The Governor of Florida Charlie Christ signed a bill into law this week that now makes foreclosure rescue scams illegal, about time. We at Orlando Shortsale thank the members of the Florida House and Senate for getting together to help prevent homeowners from getting scammed. Read below.
If you haven’t noticed there are more and more foreclosure happening in Central Florida every day. That means more and more people are losing their piece of the American Dream, more and more families need real information to make informed decisions on how to proceed with their lives.
Here in Central Florida just like in any other market at any other time when good hard working families are hurting and in need of help there are those that are willing to step up and help from a position of service and there are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. The wolves in this case are investor pretending to be foreclosure assistance, foreclosure avoidance, and foreclosure rescue groups. These groups are simply investors with one goal in mind, control this person’s property so they (the investor) can profit from the seller’s mortgage problems. These investors prey on these unsuspecting sellers with tag line and mistruths like, I will buy your house in 10 days cash, foreclosure rescue services and more. When the seller meets with the investor the investor has the seller sign a lot of confusing information to be part of the program. In most cases the investor has the seller file out a Short Sale package, that is normal, but here is the catch they also seek to control the property in some form by having them sign one of the following, a deed (transfers ownership) a contract with an assignable clause and long closing date or a Power of Attorney (giving the investor unlimited power of the property). Most Sellers sign these forms without looking at them because they are so desperate for help they will do anything to keep their home or keep their home from being foreclosed.
So here is what happens next the investor now takes control of the property on paper. The investor contacts the mortgage company for the Seller and makes a BS offer. The investor gets the lender to accept whatever offer they can let’s say $ 175,000.00. The investor then goes out and attempts to sell the property for $ 200,000.00 – $ 190,000.00 to a retail buyer. Here is the problem, the investor is not doing what is best for the Seller the Investor is doing what is best for him and if the Investor does not get what he wants out of the house, he simply walks away from the property and lets it go into foreclosure all the while the Seller thinks they have sold or are selling the property to this Investor or the Investor is working hard on their side.
This technique is something I call the spread technique. It is commonly used by Investors and some Crappy Real Estate Agents. If anyone tells you they are helping you or they want to buy your property do not sign any deeds, power of attorneys, or contracts with that person without speaking with an Attorney or at a minimum a real estate agent first. You will find that most investors do not want a real estate agent involved because they will smell a rat and kill the deal, it has nothing to do with the commission, and seriously the lender pays that anyway.
At Orlando Shortsale we are committed to helping good hard working families that need real unbiased information about what to do when they can not longer make their payments, they owe more than what the property is worth or they just want some straight forward information in a very strange real estate market. We will never ask a seller to sign a deed, power of attorney, or a purchase contract.
If you need our assistance here in Central Florida and you would like to schedule a free confidential consultation please feel free to call us at 321 388 7055 or email orlandoshortsale@gmail.com
