The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has made a free foreclosure prevention tool kit available to consumers.

This kit is created to help homeowners avoid unnecessary foreclosure. It also attemps to stop foreclosure “rescue” scams which promise false hope to home owners at risk of losing their homes.

Included in the tool kit is a brochure that encourages homeowners who are at risk of losing their home to contact their lender, apply for a loan modification or talk to a consumer counselor.

Military veterans are now being targeted in a new scam. In the scam, scammers pretend they work for the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs. They call the veteran and tell them that the VA is updating its prescription information and asks for credit card information.

Potential first-time home buyers still have a little more than a couple of months left to buy and close on a purchase and take advantage of up to an $8,000 tax credit. More than 1.4 million Americans have already claimed the tax credit, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

There is a new scam out there praying on the elderly. Companies are using fear tactics to sell living trusts to people who don't need them.

Living trusts are ways for people to transfer their assets to their children or grandchildren

Companies will call your house or show up to your door and tell you that if you don't buy an expensive living trust kit you could lose all your assets to taxes. Then they invite you to a "free" lunch seminar.  And thats where they give the hard sell on living trusts and other products.

Do you have a drawer full of old electronics? Gazelle.com may want them.

Log on to their site and answer a few questions. Gazelle then calculates how much they will pay you for the item.

You can get as much as $200 for four year old laptops or almost $100 dollars for old iPods. They also collect cell phones, LCD TVs and video game consoles.

The company pays for shipping and will send you a box for most orders.

If they can't resell your old electroncis, they will recycle them.

The severe weather we saw across the Denver area this summer has many people working with their insurance company to get roofs, cars and other things repaired.

One of the most common insurance claims in Colorado this summer has been for roof repairs and replacements because of hail damage.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a recall of 5.5 million blinds sold under various names such as Vertcial Lands, Target, Pottery Barn Kids, Expo Design Center and Ikea. The recall comes after the death of three children by strangalation and seven other reported close calls.

Consumers should stop using the blinds immediately and contact Vertical Land to receive a free retrofit kit. If you think you my have this product in your home, please see the entier CPSC Vertical Lands recall notice, which includes pictures and contact information.

The state deactivated 4,500 mortgage brokers' licenses on Aug. 31 because they failed to meet new requirements in Colorado.

The move cut the number of Department of Regulatory Agencies licensed brokers by about half.

All of the mortgage brokers on haystackcolorado.com remain active with their licenses. Look for these Official Haystack Registered mortgage companies by clicking here.

Question: I don't want to layoff valuable employees, so how can I cut costs in other ways?

Ok, here is the scenario: You sign a six month lease, move in, and two months later receive a notice from the landlord's lender that they have foreclosed on your landlord's property. A year ago, the lender would have demanded that you vacate the premises immediately and under the law you would have had to.