| |
Understanding
loans mortgage financing refinancing home
Home Loans and Mortgages Beware of Deed Theft Scam The average home in the United States has a value of $206,000, a record amount. Real estate prices have been rising throughout the country during the last five years, and homeowners have seen the value of their property skyrocket. In California alone, the equity in private homes has increased by more than one trillion dollars in the last five years alone. Many homeowners do not even realize that their home may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they know. Unfortunately for them, a new breed of thieves is well aware of the value of home equity, and a scam known as deed theft has allowed them to steal homes from thousands of people.
Deed theft is simple in principle. The perpetrators of deed theft post flyers around town offering foreclosure help. They seek homeowners with mortgages who may be experiencing some temporary financial setback that threatens them with foreclosure. Its not uncommon for people who have been living in their homes for years to have a sudden financial emergency that prevents them from making their house payments. Perhaps a job loss or illness is to blame. The economic downturn of the last five years has left a lot of people struggling to pay their bills, and these are the people that the deed thieves seek. Their flyers promise to help those in danger of having their homes taken through foreclosure. The thieves meet with the homeowners and ask to have the title to the home transferred to them. In exchange, the rescuer will promise to pay the delinquent bills and rent the home to the victim for a year or so at a fair price. During this time, they say, the homeowner can save their money or pay off other bills. At the end of that year, the victim can buy the house back from the rescuer.
This seems like a friendly gesture, except that the rescuer has no intention of selling the home back to the victim. Once the title is signed over to them, they legally own the home. They may evict the victim, sell the home, or borrow against it, and there is little recourse for the victim, who is now nothing more than a squatter. Many of these victims fail to realize that they may have had hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in their home or that their mortgage company may have been willing to either refinance their home or assist them in some other way with making their payments, perhaps by assisting them with to debt consolidation.
This scam is currently popular across the country and homeowners could easily avoid being victimized by simply calling their mortgage company at the first sign of financial struggle. Mortgage companies arent really interested in foreclosure; theyd much rather get paid if at all possible. Before accepting the help of strangers who post signs on streetcorners, homeowners should start by asking help from those with whom they are already doing business. Doing so could not only save the homeowner money, it could save the homeowners house.
About the Author Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on home equity loans.
More Useful Resource and Updates on loans mortgage financing refinancing home
- Mortgage rates drop again (Moldova.org)
Interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate U.S. mortgages fell dramatically during the week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said Thursday.Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage rates are now almost a full percentage point lower since the last week in October, said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dropped from 5.97 percent with an average ...
- Mortgage rates post largest drop in 27 years (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages plummeted by the largest amount in 27 years this week after an unprecedented intervention by the Federal Reserve, data from home funding company Freddie Mac showed on Thursday.
- Mortgage lenders pass on rate cut (Channel 4)
Lloyds TSB and HSBC said they would be passing on the 1% interest rate cut to their variable rate customers in full.
- Mortgage-Bond Yields Plunge, Suggesting Record Home-Loan Rates (Bloomberg)
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Yields on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage bonds tumbled to the lowest on record following reports that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering a plan to push home-loan rates down to 4.5 percent.
- Banks to be forced to pass on interest rate cuts on tracker mortgages (Daily Mail)
Mortgage lenders who use small print to avoid passing on any interest rate cuts could be forced to give their customers the full benefit of any cut,a City watchdog ruled today.
- Fixed-rate trap snares 43,000 home owners (Sydney Morning Herald)
MORE than 40,000 unlucky people have been caught out in a fixed mortgage rate trap, having taken out their loan at the highest fixed interest rates in a decade, denied any saving from the recent cuts and confronting costly break fees if they decide to refinance.
- Tracker mortgages: FSA warns lenders over 'interest rate collars' (Guardian Unlimited)
Banks and building societies were today warned they could find themselves in hot water if they use small print terms to avoid passing on this week's likely interest rate cut to their tracker mortgage customers. The Financial Services Authority has waded into the row over the "collars" or "floors" that some mortgage lenders have in their terms and conditions, which allow them not to pass ...
- GMAC Mortgage
With information on refinancing, reverse mortgages and first time home buying.
|
|
|