Google) have a reason to make sure their ads are good enough that you keep using the site and they don't send you scams and malware so to some extent you can trust them more than say Myspace or some of the old search sites that were littered with shady ads but at the same time their job is to sell you ads so that is what they do.

That is a common Scam in the REO Industry. 

The only instance where I encountered a problem as a host so far was with a condo I used to own.

People will also take advantage of your money even if it is someone you trust, and especially if it is someone you trust.I have encountered several friends and college classmates of mine that went overseas made more money then bragged about it.

Somehow people have started confusing equity skimming with buying homes below fair market value.Outside of the banking industry, the most common type of scam that people link with equity skimming, is a type of foreclosure fraud.

I started introducing people to other resources I had encountered - investors to hard money lenders, mortgage brokers to the networking groups I was a part of.

So we showed them that bank statement, and it was a go.The irony was when we showed up at the closing, they didn't require certified bank checks, so we just paid with checks for our HELOC.From time to time, we encountered such problems with funding from HELOC, but our workaround is our mother-in-law account.

If you can afford the loss, if the 9.9% does not pan out or your money vaporizes into a ponzi scheme or some other scam, then it's alright.

But, you can generally buy properties at 15% to 20% less than fair market value, you have plenty of time for due diligence and to raise cash, and you have none of the competition you encounter at auctions or post-foreclosure REO sales."

The problem you will encounter there is that portfolio lenders do not pre-flight scenarios or do hypotheticals.