Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

So did you ever do anything with this? I also received the exact same email...word for word!

Just curious.
Thanks,
C

Any more info on this company? Anyone?

I had ordered this information back in 2003, before they started using the software application, and they sent me a 6-10 page booklet,(the exact # of pages, I'm unsure of), and those "legal forms" to copy and mail out...

It is a scam overall, in my opinion, as what I had paid for I didn't exactly receive. They were suppose to offer training materials and ongoing support...

I was suppose to access the HUD website, find people who were owed a refund, contact them, send off the "legal forms" with my percentage or finder's fee, and once I filed the paperwork for them and receive their refund for them, I'd take my cut and send them the rest.

Sounds simple, huh. Well one thing they fail to mention is the cost of postage to mail out these forms,(which is required as they had to sign the paperwork and get them notarized), cost of paper, and all the time needed to find the people listed, as HUD has listings that are 10+ years old. Out of the 1000+ forms I sent out, I didn't receive one red cent. I just lost more money that the original investment.

I'm unsure how they are trying to market the program now that there is software, but I'd still advise you all to beware. They say they will over a refund, but they don't.

You are totally wrong. Being a 3rd Party Tracer has been legal for a quarter of a century. The lists by HUD are only 2 years old and there are new lists that come out for every month. I enjoyed doing this in my spare time and made a comfortable living from it. Yes, you are going to have cost in a business such as phone calls, letters, and stamps when contacting the claimants. Have you ever heard of business expenses that you can write off at tax time? You can not be a cheap skate starting a business and expect to make a good living from home or you will get blown away. The Internet has made it easier to search for claimants as well.

Thanks,Stacey

I'm just starting to look into this and really appreciate all the comments.

Stacey, how long did it take you to start receiving fees? Do you have any advice?

If Stacey is so sucessful in this business, she should have signed up for a grammar class. Cheapskate or cheap skate. Catch my drift?

Sounds like Matt Williams is a very busy boy. I also recieved these same emails. I was researching a little and found this article. Very interesting...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1997/Nov-25-Tue-1997/news/6482915.html

Needless to say I won't be wasting my time and money...

Hannah

I thought that you all might want to know that this company eaglesoftwareservice.com is just selling the software to you and I was a little suspicious after finding their listing on craigslist. So I did some research on this software company because I like you wanted to do something like this from home. Since they mentioned HUD in their advertisement I figured why on earth would you need to buy software from a 3rd party if HUD is the one that is giving these mortgage refunds. So I went to the HUD sight which specifically states on there that whoever is owed a mortgage refund that they should not pay a 3rd party tracer when they can fill out the forms on their own for free. If you would like check out the HUD sight for yourself the link is http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/refunds/alerts.cfm.

The ad already stated this as I read it myself. The ad stated, "The homeowners do not have to work through you. They can go straight to HUD and do it their self."
I can not belive some people can not even do supported research. You pay a tracer for their service as you pay a tax accountant for their service even though you can do your taxes for free. As for Hannah, I read the article and it stated that being a 3rd Party Tracer was legal and HUD will confirm this.

I read the following also on a government website. There are two things you can not do as a tracer. 1) Claiming that the recipient must pay a fee to get the refund. (Recipients who contact HUD/FHA themselves get their entire refund without paying any fees or charges.) 2) Claiming that the tracer is part of, or authorized to act on behalf of the Federal Government. (Clearly, both claims are false.)

All tracers know this and the one's who are thinking to be who just assume negative and false assumptions are missing a great opportunity and career. I know for a fact you can make good money doing this because I have before I retired.

Thank-you Grace M. for providing additional information on the topic.

Shann,
We are not members of the BBB. We are only a software company. This is a valid self-employed position as stated earlier. The claimant pays you as stated earlier. Once you purchase and receive the software there is no need to contact us again unless you want to order the manual which is not required. The manual is sold by a separate company for $27.95 with a risk free 30 day offer and we can give you the address for them. The state listings are required and they are sold by HUD. You have to wait and receive the state listings before you can actually start working and contacting the claimants. The state listings are sold by HUD on average $20 per state (popular states are more ). You can do any state(s) you want. The state listings contains that claimants contact information such as phone number and address. The information is in the software on how to order this. The software gives you information on how to Process Mortgage Refunds. The best way to receive the software is to order at our website because you can download the software immediately. There are two main things you can not do being a 3rd Party Tracer as stated in the following.
Claiming that the recipient must pay a fee to get the refund. (Recipients who contact HUD/FHA themselves get their entire refund without paying any fees or charges.)
Claiming that the tracer is part of, or authorized to act on behalf of the Federal Government. (Clearly, both claims are false.)

