Fannie Mae's quarterly newsletter, In The Loop, features single-family mortgage news and business information.
By Jeff Hayward, Senior Vice President, National Servicing Organization
Fannie Mae today launched a new consumer Web site, KnowYourOptions.com, to educate homeowners about their options to avoid foreclosure and how to get help. Before you visit the site, I'd like to tell you a little more about it and what homeowners will find there.
Helping Homeowners
Many homeowners still don't know about -- or understand -- their options to avoid foreclosure. In fact, many homeowners who are seriously delinquent or have gone through foreclosure have little to no contact with their mortgage company.
Identifying accurate sources of information and finding the right answers can be a difficult challenge for homeowners facing hardship. That's why our goal in creating KnowYourOptions.com was to provide distressed homeowners with a one-stop shop for easy to understand, consumer-friendly information on the range of options for avoiding foreclosures, from refinancing to repayment plans, forbearance, short sales, and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.
Many lenders, servicers, housing counselors and other trusted advisors have Web sites of their own, so you may be wondering what's different about KnowYourOptions.com. We planned our site to complement these other resources. We believe that when homeowners get the same -- or similar -- information from two credible sources, they may be more inclined to believe it's true and take the steps they need to get help.
Easy Access to Information
The free online resource, which offers reliable and easy-to-understand information in both English and Spanish, expands on Fannie Mae's ongoing efforts to help struggling borrowers find alternatives to foreclosure. To make sure homeowners can access the information quickly and easily, we've added several important features to our site, including:
Interactive Options Finder to help homeowners identify options that might be right for their situation; Calculators to help borrowers understand how many of the options work, including refinance, repayment, forbearance, and modification; Videos featuring real homeowners discussing how they got help and housing counselors providing advice; A virtual assistant to walk homeowners through key areas of the site; and next steps and helpful forms, including a financial checklist and contact log to help borrowers be prepared when contacting their mortgage company or housing counselor.
For homeowners who are having trouble paying their mortgage, but want to stay in their homes, www.KnowYourOptions.com provides information on refinancing, repayment plans, forbearance, modifications and Deed-for-Lease™.
For homeowners who recognize that they can no longer afford their mortgages, but want to avoid having a foreclosure on their credit history, the site provides information on alternatives including short sales and deeds-in-lieu.
Our hope is that this new Web site can help homeowners make sense of their options and will become a trusted source of information for borrowers and the mortgage industry. But to reduce foreclosures, homeowners must take action. That's why every page of KnowYourOptions.com includes a message encouraging homeowners to contact their mortgage company or a housing counselor to understand which options might work best for their situation.
To reach homeowners, we plan on working with our mortgage servicers and partners to promote the Web site -- in addition to executing a comprehensive market outreach plan to increase consumer awareness. Stay tuned!
Learn more at http://www.knowyouroptions.com/
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