Does anyone mind sharing ideas of things people can do to prevent foreclosure
(other than, of course, making the house payment!)
I'm sure that one would need to speak with the mortgage company and try to come to agreement, but any other suggestions?

I've searched the forum but really didn't find the answer to my question.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Call the lender. Depending on the situation, there are a variety of options. Obviously, the worst thing the homeowner can do is to ignore the problem (but it's surprising how many do that).

I agree with OH Agent. Prior to real estate I was in finance and collections for 25 years. Call your lender, in todays market they are more than happy to help, because they know if they get it back they are going to lose money, they can refinance the loan, give an extention, or refer you to a mortgage company that may refinance the home. The good thing in Georgia is that most finance companies can do this in 10 days, maybe less if you already have an appraisal. Don't waste your time with consumer counseling, they can't help with secured debt.
Worst case senario, look in the newspaper for the investors who claim they can help you avoid forclosure, they will charge you out the butt, and if they payoff your loan,BEWARE!!!They will have you outta there for any little thing.
I just found a home for a client and this company had bought her out of foreclosure, the owner was 15 days late on her payment and they had filed to have her evicted.

Good Luck

Sure they will evict.

A strategy that is LEGAL but maybe not ethical is to purchase the home from the homeowner and rent it back to them.Say a home is worth 100k,I buy it for 55k from the homeowner and in a year they can purchase it back from me when there credit gets cleaned up for 75k(99% of the time they don't clean up the credit).If they don't live up to the rental contract i evict and have a house arv of 100k for a purchase of 55k not bad instead of having to wait a year.Many,Many investors use this technique as the homeowners don't want to move.Investors will not make up back payments and purchase the property out of the kindness of there heart.

You could say these investors are predators,or another way to look at it is they were going to be foreclosed on anyway so at least they had a chance this way of getting something instead of nothing.This assumes after review of a financial statement that they don't qualify for a repayment or restructuring plan.


Refinancing the loan will usually be at a high interest rate about 11 to 12 percent and the homeowners will take equity out make a few payments and be right back in foreclosure within the year,same thing with bankruptcy plans the success rate is very,very,low.


As far as stall tactics sometimes if you list the property they will wait an extra 30 days before filing a notice with the court which usually takes 10 to 14 days.You can also file a bankruptcy but it will stay on the credit for 10 years whether they cancel the bankruptcy or not,usually it only stalls 30 to 60 days as the lender files for an automatic relief of stay so they can foreclose.

Also if the notice mailed out to the homeowner is incorrect name misspelled or both people not listed etc.The lender will have to refile the correct notice with no errors or the foreclosure could be deemed voidable as correct process wasn't followed.

It's the lender who starts the foreclosure process, so I'm not sure what other ideas you could think of besides contacting the lender.

A lender does not want to foreclose, and does not want to own a property either. And foreclosure sales get postponed every day of the week, so lenders are willing to listen to the borrower's story.

An owner who is upside down on a house may want to think about making a clean break and offering the bank a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

An owner with equity in the home should definitely try to refinance, or just find a buyer who will bail them out and put $10,000 or $20,000 in their pocket to start anew.
--A

Super Realtor,

A lot of investors indeed use the exact strategy you describe. However, many states' attorneys general are going after them for fraud, claiming that they had no intention of ever letting the homeowner stay.

The burden of proof seems to be on the investor, who is presumed to be an evil, greedy, b@$7@4d out to take advantage of old ladies. Sadly, many of them are, which makes things worse for those who are not.

Some states are even pursuing legislation making the issue illegal, unless a certain percentage of FMV is paid to the seller.

Personally, I refuse to engage in the purchase/lease-back transaction any longer, and even warn homeowners against it in my "Foreclosure Scams" brochure.

I appreciate that mike.As i said it can be construed as evil but not illegal.What you are talking about is fraud because of the intent of the investor from the beginning.

It is a big gamble to rent back for an investor as you have to sitt on your money for a year waiting on the return just like a tax lein,you could hit it big or have a minimum return.

This all comes down to people doing what they say they are going to do.It's just like people saying they are going to take over payments collect rent and then the house forecloses on the homeowner or the homeowner stays in the property while the investor tries to find a buyer or assigns the deal while never making a payment to the lender and i forecloses.

Or an investor uses a straw buyerand does no work on a rehab for a flip.

The problem with these isn't the strategy but the people turning them into something else that is illegal.Unfortuneately there are many unethical investors in my area that would sell there mother to make 10 cents.

Ga is number 1 in the nation for mortgage fraud.
Anything i do is spelled out and signed by the parties and is fully explained so there are no misunderstandings.

Super Realtor: I am all with you! I am starting in real estate investing and it's all disclosed. Yes, payments will be taken over and backpayments paid and the buyer will get a set amount of cash at closing - but they know they will no longer live there. They save themselves from foreclosure, get cash to start fresh and save their credit. There's no way in hell I would allow a seller who is foreclosing to stay in the house. I want a new buyer whose going to take care of the home and buy it in the end. I don't consider this unethical in any way - I am helping people in distress and helping myself while usually helping home values right around the house - nine times out of ten it's in a certain degree of dispair and I clean them up nicely!