good info

We also need to keep in mind that there are legitimate businesses and investors that focus on this market.

When a home owner is 20k in arrearage, they have virtually zero chance of working it out with the bank. If an investor presents a clear and easy to understand scenario in which they purchase the house from the owners, lease it back to them for 2 years and then sell it to them at a pre-agreed upon price, then this is a win win. The home owner stays in the house and the investor makes a profit.

I agree I see the scams all the time. I have heard everything from signing blank papers, hidden deeds etc. Or loans for 30k that need to be paid back in 6 months at 55% interest. Needless to say they can not pay them back and the investor with the 30k mortgage forecloses and flips the house.

In NH a recent law was passed that virtually eliminated the entire practice of lease options or purchasing homes in foreclosure. The new law states that the buyer must pay the original owner 90% of profits if the flip the home within 3 years. Since the new law went into effect foreclosures have gone up!

As realtors it is important to remember there are real investors in this market and they are a revenue stream for us. In this case it is one good apple for every 10 rotten ones, but they are there and are helping people stay in their homes.

Fraud in this type of market is not a new thing.  In the 90's a company went around saying they could stop foreclosure if they put the name of thier home in the name of this company. 

This went on for a while and ultimately  ended with a foreclosure consultant law we have today.

Homeowners do need to know that this type SCAM does exist. That is the good point. I agree with Dick, homeowners also need to know that there are legitimate businesses, investors and Realtors who can truly help them when facing foreclosure. This point was not mentioned in the video.

Dick-

I completely agree with you.  Most of us are here reaching out to help.  However this fraud interfeers with what we are trying to accomplish to help these homeowners.

When I began doing loss mitigation work I came across a home owner who had gift deeded her home to a man who promised to stop the foreclosure process.  She paid him AND gave him her house.  Unfortunately the loans are attached to the borrower.  So she no longer had the home, and was still in foreclosure.  Meanwhile this man was collecting rent on 20 homes while they foreclosed. 

I am sure we all have these stories.

Freddie Mac’s ‘warning’ about fraud is misleading because Freddie Mac itself willfully participates in FORECLOSURE FRAUD! Debt collector attorneys file foreclosures naming DEFUNCT mortgage companies, or naming mortgage companies which NO LONGER holds the promissory notes; or affixes "ransom" amounts (the collectors' fees)  far exceeding "Acceleration Clauses" which impedes paying the debt.  If homeowners sue for "Unfair Debt Collection Practices," or various damages, collectors make even more $$ through protracted litigation.

In States like Louisiana, because Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac greatly benefit from fraudulent foreclosures any representation about $$$ billion dollar losses due to people defaulting on mortgages should be weighed against needless payments of legal fees to law firms which  outmaneuver -and even persecute people who file court proceedings in opposition to fraudulent foreclosures and repossessions. **See Proof at:
http://www.lawgrace.org/2008/01/05/united-states-chief-justice-robert%e2%80%99s-aim-to-raise-to-raise-federal-judges-pay-is-revolting-new-orleans-federal-judiciary-call-to-impeach-judge-g-thomas-porteous/

ACTUAL SITUATION: For a purported debt of $86,000.00, through use of a non-existent mortgage company, attorneys racked up more than a quarter of a million dollars in fees in litigations.  Afterward, that property was sold to a 3rd party for $37,000.00. (The dollar amounts are rounded off.)  Thus, Securities Investors got nothing, nothing practical was accomplished by evicting the homeowners, and property values declined in the neighborhood. Additionally, some collectors file in Bankruptcy Court falsified motions to "Lift Stay" pleadings for purposes of accomplishing SIMULATED AUCTIONS of real estate properties.  Also, as an added measure to heighten chances of judicial favor, collector attorneys propagate that defaulted property owners are costing their clients a lot of money, while the true culprit is collectors' fraud and racketeering.  Exploiting distressed property owners for purposes of making money from their predicaments and then lying on them to the courts has to be the cruelest exploitation and maligning against people faced with becoming homeless!

Securities Investors need to become more knowledgeable, responsible and take action about collectors as well as mortgage servicers' misdeeds which hurts borrowers as well as siphons incalculable amounts of money from what Investors profit.  Also, see "Limiting Abuse and Opportunism By Mortgage Servicers," AND  "Private Property Rights Deferred: Has Predatory  Mortgage Servicing Destroyed The American Dream" by Rawle Andrews, Jr.,  Esq.,and Leroy Jones, Jr., J.D. at the msfraud.org website. In the near future because of negligence, Investors will likely be subject to liabilities for the above-described misdeeds.
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Here's a few more notes:

-Mortgage Mess, Foreclosure Fraud and Impediments to Justice
newsblaze.com/story/20071203130614tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.

-ILLEGAL REAL ESTATE FLIPPING...
www.lawgrace.org/2007/06/21/illegal-real-estate-flipping-unfair-enrichment-etc/

-Comment on the Foreclosure of Judge Reginald Badeaux's Home
www.lawgrace.org/2007/12/08/my-december-7-2007-comment-posted-to-the-times-picayune-blog-about-the-news-article-entitled-%e2%80%9cjudge-gets-debt-reprieve-badeaux-has-skipped-mortgage-payments%e2%80%9d-the-foreclosure-of-this-lo/
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Barbara Ann Jackson
www.lawgrace.org