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Get out of your mortgage for FREE?!?

Probably not... From Getty Images http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images

But that doesn't mean that people aren't trying it... and it doesn't mean that people aren't getting in trouble for it.

Here is the way it works (and it all sounds so legit...):

Mr. and Mrs. Consumer buy a house and get a mortgage from MonsterMegaMortgageCompany (MMMC).
MMMC sells their mortgage to Investor Pool #1.
Then it is bundled and sold to IP#2... and #3 and #4 over a span of a few years.
Mr. & Mrs. Consumer start having problems, and despite everything they are facing foreclosure.
To try to get help they contact a "Foreclosure Mitigation" Law Firm that fights the foreclosure by filing a "missing title" lawsuit.
The law firm (or other entity) charges an up-front fee (maybe $2000) and then monthly fees (maybe $1000 or $1500)... as well as a contingency fee upon settlement of either 50% of the reduction or 75% or 80% of the value if the mortgage were completely eliminated.
After stringing along Mr. & Mrs. Consumer for a few months or longer (collecting fees), they fail to actually prosecute the case.
Mr. & Mrs. Consumer lose their home...

According to a few of the sources I looked at, their are no recorded examples of any suit of this type EVER being resolved in the consumer's favor.

The basis of the lawsuit is that if the mortgage holder can't produce the documents from the mortgage, it will be set aside and the consumer will own their property free and clear. Sounds nice, huh?

Before getting sucked into something like this, here is a little more reading...

Source 1

Source 2

The State of California is going after one of the firms involved in this practice. I would expect that there are similar cases in other states.

Times are tough... scamsters know it, too

People being foreclosed on are all over the place. They are vulnerable to people that approach them to "help." There are a variety of scams and plans that mostly just revolve around generating a profit for the "helper."

Be careful! There is help for many home owners that are in trouble... but the easy sounding solutions often aren't what they are cracked up to be. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is...

I would love to lose my mortgage, too... but this isn't the way...

from LaneBailey.com

I'd love to hear from you...

Posted by Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy on 07/09/2009 09:21 PM

Comments (74)

Foreclosure Scams in the Mortgage / Finance Channel

financial crisis, mortgage, foreclosure

Originally posted at: Looking Out From the Garage: Get out of your mortgage for FREE?!?

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74 Comments on Get out of your mortgage for FREE?!?

JUL

I guess if it's too good to be true be wary of the person that presents it.

Hi Lane, This is the first that I've heard of this scam but, I'm ALL ears and it looks like I've got some reading to do too! Thanks for sharing this.

Lane...

We will see more and more scams as time goes on ... only the level of complexity will increase.

necessity is the mother of invention....good AND bad, sucks to see other human beings (being generous) preying on those who are struggling. Pray that Karma plays a hand for those who would do such a thing, thanks for the heads-up

In these greedy times.... it is a good scam for the scammers. Because people WILL bite!!

I don't remember the details..... but I seem to remember a variation of this about 6 or 8 yrs ago.

Lane - I have heard of this particular scam - sad that there are so many people who are in a position to fall for it right now.

In our state if people could pay that they could probably pay their mortgage.

It seems to me the rules of evidence would allow the investor/bank to produce a copy, though I haven't looked into this.

Lane: It is amazing what some people will try these days.... Great post

JUL

Lane: Congratulations on the feature! I just noticed that you've written over a thousand blogs. Do you know what that means? Yup! That's right: you are now a card carrying member of AR's THOUSAND BLOG CLUB. Please post your blog of the week there!

Great post so many people are being taken advantage of. It is nice to know that there is information being provided to help protect people from all the scam artists.

Lane: Good information!

But, in California, with recent laws extending the forclosure process, many are living totally payment free for a year or more! No need for any lawyers, just stop all payments! Plus, if it's a first loan, used to purchase your main residence, the lenders are barred from going ater the homeowner for ANY default payments!

So, your credit is shot...big deal...keep current and within a few years, you can get another mortgage.

For a good article on this, view: New California Law Offers Free Living for Many Homeowners

Judi

SEO software

I have heard of it, sellers beware.

There are so many scammers out there now.

I just delete all the multitude of emails I get from the loan mod companies.

Waste of time, I just do them myself, but no one in MI is modifyiing.

There are so many scams, but the old saying is usually true. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

This is great information to hang on to. Scams are only getting worse as more and more people become vulnerable.

