What many don’t know is that there are 3 steps in the foreclosure process and if you are considering purchasing one of these homes the prices vary upon which stage of the process the home is in.
The 3 steps in foreclosures are, pre foreclosure, foreclosure, and post foreclosure.

Pre-Foreclosures

A home classified in a pre-foreclosure stage implies that only couples of missed mortgage payments have occurred and the lender hasn’t gotten involved. If you are facing this situation, you still have time to avoid foreclosure.
The best potential place to find distressed properties are with realtors, attorney’s, business associates and even sometimes while driving on the side of the road.
Investors are out there looking for bargains with distressed properties. When buying a pre foreclosed home, reaching a mutually agreed upon price, and dealing directly with owners, is the only way to go.

Today, real estate flipping is a great way of making huge amounts of profits. It only involves 3 simple things; Investment cash, Strategic mind and a House or Undervalued property that you would refurbish. All you have to do is renovate the property and sell it at a much higher price than the actual market value.

This type of business is growing and increasingly getting popular much like the gadget phenomena. One reason is that, this trade provides the opportunity of having huge profits at lightning speed. The essence of flipping real estate is to sell fast and sell some more. But as simple as it sounds, this business needs some fine points to avoid failures, here are some of them:

The list of various methods to stop foreclosure that is presented below is a nearly comprehensive accounting of the most common ways homeowners can use to save their homes, either by staying in them and avoiding foreclosure, or by getting out of a bad situation with as much of their financial lives intact as possible. There are really no magical ways to end the foreclosure process -- but there are enough tools that homeowners have available, that they can choose from a number of options to help them out of their hardship situations.

1. Save up and get current on the mortgage by paying back the payments you've missed, plus the interest, late fees, attorney fees, etc. Understand that there are often thousands of dollars of extra charges that are added once you start missing payments and especially if the lender hires a law firm to pursue the foreclosure.

You don't want to think about mortgage foreclosure on your home, one of your most valuable assets but it is happening to many people across the country due to the poor state of economics today. Since mortgages and foreclosures is not something the average consumer deals with on any kind of regular basis, getting a foreclosure notice is very likely new territory for most, sending them into panic mode.

There is no need for panic. Take time to realize and understand that the foreclosure laws were created for two purposes – one to protect the lender and one to protect the consumer. Both parties have rights, although your mortgage holder might tend to want to play hardball with you, assuming that you don't know your rights and will not take the time to discover what your rights are.