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Helping Borrowers Understand Foreclosure Prevention Options

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [1](HUD) released the Homeowners Guide to Success on Wednesday to provide homeowners with information on the critical first steps to take if they are at risk of missing a mortgage payment or facing foreclosure. These steps include asking homeowners to speak to their servicers to explore mortgage assistance options.

“This guide arms consumers with easy to understand, reliable information about the assistance available to help them keep their homes. Valuable information like this can make a tremendous difference in the lives of homeowners who may be faced with foreclosure,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said.

The guide addresses issues like what happens if a payment is late and also touches upon some mortgage assistance solutions provided by servicers to help homeowners avoid foreclosures. It provides homeowners with details on how plans like repayment, modification, short sale and deed in lieu of foreclosure work when they partner with a servicer and which plan could be most suitable for them.

This guide ensures homeowners have resources at their fingertips and are ready and responsible for the next steps. It also covers the value of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that offer free assistance to help homeowners find housing counselors to avoid foreclosure.

Families recovering from the recent hurricanes maybe more likely to be targeted by scams and the guide can prove to be a handy resource for such homeowners to reach out to servicers or HUD-approved housing counselor who can assist them through the process of purchasing or keeping a home.

“Steering consumers away from fraudulent schemes is especially important when they are already facing the difficult situation of not being able to make their mortgage payment,” Sarah Gerecke, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Housing Counseling at HUD said.

This guide was released as part of a public-private partnership between HUD, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, the Treasury Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Housing Finance Agency, MBA, and housing counseling agencies. The guide will be available on federal agency and industry partner websites.

To view the guide click here [2].