HUD: Homeowners Can Report Scammers to National Complaint Database

In the midst of the current economic turmoil and foreclosure crisis, millions of distressed homeowners have become vulnerable targets to unscrupulous and sometimes criminal third-party scammers, con-artists, and thieves. These fraudulent individuals are highly mobile and easily able to move from one community to another.

To further strengthen the fight against these scammers, support existing efforts at the national, state and local levels, the Read more

March 1st, 2010 · Filed Under Loan Modifications, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Should You Trust A Forensic Loan Audit?

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., the California Department of Real Estate (DRE), and the State Bar of California have been warning homeowners against foreclosure rescue scams for quite some time. It seems to me, however, that they are always one step behind these individuals and businesses taking advantage of financially strapped homeowners.

Today, the office of the Attorney General released Read more

February 22nd, 2010 · Filed Under Foreclosure-Short Sale Information, Loan Modifications, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Pimps and Whores of the Loan Modification Industry

There are individuals doing loan modifications legally but there are many more doing it illegally. This is a hot business and it is exposing homeowners to fraud now more than ever.

“It’s becoming an issue. As always, people get very clever when they see an opportunity,” said California Department of Real Estate spokesman Tom Pool.

Figuratively speaking there are “pimps and whores” in the loan modification business claiming to be advocates of the people, claiming to be legit, and claiming to be experts. Some go as far as Read more

January 12th, 2009 · Filed Under Loan Modifications, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Two Milpitas Mortgage Brokers Convicted in $10 Million Fraud Case

It never stops to amaze me how many of the alleged fraud cases here in the Bay Area seem to be connected in one way or another. You will see how at the end of this post.

On October 14 2008, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced that a jury had convicted two mortgage loan brokers in a case that involves over $10 million in fraudulent sub-prime loans with 23 different borrowers and five lenders.

After a three-month trial, Esperanza Valverde (license record) and Herman Michael Covarrubias (license record) were convicted of multiple felony counts of grand theft and forgery in connection with their mortgage business, Summit Mortgage One (license record).

Valverde faces a maximum term of Read more

October 21st, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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What is Your Code of Ethics?

Not too long ago “business ethics” was an expression that many considered an oxymoron. Then, in the 1990’s corporations made a remarkable turnabout by addressing codes of ethics, conduct issues in policy manuals, etc. The main reason was because businesses became increasingly concerned about ethics after realizing that ethical practices actually made business sense.

The rules of ethical behavior that govern businesses and Read more

September 12th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Catchy Radio/TV Ads Lured Homebuyers Who Later Foreclose

How do you emigrate from Colombia, fleeing the Mafia, work your way up from doing work as a waitress and shinning shoes to owning your own real estate company, buy a $2.2 million privately gated mansion in Gilroy (2005) and a few years later (2008) attempt to sell it for $3.2 million?……Ask Maria Eugenia Avila (license record), former owner of the now defunct Rancho Grande Real Estate ( license record – doing business as Realty World Rancho Grande, Rancho Grande Financial, Mundo Real, the Mortgage Company and ACR Investments) in Read more

September 5th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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What is Wrong with Buying One Today and Losing One Tomorrow?

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

Some of the distressed emails I get from homeowners facing foreclosure ask me what I think about buying a home before losing their current one. To answer that question I will give you my personal opinion at the end of this post.

First let’s look at the case of Read more

July 17th, 2008 · Filed Under Foreclosure-Short Sale Information, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Sixteen (Former) Su Casa Agents Face State Disciplinary Action & Possible Loss of License

Although “straw buyer” schemes are illegal but very lucrative for the parties involved, some agents and brokers have chosen to put their freedom, reputation and license on the line.

The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has filed an extensive accusation and investigation against broker Bic Pho, his company Vision Quest 21 which operated Century 21 Su Casa and Mariposa Mortgage in the East Side of San Jose and sixteen former Su Casa agents.

