Home Counseling Providers

RESPA requires that consumers be provided with a list of available home counselors for the area in which they live. Encompass users can use the Home Counseling Providers input form to generate the list of home counselors to be included in the initial disclosure package and to indicate when home counseling is required, and if so, which service was used and when home counseling was completed. A corresponding printed output form, Homeownership Counseling Organization List, is provided in Encompass. This form is populated with a list of the individual home counseling agency records selected on the Home Counseling Providers input form and included in the initial disclosures package. To print this form, open the Home Counseling Providers input form, and then click the Print icon.

You can manually add one or more home counseling providers to the form or you can use the Get Agencies button to electronically import a list of Home Counseling providers (provided by US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)) which you can then provide to the consumer. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has coordinated with HUD on creating a web portal to generate this list of providers.

If the Encompass administrator has enabled the Automated Data Completion > Home Counselors option in Encompass Admin Tools, Encompass will retrieve Home Counseling data systematically as follows, provided these prerequisites are met. Once met, Encompass will populate the Home Counseling Providers List automatically rather than relying on users to manually click the Get Agencies button. Refer to knowledge article #000115391 - 24.1 Home Counseling Providers Automation for additional requirements and information.

  • The Home Counseling Services Data Template must be applied to the loan.

  • The following fields must be populated:

    • ZIP Code [for Borrower’s Address] (field ID FR0108) (Or, if the borrower’s present address is a Foreign Address (field ID FR0129), then the subject property’s ZIP code (field ID 15) is required.)

    • Distance (field ID HCSETTING.DISTANCE)

    • At least one checkbox (field ID HCSETTING.SERVICES) in the Multiple Services list must be selected.

    • At least one checkbox (field ID HCSETTING.SERVICES) in the Multiple Languages list must be selected. (English is selected by default.)

ClosedTo Add Home Counselors to the Form via the Get Agencies Button

  1. In the Home Counseling Provider List panel in the middle of the form, click the Get Agencies button.

  2. In the Get Home Counseling Agencies pop-up window, the Longitude and Latitude of the borrower’s present address is automatically obtained by Encompass (based on the borrower’s present address ZIP code (field ID FR0108)). You may update the address information as needed.

  3. By default, the home counseling agencies provided here are located within 500 miles of the borrower’s present address. Use the Distance field to update the number of miles to search within as needed.

  4. In the Multiple Services section, select the type of services you want the home counseling agency to provide. At least one service must be selected.

  5. In the Multiple Languages section, select the languages you need the home counseling agency to support. At least one language must be selected.

  6. Click the Get Agencies button.

    • Home counseling providers matching the criteria you specified are populated to the Home Counselor list at the bottom of the window. The provider located closest to the borrower’s present address is listed first and so on.

  7. Up to 10 home counseling providers can be selected from the list provided here and imported to the Home Counseling Providers input form. By default, the first 10 providers in the list are selected. Clear and/or select the checkbox for different provider as needed. (You must select 10 providers in order to activate the Save button.)

  8. Click Save.

    • The 10 home counseling providers you selected are imported to the Home Counseling Providers input form.

  9. To add up to 10 additional providers to the form, repeat steps 1 - 8. Providers added to the form earlier are not affected.

  10. In the Home Counseling Provider List panel, select the checkbox for each provider that you want to include in the list of counseling agencies printed to the Homeownership Counseling Organization List output form that will be included in the initial disclosure package.

    • If you do not select a provider’s checkbox here, it will not be included in the list of home counseling agencies printed on the Homeownership Counseling Organization List output form.

  11. In the Home Counseling Providers panel, indicate when home counseling is required and if so, which service was used and when home counseling was completed.

    • To automatically enter the information with specific counselor data, select a counselor in the Home Counseling Provider List in the middle of the screen. Then select the Agency Used Indicator checkbox located in the Home Counseling Provider panel.

  12. When finished, click the Save icon.

ClosedTo Manually Add Home Counselors to the Form

  1. In the Home Counseling Provider List panel in the middle of the form, click the New icon.

  2. In the Home Counseling Provider panel near the bottom of the form, enter the housing counseling agency’s contact details.

    • As you enter information in this section, it is displayed in the Home Counseling Provider List panel.

  3. Repeat steps 1-2 to add additional home counseling agencies to the Home Counseling Provider List.

  4. In the Home Counseling Provider List panel, select the checkbox for each counselor that you want to include in the list of counseling agencies printed to the Homeownership Counseling Organization List output form that will be included in the initial disclosure package.

    • If you do not select a counselor’s checkbox here, the counselor will not be included in the list of home counseling agencies printed on the Homeownership Counseling Organization List output form.

  5. In the Home Counseling Providers panel, indicate when home counseling is required and if so, which service was used and when home counseling was completed.

    • To automatically enter the information with specific counselor data, select a counselor in the Home Counseling Provider List in the middle of the screen. Then select the Agency Used Indicator checkbox located in the Home Counseling Provider panel.

  6. When finished, click the Save icon.