Non-Profit Foreclosure Counselors Openly Admit Incompetence
New York just enacted new legislation lengthening its already-long foreclosure timeline. What this legislation reveals is an inability of foreclosure “experts” to do their job.
In an Associated Press story on the bill, the president of a non-profit housing counseling agency was interviewed. I’d like to analyze her comments so you can see for yourself just how effective these groups are.
The article said that this organization “renegotiates loans on behalf of troubled borrowers.”
First thing: when it comes to stopping foreclosure, there’s not a lot of negotiation that takes place. You either have a package that works, or you don’t. The data gets entered into a computer, and the computer calculates whether it’s better for the investor to work with you, or go ahead and foreclose on your house.
Furthermore, the majority of non-profits offer little more than a mail-forwarding service. Many, many servicers I’ve spoken to tell me that the housing counseling agencies prepare and submit a package, and then the servicer usually follows up directly with the borrower from there.
Forwarding mail is not “negotiating.”
She goes on to say that while the foreclosure timeline in New York is long, “…what we’re finding when we do workout packages with the servicers is they haven’t been as motivated in some instances as they can be,”
I’m struggling to see how an extension of the foreclosure timeline is going to “motivate” the lenders. The way to “motivate” a mortgage servicer is the same way you motivate anyone else. Among other things, you submit a complete, concise, orderly workout package, and do everything possible to make their job as easy as possible.
Her last statement: “…they haven’t completely been able to staff up and they don’t have the full capacity to respond. So oftentimes we are sending packages two or three times to the servicer.”
Okay… so how does extending the timeline change that fact? Anyone offering foreclosure assistance who’s worth two cents (right, I know, their services are “free”) knows and understands going in that getting packages into the right hands can be challenging.
So you plan accordingly. Some lenders are worse than others in managing paperwork, so you allow for it. And, you should also understand what needs to be done to postpone foreclosure proceedings if they’re taking longer than normal with a file.
You deal with it!
My garbageman shows up at an ungodly hour each week. I used to bitch and moan about it. If I set out the trash the night before, it would often be strewn all over the lawn the next morning, with the wind blowing the canister over, or the local varmints doing a “break-in.” And it’s just awful getting up that early, particularly in the sub-zero dead-of-winter mornings where your fingertips hurt when you get back in the house.
But the bottom line is this: if I want him to take the trash away, I need to get my butt out of bed and deal with it. So I do… and I don’t complain about it anymore.
I see a tremendous amount of bitching and moaning from non-profit housing counselors in the press. This is just one of dozens of examples that I’ve seen. And it’s always whining about things that are just a fact of life in this industry.
No matter what you do for a living, there are certain elements of the job that just aren’t pleasant. Or, they’re irritating. That’s called life.
If you hold yourself out as someone who solves problems for people who need foreclosure help, then you’d better be GREAT at what you do. Not just good… GREAT. The people who ask for foreclosure assistance have a LOT at stake. The last thing that they need is someone who can’t even get the basics right.
Half the reason they call a foreclosure counselor is because they’re having difficulty in communicating with their lender. If you can’t even fix that for them, then you should get out of the business and give your grant money to someone who knows how to solve basic problems.
If these little inconveniences are “at fault” for you not doing your job effectively, then you need to find something else to do.
If you think that this is the only non-profit housing agency that’s incompetent, you haven’t done your homework. If you need professional help with your mortgage company, call the toll-free number at the top of this page.
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