Thanks for joining us. Im bob massi. Every minute of every day, somebody is getting scammed out of their money. Nobody knows that more than pam bondi, attorney general of florida. Its her job to protect consumers against fraud. And there is plenty to keep her busy. When the housing bubble burst, foreclosures exploded. But as millions lost their homes, they were often taken advantage of, sometimes even by the big banks themselves. In 2012, 49 states announced a historic settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers. In many cases, they didnt even verify that these foreclosures were actually legitimate. Some of the people they hired to process foreclosures used fake signatures on fake documents. The five largest lenders, of course, were involved. And florida received nearly 10 billion in relief. But even with some homeowners getting relief, scam artists are still out there. These unscrupulous brokers were promising people that they could either get them cash payment for their foreclosure or get them loan modifications. Its very tough to decipher the good, legitimate companies who are trying to help people and the unscrupulous ones. What should the legitimate rescue, if you will, really look like for a consumer . A legitimate rescue broker will never ask for a fee up front, unless its a law firm. And as you know, of course, an attorney can take a retainer. But they must put it in an escrow account. Right. Always ask for a copy of the loan modification agreement, the acknowledgment letter and either the approval or denial letter. When they tell you that they can guarantee you a loan modification. Youve seen that, havent you . Run away. Run away. A loan mod, or that they will automatically stop the foreclosure process. And, you know, these cases are so disgusting to me because these are people who are already in distress. And they are preying on the vulnerable. Dont respond to unsolicited calls, emails or letters from companies you dont know anything about. And dont be fooled by the officialsounding names and addresses that make you think that youre being contacted by a government agency. This letter from Nations HousingModification Center has an officiallooking seal and a capitol hill address. So where is 611 pennsylvania avenue . This ups store. And here is the nhmc offices, mailbox number 393. Its no longer their office. The founders went to prison for fraud, but not before 300 desperate homeowners fell for these letters and sent in between 2,000 and 3,000 each in upfront money. They will tell you, dont contact your lender. That should be red flag number one, get outta there. Contact your Attorney Generals Office or, if its an attorney involved, contact the the Bar Association to make sure theyre in good standing. And its not just mortgage scams that are pulling people in. Here in florida, one of the biggest types of fraud involves Vacation Rental properties. These con artists are getting more and more sophisticated, as we both know. These are greedy people. You know, they sell the sizzle, as they say. They sure do. They sell the sizzle. Thats right. What should a consumer ask to say, hang up the phone. Get away from this. Well, you know, bob, how they scam consumers is they go on legitimate sites and hijack the photographs and post them as being rentals. So what you do, you contact the owner and say, i wanna see additional pictures. And the owner or the legitimate company who claims to be renting the property will have additional pictures that they can immediately send you. I see. Someone whos hijacked photographs online from legitimate Companies Wont be able to produce those. Some of these people are victims of scams. They end up showing up actually at the location. Oh, its horrible. They put money down. And they say, what are you talking about . Doesnt even exist. Thats why you should use a payment portal, if possible, because that money is deposited in an escrow account. Okay. Never pay by cashiers check. Never wire money. Always use a credit card, or many legitimate companies will let you use paypal, which is very safe. The best piece of advice, use an established realtor or, at the very least, a company that you can independently verify. Never communicate only by email. Request a phone number to someone directly and ask a lot of questions. And up next, weve introduced you to some people battling with their Homeowners Association. Now, the other side. One hoa struggled to deal with a problem property in their community. [ woman vocalizing ] when you think about success, what does it look like . Is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student . Is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves . Is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the Natural World . Whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. Tiaa. Hi, im bob massi, the property man. Weve talked in the past about Homeowners Associations and what their legal rights are when homeowners dont pay their dues. Well, were gonna talk about the other side of it. What is the impact and the decision that has to be made by an association if, in fact, they decide to foreclose on that property and have to maintain their