Here are the 7 enduring myths of foreclosure:

1. Myth: You should stop paying your mortgage so you can leverage assistance with your mortgage payments.
2. Myth: After a foreclosure, you’ll never get another mortgage.
3. Myth: Workout options are over once you get a foreclosure notice.
4. Myth: You need to leave your home as soon as you’re notified that your property is in foreclosure.
5. Myth: If you’re late on your monthly payments, you’ll lose your house.
6. Myth: All the offers for help are probably all scams.
7. Myth: Give up if your lender is not responding to your inquiries.

Read the article by clicking here.

Statewide Resources
Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP)
HUD Approved Housing Counselors
(216) 361-0718
(877) 731-3767

National Foundation for Credit Counseling
HUD Approved Housing Counselors
(800) 388-2227

Ohio Attorney General’s Office
Information and Referral
(800) 282-0515

Ohio Department of Commerce
Information and Referral
(800) 750-0750

Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA)
Mortgage Payment Assistance
(888) 362-6432

Ohio State Legal Services Association
Legal
(866) 529-6446

Save the Dream Ohio
Information and Referral
(888) 404-4674

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD Approved Housing Counselors
(800) 569-4287

For an updated list with maps and links as well as the ability to search local services, please visit the Ohio Attorney General Site.

Foreclosure Resources Brochure

Here is a Foreclosure Resources Brochure from the Ohio Attorney General’s office. It offers advice on how to avoid foreclosure scams and will answer some of your Frequently Asked Questions.

Foreclosure is not the only option when you are having trouble paying your mortgage, please contact one of our team members at 614-888-6100 for additional information without obligation. We’re here to help.

by Richard Cordray

Last year new foreclosure filings in the state reached record highs, and today about 192,000 mortgages in Ohio are in trouble, according to research by Policy Matters Ohio.

Foreclosures can devastate communities by displacing families and decreasing housing values. Empty properties become urban blight and offer inviting refuges for criminals to set up shop. Services supported by property tax revenue take a hit. Before long, the fabric of a community is in tatters.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island perhaps said it best when he noted that “on Main Street, the recovery will begin when foreclosures stop.” The economy cannot bounce back if Americans continue to lose their homes and neighborhoods continue to struggle with the problems presented by empty properties.

My office is taking action on several fronts to help combat this serious issue.

Last month we joined the Ohio Department of Commerce to sue a California-based company that failed to live up to its agreement with the state to offer reasonable loan modifications to eligible borrowers and has offered poor customer service. That business, Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC, does not make loans, but instead services them. A mortgage lender offers loans to potential home buyers while servicers collect the mortgage payments.

Servicers thus are best positioned to work with homeowners to modify loans. However, the U.S. Department of Treasury recently noted something that has been evident to my office for some time: Most mortgage loan servicers are not living up to their commitments to help keep people in their homes.

We plan to hold mortgage servicers accountable for doing business fairly in the state of Ohio. I joined five other attorneys general to urge the federal departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to impose stricter requirements on mortgage servicers and lenders. My office also recently asked Ohio’s congressional delegation for additional funds for housing counseling agencies, which are on the front lines of fighting this immense problem.

In addition to shabby business practices like those of some mortgage servicers, the scam artists are out in full force, as is so often the case in tough times. Unscrupulous operators play on foreclosure fears by running rescue scams that falsely promise to negotiate with lenders or provide “special bailout funds,” but after taking your money, they fail to deliver.

To combat this problem, my office has issued 25 cease-and-desist demands and filed five lawsuits against businesses suspected of operating rescue scams in Ohio. We are demanding that the companies halt all unfair and deceptive practices. The lawsuits charge them with multiple violations of Ohio law.

To provide real foreclosure assistance, my office has partnered with other state agencies to create Save the Dream, Ohio’s foreclosure prevention effort. Save the Dream connects homeowners to housing counseling agencies, legal aid and mediation. In the first half of 2009, the Save the Dream hotline received 16,517 calls. We also have created Save Our Homes task forces in most counties to match homeowners with community services to help keep them in their homes if at all possible. Finally, we have teamed up with the courts to foster Foreclosure Mediation programs to avoid foreclosure orders by arranging mortgage loan workouts where feasible.

I encourage Ohioans worried about losing their homes to call Save the Dream at (888) 404-4674 or visit www.SaveTheDream.Ohio.gov. To report a foreclosure rescue scam, contact my office at (800) 282-0515 or at www.SpeakOutOhio.gov.

Richard Cordray is the Ohio Attorney General.

To learn more about your options attend a workshop led by 6 experts in the Columbus housing and lending field.
Featured speakers include:
• Judith Goldstein, Equal Justice Foundation
• Layden Hale, Columbus Housing Partnership
• Sean Roehrenbeck, Huntington Bank
• Susan Choe, Ohio Attorney General’s Office
• Stephanie Spruill, Ohio Housing Financing Agency
• Moderator Alec Hagerty, REALTOR®, Lorain County Association of REALTORS® and instructor, Knowledge Sponge Seminars

Foreclosure Prevention Workshops:

Wednesday, April 14th, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Brookhaven High School (4077 Karl Road)

Saturday, April 17th, 10 a.m. to Noon
First Church of God (3480 Refugee Road)

The workshop is available at no charge, register to win one of five Kroger gift cards.

Sign up for the Foreclosure Prevention Workshop on April 14 or April 17 or call Karen Thompson at (614) 475-4000 for more information.

The home was a bank owned, single family ranch listed for $75,000. This was an “absolute auction”, which means the house would be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the price in its AS-IS condition with no buyer contingencies and the buyer had to close within 30 days plus a 10% buyers premium that would be added to the final bid price. Bidders had to show up with a $5,000 deposit in form of a cashier’s check. The auction was to take place at the house at 5PM.

My client and I arrived at the house at 4:30. There were several people going in and out of the house looking around and scoping out the other bidders. (If you are a people watcher, you would love this event) The auctioneer was set up in the house where we went to register to bid. My client gave the auctioneer the $5,000 check with photo ID and we were assigned a number to bid along with the purchase contract that would be used for the highest bidder. We were told the auctioneer would go over the purchase contract line by line right before the bidding began.

Promptly at 5 the auction began. There was about 50 people standing in the house and there were 20 registered bidders. The auctioneer went over the purchase agreement and disclosed a few defects he knew about the house. Then the bidding began. It started at $50,000 and immediately was bid to $60K, then $70, then $80, then $90 where the bidding paused for a moment and the auctioneer was asking for $100. He looked and called a few times, then a shout of $92.5, followed by $95. Then the auctioneer made some comments to lighten the tension and remind people that this price is much lower than the average sales in the area. The a shout came out at $100K. Then $101K. A pause for a few moments and then $102K. The auctioneer called for $103K, but that is where it stopped. “$102,000 going, once, twice, SOLD”. The event was over at 5:23 and another house was Sold in Worthington, Ohio. Does anyone have an auction experience they would like to share? Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about auctions in Central Ohio.