Maggie says that her Illinois home is a “fixer upper” but that she and her husband are getting pretty good at making renovations. Maggie had lived in this home when she was in high school and, 17 years ago, she and her husband moved back in and started renting from the same owner. As the years went by, they decided to buy the home and, like millions of others, the shockwaves of the nation’s recession rattled their financial stability.

“Three years ago we were in bankruptcy. We came out of that, we were current on our payments; everything was fine until last year when that storm hit,” Maggie said. In April 2013, a storm ruined three rooms in their house which she referred to as “a step backwards” in their remodeling process.

When Maggie and her husband came out of bankruptcy, they discovered that AHP was now the owner of their mortgage loan. They received a modification and their lives appeared to be getting back on track, until the storm and then this past winter when her husband was unable to work. “He had his knee replaced, so he was off work for three months. He’s been in a lot of pain for a lot of years, and he just couldn’t stand it any longer,” she said. “He’s a machinist, so he climbs ladders, goes up stairs, all kinds of stuff.”

Without her husband’s income, they could not manage the mortgage payments and feared they would lose their home to foreclosure. “I was a basket of nerves, because I couldn’t afford the extra $300 a month.” Maggie said. She was nearly in tears when she was advised by her payment servicer that she should contact AHP’s founder Jorge Newbery.

“That’s when I reached out to Jorge, and Jorge is like, ‘hold up, stop, calm down,” Maggie said. “He’s like, ‘let’s lower your payments, let’s make them affordable. If you’re paying something, it’s better than paying nothing.’ He was absolutely wonderful.”

AHP was able to lower Maggie’s monthly payments, this time from $950 to $650, until she and her husband can regain their footing and start making their regular payments again. “He totally made me feel much better…We’re doing everything we can to get current, we don’t want to lose our home. I’d like for it to be fixed, but we’re getting there,” Maggie said. “I can’t stress enough how much he lowered my stress level by just working with me instead of saying ‘you’re going to lose your house, you’re going into foreclosure.”