It is amazing to me how so many individuals are being scammed in the housing market. I work as a loan officer for an independent company and on a daily basis I hear of new stories where families were scammed out of $4000, $ 5000 and even $10000.
After the housing market crashed in 2009 many people became desperate to save their homes and began looking for help. People were willing to pay thousands of dollars in order to stay in their home. As the need for mortgage assistance increased, the amount of people willing to help also increased. Many of these small companies were not looking to help the people; instead they saw a way of taking advantage of their distress. These companies promised people that they would save their home and lower their mortgage payments. Other companies promised to take the bank to court and lower their principle balance to the current market value, which is unreasonable to think of. After hearing all of these promises the people became hopeful and foolish.
People were charged for loan modifications that were never achieved, thus they ended up losing their house. Others were charged for civil law suits against the bank that were never even taken to court. Some companies even disappeared after receiving the money from the clients and did this all throughout the country. After discovering that these companies were doing fraud the government implemented a new law, that companies could not charge upfront fee for loan modification. However, even with this new law people were still being asked to pay and many of them did.
When these *fraught individuals come to me after being scammed 2-3 times, they appear so *despondent. Most of them just want to forget this whole nightmare and short sale their properties. They no longer believe in any company actually helping them, all they want it to be stress free.
*Fraught- Marked by or causing destress; emotional.
*Despondent- Feeling or expressing despondency; dejected
No comments:
Post a Comment