Homeowners facing foreclosure are often desperate for a way out, but the agencies that claim they can save your home may not be able to help. Foreclosure filings topped 2 million in the United States last year — a 65 percent increase over the previous year.Mave Elise Brown of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates in California said innocence and desperation on the part of the homeowner can make them prime targets of such scam
Foreclosure rescue scams come in creative packages — the most popular are mortgage negotiation and title transfer.
The ploy in mortgage negotiation goes something like this — for a fee, a company can save your home from foreclosure by negotiating with your loan servicer.
The homeowner puts out over several hundred or thousand dollars and never sees the scammer again, and still loses their house.
In title transfer, fraudulent firms may get the homeowner to sign over title with a promise of renting back and eventually buying back their own home. That usually doesn’t happen, and the homeowner is evicted.
Brown said there is no way somebody knocking on your door, reaching you over the Internet, or soliciting you at church or anyplace else is going to be able to save your home for you.
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What you fail to acknowledge here is that the majority of those losing their homes spent the equity from those homes instead of listening to the voices of reason that told them not to. If the bill were to become law, those of us that did not gamble on an increasing market are the ones left to foot the bill for the foolishness of others. Who’s going to pay out when the banks that President Bush is “buddies” with go under? That’s right, it’s you and me the tax payer. Funny how we don’t have any sympathy for someone who makes, and loses a similar gamble in the stock market, even though the majority of those persons have families that are devastated the same way as those losing their homes. The only difference is those losing their homes can still go back to being a renter, while the business man’s reward is that he has to go back to being someone elses employee. Are you aware that the FDIC has a list of between 50 & 85 banks that it expects to “go under” in the next 18 months? Where is the money going to come from to pay those FDIC claims, let alone “Universal Health Care”. While the government has no right to continue spending like drunken sailors on leave, neither does the American public. Until we all accept some personal responsibility for our actions, how can we expect those running our government to?
Why is it that I am not responsible because at the time that my family got the loan My family could afford it But after an unsuspected job loss and decrease in income, will not be able to afford the adjustable loan. We are currently in chapter 13, paying all bills on time being a responsible citizen. Not filing for a chapter 7 and walking away from our responsibility. Why is it that Bush will be able to help certain ones and not the ones that are also trying to do what is right? It’s a lot of people out here with different circumstances that just didn’t go out and got a loan that they didn’t afford so why are some generalizing this situation. If this bill do get vetoed, We may have to give our house up because of the upcoming rise in the interest. This bill would help a lot and not just some who got them self into their situation on purpose.
You know, job losses are a fact of life. You are not the first one it has happened to and you won’t be the last. As a taxpayer, it is not my responsibility to keep you in a house you can no longer afford whatever the reason. Give up the house, find a place to rent, and when your circumstances improve and/or stabilize you can get back into the market.
This goes well beyond the traditional challenges of a typical foreclosure under a typical market. There is nothing here typical. The top three reasons for foreclosure continue to be loss of job, divorce, and medical emergency.
If loans are not modified then the banks will eat huge deficiencies and we will all still pay. Where is the downside to any of us in that?
It is far better to have a “controlled fall” than jumping off a cliff.
Lenders saw this coming but they continued to make the “risky” loans due to greed. Investors kept making the investments due to greed.
The Bush administration saw this coming and did nothing to pro-actively reign in the lenders/investors/homebuyers. Everyone saw corporations laying off hundreds of thousands in well paying jobs who then went to work for much less money if they could get a job.
Yeah ideally we should just let everyone flop on the deck like a fish but that will not produce the results we all want ultimately which is to minimize the collateral damage to a failing economy of which this is only a single piece of the puzzle.
No matter what we will pay one way or another.
What is your idea of a controlled fall? Does it include keeping prices artificially propped up? Who does it help in the long run when home prices are still so ridiculously inflated that the median price is 7 to 10 times the median income? Modifying loans is not the issue. That will not correct the seriously underwater position many homeowners are in and will be in in the hardest hit markets like CA and FL. The price of housing must fall and it must fall dramatically if we have any hopes of preserving the “American Dream” of homeownership for future generations. For those who bought at the peak of this bubble in the worst areas, a loan modification is a waste of time in so many ways. In addition, as you mentioned, the top three reasons for going into foreclosure have not changed. The dirty little secret of this whole fiasco is that most of these borrowers went into default before their loans reset for the first time – just check out Moe’s little forum at loansafe.org and read the stories. All the loan modifications in the world won’t give back that lost fake equity or help people who are doomed to lose their houses today or next year because they never should have gotten loans to begin with.
The new bailout of the homeowners, should not be vetoed. The disaster was caused by our failing economy, high fuel and food prices, so do not put all the blame on the homeowners.
You don’t get it. It’s NOT Bush helping, it’s the taxpayer. Are you asking Bush for a personal loan?
For all you rocket scientists out there who would like to blame the homeowners for the debacle we currently face here is some info for your ignorance.
I purchased my home in California in 2002 I was a single parent with 2 boys who just got hosed in a divorce (she got everything) I had to use my inheritance from my fathers estate to purchase the “AMERICAN DREAM” my bank told me that even though I only made “4500″ per month they could finance this beautiful home for me and that there was nothing for me to worry about they had it all under control, well here comes the good part they set me up in one of those “NO QUALIFY LOANS” because I used every penny from the inheritance to put into this home. Over the course of 7 years and 3 refi’s later due to my LOW INTRODUCTORY RATE EXPIRING I had to do STATED INCOME again and again in fact 3 timies because I could not qualify for a full doc loan, any of you meats heads understand yet? well here we are the econmy is in shambles banks aren’t releasing the money they are supposed to my credit has taken a shit, my income rose but because my credit is crap trying to meet the banks obligations my payment is now $5200 per month. So how about this they told me when I went to modify my inerest rate in which they told me I had the option built into my loan I couldn’t because it wasn’t built into my loan…..CAN YOU SAY SCAMED BY MY BANK? WORLD SAVINGS/WACHOVIA/WELLS FARGO Wachovia now tells me they will not modify my loan (Interest rate) which is all I wanted so I could make my payments and now I am facing the possibility of losing my home. So I say to all you MORONS who say I was inrresponsible eat my dirty tennis shoes this has nothing to do with being an irresponsible homeowner it has to do with BANKS being irresponsible lenders they never should have given me a loan to begin with based on my income.