The organization posted a new educational article on April 16, 2010 titled “Emerging Fraud Trends: Short Payoff Fraud.” Essentially, the article stated that a short payoff or a short sale can be considered fraudulent if the lender agrees to a short sale that already has a third-party buyer in place that is paying a higher amount than the agreed-upon loan payoff amount. This is a serious yellow flag for short sale investors who make their living negotiating good short sale deals with banks, then selling their new properties to other buyers for a profit.

The article described scenarios and red flags for short sale payoff fraud. The scenario revolved around a short sale facilitator who set up a deal with a lender to purchase a home worth 80K for 70K while the lender took a 30K loss. The facilitator does not let the bank know that he already has a buyer ready to pay 95,000 for the property. The second the facilitator puts his profits in his pocket, Freddie Mac considers him guilty of fraud because his negotiations caused Freddie Mac to ultimately take a “larger than necessary” loss on the sale of the property.

The article urges buyers, sellers and lenders to be on the lookout for short payoff fraud red flags. These flags include sudden borrower default, a borrower who is current on other obligations and the buyer of the property being an entity rather than a person. The article also tells readers to keep an eye out for resale options in their purchase agreement.

Everyone involved in a short payoff is encouraged by Freddie Mac to report potential short payoff fraud the second they become aware of a second purchase contract for a higher price. This may not yet be a law, but the signs are not good when Freddie Mac has posted such a direct attack on short sale investors.

There is one word that sums it all up: INTEGRITY

The dictionary defines it this way: Integrity – adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

Experience comes with time.  A track record of success isn’t obtained overnight and wisdom comes by learning from your mistakes.  Integrity is the one thing you can have right now.  There is no class to take, no test to pass.  You can have it when you get out of bed in the morning.  However, you must choose to have it.     

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. - Oprah Winfrey

This is a portion of a blog post by Richard Warren

View article…

HUD Issues Problematic Rules Interpreting SAFE Mortgage Licensing ACT

HUD has proposed to eliminate ALL seller financing unless the seller lives in the home or becomes a licensed mortgage originator. The proposed HUD Rules interpreting the federal SAFE mortgage act can be viewed at www.regulations.gov  Use the search parameter “HUD” and the keyword “safe mortgage”.  Please review and comment regarding the impact of this broad interpretation of the law. 

“In addition to establishing HUD’s responsibilities under the SAFE Act, through this rule, HUD proposes to clarify or interpret certain statutory provisions that pertain to the scope of the SAFE Act licensing requirements, and other requirements that pertain to the implementation, oversight, and enforcement responsibilities of the States. HUD solicits comment on the proposed clarifications and on the regulations proposed to be codified.”

History:
As you may recall, we lobbied hard in North Carolina last year to maintain the right for individuals to make up to five seller financed transactions per year before being subject to mortgage originator licensing, etc…  However, that law was passed subject to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) approval of the law as “compliant” with the intention of the federal law.  If any state does not have a compliant law, the SAFE act allows HUD to implement licensing for the state.  HUD has since issued proposed rules.  In a nutshell, seller financing would no longer be allowed for non-owner occupied homes.

How YOU can help:
We learned about the publishing of the rules very late in the process… and the deadline for comment is upon us on February 16.  However, we desperately need for thousands of REIA members across the country to go on record with HUD on this issue.  We will be working to try to affect this law in other legislative ways, but cannot hope to gain traction unless our members have clearly communicated that they are opposed to this portion of the rules. This is your chance to be counted on this issue.
 
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO HUD!  We have only four days left to flood this system with comments.

Follow these simple steps:

1.  Logon to www.regulations.gov   You will see two white boxes for searching

2.  On the left box labeled “Document Type”, pull the menu down and select “proposed rules”

3.  On the right box labeled “Enter keyword or ID”, enter “safe mortgage”.  Then, press search

4.  Locate the blue search result “FR-5271-P-01 Safe Mortgage Licensing Act: HUD Responsibilities…”

To read the rules:  click on the blue title FR-5271-P-01  You will be taken to another page. You will see “views”.  You can click on PDF file or another symbol which will show you the rule document online. If you want to submit a comment after reading the document, use your back button to return to the search results and then move on to #5 below.

