The Center at the MN Mortgage Association Convention

On Thursday, September 10th, 2009, the Minnesota Home Ownership Center participated in the 2009 Annual Convention and Expo “Front Row Seats for Change”.

Here's our booth at the event:

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In addition, Julie Gugin, the Center's Executive Director, partnered with Keenan Raverty of Bell Mortgage to facilitate the panel discussion with Minneapolis and St. Paul Mayors R.T. Rybek and Chris Coleman. Our previous post on the lunchtime discussion here.

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During the event the Center held a contest where new subscribers to our electronic newsletter could win a $25.00 gift certificate to Target. We've drawn the winning names... congratulations go out to:

1. Mahendra Saraswate of Phoenix Mortgage, LLC



2. Tom Kedrowski of Lakeland Mortgage Corp.



3. C.J. Kurtz of Bell Mortgage



4. Anne Carter of Summit Mortgage Corporation

Congrats! You'll be receiving your gift cards shortly!

If you don't already subscribe to the Center's electronic newsletter - chock full of information on affordable housing issues, pre-purchase programs, foreclosure prevention articles and much more, you can sign up here.

You can view the archive of past issues here.

The Center would like to thank the MN Mortgage Association for inviting us to participate in their annual event. Thank you!

Julie Gugin, Center's Executive Director, on TV

Julie Gugin, Executive Director of the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, was invited to join Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on the "Meet the Mayor" TV program.
It broadcast for the first time today, Wednesday April 29th, at 11:00am on Minneapolis Cable Channel 14 and will rebroadcast for the next several weeks on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; and on Sundays and Wednesdays at 11:00am.

For those who live outside of the City of Minneapolis, the show is also available online:
http://shows.implex.tv/Qwikcast/Root/minneapolis/2056/preflight.htm?AutoLoginComplete=1

Taped on location in Minneapolis' Willard Hay neighborhood, Mayor Rybak discusses Minneapolis initiatives to prevent foreclosures, reinvestment in neighborhoods and other foreclosure- and recovery-related issues with Julie Gugin & Tom Streitz, City of Minneapolis Housing Policy and Development Director, among others.

Finance & Commerce Article - Mediation?

The Center's Executive Director, Julie Gugin was quoted in an article about a new program being debated by Minnesota lawmakers: require lenders to participate in a mediation session with homeowners before proceeding with foreclosure. As currently outlined, the program would be administered by the Attorney General's office.

Here are some of the highlights of the article:

Mike Thompson has a simple message for Minnesota lawmakers touting the idea of mediation between troubled homeowners and their lenders: buckle up

... mediation isn’t a panacea for every struggling homeowner.

and

“We do exactly what Michael Thompson and his group do,” said Julie Gugin, executive director of the Minnesota Home Ownership Center. “I think the remaining challenge that many of us who are working in this field are facing is, ‘What is the best way to get lenders to the table in an efficient way that gets decisions made quicker?’ I don’t believe we’ve landed on an answer to that question yet,” Gugin said.

The entire article is HERE.

As the article states, the Center does not have a position for or against the proposal... but homeowners that are struggling with payments should NOT WAIT. The Center's network of Foreclosure Prevention Specialists can help TODAY.