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Housing Finance Agency’s Self-Help Loan Pool and Community Partners Loan Pool programs require borrowers to receive comprehensive housing counseling. Once the home buyer has completed counseling and developed a budget with a housing counselor, the buyer is eligible for down payment assistance.
Often, the housing counselor continues to work with the borrower until the mortgage closes. Some counselors also provide post-purchase counseling, which instructs borrowers on maintaining their homes and preventing mortgage defaults.
If your organization is a Self-Help Loan Pool member, you can either offer the counseling directly or partner with a counseling organization in your community.
See training for counselors for more information. In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) maintains a list of agencies in North Carolina approved to offer housing counseling services to home buyers, homeowners and senior citizens.
If you are a counselor whose organization is not interested in housing development, you could partner with nonprofits and local governments in the Self-Help Loan Pool and Community Partners Loan Pool programs. By working with these groups, you may be able to place people you are already counseling in homes. In addition, you may be able to provide counseling to home buyers planning to buy homes developed by these groups.
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Reverse mortgage counseling
Federal regulations and North Carolina law require that homeowners applying for reverse mortgages must receive counseling. The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency offers training in reverse mortgage counseling.
A reverse mortgage is a loan secured by home equity that need not be repaid until the end of the loan term. This is usually when the homeowner no longer occupies the home as a principal residence, sells the home, or dies. For more information on how reverse mortgages work, go to Reverse Mortgages: Potential income for older Americans.
If you are seeking reverse mortgage counseling on behalf of a homeowner, see a list of organizations that are HUD-approved Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Counseling Agencies and whose staff meet the Agency’s requirements for Certified Reverse Mortgage Counselors.
To provide more information to your clients, download The Reverse Mortgage: Trading Equity for Cash.
Contact Keir Morton-Manley at
for more information.
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Predatory lending counseling
Federal regulations and North Carolina law require that homeowners considering high-cost loans must receive counseling. The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency offers training in predatory lending counseling. To learn more, go to Workshops and Technical Assistance.
For more information on predatory lending, go to Avoiding Predatory Lending.
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Homeownership Production