The DRE accusations state that Read more

July 10th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Mortgage Fraud: How a “Straw Buyer” Scheme Works

Mortgage fraud is an epidemic that continues to be around and it can take form in many different ways (foreclosure rescue schemes, illegal flipping, etc). One form of mortgage fraud is a “straw buyer” scheme. This is how it works:

The participants

The most important piece to this scheme is Read more

July 10th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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The Arrests of Major (former) Su Casa Agents Begins!!

Many victims of real estate and mortgage fraud get frustrated because in many instances there has been little progress in the investigations process. One of the reasons for this is because the designated authorities have to investigate and make sure that all the accusations are true. They must also obtain evidence and make sure that it is strong enough to put these people in jail.

One company in San Jose under investigation for complaints and accusations of fraud is the Century 21 Su Casa brokerage, its many affiliated companies and agents as reported in 2007. But the first top agent, from the now closed Su Casa brokerage, to get arrested was Gloria Alvarez (Booking mug for Gloria Madrigal Alvarez-SJ Mercury News)

The arrest occurred last Wednesday as she was leaving Read more

June 24th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Elderly Fraud Victims Confront Fraudulent Mortgage Broker in Court

Scam artists are the best salesmen in the world. Their first objective is to enter your life, befriend you and gain your trust. Some go as far as meeting you in churches, as I may mention it in a future post, and gain so much of your friendship and trust that you almost begin to think of them as family members.

Case in point the latest victims of yet another real estate and mortgage scam in San Jose and the Bay Area. This time ran by a mortgage broker by the name of Read more

January 23rd, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Were You a Victim of Real Estate or Mortgage Fraud?

Most people buying a home or refinancing put their trust on their mortgage broker or real estate agent but in many occasions this trust is abused by these same so called “professionals”.

I have encountered many cases where a real estate agent and a mortgage broker teamed up to literally rob money from the homeowners like the many publicized alleged cases. Cases like the one involving Bic Pho and Felipe Neri both from Century 21 Su Casa (now bankrupt but the owner and affiliates are still operating with different companies’ names) and the cases of Linda Tran and Norma Valdovinos from a different Century 21 office and other cases which Read more

January 11th, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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I will Personally call You when Interest Rates Go Down!….Say What??

Recently a couple that had been dealing with another mortgage broker for a refinance in San Jose, contacted me because they did not feel very comfortable with him. The reason of their discomfort was the way the mortgage broker was pressuring them to obtain a loan he assured them would be the best choice.

I turns out this mortgage broker was pressuring the homeowners to refinance their home into an Option ARM loan also known as the Negative Amortization loan. He vaguely offered them Read more

January 2nd, 2008 · Filed Under Mortgage - Loan Information, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Apparent Fraud Spills from Century21 SuCasa to Another Agent in San Jose

I had already known a little about this case before the story hit the press. What I didn’t know was the extent of it and how they were getting away with it.

The (anonymous) homeowner who had given me some information months ago called me one day. She had recently seen cameras from the Spanish television news channel Noticias Univision Canal 14 going into the office of Norma Valdovinos in San Jose but she refused to talk to the reporters.

According to the article by the New York Times published on September 25, Norma Valdovinos (license record), real estate agent in San Jose California, Linda Tran and Pablo Curiel were hit with lawsuits in March 2007 by nine families. Apparently these families were Read more

November 10th, 2007 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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A Homeowner’s guide: Short Sales and preventing Foreclosure Pt1 (the reality of a foreclosure)

The dream

It’s the year 2005, for others 2006, and for others 2007, and you are happy because you finally realized the American dream of owning a home.

You finally have a home where can build a future for yourself and your family. According to your agent and your mortgage broker, they promised you could refinance in a year or two and take some money out for a big vacation or they promised you could move up to a bigger and better home and make money by renting the home you just bought and become a millionaire just like that.

The nightmare

Now fast forward to 2007 and you are hit in the faced with the reality. What happened to your dreams? Dreams eagerly over-inflated by Read more

September 17th, 2007 · Filed Under Foreclosure-Short Sale Information, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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Warning Signs for Recognizing Predatory Lending

Just like in any other profession not all mortgage brokers and lenders practice business fairly and ethically. Some of these mortgage brokers and lenders typically takes advantage of vulnerable groups, such as immigrants, people of color, seniors and people with disabilities who are applying to purchase homes or refinance home loans.

