Foreclosure Prevention

Foreclosure prevention involves the provision of services that are intended to assist homeowners in the postponement or prevention of foreclosure, or if foreclosure is unavoidable, to make the process as simple as possible. The foreclosure prevention industry is full of both for-profit and non-profit enterprises. Some companies that offer these services may have once focused on mortgage brokering, but seeing a need, shifted their focus to foreclosure prevention. If you are a homeowner that's worried about foreclosure, you have a lot of decisions to make when it comes to finding help.

For instance, homeowners in the United States can use publicly-funded foreclosure prevention services like the MHAP (Making Home Affordable Program), which is sponsored by HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development). The MHAP is available to any homeowner threatened by foreclosure, and it offers several plans that allow homeowners to get government-backed loan modification. There are similar programs available in many other industrially developed countries. Foreclosure laws are much the same in many places, but there are some differences that can only be dealt with by a foreclosure prevention service. In some cases, mediation must be done before a foreclosure can happen. Here, the foreclosure prevention service represents the homeowner.

Most foreclosure prevention services are approved and funded by the public, but there are many privately-run companies as well. These often require that the homeowner pay fees, or a portion of the savings realized by any plan-sponsored loan modification. Some of these privately-owned companies are law firms that specialize in residential mortgages, and some are run by mortgage experts who have directed their efforts toward the prevention of foreclosure. No matter which you choose, you need to weigh the advantages of using a profit-based service against those of using a non-profit foreclosure prevention service.