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Recognizing
Foreclosure Cons
By Joseph Devine
When you are facing foreclosure, you have your back up against the wall,
desperate for any way to avoid seeing your home and dreams stripped from
you. Foreclosure scammers know this, too. They, like anybody else looking
to take advantage of the desperate, know that people looking for a way out
often don't look closely enough at what's being offered. And for their
part, the people getting scammed are often guilty of not looking too
closely at the deal that's being offered to them. After all, the old
aphorism is true: if it's too good to be true, then it probably is.
Additionally, foreclosure rates have been through the roof lately
because of the bursting of the housing bubble. More and more people are
desperate and looking for the quickest, easiest way out. Foreclosure scam
artists are having a field day with this. According to an article in the
Washington Post, they are even abusing the government's
foreclosure-prevention plan, called Making Home Affordable. In these
uncertain economic times, you need to be especially careful about who
you're doing business with in order to protect yourself from the common
forms of foreclosure tricks that these people are employing.
Some of the most common foreclosure scams are:
- Selling the house and leasing it back. In this one, the
foreclosure scammers offer to buy the home from you and lease it back to
you. They say they'll keep making payments on the mortgage until you're
able to pay it off. As soon as the scammers own the house, though, they
make buying it back all but impossible and you're left out in the cold,
sometimes literally. You need to ask yourself, "what's in it for them?"
Businesses built on lending money are not charitable institutions.
- Service scams. In this type of con, the scammer poses as a
consulting expert you pay for services which you as the homeowner could
easily have performed yourself, or for services that never get
performed. Like all confidence scams, this one works on you not having
any expertise in the industry and thus being a lot more willing to
believe someone who does claim to be an expert.
There are other types of scams, too, usually focusing on taking
advantage of you knowing that there's little you can do about it. It's
important that you investigate firms before you do business with them. You
can check the internet or as your Better Business Bureau about them. When
there's a big, life-changing choice on the line, you need to take every
precaution you can. If you suspect that something is amiss, you should
confront them immediately and consider engaging a lawyer.
For more information about foreclosures and foreclosure scams, visit
http://www.westpalmbeach-bankruptcyattorney.com
Joseph Devine
Article Source:
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