"Bottom-Feeder" Buyers
In a Buyer's market, beware of "Bottom-Feeder" Buyers, who prey on distressed Sellers!
Please read the article below, which outlines a typical scheme:
Real Estate Agents And Others Busted In Scheme
Thursday, November 16, 2006
National Realty News (Redacted)
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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - A Federal Grand Jury handed down a 14 count indictment charging that at least seven people were engaged in schemes to defraud various mortgage lenders by artificially inflating the sales prices of homes and submitting false loan applications.
The seven people referenced in the indictment included real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and home buyers.
The scheme involved potential home buyers, represented by certain agents, being told that if they agreed to purchase homes at inflated prices they would receive funds at closing under the guise of “repair costs” which would be for their personal benefit. Sellers of certain hard to sell properties negotiated the sales through the agents. Buyers would always offer more than the listed sales price.
The mortgage brokers facilitated the submission of fraudulent loan applications to lenders for buyers who could not qualify to purchase homes at the artificially inflated prices. False details of income and assets were supplied on the mortgage applications. In some cases Buyers would be provided with “down payment loans” which were to be repaid from the funds they received at closing.
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