Foreclosure Information & Referral Resources
If you are facing the possibility of foreclosure and would like information on your options, the web sites listed here may provide some answers.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers information about foreclosure at several websites:
The State of California offers home-mortgage information for prospective homebuyers or homeowners who are having trouble keeping their payments current. For more information, go to www.keepyourhomecalifornia.org or, in Spanish, www.sucasa.ca.gov.
Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) offers informational and free counseling assistance in dealing with or negotiating with your lender. 1-(888)-995-HOPE (4673) or https://www.995hope.org.
The nonprofit, HUD-certified housing counseling agency, BALANCE is located at 1655 Grant St., Suite 1300, Concord, CA 94520. They assist borrowers who are struggling to pay their mortgages by explaining their mortgage loan workout options. They can be reached at 1-(800)-777-7526, option #2 for the Housing Dept. Appointments can be conducted over the phone.
Fair Housing of Marin Foreclosure Prevention Specialist San Rafael, CA (415) 457-5025.
Marin County residents who need an attorney to deal with a foreclosure problem may contact the Marin County Bar Associations Lawyer Referral Service.
You can contact the Marin County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service by calling (415) 499-1813.
If you are seeking information on specific properties in foreclosure or statistics in Marin County, we do not have this information. Here's the role of the Marin County Recorder in this process:
- We record Notices of Default submitted by lenders. These notices are pre foreclosure documents. These are not easily used to identify properties as they give no specific information - only the name and address of the mortgage holder or lender as well as the reference information to the deed of trust. (No foreclosure has taken place at this point in the process.)
- If the amount owed is not paid by the borrower within 90 days, a Notice of Trustee's Sale is recorded. This document informs homeowners and mortgage borrowers of record that their home will be sold at a trustee's sale on a specific date and at a specific location.
- After the foreclosed property is sold at auction, a Trustee's Deed is recorded.
Private companies or abstractors regularly obtain public Recorder’s document information from our office that is used to create database lists, and sell the information to large companies for mass distribution.