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Avoid Foreclosure Orlando
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is the United States of America’s consumer protection agency, has pointed out ways to recognize scams. Even if a homeowner facing foreclosure has started working with someone or a company. Or even the homeowner who is threatened by other bodies that can foreclose on your home like the IRS, Homeowners’ Associations, to name a few. There are legal options for people in these situations to save their homes.
THE SCAMS
Mortgage companies use different tactics to find homeowners in distress. Some of them go through public notices in newspapers and on the Internet or public files at local government offices. They send out letters to the homeowners. Some others take a broader approach by placing ads online, television, newspaper, posters on telephone poles, median strips, bus stops, or flyers or business cards at the door.
These scan artists use very simple and straight forward messages like these:
“Stop foreclosure now!” “We guarantee to stop your foreclosure.” “Keep your home. We know your home is scheduled to be sold. No problem!” “We can save your home. Guaranteed. Free consultation.” “We stop foreclosures every day. Our team of professionals can stop yours this week!”
The moment the homeowner’s attention is gotten, various tactics are used to get their money. Here are some of the ways:
Phony Counseling or Phantom Help
These scam artists tell homeowners that they can negotiate deals with the lenders to save their homes if a fee is paid first. Some will tell their clients not to contact their lenders, lawyers, credit counselors. They ask them to let them, the scam artists handle everything. Once the fee is paid, the scammer takes off with the money.
Other times, the scammer convinces the homeowner to make all mortgage payments to them while they negotiate with the lenders. The scam artists will collect some months’ payments and disappear.
Bait and Switch
There are times when homeowners think they are signing documents for a new loan to keep the existing mortgage current, not knowing they are being tricked. What they do not know is that they have signed documents that surrender the title of the house to the scammers in exchange for a ‘rescue’ loan.
Rent-to-Buy Scheme
Homeowners are asked to surrender the title of their homes as part of a deal that allows them to stay in their homes as renters, and buy back in a few years. They may also be told that surrendering the title will let borrowers with better credit rating to receive new financing, which will prevent the loss of their homes. Usually, the terms of these deals are too much that buying back these homes are impossible. The home is lost, and the scammer walks off with all or most of the equity. The worst of all, when the new borrower fails on the loan, the actual homeowner is evicted.
In some other ways, the scammer raises the rent over time to a point that the original homeowner is unable to make payments. After many payments are missed, the renter, who is the former homeowner, is evicted, leaving the ‘rescuer’ free to sell the house.
In other equity-skimming situations, the scammer offers to find a buyer for the house, only if the homeowner signs over the deed and moves out. The scammer may also promise to pay the homeowner a portion of the profit when the home is sold. The moment the deed is transferred, the scammer rents out the house and keeps the proceeds while the lender continues with the foreclosure. Eventually, the home is lost, and the homeowner is still responsible for the unpaid mortgage. Transferring the deed does not transfer the mortgage obligation.
Bankruptcy Foreclosure
The scammer may promise to negotiate with a homeowner’s lender or get refinancing on their behalf if a fee is paid immediately. Instead of contacting the lender or refinancing the loan, the scammer keeps the fee and files for bankruptcy in the homeowner’s name. Sometimes, this is done without their knowledge.
Very often, bankruptcy stops a foreclosure, but only temporarily. The bankruptcy step is complicated, not to talk of expensive and unforgiving. If one fails to attend the first meeting with creditors, the bankruptcy judge will dismiss the case and the foreclosure proceedings will continue.
When this happens, the person could lose the money paid to the scammer as well as the house. Worse of all, a bankruptcy stays on the person’s credit report for 10 years and can make it hard to obtain credit, buy a home, get life insurance, sometimes get a job.
Where Help Can Be Found
If you are finding it difficult to make your mortgage payment or if you have received a foreclosure notice, contact your lender immediately. You may be able to negotiate a new repayment schedule. Bear in mind that lenders normally do not want to foreclose; it costs them lots of money.
There are other foreclosure options that include reinstatement and forbearance.
