Don't call us, Bainbridge, we'll call you!

Know everything you need to know about foreclosure? Read the following to be sure.

via Inman News Blog by Matt Carter

Let's pretend you're one of these homeowners who gets shunted into the foreclosure process without ever contacting your loan servicer (according to lenders, half of troubled borrowers don't). You hear something on TV about some program that might help. Hope something. HOPE NOW, you remember, as you're channel surfing and hear something about Project Lifeline, which has something to do with HOPE NOW.

You miss the toll free number that flashes on the screen (or maybe you write down the wrong one given out at the press conference by President Bush), so you fire up your computer (yes, the ISP is still getting paid, on the credit card) and type "HOPE NOW" into Google.

The very first result* -- which you may not realize is a sponsored link -- takes you to Neighborhoodassistance.com, which is actually a lead generation site "connecting customers with our network of lenders." Maybe you notice the fine print: WE ARE NOT THE FHA, HUD OR A GOVERNMENT AGENCY. Maybe you don't.

Say you do notice the fine print, and you also have the good sense to ignore the other sponsored links on the right including:

--www.HopeNowUsa.com ("Save your home NOW. Freeze your interest rate")

---http://www.999hope.org/ ("Rate Freeze Program. Info and help on the government interest rate freeze program.")

--HopeNow.us ("Fix your ARM or Get Cashout Save Your Home From Foreclosue")

You scroll through several pages of "natural" search results (the results that aren't paid ads) looking for this HOPE NOW loan program. You see plenty of news stories and press releases from the White House, the Treasury Department, and the Financial Services Roundtable, but you keep looking for a HOPE NOW Web site.

You encounter http://www.hopenow.net/, "a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) Christian organization dedicated to providing hope and help to the hidden hurting." Nope. Nothing hidden about your hurting, and you can't expect divine intervention, no matter what Jesus had to say about charging interest.

How about http://www.hopenow.org/? Sorry, unless you are a gang member from the streets of Fresno hoping for "a lift ... into the American mainstream," you are again out of luck.

You can search through the first 10 pages of Google search results and you will still not find the official Web site of the HOPE NOW coalition of mortgage loan servicers.

Once you get there, it's obvious why Google's search algorithms don't think the site is very important. It's almost entirely devoid of any content.

If you want to learn much of anything about the HOPE NOW initiative, you have to follow the links to a page over on the Web site operated by the Financial Services Roundtable.

Oh, of course, you say, slapping yourself on the forehead. The Financial Services Roundtable. How stupid of me not to have known that.

OK, so they're getting 4,000 phone calls a day on the HOPE NOW hotline, 1-888-995-4673. So maybe it doesn't matter if Google can't find them. But if they're going to mail 774,814 letters to people, you'd think it would be worth it to create a real, dedicated Web site.

*Note: when I ran a "HOPE NOW" Google search yesterday there was a sponsored result at the top of the natural search results, and four sponsored results on the right. Today, the Neighborhoodassistance.com sponsored link at the top had vanished, and there were only three sponsored results on the right.