Learn About Fraud

Mortgage fraud is an ever increasing problem. You will always have honest people trying to make a good living in real estate. But you will also have those who are trying to cheat their way to a good property deal. You want to be aware of the scams people try to get by with. You may even need a criminal attorney (Fort Lauderdale). When you are aware of the traps and the tricks you are better prepared to protect your interest. Here are some to look out for.

Property flipping is a legal practice until wrong doers try to take advantage of the system. One way they do this is to get appraisers, who they will give a kick back to, to wrongly appraise the land to be purchased. The person who is making the illegal deal will get employees from title companies involved, loan brokers, and property investors to go with him on the illegal deal. He will give them all kick backs when the deal is finalized and he has made a big profit.

For example a property could be correctly valued at $20,000 but the appraiser submits a value of $90,000. Then there is the silent second. This is where the buyer borrows the down payment amount from the seller by issuing a second mortgage but does not disclose this. The primary lender thinks the buyer is investing his own money for the down payment.

However the truth is that the funds are borrowed. The second is not recorded thus the primary lender of funds is unaware of it. Then there is the nominee loans, straw buyer. This happens when the identity of the borrower of funds is kept hidden and a nominee allows the borrower of funds to use his name and credit report for the loan application.

Also you have the stolen identity issues which can be used on the application. The one applying for the loan is probably in on an identity theft crime where the real person is not aware that his identity has been stolen and is being used for a loan application.

And there is the inflated appraisal where the one doing the appraisal colludes with the funds borrower and submits an appraisal to mislead the lender. The false appraisal reports an inflated value. With the foreclosure scam the schemer looks for home owners who are in danger of defaulting on their home loan or for those in the foreclosure process already.

The schemer tricks the home owner by convincing him that he he can save their home if the property owner transfers the deed and that he pays the up front costs. The schemer makes his profit by remortgaging the land and taking the money the owner paid.

A straw buyer is used in equity skimming. The scam involves using false income verification reports and misleading credit reports to get a loan for the property. The name of the straw man is used. Before the close of escrow the buyer turns over the land to the perpetrator with a quit claim deed and turns all land rights over and provides no title guaranty. No payments are made on the loan and the investor waits for it to go into foreclosure after renting the land out for the months it takes for the land to be foreclosed.