Does your mortgage payment feel outrageous? Here are some things to consider

Does it pain you every month to watch a large chunk of money leave your hands in order to make your mortgage payment?

If so, now is the time to evaluate just how much your house is costing you every month.

“You call Sprint, you call AT&T every year to try to negotiate the cellphone plan," real estate attorney Justin Clark said. “You call Spectrum or DirectTV to try to lower your cable bill every year, but when it comes to your house payment, this is the biggest expense that you have, and you just keep paying it over and over every month.”

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic we’re living through, Clark said now is a really great time to really tighten up how much you pay every month on your house. The best place to start evaluating? Your home insurance.

“You just trust that your insurance agent is going to get the best deal you can, that the increase you have every year, that there’s nothing you can do about it," Clark said. “I disagree."

If you look at what you’re paying on your mortgage every month, you’ll see PITI. That stands for principle, interest, taxes and insurance.

“The taxes and insurance are a really big component of that,” Clark said. “I can almost guarantee you, if you shop it around, we can lower that insurance portion of it, but also, is it time to refinance?”

Clark said rates are still extremely low, and if you can refinance, it makes all the sense in the world to do just that.

“I see people all the time who might have 25 (or) 27 years left on their mortgage, where they can refinance their home, pay the same per month and convert it to a 15-year mortgage," Clark said.

That means you can pay the same per month as you are now, but you will own your home within 15 years.

Clark has many more suggestions on how you can save money each month. Watch the “You Have Real Estate” video above to learn more.


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