TIPS FOR AVOIDING FORECLOSURE!

These are the very best suggestions to help you avoid mortgage foreclosure.

1. When you first know that you have a financial problem and will be having difficulties paying your mortgage, get in touch with your lender.
   
   
   • Your lender wants to help you keep your home. They have many programs in place to do just that, like loan modification, a repayment plan, a reinstatement plan, or a forbearance plan to help you stay in your home.
     
     
   • Today, lenders are required by HUD and private mortgage insurance companies, as well as by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to help homeowners facing financial difficulties.
     
     
     
     

     
     

   • Time is of the essence when you are falling behind in your mortgage payments. If you are only one or two payments behind, there are more Save Your Home options available to you.
     
     
   • As you fall farther and farther behind, you lender's costs grow dramatically, thereby limiting the options available. Contact your lender as soon as possible.
     
     
   • When you call your lender your will need to have your mortgage account number available. Your lender will then fax or mail a loan workout package. In this package they will ask for:
     
     
     • A hardship letter telling what has happened, that required you to miss your mortgage payment(s).
       
       
     • Two paystubs
       
       
     • Two Social Security and/or pension statements
       
       
     • Two months of bank statements - both checking and savings.
       
       
     • Two years of tax returns
       
       
     • A list of all of your expenses
       
       
     • A list of all of your assets, including retirement accounts.
       
       

   
   

2. Open all mail from your lender. As soon as you start missing payments, your lender will begin mailing you information on how to prevent and avoid mortgage foreclosure. Respond to them. Your lender definitely does not want your home. They want to put together a workout plan, if possible. However, the more payments you've missed, the less likely it is that foreclosure can be avoided.
   
   
3. Peruse our website and learn about the various foreclosure prevention methods.
   
   
4. Be cautious in the ways you spend your money. If you truly want to save your home, but are having trouble affording the payments, try a budget and cut back on other spending and expenses. Pay your mortgage, utilities and healthcare costs first. See where you can cut expenses and just DO IT. Delay payments on unsecured debt, like credit cards, if need be, until you've paid your mortgage.
   
   
5. Find additional money. Perhaps you have a second car that you could live without. Or, maybe a boat, motorcycle or jewelry that you could sell to raise some cash. Look to see if you have a life insurance policy that you can cash in. Remember, if you want to save your home you will need to prioritize. Put your home and healthcare first. Everything else, until this is behind you, is secondary.
   
   Hopefully, these steps will help you to avoid mortgage foreclosure and save your home. Sometimes, though, it isn't possible to keep your home and you'll either need to do a quick foreclosure sale if you have equity or a short sale of a home if you don't.

   If you want more information on whether you really should try to save your home you can find out here.