I have heard of that (scam) about how to get a free home. I didn't believe it and have never encourage anyone to pursue that path.

The scammers are out in force, indeed.

Tina in Virginia

what you are referring to is a version of a story where a bankruptcy judge threw out a foreclosure because the bank foreclosing could not produce the note. havent heard of any scams associated with this, yet.

Borrowers to respond to these scams and then think they are protected from foreclosure. One of our associates had a recent eviction in just this type of situation. The Maryland borrower had paid thousands of dollars to a Florida scammer and was confident that the eviction would be stopped.

Lane- I was thinking about scams the other day. Probably because I had an unsolicitated phone call to my home about "are you in trouble with your mortgage? We can help!" I actually listened to the whole message just to hear what they said and wondered how many people hit the buttons to talk to a live person. In bad times people are looking for a quick out, they just don't do their research and find out there probably isn't such a thing.

In good times scammers are trying to sell us some piece of junk, in bad times they are playing on peoples financial woes and fears.

Thanks for the info Lane! I was wondering what these types of companies were all about.

Obviously, not much except putting the consumer through more grief.

Unfortunately when you are desparate you will listen to and hope for and grab on to anything. It is in our nature.

I have heard of it, but not paying that much money. I am sure the numbers increase every time the story was told.

IF anybody got a free house and it was validated and posted on Yahoo's home page. There would be millions of people trying to do this. Another late night infomerical canidate is want it really is to people looking for a way out of a bad situation.

I strongly believe it is one of the most important areas of "service delivery"as a Buyer Agent to protect your Client from unknown Lenders !!! I give them a list of several "time tested" LOCAL lenders to interview, but go on a filabuster(sp.?) if they try and use an unproven lender about the dangers and/or hidden costs/junk fees !!!

While there are scams out there, sometimes these firms are honest: maybe they do the same thing, but htey at least let the client/home owner know that this is simply a delaying tactic. If the firm is willing to do the work and settle for the contingency fee (savings based on reduction in mortgage, or forgiveness) then let them take no other fee. If they claim they can get you out of the mortgage free and clear, great. If they dont, they do not get paid. Fine.

But generally, these tactics are simply delaying tactics to allow the homeowner to regroup, negotiate a new rate, etc. and most of the time the consumer knows it.

Even if the consumer can fight off the foreclosure and eliminate some of the fees and penalties, the reality is that there is still a recorded mortgage / deed of trust against the property. Unless that document gets removed by a court, it isn't going anywhere and will have to be dealt with at some point.

Lane~

Following your advice, I checked out the two sources. Combines with this post for which I thank you very much, the sources gave me excellent information. THANKS.

Hi Lane

Thanks for the post; it is terrible that there are individuals out there who do take advantage of folks!

And of course there is the old saying....if it is too good to be true; it's probably is & it's not a good thing!

Let's keep shining a light on the scammers....

There are lots of scams out there to be sure, but the "show me the note" strategy being used by more and more legitimate consumer oriented attorneys is growing daily. With the avalanche of foreclosures in most cases the homeowners using the strategy are placed at the bottom of the pile while the foreclosing attorneys go after the low hanging fruit, of which there is plenty.

This really is a delaying the inevitable tactic, but after a year or two of fighting it the bank will usually get realistic and work with the homeowner to come to a viable solution. Unfortunately this is what it takes. Anyone who says that the first thing to do when in financial trouble is to call the bank should be shot. The banks have no interest whatsoever in helping the homeowner.

For further information or help for your distressed homeowners visit http://livinglies.wordpress.com/ . It will open your eyes!

It's the old rule of thumb, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. My mindset has always been, stop gaming the system, in the amount of times you try something and fail while attempting to "beat the system", you could have been doing it the right way and not having to worry about losing everything.

Well I have a friend who heard all about this months ago. He did not have the money to pay a lawyer. They only wanted $2500 for the ENTIRE thing but still he did not have the money. He used to be in law school in the 70's so he decided to try it himself. He represented himself and such and WON.... Basically the bank can not go after him until they get the paperwork, he has not heard ANYTHING from them for over 4 months now. He has not made a payment in 16 months.

Now he has started to show some of his friends how to do this. They even had a lawyer convention and he was there talking about this last week. The problem is that the lawyers don't know how to do it, it does not fit in their mindset.

