We all know by now that America is in recession. People are loosing their jobs, Credit cards companies increasing interest rates, mortgage companies not loaning any money anymore and homeowners loosing their homes.
You may have many different reasons for loosing your home, but why not trying to save your credit so you can still purchase your dream home in the future.
Some homeowners really thought about it and they have called a real estate attorney, real estate agent, mortgage broker or any other 3rd party to help them.
Great, but what about homeowners that didn't do all that and they really don't know where to go and who to talk to about their problems?
I know that most of you out there don't want to share your personal problems with straingers and that's OK, but these days some people are not educated enough to get things done them selves and they need a professional.

How do we know if the person standing in front of us is a professional?

Normally we don't, but we can educate our selves. These days "knowledge is power" Fraze comes into affect in all senses.
We can find all the information we need on the Internet. So if you talk to a person or a company claiming to be professionals, go online and make sure they are who they're pretending to be.

What's your options to avoid foreclosure?

1. Loan modification.
Loan modification is restructuring your existing mortgage. Banks are willing to help homeowners by reducing their mortgage payments and mortgage interest rates.
Loan modification can be a great deal for some of us, but for most it will not help.

Things you should know about Loan Modification:
A. Banks will reduce your mortgage payments and interest rates for a short term
B. Banks will forgive some of the money you owe from payments you didn't make in the past, but they will add it to the principle balance or arrange you a payment plan to pay the money back.
C. Banks most of the times will modify only the interest rates and mortgage payments. They will not reduce your mortgage balance.
D. Qualification for a loan modification is almost like qualifying to a mortgage refinance or a purchase home loan.
E. While you in the loan modification process the banks will tell you that the foreclosure process is on hold while you in the loan modification process. NO!!! They can still foreclose on your property.

2. Short Sale.
Short sale is that the bank is willing to forgive your debt, so you can transfer some of the loan to another lender.

Things you should know about Short Sale:
A. You will get rid of mortgage payments and any other debt of the property.
B. Your credit will get damaged. Some people say that the credit will get affected for 2 years and some said for 7 years, but you can negotiate that with your bank or your realtor can do that for you.
C. In some cases you will need to pay taxes for the balance that was forgives by the bank.
D. If you have a hardship these days then it will prevent the foreclosure process and help you to move to another place that is much affordable.

As you can see for some people it will be better just to modify the mortgage until the market will change and hope for things to get better and for some people its just better to sell the property and move on to
another place, more affordable place.
Hire a real estate advisor to help you make this decision, but understand your situation before approaching one.
The real estate professional can not and will not make the decision for you, but he can guide you to a better understanding to make the right decision.