Buy a House Fast

Foreclosure scams are on the rise. Do you know what you’re getting into?

Suppose you are in a bad situation and you fear you will lose your home to foreclosure. You are up late, sweating and fretting, when suddenly, as you try to surf your problems away, you hear an infomercial. Someone has the answer to your housing woes! Hurrah! They will share it with you, if you just call for free mortgage help. Operators are standing by…

It is too good to be true. Though all the great economic and social thinkers in the country are struggling to find a solution to the housing crisis, you have found the answer at 3 am. So you call and the company promises to solve all your foreclosure problems, a dream come true! Isn’t it?

How the Programs Work

You find they want an upfront payment, often equal to a month’s mortgage. This is a stretch for you, but may seem worth it. They claim to intercede with your lender. They may ask you to sign over a deed to the property. You think all is well until your lender contacts you and says that because they have not heard from you or received any payments, they will have to take further foreclosure action. You are confused, you are mad, you are devastated. Then you realize: YOU’VE BEEN DUPED by a foreclosure scam!

The company may not have made contact with the lender. In addition, the fee you paid probably never got to your lender, though you got a phony document that the foreclosure has been set aside. You may owe your lender more than you did before you called for “help.” You may receive a bankruptcy filing in the mail, filed on your behalf, even without your knowledge. You may end up with more legal bills, a poor long-term credit picture that will make it harder fot you to buy or rent for the next 10 years, and perhaps, have no home if he has signed over the deed.

Types of Scams

There are many variations on these scams, but in any case, you usually end up in a bad place. Foreclosure scams fall into three main categories:

Phantom Help: The company promises to contact your lender, which they may or may not do, regardless of what they tell you. They may fill out some basic paperwork you could have completed yourself.

The Bailout: The company offers to buy the home and rent it back to you until you can buy it back. Many times, they pocket what you pay while never dealing with your lender, so you end up with no property and no place to live.

The Bait and Switch: The company may have you sign documents to make the mortgage current, but actually you are signing over your home.

Free Help Available

Not all companies who charge a fee for mortgage help are scammers, but if you’re at risk of foreclosure, legitimate free help is available from several sources:

Look for help by the Federal Government through Making Home Affordable. Even if you do not ultimately qualify for this program, there is plenty of free or very low cost help available from HUD-approved housing counselors and non-profit groups that will either help you stay in your home or move on to a new stage in your life. Ironically, since the government started its program, foreclosure scams have actually been on the rise.

If you want to sell your home quickly and move on with your life, Express Realty Services can help with that. As the #1 Keller Williams team in the country, we can buy your home outright or list it for sale.
 Just call us at 888-306-9450 or visit our website to chat with a representative about how to get started.

If you were buying a used car, you might take it to your mechanic for an inspection.  If it came back with a a recommendation that you buy new brakes, you could live with that. I f it came back with a report of impending transmission problems, you might pay the mechanic and run like the wind away from the deal.

When you buy a house, you should perform similar due diligence and order a home inspection.  Though laws in most states favor buyers when you find a major defect in your new house, it is time consuming and inconvenient to pursue actions with sellers after you have moved into your new home.  Assuming the problem is not major enough to void the contract, you may be stuck with a home with a flaw you would not have accepted had you only known it existed.  A simple way to prevent most dilemmas like this is to request a house inspection as a contingency of your offer.  This may seem like a no-brainer for distressed properties, but it makes good sense with any home.

What’s Covered

The inspection should cover what can be seen in major systems from roof to foundation.  Separate inspections may be necessary for termites, septic systems, or other specialized things like spas or pools.  It is not designed to critique aesthetics or lifestyle.

Ideally, when the inspection takes place, you should be there, but the seller should not.  The seller needs to provide access to all parts of the home and have the utilities on. The process might take several hours. If you are unable to be there for the whole inspection, try to come at the end so the inspector can walk you through the house and explain his findings before preparing his report.

What If…

When the inspector discloses his findings, you may have some decisions to make.  How serious are the flaws he found? How much will it cost to fix them?  What is the priority to fix them?   If the problems are serious enough, you might not want to complete your purchase.

Depending on the findings, your real estate agent may be able to use them to help you negotiate on price.  If the seller already mentioned a problem before the inspection and set the price based on that, it is unlikely he will further drop the price based on that.   If the flaw is a minor one or one that a sequence of previous owners have lived with, the seller may give a little to sell the house in this buyer’s market, but your agent can guide you as to what is reasonable to expect.

Prevent Problems

Though laws in most states favor buyers when you find a major defect in your new house, it is time consuming and inconvenient to pursue actions with sellers after you have moved into your new home.  Assuming the problem is not major enough to void the contract, you may be stuck with a home with a flaw you would not have accepted had you only known it existed.  A simple way to prevent most dilemmas like this is to request a house inspection as a contingency of your offer.