Making the Call - 888-995-HOPE
What to expect
When you call the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline, 888-995-HOPE™, you can expect to speak with a respectful, non-judgmental counselor who is trained to help you. After an introduction and an explanation of your counselor's role in the process, you'll be asked about the reason you called. Although it may be difficult to share your financial situation, especially if you are facing financial problems, it might help you to know that complete honesty is the best policy. The more focused a picture we have of your financial situation, the better equipped we are to help you deal with it. Once your counselor accurately restates your challenge, you'll lay out goals together, and receive recommendations on how to accomplish them.
Your counselor will review your entire financial picture to help determine the best way to stabilize or resolve your situation. As part of the counseling process, the counselor will perform a detailed budget analysis, create a step-by-step action plan, discuss it with you, and refer you to additional nonprofit or governmental resources if you need more help.
Once you’ve completed the counseling session and if you agree, your counselor can connect you directly with your mortgage servicer by phone to provide critical data and background information to assist your mortgage servicer in determining available options regarding any modifications or changes to your mortgage agreement. Counselors connect homeowners to their servicers about 70 percent of the time via a live call.
What to have ready
Have a list of the major bills you pay every month at hand when you call. Chief among these should be your mortgage payment statement complete with your mortgage loan number. If possible, organize your information before you call to include:
- Pay stubs,
- Tax returns,
- Financial statements (if less than 60 days old),
- Copies of additional monthly payments such as car loans, credit cards, student loans, etc., and
- Any additional information – such as proof of additional income –to help your counselor better evaluate your situation.
Things you should know
The Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline provides free counseling to homeowners in distress and after a completed counseling session, can connect you directly with your servicer. Our organization is not able to provide refinancing, down payment assistance, loans or modifications. However, once a counseling session is completed, a counselor can conduct a three-way telephone conversation with your mortgage servicer to provide critical data and background information in order to assist the servicer in determining available options regarding modifications or changes to the your mortgage agreement.
