Foreclosure Scams
There will always be someone who wants to take your money.
There is nothing wrong with spending money in exchange for worthwhile goods or services, but this page is dedicated to pointing out some examples of things to be cautious about.
COURSES + SEMINARS
REO SOURCES
PRE-FORECLOSURE SOURCES
IN FORECLOSURE SCAMS
REAL ESTATE SCAMS
FORECLOSURE BAILOUTS AND LEASEBACKS
Courses, Seminars and Bootcamps
There are many of them out there, some will have worthwhile information, some are predominately sales pitches to get you to spend more money. If you are going to attend a seminar, leave the credit cards at home. What sounds great during the presentation might not seem so great a week later. Valuable information isn’t going to disappear, you will certainly be able to buy it later on. An excellent resource for information on courses and seminars can be located at John T. Reed’s
Guru Ratings. While our
opinions may differ in some instances, it’s the most complete resource available with a guru rating and well worth a look.
Internet Foreclosed Homes Data Sources
There’s a huge variety in the types of services offered, so let’s look at common threads. A company charging a large up-front or sign-up fee with low monthly payments is going to have a greater interest in signing you up than keeping you as a customer. If all they charge is a one-time fee, it’s fairly obvious they make more money the sooner you go away. Companies charging a reasonable monthly fee with a low or no sign-up fee will have a greater interest in keeping you as a satisfied customer. Current monthly rates for compiled lists of bank REOs seem to average right around $40.00-$50.00 a month . This will provide you with older information than many of the pre-foreclosure information companies, but it is significantly cheaper. Companies providing information at a cost lower than this are most likely pulling information from the free REO websites. When you’re thinking about subscribing to a company, ask for some samples of complete property information first. Note when the company entered the property into their system, then go to your County Recorders office and look up the date when the bank took the property back. You’ll get an idea as to the freshness of the data and if you request samples from different companies, you’ll get an idea about
completeness of the information from each. If a company is unwilling to provide 5-10 samples, you be the judge as to whether you want to be a customer of theirs.
Internet Pre-Foreclosure Data Sources
Pre-foreclosure data providers are usually pretty reliable. You can obtain very current REO properties from many of them, but the monthly fees start around $80.00 per county and can be significantly higher. The biggest concern here is completeness and timeliness of data. Again, ask for samples, compare the data from different companies and balance price vs speed and accuracy. Most of these companies want you as an ongoing customer and provide service accordingly.
In Foreclosure Scams
People in foreclosure are vulnerable. Think twice before embarking on a plan and
think very long and hard before signing anything. Read our Foreclosure
Help section to get an understanding of some of your options. If you are considering selling
your property, get 3 agents from different offices to do a Comparative Market Analysis. It’s free, and you’ll have a good idea of the value of your property.
1. We’ll save your credit. Pay us a fee and sign the house over to us. The foreclosure will be recorded against us, not you.
The foreclosure will be reported against the borrowers on the note, not anyone else.
2. We’ll give you some money, just sign the house over, we’ll cure the default
There really isn’t a problem with it, IF you know how much equity you are selling and IF the purchaser really will cure the default and IF the purchaser will really make the payments and IF you want to still be responsible for the loan. Too many IFs to be able to say this is either a good or bad option, just be careful with it.
3. We’ll buy the property, lease it to you, you have the option to buy it back.
It might have happened, but the reality is, to buy it back you’ll need a new loan that’s larger than the loan you have with an interest rate greater than what you currently have. The payments will be higher and it’s going to be very difficult to qualify. You can learn more at our page discussing