Foreclosure happens when a person fails to make payments whatever the reason may be on their mortgage. Foreclosure is what the lender, usually a bank or credit union, does to try to recoup some of their losses since payments haven't been made. The lender essentially takes back the home from the borrower.

Foreclosures can seem complicated since there are so many different terms associated with them. Real estate agents and loan officers might know these terms like the back of their hands, but to the rest of us, it would be easy to get confused when terms start to be used.

It would be helpful for people to understand a few terms associated with foreclosure. This will help us all feel more educated and more capable of carrying on a conversation about it when necessary. You will almost always hear the term lien holder when talking about foreclosure. Simply put, the lien holder is the bank, credit union, or financial institution that issued the mortgage. Technically, until you pay off the mortgage on a home, the lien holder has most of the power.

If a borrower starts to fail to make payments on their mortgage, the lender might choose to accelerate the loan. This can be done because most of the mortgages these days have acceleration clauses in them. This is another term that is helpful to understand. Without an acceleration clause, a lien holder would have to wait until payments were due and then declare the payments were defaulted.

If you are behind on payments, and there is an acceleration clause in your mortgage, the lien holder can decide to accelerate your mortgage and require you pay the full amount or the home will be foreclosed. If there weren't an acceleration clause, technically if you failed to make payments, the mortgage holder could really only hold you accountable for what you haven't paid, not the full amount you owe on the home. They would have to wait until payments became due.

The lender might be able to get a judge to allow them to take back pieces of the land equaling the amount you have failed to pay, but this is a tedious process. It is safer for them to have an acceleration clause so that they can demand the full payment of the loan. Obviously, most people won't be able to make the payment which then allows the lender to foreclose on the home because you owed them the entire amount of the home and didn't pay it.

Even though foreclosure can seem like a tedious concept to understand, knowing these terms will help you navigate your way through and hopefully even avoid foreclosure. Understanding the terms will help you be able to communicate better with your lien holder so you feel like you are not left in the dark.