Home Loans and Mortgages - Beware of Deed Theft Scam

The average home in the United States have a value of $206,000, a record amount. Real Number estate terms have got got 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 have increased by more than than one trillion dollars in the last five old age alone. Many homeowners make not even recognize that their home may be deserving 100s 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 cozenage known as “deed theft” have allowed them to steal homes from thousands of people.

Deed theft is simple in principle. The culprits of feat theft station circulars around town offering “foreclosure help.” They seek homeowners with mortgages who may be experiencing some impermanent financial reverse that endangers them with foreclosure. It’s not uncommon for people who have got got been life in their homes for old age to have a sudden financial emergency that forestalls them from making their house payments. Perhaps a occupation loss or unwellness is to blame. The economical downswing of the last five old age have left a batch of people struggling to pay their bills, and these are the people that the feat thieves seek. Their circulars promise to assist those in danger of having their homes taken through foreclosure. The thieves ran into with the homeowners and inquire to have got the statute title to the home transferred to them. In exchange, the “rescuer” volition assure to pay the delinquent measures and rent the home to the victim for a twelvemonth or so at a just price. During this time, they say, the homeowner can salvage their money or pay off other bills. At the end of that year, the victim can purchase the house back from the “rescuer.”

This looks like a friendly gesture, except that the “rescuer” have no purpose of merchandising the home back to the victim. Once the statute title is signed over to them, they legally ain the home. They may evict the victim, sell the home, or borrow against it, and there is small resort for the victim, who is now nil more than a squatter. Many of these victims neglect to recognize that they may have got got had 100s of thousands of dollars in equity in their home or that their mortgage company may have been willing to either refinance their home or help them in some other manner with making their payments.

This cozenage is currently popular across the country and homeowners could easily avoid being victimized by simply calling their mortgage company at the first mark of financial struggle. Mortgage companies aren’t really interested in foreclosure; they’d much rather get paid if at all possible. Before accepting the “help” of strangers who station marks on streetcorners, homeowners should begin by asking aid from those with whom they are already doing business. Doing so could not only salvage the homeowner money, it could salvage the homeowner’s house.