One Mortgage at a Time

Interesting report on the "Marketplace" radio show yesterday about the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's Save the Dream tour, which brings what reporter Tess Vigeland calls "loan modification conventions" for homeowners facing foreclosure to cities across the country. At the Shrine Expo Center in Los Angeles last weekend, about 25,000 people turned out to meet with mortgage counselors and bank representatives; many of them walked away with better terms for their mortgages. It's a story both inspiring and depressing; and, to that end, this exchange between Vigeland and NACA CEO Bruce Marks jumped out at me:

VIGELAND: Why does it take something like this for a homeowner to be able to modify a loan? What's the difference here?

MARKS: There are two differences. We have legally binding agreements with all the major lenders and the investors covering over 90 percent of mortgages in this country where they have to do it. Secondly, there's nothing like that face-to-face interaction. Personal interaction is what gets the results, because you see families, you see the devastation firsthand, and that makes that banker that much more committed to helping the homeowner.

In a world of networks and procedures, bureaucracies and hierarchies, face-to-face interaction can cut through the clutter; it can focus and prioritize things and, more important, people. And it can even help save their homes.