Before you can effectively avoid foreclosure, you need to understand how it works and on what timeline your lender will operate. Our timeline for foreclosure will help you to know how long you have to save your home from foreclosure. Foreclosure laws vary between states, so for precise details, consult a local foreclosure expert.

Timeline for Foreclosure

Day 1 - Your mortgage payment is due.
Day 30 - Your payment is thirty days past due.
What happens: Your lender will apply a late charge to your account. At this point you will be contacted by mail or phone to inform you that your payment is past due. The lender will likely request that you remit payment immediately and notify you that legal action will be taken and the foreclosure process will commence if your payment is not received.

Day 60 - Your original payment is sixty days past due and the current payment is thirty days past due.
What happens: If you have not already received phone calls about your past-due payments, you will almost certainly begin receiving them at this point. Again, you will be informed that your payments are late and that if they are not received legal action will be taken and foreclosure will begin. Your lender will also apply additional late charges to your account.

Day 90 - Your original payment is ninety days past due, your second payment is sixty days past due, and your current payment is thirty days past due.
What happens: You will have received multiple notices and phone calls already, and at this point in the foreclosure process you will receive a Demand Letter. The Demand Letter will state that you have a certain period of time either to make your delinquent payments or to arrange an alternate solution with the lender. If you do not take either of these steps, your mortgage account will be sent into foreclosure. Once again your lender will apply additional late charges to your account.

Day 120 - Your original payment is one hundred twenty days past due, your second payment is ninety days past due, your third payment is sixty days past due, and your current payment is thirty days past due.
What happens: Your lender will send your home into foreclosure. The lender's attorney will schedule the date for your home to be sold at a foreclosure auction. The foreclosure sale generally occurs six weeks after the attorney is notified of the foreclosure. This date is not the same as the date by which you need to vacate your home.

You will be notified of the foreclosure in writing and the notice of foreclosure will also be published in the newspaper for four consecutive weeks. While this point in the timeline for foreclosure is very serious, it is still not too late to work out a solution and save your home from foreclosure.

Day of Your Home's Sale
What happens: Your lender will sell your home to the highest bidder at a foreclosure auction. While your home has been sold to someone else at this point, there is still time for you to save it. After the foreclosure sale, your home is placed in Redemption Period. The length of this period varies by state and can be anywhere from thirty days to one year. In the Redemption Period you can reclaim your home if you pay the amount that you owe along with all the related interest and fees.

End of Redemption Period
What happens: Your lender will evict you and deliver possession of your home to the purchaser at the foreclosure auction. Once you have reached this point in the foreclosure process, there is very little you can do to avoid foreclosure or losing your home. If you have not repaid what you owe before the end of the redemption period on your home, the timeline for foreclosure ends. You will be evicted and the foreclosure will go on your record. Don't let your foreclosure experience get this far.