"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
link.net...
"Mike Coslo" wrote:

It's not as lucrative as you make it sound, Dwight.
Also, these people are reasonably well off, retiring
with money equivalent to upper middle class or
better. (snip)


I have no idea how lucrative it is. An acquaintance (hard to call this
guy
a friend) works for a mortgage company and just loves to talk about the
shady side of that industry. The company he works for (a nation-wide
franchise chain) just switched to more agressive foreclosure practices
and,
based on the stories he tells, I most certainly would not want to be a
customer of that company. Of course, this company has always had
questionable (in my opinion) foreclosure practices. He told me years ago
(late 80's, early 90's) that, mainly because of increasing property
values,
it was far more profitable to foreclose on older properties than to
maintain
the mortgage. As such, the company used every opportunity to foreclose on
those mortgages. Today, according to him, long term mortgage foreclosure
offers the most gain. Therefore, they now actively seek those who have the
greatest possibility of foreclosure years from now, such as the elderly,
those with speading habits that suggest possible credit problems down the
road, and so on. Now, since I don't work in that industry, I have no idea
if
this is entirely true or even widespread. But, I've seen enough written
about these types of practices to suggest there is at least some truth to
it.

The key to being successful is having some way of estimating who would be in
trouble approximately 5 years or more down the road not the person who is
currently in trouble or on the ragged edge of currently being in trouble.
Then the property has had time to appreciate enough to be able to turn a
profit.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE