Summarize the following:
" When you sign a mortgage document, there's a promissory note that lenders are supposed to keep that details all the specifics of the loan agreement. During the housing boom, unscrupulous lenders underwrote so many loan documents and filed them away or sold them off, content simply to know they had made money. Now, many of the documents cannot be found, partly because they were sent off when the mortgage was securitized. The short story is this: if the lender cannot find the note, foreclosure can effectively be postponed, if not stopped completely.  Keep in mind that the note should be available to download in your online account. Making the lender "produce the note" can be effective, especially if the lender used less-than-savory means of getting you to agree to the loan, but it's not a long term strategy for success. You can buy a lot of time if the lender can't produce the note, but in most cases you won't be able to stop foreclosure once the note is found. If you can manage to sell the house before the foreclosure of your home actually clears, you can keep whatever equity you still have invested in the home. It may be hard to sell your home on such a quick turnaround, but it's definitely possible, especially with the market heating up. Read here for more tips on how to sell your home quickly. When a property is about to be foreclosed on, a database attempts to make sure that the ownership of the mortgage — from the time you signed the papers up to the present moment — is clear and unambiguous. This way, the courts can recognize the legality of the foreclosure. Because so many mortgages were bundled into complex securities and traded on the marketplace, the chain of title is often not clear and ambiguous. If you can successfully question the database that keeps track of the chain of title, you may be able to keep your home.  The database that keeps a record of the chain of title is called the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS. It was established specifically in order to track the chain of title, a tall task given the rate at which many mortgages were being securitized and then traded. But some courts are skeptical of MERS' legitimacy. One popular foreclosure defense rests on forcing the lender to independently verify the chain of title without using MERS.  In order to save your home from foreclosure using the chain of title defense, you're probably going to need a lawyer. This may be a bit more expensive than some of the other options, but it's a defense that's quickly gaining traction. in lieu of foreclosure. If you have few other options, you can always ask the lender's loss mitigation department if they're willing to accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This is a document where you legally agree to transfer ownership of the deed over to the lender in exchange for the ability to walk away owing nothing to the lender. If you don't think you'll be able to hold onto your house, this option can be especially attractive if you owe a significant amount on monthly payments in arrears. You may be able to negotiate a cash deal to cover some of your moving expenses. The lender usually provides several thousand dollars for this, so make sure to ask for it if you are returning the deed.

Summary:
Make the lender "produce the note. Consider selling the house before the house is auctioned off. Question the chain of title. Negotiate a deed