CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- At 22-years-old college graduate, Cherise Tidwell was able to purchase her very first home.
"I just wanted to get out of the house," she says with a smile.
She found a two-story, three bedroom and two and a half bath house.
"We came out here once a week and took pictures of the dirt and the foundation while it was being built," she says.
Tidwell felt she had reached the American dream, but last year her dreams started to become a nightmare.
Health problems kept sending her to the hospital, and bills kept mounting. On top of that, her hours at her job at the post office began to dwindle.
Before long, Tidwell found herself in serious financial trouble.
"I didn't know to do," she said. "I asked Wells Fargo [her lender] if they could reduce my mortgage because I was on a 3-year ARM and they wouldn't work with me."
She said they notified her that her payments would be going up. Within a few months, Tidwell received a foreclosure notice.
Tidwell's sister told her about an organization that may be able to provide her some help, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America or NACA. She contacted them and spoke to representatives. She said that she placed her faith in them to work on a loan modification.
Tidwell called NACA and they told her they would have to try to set up a new agreement. She said despite sending all the proper paperwork in and keeping up to date on everything she was supposed to do, she received a strange visit from a man to her house.
"He was with his family and dressed like a regular person." she says.
He told her that Wells Fargo told him to change her locks.
Tidwell said she called both NACA and Wells Fargo.
NACA told her things looked good, but Wells Fargo informed her that her house had been sold on Sept. 21. Last month she received a formal letter telling her she needed to be out of the house she designed from the ground up by Nov. 15.
Tidwell emailed NewsChannel 36 and we called the Boston office of NACA.
Late Wednesday afternoon NACA and Wells Fargo were able to agree not to sell Tidwell's house and re-modify her loan agreement with a lower rate and at a fixed rate.
"I really can't say thank you enough for all you did." said Tidwell a few minutes after hearing from NACA.
