HARDY: Hello, and welcome once again to "FEAB 101."

I'm your host, Mel Hardy.

During this series, we're going all over the country, talking to our partners about what they're doing around financial education and asset-building.

And today, we are in beautiful Seattle, Washington.

We're going to go and talk to the folks at the Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative about the work that they're doing around foreclosure prevention.

So let's go and talk to them now.

I'm here with Diana Stone, and we're going to talk a little bit about foreclosure, right?

STONE: Yes.

HARDY: Tell me a little bit about your organization.

STONE: I'm the Director of Initiatives for the Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative.

And we work to help people reach their financial goals by connecting them with the services they need when they need them.

And sometimes, the service they need to keep them financially secure are foreclosure-prevention services.

We have brought together a number of the organizations in the area that are HUD-certified housing counselors and other agencies that work on home-ownership issues.

We brought them together in a team to work on issues around home ownership.

And unfortunately, it became foreclosure prevention in the last couple of years.

HARDY: Yeah. So, what resources are there available for homeowners who are facing foreclosure?

STONE: Well, one of the most important things that the team has done over the last couple of years is put together a number of large, community, public, free events where we've brought lenders in who are the mortgage holders, mortgage servicers, and connected them directly with homeowners.

A lot of times, the homeowners' complaint is that they weren't able to reach the servicer in order to try to get a workout or a mortgage modification.

So we're able to bring them together in one place, as well as have housing counselors there to work with the homeowners, and also have attorneys there, helping them if they have legal problems.

And then the group has put together this booklet called the Washington Foreclosure Prevention Resource Guide.

HARDY: Okay.

STONE: And it's a substantial piece that is directed at the homeowners themselves to give them some information and background about what is foreclosure, what is the process, what are their rights.

And it includes resources on who they should go to if they are at risk of foreclosure.

It includes some sample letters to their mortgage servicers,  for example.

So it's really a key resource that is available online at our website, as well as in print for our partners to hand out to the public.

Today, we have the Director of Housing at the Urban League.

Linda Taylor is here to talk to you more about foreclosure-prevention services.

HARDY: Well, hello.

We're here with Linda Taylor from the Urban League.

How are you, Linda?

TAYLOR: I'm just fine. Thank you.

HARDY: Good, good. Tell me a little bit about your organization.

TAYLOR: Well, we're a nonprofit 501(c)(3), and we're one of 110 Urban Leagues around the country.

HARDY: Tell me a little bit about this foreclosure-prevention program that you have.

TAYLOR: We believe that the mortgage companies have another language, and we want to teach you what the language is, how to talk to them.

The average person that calls the mortgage company says to them, "I want to refinance my home."

They get sent to the refinance department when, in fact, they want a loan modification.

HARDY: Wow.

TAYLOR: And that will cause about three-month delay.

HARDY: So, Linda, tell me, exactly what is foreclosure prevention?

TAYLOR: Foreclosure prevention is where you come in and you learn the process.

You learn the timeline.

And, once again, you learn the terminology.

You learn that a notice of default is not necessarily your foreclosure.

HARDY: Okay.

TAYLOR: You are in foreclosure, but you are not going to be foreclosed upon tomorrow.

So, you just learn about what's going on.

You learn what your rights are.

You learn what your responsibilities are.

A lot of people deplete their savings, deplete their 401(k)s, deplete everything, and then they come for help.

HARDY: Okay.

TAYLOR: You need to come for help before you do that.

HARDY: So, Linda, oftentimes, there are things like health concerns, layoffs that people get - I mean, they can't avoid it.

TAYLOR: Life.

HARDY: Yeah. Life. Life happens.

And what should people be doing?

What should they be thinking about?

TAYLOR: Communicating with your mortgage company.

The servicers have programs for you.

There are programs for you.

Each servicer has an investor.

Each loan has a different investor.

So you don't know if your investor has a program for you.

Just because you pay the same person as your neighbor pays does not mean that you will get the same deal as your neighbor.

You could get a better deal.

HARDY: So, Linda, let me ask you, once the foreclosure process has begun, can someone stop it?

TAYLOR: Yes. Yes, yes.

HARDY: Okay.

TAYLOR: They certainly can.

Of course, you can stop it with cash.

HARDY: All right.

TAYLOR: And pay the arrears.

You can stop it if you are going after a loan modification.

And in this state, we have just passed a new law that will take effect July 22nd that you can request mediation.

HARDY: Tell me, the counselors that you have, how are they trained?

TAYLOR: Well, NeighborWorks generally trains the majority of our counselors.

HARDY: Tell me a little bit about NeighborWorks.

TAYLOR: NeighborWorks is a national training organization.

HARDY: So it's not local?

TAYLOR: No, no, no, no.

They do the majority of our training.

We get some other training from another group called La Raza, and they do excellent, excellent training, also.

And HUD certifies all of this training, so they can give you the certificates and keep you up-to-date in what's going on.

So, to any nonprofit that is getting started, what I would like to suggest that they all do is collaborate with other nonprofits that are already doing it.

HARDY: Okay.

TAYLOR: Learn from them.

Learn what their mistakes are.

Learn what they've done right.

Learn what they've done wrong in partnership.

There's strength in numbers.

HARDY: Well, that was great.

We want to thank our friends at Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative for all the great work that they're doing around foreclosure prevention.

Until next time on "FEAB 101," I'm your host, Mel Hardy.

Take care.