Helping People Stay Put

Salary: $50,000

Age: 57

Years on the job: 1

How she got started: : Patricia Hull began as a housing counselor more than 20 years ago while working as a real estate agent. She found herself helping primarily low- and middle-income clients find homes. This included researching programs that helped qualify them for mortgage loans, which piqued her interest in housing counseling. In 1987 she decided to take a job with a nonprofit agency that offered housing assistance to low-income buyers. She remained with Middle East Community Development Corp. for five years before moving on to work for two other housing groups, including 13 years with Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore. Last July, she decided to take the position of housing counselor with the Eastside Community Development Corp., based in Eastpoint Mall.

Hull is a certified housing counselor and homebuying educator with NeighborWorks America and is a member of the Maryland Housing Counselors Network.

Typical day: : When Hull first started with the Eastside Community Development Corp., she worked primarily with pre-purchase housing education and counseling. Last fall, her focus shifted to default and foreclosure counseling.

Hull spends her day meeting with homeowners seeking advice and services to help keep their homes. She meets with two or three clients a day for about two hours because she must collect background information, mortgage documents and financial records to determine eligibility for programs and assistance.

"We want to make sure when they leave we have enough information to get the ball rolling with their lender," Hull said. "We're there to see things through and to empower them to really participate in this process."

It typically takes 60 to 90 days to get an answer from lenders as to whether they are agreeable to refinancing or modifying a loan or lowering a mortgage payment. During this time, Hull recommends that clients call their lenders weekly or every other week to check in.

Hull said the housing atmosphere has changed from seeing primarily clients with unfavorable loans to those who need assistance because of economic hardship. The federal Making Home Affordable program has helped open up options to homeowners, Hull said. This includes greater access to lenders and a consistency in how lenders work with customers.

"When you have that consistency on the other side, it takes some of the guesswork out," she said. "We're seeing more customers that do have options."

Hull is one of two housing counselors with the nonprofit, and the service is free and open to anyone.

Clients: : They range from those who feel they have no options to those who are eager to know what program they might qualify for and how to move forward.

The elderly: : It's difficult to help older clients who have refinanced themselves out of their homes and have few options other than relocating, Hull said. "That's when I have to step back. I have to remind myself that if I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, I need to maintain objectivity."

The good: : "I get to meet really great people," Hull said. "It's always been important to me to use whatever skill I have to help someone else. I enjoy that feeling of 'I did something worthwhile today.' "

The bad: : When clients go against sound advice and counseling.

Philosophy: : "Do something to help somebody else," which Hull said she learned from her grandmother.