Lost his job in March. By July, the mortgage company's calling twice a day. Wife's working but her income doesn't cover the $2,400 mortgage plus everything else. They've got maybe two more months before the bank starts foreclosure paperwork.
So what does he do? Nothing. Just stops opening the mail. Figures maybe if he ignores it long enough, something will work itself out. Maybe unemployment will magically cover a mortgage payment designed for two incomes. Maybe the bank will just... forget?
Yeah. That's not how banks work.
Then his sister mentions she read something about free counseling for people behind on mortgages. He's skeptical—free help sounds like a scam, or at minimum, some kind of charity thing where they make you feel terrible about needing assistance. But desperation beats pride eventually. Calls a number. Gets connected to a counselor who doesn't lecture him about budgeting or make him explain how he ended up in this mess.
Six weeks later he's on a repayment plan. Still owns the house. Still stressed, but not "where are we gonna live next month" stressed.
That's what homeowners help actually looks like when it works.
Most People Have No Idea This Exists
Here's the problem with homeownership: Everyone treats it like once you close, you're supposed to just know everything. Furnace breaks? Figure it out. Property taxes go up? Deal with it. Can't make your mortgage payment? Well, that's embarrassing, so definitely don't tell anyone or ask for help.
Except falling behind on a mortgage isn't some moral failing. Medical emergency wipes out savings. Layoffs happen. Divorce splits household income in half. Cars break down and need $4,000 in repairs you weren't planning for. Life happens, and most people are about two bad months away from serious trouble whether they want to admit it or not.
Free help exists. Not vague "call your lender and they'll work with you" advice. Actual professional housing counselors funded by HUD and non-profits who negotiate with lenders for a living. No fee. No catch. Just show up, be honest about what's happening financially, and they'll figure out options.
Nobody knows about this until they're already three months behind and googling "how to stop foreclosure" at midnight. Which is unfortunate because early intervention works way better than crisis management.
What These Counselors Actually Do
Counselors aren't magicians. Can't snap their fingers and make mortgage payments disappear. Can't force banks to forgive loans because someone asks nicely.
What they can do: Navigate the bureaucracy that homeowners have zero chance of understanding on their own.
Call your mortgage servicer when you're behind on payments. You'll get bounced around to six different departments. Half the people you talk to won't have any authority to actually help. You'll get told to submit documents, then call back in two weeks, then told you submitted the wrong documents, then transferred again. Meanwhile the clock's ticking and foreclosure procedures are moving forward because you didn't file the right paperwork by the deadline nobody clearly explained.
Counselors know this system. They know which department to call. They know what a loan modification packet needs to include. They know how to write a hardship letter that gets taken seriously instead of rubber-stamped and denied. They've done this hundreds of times.
More importantly, they know which solution actually makes sense for your situation. Lenders will offer forbearance when what you really need is a loan modification. Or push a repayment plan that's completely unrealistic given your current income. They're trying to solve their problem—collecting the debt—not necessarily solving your problem of being able to afford the house long-term.
Temporary Problem vs. Permanent Change
Got laid off but found a new job three months later making roughly the same money? That's temporary. Repayment plan makes sense—spread those missed payments over 12 or 18 months on top of your regular payment. Yeah, it's tight for a while, but manageable.
Income dropped 35% and isn't coming back? That's permanent. Repayment plan just delays the inevitable because you still can't afford the payment. Need a loan modification that reduces the monthly amount to something realistic.
Big difference. Counselors help figure out which category you're actually in, even when you're in denial about it.
Had a guy insist his income situation was temporary. He'd been working construction, got injured, was on disability making half what he used to. Kept saying he'd get back to full-time work soon. Counselor finally had to tell him: You're 58 with a bad back. Construction isn't happening again. Need to modify this loan based on disability income, not fantasy income.
Harsh? Maybe. Also accurate. And accuracy matters when you're trying to keep a roof over your head.
Property Taxes Will Absolutely Sink You
Mortgage payment gets all the attention. Property taxes? Insurance? Those are the surprise killers.
Maryland property taxes aren't universal. Baltimore City runs about 2.2% of assessed value. Buy a $250,000 house there, property taxes hit $5,500 annually. Montgomery County's closer to 1.1%—same house, around $2,750. Howard County somewhere in between.
People budget for the mortgage. They forget property taxes climb every year as assessed values increase. Suddenly the escrow account's short and the mortgage company wants an extra $300 a month to catch up. That $300 you don't have because you were already stretched thin.
Miss property tax payments entirely and Maryland counties will sell tax liens. Investors buy those liens. If you don't pay up within a certain timeframe—plus penalties and interest—they can foreclose and take the property.
Counselors know about Homeowners' Property Tax Credit programs. Income-based relief that reduces what you owe. But you have to apply. Nobody automatically signs you up. Most people don't even know it exists until a counselor mentions it.
Same with insurance. Let homeowners insurance lapse and the mortgage company force-places coverage at roughly triple what you were paying. Can't afford $1,200 annually for insurance you picked? Definitely can't afford $3,500 for coverage the bank picked.
