One way to stop foreclosure is by catching up on your payments. Whether this will work for you or not depends on two things: how far along in the foreclosure process you are, and whether you can come up with the money. You can find out whether your bank is still willing to let you pay your back payments to reinstate the mortgage easily. All you have to do is give them a call. Now it’s time to determine whether catching up on your mortgage payments is your best course of action to stop foreclosure.

Obviously, you would not be in the position you are currently in if you were making enough money to cover the mortgage payment and the rest of your bills without struggling. That means it is likely you need to increase your income in order to be able to afford to keep your house. You may be able to come up with the money to get caught up through other means, but realistically, if you want to keep the house, you have to find a way to make more money.

Catching Up on Your Payments

In theory, there are many ways to get the money to catch up on your payments and stop foreclosure on your home. However, most people find it difficult to come up with a lump sum of money unless it happens to be tax time. Although increasing your income is necessary to be able to keep your home once you have stopped the foreclosure process, you have to get it stopped first. In order to do that, you’ll need to catch up all of back payments and late fees unless you can work out a payment arrangement with the bank.

One way to come up with the money you need to catch up your mortgage payments is to sell things. If you have a high-ticket item like a car or recreational vehicle that can be sold, that could make a pretty good dent in the amount you owe on your mortgage payments. If you have mostly small items, you can try holding a garage sale on the weekend to earn some extra money.

If you have investments such as a 401(k) that you can borrow money against or withdraw from, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons. There may be a tax penalty to pay depending on the type of account, and you also need to consider the cost. You are basically sacrificing your retirement to save your house. Is it worth it? Only you can decide.

Another option is borrowing money to catch up on your mortgage payments. This could mean asking family members for loans or getting cash advances against your credit cards. The tough part will be paying it all back and keeping up with your mortgage payments at the same time.

Increasing Your Income

There is no point in catching up on your payments if you won’t be able to continue making them on time. For that reason, increasing your income is essential to the success of this plan. You can increase your income by getting a better paying job, working an additional job or starting a business of your own. If you are willing to do whatever it takes to keep your home, you should be able to make one of these options work for you.

Getting a better paying job should not be your only focus, but if you can do it, it may allow you to make more money without working more hours. The biggest problem with this goal is that it doesn’t depend on you. In order for this plan to succeed, there must be a better-paying job available that you qualify for within a reasonable driving distance. In addition to that, it depends on someone else deciding that you are the best person for the job.

The second option, getting a second job, is one that you have a little more control over. If you are willing to take work that doesn’t necessarily pay well, you should be able to get a job in the fast food industry or working in a retail store as a cashier or stocker. These are obviously not dream jobs, but they may provide enough extra income to get your house payments caught up and stop foreclosure until you can find another solution.

The third option is to start your own business. This may sound scary, but if you think about what you are already good at, there’s a good chance that you will be able to come up with a service-oriented business that you could offer. It’s best to avoid product-dependent businesses that require inventory because of the start-up costs involved, but a service business can often be run without a huge up-front investment.

Some examples of service businesses that you may be able to run are cleaning services, painting and handyman services, lawn care services, day care or babysitting. You should think about the things you already do at work and at home and see if you can come up with a service to offer that is related to the skills you already have.

You’ll need to check with your city, county and state offices to see if you need a business license or sales tax license to start your business. In most areas, it doesn’t cost very much to get these licenses. Once you have what you need to get started, spread the word. Tell everyone you know what service you are offering. You never know who might be interested. Once you start getting work, be sure to do a good job and ask your clients to tell their friends about you.

A Temporary Solution

If you are able to keep up your payments by getting a second job or starting your own business in your spare time, that’s great. However, both of these are temporary solutions to stop foreclosure. If you keep working these hours indefinitely, you will undoubtedly burn yourself out. For this reason, you need to come up with a plan to transition from this temporary solution to a permanent one.

Your goal should ultimately be to make enough money to pay your mortgage payment and bills each month without struggling and without working a ridiculous number of hours. To accomplish this, you can either find a better-paying job or grow your business to the point where it makes enough money to replace your regular job with enough extra to pay the mortgage too. Another option is to find a way to make your money work for you, but that’s a whole other article. Perhaps I’ll write more about that later.

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