Stop Foreclosure Scammers - there is a law

Some things never change. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s there was a scammer in Pierce County that would go around to owners who had received notice of default on their mortgage payments, he would give them a couple hundred dollars and have them sign a quite claim deed. He never recorded the deed. He would then put a “for rent” sign on the home advertise in paper and rent out the home. Once the home was rented the scammer would show the renter his quite claim deed and tell the renter that the bank was upset that he (the scammer) had purchased the home but that the scammers attorney was filing a law suite to force the bank to allow the scammer to buy the home. The scammer told the renters that if the bank post any notices on the home to send them in with the rent payments. The scammer never made any mortgage payments and collected the rent payments until the bank completed the foreclosure.

Well now 30 years later in 2010 we have basically the same thing going on. Some jerk has his web site up saying he can stop foreclosure. Funny thing there are rental adds on the internet for the houses where people come to this scammer and he then and sure enough is putting renters into properties that are either already foreclosed or in process of being foreclosed. Unfortunate people are caught by his program. This scammer rents out homes and collects the rent and probably some security deposit. The renters has the additional cost of moving in and then very quickly the cost of moving out.

It took pressure from a lot of people to force Pierce County to go after the scammer in 1980’s. I hope they move quicker in 2010.

How much is too much?

How much information do you really want to share with your neighbors?

I really like the neighborhood I live in and most of the people who live there (would not be telling the truth if I said I like them all). But I really do not want to know too much about their financial situations. Of course there are always rumors, but gossip is a lot different than really knowing.

Now, we can all go online and look at maps to see who is behind on their mortgage payments and frankly I think that is not a good idea. Of course this is “public records” but should it be? What right do I have to know when you skip a mortgage payment, does it make a difference in my life?

The idea of recording notice of default was to let other creditors know the financial situations, not the neighbors or strangers. The State of Washington legislature should look at what recorded items are available to anyone and what recorded items should only be available to people with legitimate reasons to know.