So what can you do if your lender does not want to work with you? Getting a third party involved may help. Try the route of free government or non-profit agencies that offer help to work with your mortgage company. They may be able to get further than you can. If that fails, you may want to get some legal advice to see if there is any legal action that you can take. Perhaps your mortgage company would be more willing to work with your attorney than directly with you. And if that does not work, you can try the route of filing bankruptcy. Be sure to get a qualified bankruptcy attorney who understands your situation and all of the laws involved. In chapter 13 bankruptcy, your lender is required to work with the bankruptcy courts and has to abide by the decisions made by those courts.

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How fully, timely and accurately you respond to your bank is an area that you control. Once you get behind in your payments, your mortgage company should contact you. If they do not, be sure to contact them. Be sure to promptly return all phone calls to your bank. Be sure to fully explain your situation to them. If you got laid off from your job and that is why you cannot pay them, tell them that. There are typically certain workout packages that they can offer you based on your situation. Be sure to give them accurate information about your finances. If you are able to get a possible workout package with them, be sure to provide all of the information that they are requesting. Also be sure to provide it as quickly as possible.

Another area that you have complete control over is your attitude. You can choose to be negative or positive in how you look at the situation and in how you respond to people. You can choose to blame others or you can look for solutions to your problem instead. You can choose to see the negative in the situation or you can choose to look for the lesson and the gift in this experience.

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The first step is to make sure that your basic needs are met. Find a new place to live. Develop a budget that you can realistically live on. Figure out how to downsize your life.

After you have figured out those basics, take a breath and figure out how you are going to recover from this, both financially and emotionally. Within the emotional aspect, you have to find a way to let go of your home, your foreclosure, and all of the emotional baggage surrounding it. Find goals to move you forward in life. Get a friend or a counselor to talk and cry with so that you can get rid of all of your negative emotions from this experience. Come to terms with what you need to learn from this experience and then move on. Do not dwell on it and certainly do not globalize this experience to mean that you are failure. You are not.

As for financially, you will need to re-establish your credit. Be sure that any bills, loans, or payments that you have are made on time and in full. It will take a few years of good credit usage and history to minimize the bad effects of foreclosure on your credit.

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Once foreclosure has started on your home, it has just become more difficult and expensive to save it. The foreclosure process is expensive for banks. There are attorney fees and court fees, to name a few, that your bank will incur as soon as they file foreclosure paperwork. If you want to save your home, your bank will likely make you pay at least some of those fees, if not all.

You are now sitting on a ticking time bomb. Once your lender has filed that foreclosure paperwork, you are on the clock. Every state has their own foreclosure timeline. But once that paperwork is filed, that timeline has begun. It may be short or it may be long, you need to check your state’s resources to know for sure.

Most of the control of whether or not you can save your house is in the hands of your lender. Your bank has a legal right to foreclose if you do not make your payments. Unless they have done something illegal, your bank is really the one who controls this situation. So if you want to save your home, you will likely have to work out a solution with them.

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If the sheriff sale date is close and you know that you do not have the financial means to save your home and you have tried but failed to work out a solution with your lender, a deed in lieu of foreclosure may be your best option. In this situation, you basically agree to give you house to your lender in exchange for not having to go through foreclosure. This will be beneficial for your credit and save you from further headaches with your home and your lender.

Another option you have is to try to get your lender to give you more time to come up with the money that you owe them. If you believe that you can come up with all of the back payments that you owe them, tell them how you plan to do it and how much time you will need.

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Unfortunately, you are playing with loaded dice when it comes to foreclosure and they are weighted on behalf of your lender. That is because the simple truth is that when you default on your loan, your bank has legal options they can take to secure their interest. Because their loan is secured by your home, they do have the legal right to take your home if you do not pay.

So what are your rights and what can you do? You always have the right to get your loan current and pay all fees in order to stop the foreclosure. Your lender cannot take your home if your payments are current and you have paid all of their fees. You may also have the right of redemption. If your bank has done anything illegal, you also have the right to legally fight your foreclosure. The laws vary by state so be sure that you understand what your rights are in your state.

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The first thing that you need to know is if there is a right of redemption in your state and if there is, if it applies to your situation and how long it is. The right of redemption allows you to basically find a way to come up with all of the money (your entire loan amount plus fees) that you currently owe your lender. While it is unlikely that you can come up with this much money, it might be helpful in allowing you some more time to find somewhere else to live. You may be able to stay in the house during the entire right of redemption time period. Be sure to check your local laws.

You also need to know what the legal eviction procedures are in your area. If there is no right of redemption period, you will likely have to get out of the house fairly quickly after the sale date. Be sure that you fully understand how much time you will have after the sale to move out.

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If your bank does offer you modified loan terms, be sure that you understand what those terms are. Sometimes it will just be a temporary reduction in payments. If you know that the financial issues you are facing are permanent, this kind of solution likely will not help you. Be sure that you fully explain your financial issues so that your bank can offer you a solution that will actually work for your situation.

Be prepared to provide your bank with detailed records of your current financial situation. They may ask for several months worth of financial records and will likely ask for your tax returns from recent years. Be sure to keep a list of what you provide them and keep copies of everything that you provide.

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Foreclosure will follow you on your credit for 7 to 10 years. While it will be easier to get credit a few years after your foreclosure has passed, it will remain there for many years.

Your credit score will drop because of having a foreclosure on your record. With responsible spending, your credit score can increase over time but it will hit your credit.

It may be more difficult and costly to find another place to live. Many apartment complexes check credit before they will approve you. Your foreclosure may hurt you when you look at apartments and you may be required to pay more in a deposit because of this.

If you do not leave your home voluntarily before the foreclosure is completed, you will be evicted. How long that will take depends on the laws in your state. In some areas, you could have as little as 3 days to pack up your belongings after getting an eviction notice.

You will likely have to downsize your life. Going from a home to an apartment is a big change. You will probably have to get rid of quite a bit of stuff. The upside is that you might be able to sell some of the larger items.

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But to be sure that you even can stop the sale in time, you need first to understand what the timelines for foreclosure look like in your state. How close in your sale date? What happens after the sale? Do you have any rights after the sale has been completed? It is important for you to find out the answers to all of these questions.

Your mortgage company can always stop the sale. If you have begun a dialog with them, now is the time to start. At a minimum, your bank can delay the foreclosure sale date. But in order for them to do that, they will need some kind of proof from you that you can either pay them the back payments or you will need to get a loan modification that helps you get back on track with your mortgage. Only your bank can tell you what options they are willing to extend to you. Be sure to ask them.

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