OfflineI have just been reading a report on FORBES regarding scams that are taking advantage of people who are losing their homes in a Foreclosure. Although this is not what Dean is teaching us, it will have a negative effect when we approach people to help them out of their foreclosure situation.
Delinquent homeowners looking to break free from default notices are getting tricked by brokers promising to save them from foreclosure, only to make off with thousands in fees or what home equity is left.
These scamers are setting up deals that rob the homeowner rather than help them out. There are even government agencies starting to crack down on these scamers which is a good thing, but will it effect us as well?
See the article at this link: http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/realestate/
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Deb
Hi Deb,
We live in Maryland and found out just yesterday, while doing research on Maryland foreclosures, that Maryland has one of the most stringent protection of homeowners facing or in foreclosure laws in the country and it was passed as a direct result of the type of scams the article you refer to mentions. We have to be very careful on how we would approach any homeowner facing foreclosure. For example almost all of the marketing techniques Dean recommends i.e. flyers, prerecorded messages, and etc. are no longer allowed under the new Maryland law unless one is a "Foreclosure Consultant" and to legally be a Foreclosure Consultant one has to hold a valid real estate broker’s license or be affiliated with a broker. We have a copy of the law and are reading through it now to see if we can find any loopholes.
Tony
Tony
does it?
I equivocate this nonsense with "boogieman" stories they run about man eating sharks in the summer time.
This same OMG news was running locally months ago, along with the national coverage.
I am sure there are people who tried to get "fees" for their fake services and ran off with the money. I am guessing that pretty rare though, and that really just falls into any confidence scheme, from roof repair scheme to street hustlers. That sucks, but that shouldn't lump investors into the category of thieves.
The item that makes question the credibility of most so called journalists is this one:
If they were simply forfeiting their equity to avoid foreclosure I don't see the issue. Had they gone through foreclosure not only would the equity be lost, but the credit would be hit.
If they tricked them into forfeiting a ton of equity, then that sucks, but still, most homeowners, especially those owning long enough to still have equity, especially now in a tough spot (undoubtedly being told their options from the bank by this point) are not that naive.
Between the media and the way things have played out with this whole ordeal it really seems like foreclosures is what they want to continue happening. :|
Good for investors and all of the people banking on it, sure... but not a pleasant thing for the country to go through.