Foreclosure Is Not the Only Option

If you are in a financial crunch, you may think that foreclosure is your only option. After all, everywhere you look, this is what people are saying—if you can’t afford your house and don’t pay, foreclosure is what happens.

If you cannot afford your home loan, get advice from trustworthy people in the real estate industry. Don’t rely on what you hear on the news or act on advice from family and friends who are not subject matter experts. The news has a story to tell in a small amount of time and can’t speak to your particular situation. Your family and friends may mean well, but they probably cannot lay out all of your options.

Sadly, if you can no longer afford your house, you may not be able to keep it, but that doesn’t mean that foreclosure is the only option. There are ways to keep things from going that route, such as:

Short sale: This is when someone sells a property at a price that is less than what they own on the mortgage.

Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure: This is when a mortgage debt is completely cancelled after a borrower transfers their property’s title to the mortgage company.

Loan assumption: This is when someone else takes over payments on a property to make the loan current.