One of 10 homeowners in Texas faces the risk of a mortgage risk default or an imminent foreclosure, according to Mortgage Bankers Association of America. A foreclosure can be a dreadful, devastating and stressful thing to happen. With the law being on the homeowners’ side recently, it is really up to the homeowners if they want to do something about stopping foreclosure in Texas.

Reach out to Texas Counseling Agencies: Texas homeowners who are currently facing foreclosure lawsuits can take assistance from various U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved foreclosure intervention counseling organizations. These organizations provide free counseling to homeowners.

Be open to communication from your lender: Understand that lenders — even though notoriously short on patience and time apart from facing the ever increasing instances of foreclosure — are still your best friends and they would do all they can to help you resolve your financial situation. So contact them and talk to them. Open all correspondence and read up. Be armed with documented information that will be required before you even contact your lender.
Bring Your Mortgage Current: Try to pay up the pending mortgage amounts by whatever legal means possible. Raise money by taking up an extra vocation, apart-time job or some other way to try to salvage your debilitating financial situation and use that money to bring your mortgage payments current. Stay away from taking further loans to pay off your pending mortgages, except for some special low-interest credit extensions which your lender might give you. See if you can budget and save, jettison unwanted expenses and stop the foreclosure from happening.

Find a Buyer for your house: If you realize that it is completely out of hand and you just can’t seem to bring yourself to do what was stated above, you may look to sell your house. Seek a well-qualified, experienced and trust-worthy Texas based realtor who can do this for you. A previously written post titled “6 Ways To Sell Your House fast To Stop Foreclosure“, should help you in this regard.

Related posts:

1. Stop Foreclosures in Michigan – Will You Let a Foreclosure Destroy You?
2. Stop Foreclosures in Florida — Helpful Points to Help You Get Started
3. 6 Ways To Sell Your House Fast To Stop Foreclosure

Save The Dream is the proud initiative the Michigan State Housing Department Authority and it is one of those states that takes active interest in trying to sort of the financial problems homeowners might face due to sudden events that set them back financially – the common ones include getting fired from jobs, injury or disability or anything severe that affects a homeowner’s monthly mortgage paying capability. Taking proactive action is necessary is critical times like these since it isn’t just you who is going to be affected. Apart from the fact that your home is at the risk of getting frisked away, your family might be affected too. Follow the steps below if you would like to stop the foreclosure process and save your dream.

Avail Loans to help save your Home: The MSHDA has plenty of financial plans like secondary mortgages rescue loans to help you stop foreclosure in Michigan and save your home.

• Pick up the HELP loan: If you have a non-recurring situation or a temporary problem due to which you are unable to make your mortgage payments, you can contact a Homeownership Counseling Agency in Michigan to avail their HELP loan. This is to be used for temporary emergencies only and is limited to maximum of $3000 and is a non-interest bearing loan.
• MSHDA Assist finance Program: If you currently have an adjustable mortgage loan or a high-interest fixed rate loan MSHDA mortgage, MSHDA allows you to pick up another loan at much lower interest rate, based on certain qualifications and subject to approval, of course.
• MSHDA Rescue Finance Program: This is the other kind of loan MSHDA provides for homeowners who are qualified but are currently already due to pay their mortgages and are late by 30 days. They may pick this loan and refinance their mortgage by making it into a low-interest, fixed-rate loan.

Other ways to stop foreclosure in Michigan
If you contact an attorney or an MSHDA approved foreclosure prevention counselor, they might be able to asses your personal situation better and might be able to suggest a loan modification, reinstatement or cure, a forbearance agreement or a partial claim.A foreclosure can have devastating effects on your financial holdings, credit reports and credit records. It leaves a permanent scar on your reputation and hence you must try to avoid it all costs. Kick your finances back to life and take some pro-active action to revive your finances and bring your life back into your hands.

Related posts:

1. Stop Foreclosures in California — Don’t Let Your House Slip From Your Hands
2. Stop Foreclosures in Florida — Helpful Points to Help You Get Started
3. Stop Foreclosure in Texas – Take an Active Approach to Foreclosure

In an earlier blog entry and Nolopedia article, I explain the basic requirements for refinancing a mortgage and having your payment reduced under the Obama administration’s implementation of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan.

Now the government has put up a user-friendly website dedicated to helping you determine whether you are eligible to have your mortgage refinanced or your mortgage payment reduced under this new law  In addition to eligibility determinations, the website helps you find a HUD-certified housing counselor and, in a resource section, provides calculators to help you determine your debt to income ratio and your likely payment if you qualify for the program. If you are wondering whether the Obama Administration’s mortgage modification programs will help you out, this is definitely the website of choice.

In a brief article found on the Debt Law Network, the author notes:

The FTC has found that some organizations that offer debt management plans (DMPs) have deceived and defrauded consumers, and recommends that consumers check their bills to make sure that the organization fulfills its promises. If you are paying through a DMP, contact your creditors and confirm that they have accepted the proposed plan before you send any payments to the organization handling your DMP. Once the creditors have accepted the DMP, it is important to:

• Make regular, timely payments.
• Always read your monthly statements promptly to make sure your creditors are getting paid according to your plan.
• Contact the organization responsible for your DMP if you will be unable to make a scheduled payment, or if you discover that creditors are not being paid.

The article goes on to explain what can happen if you are late with a payment. What it doesn’t say as clearly as it might, however, is that your plan will most likely go up in flames if you fall short on your payments. In my humble opinion, you should stay away from debt management plans for this reason alone. But there is more. 

First, as confirmed by the FTC, the company you choose may be a scam. In addition to not delivering on its promises, it may be taking your money under circumstances where it’s clear you can’t afford the plan. Second, by paying a “middle man” to do something that you could do yourself  (negotiate a payment plan with your creditors), you are wasting precious resources. And third, none of the plans that I’ve seen are willing to open their books and publish their success/failure ratios. Since I don’t know what those ratios are, I can only guess that they would likely scare off future customers and bring the FTC down on them even faster than is already the case.

Perhaps my biggest reason for being so negative about DMPs is that they divert your income from you and your family to the DMP company and your creditors. Assume, for example, that your plan requires you to pay $300 a month for three years, and after the first year you are unable to continue making the payments. During that first year you will have paid $3,600 under your DMP for no good reason. Had you deposited that $3,600 into a savings account, you would be in much better shape to rebuild your finances.

Of course, you will still have to deal with your debt in some way. My way is bankruptcy. If you are guided by a morality that compels you to repay your debt, file under Chapter 13 and throw as much money as you can into your Chapter 13 plan. If you, like many, feel justified in getting a fresh start within several months rather than several years under a Chapter 13, file under Chapter 7. Unlike Chapter 13, you can probably handle your own Chapter 7 bankruptcy without a lawyer, which means that for several hundred dollars you can be rid of your credit card debt no matter how much you owe.

“But,” I hear you say, “my credit will be ruined if I file bankruptcy.” Yes it will, at least for a while, but your credit may likely already be in the tank. More importantly, in the new economy, we will all be required to live within our means. If you are able to save every penny you would use to pay off all or a major percentage of your credit card debt yourself rather than under a DMP, your savings account will be large enough to replace the financial cushion that good credit provides.