You can also contact a credit counselor through the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF). It is a non-profit organization that operates the national 24/7 toll-free hotline (1-888-995-HOPE) with free, bilingual, personalized assistance to help at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Here Are Some RED FLAGS
If you are looking for home loss prevention help, avoid businesses or people that:
1. Guarantee to stop foreclosure process, no matter what the circumstances are 2. Instruct you not to contact your lender, lawyer, or credit counselor 3. Collect fees before providing you with services 4. Accept payment only by cashier’s check or wire transfer 5. Encourage you to lease your home so you can buy it back over time 6. Tell you to make your mortgage payments directly to them, instead of to your lender 7. Tell you to transfer your house deed or title to them 8. Offer to buy your house for cash at a fixed price that is not set by the housing market at the time of sale 9. Offer to fill out paperwork for you 10. Pressures you to sign paperwork you have not had a chance to read thoroughly or that you do not understand.
Where to REPORT FRAUD If you have been a victim of foreclosure fraud, contact: – Federal Trade Commission – Your state Attorney General – Your local Better Business Bureau
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Ada is a living paradox: many of her friends describe her as intensely private, patient and a good listener and loyal. But she is actually fairly exposed – the product of an education system that spans 3 continents, ie Africa, Russia, and the USA. Her many friends from University of Calabar (Nigeria) agree with those from Donetsk State University (Ukraine), Rostov State University (Russia) and Western Kentucky University (USA). Perhaps, Ada’s preeminent character is her loyalty to friends.
Ada herself ranks her training as an Information Specialist as one of the high points of her married life. So are her church activities: her memberships of the choir, Women’s Guild, Evangelism, Discipleship, and Worship committees. Like all full-blooded women everywhere, Ada likes to shop. She has travelled to over 8 countries including East and West Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Ideas gathered from these trips help her stock up her several online shops and blogs.
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Avoid Foreclosure Orlando
Along with the economy and the financial sectors, the housing market is in a free fall and home mortgage lenders are tightening the purse strings. In the foreseeable future and recent past, experts estimate nearly three to four million people (1) will be unable to avoid foreclosure and will lose or have lost their homes due to the current recession. These are alarming numbers, especially when coupled with the fact that this statistic is projected to pass the number of homeowners who lost their properties during the Great Depression.
But is foreclosure always necessary? Could today’s homeowners, if prepared with the right kind of knowledge, avoid foreclosure? The answer is a resounding yes – in many cases, homeowners with a little foresight can work with their home mortgage lenders and often avoid foreclosure or stop it from occurring in the first place.
Work with Your Home Mortgage Lenders
Whether you’re struggling or you know someone who is, there are alternate means to avoid foreclosure. Begin by speaking with your lender to see what he can do for your particular situation. In most cases, home mortgage lenders and/or lending institutions can work with you to get better rates or help you make your payments in a timely fashion.
Below are four services that home mortgage lenders and institutions routinely offer to their clients. And with a little anticipation, you can avoid foreclosure and prevent it from happening in the future by being more informed and armed with some tricks of the trade!
1. Refinance – This is one of the most common activities to avoid foreclosure in the mortgage industry in which the homeowner tries to decrease his interest rate by paying off the actual balance on the mortgage. This is possible by creating a new mortgage with a different lender for a lower interest rate, with the possibility of paying off the actual mortgage and consolidating other debt such as credit cards, auto loans, student loans, or home equity loans) in order to make just one monthly payment.
2. Loan Modification – Generally offered by home mortgage lenders or even the homeowner’s financial institution, loan modification is made to either the rate or the balance of the mortgage. This happens when home mortgage lenders change the interest rate or the balance on the mortgage in order to decrease the amount of the monthly payment. This is one of the simplest processes to reduce monthly payments and avoid foreclosure because it’s done by the current lender, meaning the paperwork is minimal and there are no closing costs, which is ideal in those situations.
3. Repayment Plan – This service is only offered by home mortgage lenders to homeowners who are delinquent on their monthly payments. With this process, home mortgage lenders will add a portion of the past due balance on the mortgage to the monthly payment in order to pay off that late balance in a shorter period of time without paying extra interest. This option is generally offered to borrowing homeowners who have experienced a significant loss of income (or an increase in living expenses), but still have enough monthly income to correct the delinquency and re-instate the loan. Repayment of the loan must occur within the duration of a scheduled monthly plan, which can be achieved either through gradual repayment of the delinquent amount or through both repayment and loan modification.
