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This guest post was provided by Liz Cutten. You can find more of her work at FindSecuredCards, a site that focuses on bad credit cards, as well as getting out of debt.

Stop Your Foreclosure

In today’s economy, it seems as if no matter where you turn, you hear about people losing their homes, or even facing the fact that they are going to face foreclosure in the near future. While foreclosure is a scary thought / process, there are some things that you can do to stop your foreclosure. Granted, not all of these steps will work for you, but it’s worth a shot!

5 Ways to Stop Your Foreclosure

#1 Call your lender: Don’t be afraid of your bank. If you know that you’re not going to be able to pay your bill, I would suggest that you call them up and work out a plan. Sure, while some banks are a pain in the butt to work with, you will find that some are very easy to work with. Keep in mind that some won’t deal with you until you have been behind on payments for at least 6 months.

#2 Money is everything: Yes, it takes money to pay off the bills, but have you looked at your financial situation? If you’re just barely making it by, you may want to consider getting a side, part-time job such as delivering pizzas, or even babysitting. Even an extra $400 a month could take you far with your mortgage payments.

#3 Ask about a repayment plan: Let’s say that you owe $1,000 a month for your mortgage. Some lenders will be able to allow you to miss out on a few payments, but in the future, you will owe them extra for a limited time on top of that $1,000. This is something that you should ask about, but keep in mind that all banks don’t participate with something like this.

#4 Consider a short sale: You may want to dump your home all together. If you’re not familiar with a short sale, this is when you will sell your home for less than what it is worth, but the bank will forgive your mortgage. For example, if you owe $100,000 on the home, but you can only get $70,000, they will forgive the $30,000. This process can take a long time though.

#5 Get foreclosure help: You don’t hear about it too often, but President Obama had tried to help people in need of foreclosure help. You can learn about how you can get more help with your foreclosure all at MakingHomeAffordable.gov.

There are many things that you can do, but I would call the lender first and go from there. While your options are limited, it’s always best to attempt to do something, rather than sit back and do nothing at all.