How to Sell a Home to Prevent Foreclosure

Your mortgage has just gone up or you've had a change to your financial situation and you know foreclosure is looming. Rather than destroying your credit rating for the next couple of years with a foreclosure, you can try to sell your home using the following tips.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Contact your lender as soon as you start to have problems with your payments. Your lender may be able to help you with programs they've set up, so you can sell your home and prevent foreclosure.

2. Look at the housing market in your city and state. If you live in an area where there are many homes for sale and many homes in foreclosure, you may be looking at several months before your house will sell. Decide if you can continue to make your mortgage payments until your house sells.

3. Get your house appraised. If you owe more on your loan than your house is worth, you'll have to decide whether your budget can handle losing that money.

4. Choose a real estate agent. Consider interviewing a couple of agents to find one that you feel will help you sell your home. Ask them for references, what their marketing strategy is and how much of the sale price they'll take. This is very important if there are many homes on the market in your area.

5. Make your house stand out, especially if you're competing with foreclosure homes. Do any obvious repairs, pack up anything personal in the house, and put bulky furniture in storage. You can hire a home stager to do this if you want. In addition, make sure the outside of your house always looks great. Mow the lawn, trim back bushes and consider hiring a gardener.

Tips & Warnings

• Unless you know what you're doing, do not try to sell your house without a real estate agent.