When you’re about to lose your house, the stress can be pretty overwhelming. You already have financial problems, the debt collectors are constantly calling, your family is getting stressed out as well, and you find yourself wondering where you will live when they take the house away from you. Your main goal in life becomes getting rid of the stress.

You might know someone who has been through that already, so maybe you have an idea of what can happen. You might not even realize you have more than one or two options. Walking away from the house is tempting, but your real options have to include your end game. What do you want your debt and your credit to look like after the house goes away?

Whether you’re a homeowner, a real estate agent, or an investor, you need to know all the options for someone facing foreclosure. As a homeowner, your best bet is to get enough information to make an informed decision. As someone who helps homeowners, you need to make sure they understand that information. You need to set realistic expectations for the loss of their home.

Two of the options have been covered frequently in the media lately: deed-in-lieu and loan modifications.

A deed-in-lieu means that the homeowner agrees to simply hand over the property to the bank. It helps the bank make the repossession easier, but it still hurts the homeowner’s credit as if the foreclosure had actually taken place.

What about loan modifications? The government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) promotes mortgage loan modifications as being a viable way to deal with the foreclosure crisis. Yet the current rate of success for those loans to go from trial to permanent modification is 4 percent. Using California as an example, roughly 140,000 trial loans have entered into the modification process; however, only 5,600 loans will be modified based on their current success rate (4 percent). California filed over 450,000 notices of default for 2009. Those being helped are few and far between given the current numbers.

There are four more successful options.

1) The homeowner can stay in the house and file for bankruptcy, allowing the courts to stall the foreclosure as long as possible. It doesn’t mean the foreclosure won’t happen, but it does mean that the homeowner can refuse to pay for a place to live until the auction date.

2) List the house for the amount of the debt and hope someone comes along who loves the house so much that they will pay your asking price before the auction date. You can dream all you want, but the odds are that nobody will pay more than the house is worth, and you’ll end up going back to option one.

3) List the house as a short sale, find a buyer, and make the buyer wait out the short sale process in order to buy the house at a discount. Many real estate agents recommend this solution because it sounds like the easiest thing to do while still earning their commission, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

One complication arises when the agent has to convince the buyer to not only sign the purchase agreement, but to wait at least 60 to 90 days to take possession. The typical buyer needs something that is already available.

Several roadblocks can come up during the process of negotiating a short sale if the seller and/or his agent don’t completely understand how to manage those negotiations. Lenders are very careful to train their loss mitigation department in debt collection, so sellers and agents who aren’t as well-trained in short sale negotiation skills can be easily sidelined.

For instance, sometimes promissory notes and deficiency judgments can be avoided after a short sale. Did you know that? It can be worth a great deal to a homeowner when you not only learn how the system works, but also how to work the system.

4) The real estate agent could list the house as a short sale, while arranging the purchase by a short sale investor who doesn’t mind handling the paperwork, negotiating a successful short sale on the seller’s behalf, and waiting for the lender’s approval before closing on the house. The homeowner would avoid a foreclosure, the agent would still get the commission, and the buyer would get the home as an investment property to sell or rent.

Why should the homeowner work with an independent short sale investor? People who negotiate short sales every day know the best ways to get the best deal for the homeowner. For instance, the BPO process is more than just having an appraiser stop by. An experienced investor will know how to handle the situation to the homeowner’s benefit.

As a real estate professional, you should be able to explain these four options to a homeowner who is facing foreclosure. They can let it go and file bankruptcy, they can sell for the amount of the debt, they can apply for a short sale and wait for a buyer, or they can apply for a short sale with a buyer already waiting for them.

If you’re interested in finding out how the short sale approval process really works, sign up for free downloadable reports on the Silver Membership page of the Strategic Real Estate Coach website. You’ll also learn about the foreclosure process, and you can gain access to networking opportunities with other people who are interested in helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Finally, if you want to get some insight into a variety of legal issues influencing real estate investing, be sure to check out attorney Jeff Watson’s blog at topshortsalelawyer.com.

Use the most current information about foreclosure options to inform yourself and the homeowners you work with. Educated homeowners are better able to decide what is best for their financial situation and make it possible to avoid foreclosure and go on with their lives.

Need to know more about foreclosure options? Get all the information you need from our real estate coaching website!

Especially in today’s economy, thousands of people are struggling to pay the bills. This, unfortunately, includes dealing with the threat of foreclosure on their homes. It is possible; however, to avoid foreclosure. Follow these few guidelines to avoid having your home taken away from you.

First off, contact your mortgage company. Most, if not all, mortgage companies have a Mitigation or Loss Mitigation department. This is the department you need to contact. Let them know everything that is going on. You, likely, will need to show proof of financial stability or instability.

Mortgage corporations have many bailout plans for these types of situations. After all, they have to protect themselves too. The approach they take is based off the details of each specific case presented to them. One of the most appropriate approaches is forbearance. Keep in mind; this is only an option if you qualify.

However, there are many other options available. Dependent upon your history and particular situation mortgage companies will allow you to do anything from take out another loan to adding the existing past due amount onto your existing loan. In certain situations you may find they are even willing to waive a missed payment. Remember, you do not get to pick. This is all based off of predetermined criteria.

As crazy as this may sound, some people up and leave a home that they are in fear of losing. This is one of the worst things you can do. Unless you are forced out of your home, do not leave. Your physical presence, in your house, just might save your home. It is much easier to qualify for assistance when you actually live at the property in question. Assistance is offered by different counseling agencies; look into the ones around you.

If your mortgage company has already formed a Notice of Default, your options have just lessened. At this point you will have a much more difficult time getting assistance from anyone, including your mortgage company. One of the only options you have, if you want to save your credit, is to sell your house. Problem is, you might not get enough money and you still have to pay off the remainder of the loan. On the other hand, a few grand is way less than a house.

If your situation has gotten this far, there are a couple other options. However, other options will harm your credit just as bad as a foreclosure will. Just keep in mind that there are different roads to take. The more proactive you are with your mortgage company, the better chance you have. If you want to avoid foreclosure, call your mortgage company as soon as you see you might be facing a late payment. This proactive action will save you a ton of grief in the end.

Learn how to avoid foreclosure by using short sales. Head online today and you can learn how a short sale will help you out.

With the current financial crisis many people are faced with difficulties in paying their mortgage. For many if they don’t know what to do to avoid this situation it will result in them losing their home. However, below we offer a few tips that could help you to know how to avoid foreclosure on your home.

Tip 1 – As soon as you realize that you are going to have problems meeting your mortgage payments then don’t ignore it. You should immediately contact the lender and inform them of the situation. They may well be able to devise a payment program that allows you to keep paying your mortgage and so stay in your home.

Tip 2 – Whenever you receive any correspondence from the mortgage lender regarding it you should open and reply to it as quickly as you possibly can. Generally the first letter the lender sends to those who are having difficulties in paying their mortgage will provide them with some ways of how to avoid foreclosure happening to them.

Ignoring such correspondence initially could cause you more problems in the future, as it may well contain information regarding legal proceedings the lender is about to take against you. This is not excuse you can use to the judge when you do end up in foreclosure court.

Tip 3 – Another thing that you should be doing as soon as you have any changes in your financial situation is to go through the mortgage documentation you have. It is important that you read it through slowly and carefully as you will then be able to see what will happen if you are unable to make the payments of your mortgage. For those who are unsure where they stand legally when it comes to foreclosure then they should seek out assistance from either a good lawyer or their local citizens advice bureau.