Few things are more frightening than the prospect of losing your home. If you have fallen behind on your mortgage payments, and you are facing foreclosure, you may not know what to do next. The most common mistake made by people in this situation is giving up too quickly. There are steps you can take, and, in some situations, it may even be possible to save your home.

Be Proactive

Giving up too quickly and assuming that all hope is lost is the biggest mistake you can make when facing potential foreclosure. Try to work with your lender as much as possible. Contact them to discuss options for catching up on your payments. Lenders often lose money during the foreclosure proceedings, so they are usually willing to work with people who have fallen on hard times to help them stay in their homes. Reply to any correspondence you receive. If you ignore letters and phone calls, the lender is more likely to believe that you have no intention of paying. The foreclosure process takes time, and if you take steps to rectify the situation early on, you may be able to stop it.

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Alternatives to Foreclosure

Even if you are significantly behind on your loan payments, you have options. One option, the loan modification, may even allow you to stay in your home. With a loan modification, the terms of your originally loan are changed to make your payments more affordable. If you’ve fallen on temporary hard times, your lender may be willing to grant you a forbearance, which temporarily suspends payments.

If staying in your home does not make financial sense and you cannot afford to stay, a short sale may be a more attractive option than foreclosure. With a short sale, the lender agrees to allow you to sell the home for less than the balance remaining on the mortgage. Short sales do not have as much of a negative impact on your credit as foreclosures, so they are often a better option. Another option is offering a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Doing this is essentially giving your house back to a lender instead of waiting for them to take it.

Know Your Legal Rights

Sometimes it is possible to keep your home. There are certain laws that lenders must abide by during foreclosure proceedings. If you feel that your home is being foreclosed upon unfairly, it may be possible to stop the foreclosure process and stay in your home. To do this, you will need to file an objection to the sale.

If you are facing foreclosure, don’t go it alone. Enlisting the legal aid of an experienced real estate attorney such as myself makes navigating the complexities of real estate law easier, and doing so greatly improves your chances of a positive outcome. Contact me today for help dealing with a foreclosure.

Eric L. Nesbitt, Esq.
Law Offices of Eric L. Nesbitt, PC
Phone 303-741-2354
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Nesbitt Law Offices Website