It's the same old thing - when the market was hot these were the same people pushing bad mortgages on their clients to close the deal. Now they are prospering on their desperate situation. Even in this bad economy, you will see millionaires made. There is a fine line of where we have to view certain things. For instance, I heard that at the last 5-Star REO conference, news sources were chastising agents for prospering on REO transactions...basically saying how can they treat themselves to fine dinning and lavish hotel suites on blood money? That is a hard stance to take...but what about Bankruptcy attorneys? They profit when other people fail, and their business is booming - but they provide a service which is useful and usually forgotten in the end. I think the hardest part is that we have to determine what is the scam and what is not. The best thing we can have is hope, and the worst thing we can have is hope. The "It worked for him it will work for me" mentality seems to always beat the reality of the situation view point.

Jimmy

I have not seen any evidence of this type of activity in our market either, but we all know that some people are willing to take advantage those who are under great stress.

Thanks for the insight.

It's sad when homeowners have no where to turn and act in desperation! I was asked to work for this company finding homeowners and they would pay $500 per lead. Right away I knew this was not right. I don't like paying for something I know I could get done for no fee; I myself have been burned before more than once; I think we all have. Thanks for writing about this Lane.

So sad.... so much greed.

www.abbotsford-realestate.com

It's terrible that such things happen. There needs to be a more visible means of information dissemination so that home-owners are just much more aware of where to go for accurate information. I have seen several scams in Central Virginia, not quite of this nature, but still related to real estate purchases and it just sickens me that so many people get caught up in this mess . . . simply because for the most part they are just not knowledgeable about the ramifications of these "on the sly" rescue-attempts . . .

Two great post today on a growing problem. If you want to know where trouble is just do like Deep Throat said in "All the President's men", follow the money.

I have heard of people using something like this at the foreclosure sale in order to delay a foreclosure action in order to buy more time to sell their property or stay in the home a month or two longer while they save whatever money they make for a deposit on a rental.

If attorneys are perpetuating a scam where they collect fees from people who can ill afford to pay and when they are emotionally vulnerable that have no possibility of success, shame on them. They ought to be disbarred.

There are so many scams. I would think a law firm would have some knowledge (and fear of the consequences) to stay on the legal side of things.

Tough times bring out the wolves. If there is a chance to make a buck, you know someone is trying to get it the easy (dirty) way.

Lane;

Thanks for the info... This also bring up the issue that as Realtors, we did top know who we are referring people to... I guess this is what is ment by "due diligence"

Bill

Lane - please post this over at the mortgage fraud group when you get a chance. This as a variation of the old 'Produce the Note' scam I posted on back in March. It's an official position advocated by Representative Marcia Kapur, the longest serving femals representative. Of course it doesn't work any better than any of the other scams but with an official website endorsed by a federal representative, it has snookered a lot of people into losing their homes by thinking they can force a bank to produce their original note. Opening that door it was just a matyter of time before law firms saw a way to profit from it as well. Scandalous.

Wow. I spoke with a few companies before deciding on one and got it done due more research online and checkign with DRE. I got the loan modificed then the best thing ever this ear got a quick short sale to go through.

What is wrong with these people taking advantage of someone when they are down - no morals at all. It just seems like it is getting worse and worse. I have not come across it Yet but thanks for the info.

What starts in California usually circulates throughout the country. Beware of anything that sounds to good to be true. Some foreclosure cases are being won on the "Produce the Note Defense" but ultimately it is only a stalling tactic and at some point in time you have to 'show me the money.'

If an attorney is charging you high fees to represent you... get a different attorney - it is that easy. The Bar has the ability to go and take that money back, in which case you can use it to pay the other attorney.

Thanks for letting us know. I heard of using the missing title document to forestall foreclosure, but I didn't know scammer were also using it as a tactic to draw blood from the dead.

I've seen stuff like this in the past. One lawyer once claimed that since mortgages were pooled that the actual individual mortgage didn't exist anymore and therefore it couldn't be inforced.

Unfortunately the documents do exist and MBSs (Mortgage Backed Securities) are created by the intermediary.

If these scams actually worked it would be like a paper manufacturer not paying the forester that provides the wood pulp by saying "wood pulp? I don't see any wood pulp. All I see is paper, and therefore I'm not paying any bills for wood pulp."

Anywhere there is a wound cottage industries pop up to rub salt in it.

Good post, it's a shame what crooks are doing to these people.

I've heard of this as a way to stay or stall the foreclosure. The screwees end up getting screwed in the end.

