• Myth: After a foreclosure, you'll never get another mortgage.

You may not qualify for a home for as long as seven years, but that's not "never."

Work to create a spending and savings plan that will rebuild your credit. Get approved counseling that will reveal your effort to recover.

• Myth: Alternative options are over once you get a foreclosure notice.

Lenders would prefer that you keep your mortgage and continue to make payments because they lose money when they foreclose on you. Even if foreclosure proceedings have begun, it's not too late to be considered for an alternative plan.

• Myth: You need to leave your home as soon as you're notified that your property is in foreclosure.

A notice of foreclosure is the first step in the foreclosure process. There are procedural and legal guidelines and applicable state and federal laws that servicers and lenders must follow in every foreclosure. Foreclosures take months to complete.

• Myth: If you're late on your monthly payments, you'll lose your house.

You will if you stick your head in the sand. If you have a financial hardship and fall behind, it's possible to keep your house and get back on track if you tell someone who is able to help. Contact your lender to discuss your options that include forbearance, loan modification, reinstatement, repayment plans, even a short sale.

• Myth: All the offers for help are probably all scams. Scam artists do often target homeowners who are struggling to meet their mortgage commitment or who are anxious to sell their home. Deal with your lender first, rather than an outside party. If you do deal with an outside firm avoid those that ask for a fee in advance to work with your lender to modify, refinance, or reinstate your mortgage. Ignore guarantees from outside firms that claim they can stop a foreclosure or modify your loan.

• Myth: Give up if your lender is not responding to your inquiries.

Never give up. Lenders are deluged. It make take longer than you'd like to reach your lender, which is why you should contact your lender at the FIRST sign of trouble. The process of obtaining a loan modification or other foreclosure alternative may require diligence in the form of multiple calls and multiple submissions of documents between you and your lender. The process isn't perfect, the procedures continue to change.