5.  To submit a comment:  On the right of the screen, across from FR-5271-P-01, click on “submit a comment”

6.  Complete the form providing required information with blue asterisks and your comments and then submit.  (Note: you do not need to fill in the blanks for organization name, government agency type, or government agency)

What do you say?
Say what you feel, but say it politely!   The message should include that you would like the definitions in the proposed rules to be changed so that private individuals can originate and service loans on properties they personally own.  Some ideas from others:        

• The SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act was intended to regulate the mortgage industry, not private individuals.  If I own my own properties and want to sell them to someone and let them pay me, I should have the right to do this without being a licensed mortgage broker
• Many properties have special circumstances where full bank financing is not possible.  Vacant rsidential lots, investment homes, homes in flood areas, etc. may not be eligible for traditional financing. Individuals who own their own properties have always been able to offer other private parties the option to pay them directly.  These rules would prohibit that for all properties which are not owner occupied.
• bank loans are not available on some types of properties
• the tight lending climate has made bank financing “out of reach” for many
• seller financing is an “age old” tradition based on private property rights
• these rules would prohibit even partial seller financing – i.e. a “seller second”
• according to HUD’s “Residential Finance Survey” in 2001, roughly 40% of all non-farm residential properties in the US are owned free and clear
• an estimated 6 million Americans own a property other than their own primary residence
• an estimated 4.5% of Americans own three or more properties, many purchased solely as investment properties
• 40% of non-owner occupied residences are mobile homes which are more difficult to sell with bank financing
• approximately 5% of homes in US are for sale or for lease… seller financing may be key to liquidating this inventory

The continued success of our industry as we know it is threatened by these proposed regulatory changes. Please do not hesitate to follow the steps above and make your voice heard.

But, that’s NOT how it’s worked out. Instead of hearing great stories, now you’re hearing great excuses for why your realtor hasn’t sold your house: “It needs more bedrooms; you need to come down in price; the school district isn’t the best”, etc.

Contact Us Now!  We’ll act quickly to give you a real solution.

We Can Buy Your Home Fast, Your Realtor Can’t

At this point, what you really need is to sell your house now. That’s where we come in: We aren’t interested in listing your house again; we want to buy it! We are professional real estate investors – not real estate agents. We’ve built our reputation over the years for quick action and fair prices. We can often give you even more than one solution to your problem.

You just want an honest, fair way to sell your house, without realtor excuses. That’s exactly what we’ll provide.

Contact Us    |    Complete the Seller Request Form

Please don’t get caught up in one of these deals as a tenant/buyer or an investor.  Know who you’re working with and make sure you can trust them.  This kind of thing just makes us all look bad, fortunately this person knew the differance between good investors and bad.  If your not sure about who your working with and just want a 2nd opinion, contact Rosen Properties, LLC

I’ve been hosting a networking discussion group weekly on Thursday nights in Otsego.  If you are interested in joining us drop me a message and I will let you know when the next one is scheduled.  For the ultimate exit strategies we all need to work together to share ideas and opportunities.

So the main purpose for this post is to see if there is anyone in with available properties in central Illinois, if so please get in touch ASAP so I can share this lead with you.

I’ve put up a new page on my site called “Community Bulletin Board” for the purpose of networking some deals.  I hear about deals that other investors might have locked up and want to sell.  I hear tenant/buyers that realtor’s have because they can’t qualify for a purchase.  I’ve been diligently trying to put these people together and I think this may help.  If you have a property that you want to wholesale or a vacancy that you need to fill or a tenant/buyer looking for a home, shoot me some info and I will post it.  Once it’s posted… it is my intention to send this page out periodically to my mailing list.

Lets have some fun in this business, share some information so that we can all evolve towards those mysterious goals that we all have.