An interesting article posted a while ago on the Yahoo! Real Estate pages got me thinking. It was about common contractor scams that con-men use to milk people out of their cash and into substandard work. Apparently, due to the struggling housing market, these scam artists are having a hey day preying on homeowners who are eager to get cheap work done on their house in order to sell quickly. So I did a little research.
According to contractorfraud.net, these scam artists are known widely as “travelers”. This moniker refers to the fact that these dudes come out west from the east, looking for now customers and fleeing their reputations. Typically, they target the elderly who are more easily persuaded into the unnecessary home repair, but as of late, they have protracted their food chain to the struggling and the weary victims of a dilapidated housing market.
Here are some of their standard methods of fraud:
1) These “travelers” approach you, the homeowner, usually with an unmarked van and recommend some repairs needed to the exterior of your house. They noticed as they were on their way to another job site in the neighborhood, and if you hire them on the spot then you’re going to get a great deal!
NOT!!!!
2) The same dudes approach you with extra materials left over from a previous job and try to entice you with a cheap job.
DON’T DO IT!!!
3) Conmen pull up into the driveway in an unmarked van and offer you work as long as they can use your home as a model for their business. Typically, the work will be unnecessary, poorly-done, and they will overcharge you. Oh, and if contractors really need a model home, they will likely use a REAL MODEL HOME!
DON’T FALL FOR IT!!!
4) A contractor demands full payment in advance, or financing for a job.
PSYCHE!!! All they’re really trying to do is scam you out of your money without doing the work or worse—trying to get you to give over your deed through a confusing and needless financing program.
Basically, the best thing for folks to do, is demand, demand, demand verification on all work and authentication on all claims of professionalism. That way you can avoid those unruly scammers and their clever loopholes.
Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category
CONTRACTORS PREY ON WEAK HOMEOWNERS
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010THE FORECLOSURE PROBLEM GETS WORSE
Saturday, October 16th, 2010This topic is updated on a daily basis, and it seems like the mystery gets a little deeper with every tug of the judicial rope.
Due to an influx of foreclosure claims, lenders began pressing paperwork to reclaim homes at an alarming rate. Many banks outsourced the work to ill-qualified loan officers or hired inexperienced staff to process to loads of paperwork. It was recently discovered that many of the foreclosure reclamation claims were simply signed by someone affiliated with the company and never given an in depth look, leading to some very questionable foreclosure proceedings.
Now banks are paying the price, pouring over countless foreclosure claims, simply buried in paperwork.
On Wednesday, all 50 state attorney generals announced that they would investigate foreclosure practices within their state, finding flawed practice and fix it. A majority of foreclosure proceedings have been halted so that banks such as JPMorgan Chase, GMAC, and Wells Fargo can go back and right their wrongs.
So it seems that the rule of thumb should be that you always have to go by the book. Faulty loans led to the crash, which led to an influx of foreclosures and now faulty paperwork for seizure and sales of foreclosed homes is gobbing up the lending system. Why do banks not feel the need to be thorough and practice business ethics?
Zoning Disputes Erupt in Affluent East Coast Neighborhood, Fair Housing Involved
Sunday, October 10th, 2010
“Inclusionary Zoning”
This is a phrase some of you may not be familiar with, others more so. It refers to a type of action that zoning commissions take when attempting to approve certain housing projects for certain social groups. For instance, cheap, apartment housing, sometimes referred to as “project housing” could be said to be inclusionary zoning for those below the middle class distinction. Essentially it means to “include” certain communities on zoning projects to ensure equal diversity and opportunity for all demographics to live where they please.
This, however, has come under scrutiny in Darien, Conneticut. According to a NYTimes report, new zoning regulations for large apartment developments have laid out a few guidelines of what kind of citizen they are supposed to give preference to, and they are as follows:
“The provision under scrutiny designates six “priority populations” that are to be given preference for the affordable housing: Darien residents who volunteer as first responders; Darien public employees; Darien residents who work in town; Darien residents; nonresidents who work in Darien; and former residents who want to move back.”
The reason that this new regulation has made its way to the Fair Housing Committee is because they could be potentially discriminating to the town’s small (5%) minority population. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown, the investigation is currently under way to review the new regulations and see if there is in fact any “discriminatory zoning” going on. It is currently in the hands of the Justice Department.
