Title: "How to Use a Short Sale to Stop Home Foreclosure and Protect Your Finances" Author: Robert Irwin Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 2009; 208 pages; $18.95 With all the fancified, high-tech ...

Know and understand the six key steps.

A decree of foreclosure and sale is a statement issued by a court indicating that a piece of property is to be sold when a mortgage has gone into default.

During these tough times, everywhere you go there are signs of the struggles people are facing in the current economic climate. Many of these signs are literal — for sale signs on foreclosed homes.