{"id":1682,"date":"2008-03-05T00:48:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T07:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1682"},"modified":"2008-03-05T00:51:41","modified_gmt":"2008-03-05T07:51:41","slug":"mortgage-fraud-did-you-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1682\/mortgage-fraud-did-you-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage Fraud:  Did You Do It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mortgage fraud seems to be the hot topic, today. I attended a party this weekend where I was pelted with questions and varying opinions about the topic. Many came from the legal crew, a few from bankers, but most were from worried consumers. The former two groups scared the crap out of the latter. Each question that was posed was answered by each of these three parties:<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORPORATE ATTORNEY<\/strong>: Any lie on a federal form is a felony.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY<\/strong>: Were you coerced by the mortgage broker? Most clients were and you could sue for damages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BANKERS:<\/strong> If it&#8217;s a portfolio loan, we may pursue legal action. If we securitized it, it was built into the pricing.<\/p>\n<p>My\u00a0opinions to\u00a0some common questions, about mortgage fraud,\u00a0are below:<\/p>\n<p><em>If I obtained a loan as a stated income loan, did I commit fraud?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Not if you didn&#8217;t lie. Stated income loans were designed for those with erratic income or rising income. The best litmus-test would be to pull the 3-6 bank statements prior to application. If the monthly deposits mirrored your &#8220;stated&#8221; monthly income, you didn&#8217;t lie. If you grossly overstated that amount, you lied and probably committed fraud. Cash flow rules.<\/p>\n<p><em>I bought a second home with the intention to use it as a vacation rental property. I financed it as a second home, did I commit fraud?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Not if you resided in it for at least 15 days each year. It&#8217;s a &#8220;vacation&#8221; home and if you used it for vacations, you&#8217;re fine. You are still allowed to rent out a vacation home.<\/p>\n<p><em>I bought a property, in my daughter&#8217;s name, as an owner-occupied home but she rents rooms out to students. Did I commit fraud?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>FHA has the &#8220;kiddie-condo&#8221; program. Actually, that means that you can be a non-occupying co-borrower and still get a owner-occupied rate. If your daughter qualified on her own, and you helped her with the down payment by signing a gift letter, you might be liable for taxation but the transaction appears to be legit.<\/p>\n<p><em>I have funky employment. It&#8217;s not steady so I coerced my existing employer to &#8220;fudge&#8217; the dates on a Verification of Employment form. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1682\/mortgage-fraud-did-you-do-it\/#more-1682\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mortgage fraud seems to be the hot topic, today. I attended a party this weekend where I was pelted with questions and varying opinions about the topic. Many came from the legal crew, a few from bankers, but most were from worried consumers. The former two groups scared the crap out of the latter. Each [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-lending","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3185,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3185\/whos-a-mortgage-fiduciary\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":0},"title":"Who&#8217;s a Mortgage Fiduciary?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"May 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you ready for the next big argument about fiduciary capacity? It's coming in the form of national loan originator licensing and it promises to be a doozy. The Federal Housing Finance and Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 is proposed legislation that seeks to license anyone who quotes rates or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lending&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10856,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10856\/2010-mortgage-broker-renaissance\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":1},"title":"2010 Mortgage Broker Renaissance","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Is the business of broking mortgage loans dead?\u00a0 About two years ago, Morgan Brown predicted our demise on Blown Mortgage.\u00a0 His conclusion was that the industry would need a scapegoat for the poor lending practices and that \"blaming\" mortgage brokers was convenient (and not necessarily fair).\u00a0 His conclusion suggested that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Mother&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6980,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6980\/bankrupt-ideas-for-changing-bankruptcy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":2},"title":"Bankrupt Ideas for Changing Bankruptcy","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"February 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Two excerpts from a local article:\u00a0 Bankruptcy reform could help hard-up homeowners Overwhelmed by debt from credit cards, a $536-a-month truck payment, $8000 in overdue property taxes and two mortgages, the single homeowner is hoping (San Diego bankruptcy attorney) Colwell can remove the $84,000 second loan on his home, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Mother&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11580,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11580\/will-pre-approval-letters-be-banished\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":3},"title":"Will Pre-Approval Letters Be Banished?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Score one more screw up for the Government-Banking Complex...and watch mortgage brokers thrive because of it. Andrew Duncan of Keller Williams in Tampa, FL reprinted a Mortgage News Daily story: As part of the changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, borrowers can no longer shop for a home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lending&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3317\/farewell-countrywide-how-the-bank-of-america-merger-will-keep-wells-fargo-as-the-mortgage-origination-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":4},"title":"Farewell Countrywide:  How The Bank of America Merger Will Keep Wells Fargo As The Mortgage Origination Leader","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"WARNING!\u00a0 Long commentary about the Bank of America\/ Countrywide merger ahead: Bank of America Press Release from July 1, 2008 (italicized) with my commentary: CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 1 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Bank of America Corporation today completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. to create the nation's leading mortgage originator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Real Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1747,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1747\/the-mortgage-tax-act-of-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":1682,"position":5},"title":"The Mortgage Tax Act of 2007","author":"Brian Brady","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Cook did an excellent job explaining the two noteworthy debacles of last week. American Home Mortgage went belly up and Bear Stearns may be downgraded to a negative rating. Thursday afternoon, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, did his best Nero impression by muttering two words to analysts; \"Don't Worry\".\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Group Therapy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}