Georgia foreclosure help can be a saving lifeline when facing the possibility of losing your home. If you encounter foreclosure, you are not alone. Georgia ranks as the third highest foreclosure state in the nation with a rate of 1 out of 138 homes foreclosed.
It's important for default homeowners not to panic. Several options exist to help distressed homeowners overcome foreclosure, even halting the process before damaging their credit.
If you fear foreclosure looms near, consider the following Georgia foreclosure information:
1. Trouble can brew as soon as you miss a single payment. According to Georgia foreclosure law, lenders may not contact you until you've skipped a second payment, but most will report every delinquency to the credit bureaus. Even a single late payment can jeopardize your credit score.
2. Lenders themselves can offer a variety of options when it comes to foreclosure help in Georgia such as temporarily reducing payments or setting up a short-term repayment plan with different conditions to make up the default amount.
3. From working with a Georgia foreclosure attorney to engaging a loss mitigation specialist, there are options. Don't lose hope. There's still time to save your home up until foreclosure sale.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Study foreclosure laws in Georgia
Typically, once a homeowner's mortgage is 90 days past due, a lender will issue a notice of default. Then they will begin the foreclosure process in the court system. The foreclosure must follow a strict procedure laid out by Georgia foreclosure laws.
I recommend: Research the Georgia foreclosure laws that affect you at
Advantage Mitigation Services. Find additional information at
Homestead Protection Services.
Watch out for mortgage recovery scams
The Federal Trade Commission warns that there are plenty of bad guys operating in the foreclosure recovery business who will take your money and provide no service. Some warning signs, according to the FTC: advertising terms like "guarantee" and "97% success rate", upfront fees before services and company names or websites designed to make you think you're dealing with a government or nonprofit agency.
I recommend: Educate yourself about foreclosure recovery scams through the
Federal Trade Commission. The FTC recommends you only seek foreclosure help from government sanctioned counseling agencies like the ones recommended by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or the federal
Making Home Affordable program.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- It may be helpful if you try to negotiate directly with the lender yourself, especially if the bank has not yet hired an attorney to begin foreclosure proceedings. Successful negotiating before the process even begins can save a lot of money. But don't take too long. If a deal isn't worked out within two weeks, your lender most likely isn't serious about working with you directly.
The official source of Georgia Foreclosure Recovery is
the Georgia Foreclosure Recovery page at Business.com