The ads are popping up all over craigslist. Next you'll hear them on satellite radio and see them advertised in your local real estate rag: "Become A Loss Mitigator" "Enter The Exciting Field of Loss Mitigation" "Become a Certified Loss Mitigator" (that one always tickles me). Most of those people will be fly-by-nights looking for an easy mark who is severely down and easy to fool.
Technically speaking a Loss Mitigator works for a lender and has years of experience in the high finance world. They are charged with making sure the lender doesn't suffer any loss. To say they don't care about the borrower is not true but to say they care less about the borrower than the lender is more accurate.
Ask yourself when you see the words "loss mitigator" this question, "Who's loss?" Are they concerned with your loss? Are the concerned with the lenders loss? Here is the elephant in the board room issue: If the person calling themselves a "loss mitigator" is not either sworn to protect your loss or paid to protect the lender's loss then they are not a loss mitigator at all - they are an opportunist. It may not be that they are looking to take advantage of you (although it's likely they are) but to take advantage of your situation.
The new breed of "third party loss mitigator" is actually an old breed of what my dad would have called an ambulance chaser. Now, is it bad to chase ambulances? That's for YOU to decide. This new breed of independent "loss mitigators" wants one thing: for you to sell your home and for them to profit from the sale of your home. Honestly they really don't care about you or the lender so in actuality and by definition they are not mitigating loss nor are the charged or trusted with mitigation of loss.
I'm not just typing all of this to mitigate the prolification of this new breed of third party loss mitigators I'm writing it to tell you, Mr. or Mrs. Seller facing foreclosure, that these people do not represent your interest nor the lender's interest but their own interest. You are already in a serious situation and playing around with someone who took a course, attended a webinar or read a book is very -VERY likely to end in disaster for you.
Here's what to do:
Order the book "Can I Keep My Curtains? Facing Foreclosure in Uncertain Times". It's free. There is no ulterior motive and it is jam packed with information from trusted sources.
Copyright©2008 Ken Cook. Visit me at The 24: Top American Real Estate Bloggers
I am an FHA Lender as well as small commercial and real estate investment loans.
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