Offering some information about mortgage scams
Q: Bob, I have been reading about mortgage scams from many sources. Do you have any on information about some of these scams?
No name.
A: No name, we talked and I know the reason for the “No name” – ha! ha!
Scammers find that people having trouble paying their mortgages are particularly desperate and thus easy prey.
Foreclosure “rescue”
A finance company representative claims that his firm can help you save your home from foreclosure. He explains that if you sign your home’s title over to his company, it will pay the money that you owe and let you live in your home as a renter until your finances improve and you can pay it back.
This company has no intention of helping you save your home. Once you sign over the title, the company will kick you out and sell the home.
SELF-DEFENSE: Never sign your home over to anyone in an attempt to save it from foreclosure.
Bait-and-Switch
This is a version of the scam above. A financial representative claims that he can help you refinance your mortgage with affordable terms, rescuing your home from foreclosure. He might say that there is a special government refinancing program designed for homeowners just like you. This person will produce a stack of complex legal documents for you to sign and will warn you that you have to act fast because this special mortgage refinancing program is about to end.
The complex legal documents you sign will not solve your mortgage problem. Most likely, they will transfer ownership of your house to the scammer, yet leave you responsible for paying the mortgage.
SELF-DEFENSE: Never sign legal documents related to your home without first having them reviewed by an attorney familiar with housing issues (ask friends and colleagues for recommendations). Be extremely wary when someone says that you must act immediately to take advantage of a financial program.
Phantom Mortgage
A financial consultant offers to help you save your home from foreclosure by negotiating with your lender. All it will cost you is a consultant’s fee, which could be hundreds or thousands of dollars. The consultant pockets your fee, then sends you complicated – looking paperwork and encouraging updates from time to time to make it look as though he is working on your behalf. He will not actually do anything to help you save your home.
SELF DEFENSE: Do not trust anyone who calls out of the blue to offer you help with a mortgage problem. It often is a scam. OUR BAD ECONOMY IS GOOD FOR SCAMMERS
Rising unemployment rates, skyhigh fuel prices, a plunging stock market and falling home values have landed many Americans in difficult financial straits. This makes people psychologically predisposed to jump at a potential solution – without stopping to consider whether this solution is truly as appealing as it seems.
Scams designed to take advantage of America’s current economic problems.
There is a lot of information on this subject. I will finish this (hopefully) next week with some very good information.
Have a real estate question? Write, call, fax or e-mail:
Bob Jeffries, Realtor,
Century 21 Birchwood Realty, Inc.
4040 Del Prado Blvd., Cape Coral, FL
239-540-6659 Office
239-542-7760 Fax