Someone said signing my house over to them will stop foreclosure — should I do it?
No. Never transfer the deed to your home to anyone claiming it will protect it from foreclosure or place it in a trust. This is one of the oldest foreclosure scams, and signing away the deed means losing all ownership rights immediately.
This particular scam has been around for decades, evolves in its specific pitch over time, but always centers on the same mechanism: getting a distressed homeowner to sign over the deed to their property under the belief that doing so will somehow protect it.
How the scam typically presents itself
The pitch varies. Sometimes it’s framed as putting the home into a trust for protection. Sometimes it’s framed as a temporary transfer that will be reversed once the homeowner’s finances recover. Sometimes it involves a sale-leaseback arrangement where the homeowner is told they can stay in the home as a renter and buy it back later. The specifics change, but the deed transfer itself is the constant, and it’s the part that causes the actual harm.
What actually happens when the deed is signed
The moment a deed is signed and recorded, ownership of the property has legally transferred to whoever received it. The original homeowner no longer owns the home, regardless of any verbal promise about staying in it, buying it back, or reversing the transfer later. Those promises are rarely enforceable in practice, and homeowners who’ve fallen for this scam frequently find themselves facing eviction from a home they used to own, with little legal recourse.
The rule that protects against this specific scam
No legitimate foreclosure relief program, anywhere, requires a homeowner to transfer ownership of their home to a third party. A short sale, a loan modification, a repayment plan, and a deed-in-lieu negotiated directly and knowingly with your own lender are all legitimate paths. Signing your deed over to an unrelated third party who approached you with a rescue offer is not one of them, regardless of how the pitch is framed.
If something about an offer or letter doesn’t feel right, call or text Michele Lee Scherger at 561-309-2950 for a free, no-obligation second opinion before you sign or pay anything.