NLIC.org

Wilma Said:

Verge of foreclosure... need help on reversing this.?

We Answered:

Contact ACORN immediately. They are a non-profit organization that includes in it's mission to help, act as a homeowner advocate to ensure lenders act fairly and legally when it comes to this whole process.

Here is the link to their offices by state. Call the one as close to your city/county as possible: http://acorn.org/index.php?id=2593

Here is the link to ACORN's home page: http://acorn.org/index.php?id=2716

Prepare and organize all of your notes, receipts, call logs, correspondence and make time to meet with them as soon as possible.

Also, contact non-profit entities, starting with your local United Way, and your local HUD office. they have contingency plans to help families facing foreclosure. Sometimes there are funds available to help buy you time to prepare to...List your home for sale....and with a well-known and national firm. If you are fortunate enough to find the assistance, you can always cancel the listing.

Be realistic. Make a list of all of your expenditures and take that and your receipts to the nearest HUD-approved credit couseling agency. Find ways to stretch your income. For example, there are non-profits out there that oversee shared housing/roomate programs for many cities/municipalities across the U.S. They do the background checks and match up host families and tenants. If you have children and a daycare expenxe, perhaps you can do a trade with a college student looking for a chance to tutor and sit in exchange for housing. Maybe even a nursing student.

But be realistic and start the sales process for your home. You can always take the proceeds and get something more within your revised budget. You don't want a foreclosure on your credit. This will make it nearly impossible for you to purchase a home/apt/condo anytime soon. Worse case scenario, you wait too late to list and take less than owed, and the lender then either looks to recoop the difference directly from you or writes it off and gives you an earned income statement for the difference that you then have to claim as earned income on your taxes for this year.

Please think long and hard and crunch the real numbers (start today making a list of where EVERY dollar goes, regardless) if you are even remotely considering refinancing as a solution. From what you wrote, refinancing will only set you up for a harder fall and cost you even more money...especially upfront...and this is money you need to prepare to relocate.

Call ACORN, the HUD-approved credit counseling agency and your local United Way; and they can better analyze your situation explain all your options to you and direct you on a best-case scenario path. My heart goes out to you but the time is now to act. Delaying makes things worse and wittles away your options.

God Bless you and your family.