Bookmark this site
Unlike the dizzying solutions usually offered to homeowners facing foreclosure, a new program starting this month is sanctioned by the state courts and will cost homeowners nothing.
The program will reach out to troubled homeowners in Sarasota and Manatee counties, give them credit counseling and guide a meeting with lenders to help them try to avoid losing their home.
After June 21, every owner of homesteaded property in foreclosure will be guaranteed a chance to meet lender representatives and discuss alternatives to foreclosure, such as interest rate reductions or short sale. The mediator will be trained to know what deals lenders have made in the past.
“They’re afraid, and they need to be talked into sitting down, taking this chance,” said Rod Petrey, president of the Collins Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit group with an office in Sarasota that has run a similar program in other areas of the state. “It may be the last chance to save their home.”
Read more from the Herald Tribune