While I think Darien’s heart is in the right place—trying to bring previous residents back, providing housing for volunteers, etc.—I feel the Justice Dept. could have a case. It’s safe to say this country is ultra-sensitive when it comes to race and ethnicity and equal opportunity and what not, so regulators have to be extra careful when appropriating restrictions on housing for certain demographics.
Faces of Real Estate: Allan Dalton aka “The Real-Deal”
Friday, October 1st, 2010
Spurred on by a few helpful comments by some of Yigdigs’ most devout readers (I do appreciate you, and take your thoughts into account), I’ve got a quick correction. I recently made remarks that Allan Dalton was supposedly the president of Realtor.com. However, upon further inspection and a helpful nudge, I’ve come to realize that Dalton has in fact left Realtor.com. The press release in question where I got the information was outdated—a couple of years. So even thought your source site may be reputable, sometimes their info is outdated. Just one of the many pitfalls of the age information.
Well folks, I’ve found him. Allan Dalton, former president of Realtor.com has begun a new venture in the world real estate. RISMedia, a national real estate information service, has started a membership program at the behest of Dalton. It’s called the “Top 5 Real Estate Network” and Dalton is its president and founder.
Basically, the “Top 5” is a membership branding service that realtors can join once they’ve met the basic 5 “consumer-valued” criteria. This is basically a who’s who of North America’s real estate professionals.
He’s now in the business of media marketing as opposed to rebuffing the way the Realtor.com offices. He’s infamous for chastising remarks toward home evaluator website Zillow, referring to their methods as similar to that of “Guess Your Weight and Age” attraction at the carnival. He petitioned Realtor.com to adjust the way they evaluate home prices only showing competitive listings and urged Zillow to do the same. He has since resigned as started up his new venture remaining advisor to the Realtor.com.
Fastidious Rant: Why does Realtor.com have to capitalize the word “realtor” every time!?
Sunday, September 26th, 2010I was putting together a Yigdigs exclusive “Faces of Real Estate” piece on Realtor.com’s president Allan Dalton, and in doing my research, I found myself growing rather aggravated and irked, thought I couldn’t really figure why. Then, as I sat back and let out an exhausted, yet curious sigh from my swiveling desk chair, I could see: the word “realtor”, which is printed 11 times in Allan Dalton’s bio, was capitalized at every opportunity.
It seems a bit excessive, a bit over-promotional, verging on the side of propoganda than simple site branding. After all, I’m already on the site, do I really need to be inundated with the word “REALTOR” and “REALTORS” and the phrase “NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS” over and over and over and over?
As a For Sale by Owner advocate, I find this repetitive self-aggrandizement, a little much.
Look for the “Faces of Real Estate: Allan Dalton” later this week. Maybe we will find some answers.
“America: Squatter’s Paradise”
Saturday, September 25th, 2010In the fray of the housing market, fluctuations, incentives, etc., there have been several micro-trends popping up across the country of savvy groups taking advantage of real estate’s vulnerable state.
Lately, with all of the McMansions and million-dollar homes built in the bubble going to foreclosure, people have been taking advantage of these vacant properties by squatting—and living it up.
Here is an article detailing a bunch of cases where people have lived for months at a time on vacant, expensive property, and what’s funny is that the realtors who manage the property seem somewhat understanding. Read it up!
The GMAC Controversy
Friday, September 24th, 2010Hey guys, here’s a little thing that’s been all over the news lately. If you haven’t heard about it, well then, you haven’t been listening—or just too busy, and that’s fine.
We actually talked about this scenario a long, long time ago. I posted a link to an article about a Florida man who claimed that he had been wronged by banks so that they might foreclose on his property. The link is here.
But what’s happened recently, is that judicial foreclosure states, or states where the courts control defaulting homeowners, have put a stop on a lot of their foreclosures handled by GMAC Mortgage, one of the country’s largest lenders.
Apparently, many of their foreclosure proceeding aren’t legally valid. Due to the influx of many foreclosures, GMAC execs were simply signing documents by the thousands without giving any attention to their legality. This has resulted in thousands of fraudulent foreclosures that not have to be re-investigated to make sure all claims made by banks and lenders are true. This is just another issue brought about by the influx of homes on the market, and not enough personnel to handle it all.
You can read an article about it here.
