Free Republic

It seems like every month, I'm running into people passing out a slick new business card that announces them as a real estate agent or mortgage broker. Who wouldn't want to get a piece of the action? On certain Portland streets, housing prices are doubling in a matter of months. And when there's this kind of temptation to make quick money, greed can't be far behind.Insiders call it land flipping. Silent second. Straw buyers. Foreclosure fraud. Equity skimming. Air loans. If there's a thought to do it, there's a scheme attached to it."It's the fastest-growing white collar crime in the...

Mortgage fraud continues to escalate in Southern California, FBI figures show, raising concerns of increased defaults and foreclosures as the housing market cools down. Lenders filed 4,228 reports of suspicious activity in the region during the first 11 months of the government's fiscal year, which ends Saturday, the FBI said. That puts 2006 on track to nearly double last year's total. ... A seven-county region from Orange County to San Luis Obispo County has seen a fourfold increase in suspicious loan activity since 2003 ... When home prices in California began to throttle up in the early years of the...

It may come as no surprise to those in the real estate industry that Nevada is near the top of the heap when it comes to mortgage fraud. According to the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), Nevada ranks seventh when it comes to alleged mortgage fraud and material misrepresentation reported by major mortgage lenders, agencies and insurers to a MARI database. Instances of alleged mortgage fraud continues to grow and is affecting more companies and communities, MARI reported. The most recent statistics from the FBI indicate that there was a seven-fold increase in reports of mortgage fraud — from more...

A Belton real estate mogul pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to committing the largest mortgage-fraud scheme ever prosecuted in western Missouri. Brent Michael Barber, 41, confessed to 104 federal felonies that prosecutors estimated could bring him from nine to 15 years in prison and require him to pay almost $12 million in restitution. Barber’s guilty pleas Thursday covered 289 fraudulent mortgage loans totaling $19.6 million. Authorities said Barber focused on distressed properties in the Midtown corridor, between 20th and 70th streets, east of the Paseo. “As a direct result of this fraud, there are many vacant and deteriorating homes...

AG: Firm persists in unfair practices despite accords Disclosing the details of a $325 million settlement between Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and 49 states, Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly advised consumers to avoid doing business with the California mortgage company.Reilly, who is running for governor, said Ameriquest's unfair lending practices have persisted despite several regulatory actions against the company during the past decade. The current settlement, if approved by the courts, would be the fourth agreement that Ameriquest has entered into since 1996 over its lending practices. ''This is a very bad company engaged in despicable practices," by failing to...

There are some basic things to realize about how your home can be taken from you in mortgage servicing scams. • These are not "predatory lenders." These companies do not loan money. They operate in the lending industry after-the-fact. They take on a function that a lender doesn’t want - the backroom functions of handling payments, escrow accounts, annual statements, dealing with borrowers, collections, etc. The perpetrators of the loan servicing scam acquire the servicing rights to loans that other companies have already made. (Loans that were deliberately constructed by predatory lenders are ideal for processing through servicers that specialize...

WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan this week added to a chorus of worry about the growth of home loans seen as far riskier than the 30-year mortgage that has been U.S. housing's bedrock for decades. Those alternatives, called "exotic" by the Fed chief on Thursday, have played a big role in sustaining the four-year housing boom by making homes more affordable, which in turn stoked demand and drove prices higher and higher. But these hundreds of alternative mortgage products have also injected more risk into the market -- both for lenders and borrowers, according to...

The appraisal tells bankers, brokers and, ultimately, investors whether a house is a sound investment. But on Tuesday, the Appraisal Institute will tell Congress that its members are under increasing pressure from lenders, mortgage bankers and real estate agents to "hit their number" when appraising property. Rather than come up with an independent estimate of a home's value, appraisers -- who are typically independent contractors -- say they are being told to base their estimate on a predetermined value. Alan Zielinski, owner of FAST Appraisals in Lake Barrington, Ill., said he's surprised if he doesn't get a call questioning his...