Avoiding Foreclosure Scams

With so many people losing their homes due to foreclosure there is no shortage of predators eager to take advantage of other people's misfortune. There never is. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued an advisory to help protect the public. There are plenty of legitimate professionals who are competent to help homeowners in trouble, but it is these unscrupulous (explicative deleted) that give a bad name to the rest of us in the industry. If you have any questions about the foreclosure process, or know anyone who would benefit from the information, I'll be happy to sit down and have a free, no obligation and completely confidential discussion of the options available. Going into foreclosure, filing bankruptcy and enduring the consequent hell is not the only option.

I used to think that it was, until I lost my home (hey, this market has been disastrous for real estate related professionals). Nothing like facing the loss of everything to make a guy wake up and look around for the coffee. I can't say that the process has been pleasant, but it is a lot better (by a long country mile) than the financial catastrophe I was allowing myself to drift into.

The dust hasn't settled yet, but I can see the way ahead. I gotta say that God is good. Just when I thought I was going down for the third time I got the totally unexpected gift of education. A good man showed me the best way to save myself, and now I can use that knowledge to save other folks as well. Nobody deserves to get tossed out on the street at gun point with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their household goods dumped on the curb, all in full view of the nosy (former) neighbors. Unless they do nothing. Passive victims deserve what they get, I'm sorry to say.

So do people who lie to themselves about what is really going on. These are the people who get scammed. We would all like to believe that we are special, that it can't happen to us, that there is an exception in our case. The scammers will come and sing that song to us. They'll sing it softly, sweetly, and it will sound so-o-o-o good. It will sound so reasonable. It will sound so persuasive. Lots of people will join in the song, relived, secure, believing all the way. Until they go over the edge of the cliff, only then (maybe!) waking up to the sick realization that they've been had. That there is now no way back. That they are going to get smashed. And worse than this, they'll realize that they should have listened to the hard truth. These people too, deserve what they get.

I was just talking to my friend Joe (he does honest loans, can you believe it?) about this on Monday. He told me the story of a couple who realized that maybe they were in trouble. They were. Joe spelled out the situation, offered a realistic solution. Not a pleasant solution, but real and workable. "No," they said, "there's got to be another way." Fast forward four months. There wasn't. At 4.30 in the afternoon of the day before the foreclosure they showed up in his office. "OK. I guess you were right. Now we're willing to follow your advice." Too late. What can you do? Just one more sad story. If you are in trouble don't let that be your story. If you know someone in trouble you have a moral obligation to point them to reality.

I'll say it again: If you have any questions about the foreclosure process, or know anyone who would benefit from the information, I'll be happy to sit down and have a free, no obligation and completely confidential discussion of the options available. In the immortal words of W.C. Fields, "Sometimes you just have to take the bull by the tail and face the situation." You don't have to face it alone. You don't have to face it blind. If you or someone you know are willing to be helped, I'm willing to help. I don't make any guarantees, other than this: I'll tell it like it is, I'll maintain absolute confidentiality, I won't take a penny from you and if we choose to work with each other and you are absolutely dead honest with me about what is happening, I will be unswervingly loyal to you.

888-692-1324 ID#5000 Toll free, leave a voice mail to initiate the conversation.
Or email me: Leo.Walker@Century21.com.