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3 Tips for First Time Home Buyers
3 Important Tips for First Time Home Buyers
When looking at tips for first time home buyers, you've come to
the right place.
Many people are looking all over the Internet for reliable
information. There's over 761,940 websites (as of...
Do You Have The Right Stuff For Home Based Business Success?
Have you ever wondered if people that are successful in home
based businesses share some common characteristics and, if so,
what are the primary ones?
The dictionary defines successful as:
*having a favorable outcome, or
*having...
Easy Start Home Businesses 101
If you’re looking for ideas for easy start home businesses, then this article is for you. The opportunities to have an easily started home business are more abundant than you’ve ever dreamed. In fact, if you own a computer, you already have a...
NAHB’s Voluntary Model Green Home Building Guidelines
NAHB’s Voluntary Model Green Home Building Guidelines By Neda Dabestani-Ryba Prudential Carruthers REALTORS The voluntary Model Green Home Building Guidelines are designed to move environmentally friendly home building concepts further into the...
The Mountain Highs & The Valley Lows When Starting A Home Based Business
The emotional aspects of starting a home business can have you experiencing high highs and low lows. In addition to the immediate luxuries of being your own boss, setting your own working hours, and avoiding a stressful commute, there are also...
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Home Loans and Mortgages – Beware of New “Mortgage Elimination” Scam
The booming real estate market has allowed many Americans to become “equity rich.” They may not have a lot of cash on hand, but they might have equity in their homes worth several hundred thousand dollars or more. Unfortunately, this increase in home wealth has spawned an equally booming business in equity theft, as more and more thieves find increasingly clever ways to con homeowners out of their equity, their homes, or both. One clever new scam involves companies that promise to completely “eliminate” a homeowner’s mortgage. For a fee of a few thousand dollars, these companies claim that a homeowner can have a free and clear title to their home without paying off the remaining debt. How does this scam work?
This scam is a bit more complicated than other scams that often use simple forgery of identity theft. In this “mortgage elimination” scam, the homeowner places his home in a trust with the mortgage elimination company as the trustee. The trustee files a long, tedious, frivolous, letter of complaint with the mortgage company, giving them a mere ten days to respond. Should the mortgage company not respond within ten days, and they frequently do not, the trust claims that they are then free of the mortgage obligation. Using a questionable power of attorney
procedure, the trust then files with the local register of deeds for a release of the home’s title. This makes it appear that the home is now owned without a lien.
The legalities of this range from murky and questionable to outright fraud. It gets even worse when the trustee, claiming clear title to the home, takes out a home equity loan, cashes the check, and promptly disappears. The resulting mess often leaves the original homeowner with a pile of lawsuits, numerous visits from the police and the obligation to pay two mortgages. This scam is currently going on only in certain parts of the country, and isn’t yet widespread. Homeowners can easily avoid being taken by this scam by simply recognizing one simple truth – you cannot simply waive a mortgage obligation away without paying off the loan. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
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.
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