If you want mortgage help, the best place to look is no further than the information you are about to read.

Most homeowners will ignore their mortgage loan until it is quite delinquent. Then they get onto the web and type "Help stop foreclosure" into Google. Is this your situation?

Surely, it is better to prevent foreclosure. But frequently people do not act until it is quite late in the game.

The foreclosure process is simple

In many states, the legal foreclosure goes something like this:

1. You are late on a payment

2. The lender contacts you. Frequently people in financial trouble dodge these calls and don't open the letters.

3. You are late on another payment.

4. The lender will no longer accept payments unless it is the full delinquent amount that brings your loan completely current, and usually only by wire transfer or cashier's check.

5. The lender files a Notice of Default that sets the clock ticking. This is now officially a foreclosure situation.

6. Two or three months later, the lender files a Notice of Trustee Sale. That sets a time and place where your house will be auctioned off, usually in three weeks or so.

7. You can still work things out all the way up until the day of the sale, and often even then. The lender will listen to any reasonable proposal and can postpone the sale date.

8. Bankruptcy temporarily stops this process…but only temporarily.

9. The sale takes place. If you owe a lot compared to what the house is worth, the lender will be the only bidder and they will now own your house. They will then evict you as have gone from owner to tenant.

10. In some situations the lender can go after you for their losses. They can get a judgment, called a deficiency judgment, and use it to garnish your wages or go after your bank account or any paid-for cars and so forth. Bankruptcy is a viable option to stop this if it gets that far.

11. In other situations, the lenders can't go after you for the deficiency. But although you are at no further financial exposure, look what you've done to your credit. You have a number of late payments, and a foreclosure on your credit report. Not good, not good at all. The only thing worse is a bankruptcy on your credit report.

(Check the law in your state as the above may not apply to you.)

You may keep your home if you know some simple tricks

Even if the process seems hopeless to you, I am here to tell you that there are a ton of options for you. It is not too late even if your sale date is coming up.

By the way, to get very up-to-date insider's secrets on keeping your home, stopping foreclosure, restoring your credit and much more, put your name and email here. I will never share your information with anyone.

If you just go to Google and look at options, you will find various programs that can be broken down into several categories:

First, people want to loan you money to help you get bailed out. That would have been a good solution six months ago for some people. But since August, 2007, there has been a terrible credit crunch and that has meant that a lot of financing has dried up altogether.

People looking for a stop foreclosure program often will waste precious days going back and forth with mortgage brokers who offer help with bad credit and then can't come through with any funds.

In addition, if debt is your problem, then how will more debt be a solution?

Second, you will encounter folks who will "buy your house fast" or say "sell your house quickly to me". These are investors and speculators who will try to buy your house for a fraction of the fair market value.

Make sure you get free and clear from your mortgage

Many times, if you owe a mortgage balance that is close to the fair market value, they will try to get you to sign a deed over to your house. Then they will own the house. But you will still be on the hook for the mortgage.

If they are reputable, this may not be a bad way to go. But, even reputable investors get into financial trouble. And then what happens if they stop making the payments on your old house? Yes, you no longer own it. But now, you could have very bad credit issues and would be unable to do anything to help yourself out of this jam.

On the other hand, selling your house outright can be a good option. If you find a buyer. At the moment, there are few buyers. In some cases there are no buyers

Third, there are "foreclosure workout" people. You pay them a fee. I've seen $750 to $1500 or more. And they work things out with your lender.

Folks, it is easy to work things out with your lender yourself. Skip the fee. Just get the information you need. And you can do a wonderful job for yourself getting the mess fixed. The advantage of a fix your own foreclosure approach is that you can do a better job negotiating than a third party can, quite often. Some third party negotiators are great, but many of them are not. And it is hard to tell the difference.

After all this, you might decide "I can't afford my house. I need help with a short sale." That means you owe more than your house is worth and you simply cannot or will not continue making those payments. You lack cash or assets, so the only way you can get out from under your mortgage is to get the lender to accept a short payoff.

Then you walk away free from this crushing foreclosure mortgage and your lender accepts what they get and releases you from further liability.

Enjoyed this information? If you haven't already joined my list, you are in for a treat. It is packed with priceless information that 99.9% of people facing foreclosure don't know. Get in now and I will give you instant access to a valuable free report Keep Your Home containing many of my best stop-foreclosure-now secrets.