Homeowners lose equity, title to foreclosure `rescuers’
After Ivan Eicher lost his job, he and his wife Delores fell several months behind on their house payments. Facing foreclosure, they accepted an offer from a company that promised to help them keep the home where they’d lived for more than 20 years.
Without realizing what they were doing, the couple ended up surrendering ownership of their home.
“It was just a really nice song and dance,” Delores Eicher said.
The Eichers are among the thousands of people who fall each year for offers that promise to help them avoid foreclosure but that leave them with none of the equity they had built up in their property. Their situation matches one of the three common models of foreclosure fraud the National Consumer Law Center has described in a report on the growing problem.