Can You Stop Foreclosure?

Whether you have bought more house than you can afford or have gotten yourself into a loan that originally had the most favorable terms only to now be reverting to a loan with a climbing interest rate that is threatening to apply a stranglehold to your budget, before long you will find that to make ends meet some bills will remain unpaid. Much like a monthly lottery, you may be looking at the bills that did not get paid last month and decide to pay them this month while other bills will join the waiting room. Eventually you will do this with your mortgage and this is when the trouble starts.

Paying your mortgage late will cause you to incur penalties, but what you do not consider is the fact that paying twice the mortgage amount due next month is next to impossible for most people, even if they will not pay any other bills. This has the potential to lead to foreclosure, and eventually you may wonder if there is a way out! Eventually you must ask yourself: can you stop foreclosure?

If the process of foreclosure has already started, the only way to stop it is with money. Contact your lender and beg or plead to talk to someone who can help you. Before long you may be transferred to a supervisor or mortgage professional that is sympathetic and will help you find out what your options are. In some cases the bank requires you to come up with the outstanding amount of money by a specific date. If you do, the bank will issue a reinstatement agreement that will take your loan and property out of foreclosure.

Conversely, you may have the option of having one payment suspended and added to the end of the loan, and then come up with the rest of the outstanding money in order to have your loan reinstated. The more generous and motivated lenders may agree to let you pay a little extra every month to make up for the missed payments. This is rare but if the opportunity is offered, do not fail to take it and show yourself worthy of the bank’s willingness to work with you.

Since this will still leave you vulnerable with respect to your other bills, make sure you rearrange your financial priorities to such an extent that you will pay your mortgage first and foremost, and let everything else fall into place behind the mortgage. You can live with a suspended or canceled credit card – if this is what is standing between you and paying the mortgage for the month – but you will have a much harder time dealing with a foreclosure and trying to stop foreclosure!

If all else fails, do not wait for the sheriff to come and serve the papers but instead contact an experienced realtor and get help. You will need to sell your house to stop foreclosure and even if you are upside down in your home or the market in your area has tanked, there is till hope! A seasoned realtor will know how to negotiate a short sale with your bank which will get you out of the bad situation with your credit relatively unscathed, while the bank will receive the majority of the money that is owed.