home . Were in a beautiful development in florida. And in a minute, im gonna sit down and talk with marshall, whos trying to deal with a major hoa issue, that being that theres a house that was left vacant. And now they have to decide what are they gonna do for purposes of securing that house . Marshall, how are you, sir . Welcome. Good you see you. Nice seeing you. You know, before we sit down, i really wanna go look at this house that were gonna be talking about in a few minutes so we have a good understanding of whats going on. Terrific. Lets go take a ride. Thank you, sir. Homeowners associations have legal rights and powers over properties. They can initiate foreclosures for monthly fees, their dues and their special assessments. Im the neighborhood volunteer chair for our neighborhood. And thats selected by who . Is that just amongst homeowners themselves . Right, the homeowners in the neighborhood. Okay. Basically have a group of volunteers that look out for everything. Is this the home right here . Yes, sir, right here. Well, lets go see the house, and lets talk about what concerns you may have. Terrific. So this is the house of concern. And the Homeowners Association has to make a decision. Do they actually want to end up potentially owning this property . Because if it goes to auction, and nobody bids on it, then you guys could end up owning it. Thats correct. This home has been vacant since 2010. And as always happens, the homes exterior, well, its getting pretty ragged. Its actually an eyesore for the neighborhood. Most of the screens ended up blowing out. And because this represented a safety risk, the Health Department from the county came in and secured the pool area itself. So there was a lot of things growin in there, an enormous amount of algae. Now the hoas put in a position because the lenders not doin what they should do, and that is foreclose on the property. The Homeowners Association can decide to foreclose on the property themselves. And if nobody bids on that judgment, well, they take title to that property subject to the bank lien. Remediation on just the exterior is probably gonna end up being around 13,000. If we ended up having a move to go in and and rent the facility, we would have to remediate the interior portion of this home. Since nobodys been in this home for in excess of 5 years, theres no tellin what were gonna end up finding. So the particular risk to the neighborhood is enormous. Lets go sit down and talk about what you guys have been through and what options that there may be. The area is beautiful. But like any other, it was hit hard by the recession. And homeowners ended up leaving in, uh, january of 2010. It was, basically, almost impossible to locate them. Do you have any idea why they havent foreclosed on this property . I have no idea. Its probably because they dont want to pay the hoa dues. And they dont want to pay the insurance and they dont want to pay the taxes. Thats probably correct. Its what weve called in the past a zombie foreclosure. Neighbors ended up complaining to me all the time that the pool looked bad. The screens looked bad. The roof had mold on it. Although laws different in every state, hoas can usually only recover a portion of what is owed to them. In this case, they actually got a judgment in the amount of 34,000. So, essentially, the Homeowners Association has a business decision to make here. Correct. If we remediate the home, uh, were gonna end up spending probably the bulk of the homeowners equity in the entire neighborhood. They could decide to lease the property at the market value to try to recover the cost. Weve looked at that. But the expenses to do that, uh, still far far outweigh, you know, what we think the anticipated benefit would be. They gotta pay taxes. They gotta pay insurance. And guess what, guys, the bank, at any time they could wake up from their zombie and decide to foreclose on the property. Wed fix up the house, make it beautiful, uh, get a tenant in there. And that would not, basically, stop the bank to come in and go, hey, we want our house now. You could exercise your lien rights as an hoa to foreclose on a property. Right. So lets say that, uh, that a homeowner owes 10,000. I could come in as an investor and look at this property and say, wait a second, i could buy this home at a foreclosure sale by the hoa for 10,000 and get title of that property. But myself as the investor has to look at it and say, well, wait a second they have a mortgage on that property. So theres some legal issues there. Right. If nobody bids on the judgment they have, they could end up owning that property again. What does that mean . That means, once again, the Homeowners Association is on the hook for all the expenses of the house. You wanna do something thats going to wake up the zombie. And that may be even to the point where, maybe, your lawyers will say, you know what . Were just gonna file a lawsuit and say, judge, you know what . Could you ask these people to, basically, foreclose on this property . Because it is impeding our ability to take care of our neighborhood. get has proactive as possible to get the bank off their butt to say, lets exercise