5 Real Estate Scams You Need To Know About

Mortgage fraud is pervasive: An estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in annual losses result from mortgage fraud, according to FBI reports. “An entire community can be damaged by mortgage fraud,” says Rachel Dollar, a lawyer from Santa Rosa, Calif., and editor of the Mortgage Fraud Blog. Mortgage fraud can lead to a spike in foreclosures, home values plummeting, and lenders raising their rates and fees to recover losses.

The crimes are often complex, involving several parties and occurring over multiple transactions. To protect you and your clients, educate yourself about mortgage fraud and be on guard for any warning signs in a transaction. You can start by reviewing these five scams, and then test your knowledge by taking our Mortgage Fraud Quiz.

1. The Foreclosure Rescue Scheme

The Scam: “Rescuers” promise cash-strapped home owners that they can save their home from foreclosure. The rescue, which involves paying upfront fees, can take multiple forms, such as the perpetrator obtaining a new loan on behalf of the owner or by having the owner sign over the home’s deed and then rent the home until they can repurchase it. Eventually, the home owner loses the home, either to foreclosure or the fictitious rescue company.

Red Flags: With foreclosure rescue programs, borrowers are often advised to sign over the title of their house to a third party, become renters of their home, not contact their lender, or send mortgage payments to a third party, according to Fannie Mae, which provides fact sheets on mortgage fraud.

2. Loan Documentation Fraud

The Scam: This fraud involves numerous schemes in which a borrower provides inaccurate financial information — such as about their income, assets, and liabilities — or employment status in order to qualify for a loan with lower rates and more favorable terms. Occupancy fraud is one growing area: Borrowers say they plan to live in the property when they actually intend to rent it.

Red Flags: Documentation may raise suspicion if the employer’s address is shown as a post office box, accumulation of assets compared to the person’s income appears too high or low, the new house is too small to accommodate occupants, the person has no credit history, or the application is unsigned or undated, according to Fannie Mae.

3. Appraisal Fraud

The Scam: A faulty appraisal — saying a property is worth more than what it really is — is connected to many types of mortgage fraud. It entails manipulating or overstating comparables, market values, or property characteristics in order to obtain a higher appraisal. The higher property appraisal, which generates false equity, is done by falsifying an appraisal document or using an appraiser accomplice to obtain the higher value.

Red Flags: Be skeptical of appraisals that are dated prior to the sales contract, list comparable sales that do not contain similarities to the property or are outside the neighborhood, the owner is not the seller listed on the contract or the title, or a third party participating in the transaction orders the appraisal, Freddie Mac warns.

4. Illegal Property Flipping

The Scam: This entails purchasing properties and reselling them at inflated prices. These scams usually involve faulty appraisals and inaccurate loan documents. The property is then refinanced or resold immediately after purchase for an inflated value. The home is purchased at a higher price, often by straw buyers working with the “flipper,” and eventually falls into foreclosure. 

Red Flags: Some key things to look for are rapid refinancing of a property; the seller recently having acquired the title or acquiring the title concurrent with the transaction; an appraisal that comes in too high; a property that was recently in foreclosure being purchased at a much lower price than its sales price; or the owner listed on the appraisal and title not matching the seller on the sales contract, according to Fannie Mae.

5. Short Sales Schemes

The Scam: Borrowers owe more than the current value of their home so they fake financial hardship and no longer make their mortgage payments. An accomplice of the borrower then submits a low offer to purchase the property in a short sale agreement. The lender agrees to the short sale, unaware that it was premeditated. The property, after being purchased at the reduced price, is then often resold at the home’s actual value for profit.

Red Flags: The borrower suddenly defaults on the mortgage with no workout discussions with the lender, an immediate offer is made to a lender at a short sale price, the short sale offer is less than current market value, or a cash back is offered at closing to the delinquent borrower (disguised as “repairs” or other payouts, for example) and is not disclosed to the lender, according to Fannie Mae.

You can report instances of suspected mortgage fraud to Stopfraud.gov.

REALTOR® magazine

Indiana Property Tax Deductions/Exemptions

Did you know that as a property owner in the state of Indiana you are entitled to certain deductions/exemptions on your primary residence. I have attached a link that lists all those available.

Exemptions have to be filed before December 31 of the current year.

http://www.in.gov/icpr/webfile/formsdiv/51781.pdf

House Passes Flood Insurance Reform Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a flood insurance reform bill that would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program to Sept. 30, 2015, a provision strongly supported by the National Association of REALTORS®.

Passage of H.R. 5114, the Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act, would strengthen the NFIP and bring certainty to many real estate markets that are much in need, NAR said, and commended Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) for marshalling the bill through House passage.

“This longer-term reauthorization of the NFIP is critical to millions of taxpaying American families who rely on the program for flood insurance, which is required to obtain a mortgage in nearly 20,000 communities across the nation. This would restore flagging confidence in a vital program by ensuring its continuation for several years without further disruption to real estate markets upon which our nation’s economic recovery depends,” said Vicki Cox Golder, NAR president.

Golder noted that the authority has been allowed to expire twice in the past two years while Congress approved eight short-term extensions, resulting in multi-week delays if not cancellation of thousands of real estate transactions. Such stop-gap measures have caused many hardships and lost sales for property buyers, sellers and their communities, she said.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where the prospects of passage are not clear.

Source: NAR

Mortgage rates decline, lowest in 50 years!

Mortgage rates have sunk to the lowest level in more than five decades, but consumers aren't rushing to refinance their loans or buy homes.

Mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans sank to 4.58 percent this week.

That's down from the previous record of 4.69 percent set last week and the lowest since the mortgage company began keeping records in 1971. The last time they were cheaper was the 1950s, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25 years.

Rates have fallen over the past two months. Investors wary of the European debt crisis and the stock market have shifted money into the safety of Treasury bonds, driving down yields. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on long-term Treasurys.

On Wednesday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 2.95 percent. That was the first time it has fallen below 3 percent since April 2009, when the markets were beginning to recover from the financial crisis.

But tighter lending standards and declining home equity have made it difficult for many borrowers to refinance. Many who do qualify have already done so over the past 18 months.

Applications for mortgages rose nearly 9 percent last week from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. But they remain at only about half the level of early 2009 and a far cry from the refinancing boom of 2003 through 2005, when home prices were soaring and borrowers were able to pull equity out of their homes to pay for home renovations, boats and vacation homes.



Closing Cost Assistance and Appliance Incentive for Fannie Mae Homes

Fannie Mae is offering a 3.5% incentive* for buyers who purchase and close on a Fannie Mae-owned home by June 30, 2010. Buyers purchasing properties listed on this site that are closed within this period may receive up to 3.5% of the final sales price for:

• Closing costs;
• The purchase of new Whirlpool® appliances by Fannie Mae; or
• A mix of closing costs and appliances, at the buyer’s discretion, up to the maximum 3.5%.

To be eligible for this incentive:

• Property sales must close by June 30, 2010
• Buyers must be owner-occupants, investors are excluded

Contact a Fannie Mae listing broker for more information.

*Lenders may impose their own limitations on the use of the 3.5% incentive, so buyers should consult their lenders for guidance.