Beware Foreclosure Assistance Scams

When you've got money trouble, it's easy to get caught up in whatever type of assistance anyone offers you. This is especially true if you are in need of foreclosure assistance to keep from losing your home. One of the many types of scams that con artists use in order to take unwitting victims' money is called Equity Skimming. In this scam, someone will approach you and offer to buy your home to get you out of trouble. The crook insists that you deed the property to him or her in order to avoid foreclosure, and then implies that you will receive a certain percentage of the profit when the property sells.

Too often, however, once you have willingly signed over your rights to the house, the con artist simply rents the home out for a short while to make some quick cash. The bank still forecloses on the loan, and you have absolutely nothing to show for it. Simply signing over the deed to your home does not negate what you owe your mortgage company. Beware of anyone offering this type of foreclosure assistance.

Illegitimate foreclosure assistance counseling agencies often prey upon those in need of financial assistance. These services promise that, for a small fee, they can work with your lenders to get you the foreclosure assistance you need. Too often, however, the assistance they promise to provide is something you could well do yourself free of charge. The majority of these "counseling" services only call to negotiate a temporary payment arrangement with your lender. This is a step you should take yourself before calling anyone for foreclosure assistance.

Anytime you request foreclosure assistance, be sure that you get all promises in writing, never sign anything without the advice of an attorney, and contact your District Attorney's Consumer Fraud Unit before accepting foreclosure assistance from anyone.

Some may call it benefiting from the misfortunes of others, while those with the resources claim they are only interested in foreclosure investing from a business point of view. Nationwide statistics show that the practice of buying and reselling foreclosed homes is basically on the same historical level as it has been for about the past 10 years.

Many more homes are sold back to the lenders than are sold to third parties through auction or outright sale prior to reaching auction. These numbers would indicate that foreclosure investing is not necessarily rising from a percentage standpoint, but in volume are higher than in previous years. There are numerous reasons a home ends up in foreclosure and in some cases, there are people with sufficient resources ready to pounce on the property when it hits the block.

However, from a strict financial point of view, foreclosure investing is a means of securing property below market value and turning a profit. In some ways this process also helps surrounding property owners in maintaining adjacent property values. Many times when foreclosed homes are returned to the lender, it may sit for months, and even years, slowly falling into disrepair. The result is depreciated value for that property as well as surrounding properties.

A person in the business of foreclosure investing may get a good deal on a property and be able to spend resources on repairs and fixing it up for resale. Once completed, the property is back on the market and since it has improved its appearance, the value may be higher than previously listed. This helps maintain the property values of adjacent homes and in some cases, entire neighborhoods.

It should be realized that someone interested in foreclosure investing is not going to buy a property and let it sit very long. They want to reap a return from that investment and the only they can do that is to get it ready for sale and put it back on the market at a reasonable cost while still making a return on the investment. While there may be a few land sharks swimming in the waters of foreclosure, many more are in it for the money and will have to produce a valid product in order to make money.

Yes, there are going to be people who will make money from foreclosure investing, but that is why they do it. However, it benefits others in the immediate neighborhood as well and should be looked on as an investment in the entire block, and not just one property.

For those who haven't found what they were looking for...