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‘How can I stop foreclosure?’ is a question a homeowner may ask who does not want to lose their home to this process. A foreclosure is a process by which the lender seizes your home to pay for the mortgage. You will have missed your monthly mortgage payments for several months before the lender forces a sale of your home. Once foreclosure has started it will be very difficult to stop the process. However, if you have missed a few payments and you want to try to prevent the loss of your home you can do so before the foreclosure process begins. You can seek a refinance of the mortgage; you can ask the lender for a loan modification; and you can file a petition with the court for bankruptcy protection.

You can try to refinance your house if you are behind on the payments. If you can find someone who is willing to risk lending to you, you can refinance the home and you can start over with the new lender. You may find that you cannot refinance your home because you may have a poor credit history. If this is the case, you may approach your lender about a loan modification.

A loan modification might be an option for you if you are 90 days delinquent and the foreclosure process has not been started by the lender. When you approach the lender for a modification you will be asking for a lower rate of interest; or you may ask for a different length in the repayment terms; or you might even ask the lender to lower the amount of the principal that you owe. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage you may ask the lender to modify the loan to a fixed rate of interest mortgage. If your lender agrees to the modification you can ask that the delinquent payments be rolled over into the new loan. You can pay an attorney to help you with this process or you can find a housing counselor that works for the federal government and will help you if you have a Housing and Urban Development loan. If a sale is scheduled because the foreclosure process has started, you will be denied the loan modification.

If you file for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy the foreclosure process will stop immediately. You must file the petition for bankruptcy prior to the sale of the property in order to stop the sale. You must show the court how you intend to bring the loan current and continue with the mortgage payments. You will be allowed a three to five year time frame in which to get the mortgage current. You will make the payments to the bankruptcy trustee and your bankruptcy filing will stay on your credit report for 10 years. You will be able to keep your home and you will also be required to reorganize all your other debt through this type filing.

If the foreclosure sale has already taken place you will not be able to change the outcome. However, there are some states that allow you to redeem your home. This means that you have a certain amount of time after the sale of the property to reclaim your home. Each state has different laws of redemption. In Florida there is a 10 day redemption period and in Michigan there is a six month period of redemption. If you can get the money to pay off the lender then you can reclaim your home. This will usually be done through refinancing, but not always. You can see that there are several options for answering your question, ‘How can I stop foreclosure?’