Foreclosed Homes for Sale | 26 Nonprofits Push NC Foreclosed Homes Prevention Plan

26 Nonprofits Push NC Foreclosed Homes Prevention Plan

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Financially distressed homeowners in North Carolina are being helped by 26 nonprofit agencies which comprise the state’s foreclosed homes prevention initiative.

The statewide initiative, called NC Foreclosure Prevention Project and led by the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks, was created to help homeowners who were given subprime loans from 2005 to 2007. Borrowers are linked to HUD-certified counselors who will help them work out loan modifications with their lenders.

NCCOB deputy commissioner Mark Pearce said that 70 percent of homeowners in North Carolina who have missed at least two payments have not been able to make contact with an authorized representative of their lender. Most of them just give up after waiting and failing to get a response from the banks.

Two of the 26 nonprofits running the statewide foreclosed homes prevention project are Triangle Family Services and Durham Regional Community Development Group, which both serve Orange County.

Since the launching of the project, which includes a web site and a hotline, nearly 10,000 North Carolinian homeowners have called the 24-hour hotline and nearly 3,000 have asked for foreclosed homes counseling.

Miles Wright, chief executive of Triangle Family Services, said the program can facilitate communications between the borrower and the lender, especially in cases where lenders give special phone numbers for home loan inquiries but do not respond to calls.

Another service that the NCCOB offers is subprime loan examination. NCCOB volunteer lawyers examine loan documents to ensure that the subprime mortgages do not violate any law in North Carolina.

To prevent backlogs, the NCCOB recruited law students and legal-aid lawyers and trained them to examine mortgage loans for possible violation of laws.

Blaine Schmidt, a University of North Carolina law student, said he has screened loans provided by lenders and brokers who have not been licensed to originate loans in North Carolina.

Schmidt said however that the main goal of the project is foreclosed homes prevention and that minor violations oftentimes pressure the lender to work out affordable monthly payments for borrowers.

For mortgage lenders with serious violations, the NCCOB links homeowners to nonprofit legal service organizations.

Pearce of NCCOB said the pace of foreclosed homes starts in the state slowed down by 9 percent because of the statewide project, although he admits the program has just started.

For troubled homeowners, according to Pearce, the first step is to find a nonprofit housing counselor who will help them under the state’s foreclosed homes prevention program.

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