If you are using Columbia Gas for your gas supplier in the Toledo area, check out this rebate program they are offering.

http://columbiagasohio.com/en/your-home/YourEnergySolutions.aspx

People can receive rebates on programmable thermostats and water saving showerheads. You do need to buy the high performance models that they list and you can purchase through Columbia Gas or at a local hardware store or department.

We’ve had a programmable thermostat for years and know we save lots on our heating costs by having the heat reset automatically to a lower temperature during the day when we’re at work and again at night for even better sleeping. They are easy to program although may require an electrician to install.

The City of Toledo recently received a federal grant of $12.2 million to for the city to buy up or demolish foreclosed properties in a number of neighborhoods that are considered at the tipping point of becoming unappealing to buyers and hard to sell in.

The neighborhoods are East Toledo, Library Village near Close Park, Sleepy Hollow off Dorr Street, and Highland Heights near Burroughs School.

Buyers of these homes will benefit from a 20% mortgage down payment paid by the City of Toledo. They would need to qualify for a conventional loan according to income level, credit rating and probably have some credit counseling through a HUD Housing Counseling Agency. Link here to a list of HUD Housing Counseling Agencies in Toledo…

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm

The homes aren’t on the market yet, but I will keep you posted about how to find them.

The 1/31/09 Toledo Blade had a good article titled Kaptur advised owners facing eviction to stay which shed some light on some options people who are foreclosed on might take.

The lender holding the mortgage generally doesn’t want the homeowner to vacate the house immediately at the start of the long judicial foreclosure procedure that we have here in Ohio. An empty house is more likely to be vandalized and have damage from the utilities being turned off.

Lenders will start a foreclosure once the homeowner is behind in mortgage payment for 3 months. The homeowner should contact the lender as soon as they are unable to make the payments to try to work out a loan modification plan. In this economic climate, the lenders are bending over backwards to keep people in their homes because it costs the lenders thousands in legal fees, maintenance costs, and depreciated value to take the house back by buying it at the Sheriff’s sale and reselling it.

Loan modifications may include forgiving some of the delinquency, readjusting the interest rate, adding the arrearage on to the end of the loan or agreeing to the homeowner selling the house short for less than the mortgage amount. The trick is actually getting to someone in the loan modification department and not the first-to-answer debt collection department.

A real estate attorney is another good contact to make immediately. They can counsel on whether filing bankruptcy may be an option to put a hold on the foreclosure or be able to explore if the loan had been predatory and possibly able to be rescinded. A good source for assistance and information is Lucas County Foreclosure Task Force. They can be reached by calling United Way’s Help Phone Line at 2-1-1.

People will not be evicted without legal notice of the scheduled eviction. This usually happens long after the Sheriff’s Sale and the later deed being recorded.