No matter how well you might think you know someone, all of us have a past. Everyone has secrets they hold near and dear to their hearts, without revealing them even to the most important people in our lives. What secrets does your lover hold? When it comes to your lover, you hope those secrets are innocuous secret crushes, a wild weekend in Vegas, or little white lies that harm no one. But what if they are big secrets? Perhaps your lover has been married before. Maybe he or she spent time in jail. There may be serious financial difficulties like tax evasion, bankruptcies, or a string of lost jobs.

Your lover could be hiding secrets that could have a profound effect on your life together. Unveiling those secrets at a later date could erode any trust you have in each other, and cause the relationship to crumble. Break open the box of hidden pasts through the internet. Wouldn’t it be better to find out sooner rather than later, if there are any questions about your lover’s past? A simple background check will give you the answers you need, giving you the knowledge to continue in your relationship with confidence. Knowing if there are any obstacles up front will give you the ability to decide if you want to try to fix them, or if they are so serious in nature that you need to move on from a shady lover.

There are several ways to go about discovering your lover’s past. You can search public records for tax information, lawsuit decisions, liens, divorces, even criminal histories. You can find out whether your lover owns any significant amounts of property, or has ever had property repossessed or foreclosed upon. Find out if the IRS is going to come knocking at your door looking for taxes owed to them. Or if there is an ex-spouse who will show up unexpectedly seeking alimony or child support. Quickly, simply, and easily find out about your lover’s past. An easier way to discreetly play detective and find out the information you need is to conduct an online background check of your lover.

A simple search from your own computer will allow you to access public records from all over the country, providing you with the facts you need to put your mind at ease. Many of these databases can also cross-check any aliases, so you will get the information you need even if your lover is not being honest about his or her true identity. If you do learn your lover has been involved in less-than-desirable behavior, you will have the tools you need to decide how you wish to handle the situation. No matter how well you think you know your lover, you will be amazed at the useful information a thorough online background check will give you.

Considering the myriad challenges homeowners face – from paying for rising property taxes to making needed repairs – it’s surprising more of them don’t pull their hair out while engaging in profanity-laced tirades. But there’s one dirty little word that even the least superstitious homeowner is loathe to utter, let alone ponder: foreclosure.

A foreclosure is a legal proceeding by which a lender forces the sale of a property after a debtor has defaulted or failed to make payments. Legally, a foreclosure is a process for a lender to regain control of the property because the buyer has violated terms of a contract.

To initiate a foreclosure, the lender must serve a notice of default on the debtor after a certain time period when payments are past due. The notice will give the borrower a time frame and list an amount necessary to be paid in order to ‘cure’ the default and avoid foreclosure. If the delinquency and other costs are not paid within a determined time, then the lender – or the trustees in states that use deeds of trust – will set a foreclosure date for selling the property at a public sale.

State foreclosure laws vary. In some states, the mortgage holder must go through a court proceeding known as a “judicial foreclosure.” In others, a non-judicial foreclosure is allowed. Both types require giving notice to the borrower. Regardless of the type, the foreclosure process can be as short as six weeks and as long as two years, depending on the state.

The prevailing thought about foreclosure is “it can’t happen to me.” Yet the experts agree that any homeowner is one unexpected misfortune away from being at risk of losing their property.

Foreclosure are circumstances that any homeowner can be vulnerable to, including an expensive illness or death of a family member, the loss of a job or a significant income change, or a costly divorce. Any of these major, unexpected life events can lead to an inability to afford monthly mortgage payments.

Additionally, with the widespread availability and popularity of zero-interest, balloon-payment, adjustable-rate and other types of loans in the past few years, many borrowers have overextended their resources – purchasing more than they could afford over the term of the home loan, As a result, more borrowers are at risk of future foreclosure.

A foreclosure cannot only leave you without a roof over your head, it also can damage your credit, making it more difficult and costly to obtain financing thereafter.

“First, don’t buy more than you can afford. Don’t get caught up in easy purchase/finance marketing that causes you to act when you should not. And use acceptable debt-to-income ratio guidelines to determine what you can afford.

The easiest way to prevent foreclosure is to simply find a way to pay off the debt, says David Stone, president of Nevada Association Services, Inc., Las Vegas, a collections agency that specializes in non-judicial foreclosures.

“Other options include contacting the lender and arranging a payment arrangement more in line with what you can afford,” Stone says. “Communication with the lender is very important in these situations.”

Homeowners can always negotiate with the lender, but do not ignore letters from the lender, and don’t forget to pay your mortgage, even if you do not get a statement.

Lenders may be willing to give you extra time to pay or may suggest debt counseling to restructure or consolidate your debt. It also may be possible to create a trust account to protect your assets or to rework your loan for an extended time period for the purpose of lowering your monthly payments.

It’s never too late to avoid foreclosure so long as the foreclosure sale has not been completed. After that, a costly lawsuit could be brought in order to show why the foreclosure should be reversed. A court may reverse a foreclosure if it is determined that a substantial error occurred in the foreclosure process. After-the-fact reversals, however, are seldom and extremely expensive to pursue.

A debtor also can opt for a voluntary foreclosure, which involves selling the home to the lender.

This can minimize the damage to a debtor’s credit record. In a voluntary foreclosure, the debtor may not be held liable if the home sells below the debt amount.”

Because of the loss of financial control and the credit damage involved, filing for bankruptcy generally is considered a last resort to avoid foreclosure.

“Bankruptcy can stall a foreclosure. However, eventually the debt will need to be paid or the lender will foreclose on the property.