Deed-In-Lieu - You sign over the title to your lender rather than having the home foreclosed. Works if you have an
extended period of time, you can pay your monthly payments while you work with your lender, and have already tried to
sell yourself for awhile, but could not.
Loan Modification - A no-cost refinance where the loan terms and interest rate may be modified. Works well when
interest rates are low and your credit score is above 650.
Partial Claim - Used with FHA (insured) mortgages. FHA pays the amount in arrears to the lender to bring you current.
You commit to reimbursing FHA when the property is sold or refinanced, should there be equity in the property.
Pre-foreclosure Sale - Normal home sale process. You can sell yourself or sell with a Realtor. Having enough time to
sell and pricing your home to sell are critical factors.
Refinance – Create a new loan wrapping in the back payments, late fees and attorney fees your lender has tacked onto
the balance of loan since you first missed a payment. Works best if your credit is still good. See if you qualify.
Mortgage Forbearance- Extended payment plan worked out with the lender to repay accumulated back payments. Plan
can last up to 18 months and works best if you can afford to repay your debts fairly quickly.
Short Sale - A normal home sale where you sell your house to a buyer for less than you owe on it. Your lender agrees to
split the losses (or “write them off”) on the sale with you. Can be time consuming and lots of information required by your
lender so you must act fast.
Quick Cash Sale- You sell to a private real estate investor, like us, who buys homes quickly...usually at a discount from
full market price. Benefit is a fast close avoiding further damage to your credit.
Foreclosure Alternative #10: Bankruptcy. You may have noticed, we have not included bankruptcy as a foreclosure
alternative in our discussion of the 9 Alternatives to Foreclosure. It is considered by many people as a last alternative to
avoid a foreclosure.
However, we have serious hesitations about whether bankruptcy is a good foreclosure alternative if you want to truly
avoid foreclosure. Please read our article on Bankruptcy and why we don't think it's an effective way to avoid foreclosure.