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Several years ago, I was listening to a radio show about personal finance. A woman had called and told the host that her credit card bills were caught up, but she had not eaten in two days. Talk about some seriously messed up priorities. Paying your mortgage payment shouldn't come before food and your light bill, but it's the next thing after that you should write a check for at the beginning of the month! If you find your self in a situation where you're behind on your home, and are close to foreclosure, here are some tips to avoid the unthinkable.

Everyone's situation is different when it comes to getting caught up on a house which is behind. First we have to determine how close to fixing your financial situation you are. If you lost a job and are starting another one in two weeks, you'll probably be okay. If you simply cannot afford your house anymore, that's a wholly another story. You have to be honest with your self as to whether or not the situation will get fixed in a timely basis. If not, you might need to sell your house.

If you're in a situation where you see yourself coming out of the tunnel and into the light any time soon, call your mortgage company immediately! Since your mortgage was given to you under some very specific terms, those documents will tell you what the mortgage service company will do. So go look in your financial files, grab out your mortgage documents and see what the deal is.

Your lender really does not want to foreclose on your home, it's a very expensive proposition. If you can get it turned around in a couple of months, they'll definitely work with you and give you a forbearance agreement. If it's going to take more than a few months, it might be time for some drastic measures. No, this does not mean go file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a Band-Aid solution to the symptom, which is debt, not the cause, which is overspending. Instead, sell stuff, a lot of stuff. This means eBay, garage sales, CashForCDs.com, you name it. Sell so much stuff the kids and pets are hiding because they think their next.

Most people get into this kind of trouble because they just don't act fast enough, instead they hope the financial troubles will just go away. Get objective help, talk to a HUD approved counseling agency.

Your mortgage servicer can help by offering you a forbearance agreement, which the Freddie Mac website states is "an agreement to temporarily let you pay less than the full amount of your mortgage payment, or pay nothing at all, during the forbearance period." They often will consider this when you have a lump sum of money coming in the near future.

They can also help by offering a repayment plan, which will require you to pay your mortgage and an additional amount of money to catch up on the back payments. Once all of your back payments are caught up, you will get what is called "reinstatement", which means that your loan is caught up and you are no longer behind.

Learn more about this author, JQ Adams.
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