Foreclosure Scams

There are scam artists all over the country looking for ways to make more money without having to actually do any other work than to convince you to pay them. These scam artists pay close attention to the headlines that make their way into the media and as such they also know that many people today are falling behind on their mortgage payments. As such, the go through the effort of devising a plot that they can pitch you in order to get you to hand them over money, and just as there are many scam artists out there, there is also an equal amount of pitches which sound as if they are a way out, but in fact the intentions are not very honorable at all.

1) The first of the major scams that are prevalent today is that of the Foreclosure Prevention Specialist. These scam artists pretend to be home lending counselors who surprise you with vast amount of knowledge in exchange for higher than normal fees. The scam artists will make some calls and fill out some paperwork on your behalf making it look as if they are helping you to prevent foreclosure, but in fact you end up losing the home anyway and he or she walks away with the money.

2) You may also hear about the Lease/Buyback scam. In this particular scam, the homeowner is convinced into signing over their home in exchange for an ability to stay living on the premises and an eventual ability to purchase the property back from the scam artist. In most cases though, the terms for the buyback are next to impossible to fulfill and as a result the homeowner ends up loosing the entire home as the scam artist then evicts the homeowner and walks away with all of the home’s equity.

3) The Bait and Switch routine is also another popular one in which the scam artist will convince the homeowner that he or she is signing an agreement in order to bring the mortgage up to date, but in reality they are signing over their home’s deed to the scam artist who then goes through the process of evicting the homeowner and walks away with the home.

Let’s face it, in recent times the homeowner who is facing a pending foreclosure is a vulnerable target to these menaces of society. It is important to remember that you need to think and think some more over any possible approach that someone does in order to “Help you save your mortgage” and determine for yourself if it is actually a scam or not. Furthermore, you must remember to spend plenty of time overlooking anything before you sign it and if at all possible take it to a lawyer and have them overlook the paperwork as well before you choose to sign your name to it.

Most of all, if you are deciding that you will try and sell your home before foreclosure, get multiple Competitive Market Analysis from various credible real estate agents to determine the real value of your home before choosing to actually list it.

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