Black Homeowners Guide To Home Equity Loan Scams.

 

 Equity loan scams can appear nice

Offering quick money to entice,

They seem to good to be true

While quietly separating money from you

Be careful and think twice.

With tighter controls in the home lending market a new breed of lender is coming out of the woodwork.

To fill the lending gap for desperate, uninformed and gullible homeowners this new breed of lender appears to help. But instead of helping the homeowner out of a tough financial problem they often make it worse by piling on more debt and equity sucking fees.

Thousands of African American homeowners have fallen for the flowery words and quick cash promises of these legal sounding scam artists. The disastrous result runs from the inability to meet the monthly payment to signing away the equity in their homes.

While these scams have surfaced in most communities across the country, they are most prevalent in African American and Latino communities.

African American and Latino communities have less access to mainstream bank financing. In addition, traditionally these communities have less access to current information. For example, how to shop for the right loans, choosing the right lender and knowing lending terms.

The entry point for the current loan scams often comes in the form of home improvement or repair financing. Often the victim is short on funds to get the needed repair or improvement done.

The Contractor or repairman happily offers high cost financing of the padded, exaggerated or inflated home repair or improvement. The homeowner often happy to receive the easy financing, tolerates the high cost repair or improvement.

The next step is to then stack a high interest, heavily restricted, heavily penalized loan on top of the high priced home repair or improvement.

The loan loaded with a high interest rate, excessive late fee penalties, punishing prepayment penalties and other administrative cost adds to the burden. In addition, binding arbitration (voluntarily giving up your right to sue them) is often a mandatory requirement.

What is binding arbitration? In a binding arbitration agreement you voluntarily waive your constitutional right to sue. Many Consumer advocacy groups have reported many African American homeowners did not know they were giving up that right when signing.

Tips to Protect Yourself From Home Equity Fraud:

1. Don't even think about signing a blank or a partially filled contract. At least write N/A (Not Applicable) in the blanks if nothing else.

2. Read every clause carefully and have all your questions answered fully before signing. Pay special attention to terms you don't understand.

3. Make sure to keep a clear legible copy for your records.

4. Remember when you sign a home improvement contract you have three business days to cancel the contract. Use these three days wisely to go over the contract or have a trusted adviser do it with you.

5. The contractor by law should fully explain your right to cancel and provide you with the proper forms to cancel. If you decide to cancel a home improvement or loan contract you should always send it by certified mail - with a return request as proof of mailing.

6. Lien Protection Tip: Are you planning a large home improvement project that requires many subcontractors? It's a good idea to protect your home from liens in case the general contractor fails to pay his subcontractors. To protect yourself add a release-of-lien clause to the contract. You could also place your payments in a third-party escrow account until completion of the work.

7. Examine The Warranty Closely: Make sure you read and understand all the terms and conditions, especially the warranties length. The warranty should state whether it's a FULL warranty that gives you certain automatic rights or a LIMITED warranty that restricts certain rights available to you. The best time to find this out is before you pay any money.

For a further explanation of warranties Click Here!

Conclusion

With every new day there is a new scam to separate the uninformed homeowner from their hard earned money or equity.  Your biggest mistake is to think it could never happen to you. I will continue to do my part to help in keeping you a more informed homeowner. How? By alerting you to the latest scams attacking the Black homeowner community. Have a good week.