I have heard of this type of thing happening or I should say attempted, but I haven't heard of one working in the owner's favor...isn't that because the note gets recorded? Couldn't investor pool #4 just pull the docs from the County?

Add that to the list of scammers preying on desperate homeowners. It's sad to see this type of thing going on in these times. Dan

Thanks for the information Lane. It is a pity there are so many willing to take advantage and just

exponentially add to someones misery.

Sounds just like the "Produce the Note" rally cry that was called out earlier in the year. Scary and profoundly sad how many people fall for these scam artists.

I wonder if the homeowner has any recourse against the Law Firm for misleading them? I'm sure they signed a disclosure preventing any kind of recourse against them. Shame on them...

Thank you all for the commets. There are just so many. I have been reading them as they came in...

Michael J Perry - And that has to do with the post how? It was a nice little speech, but I had nothing to do with the post.

Keith - Went to your link... that would be a scamster... He is selling seminars on how to cheat people. Nice.

Jason Dragon - there is always a friend... got a case citation? There have been some people that have stalled foreclosure, but none that have gotten rid of their mortgage... including your "friend".

Ray - If they were defrauded, then there isn't a release in the world that owuld stop them from saying so. One can't sign away the right to report a crime.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Neil Garfield. He only recently started offering seminars and they are mostly for attorneys. He also offers a layman seminar for those who want to tackle this themselves. You should look more deeply into the site. I'm not sure what state you are in, but Florida is devastated with this foreclosure mess. Most homeowners are under water, many are hundreds of thousands under water, but do want to save their homes. If they can affordably use Mr. Garfield's strategies and eventually work out a fair modification, then so much the better. If they are not intertested in saving their homes they can do a short sale. Most reputable lawyers are not representing a client will get his home for free. That would be like winning the lottery. Not going to happen.

I have been full time in real estate for 25 years in this market and there does not seem to be an end to what is happening right now. The housing market is the foundation of this nation's economy. Until the housing market can be stablized there will probably not be an end to our current economic crisis.

I have not had a minute today to read the comments - but

If it weren't so unbelievable most people would think you were telling a joke.

But you are, for the most part, correct.

Your storyline supports my law firm's motto - "FORECLOSURE IS NOT THE SOLUTION".

Thanks for this post. I hear advertisements everyday about how "the Obama administration passed laws to help consumers in trouble and if you call _______ Law firm, we'll help lower your mortgage by as much as 60%"

Thanks for revealing the scam

Great blog, Lane...I have actually seen this happen. If it looks too good to be true, it likely is.

I have heard of that legal challenge to foreclosure before - if the mortgage company can't produce the original note, that judges would toss the case out, but I had not heard that that was a tactic being used by scammers or loan mod companies. When I first came across this, it was a homeowner who did not have a lawyer who asked the question, and had the case thrown out. I would like to get more information about this if possible, from the attorneys out there....

JUL

What is happening hear is delays in the case while the banks come up with the original note-giving folks more time to come up with a solution, always be on the lookout for scams.

Wow........thanks for sharing. Amazing how many rotten people are out there to scam someone.

I haven't heard of this scam, but I've heard of demanding that the bank show them the note to forestall losing their home. I would do that too, to try to buy as much tme as possible to get the bank to work with me, but how can anyone pay that much to a company when it could go towards making their payments? Unless their payments were 2-3x that amount...

JUL

nice blog. thank you for sharing this information. Yes, unfortunately there are always scammers out there. the bad part is that we all must bear the burden, eventually, if one person defaults. Things then get higher for the rest of us.

JUL

This is the exact process that a family member went through except the scammer was a credit counselling firm that took their money and had wages garnished!

Lane,

Thanks a million for this info. It seems every time I turn around there is another scam like this surfacing its ugly head.

Thank you all for the comments - I still think this is a losing game for the homeowner. Of course the banks DO deserve a spanking, but in most places the owner is going to get stuck with late fees, past due payments and STILL ending up losing their homes. Of course, since most will ose the house, it just means they get to score some free housing... Nice...

JUL

I have also heard of folks asking for the mortgage companies to produce a copy of the note. After being sold so many times, the mortgage company cannot produce it and the mortgagor then tries to say that they do not owe the balance due.

JUL

Lane - It's sad that there always seems to be those that try to take advantage of other people's circumstances. I have heard some crazy stories about what some homeowners are doing, as well as other people who are trying to get into the real estate market to take advantage of those in distressed situations.