What you should know
You've missed one to three payments, no formal notice yet
This is the widest set of options you'll have. Call the servicer — the number on your statement — and ask about forbearance (a pause), a repayment plan (spreading the missed amount over future months), or a loan modification (changing the rate or term). They are required to review you for these, and it costs nothing to ask. If the house is worth more than you owe and you've decided you don't want to keep it, this is also the easiest moment to sell on your own timeline, because no sale date is looming.
You've received a Notice of Default
Under Texas law, the lender has to send this before it can accelerate the loan, and it has to give you at least 20 days to cure — pay everything you're behind, plus fees, and the loan goes back to normal. If you can reinstate, do it. If you can't, this is your signal to act: whatever you choose (modification, short sale, or selling) takes time, and the next notice starts a 21-day countdown.
You've received a Notice of Sale
This is posted at the courthouse, filed with the county clerk, and mailed to you at least 21 days before the sale. Sales in Dallas County happen on the first Tuesday of the month. From here the practical options narrow to: reinstate in full, get the lender to agree to postpone (they sometimes will if a sale is under contract), file bankruptcy (which stops the sale but has its own consequences — talk to an attorney), or sell and close before the sale date.
We have closed inside this window many times. A title company can open, clear, and close a file in under two weeks when the seller is responsive and the title is straightforward. If you're 10 or more days from the sale date, call — today, not after the weekend.
After the sale
We'll be honest: Texas has no statutory right of redemption on a mortgage foreclosure. Once the house sells at the courthouse, it's gone, and any equity above the loan balance is gone with it. If the sale price didn't cover the debt, the lender can pursue you for the difference. That's why everything above is written with urgency — the last good option is the sale you control, not the one the lender runs.
Why selling usually beats a deed-in-lieu or a short sale if you have equity
A deed-in-lieu hands the house back and walks away with nothing. A short sale only applies when you owe more than it's worth. If you have equity — and in most of Dallas right now, people who bought more than a few years ago do — a sale puts that equity in your account at closing. The title company pays the lender the payoff, pays any liens, and wires you what's left. The missed payments already reported stay on your credit; the foreclosure entry, the one that follows you for seven years, doesn't happen.