4. Short Sale – With this process, home mortgage lenders and homeowners agree on selling the house for less than the balance on the mortgage in order to pay off the debt and avoid foreclosure. These circumstances are usually related to the current real estate market and the borrower’s financial situation. A short sale is typically executed to avoid foreclosure and prevent subsequent damage from appearing on the customer’s credit score for years into the future.
Have a Plan in Place
Take your future into your own hands! Oftentimes, simply knowing the steps of how to avoid foreclosure can be successful in preventing a problematic state of affairs from escalating by making efforts well in advance to remit or resume payments. This is a sticky situation you want to avoid at all costs – a foreclosure remains on your credit report years down the road and can significantly harm your credit score to the point where it may be difficult to purchase a house ever again.
Your lending institution wants to help you avoid foreclosure, keep your home, and for you to stay in it. Be proactive and, above all, be armed with the necessary knowledge to save your home and property!
Sources
1. http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/pdf/foreclosures_2009.doc
Neil A. Terc is the president of YourKasa.com, a unique, interactive website that lists real estate properties from both realtors and homeowners. Terc created the website to offer advice and discuss the common challenges that face new homebuyers and sellers. For the last seven years, he has been purchasing, selling, and leasing properties and is a self-taught real estate professional. To see some of the website’s real estate listings online, visit www.yourkasa.com.
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Avoid Foreclosure Orlando
There are indeed some very effective steps that would help home owners to stop or avoid foreclosure. Repossession of homes by lenders are expected to go up by 50% in 2009 as a result of the credit crunch, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. This, of course is not good news and only means that more and more people will lose their homes, especially those who are not well informed. Below, I shall list 5 out of many steps that you can take to effectively stop or avoid foreclosure. 5 steps to effectively stop or avoid foreclosure:Step 1: The first step is the ability of the home owner to stay up to date with what is currently happening, you should not believe everything your lenders tell you about the foreclosure proceedings neither should you believe everything your so called foreclosure consultant tells you. I mean, there are a lot of resources that you can take advantage of to at least understand fully what your rights as a home owner are in a foreclosure proceeding. One of such resources is the internet, you can easily become a member of foreclosure related forums where you can get honest views concerning foreclosure proceedings and the options available to the home owner to either stop a foreclosure in process or totally avoid it. Step 2: Has the foreclosure proceeding started yet? Or is it going to start in the foreseeable future? Well, whatever the case maybe, we know that our aim is to keep our home and bid foreclosure goodbye. This, you stand a chance of achieving if you take action now or start to truly work on it now. This is not a time to panic but a time to vigorously seek for viable foreclosure avoidance options. The mistake a lot of home owners who have been victims of foreclosure did is, they started seeking resolution means very late in the foreclosure proceedings thus unknowingly allowing their lenders ample time to effectively maneuver the foreclosure in their favor. Step 3: Yes, we have agreed to take action but the question now is; what attitude should we portray during this proceedings? Well, with out doubt, the adoption of a positive attitude will definitely go a long way in helping you to achieve your foreclosure avoidance desires. No matter how big your lender corporation is, your positive attitude towards a favorable outcome will be of immense help.Step 4: Do not lose your calm over what is happening; the foreclosure proceeding period can be a very trying time for many home owners. That feeling of uncertainty can push you to take decisions that may have adverse effects. More often than not you find yourself running to those so called foreclosure consultants who may turn out to be out right scams. While I am not saying that you should not seek help from a foreclosure consultant either online or offline, I advice that you maintain a calm frame of mind so as to enable you to judiciously weigh all the options presented to you by your consultant and carefully take the best decision in any particular stage of the foreclosure proceeding. Step 5: Try as much as possible to refinance while your credit is still good, do not wait until you have defaulted for two or three months before you start making plans to refinance. Trying to refinance when your credit is still good will make it a lot easier to find a lender.All in all, foreclosure rate will not be as high as it is if home owners where more enlightened in the business of foreclosure. Who knows, despite how far your foreclosure proceeding has gone, with the right information you can still stop it. I wish you all the best in your efforts.
Have your lenders served you a foreclosure notice or is foreclosure looming because you have defaulted in your agreed monthly loan repayment schedule? There is no need to panic, all you need is to get acquainted with these proven steps to stop foreclosure . No matter how far the foreclosure proceeding has gone, you should still exploit these proven steps to stop foreclosure.
