Foreclosure And Buy Houses Scams On The Net

In all areas we may provide assistance and help to those people seeking support in the quick buying and selling of real estate (houses, mobile homes, land, single family, multi family, duplex, condos, condexes, townhouses, commercial / retail strip malls, etc.) as it relates to bankruptcy (Chapter 7 and Chapter 13); foreclosure (stopping and avoiding foreclosure); divorce; relocating and relocation; estates; probate; inheritance of real estate; landlording, income, rental, or investment property; illness and death; getting cash quickly or assisting with badly needed cash due to layoffs; avoiding the payment of real estate commissions, etc.: Allenstown, Amherst, Atkinson, Antrim, Ashland, Auburn, Barnstead, Bedford, Boscawen, Bow, Brentwood, Chester, Chichester, Candia, Canterbury, Concord, Contoocook, Danville, Deerfield, Deering, Derry, Dover, Durham, Epping, Epsom, Exeter, Francestown, Franklin, Fremont, Gilmanton, Gilford, Goffstown, Greenfield, Greenville, Hampstead, Hampton, Hollis, Hopkinton, Hudson, Hooksett, Jaffrey, Kingston, Laconia, Lee, Litchfield, Londonderry, Loudon, Lyndeborough, Manchester, Meredith, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, Nashua, New Boston, New London, New Ipswich, Newton, Newfields, Northfield, Northwood, Nottingham, Pelham, Pembroke, Penacook, Peterborough, Pittsfield, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Raymond, Rindge, Salem, Sandown, Somersworth, Stratham, Suncook, Tilton, Weare, Webster, Wilton, Windham, Wolfeboro AND MORE in New Hampshire. In Massachusetts we serve Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Haverhill, AND MORE. Depending upon availability, we may also be able to refer you to another investor in Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, Virginia, Texas, Michigan among other states; and in Massachusetts, Worcester, Fitchburg, Leominster, Gardner, Westminster, Auburn, Shrewsbury, Shirley, Northborough, Acton and neighboring towns; in Florida, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Plant City, Pinellas Park, Lealman, Largo, Port St. Lucy, Port Charlotte, Fort Pierce, Venice Beach, Viro Beach, Plant City, Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Clearwater, Dunedin and Palm Harbor.

Listed below are excerpts from websites we identified (postings, news articles and other sources). This is information that is available to anyone on the Internet - made public by the sources. The sources have been identified (to the extent we could find the information) and given credit. Some listings are simply blogs and opinions. We have not validated any of the original sources - so the info is here for your "entertainment" and not provided as fact. You are encouraged though, to do more research on your own - and form your own opinions.

"Don't Hand Your House to A Thief" (Source - Excerpted and modified from an article posted by C. Solomon on an MSN Microsoft real estate subject site)

A New York couple was in a great deal of difficulty. The husband had health issues. He also lost his job. In order to pay their bills, the couple took out a home equity loan on their home. But the home equity loan wasn't enough to meet their financial needs. That's when the person offering help (a.k.a. - "the helper" - name omitted). This person told the couple that he would arrange a bailout. He said that they should stop making mortgage payments while he worked out the details. Then the couple started to receive foreclosure notices. When foreclosure notices started showing up, he told the couple to ignore them. He said he'd take care of it. Almost eight weeks had passed since "the helper" had approached them. And now, the day before their foreclosure was scheduled, "the helper" told the home owners that the arrangement hadn't worked. Instead, he said they'd have to file for bankruptcy and enter a "special program". In this program, they'd sign over their house's title to one of "the helper's" employees and another of his business associates. This associate happened to be "the helper's" brother. He said they'd be allowed to live in their home as tenants and their rent payments would go toward buying their home back from him. Due to the impending foreclosure and their lack of money, they had no choice but to sign over their deed.

But "the helper" never made any mortgage payments as he promised he would. He kept the home owner's rent money and about $50,000 of the couple's money that remained after their creditors were paid. (NOTE - There are signs on telephone poles that say they'll take over your payments. Maybe some are legitimate and well-intended. Maybe others are not.)

Foreclosure "Rescue" Scams - DON'T FALL PREY!

What’s a Foreclosure "Rescue" Scam? These scams revolve around heavily-promoted deals supposedly designed to save the homes of people facing foreclosure, those who've fallen behind on their mortgage payments.

But with frightening regularity this "help" from a "rescuer" either drains off the property’s built-up equity or leaves the "rescuer" owning the house outright – and the family evicted from their home. In many cases it’s hard to escape the conclusion that that’s exactly what the "rescue" is designed to do.

The predominant foreclosure "rescue" scams appear to come in three varieties.