You have two payment options to choose from by the claimants. One of these options will allow you to be paid after the individual has received their refund. There are legal forms in the software that you will get the claimant to sign that will guarantee your payment. The other will allow you to be paid within a few days of contacting a client. This is when you get the claimant to sign a Specific Power Of Attorney form and you get the Treasury sent to you in the claimants name. You will take your processing fee out then. As stated eariler, you are a 3rd Party Tracer, this is who you are. You are not affiliated or endorsed by the government, that is why you are called a "3rd" Party Tracer. This has been legal since 1983.



How did I decide on 20-30% processing fee?

You can charge whatever you feel is fair. Don't be greedy! Also, you always need to call it a processing fee and not a finder's fee. This enables you to charge more than 5-10%.

Question: Why didn't the people collect their refund?
Answer: The most common reasons are: 1) Over time most people simply forget that they are entitled to a refund therefore do not contact HUD/FHA to claim it. 2) The home was sold and the individual did not provide a forwarding address at the post office. 3) The letter that is sent to them by HUD/FHA notifying them of their refund is often mistaken as ''junk mail.''


Once I contact a refund recipient what will stop them from doing this themselves?
Answer: When you contact them you will only inform them that they have an unclaimed refund and that you will help them collect it for a fee. Once they have committed to a payment option, you then disclose the reason for the refund.

Do I have to do a lot of selling to the refund recipient in order for them to be interested in my services?
Answer: Not at all. People are very happy when they find out that they have an unclaimed refund and that you will assist them in collecting it. Remember, you don't even have to speak to a refund recipient unless you choose to.


What's the dollar amount of these refunds?
Answer: The average refunds are approximately $800 to $1,400. The highest refunds are around $5,000.

How much can a tracer expert expect to make?

Let's say you only process one $1800 refund per week, that's $300.00 to $540.00 per week part time. If you did that every day or more than one a day, you can see the income potential.

IS THERE MUCH COMPETITION AMONG TRACERS?
No. There are so many people that have money coming back to them with more being added each month that you could never take business away from another tracer even if you tried. You will have more than enough names to work yourself each month.

HOW MUCH WORK IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE?
Tens of thousands of names and addresses are currently available to work. In addition, hundreds more fresh names are added each month. Experts estimate the current workload alone will take several years to process. You may work from any state listing you choose.



HISTORY
M.I.P. is Simply an Insurance Refund due back to homeowners who have recently or in the past refinanced or paid off their home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was initially called the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) which was established in 1934. Two primary objectives of FHA Program were to allow individuals to purchase a home with a minimum down payment and to protect the lender's investment in case the buyer defaulted on the mortgage. This was accomplished by the home buyer purchasing an insurance policy on the mortgage.
The Program has two policies. Prior to 1983, the insurance was paid in monthly installments and is referred to as Mutual Mortgage Insurance or MMI. After 1983, a second policy was introduced by which the insurance was paid in-full at the closing. This policy is known as One-Time Mortgage Insurance Premium or OTMIP.
As an example under the OTMIP policy, the insurance premium for an FHA 30-yr fixed mortgage in the amount of $150,000 was equal to as much as 2.25% of the loan or $3750.00
Regardless of the policy by which the insurance premium was paid, the borrower was informed that if they either paid off the loan without missing any payments, sold the home or refinanced the loan with a non-FHA mortgage they would be eligible for a prorated refund on the insurance premium they had paid.
Over the years, a situation has occurred. When the FHA mortgage is retired either by full payment, by a sale or by refinancing it takes the Government months to process the paperwork to cancel the mortgage insurance. By the time the refund notice is sent out to borrower, he has likely moved and the notice never reaches the borrower.
Month after month the refund notice is sent to the same address and never reaches the borrower. After a two year period, the refund is placed into an unclaimed refund account and the borrower's name, last known address and refund amount is published in the public domain. Don't miss out on this work from home opportunity.
As a result, there are currently over 130,000 unclaimed mortgage insurance refunds totaling more than $100 million. With the explosion of refinancing over the past few years due to low interest rates, this pool of unclaimed refunds is expected to swell to over $140 million by 2006. This work from home opportunity will generate an income for years to come.
Not long ago, the General Services Administration directed HUD/FHA to expedite the distribution of these unclaimed refunds. One method was to allow individuals, like yourself, become "Third Party Processors" in locating these borrowers and assist them in recovering their refunds. With this work from home opportunity, you can collect a generous processing fee in the amount of 20%-30% of the refund.

