Watch out for foreclosure scams

I had a pretty scary conversation over the weekend with one of my Seattle area loan officers.  One of her past south end clients called to complain about a "prospective buyer" that showed up on her door step interested in making a bid on the property.  Naturally she was concerned since she hadn't received any notices in the mail.

Here's the scoop.  Late last week, someone came knocking on the past clients door and said that they were interested in buying the home at auction.  They asked the homeowner to do a walk through on the property to make sure everything was in good shape.  So they walked through the house, inspected it, said thanks and left.  The owner then called my loan officer to complain about not being notified of the pending foreclosure auction date.

So my loan officer calls her department that handles foreclosures, and sure enough the homeowner is current on their payments.  The loan officer called the owner back and told them to call the police right away.

The loan officer I spoke with mentioned that she's heard of people pretending to be from the bank as well, and needing to do an inspection before the bank puts it on the auction block.  Or they are an inspector for the auction and need to review the home before the auction date.  Regardless of the story, it's not a good idea to let someone in your home that you're not sure of. 

There are rules and time lines associated with foreclosures.  There is no reason why one should come as a surprise to any homeowner.  Here's the time line of the process, from www.usa-Foreclosure.com:

Time line Step	Days for Step	Total Days
Loan referred/file received	1	1
Trustee Sale Guarantee report ordered, NOD mailed and posted on the property 30 days before Notice of Sale	1-3	4
Trustee Sale Guarantee report received and reviewed, Substitution of Trustee prepared	30	34
Substitution of Trustee received/recorded, Notice of Sale recorded, posted and mailed 90 days prior to sale; sale date set; Warranty Deed sent to lender (HUD/VA)	1-5	39
Publication period	90	129
Publication (2 of 2) completed request bidding instructions	1-5	134
Sale held	1	135
Deed recorded	5-15	140-150

(Time line is for non-judicial foreclosures. Intervals are optimal and assumes no delays.)

For more information on Washington State Foreclosures, please visit the learning center at usa-foreclosure.com. 

It's unfortunate to hear these types of stories.  I'm glad to hear that nothing was taking from the home, and a police report was filed.  It could have been worse.  As always, be careful out there everyone.

Photo Courtesy of 05com