Desperation from the threat of imminent foreclosure can make homeowners easy targets for scams. Some signs of a scam are guarantees, pressure to act quickly without giving you time to think, or signing over title of your house. The cliche should echo loud as a bell here, "if it sounds too good to be true, it is!"
Although foreclosure rates has fallen throughout Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Fairfield, Roseville, Rocklin California regions, there are still scammers waiting for distraught homeowners to fall victim to their scheme.
Beware if someone told you that if you pay them an upfront fee of $2,000 to $3,000, they will talk to your lender to stop the foreclosure, modify your loan into a lower payment, the works and they asked you not to talk to your lender because it will interfere with the negotiation process.
Another example of a scam, if someone ask you to sign over the deed or title into their name in exchange they will rent the house back to you with an agreement for you to someday buy back the house. Chances are the terms are too onerous for you meet and you will just end up losing your house.
Worse, you might sign over the deed of your house but you run a credit report and found that you are still liable for the mortgage. You are paying for someone's house.
There are free government resources that you use to guide you through the foreclosure process. The term is free. If someone claims that they are part of a government program to help distress homeowners but charge you a fee, turn and runaway! Government organizations set up to help distressed homeowners from foreclosure are FREE. However, you might find that such help is limiting. No one can force a mortgage lender outside Bankruptcy to take your monthly payment in exchange that foreclosure is stop.
If you cannot refinance, sell your house, renegotiate your loan (aka loan modification), you might want to consider filing a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy can force your mortgage lender to take a monthly payment in exchange that foreclosure is stop. However, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is not right for everyone. Sometimes the monthly payment to save your house is too much or the value of the house falls far below the mortgage balance to make any sense of saving it.
Call Muoi Chea Bankruptcy Attorney for an in-dept Foreclosure consultation in Sacramento, Stockton, and Fairfield California Offices. She has a very long and successful track records throughout the years with helping distressed homeowners throughout Northern and Central California.