Thank you,
Matt Williams
Eagle Software Services
support@eaglesoftwareservices.com
www.eaglesoftwareservices.com

I received this email from Matt. I think it clearifies things a bit. I had requested information to check against the BBB. I am not sure if I am going to do this business, but I thougth it was good information

Shann, I too received the exact same reply e-mail (word for word) when I asked this question "Matt are you in MD?". I got back the same long explanation you did. I'm still curious if this is a scam, but I'm interested to see that you and I both received the same response exactly.

Shann and Jennifer,

Thanks for sharing this information. I agree that a nearly identical e-mail does look a bit suspicious.

Did either of you try this from matt or did anyone and get any results... if so please e-mail me and let me know. i received the same first e-mail and then i just asked him about the bbb and have not heard a response. I am sure that I will get the same reply e-mail as the 2 of you did. If anyone has legitimately (sorry for the spelling) tried this and has proof that it does work please e-mail me hankybird@hotmail.com. I would really like something that could prove this is real. I wont buy into it until I get something.

Thanks
Beth

I am so tempted to try it. I need to stay at home but I need income. Here is what I found on the HUD website:

Question 2: I recently was contacted by someone who said that HUD owes me money and he could get it for me. Is this true? Is it legal?

Answer: The Department has stepped up its efforts to locate homeowners who are owed FHA refunds. We have hired Immediate System Resources, Inc. to find homeowners who are owed money. This will save people the "finders fees" normally collected by third party tracers. If someone from Immediate System Resources, Inc. contacts you, they are officially affiliated with HUD and will help you and won't charge you to get your refund.

Other "tracer" companies are legal. But they do not represent HUD, and they will charge you a fee. You do not have to use a tracer to get your refund, if you are owed one.

You can read about HUD refunds, right on our home page, including how to get yours.

http://www.hud.gov/faqs/faqrefund.cfm

If I try it, I will let you know how I fare.

Hi Elizabeth!

Thanks for chiming in and answering some questions!

Do you work for HUD now?

At any rate, best wishes to you, whatever you decide.

I hope to see more of you here.

I received an email from Matt and he was nice to me until he got my money. Then when I asked him for his phone number so I can contact him all hell broke loose. He received my information from a job site. Once my $39.00 was in his account he had no more ties with me. I just wanted to make sure this wasn't a scam and this is how he responded to my email. Read his response to me below. No customer service at all just wham bam thank you mam. I was left out in the cold. Plus I can't get my money back even though I only downloaded the software 3 days ago. This isn't right!


His response to me:

"Gail Richards,
We do not have a call center for customer support and never stated we did. There is no need to contact us again."

Please beware of email from:
Matt Williams
Eagle Software Services
support@eaglesoftwareservices.com
www.eaglesoftwareservices.com

Hi Gail!

Thanks for stopping by. In general, I am suspicious of organizations that make me pay to find work.

I'm sorry that you are having a tough time with this organization.

Best wishes!

Gail-
He was nice to you he threatened to sue me. We will see who wins in the end.

Good Luck

I am sorry that you are having a bad experience.

Laura and Gail,
I had a very similar response from Matt at Eagle Software. I bought the software,
it was garbage and then I couldn't get a refund. I couldn't open it because I have a MAC. I gave it to a friend with a PC and read it on her computer. There is nothing
of any value in the software. I hope others will not waste their money with Matt.

Thanks for the warning Carol!