How to Get Help From the Government If a Home Is Going to Be Foreclosed?
- 1). Prepare your financial statements before doing anything else. Get your last two years of W-2 statements, your last 90 days' worth of paycheck stubs, your mortgage statements, loan documentation, as well as any information pertaining to a temporary financial hardship.
When asking for assistance from any government entity, you will be asked to provide proof of income, information about layoffs or hourly cutbacks from an employer, disability or any other extenuating circumstance that caused you to fall behind on your mortgage. It's important to have all of this information prepared before asking for assistance. - 2). Write a hardship letter. This letter should include information regarding your attempts to resolve a delinquency with a mortgage holder, your current employment status and your financial situation. The letter should include information regarding the length of time you incurred a hardship or expect a hardship to occur.
This letter is a plea to a government entity to help you stop a foreclosure. In other words, it needs to have viable, provable information that your situation is not long term. The government will want to make certain that you can maintain the home and payments if it chooses to help you. - 3). Contact your local HUD office. HUD information can be found online at the Department of Housing and Urban Development website or in your local yellow pages. A HUD counselor will ask you to provide all of the financial information you have prepared, and will advise with you the options available. If the VA backs your loan, the HUD counselor will direct you to a VA counselor for further assistance and options.
If the loan is government backed--an FHA or VA loan--there can be additional resources you qualify for from the government for help in obtaining either a loan modification or a temporary forbearance, thus stopping the foreclosure. There are currently no federal government grants allocated to foreclosure assistance.
Most military bases offer temporary financial assistance to service men and women in the form of a no interest loan. Additionally, some state programs will offer similar no interest loans through nonprofit agencies, but this varies from one area to another. It's rare to find a grant program or assistance offering free money to help you keep your home.
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