ACORN opened on January 28th of 2008 and stands for Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now. This particular organization is in the San Bernardino area and works will a lot of Hispanics and people who just don't know where else to turn. On Thursdays, ACORN staff members offer appointments to homeowners who are facing foreclosure. The services they provide are doing a comprehensive financial assessment, laying out their options, and initiating negotiations with finance companies to see if terms can be met that would allow the homeowner not to default on their loan.
ACORN has been able to help one in five of the people who walk through the door. Once started, one or two couples would wonder in. Now, six to eight couples show up every Thursday seeking help.
One such couple with six kids bought a home in 2005 and had a payment of $1400.00 a month. Did they read the contract? Did they understand the contract? Did they really have any idea what they were agreeing too? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. Their payment jumped from $1400.00 a month to over $3500.00 a month. This home owner had no idea it would happen and was shocked when he got his new bill with the reset price. So many people bought their homes with adjustable rate loans and either didn't know they were adjustable rate loans, or didn't understand what the ARM was.
ACORN is just one of many orginzations that are out there to help. While there are others who help as non profit groups, other companies will help at a very high price! If you find that you're payment has jumped up and you didn't know it was coming, call the lender and ask for help. If you don't get any help from the lender, then seek out one of these organizations, such as ACORN and see what they can do to help you.
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