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Posts Tagged ‘crime’
Two More Bad Real Estate Agents Meet Long Arm of the Law
Four people in Northern California have pleaded guilty to a mortgage fraud scheme that lined their pockets with more than $20 million. Among them, two real estate agents by the names of Cristeta Lagarejos and Nelda Asuncion. They cooperated in the fraud.
Hopefully, the California DRE will pursue both of these people. Asuncion’s license has been expired since 2008. Lagarejos license expires on the 12th of next month, but it should not be renewed by the state. Interestingly enough, Lagarejos has no notes against her for disciplinary action according the license lookup service provided by the DRE.
The case involved a couple, Ronald Nelson and his wife Edith, both from Discovery Bay. They used straw buyers to purchase more than a dozen properties in Northern California and they obtained loans on additional properties that they owned.
All four people have entered guilty pleas to federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. Good riddance!
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From Mortgage Fraud to Hiring a Hit Man
If there is anything that you can be thankful for, it is that you don’t know a crook by the name of Aaron Hand. The good news is that this mortgage fraudster is already locked up. The bad news is that being locked up didn’t stop him from attempting to hire a hit man.
Aaron Hand is serving a term of 8 to 25 years in New York for bilking banks and investors out of more than $100 million in a mortgage fraud scheme. He was convicted on that scheme last October and was apparently more than a little peeved about the testimony of one of the witnesses. So, he did what any Read the rest of this entry »
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Buyers & Sellers Need to Use DRE’s License Look-Up Before Hiring an Agent & Avoid Scams
Most buyers probably don’t think too much about the licensing status of the agents they hire. But they should. And that is especially true in this market. The scam artists are out in droves. Looking up the license of your agent will at least tell you that he or she, a) received a license from the state, b) that their license is current, and c) if there are any past or current disciplinary procedures going on with your agent. Here is a recent example of how licensing look-up can save you a lot of heartache and money.
Take the case of Michael Carabajal; a resident of Vacaville, CA. Carabajal hired a realtor by the name of Alonzo Brown, III. Brown apparently presented him with a contract to purchase a short sale home and then let him move right in. And Carabajal was making what he thought were mortgage payments to Brown. He claims to have paid out roughly $48,000. Read the rest of this entry »
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SoCal Operator of Foreclosure Prevention Company Facing Prison Time
And another scam artist bites the dust!
According to a post at LoanSafe, Fredric Alan Gladle operated a company that charged homeowners to prevent foreclosure on their homes. His scheme operated for four years.
According to the post,
“Gladle led his clients into believing he would legitimately postpone foreclosure proceedings if they signed over 1/100 of the property deed (granting fractional interest) into a debtors name who is currently going through bankruptcy. They found debtors information online through public records and the individuals had no idea Gladle was fraudulently using their information for such purposes.
Once Gladle filed the bankruptcy petition and deed with the foreclosing lender, the lender is forced to stop all foreclosure proceedings because bankruptcy causes an automatic stay. The automatic stay prohibits lenders from pursuing foreclosure until getting permission from the courts to lift the stay. Gladle used this strategy to fraudulently postpone foreclosure on hundreds of properties.”
He was charging is victim-customers around $750 per month for his services.
It is illegal in California to charge for loan modification or foreclosure prevention services but that didn’t stop Gladle. He apparently took in $1.6 million over the time he was in operation. He now faces up to 7 years in prison.
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Technology Making Location, Location, Location An Even More Important Real Estate Rule
Everyone has heard the adage that the three most important things to consider when purchasing real estate are location, location and location. Prior to becoming an agent myself, I never really thought that this was something that would come up in licensing material, but for those of you reading this that are not agents, it is actually something that is taught to all agents. With the advent of new piece of software being developed by Microsoft, that rule is about to become even more important.
Microsoft has just been awarded a patent for software that was originally intended to aid pedestrians planning to walk from “point A” to “point B”. But that patent has taken on a life of its own that will carry over into real estate and which could easily impact home prices.
The software, being developed for Windows Phone, takes into account a number of factors when planning a walking route. One of the primary factors that it looks at is crime. It does this by looking at area crime reports from local police.
The idea is to make sure that any route provided for pedestrians allows them to stay out of so called bad neighborhoods. After all, nobody wants to go for a walk and get mugged. But the original idea has some people up in arms.
A CBS station in Washington has dubbed the software “Avoid Ghetto”. So far, the name has stuck even though it really isn’t accurate because the application takes into account a number of other factors when determining the best walking routes. Among those factors are whether and even the software user’s personal habits.
With all of that said, it sounds like the application will make it fairly easy to see if a particular neighborhood is a high crime area. And if an area is dubbed “high crime”, that is bound to have a negative impact on prices. On the other hand, if an area is dubbed safe, there could be an equal but positive impact on prices. What happens in the end remains to be seen.
The bottom line here is that if you are purchasing a home, you should be taking into account crime statistics when calculating your purchase price. And if you are thinking of selling your home, if you live in an area that has higher than average crime rates, now might be a good time to list. After Microsoft releases its software, it could become much more difficult to sell your home.
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