible. Deferred balances may be required to be paid at closing. Not all applicants will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend.