I read a very frightening article today in USA Today about a con artist and how he easy it was for him to steal your house from under you. Nationally, mortgage fraud has spread in the past few years, with losses totaling around $1 billion last year per the FBI. The real estate boom, along with looser lending standards, built an ideal breeding ground for smooth talking con artists to steel your homes. Those that are hurt by fraud are not only lenders, but thousand of homeowners that pay the price of higher interest rates as a result of fraud. Neighborhoods where foreclosures depress property values, invite crime and drain city resoures. Florida is the number 1 hot spot for mortgage fraud. Fraud is going to continue rising this year and next because fraud is harder to hide now that lenders have more time to review applications and appraisals. It normally takes about three years for homes to go into forclosure and many of these bad loans have yet to surface from the real estate boom we have seen in the last couple years. Some of the ways con artists can commit fraud is by telling an investor if he could not qualify for a mortgage due to his credit was maxed out he could find someone to the buy the property in their name and give them $1500 to $2500 dollars for their trouble of signing the documents. The con artist would pay all the closing costs and either find a tenant to cover the mortgage or pay it himself. And after a year he would sell the property and share the profits with you. But if this did not happen then many people were left with empty, decaying properties and mortgages they couldn't afford. Elderly people make attractive prey as they were targeted due to they ususally were retired and their homes were paid off and they usually had high credit scores and tend to have low bills and they have documentation that most banks need. The con artist in this case had blank real estate deeds and would forge a homeowners signature and deed the house to himself, he then bought a $35 notary's stamp at an office supply store and file the fake deed at the county recorder's office for $21. Then with the property in his name he could take a mortgage against it. In fact, no county recorder's office will verify the information on real estate documents. The recorders job is to ensure that documents are filled out properly, signed and notarized. In Los Angeles and Philadelphia the county recorder's are alerting property owners by mail when key documents are filed against their property.
With all the above being said nationwide, foreclosures are inching up as people with shaky credit fall behind on payments. Narly 5% of borrowers are behind on mortgages, and the figure is projected to climb as people with adjustable rate loans see their payments exceed what they can afford. And we in Florida know with the climbing insurance premiums homebuyers are having a tougher time affording a home.
Watch out for these con artists trying to steal your home or use your good name and credit to obtain loans and not repay them.
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