Stop Foreclosure Answer

In my last post I told you about Bruce Marks.  Today let me tell you about the organization he heads up.  Bruce is the Chief Executive Officer of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA).  NACA is a non-profit community advocacy and homeownership membership organization.  One of its objectives is to help people facing foreclosure save their homes.  It currently has offices in 30 cities in the United States.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved it as a home counseling agency.

The Home Save Program 

NACA calls its program to help people save their homes from foreclosure its Home Save Program.  This program is structured more formally than most other programs helping these people.  There are 8 stages in the program:

• Stage 1 – Everyone is required to attend a workshop where they learn about the program.  If there is not a workshop in their area, people can go to the next stage.
• Stage 2 – They then are required to submit information on themselves, their property and their finances over the Internet.  NACA verifies the information submitted.
• Stage 3 – They then schedule a meeting with a NACA mortgage counselor.  This meeting can either be face to face or over the phone.
• Stage 4 – They need to submit certain information by fax or email or bring it to their meeting with the counselor.  This includes their pay stubs for the last month, their most recent monthly mortgage statement and a signed authorization form permitting NACA to get copies of their tax returns.  (For self employed people, NACA asks for income verification for the last 6 months.)  They also ask the people to submit copies of their most recent property tax bill and homeowners’ insurance bill if they have them.
• Stage 5 – The mortgage counselor works with each person to prepare a budget showing how much a monthly mortgage payment they can make.  If any necessary documents are missing, they work with the person to get them.  They submit this to the person’s mortgage company.
• Stage 6 – NACA’s negotiators work with each person’s mortgage company to accept the reduced monthly mortgage payment that the mortgage counselor arrived at.  If more documents or information are requested by the mortgage company, NACA asks the person to submit it.  NACA has legally binding agreements with the mortgage companies of 90% of the people they represent.  In some cases a mortgage company has to get an investor to accept the solution that NACA recommends.  If they can’t, NACA discusses it directly with the investor.  After a solution is accepted, the person is notified of it by their mortgage company.  If there have been no changes in the amount of the monthly mortgage payment NACA recommended, the person signs the documents and returns them to the mortgage company.  If the monthly mortgage payment is higher than what the person expected, they are asked to call NACA and discuss it with them.
• Stage 7 – If for some reason the mortgage company or investor does not accept the modification NACA suggested, then the person is asked to participate in NACA’s advocacy campaigns.  These companies and investors need to change.  The only way to get them to change is by demonstrating against them.
• Stage 8 – NACA asks anyone it helps save their home from foreclosure to work with their organization.  They ask that they volunteer at NACA’s offices, use their skills to assist other homeowners in similar situations and to take part in demonstrations. 

It probably took NACA some time to develop this program.  It is one of the most structured programs I have seen.  What I like about it is that they have binding agreements with mortgage companies.  This organization not only helps each person determine how much of a monthly payment they can afford, they go to bat with their mortgage company and get them to accept.  They not only sit down with each person and figure out how much a monthly mortgage payment they can afford, they have negotiators negotiate it with their mortgage company.

In my next post I want to tell you about NACA’s Save The Dream Tour.  It is Their Home Save Program on steroids.

If you want to find out more about foreclosures and the steps that can be taken to save a home from foreclosure, I invite you to check out my EBook. You can get more information by clicking Stop Foreclosure. 

Much Success,

Mark Elkins