The new consumer article for today is Rental Fraud, Landlord Fraud, and Prospective Tenant Scams. As with everything else out there concerning larger amounts of money, there are rental frauds that renters need to be concerned about, more and more...
The new consumer article for today is Title Deeds And The Form They Should Take, which discusses the mechanism of the title transfer deed and the form it should take....
The new consumer article for the day is Mortgage Fraud Is Still Happening - What To Do About It. There are still tricks that the less scrupulous agents and loan officers are pulling that are just as fraudulent as at...
Today's new consumer article is Why You Should Not Walk Away From Upside-Down Real Estate. You shouldn't, if there is any alternative. Doing so takes a theoretical loss on paper and turns it into something concrete with real world consequences....
Today's new consumer article is "Buy and Bail" or Buying One Home Before Foreclosure on Another, describing lender response to what has become a widespread phenomenon, as people think they are somehow saving themselves money try to defraud lenders in...
do you agree that a non recourse loan on a single family home is loaned with out financial risk to the borrower... if they do not want to keep their home when the market drops below what they owe,...
This is something that often happens with highly appreciated properties where the owner can no longer keep up the payments, they get hit with a notice of default, and along comes Joe or Jane seemingly riding to the rescue on...
Notice that it doesn't claim that you can do so legally. I saw another of these signs on the way to the office this morning. When things are going sour, there are any number of scam artists who will...
I've gotten several emails to articles recently having to do with straw buyers, and more search hits. Red flags preceded home-fraud lawsuit and Fraud case hits home seem to cover one of these weasels particularly well. A "straw buyer" is...
Why doesn't real estate just sell for the asking price instead of having to go thru all the paper work...? Wouldn't it be easier to just put a price on it and sell it for that price? We don't...
Yesterday I dealt with a very disturbing phone call from a would be client. He was very happy with the way I found bargain properties, and wanted me to find him such a property. All very well and good. But...
Last week, I got a call from a hard money lender, asking what I could to to "rescue" one of his clients by refinancing. He was being about as altruistic as a drowning man. What he really wanted was...
I enjoyed finding your blog today. It was enlightening, particularly in the area of real estate appraisals. Mortgage fraud is something I've been reading about lately. Since the FBI says 80% of it involves collusion and usually with the...
Every once in a while I get someone who is unhappy with required paperwork for privacy reasons. There are three forms that are the driving force behind this. The first is the standard form for a mortgage loan application, known...
I found this article by Ken Harney in the paper. WASHINGTON - Call it funny money for the housing boom: Now you don't need actual cash in the bank to buy a house. All you need is somebody who says...
For all of the rants I post about bad business practices, there are a lot of things the mortgage industry gets right. One of these looks like a red flag not to do business with them, and may seem like...
Hi, my name is DELETED, I need help. I bought a house (a few months ago) because my boyfriend persuaded me to. This was supposed to be a real estate investment between us. I put the house in my...
Every so often I get e-mail asking why real estate transactions are so complex. The answer is, "Because they're for a lot of money, and because there's a lot of money involved, con artists and other people will make a...
Over the last few years, a lot of folks have gotten used to zero real scrutiny of transactions. With values increasing rapidly, it was hard to lose money on real estate, whether you were purchaser or lender. One of the...
With many people pushing various "cash back to the buyer" schemes in real estate, a note of caution is needed. Actually, it's more like an entire symphony of caution. Because if there is a loan involved, you run the risk...
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