Even with tightening lending guidelines, loan fraud continues to be a problem in this real estate market! We’ve all heard the stories about predatory lending; buyers falsifying loan applications; sellers and agents withholding information about actual defects in the property; kickbacks, etc. As your agent, it is my job to coach you through the transaction and if something fraudulent comes up during the course of a real estate transaction, I will point it out to you.

Recently I attended a class taught by Oliver Frascona, a local real estate attorney, who presented 4 simple rules that buyers, sellers, lenders, closing companies and agents need to follow to reduce and hopefully eliminate fraud in real estate transactions. Basically, all agreements between buyer and seller need to be written in the Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, which will be seen by the lender, and everything is reflected on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement.

Oliver’s 4 rules:
1. The Real Entire Deal…
2. that’s in the contract…
3. that goes to the lender,
4. and it’s on the HUD-1 Settlement statement

For more tips on how to avoid loan fraud, click here to read HUD’s tips “Don’t be a Victim of Loan Fraud.”

Oliver Frascona is a shareholder in the law firm of Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein, P.C., 1974 - Present. Clients include first and second mortgage lenders (banks, savings and loans, mortgage companies), hundreds of real estate brokers and salespersons, real estate companies, developers, property management companies, builders, subcontractors, suppliers, buyers and sellers, and he represents eighteen Colorado Associations of REALTORS®.

Tags: denver loan fraud, tips to avoid loan fraud

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