Hope you had a good weekend, and as always, glad to have you back here today.
In the wake of the mortgage crisis, today we pose the question, "Is enough being done to combat home loan fraud?".
Linda Fleischmann, a Certified Mortgage Consultant, who is a mortgage broker that has been doing mortgage loans for over 12 years, says that she has, "seen fraud and I have seen the industries turning a blind eye to it when it was convenient". Currently, however, Fleischmann says that they are verifying more information now because of the previous fraud. and that, "There is an executed 4506T which gives the lender a copy of the taxpayers transcript of their tax return even for those borrowers who are not self employed and are W-2 employees. There are background reports such as Lexis/nexis that is pulled on all borrowers to make sure that they have all of their information, disclosed or not. There is much more investigation into fraud and all I's are dotted and T's crossed with lending today, even now to the extreme".
Greg Cook, a Mortgage Professional, says that he thinks that lenders are using every tool at their disposal to combat house loan fraud, and he gives such examples as the fact that, "All income documentation is verified through the IRS (form 4506-T), Credit reports now have social security discrepancy warnings, which have to be investigated prior to closing, and All deposits in bank accounts, other than direct deposit paychecks have to be sourced and verified."
One homeowner that fell victim to the crisis was Chris Moyer, who says that, "I lost a home to foreclosure some years ago. I had PMI and always wondered why it did not cover the outstanding balance on the mortgage. I received a form where I needed to claim the difference in the amount the house sold for and what I owed on the mortgage to claim on my income taxes that year. Could never figure that out?"
Despite all of the measures, Cook says that, "Occupancy fraud is still the biggest problem, but the "buy and bail" guidelines make it more difficult to do it more than once."
Is enough truly being done? What are your thoughts on this topic?
Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com
TAGS: #homeloan #foreclosure