The first might be called "phantom help," where the "rescuer" charges outrageous fees either for light-duty phone calls and paperwork the homeowner could have easily performed, or on a promise of more robust representation that never materializes. In either event the homeowner is usually left without enough assistance to actually save the home but with little or no time left to prevent this grievous loss by the time s/he realizes it. The "rescuer" essentially abandons the homeowner to a fate that might well have been prevented with better intervention.

A second variety of the scam is the "bailout" that never quite works. This scenario includes various schemes under which the homeowner surrenders title to the house in the belief that s/he is entering a deal where s/he’ll be able to remain as a renter, and buy it back over the next few years. Homeowners are sometimes told that surrendering title is necessary so that someone with a better credit rating can secure new financing to prevent the loss of the home. But the terms of these deals are almost invariably so onerous that the buyback becomes impossible, the homeowner permanently loses possession, and the "rescuers" walk off with all or most of the home’s equity.

The third variety is a bait-and-switch where the homeowner does not realize s/he is surrendering ownership of the house in exchange for a "rescue." Many homeowners later insist that they believed they were only signing documents for a new loan to make the mortgage current.

Source: R. Johnston, Realtor, Posted on the San Fernando Valley Real Estate Blog; his source was the National Consumer Law Center Report

This is just a sample. We'll be adding more info as we encounter it.

Even Some Of The So-Called Real Estate Gurus Have Shady Pasts & Trouble With The Law.

One Popular Guru, who has written numerous get-rich-quick books and had TV infomercials:

* Was investigated by the Illinois Attorney General's Office for illegal & fraudulent acts.

* Was sued in a lawsuit filed by the California Attorney General's Office

* Was investigated by State Attorneys General Offices in 9 states

* Had a civil contempt order filed against him by the Federal Trade Commission.

Source: Trust Makers

Others have filed bankruptcy, closed and reopened businesses under different names, etc.

"I won't even attempt to do that (work with the buy houses types). Their signs scare me." VC, MA

____________

A Typical Trait of The Unreliable

"He never returned my calls. Then a month later he called and tried to negotiate. He said he would call back and never called back.” MD, MA

___________

This Person Saw A Buy Houses Billboard In Nashua, Took The Bait & Called

“…He got in to the different options. He made it sound great. Then he asked for our deed and I said , whoa! Forget it!”...”MS, NH

A Community Law Center representative is surrounded by home-buying signs that were posted illegally around Baltimore. Residents tore the signs down to turn them over to the city. (Baltimore Sun article by J. Hopkins, Sun reporter, April 18, 2008; photo by M. Lopossay / April 2, 2008)

Another Scam Example: Phantom Help

This scheme is fairly simple: Let's say you're way behind on your home payments and facing foreclosure. An individual or group contacts you and says they can help. They then charge you thousands of dollars for various administrative duties like filing forms and phone calls. Or they simply keep promising a their big rescue later. You can probably guess what's really going on: The "helper" isn't really doing anything at all to stop your foreclosure despite collecting thousands from you. And by the time you figure out you've tricked, it's often too late to stop the loss of your house. How did the scammer know to target you, anyway? That's easy: When a lender schedules the home for public auction, the matter becomes public record. Notices are often published in local newspapers. They follow these notices - then start calling, sending letters or even driving by and knocking on doors. It's not guardian angel -- just a vulture.

From A Posting From The Attorney General Of North Carolina (Source)

His office took one of those "we buy homes" outfits to court to stop them from taking advantage of North Carolina home owners. The company got the home owners to sign their titles to their homes over to them, held in a trust and then leased the homes while leaving the original owners responsible for paying the existing mortgage. (As a side note, there are so-called "investors" attempting the same technique here, according to what we have been told). Although the company promised to pay the mortgages on the homes it "bought" from the home owners, the company never put its own name on the mortgages and sometimes failed to make the payments it promised it would ("we take over your payments"), putting them at risk of losing their homes through foreclosure.

Their office also encountered another form of scam involving "foreclosure consultants". These people promise they can resolve a foreclosure by meeting or negotiating with the home owner's creditors. They generally take one month's mortgage payment, but instead of paying the lender, they pocket this as an up front fee. This scam leaves the desperate home owners in even worse shape than they started.

The Attorney General's office is advising consumers to be skeptical of companies that:

advertise themselves as mortgage consultants" or foreclosure services
contact you because your home is listed for foreclosure at the courthouse
require a large down payment up front before taking any action
tell you to make your mortgage payments to them instead of your mortgage company
ask you to transfer your property deed or title to them or into a trust they've established.