Visions of a glamorous lifestyle, back yard barbecues and pool parties that were fueled by teaser loan rates, not to mention negative amortization loans, wooed millions of homeowners into a false sense of security in the early years of this millennium. House prices soared overnight and the dream of having a solid piece of real estate in a safe neighborhood, close to good schools, took on the utmost importance in the minds of millions of would-be homeowners.

The results of years of unchecked desire to become a buyer combined with irresponsible loan management have put American homeowners into a financial panic. Over 2.2 million foreclosures were filed in 2007 and that was up 75 percent over the previous year. The year 2008 is certainly sliding into the record books as well.

If these facts threaten to include you this year, STOP! If you don’t want to join them, then this is the time to make some clear determinations about what you will do. It could take approximately 30 days for you to gather and present your case to your lender with the expectation that in the end you will have renegotiated your loan to include figures you CAN live with.

You can request a modification from your lender without having to use an attorney or loan modification company. You will need to gather all the same documentation that they would request from you to handle your case, so why not save the $2500 - $4500 that would be charged by using an attorney or loan modification company.

You may ask if it wouldn’t be better to pay a financial expert to do this for you. Maybe, but if you had the extra money to do this, you probably already took that route. And, like everything else in life, they cannot guarantee that this will work. On the other hand, and without investing a lot of money, you can do this yourself and save thousands in the process. The Loan Modification experts could not proceed without a great deal of input from you, so before you prepare to part with any more of your hard earned cash, consider handling the process yourself.

Do not wait until the lender is ready to complete the foreclosure on your home, it may be too late to save your home by that point. You will want to contact your lender as soon as you know that you are running into a problem with your payments.

There are many options that the lender may present to you other than a loan modification. If your financial loss was due to some hardship, an illness, divorce, death of spouse, or some sort of unexpected tax levy, sick child or disability or other hardship, you can talk with your lender about a loan modification or one of the other options explained below.

FOREBEARANCE - Forebearance happens when you have fallen behind in payments and are moving into the dangerous area of foreclosure. It is designed to bring your past due payments current over a specified period of time. As one of the most common options, it encompasses a written agreement that you will make your full payment each month and a partial payment on your delinquent amount.

An example of this is that if you have missed three payments you will agree to make the full payment and then you will spread the amount of the missed payments over a 6 to 12 month period in order to catch up and be completely current.

Do you have an FHA/HUD loan? You may want to consider PARTIAL CLAIM, which is an interest free loan available to owners of that type of loan. If this is negotiated, the delinquent portion can be tacked on to the end of the original loan and will go into effect after the first loan is paid in full.

Next, look at SHORT SALES. Your lender may allow you to sell your home to someone for less than you currently owe. The main focus in this scenario is to talk with your lender first because he MUST agree to take a payoff that is lower than the current mortgage balance before the sale is final.

Last, but not least, is the LOAN MODIFICATION. This changes the terms of the loan to include lower payments, longer term loans, interest only, principle reduction or any combination that the lender is willing to work out with you.

It is very important to present a complete package to your lender when requesting any type of modification from your lender. You need to be prepared to document every hardship you claim with all of the encompassing legal paperwork.

"The Complete Handbook on Loan Modification" that is presented by LoanModificationDIY.