If you own your home you may be faced someday with foreclosure. Forclosure is the legal process by which a borrower in default under a mortgage is deprived of his or her interest in the mortgaged property. This usually involves a forced sale of the property at public auction with the proceeds of the sale being applied to the mortgage debt.

Let's take a look at what you could do right now if you are not behind on your home payments to help keep from ever getting in that situation in the future.

1. Start an emergency savings account for an emergency. This can include having money for a house payment if you need it. Save at least 3 payments and if you can get that up to 6 months. Having money available when you need it is one of the fastest ways to stop home foreclosure before you ever get to that point.

2. Always pay your mortgage payment on time. If for some reason money is short one month find something else to skip. Because the house payment is usually the highest payment you have it is tempting to skip it or pay it late and pay several other bills first. Do not do that if there is any other way. Because of the size it is also the hardest payment to make up. Missing a payment or paying late also can really hurt your credit and can lead to missing a second payment and then a third. At that point you are on your way to foreclosure.

3. Be sure and set up a home equity line of credit. Did you know that as high as 90% of all foreclosures could be delayed or even prevented if the homeowner had a equity line of credit they could tap. Setting up an equity credit line many time can be done for no cost and you can lock in rates as low as 4%. As long as you do not access your line you pay nothing, but it is there if you need it for some reason.

Certainly accessing cash to keep your payments current while you regroup is a good idea to use it for. Accessing your line of credit can be as easy as writing yourself a home equity check. You just need to make sure you are not using it for thins that are not important.

These are a few ideas on how you could set yourself to stop home foreclosure before you ever get into it to start with.