Forward thinking and old ghosts
Part 3: Real estate wish list, predictions for 2010
By Inman News, Tuesday, December 29, 2009.
Flickr image by .sandhu.Editor's note: Inman News called upon agents and brokers, technologists and industry executives to let us know about their real estate predictions, items on their real estate wish lists and/or their real estate resolutions for 2010. This final segment features a collection of the responses received. Click here to read the first segment, and click here to read the second installment.
Wish List:
My hope and wish is that the institutional memory of this financial crisis will linger and affect the lending business for years to come. We need to remember the economic devastation that followed the practices adopted and products offered during the boom years. Lenders must consistently practice zero tolerance for fraud.
Next, while I'm always wishing for more and longer convictions in mortgage fraud cases, I would also love to see a reduction in the number of mortgage professionals who commit fraud just to obtain or keep a client. If you're going to commit fraud and risk a prison sentence, don't do it for a few hundred bucks -- at least make a huge pile of cash on the deal!
Finally, I wish prosperity and good health to all of my friends and colleagues in this industry for the New Year and the years to come.
Rachel Dollar
Editor
Mortgage Fraud Blog
Santa Rosa, Calif. ...CONTINUED
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Submitted by Mike Gibbons on December 29, 2009 - 6:07am.
Wow Rachel, after all we've all been through in 08-09 - frankly appalled that someone in the industry would say this "even" in jest ....
"If you're going to commit fraud and risk a prison sentence, don't do it for a few hundred bucks -- at least make a huge pile of cash on the deal!"
"Thinking different about Charlotte real estate"
mike@talkcharlotte.com
http://talkcharlotte.com/
Submitted by Rachel Dollar on December 29, 2009 - 11:47am.
My comment was not 'in jest.'
If mortgage fraud were only committed by hardened criminals who were out to make a pile of cash, there would be much less of it. Unfortunately, the majority of the perpetrators are real estate agents, mortgage brokers, appraisers and attorneys who commit fraud to keep their customers happy or because they think they are helping people get into homes. I would be happy if I never saw another real estate appraiser in a position to be indicted simply because they needed the $450 and were afraid that they would lose their business relationship if they didn't inflate the appraisal.... or another mortgage broker who was taught that making up gift letters and leases was an acceptable way to close a mortgage transaction.
I spend significant amounts of my time teaching real estate professionals about fraud and what it is so that these people can recognize the consequences and at least make a conscious choice before going to prison. So, yes, if people are going to commit mortgage fraud, I hope that they do it for real cash and not for the reasons that I see day, after day, after day ...