Just got back from a seminar on mortgage fraud conducted by Phil Seaver from Seaver Title Company and sponsored by Julie Plotnik from Victory Home Loans. Interesting stuff.
It seems that Michigan has the distinction of being the number one state for mortgage fraud. That certainly is a dubious honor. To fight the trend, the FBI has beefed up it’s forces in the state and is committing significant resources to the battle. Phil lead us through the typical scenarios and I imagine that many of the Realtors in the room, like me, have seen these questionable deals cross their desks. Maybe it is a sign of our times. Phil estimated that there were over 700 cases of mortgage fraud in Oakland County in 2005. Wayne county is much higher.
While I am sure none of my readers would knowingly participate in mortgage fraud, it seems that we are all victims in a way. Our Oakland County assessors know the problem is significant, but they have no way of automatically contending with the impact of fraudulent transactions as they impact the taxable values of neighboring properties. Right now the county is turning a blind eye to the fraudulent sales. Of course, these sales typically have grossly inflated sales prices, say, for example, a two million dollar home will sell for four million. So this pushes up property values and increases tax revenues. I imagine that figuring out this mess will be a low priority since it increases tax revenues in a time of budget shortfalls.
[tags]mortgage fraud, mortgage fraud in Michigan[/tags]
Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Cindi Dixon 02.01.07 at 11:59 am
Hi,
Thank you very much for the article you published on mortgage fraud. We posted this story on our Mortgage Fraud Discussion Board:
A similar thing happened to me in the mid-1990s by a company in Huntington Beach, Anastasi Realty and his brother who owned Anastasi construction. I was a single mother and making a very moderate income when I was coerced with promises of building my credit and hope of my own home ownership one day. After getting reeled in by promises of becoming a property owner (while renting myself), an intermediary orchestrated the loans on the homes that valued approximately $750k for the new construction town homes, back then!. There were first, second and Title 1 (or third) liens on the homes. Another co-worker was also in possession of three other units. After the simultaneous closings and the disbursement of all of the funds, of which I received nothing, the culprits pocketed close to two million dollars off of us. Within two months the “tenants†stopped paying the rents (one of the tenants was the individual who orchestrated the deals). When I began to inquire as the lender’s collection calls began, I was threatened with being turned into the FBI for my participation, and then my children were threatened and I left it alone.
This motivated my desire to learn more and I have had a career in fighting mortgage fraud for the past 10 years. If there is ever anything I can be of assistance with feel free to contact me. We welcome you to visit our Mortgage Fraud discussion board and encourage your readers to utilize our blog as well to share their similar experiences. The reason the criminals are allowed to continue is that their names and company information remain a secret until (and IF) there is a prosecution.
Please let your readers know they can openly share their stories so we can prevent other innocent people searching for the American Dream from having their lives destroyed.
Cindi Dixon, Director
Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Mela Capital Group
Lucy 02.28.07 at 4:42 pm
I’m glad to see the FBI taking charge here. Seems to be an alarming trend, the mortgage fraud business. There are too many scenarios of “cash back to buyer” and overstated house values and incomes lately. I am concerned that this will get worse before it gets better. What do you think?
Maureen Francis 02.28.07 at 4:52 pm
Lucy,
I agree that it is going to get worse before it gets better. When you have a challenging market, like we have in Michigan, people become tempted to do things they would not ordinarily consider. The fraud cases will exacerbate a bad market when they come back on the market as foreclosures.
Cindi,
I have seen that exact same comment on 3 different blogs now. Stop spamming.
Mortgage Info 08.02.07 at 4:55 am
Hmm…interesting article. I stumbled across your blog and have really enjoyed reading it! Keep up the good work.