Posted by Alex Perriello
President & CEO, Realogy Franchise Group

On October 8, I sent a letter to all of Realogy’s affiliated brokers and sales associates to announce that we are launching an initiative to help our neighbors and local communities by trying to prevent as many foreclosures from occurring as possible.

The positive support I have been receiving from our brokers and agents in response to this letter has been overwhelming, and I wanted to share the message with the wider real estate community. When Sherry offered me the opportunity to talk about it on the Clean Slate Blog, I couldn’t resist.

There are now hundreds of thousands of families all across America facing foreclosure because they simply cannot afford their mortgage payments, or they owe far more than their house is currently worth. To make matters even worse, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports that an astonishing 50{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of homeowners who do lose their homes to foreclosure have never once contacted their lender.

With this stark reality in mind, I have issued a “Call-to-Action” to the entire Realogy franchise community to help “Save the Dream” of home ownership. Specifically, I am asking every agent and broker to find just one family in their local community who may be facing foreclosure and help them reach out to their lender or a housing counseling agency so that they can begin the process of exploring a loan workout solution and hopefully stay in their homes.

Here are direct links to two excellent resource sites that you can use both to educate yourselves and to share with people in need of learning more about how they can help themselves avoid foreclosure:

– Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
– The HOPE NOW Alliance and the Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline (1-888-995-HOPE)

This “Save the Dream” initiative may require several hours or even a few days of a real estate professional’s time, but I am confident the end result will be well worth the effort, both personally and professionally.

One thing I have learned during my career as a real estate professional is that, as an industry, we are very focused on community service. We know firsthand that doing good deeds is indeed good business. More than that, we care deeply about our communities.

I truly believe that this “Save the Dream” initiative will enable us to give back to our communities in a positive and meaningful way – one that at some point in the future might have a direct benefit on your business. There is an old expression I’m sure you have heard many times … “What goes around, comes around.” I’m most certain, that if you can help save someone from the pain and anguish of foreclosure, they will be your friend – and customer – for life.

America got into this foreclosure crisis one house at a time, and we need to resolve it one house at a time. I encourage you to consider saving the dream for someone in your local community today.