Everyone wants to jump off the bandwagon once the market is perceived as soft.  Well except for some people.  Thats right the con men,  the scammers, or what ever you want to call them.  These are the people that prey on desperate individuals.   They have no feelings or remorse they are just looking for a way to get money out of you.

WATCH OUT, it can happen to you.  I went on an appointment yesterday.  I got a call from a gentleman who wanted to see one of my South Florida Listings.  He said he was not a realtor, but a mortgage broker who wanted to take a look at this home for himself.  I was a little skeptical from our telephone conversation, but nonetheless this home has been on the market for over a year and I really needed to sell it.  I agree to meet him.  He comes and he is a well dressed man with Hatian descent.  He was very nice looked through the home seemed to really like it.  What was not to like it was a 5 bedroom 3.5 bath home 3216 living square feet that was a former model home priced at a really low price for our South Florida Market at $500,000.  I spend about 20 minutes showing him the home, and than as he is leaving comes a question that we all hate.  How much do you think your seller will take?

After that question, it went all downhill.  He asked me if I could be creative with the contract.  I said it depends on what creative means to you.  If you mean my seller paying for closing costs that is fine, but what do you mean?  So he starts explaining what he wants to do.  He wants my seller to take $480,000, have it appraised at $560,000, and the lender loan on the $560,000 so the buyer and mortgage broker can walk away with $70,000 from the table and $10,000 for the closing costs.  Well most Boca Raton Real Estate Agents , in this market may at least think about how they could put the deal together.  Not me.  I have seen this firsthand, and will not be trapped into Mortgage Fraud.  I tell him that this is illegal and I think he should go now.  For the next 5 minutes he tries to explain to me that since it would be between buyer and seller as a private agreement we would not have any liability or problem.  Ummm.  Get lost pal.  2 weeks ago the Feds came in on one of our title companies closings and put everyone in jail including the mortgage broker, both realtors, buyer, and seller.  If you think Paris Hilton was messed up and tramatized, I would be ten times worse.  So I tell the guy again that I do not want to do business with him, and please stay away from my listings. 

Listen to me, Mortgage Fraud is out there, and this is not the first time this has happened to me even this month.  We all have to watch out.  It is not worth your license nor your freedom to get involved in a scheme like this.  Keep your eyes and ears out, and be sure to turn everyone in that even mentions this.  It is a very serious problem that is affecting our industry and how consumers perceive the real estate industry.