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Can you write a hardship letter to stop foreclosure? Well, if you've been caught up in the ever expanding web of home foreclosures, a hardship letter is but one tool you can use to possibly help yourself avoid foreclosure. Actually it's a step in the foreclosure avoidance that process that begins with contacting your lender. You have 2 choices; either you'll keep your home or you'll sell it. Notice that foreclosure isn't one of the choices.

To decide weather or not you will keep your home or put it on the market, you have to look at the circumstances that caused your financial difficulties. If you have a very good chance to make your house payments in the future, you can aim toward keeping your house. To determine the likelihood of making your house payments, you'll need to make an honest and realistic budget. With a little luck and some skill, you may be able to make one of a few things happen that could make keeping your home easier.

To keep your home, you'll need to either get a refinance (if you have sufficient equity and good enough credit), or workout your foreclosure through one of the following methods; mortgage modification, forbearance, or a deferment. These will help you improve your financial situation and make it easier to make your monthly mortgage payment. A hardship letter is but one step in the process toward making this happen.

To write a hardship letter you need to remain honest, but give your lender a true picture of why you are in your current financial situation. You'll need to show them what caused your current financial problems and how they caused you to become delinquent on your mortgage payments. You'll need to do your best persuasion job in the letter, because the whole reason you're writing it is to convince the lender that you're worthy of a second chance. If you're in sales, now's your time to shine. Heck, maybe you can craft such a good letter that you can actually start a business writing them for others.

The thing to remember is that you want to be convincing, but honest. Remember that lenders see many such letters and they can smell the stench of BS for miles. Before you write your letter, you'll need to workup a complete household budget. Don't leave anything out. This will be used by your lender as the basis for a mortgage modification or payment plan. Be careful, because since you will be required to submit this to your lender, they will probably hold you to it and may not allow you to change it.

In the budget, you have to show them how your ability to pay their mortgage fits into the budget that you've submitted. It's very important that you actually can fit realistic payments into the budget, because if you can't, selling your home may be your best option. Hopefully you'll be able to get your mortgage modified so that you can get payments that you can afford from this point forward. Be realistic though. If you owe $200,000 on your home, you aren't going to get a 3%, 30 year fixed mortgage, so if those are the only payments you can afford, you may have to look at other options.

After you've completed your budget, you can write your hardship letter. Here are some of the key components you need to include. All the vital statistics, such as your name, property address and best contact phone numbers. Be very cordial and simply explain to the lender exactly what hardship circumstances you've experienced. Don't lie or tell any tall tales, because they will backfire on you. Explain the circumstances (example:death in the family, medical problems, injury, military service, divorce, etc.), tell them it was a temporary situation, and that you are now able to make the payments on your mortgage. A few paragraphs will be fine. Don't get too lengthy. You will want to include the dates of your hardship in the description. Also include a statement that you believe that the facts contained in the letter are true to the best of your knowledge.

Although you can do this on your own, it's not a bad idea to seek professional assistance in fighting foreclosure from experts (which I am not). You can take a look here to find help in fighting foreclosure, but only if you're already behind in your mortgage.

You should be aware that one of the best ways to stop foreclosure is through mortgage modification, especially now that the federal government has set aside billions (yes, billions) of dollars specifically to help homeowners in your situation. It is fairly easy to get your mortgage modified on your own, if you have a step-by-step plan that shows you exactly what to do. The alternative is to pay one of the companies that does it for you. You can do that, but be aware that it can cost you thousands of your hard earned dollars. To have someone take you by the hand and show you how to get your mortgage modified, check out the mortgage modification kit by clicking here now.

The difference between losing your home and keeping it could be a slight one, and it would be a shame to lose your home when you could have saved it. Remember that ignoring it will not make it go away. That's the worst thing you can do when facing a foreclosure situation. You need to be proactive and contact your lender as soon as you think there may be a problem. If it gets that far, writing a hardship letter to stop foreclosure will be but one step in the process. Good luck.