Consumers are protected by federal and state laws. Unfortunately, these abuses are Read more

August 29th, 2007 · Filed Under Mortgage - Loan Information, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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San Jose CA broker linked to FRAUD claims over $2 million

I was driving by the East Side of San Jose when I realized that the Century 21 Su Casa sign was already taken down (I may be a little behind noticing this) but the sign for the so called “Real Estate Academy” is still there. Could it be that Bic Pho’s Apprentice Enterprise is still in business? I don’t know. So I decided to look up for an update on Pho’s legal situation.

[Update 6/24/2008]: Major (former) Su Casa agent arrested in San Jose

On my previous post I gave you a brief explanation about what many people in San Jose, mainly in the East Side of San Jose, were talking about regarding the involvement of Bic Pho, Century 21 Su Casa, Mariposa Mortgage and other companies brokered by Bic Pho, in numerous alleged fraudulent real estate transactions.

According to the Mercury News article (also found at TheRealEstateBloggers.com), State regulators are currently trying to revoke Bic Pho’s license. Pho is in trouble over Read more

August 7th, 2007 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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SCAMS/FRAUD in today’s real estate and mortgage industry

“For the love of money is the root of all evil” and as someone else finished that by saying “and in America Ignorance of Money runs a close second.”

It is sad to see but these phrases are so specially very true when it comes to real estate transactions by inexperience and unscrupulous so called “professionals” working in our industry.

We do have SOME bad apples in our industry, just like in any other type of industry but fortunately for us and the consumers, there are laws that protect us all from those bad apples.

Recently HUD brought a federal lawsuit against Property I.D. Corporation. This company is a large hazard reporting company in California. The lawsuit also involves four California real estate brokerages: Realogy Corporation (formerly know as Cendant Corporation); NRT/Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Corporation; Mason McDuffie Real estate (doing business as Prudential California Realty); and Pickford Realty Ltd (doing business as Prudential California Realty) for creating a network of “made-up” companies designed to pay illegal kickbacks to these brokers in violation of RESPA.

The federal suit claims Read more

May 31st, 2007 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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True story: FRAUD! “Real Estate transactions”

I would like to share the experience one of my clients had with someone working in real estate and may be you could use this experience to protect yourself from FRAUD.

I came to know this client, whom we’ll call “Juan,” through a referral. He was interested in selling his home because his business was not doing so well and he needed to move to a smaller home. I contacted him and showed him my business and marketing plan to sell his home. He was happy with what I had to offer BUT his brother in law’s cousin also worked in Real Estate and wanted to give him a try. After all, family is family……right!!???

He signed the listing and it took a little over a month for this family member to upload the correct information to the MLS, and a couple more weeks to upload a picture of the house itself to the profile in the MLS. Nevertheless, the property was on the MLS with picture and description.

Seven months later he received one visit, no open house and one offer. You might say, well, the market has turned and the seller should not expect much; I’ll tell you, the market was still great when he first put his house on the market. The one visit they had was from some friends of the listing agent acting as prospective buyers. The open houses, the agent offer to do never happened and the one offer they got, never materialized because they buyers were not qualified for a loan. If you ask me, they were just some make believe buyers the agent brought in to show “Juan” he was working hard to sell the home.

At the end of the contract the listing agent threaten Juan to sell the house “in a second” to anyone he pleased if he did not renew the contract and to take him to court if he did not sign another contract to pay him back some money the agent had lend Juan to make his mortgage payments. Juan refused to sign any contract and at the end of this horrible experience, Juan decided to contact me after his contract expired to sell his home with me.

After reading this article, I just want to advice anyone looking to sell or buy a home to look into the agents credentials. This year, because there had been many people acting as real estate agents without a license, the California Department of Real Estate ordered agents to provide their real estate license number on their business cards. By the agents providing their real estate license on their business cards, the consumer can easily verify if this “agent” is in fact a real estate licensed agent.