our rights. When we come back, im gonna tell you about this house and the Great American it was built for. [ woman vocalizing ] you both have a perfect driving record. Perfect. No tickets. No accidents. That is until one of you clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. Yup. Now, you would think your Insurance Company would cut you some slack, right . No. Your insurance rates go through the roof. Your perfect record doesnt get you anything. Anything. Perfect for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claim centers are available to assist you 24 7. For a free quote, call Liberty Mutual at switch to Liberty Mutual and you could save up to 509 call today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Hi, im bob massi, the property man. Im standing in front of a special home that was built for a special american. Let me tell you about Jesse Murphree, a Great American hero. Jesse is one of the most kindhearted kids ive ever met and always has been. Deployed in 2007, jesse and his unit found himself in the korengal valley in afghanistan, one of the most dangerous places to be. It was most certainly a very active and dangerous valley. Sebastian junger documented the harrowing ordeal that jesses platoon went through in the awardwinning documentaries restrepo and korengal. It truly is, i guess youd say, hell, to be quite honest. Jesses mission was to be the gunner on the third gun truck that would be overwatching a number of, uh, paratroopers that were gonna be clearing a village. My buddy started to step out of the truck and. A commanddetonated ied blew up jesses vehicle. Before we knew it, i mean, we were midsentence. I was wakin up on the bottom of a mountain. I would have to yell up for help in between the the gun bursts because i was completely immobile. Um, my legs were shredded. His paratrooper, uh uh, platoon mates fought to him, secured him, performed lifesaving measures. As they carried me to the bird, the last thing i saw was kind of like the mountains. And i went i went dark. Back home, jesses mother got the horrifying phone call. They shared with me that he had been hurt and was, um. They were patching me through to the surgeon. And, uh, he explained jesses injuries and that he was gonna try and save his life for me. I woke up a week and a half later at walter reed. And then thats when, uh, you start tryin to piece together what just happened and stuff. And that was the first time i found out that my legs were gone. Immediately, you could see the fear in his eyes and and the recognition of what was truly happening. Jesses recovery went on and on. He had 65 surgeries. As things would happen during his recovery, jesse connected with a childhood friend, ashley. She was there for me through everything. They would end up getting married in 2013. But the surgeries kept coming. Life, well, it wasnt easy. Then jesse, through his friends, heard about an Organization Called building homes for heroes. This Great Organization is building homes for disabled veterans all over the country, providing them an opportunity to be able to own a home free of mortgage so that they know that theyre safe, and their families are protected. It was started by a long island businessman, andy pujol. I said to some friends, why dont we build one home for a severely injured warrior . And, if nothing else, well leave a legacy for our children. But andy didnt stop at one home. And so far, they have gifted more than 100 homes to veterans. Were on target for 50 homes in 2016. And, uh, we have high hopes of doing the same in 2017. As jesse recovered, building homes for heroes Board Members visited him in the hospital and invited him to come to new york for a fundraising dinner. The event was featured by foxs own sean hannity. Take a look at this. We have a special surprise tonight. Theres a young man here in the audience who just finished his 58th, 59th, and 60th surgery and left the va hospital because he wanted to be here tonight. Jesse and ashley, you know that home youre hoping for in tampa . From all of us to you, its yours. [ cheers and applause ] it was very emotional. It was a huge weight thats being, like, lifted off your shoulders. Jesse and ashley, wanted to be in tampa, florida. Well, building homes for heroes and william ryan homes built them a beautiful home from the ground up. This home, just like all the homes built by building homes for heroes, is specifically designed to meet the injured soldiers needs. Its so important to have an open floor plan. Itll give jesse the freedom to maneuver all throughout the home. We want him to feel like hes in a normal home built for anyone. And, uh, you really cant see all these hidden features that weve done. But theyre actually here. But theyre subtle. They are all here. Theyre very subtle. We design all of our homes with the hallways being 48 inches wide. It gives him the freedom to roll through with a wheelchair. The greatest features that we gave him was the ability to, uh, bathe and shower freely. This shower allows him to roll in and actually bathe. He has a seat here. He can sit comfortably. And i noticed, also, a beautiful backyardwimming poo. We have some therapeutic jets