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Scams that promise to “rescue” you from foreclosure are popping up at an alarming rate nationwide, and you need to protect yourself and your home.

If you’re falling behind on your mortgage, others may know it, too — including con artists and scam artists. They know that people in these situations are vulnerable and often desperate. Potential victims are easy to find: mortgage lenders publish notices before foreclosing on homes. Private firms frequently compile and sell lists of these foreclosed properties and distressed borrowers.

After reading these notices, con artists approach their targets in person, by mail, over the phone, or by e-mail. They often advertise their services on television, radio, or the Web, and in newspapers, describing themselves as “foreclosure consultants” or “mortgage consultants,” offering “foreclosure prevention” or “foreclosure rescue” services. And they are only too happy to take advantage of homeowners who want to save their homes.

If someone offers to negotiate a loan modification for you or to stop or delay foreclosure for a fee, carefully check his or her credentials, reputation, and experience, watch out for warning signs of a scam, and always maintain personal contact with your lender and mortgage servicer. Your mortgage lender can help you find real options to avoid foreclosure of your home. It is important to contact your mortgage lender early to preserve all your options.

There are legitimate consumer financial counseling agencies that can help you work with your lender.
This Consumer Advisory, issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), describes common scams, suggests ways to protect yourself, provides information on U.S. government loan programs and counseling resources, and lists ten warning signs of a mortgage modification scam.

Common Types of Scams
Here are some examples of scams related to mortgage modification and foreclosure avoidance.

• Foreclosure “rescue” and refinance fraud. The scam artist offers to act as an intermediary between you and your lender to negotiate a repayment plan or loan modification and may even “guarantee” to save your home from foreclosure. You may be told to make mortgage payments to the scammer directly — along with significant, up-front fees — and be told that the scammer will forward the payments to your lender. In reality, the scammer may pocket your money and leave you in worse shape on your loan. The scam artist also may tell you to stop making payments or stop communicating with your lender. Don’t follow that advice.

Remember that your mortgage lender should be the starting point for finding options to avoid foreclosure. You also should consider contacting qualified and approved credit counselors.

• Fake “government” modification programs. Unscrupulous people may claim to be affiliated with, or approved by, the government or may ask you to pay high up-front fees to qualify for government mortgage modification programs. While government-supported mortgage modification and refinancing initiatives are legitimate, the scam artists’ claims are not. Keep in mind that you do not have to pay to benefit from these government programs. All you need to do is contact your lender or loan servicer.

For those who are struggling to make ends meet and pay bills each month, you should know that when it comes to your mortgage, you have several options at your disposal. Whether you are a couple of months behind with your payments, or just now realizing that you may fall behind in the near future, these avoid foreclosure options could very well help you save your home.

The first thing in any financial crisis that needs to be done is that you have to realize that you have a problem. Hopefully, this realization will come before you find yourself in such a financial quagmire that there is little hope of holding your head above water. If you have this epiphany before your mortgage payments fall past due, you have more options available to you.

The realization that you do indeed have a problem is the first step in getting things made right. It’s of vital importance that you come into this realization before you get in too deep. By admitting that there is a problem before you miss too many payments, you will be in much better shape to make the proper decisions.

Some mortgage lenders, if you have a good history with them, will be willing to allow you to redo your mortgage, basically, they still hold the lien, and you still owe the balance due, but they can give you a longer repayment term lowering your monthly payments, or work with your interest rate, which can also help decrease your payments.

As stated earlier, your mortgage company can give you more options if you have had a good payment history. If you have had a notably good payment history, your lender may decide to simply redo the loan with the remaining balance. This will allow you to keep your home, and continue making payments as usual. In some cases, it may actually lower the payment amount due each month. It all depends on the account balance and interest rate.

If you can qualify for a payment deferment plan, you’ll be able to skip a payment and then resume payments the following month. The payment skipped is still owed, and you have to pay it. The deferred payment is usually added to the end of the loan. In many cases, payment deferment can be done over the phone, and will take very little time to set up.

In the event that the avoid foreclosure options mentioned above do not work for you, or if your financial situation has spiraled so far out of control that these options are no longer feasible, you should talk with someone about selling your home. By selling your home, rather than letting the lender foreclose on it, you may still be able to come out somewhat ahead of the game with some cash in your pocket to start over with!

The author loves writing about sports, marketing, and health subjects. Visit his most recent web site where he discusses outdoor party lighting and outdoor party lights and more.

Home foreclosure is becoming a far more common problem now then it was just a few years ago. Often it originates from one missed payment which soon spirals out of control. Before you know it you have missed three or four payments and the mortgage lender or bank wants you to pay everything you owe all at once, right then and there. Often this is a major burden to the homeowner and in the end they must decide on some sort of plan of action…this is normally where some one can fall for a scam.

Foreclosure scams are very common as much as the problem itself. Since homeowners believe that they have no choice they fall for these traps, which of course make their situation much worse than it was. Not only is the stress of the foreclosure an issue, but then the fallout from the scam starts…and brings additional stress.

The people who work these scams advertise online, publish advertisements in the local newspaper, distribute flyers, and call houses which are included on the foreclosure list. Sometimes they call themselves “mortgage consultants/real estate investment planners” who offer foreclosure services or advertise with “We buy houses” signs.

Then most common scams:

Bankruptcy/ Foreclosure Scam

The promise here is that the house will be saved. This is how the scam goes…They will either ask for the homeowner to pay their mortgage directly to them, hand over their deed and pay rent, or obtain refinancing. of course they don’t do ANYTHING to fulfill the other end of the bargain, they don’t contact your lender or obtain refinancing for you. They keep all the money and file bankruptcy without your knowledge. Only to use a diffirent name and do the scam agian on some other poor soul looking for help.

