House Owners In Salinas Learning To Battle Foreclosures

April 14th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

In Salinas there are about 1,200 house owners about to succumb to foreclosure. This is according to reports from the State and Consumer Services Agency. Among them many sought help at a workshop conducted last Thursday at Sherwood Hall. The Foreclosure Prevention Workshop was due to the combined efforts of officials belonging both to the state and county administration. About 300 borrowers came forward for advice and help. Monterey County supervisor, Fernando Armento addressed the gathering by encouraging them to take advantage of the workshop and come forward with all their housing related problems. Leslie Lopez, the general counsel for the State and Consumer Agency said that there is no doubt that Salinas is in the grips of a foreclosure crisis.

The workshop continued for four hours. Credit counselors gave individual advice to those who came forward. It was a workshop with an individual personal touch. Supervisor Lou Calcagno encouraged the foreclosure victims to detail all the facts telling them that they are not responsible for what is happening today.

In the first session 15 persons took up their seats before Mary Harman who is the past president of Orange County representative of California Mortgage Brokers. For about 20 minutes Harman explained what loan modification was all about. If the borrowers wanted to adjust their loans they will have to take this step with the lenders. But before doing so they should understand the implications.

The first thing to do is to make a phone call by being prepared that it might be a long wait on the line because usually the calls are transferred from one spokesperson to another. One should be ready to face the hardship involved and be set to accept negative results at the end of the day. The operation is not like the waving of a magic wand and wait for a miracle to happen. The approach should be realistic. Will the person be able to pull along the modified loan? The modification should help and not merely postpone the agony.

The second stage involves listing of all income and expenses – even if that means something trivial like the payment received from a room-mate. Nothing is too small to be ignored when compiling a budget.

As an example the case of Maria Matamoros can be sited. The 62 year old could not qualify for the modification.