Editorial standard: mortgage pages should help a homeowner understand options, prepare better questions, and know when to contact the servicer, a HUD-approved housing counselor, or qualified local professional. Content should not promise outcomes or create false urgency for paid products.
Our content mission
MortgageStressScore exists to make mortgage stress easier to understand. The site is for homeowners who may be anxious, confused, behind on payments, or trying to prevent a missed payment. Content should be calm, practical, and honest.
We try to explain what common mortgage relief options mean, what questions to ask, what documents to gather, what scams to avoid, and when timing becomes important. We do not guarantee loan modifications, forbearance, foreclosure prevention, refinancing, hardship approval, credit results, or legal outcomes.
Source standards
For mortgage hardship, foreclosure, loss mitigation, FHA, scam warnings, and counseling topics, we prefer primary and official sources whenever possible.
- Federal consumer sources: CFPB pages, CFPB regulations, and CFPB Ask CFPB resources.
- Housing sources: HUD housing counseling resources, HUD-approved counselor tools, FHA/HUD guidance, and relevant HUD handbooks or mortgagee letters.
- Consumer protection sources: FTC consumer alerts and enforcement guidance about mortgage relief scams and upfront fees.
- State/local sources: state housing finance agencies, state homeowner assistance pages, court or legal aid resources where relevant.
- Servicer/investor sources: used carefully when explaining a specific program or process, with clear language that requirements may vary.
When official guidance is unavailable or incomplete, content should be framed as general educational information and should avoid overstating certainty.
High-impact financial content rules
Mortgage hardship is a high-impact financial topic. That means the content must be more careful than ordinary blog content. Pages should not encourage users to stop paying, ignore notices, hide from a servicer, transfer property, pay upfront rescue fees, or rely on a single online tool for major decisions.
When a topic involves foreclosure, sale dates, court deadlines, bankruptcy, deed transfers, credit disputes, tax consequences, or legal rights, the page should clearly tell readers to seek qualified local help. The site can explain questions to ask, but it should not replace a lawyer, HUD-approved counselor, servicer, tax professional, or financial advisor.
Review and update process
Pages should be reviewed when there are changes to official guidance, when Search Console reveals a mismatch between search intent and content, when users raise concerns, or when a page covers fast-changing programs such as state assistance funds.
| Content type | Review priority | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Core evergreen guides | Every 6–12 months or when official guidance changes | CFPB/HUD/FTC links, definitions, timeline language, CTA accuracy, internal links. |
| FHA / loan-type pages | Higher priority | HUD/FHA servicing and loss-mitigation updates, loan-type eligibility caveats, outdated program names. |
| State assistance pages | Highest priority | Whether state programs are open, closed, paused, renamed, or replaced; current official state links. |
| Calculator methodology | Whenever scoring logic changes | Input definitions, thresholds, privacy statements, and limitations. |
Pages should show a “Last reviewed” or “Updated” date where helpful, especially for content about foreclosure timelines, FHA loss mitigation, state programs, and consumer-protection warnings.
Corrections policy
If we find an error, we aim to correct it as soon as reasonably possible. Examples include outdated program links, incorrect descriptions of an option, unclear wording about foreclosure timing, or a page that could be misread as legal or financial advice.
Material corrections should be reflected in the page content and, where appropriate, in the reviewed date. Minor grammar and clarity edits may be made without a correction note.
Advertising, paid resources, and independence
MortgageStressScore may offer optional paid resources, such as an organizational action pack. Paid resources must be described clearly as educational tools and not as legal, financial, lending, foreclosure-prevention, or housing counseling services.
Editorial content should not promise that a paid product will stop foreclosure, lower a payment, guarantee approval, remove delinquency, or create any specific financial outcome. Free and official options, including contacting the servicer and HUD-approved housing counseling, should remain visible for people in urgent situations.
If advertising, referral links, or sponsored links are added in the future, they should be clearly labeled where legally or ethically appropriate and should not override consumer-protection guidance.
Privacy and user trust
The editorial tone should respect that many visitors are under stress. Pages should not use shame, fear tactics, or exaggerated claims. The calculator does not require a phone number, and content should not imply that a visitor must become a lender lead to understand basic options.
Where analytics are used, they should be used to understand site performance and improve user experience, not to create surprise lender calls or sell calculator inputs.
Content limitations
- We do not provide legal, financial, tax, lending, credit repair, foreclosure-prevention, or housing counseling advice.
- We do not review individual mortgage documents.
- We do not represent the government, HUD, FHA, CFPB, FTC, servicers, lenders, courts, or state agencies.
- We do not guarantee that any mortgage relief option will be available or approved.
- We encourage users with urgent notices, lawsuits, or sale dates to seek qualified local help immediately.