Since the homeowner is not aware that bankruptcy has been filed, they fail to participate in the case. The case is dismissed and the house continues onto foreclosure. Apart from loosing money and your home, you will also have a bankruptcy on your record.

Equity skimming

The scammer poses as a buyer. They then promise the homeowner to pay the mortgage or given them a sum of money once the property has been sold. The operator then convinces the homeowner to sign over the deed and move out. The homeowner can stay but they have to pay rent. If they opt to move out the operator lets a third party rent the property. The scam operator of course does not pay the mortgage and lets the mortgage lender foreclose all the while stemming off questions from the original home owner about where they are in the “process.”

In the event the house has equity, the scam operator sells the property and pays off the debt. (And of course keeps the equity that the homeowner could have had if they sold it.)

Should you find yourself facing ANY of the above mentioned situations….contact a local mortgage office and ask them if they have ever heard of a “program” like the one you would be offered…if they say no….call the local police and ask for the consumer fraud division.

Doc Schmyz has worked with investors all over the US. He built a free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find real estate information by state

Ever notice how difficult it is to start a project? Then once you start it, it easily becomes a creature of habit. Take for example an exercise program. We keep putting it off but once we start, we ask ourselves, “why didn’t do this earlier?” We seem to have the same mindset with proactive prospecting. We continue to find excuses not to prospect even though we know how productive and the positive results that will come from it. So why is it that we will make every excuse in the world not to do it?

The key word is commitment. Commit to setting an appointment with yourself for one or two hours each day. Start with utilizing your resources such as your sphere of influence. It is easy to say to ourselves, “Well, I have a lot to do today so I’ll start prospecting tomorrow or next week”. Prospecting not only requires commitment but discipline as well. You are important so make that daily appointment with yourself just as you would will any potentially important customer or client.

Write down what you are going to say and practice saying it to yourself in the mirror. You will come across more confident to the person on the other side of the phone. Consider talking about something of value to the customer. It might be something related to the economy or the real estate housing market. People love knowledge and education. Provide them with information that will draw their interest.

Accurately define your target market before you begin. Determine how many calls you will make in that hour or two. Some sale people will call until they get an appointment or make the sale. Or you could decide to make 20 calls in that allotted time. Whatever you feel comfortable with and reasonable within the time allocated.

Be prepared with a list of names from your personal Sphere of Influence before you call. Not being prepared with a list of names will force you to devote much, if not all of your prospecting hour, to finding the names you need. Have at least a one month supply of names on hand at all times.

Work without interruption. Do not take calls or schedule meetings during your scheduled prospecting time. Take full advantage of the prospecting learning curveas with any repetitive task, the more often you repeat it during a contiguous block of time, the better you become. Prospecting is no exception to the rule. Your second call will be better than your first, your third better than the second, and so on.

When calling, decide on a time slot and try to stick with it. Maybe 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM or 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM. There will be customers that seem impossible to get a hold of. You will have to set aside another time of day and try to call those customers. We are all creatures of habit (Hint). They are probably in a routine between a certain timeframe, so you need to try and catch them at a different time or different day.

Be persistent. Be motivated. Be disciplined. These will be some of your best merits. Most quality contacts are made after the fifth call. Don’t stop or give up. Keep pursuing your dreams. Hard work and dedication will always lead to success.

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The power of the business card. I have been in commission sales for over 20 years and wanted to share with everyone the simplest and most cost effective marketing technique that has generated more sales more than any other approach. The examples below are based on my direct experience in real estate. No matter what type of sales industry you are in, I think you will find it possible to use this same approach. It might require a little more initiative and creativity but the basics are there to help you generate more sales than you could ever imagine.

When I first started in the business, I had absolutely no prior sales experience. I was actually a computer geek and spent most of my time talking to computers. My first month in real estate I had 4 sales. Well, it was just luck and when those sales closed, I had no more business.

I needed to market myself and felt I had to “get the word out” to let everyone know what I did for a living. My finances were limited so I wanted to be cautious as to where I would spend money for my business.

About that time my wife and I had just won a Super Bowl lottery and received tickets to the big game for $75 a ticket. The day of the game we decided to go early and tail-gate. When we arrived at the stadium, we weren’t there for more than an hour and someone offered me $1000 per ticket. I couldn’t refuse.

A good habit to be in, is always keep a box of business cards in your car. Over the years I have asked so many people for their business card and they didn’t have one on them. As far as I’m concerned that is a “lost” sale.

That 3 hour excursion increased my sales over 6 figures in the next year. It then dawned on me, that this was the way I was going to generate business in the future. By doing this I was able to considerably keep my overhead costs to a minimum.

Let’s dissect this further by saying at the time, the average sales price of a home was $250,000. The average commission for the sale was 3%. This would calculate to $7500 per sale. I made $110,000 from passing out 1000 business cards, which means I sold approximately 15 customers or clients a home in the next year. It cost me $75 for 1000 business cards. That equates to only .015% in conversion but over $100,000 in my return on investment. Could you image passing out 1000 business cards per quarter. That would be 60 sales per year. Incredible for a real estate professional.

The cost of buying business cards is probably the least amount of investment required for marketing your services. Pass your card out to everyone you know. Leave business cards at establishments if possible. Leave your business card with your tip at a restaurant. This is the fastest and best way to generate leads and referral business.

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