that help him in his rehabilitation. We also have two water features in the pool which helps with the ringing in his ears. Its not only therapeutic, but its also, you know, mentally therapeutic, as well. Finally, that special day came when building homes for heroes gave jesse and ashley the key to this beautiful home. [ sirens wailing ] [ applause ] welcome to building homes for heroes homecoming celebration for Army CorporalJesse Murphree and his wife, ashley, and son, brody. [ cheers and applause ] we are really excited to start this new chapter of our life out here. So to all of our neighbors, everybody out here, thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. [ people cheering ] [ applause ] having a home is the place where you build stability. And jesse hasnt had that yet. What theyre giving to to these soldiers and these families, to me, is a foundation to start a whole new life. The building homes for heroes family they have been so supportive of us, and theyve really gotten us through this year. It is the best thing thats happened to us ever. How do you say thank you for something so big . Even as we sit in here, i keep thinkin that, like, its just its not clickin yet that this is our house. We feel so undeserving. But we feel so blessed. Up next, a massi memo with information you cant afford to miss. Stick around. [ woman vocalizing ] at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like social media equals antisocial. Hey guys, i want you to meet my fiancee, denise. Hey. Good to meet you dennis. 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And for a limited time, get Free Shipping and remember, every inmovement desk comes with a 30day moneyback guarantee so you can try it riskfree voiceover call or visit inmovement. Com and use promo code freeship. Thats inmovement. Com. Promo code freeship. Stand up for your health. At ally bank, no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like bill splitting equals nitpicking. But i only had a salad. It was a buffalo chicken salad. Salad. Welcome back. Im bob massi, the property man. And now its time for the massi memo. At the start of the show, i sat down with Florida Attorney general pam bondi to talk about scams. Scammers are always out there trying to separate you from your money. So what do you do . Well, it all boils down to this. The best way to protect yourself is to step back and think before you pay anyone a dime or sign anything. If anything sounds too good, please, run away. Most scams sell the sizzle to pull you in and beware of the sizzle, the 4day, 3night dream vacation, expensive gifts. Those type of things are the sizzles. Anyone who asks for an upfront fee or wire transfers of any type in reference to purchasing real property, rental property or stocks, forget it. Never buy any real estate by phone. It is important that you hire a competent realtor and check all credentials. And if a Company Promises to save your home from foreclosure, dont believe a word. Many charge high fees for work you can do on your own. And some actually try to trick you into signing over the deed to the house. Never sign anything you dont understand. And dont allow anyone to pressure you. Research any company you might work with first. And check with the Better Business bureau and your states Attorney Generals Office. Earlier, we spoke with marshall, whose hoa is trying to decide what to do about a vacant property in the community. Well follow marshalls story and update you when theres a resolution. Most people, though, are on the other side trying to decide if they should buy in an hoa neighborhood. Heres what you need to do. Request all relevant information to review and know the rules before you buy. Get the financial information. Make sure theyre solvent with hoa. Ask if theres been any assessments in the past or any scheduled in the future, guys. And make sure you get a copy of the covenants, conditions and restrictions. These are the rules that you will live by in your community. See if you can get a past history of the minutes of the hoa. Find out if there has been any construction defect litigation in the area where youre buying. And by the way, ask what the insurance covers as it relates to common areas, that being the walls and where your property is located. Thats it for today. Be sure to send me your questions or property stories at propertyman foxnews. Com. And check out our website at foxnews. Com propertyman. Im bob massi. Ill see you next week. [ woman vocalizing ] im bob massi. For 34 years, ive been practicing law and living in las vegas, the center of the recent realestate crisis. Lives were destroyed from coast to coast as the economy tanked. Now, well, its a different story. The American Dream is back, and nowhere is that more clear than the Sunshine State of florida. So we headed from the strip to the beach to showyou how to live the American Dream. Im gonna meet real people who are facing serious problems, take you behind the gates of properties you have to see to believe, and give you the tips that Everyone Needs to navigate the new landscape, because information is power, and the property man has got you covered. [ woman vocalizing ]