How To Stop Foreclosure On Your Home

If you have been behind payments on the mortgage of your home, the first inkling you get, that foreclosure on your home is imminent, is when you receive a notice of ‘default’ from your mortgage lender. That is a heart stopping moment, and you must find all means to stop foreclosure on your home. At this point you still have a few options. What you do not have is time as there are hardly 120 days between the notice and the sale of your home to foreclosure. 

Let us look at the few options you have to stop foreclosure or avoid foreclosure on your home. 

Avoiding Foreclosure – What Are Your Options
Upon receiving a notice of default the first and foremost is to immediately seek an appointment with your mortgage lender to help stop foreclosure on your home. Withdrawing into a shell, or the ‘Ostrich Syndrome’ is not going to help at all – rather such responses will take you down the slide so fast there is no stopping.

* Meet Your Mortgage Lender – This is the first step towards the many options available to stop foreclosure on your home. Though it might surprise you, mortgage lenders will go out of the way to help you plan your re-payment schedules. Remember, they make money from the interest you pay on the mortgage. Therefore, your making payments on your mortgage are in their interest as well! They do not want foreclosure on your home, as they are not in home management business. They too will try their best to help you avoid foreclosure on your home. 

Before you meet your mortgage lender, chalk out a realistic financial plan to enable you to repay the mortgage. Let your lender know how long it will take to get back on even keel. One: you can ask for more time to get your finances sorted out, before restarting the payments; second: you can ask for a chance to make reduced payments for some time before reverting back to the original payments. 

Chances are that your lender will accept any of your options, or come out with one of his/her own. Ensure you have a written agreement of whatever terms you come to. 

* Refinance Your Existing Loan – You need to research on how you can refinance your existing mortgage at a lower rate of interest. This can help you avoid foreclosure. Your mortgage lender can help you find a better rate of interest. After all, he/she too wants to stop foreclosure on your home.

* Seek Help From Family – This could be one of the best options for you. In times of difficulties, it is the family and friends who stand by you. You may be embarrassed bringing your financial woes in front of your loved ones, but then, who else if not your trusted and loved ones to assist you in times of crisis? Be honest about your financial situation and seek a loan from them. Be honest about your repayment timeline, and when you will be able to pay them back. As they will be going out of the way to help you stop foreclosure on your home, you need to assure them that they are making a right choice. 

* Sell Your Home – This is one option you may have to exercise if all else fails. By this option you at least avoid foreclosure of your home. Put your home on the market with the help of a competent real estate agent. If time is of the essence, to avoid foreclosure, you may have to lower your selling price to attract as many buyers as possible. In the urgency of selling your home, do not overlook to check out the potential buyer, as you would while selling your home under normal circumstances. For such information on your potential buyer, it is best to contact your state’s Attorney General, the Real Estate Commission, or the local District Attorney's Consumer Fraud Unit. 

Selling you home may be a very hard choice, but it may be the only option left to stop foreclosure. At least you come out with your credit rating intact. If you are unable to sell your home in time to avoid foreclosure, the other ‘last resort’ option could be: deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

This option ‘allows’ you to give back your home to the mortgage lender. Though you still lose your home, you avoid foreclosure and your credit rating is not as damaged as with a foreclosure. You qualify for this if:

* When in default, you do not qualify for any other options.
* You have failed to sell your home before foreclosure.
* You do not have any other mortgage in default.

Now that you have all the information necessary to stop foreclosure, take necessary steps and save your home now.

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