CARES Act: Mortgage Payment Relief

[Mark S.]

I just read the the following article on Investopedia regarding Mortgage Payment Relief due to the CARES Act: https://www.investopedia.com/h...

I don't know what the future holds or whether or not my tenants will be able to pay rent in the coming months.  I know many have discussed being proactive with tenants, coming up with solutions for them to pay, etc.  I do NOT self-manage and use two different property management companies (yes, I could have individually reached out to each PM, but I haven't and am pretty much planning to see how they handle it).  Managing as many units as they do, I trust in them having proper systems in place to make this as seamless and painless (I know, I know...) as possible for all their investors.

I am NOT freaking out (yet) about being able to pay the mortgages if rent dries up.  I have been adding to reserves since buying each property and in my business accounts alone (for the properties - I have 5), I could probably go about 8-9 months with $0 rent from all units before bleeding all the business accounts dry.  I'm fairly confident we'll be through this well before that point.

So my question is: do I bother requesting loan forbearance (even if I don't necessarily need it right this second)?  Is there a benefit to doing that now regardless of whether or not I need it?  The way I interpreted the article is that it's simply a temporary suspension of payments.  Am I missing any potential downsides of requesting forbearance?

I would say it's extremely subjective, and fairly easy, to legitimately "experience financial hardship during the COVID-19 emergency."  If 1 of 5 tenants, for example, doesn't pay versus 4 of 5 tenants not paying - aren't these both technically "financial hardship?"

I don't want to "take advantage" of something I don't necessarily "need" right now, but I also don't want to potentially screw myself over (later) if it turns out I DO really need to do so.  Not sure if there's an initial "time limit" on the front end to request this - like I don't want to later have the mortgage servicer say why are you just NOW (6 months later, say) asking for this forbearance versus back in March/April, 2020, etc.  In other words, I don't want to NOT take action now because I don't need to RIGHT NOW only to shoot myself in the foot LATER. Just trying to figure out the best approach that makes the most sense without feeling like I'm "taking advantage."

Any thoughts, feedback, and guidance is appreciated.  What are YOU doing with your mortgages?  Why or why not?