Staged short sale scams are also being noted by the FBI who describes the activity as that which is very much alarming due to increasing number of cases. The scam takes hold when a buyer seemingly takes the cause to purchase with the intent of not making any payments and pockets the lean they filed with the bank to finance the home purchase. He doesn’t pay for the home leaving the homeowner to deal with the foreclosure, the lender then seeks for a pre-foreclosure buyer to help dispose of the home. A second buyer pretending to be a pre-foreclosure buyer then goes to the lender and opts to buy the property for the current loan amount with the previous fraudulent buyer damaging the home to obtain lower rates. (more…)