This guide is a complete working treatment of residential foreclosure and mortgage servicing for homeowners, defense counsel, servicers, and lenders. Part I distinguishes judicial and nonjudicial foreclosure and explains why that structural difference determines timelines, burdens, and remedies, and Part II walks the default pipeline stage by stage with the federal servicing deadlines governing each. Part III works the servicing regulations in detail — the 120-day rule, the loss-mitigation application and evaluation timelines, the dual-tracking prohibition, and the notice-of-error and request-for-information machinery that is homeowners' most under-used tool. Part IV covers the loss-mitigation options in order of desirability, including the investor-guideline differences among conventional, FHA, VA, and GSE loans, and Part V covers bankruptcy, the automatic stay, and the Chapter 13 cure. Part VI covers defenses including standing, conditions precedent, servicing violations, FDCPA coverage after Obduskey, and limitations. Part VII covers the post-sale questions of surplus, deficiency, redemption, eviction, and tax consequences, including the constitutional surplus rule of Tyler v. Hennepin County. Parts VIII through X cover escrow and force-placed insurance problems, junior liens, the rescue-scam landscape and legitimate sources of help, and a stage-by-stage verification list for both sides.