Counselor Trainee; MCDC

HOUSING COUNSELOR TRAINEE

This position prepares the trainee to become a CERTIFIED HOUSING COUNSELOR. The CERTIFIED HOUSING COUNSELOR serves as the primary point of contact with the Home Purchase Clients from the initial intake session through closing when purchasing a home. The Housing Counselor Trainee will learn to assist potential home buyers, more specifically low-and-moderate income clients and first-time home buyers.

The Trainee must be able to obtain HUD Certification.

The Housing Counselor learns about managing a pipeline of Home Purchase Client files. The applicant will be trained in providing comprehensive, individual housing and financial management counseling services in a local MCDC office or by video conferencing.

The Housing Counselor Trainee will be trained to assist Home Purchase Clients overcoming the roadblocks that prevent them from qualifying for a mortgage loan and purchasing a home. The Housing Counselor Trainee learns to communicate effectively and in a timely manner with clients, staff, and MCDC management. She/he will learn to explain the mortgage criteria, request necessary information and documents, assess readiness for home ownership, and determine an affordable mortgage payment considering each client’s particular circumstances and goals based on MCDC’s policies and procedures.

The Housing Counselor Trainee also works with Home Purchase Clients to address and improve their financial management skills. In addition, the Housing Counselor trainee will learn the MCDC programs to provide counseling, assistance and solutions to home buyers.

The Housing Counselor Trainee will learn to utilize MCDC’s client management system software, RxOffice, which enables paperless comprehensive housing counseling processing. The Housing Counselor Trainee will learn to work with clients to become qualified for a mortgage based on underwriting criteria of various lenders.

The Housing Counselor Trainee will learn to utilize problem solving skills and financial management guidance to assist clients in achieving affordable home ownership. The Trainee will maintain a professional appearance and demeanor while providing outstanding customer services. She/he will learn to work independently with Clients and in coordination with other MCDC departments. The Housing Counselor will learn to manage their time effectively to provide accurate, comprehensive counseling sessions within specified time limits.

The Housing Counselor Trainee will learn to provide comprehensive housing counseling as well as the mortgage-related activities described below. Daily responsibilities include learning to work with clients on the following:

• Learning to provide a clear direction for a path towards their home ownership goals and improve their financial management skills.
• Learning to navigate RxOffice to accurately complete documentation and data entry for an efficient and paperless process.
• Learning to document files with written narratives and identify action items for the client to complete after each counseling session.
• Learning to review payment history, income, liabilities, assets, and other criteria to determine eligibility for the program, readiness for home ownership and mortgage payment affordability.
• Learning to develop a realistic monthly budget and address budget issues. This includes calculating a monthly cash flow surplus to establish a Home Purchase Client’s long term affordable mortgage payment.
• Learning to work with clients for as long as it takes to resolve payment history issues, to reduce debt and/or adjust expenses as needed to meet their purchase goals.
• Learning to develop a plan to save the minimum required funds to make the home purchase.
• Learning to determine a maximum affordable mortgage payment and define a path to achieve Home Purchase Client’s home ownership purchase price/goal.
• Learning to examine and process documents and address issues as needed.
• Learning about MCDC programs and being able to provide information on available mortgage products and options for the Home Purchase Client to make a well-informed home purchase and mortgage decision.
• Learning to assist clients to purchase…