Avoiding Foreclosure Resource CenterHelping You Help Consumers
During this critical time for homeowners and the housing market, we vigorously back our long-standing commitment to help borrowers avoid foreclosure and keep their homes whenever possible. This resource center provides one-stop shopping for those who interface with consumers - especially the Sellers, Servicers, and community-based organizations working in neighborhoods every day helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Are you a homeowner? The President’s plan was created to help millions of homeowners refinance or modify their mortgages to a payment that is affordable, both now and in the future. Find out if you are eligible.
Download Best Practices
We've taken the finest of what we've learned – through research and practical application – and created a set of Best Practices just for you.
- Working with Foreclosure Attorneys to Help Borrowers Avoid Foreclosure – Best Practices
- Affordable Servicing Best Practices For Housing Counselors
- Promoting Responsible Servicing Practices
- Interventions in Mortgage Default: Policies and Practices to Prevent Home Loss and Lower Costs
- Fraud Prevention Best Practices
Educate Consumers
Provide the following information to homeowners to help them understand the foreclosure process and alternatives to foreclosure.
- Learn about the REO Rental Initiative.
- Customize materials from our Avoiding Foreclosure toolkit.
- Direct consumers to Buying and Owning a Home – Avoiding Foreclosure.
- Conduct CreditSmart® foreclosure avoidance workshops in your community. Register to gain access to all the tools you'll need.
- Show Freddie Mac's Avoid Mortgage Fraud video on YouTube® and on our Educating and Protecting Consumers page.
- Have homeowners take the Avoiding Foreclosure Quick Quiz.
- Direct homeowners to local Don't Borrow Trouble® campaigns to help them recognize predatory and abusive lending practices, and avoid foreclosure.
- Read about mortgage fraud trends.
- Customize materials from our Fraud Prevention Toolkit.
Facilitate Alternatives to Foreclosure and Workouts (for Freddie Mac Servicers only)
We want you to be successful, so we're offering technology, information, and incentives to get you started and keep you going.
- Implement the Home Affordable Modification Program
- Learn about our Workout Incentive Program and earn incentives for helping borrowers avoid foreclosure.
- Prioritize your monthly call campaign and loss mitigation activity by focusing on the mortgages that pose the greatest risk of default with EarlyIndicator®.
- Analyze your entire portfolio of pending and completed workouts online using Workout Manager®.
- Identify and structure the most viable foreclosure alternatives with Workout Prospector®.
- Review the main points of Helping Borrowers Avoid Foreclosure.
- Access Default Management Training and Education Resources.
- Review our serving requirements in our Single-Family Seller Servicer Guide.
Participate in Instructor-Led and Web-Based Training
Whether you're new to foreclosure avoidance or just need a refresher, we've got around-the-clock training on the various alternatives to foreclosure and on how to select the best options for homeowners in trouble.
- Alternatives to Foreclosure Overview (recorded)
- Alternatives to Foreclosure Overview (two-hour Web conference)
- Alternatives to Foreclosure for Housing Counselors (recorded)
Understand Consumer Behavior
Freddie Mac/Roper Public Affairs and Media surveys offer insights into why late-paying borrowers may not reach out to you when they're having difficulty making their mortgage payments.