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How to Short Sale a Home

Take Action if You Are in Pre-Foreclosure Status

Foreclosure HelpThere’s no reason to put your home at risk. Prevent a foreclosure of your home. Take action today.

If you need to know what to do to stop a foreclosure, we can help.

If you are having difficulty making your monthly mortgage payments, you can protect your home, but you must act immediately. Your actions can prevent the loss of your home through foreclosure. With our help, we give provide you with the information you need to avoid foreclosure, but it is only the beginning. If you are having serious financial difficulties, you need to seek professional assistance and/or legal counsel to best protect your home.

The very first thing you need to do is call and communicate with your lender. Lenders are in the lending business, not the real estate business. Your lender will want to work with you and help you find a way to keep your home. The longer you wait, the more difficult this will be to do. If you are several months behind in your mortgage payments and you have not made contact with your lender, they will probably assume that you do not intend to repay their loan. Don’t avoid your lender or their calls. Do take action and know your rights in the process. Do be diligent in avoiding scam artists that may be contacting you to “help”.

Get your financial ducks in a row. Be prepared to discuss your problems honestly and in detail. Think about the questions you may be asked in advance and make notes to help you answer them. This may impress your lender that you are prepared and sincere.

If you are facing foreclosure, you do have several options. There are numerous ways in which your lender might be able to help you. You could start with debt counseling, which can help you to look at all your outstanding debt to see if any of it can be restructured or consolidated. Your mortgage payments would be the last payments that you would default on, so it is likely that you are experiencing difficulty with your other payments as well. Your lender/counselor can help you make a budget to structure a repayment plan.

There are several other legal options that you should pursue with your lender. Modifications, forbearance and recasting are all possible if you have sufficient equity in your home.

If your problem is serious enough that it can not be resolved in a reasonable amount of time, it may be necessary for you to sell your home and find a living situation that is more manageable. If it is possible to pay off the mortgage balance, you can settle your delinquent debt and avoid foreclosure. A short sale negotiation with your lender is another option to be explored. Make sure to work closely with your lender to allow a reasonable time to sell the home. If all else fails you may have the option of signing the home over to your lender, normally referred to as a “Deed-in-lieu”. Bankruptcy, as a last resort, can also be utilized in this process.

With all of these options available to you, there is no reason to lose your home. We give you all the tools and information that you need to make an educated decision on how to save your home.

By Diego Loya

Diego Loya is a Realtor - Broker at Home Living Real Estate Brokerage, a Orange County full services real estate company. Over the past 12 years, Diego has helped homeowners sell and buy their homes. He's loves educating and empowering real estate consumers. You can find him on Google, Facebook and Twitter.

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