How does someone with no job get a $42,000 dollar loan ?

ACORN to the Rescue !

Carolyn Patmon has lived in what she calls her “modest little house” in Carver Shores for 38 years. At one point, she owned it free and clear. Then she took out a loan to add a sun porch.

Because she was on disability and wasn’t working, she was offered a mortgage rate of 14 percent.

“But the rate was supposed to go down in a couple of years,” said Patmon, 59.

It didn’t. What the mortgage brokers had told her and what the fine print in the loan documents said were two different things. Within a few years, Patmon found herself owing $115,000 on a $42,000 loan — and being sued for foreclosure

Nothing about her story is particularly remarkable these days — except how it’s ending. Because Patmon went to Orlando ACORN, a nonprofit community organization with chapters nationwide, she has been able to stop the foreclosure process and is working on having her loan modified to more affordable terms.

Experts say plenty of help is available to those such as Patmon, but that homeowners need to seek assistance early and often. And they shouldn’t expect it to be easy.

“We may tell people, ‘Listen, you need to sell your car.’ Or ‘you need to get another job, and here’s how much time you have to do that,’ ” said Stephanie Porta, head organizer for the Orlando branch of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

“It could be a painful conversation, but we’ll tell you what you need to know to get a loan modification,” Porta said.

For Patmon, it was worth it.

“If it hadn’t been for ACORN, I’d be in court on the foreclosure case right now,” she said.