Are All Foreclosure Services Scams?

With foreclosure rates on the rise all over the country, it’s no wonder there are new foreclosure services popping up everyday.  Some of these services merely offer counseling.  Others claim to do all of the work of stopping foreclosure for you.  Of course, all foreclosure services try to convince you they’re the best.  Unfortunately, many of them only have one goal- take your money. 

Dealing with foreclosure is stressful enough without having to worry about getting scammed out of money you desperately need.  Now, this doesn’t mean that all foreclosure services are scams.  You just have to know what to look out for and how to protect yourself.  Here are just a few ways you can prevent falling victim to a foreclosure scam.

• Research, research, research.  Before doing business with any foreclosure service, make sure you spend the time to research them.  The internet makes this incredibly easy to do.  You’ll be able to see if there are any lawsuits or complaints against the company from others that have already done business with them.

• Don’t pay foreclosure services upfront.  If a company is asking for money before they provide you any type of service, you should be very careful.  Many companies have been built around taking your money and disappearing.  It will be very difficult to track them down to get your money back.

• Read the fine print.  Before you sign up with a foreclosure service, make sure you read over any paperwork they want you to sign, even the fine print.  Believe it or not, there are companies that trick homeowner’s into signing over their home.  So, don’t trust what anyone from the company tells you.  Read it for yourself before you sign.

• Don’t cut off contact with your lender.  You should be wary of any company that doesn’t want you to contact your lender while you use their service.  Your lender will be an integral part of any foreclosure solution, so be careful of foreclosure services that tell you otherwise.

• Never sign over your home.  There are several foreclosure services that will try to get ownership of your home in one way or another.  For instance, they may tell you that if you sign over your house to them, they’ll pay off your debt and rent the house to you until you can afford to buy it back.  Then once you sign over the house, they evict you and sell your home from underneath you.  This, of course, would be a bigger disaster than foreclosure.

Usually, the best way to avoid foreclosure scams is to trust your instincts.  If a service seems too good to be true, it probably is.  So, with the advice above and a little common sense, you can avoid foreclosure services that are only after your money.  This makes it much easier to find reputable foreclosure services that will do what they can to help you stop foreclosure and save your home.