Counseling and Education Services

Community Development Corporation of Utah (CDC) is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved counseling agency. CDC staff provided a full range of pre and post-purchase counseling and education services.

Homebuyer Education Workshops: CDC provides homebuyer education to increase the likelihood of successful homeownership and reduce mortgage problems. These workshops are provided at CDC or at a location determined to be appropriate by the CDC counselor. Each person who attends the workshop is also required to meet with a counselor one-on-one for pre-purchase counseling so that they can ask questions in a confidential environment. These counseling sessions help prevent predatory lending and the potential homeowner feel more at ease with the homeownership process.

Pre-Purchase Counseling: Pre-purchase counseling may contain a review of credit repair, debt reduction, and current employment stability. CDC and the participant prepare a personal home purchase plan. A CDC Counselor strives to meet the needs of the client as they assist the family to accomplish the steps in their purchase plan. This may be a short-term plan if they are ready to purchase a home, or it may be long-term if they have credit and/or debt problems.

Post-Purchase Counseling: The goal of post purchase counseling is to reduce the risk for default on home loans by low-income families during the first two years after purchasing a home when the chance of default is greatest. The family is encouraged to convert the savings account that was in place to purchase the home into a home-maintenance savings account as well as keep a regular monthly budget.

Foreclosure Prevention Counseling: In foreclose prevention counseling a client’s present circumstances are examined and a plan is prepared with the mortgage institution to mitigate the delinquent mortgage. The client is taught all of their options involved in loss mitigation, alternatives to foreclosure are discussed and a plan is created.