Scam artists seem to do an excellent job by playing with people’s emotions. They make them consider all of their hopes and dreams for the future, and that if they “dare to be rich” by signing up with the scam artist’s program, their hopes and dreams might come true. A new real estate scam is using that very technique and is ripping of thousands of Americans.
The outfit goes by a number of different names, including Metro Dream Homes, Metropolitian Grapevine, POS Dream Homes, or Metro Dream Homes of CityName. They’ll send you a letter promising to help you pay off your home in just seven years. All you have to do is give them $5,000 up front and agree to give them 15% of your home equity. Essentially, they’re trying to persuade you that you can live in your home for free. This sounds like a great idea in theory, but like everything else that sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
Metro Dream Homes claim that they will take your $5,000 and invest the money into credit card machines, ATMs and other revenue generating devices. They claim that they’ll use the profits to pay off your mortgage in five to seven years. After they pay off your home, you have to give them 50% of your newly found home equity in addition to the 15% of home equity that you already gave them.
Many state attorneys general are looking into the operation and the state of Virginia determined that it was mathematically impossible for the company to meet the claims that it’s making. There was even an article in the Washington Post recently stating that both Virginia and Maryland are seeking a temporary injunction against Metro Dream Homes so that they cannot do business in their states.
The company is fairly new, so their exact scheme has not come out yet, but the program is definitely worth your time. They may just take your $5,000 and run or try to steal home equity from you by giving you an unfair contract that you don’t read. Either way it’s not going to be a good deal for consumers that sign up with this program and think that they’ll be able to live in their homes for free.
Any company that tries to tell you that you can attain all of your dreams without doing a ton of work to get there should be treated with a great amount of suspicion, and Metro Dream Homes is no different!