Even if the agent you are dealing with has a licensed but is breaking the law or defrauding you, you can contact the California Department of Real Estate to help you.

April 28th, 2006 · Filed Under Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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ALERT: Mortgage Fraud on a Rise!

The CNN show Open House hosted by Gerri Willis reported about the increasing amount of mortgage fraud that has been on the rise on the hot Real Estate market. The Mercury News wrote an article about the same topic. They both explained the following:

On a recent judgment Shalonda M. received a 30yr sentence for a mortgage fraud scheme; which came to a cost many consumers almost 12 million and affected 100 plus properties. An Atlanta Attorney was also charged with identity theft, inflating appraisals and fraud; which cheated many homeowners and companies.

Last week the FBI arrested Martha R. and Edward S. who operated real estate and escrow agencies in Downey and Seal Beach and were charged with 10 counts of mail fraud in an alleged scheme that preyed on 70 homeowners facing foreclosure. These people would promise to “clean up” the homeowner’s credit by having a third party co-sign the refinancing papers, but the homeowners ended up losing title to their houses while these two people netted $8 million dollars.

Homeowners are in on it as well. Broker would put clients on a higher-than-normal interest rate. In return the broker would receive a high finder’s fee from the lender because these types of loans generate so much money for the lenders. To keep the homeowners quiet, the broker split the cost of the finder’s fee, which in turn they would use to make their monthly payments for a month or two. Many of the participating homeowners liked the idea that they allowed the broker to keep refinancing their loans every few months.

California regulators say they never heard of this case. The broker’s first lender victim was National City Mortgage, one of the country’s biggest lenders. Despite getting burned in the millions, neither National City nor Freddie Mac complained about the broker to California regulators.

The FBI officials reported that in the past 4 months (this was back in August 2005) there had been an estimated 600 million dollars in costs for the alleged cases prosecuted.

The sates more common in mortgage fraud are: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Georgia and Florida.

The FBI, IRS, HUD and other agencies have a joint program operation called “Quick Flip” in an effort to prevent and prosecute mortgage fraud.

Kurt Pfotenhauer, senior vice president of Government Affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), is working with law enforcement to train them therefore learn how mortgage frauds are being done. They are also attempting to educate lenders and their members to be on the lookout of different types of fraud. Much of the industry is not required to report fraud to regulators, so it doesn’t. Bill Denny, a deputy district attorney in Alameda County who prosecutes criminal real estate fraud, said, “Lenders never write to us and say ‘please pursue this case’”

Criminals see mortgage fraud as easy money!! Kenneth Donohue, inspector general of the department of HUD, warns about identity theft, foreclosure fraud, misrepresentation, flipping schemes, bogus appraisals, etc. Fraudulent people obtain inflated appraisal values, go back to the lender qualify a buyer and get them to buy with NO MONEY DOWN.

The market is cooling but fraud is increasing because there is high competition between lenders, brokers in small and big companies. In California, the agencies that monitor mortgage brokers don’t know the most basic facts about them, including how many brokers are operating in the state or how often there are complaints. FBI Assistant Director, Chris Swecker, said the regulation of brokers “has sort of fallen through the cracks.” This opens up the door wide open to trouble.

Mortgage fraud’s value was in the billions in the past year and so far 600 million in the past 4 months (this was back in August 2005).

It is advised to consumers to be alert of high pressure sales tactics, question appraisals with comparable sales around the same area of the sale/purchase, question people telling them something similar to “I can get you out of foreclosure problems, I got a great deal for you.” If it is too good to be true, it probably is.

If you happen to encounter something similar contact authorities right away and read everything you sign!

Experts say there is so much misrepresentation and outright fraud at this end of the mortgage market that lenders build the cost of fraud into the loan rates, much the way retailers raise the price of items that frequently are shoplifted.

December 29th, 2005 · Filed Under Mortgage - Loan Information, Real Estate & Mortgage FRAUD

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