Foreclosure Prevention
Begins before you buy your home.
Facing the Inevitable
If keeping your home is not the best option, consider the following:
- Short Sale: Owing more than your home is worth and the lender may allow you to sell your home at the lesser amount as paid-in-full.
- Fair Market: Having equity in your home and the lender may allow you to sell.
- Deed in Lieu: Signing over your home to the lender and they forgive the mortgage.
- Seek professional advice from a non-profit organization.
Are you facing foreclosure?
Maryland’s foreclosure mediation law requires mortgage lenders and servicers to be more responsive to homeowners facing foreclosure. The goal of the law is to help homeowners get relief through a loan modification if they qualify or to find an alternative to foreclosure.
The Maryland Foreclosure Law gives homeowners a new opportunity to meet with the lender and an independent party to ensure that alternatives to foreclosure have been considered and evaluated. Under this law, when a lender notifies a homeowners about possible foreclosure, the lender also must provide more complete information about options available to homeowners.
Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development
Yvette Foreman, Housing and Community Development Coordinator
The Jefferson Building, Suite 201
105 West Chesapeake Ave., Towson, MD 21204
How can you avoid foreclosure?
If you have missed mortgage payments and are worried about losing your home, contact your lender/servicer immediately.
If you lose your job, have to take a pay cut, become ill, or anticipate financial problems, contact your lender immediately. Your lender may have programs or resources that can help.
How can you
save your home?
Contact a non-profit, HUD approved counseling agency to obtain free and confidential assistance. Be sure to fully understand your loan options and only accept options that will work best for you, such as:
- Forebearance
- Reinstatement
- Modifications
- Repayment
- Partial claim
Non-profit Counselors
Eastside Community Development Corporation
Diversified Housing Development, Inc.
St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, Inc. (legal assistance available)
Other Services
Avoid fraud and scams by contacting the Maryland Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulations
Mortgage Late? Don’t Wait: Maryland HOPE Hotline
For a printable version of this information, click here.