Customer Reviews

Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership

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I'm a consumer advocate for an organization that specializes in homebuilding complaints. I've noticed an increase in predatory lending and mortgage fraud in complaints about shoddy construction and breach of warranty. With regard to new houses, this seems especially so when a buyer has used the builder's in-house lender. A common element is the builder requiring the buyer to use the builder's lender, a RESPA violation. While some buyers did make bad decisions, some were victims of fraud; in any case, the industry knew what it was doing was ethically and often legally wrong. It seems hypocritical that anyone in the industry would think consumers had a greater likelihood or duty to know lending laws than the lenders themselves.



This book would have educated many now-struggling buyers on how to avoid what will probably end in foreclosure and lasting credit damage. It explains why it's risky to go along with lenders who assure buyers that certain "creative" financing is ok, as well as why certain tactics are outright illegal. I hope to see updated editions that keep up with and expose the ever-evolving scams, and that encompass problems just now being dealt with by law enforcement but have not yet resulted in convictions. This book is an easy to understand, "must-read," for anyone buying a house in today's atmosphere of spiking white collar real estate crime.



Cindy Schnackel

National Secretary

Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings

[...]

Valuable information for anyone who's thinking of getting into Real Estate or just interested in the workings of the industry and the Mortgage process in general. The authors gave very good insights of how to spot Real Estate fraud and how to remedy the situation. With all the talk right now, about the sub-prime lending, this book is a very good read and never boring.