Foreclosure Scam Part 1

By Beatrice Jordan

Are you ready to figure out what your options are? The first thing that you
need to understand is that not all opportunities out there are legitimate,
and yes, there are unfortunately a lot of people out there who want to
take advantage of you in your dire financial situation, so let us address
foreclosure scams first before we begin to touch on the options available
to you for avoiding foreclosure, surviving foreclosure and getting back on
your feet after a foreclosure occurs.

There are predators out there who look at homeowners in poor financial
situations as easy prey, devising a number of scams and fraud attempts
to take advantage of people who are already on a heck of a financial
rollercoaster. It is important that you protect yourself by staying current
on the foreclosure fraud and scams that are circulating, so that you do not
get taken by one of these fraudsters. Here are some of the more
prevalent scams that people are trying to pull over on homeowners and
families buying homes or facing foreclosure.

- Sales Leaseback - People often tout this as an easy deal, requiring that
the homeowner hand his or her deed over to an "investor" for little or no
money, on the basis that the homeowner can continue to live in the home,
leasing it back with the option of repurchasing within a year. This may
sound like an excellent concept, but there is a serious catch involved.
Even if you sign the deed over to someone else, you are still legally
responsible for the mortgage, meaning that you would be paying both the
original mortgage and the lease amount to the investor. Paying twice what
you were already having difficulty paying will be close to impossible and
one missed or late payment will have you evicted from the home, and the
home sold out from under you.

- Predatory Lending - Unfortunately, there are a large number of
lenders out there who offer loans with the specific intention of taking
advantage of borrowers who cannot afford to make the payments. If there
is any equity in the home at all, these lenders will attempt to take it all in
the form of incredible fees, exorbitant interest rates, and nightmare
prepayment penalties. While new laws are being passed that prohibit
many of these predatory practices from occurring, it is still quite easy for
lenders to take advantage of homeowners in bad financial situations.