short sale, prevent foreclosure If you are over your head in house payments, you know that despair that it can bring. This is a tough economy, and it's hard for many families to stay afloat in their home, especially after their mortgage payments reset, and their incomes don't rise commensurately. If you want to sell your home without going into a foreclosure, you need to learn about the short sale process that can save your dignity, not to mention your credit rating. The short sale is a good way to prevent foreclosure, which will seriously hurt your credit score.

The first thing you should do is talk to your lender about arranging a short sale. This is a way to sell a home that has a mortgage that is higher than the home's present value. The bank would rather sell it as a short sale than as a foreclosure because the foreclosure process costs them money, and they won't be able to sell it for the mortgage amount anyway. Home values have dropped, and people who bought at the top of the market are not likely to be able to able to recoup their investment in the home, so the short sale process works well for the sellers, the lenders, and especially the buyer.