This is my first blog ever! Thanks AR for providig a platform for me to express myself. 

For those of us who have been trying to make a difference by helping homeowners facing foreclosure with short sales or other loss mitigation techniques, there may be a ray of hope coming.

The Bush Administration announced the New Hope partnership today as a plan to coordinate the efforts of mortgage counselors, servicers, lenders, investors, and state and local government to reach as many homeowners as possible to prevent foreclosures.

If you have ever had to advocate on behalf of a homeowner and try to get to a person who can make a decision on a short sale, you know how beneficial a standard process can be. I have been involved in transactions where I submitted a valid offer to the bank and the customer service rep took weeks to get back to me and the only answer they could give me was my offer is being reviewed. How frustrating! Add to that the difficulty getting a valid phone number, email address or anything else that can help you get to a human being to talk to about your case and this can be a challenging task to take on.

Hope Now is an initiative that aims to reach at-risk homeowners, encouraging them to communicate with their lenders or a credit counselor. The banks and servicers who have agreed to participate in this partnership have agreed to adopt a standard process to speed the work flow, productivity and communications between servicers and counselors.

What great news that is for us practitioners! Even though this initiative is designed to improve communication between the homeowner and their lender, I think we will benefit from the improved process at the bank.

According to the Financial Services Roundtable, lenders participating in Hope Now include Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., Freddie Mac, First Horizon National Corp., GMAC, ResCap, HSBC North America Holdings Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co, National City, Option One Mortgage, SunTrust Mortgage Inc., Washington Mutual Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. 

Way to go for those who agreed to participate. Let's get with it for those who didn't! I'm going to keep my ears open for the results of this initiative.