What You Don't Know About Mortgage Fraud
Oh, they won't tell you they are a scammer. In fact, many of them will try to pass themselves off as educators by luring you to a seminar or trying to persuade you to buy books or videos about how to get skirt the law. Some promise that you can buy a home in a trust and then use that trust to sell concurrently at the close of escrow, but the simple fact is most of those schemes are against the law. Moreover, the I.R.S. takes a keen interest in those who form domestic and off-shore foreign trusts.
The men and women who try to sell the unsuspecting public on these financing schemes say that they have a secret which nobody else knows because, well, because nobody knows how to bypass all these silly financing requirements but them. There are no secrets. Real estate agents and lenders are not conspiring to keep you in the dark. If you know in your gut that something isn't right, guess what? It probably isn't.
There are hundreds of ways to commit mortgage fraud. Don't become a victim. Know that victims are prosecuted by the FBI alongside the perpetrators. The FBI will not give you a "get-out-of-jail-free card" because you were bamboozled. Learn to recognize the signs . . . read more about mortgage fraud.
More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub, click below:
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- Get Rich Quick Real Estate Seminars
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Comments
I never even thought about that. I guess it goes back to the famous phrase, “Buyer Beware,” except more like, “Mortgagee Beware”
As a certified mortgage broker, I would give people two main pieces of advice. First, use your common sense. As you say, there are no secrets that we don’t want to tell you about . . . and if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
The second piece of advice is to remember that nobody is going to care as much about your financial circumstances as you do. By that I mean that you want to become personal responsible for all decisions that you make. Ask for advice. If the advice doesn’t make sense ask for clarification or check other sources for confirmation. Even if it makes sense, you make want to check different sources to make sure that you have the information you need to make an informed decision