OK...so you're a month or two late on your mortgage, Don't Panic! Many people start to get behind on their mortgage payments and begin to imitate an ostrich by putting their head in the sand and hoping that it'll all go away, and it will... the way it goes away though, is entirely up to you.

If you wish to avoid a foreclosure; don't avoid the situation that you are in, talk to your lenders, don't throw the letters that they are sending you aside unopened because you think you know what it says. The letter in your hand may be offering you solutions to the problem, if you ignore them and wait it out, you may miss a time limit to rectify any situation that you may be in, and in effect, assure a foreclosure.

Take quick action, keep open communication with your lender and don't giving up until you have exhausted all other possibilities. It may be possible to keep your home and the wealth that it has earned over the years, but if you hide from the problem you become the problem itself!

In addition, ask for the original mortgage paperwork! With all the shuffling of paperwork with sold and resold properties in the real estate industry lately, originals are getting lost, stashed in some warehouse somewhere or destroyed. If nothing else, if the original paperwork cannot be found, it will make it very difficult for the lender to prove that is their property. If nothing else, it could buy some time!