Be Aware of Real Estate Scams in Portland

You’re behind on your mortgage payments and the bank is threatening to foreclose. Then you receive an offer from someone claiming to be from a credit agency. They say they can sell your home, saving your credit and your peace of mind. Can you believe them?

Of course not. Unfortunately, that call is not so easy to make when you’re the person with the huge mortgage and the tempting offer on your plate. This kind of enticement has sent homeowners in Portland and across the country into their worst fraud nightmares, costing them money, ruining their credit and deflating home values across neighborhoods.

With underwater mortgages and financial troubles for homeowners in every income bracket, scam artists have come up with a plethora of ways to take advantage of the situation. Foreclosure fraud, where a scammer offers to take on an underwater mortgage and ends up making off with the title and leaving the homeowner with the mortgage, is just one. Other scams rip off home buyers and even lending institutions.

Want a better way out of your underwater mortgage? You don’t have to foreclose and ruin the possibilities of ever getting a home loan again. Ask your lender about a short sale – selling the home for less than the value on the mortgage. This is something I can help with. See my Portland short sale services here. The bank or lender then forgives any debt over and above the sales price and the homeowner walks away clean. This process can be long and arduous, but it is becoming more common and with a practiced real estate agent, the headaches can be minimized and you can walk away from your home without dangerous repercussions.

Mortgages offer so many opportunities for fraud because there are so many parties involved that it’s easy for scammers to hide behind one to take money from the other – usually the homeowner. The good news? A licensed, experienced Portland real estate agent can help you avoid all of them.

If you’re buying, renting, selling or considering a short sale on a home in the Portland area, take the time to learn about scams so that you don’t fall into one. Zillow’s website has a section of articles on fraud in real estate that is worth checking out.

Be an informed consumer, work with your Portland real estate agent, and don’t trust any deal that sounds too good to be true. Of course, there are safe and legal deals out there in the Portland real estate market, especially on short sales. Contact me today to learn more!