Reverse Mortgages Are Way More Complicated Than Commercials Suggest
If you're over 62, you've seen the commercials. Convert your home equity to cash. No monthly payments required. Stay in your home. Sounds perfect.
Sometimes it is. Often it's not.
Upfront costs on reverse mortgages run high. Origination fees, mortgage insurance premiums, closing costs, appraisal, title work—easily $15,000 to $25,000 before you see a dollar of loan proceeds. That gets added to the loan balance, growing at interest, eventually eating into the equity you were trying to access.
No monthly mortgage payment sounds great. But property taxes, insurance, and home maintenance are still required. Fall behind on property taxes because your fixed income doesn't stretch far enough? Reverse mortgage defaults. Yes, defaults. And yes, the bank can foreclose.
Marketing materials gloss over that part. They show happy seniors traveling or spending time with grandkids. Don't mention what happens if you can't keep up with property tax bills or insurance premiums.
HUD requires reverse mortgage counseling before closing. Only loan product in America that mandates you talk to a third party first. That should tell you something about how easy it is to screw this up.
Counselors walk through the math. Show you how much equity you'll actually have left in five years, ten years, twenty years. Explain what happens if you need to move into assisted living. Make sure you understand this isn't free money—it's a loan against your home that compounds over time.
Finding Legitimate Help in Maryland
Housing counseling agency Maryland gets complicated because there are dozens of organizations across the state. Some operate statewide, some focus on specific counties, some specialize in foreclosure prevention while others do broader housing counseling.
Maryland HOPE Hotline—statewide foreclosure prevention counseling. Housing Initiative Partnership covers Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Neighborhood Housing Services operates in Baltimore. HomeOwnership Assistance Fund has programs throughout Maryland.
All HUD-approved. All free. All legitimate.
Start with HUD's website—has a counseling agency search tool. Type in your zip code, get a list of nearby agencies. Call the closest one. They'll either help you directly or point you toward whoever's best equipped for your specific situation.
Most do phone and video appointments now. Don't need to take time off work or find childcare to meet in person. Some still offer in-person for people who prefer that, but it's optional.
Intake session takes maybe an hour. Basic information—income, expenses, mortgage details, what's going wrong. Then they build a plan. If you're behind on payments, they contact your lender immediately. Sooner the better. Wait six months? Options disappear fast.
Scams Are Everywhere When People Are Desperate
Foreclosure rescue companies are mostly scams. They charge $3,000 to $5,000 upfront to "save your home." Do some paperwork. Submit it to your lender. That's it. Everything a free counselor would do anyway.
Red flags: Anyone asking for money upfront. Anyone telling you to stop communicating with your lender. Anyone wanting you to sign over the deed to your property. Anyone guaranteeing results no matter what your situation is.
HUD-approved counselors don't charge fees. Period. If money's changing hands, it's not legitimate HUD counseling.
Had a woman who paid $4,500 to a foreclosure rescue company. They prepared a loan modification packet—poorly—and submitted it. Got denied. Company shrugged and said "we tried" and kept the money. She came to a counselor six months later, even further behind, with $4,500 less in savings than when she started.
That's how these outfits work. Prey on desperate homeowners who don't know free help exists.
Sometimes Keeping the House Doesn't Make Sense
Hardest conversation counselors have: This house isn't financially viable for you anymore.
Income dropped too far. Property needs $50,000 in repairs you'll never afford. Mortgage was predatory from the start and never should've been approved. Divorce left one person with a mortgage designed for two incomes.
Whatever the reason, sometimes walking away is the right move. Doesn't mean foreclosure though. Short sale and deed-in-lieu both have less severe credit consequences.
Short sale—sell the property for less than the mortgage balance, lender agrees to accept the proceeds and forgive the difference. Credit takes a hit, but not as bad as foreclosure. Might owe taxes on forgiven debt depending on circumstances.
Deed-in-lieu—hand the keys back to the bank, walk away. Credit damage similar to short sale. No deficiency judgment usually, depending on state law and specific agreement.
Foreclosure? That's the nuclear option. Tanks your credit for seven years minimum. Possible deficiency judgment where the bank sues you for the difference between what they sold the house for and what you owed. Some states protect against this, Maryland has limited protection.
Point is, even when keeping the house isn't realistic, there are better and worse ways to exit. Counselors help navigate that too.
Why This Matters More Than You'd Think
Individual homeowner having trouble making mortgage payments seems like a personal problem. And it is—that person's dealing with real stress and potential housing loss.
But multiply that by thousands of homeowners and it becomes a community problem. Foreclosures drive down surrounding property values. Vacant homes attract crime. Neighborhoods destabilize. Local tax revenue drops.
Free counseling exists because preventing foreclosures when possible benefits everyone. Costs less to help someone through a rough patch than to deal with the fallout of widespread foreclosure.
That's the policy justification anyway. For someone actually using homeowners help services, they don't care about the bigger economic picture. They care about keeping a roof over their family's head. And that's fair. That's exactly what they should care about.
Using available resources isn't weakness. It's just smart. That guy who almost lost his house because he was too proud to ask for help? Eventually got past that. Called a counselor. Worked through the process. Still owns his house three years later.
Didn't require anything special. Just required admitting things weren't fine and picking up the phone.
