Do you have to pay for help? Not-for-profit organizations will not change you a fee to assist you with attempting to avoid foreclosure of your home, but they will not offer you magic solutions, either. Generally, if someone if offering something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be suspicious of anyone contacting you and offering you assistance for a fee. To be put in contact with community organizations that can assist you in the Greater St. Louis area, you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1.
Can I get help before I buy a home? Many of the same organizations that can help you if you are facing foreclosure also offer pre-purchase counseling to homebuyers. If you don’t understand the documents you are being asked to sign, seek help. In the Greater St. Louis area, you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1 for information about trusted community resources you can turn to.
What do housing counselors do? Housing counselors will work with you and your lender to attempt to find a solution that is acceptable to both parties. The longer you wait to seek help if you have missed or are about to miss a mortgage payment, the harder it will be to find a workable solution. In the Greater St. Louis area, you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1 for information about trusted community resources you can turn to.
Is there cash help available? Some organization may have small sums that can help a homeowner fight foreclosure, but that money will only be made available to homeowners who are willing to face the underlying situations that have brought them to that point and can demonstrate that they are willing to take the steps necessary to avoid problems in the future. There are not free handouts. In the Greater St. Louis area, you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1 for information about trusted community resources you can turn to.
How should you deal with collection notices? If you are receiving collection notices regarding your home mortgage, you must realize that ignoring them will not make them go away. Open all the mail you receive from your lender and communicate with them about your situation work with them to find a solution. There are community organizations that can help you deal with your lender, but the longer you wait to seek help, the hard it will be to avoid foreclosure. In the Greater St. Louis area you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1.
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Below is an excellent article in the Beacon that will give you the picture on how you can get help that you can trust. The article is full of useful advice. Here is the core information on how to get help you can trust:
Homeowners in the St. Louis area seeking foreclosure help can contact the United Way, which will put them in touch with the St. Louis Alliance for Homeownership Preservation, a coalition of nonprofits pooling their expertise. The alliance includes: ACORN, Better Family Life, Beyond Housing, Catholic Charities and the Urban League. The numbers to call are: 2-1-1 from a Missouri home phone or 1-800-427-4626 from Missouri or Illinois.
Homeowners who call the national hotline may be referred to the local agencies for more specialized help or, possibly, financial assistance. The national hotline has no money available, Hernandez emphasized.
Hernandez said efforts to convince people to call for help sooner rather than later are paying off. About one-third of the hotline’s callers aren’t yet 30 days delinquent on their mortgages, which means more options. She points to an industry statistic that half of the people who lose their homes to foreclosure don’t talk to their lenders.
“It’s stunning that the trust is so little that they just feel like there is no point,” Hernandez said. “When the research was done to ask people why they hadn’t talked to their lender, most of them said, ‘There’s no point. They have no flexibility in dealing with me. If I don’t come up with the money, they’re going to take my house. If I call, they’ll just know more about my situation and just take my house faster.’ That is not accurate, but people really believe it.”
The foundation’s partners include community-based nonprofits, local and federal governments, government agencies and mortgage companies.
The foundation also works with the HOPE NOW Alliance, an effort backed by the U.S. Department of Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that attempts to get lenders and nonprofit housing counselors to work together. The alliance was put together by the Bush administration after the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market.
How long do I have before I lose my home? In Missouri, you could conceivably lose you home 21 days after you have missed your third payment. In Illinois the process generally takes longer. Regardless, the sooner you seek assistance if you have missed or are about to miss a mortgage payment, the more likely that you can negotiate a solution with your lender. In the Greater St. Louis area, you can call the United Way’s helpline at 1-800-427-4626 or 2-1-1 for information about trusted community resources you can turn to.
Posted by Mike Bauhof 
Posted by Mike Bauhof 
Posted by Mike Bauhof 
