need help on pre-foreclosure deal

[Chris Jones]

hello everyone i need a little help in figuring out what i should do next in this pre-foreclosure deal that has came to me.

well first off the way this deal came to me was i went to my local sheriffs dept and picked a list of the foreclosures, i mailed them all a letter stating how i can help them and etc.

well one of them actually called my number and left a message, so after two days had passed (yah i know i was nervous and etc) i had called the homeowner who left the message.

so i started speaking with the homeowner and started building rapport and etc. well anyway the homeowner was very upset and told me from the start that he doesn't want to lose his house (he has four kids), he told me he had got a mortgage on the house for $180,000 and now he has it paid down to $90,000 (so there is alot of equity there), the property is also in perfect condition, he also told me that he had fell on hard times because he works in the construction business and he had broke his wrist and something else and was out of work for awhile.

then he told me that he was back on his feet and has been working now for a year, but the bank doesn't care because they want all of the back payments and etc up front.......so i told him lets setup a meeting at his house this tuesday to go over all of this farther (but i told him i will not be giving him a decision at this meeting, that will come later, i did this to buy some time and etc)

so anyway, what should i do? i'm a beginning investor and i've read alot of books and material but things are always different when they are real, so what should i do (like what info should i get, what contracts should i bring in case, and like what should i say), because i don't want this guy and his four kids to lose there house, and i don't want his house to go to the auction because it will sell fast because of the equity in it