Beware of Builders Bearing Gifts and Pushing Lenders
Builders can't force you to use any particular lender; federal law prohibits it. Nor can they dictate whom you must use for other settlement services, such as the title company or homeowner's insurance provider. (Lenders can choose who will perform the appraisal.)... Ryland Homes, for example, has an in-house mortgage company, Ryland Mortgage, which deals only with people borrowing to buy a home built by Ryland. Brookfield Homes, the company offering as much as $100,000 in concessions, owns a mortgage subsidiary called the Mortgage Group. Although the law says builders can't force you to use their in-house lenders, nothing says they can't do their best to entice you to keep all your business under their roof.

Wasington Post - Appraisal Inflation
Lender complacency about appraisals also has enabled con artists to bilk banks and investors of billions of dollars in home-mortgage-fraud schemes. The four appraiser groups cited FBI estimates that mortgage-fraud losses are now approaching $3 billion a year -- and many of those schemes start with intentionally inflated property valuations that lenders fail to spot.

Lee buyers claim fraud
A Miami couple says a mortgage company affiliated with Fort Myers-based First Home Builders altered information to enhance their financing application without their knowing it, jacking up the value of their residence and length of time the husband had been at his job...Officials with K. Hovnanian Enterprises, the parent company of First Home, said their own employees did nothing wrong and the mortgage company, Builders Mortgage LLC, is the responsibility of Wells Fargo — Hovnanian’s partner and 51 percent owner in the joint venture.

Builder not buying couple's bid to back out
Officials with home builder K. Hovnanian Enterprises say a couple who claim their loan application was altered without their knowledge are actually savvy, well-heeled investors who just want out of a bad investment. But the Miami couple say they're unsophisticated buyers and alterations to a loan document made by a mortgage company affiliated with Hovnanian tricked them into buying property they couldn't afford...Chen-Walta said they assumed the information on the document was the same as on their handwritten statement and simply missed the changes. "The fact of the matter is we can't make the payments on those loans. My husband isn't working," she said. "We're not sophisticated investors."

U.S. Plan for Subprime Loan Susceptible to Fraud (Update1)
A Bush administration plan to offer low- and middle-income home buyers an alternative to subprime loans may be susceptible to fraud, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said. The proposal, incorporated in legislation introduced last month, would make it easier for borrowers to get mortgage insurance from the Federal Housing Administration but do little to assure adequate oversight of lenders, appraisers and lawyers, Kenneth Donohue said in a telephone interview.

New Info About HB4050
If you live in Cook County: House Bill 4050 will affect YOU, requiring mandatory mortgage counseling at a cost of $300, if you refinance or purchase a home that falls into any of the following categories: All first time homebuyers, etc,...

BUILDER Online News Service
Beazer Homes USA confirmed on Wednesday that it had received a request from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte, N.C., for documents "generally related to its mortgage business," Beazer Mortgage. That subsidiary of the Atlanta-based builder was the subject of a scathing four-part series of articles in the Charlotte Observer last week, which raised questions about Beazer's mortgage lending practices in North Carolina several years ago.

California Investigates Subprime Mortgage Industry (Update2)
Attorney General Jerry Brown opens an investigation of the subprime mortgage industry. Half of the 20 biggest U.S. subprime lenders, including No. 2 New Century Financial Corp., which is trying to avoid bankruptcy, are located in California.

Mortgage scheme steals dream, home, credit
While the U.S. Senate looks for someone to blame for a national mortgage meltdown, Brenda Brown sits in her hotel room wondering if she'll ever be able to buy another home. Brown, branch manager at Security Finance in Conway, says she is the victim of a mortgage scheme in which manufactured home dealer Glenn Vaught promised he could get her a new home despite her past credit problems...Chris Orlando, a spokesman for Argent Mortgage, said the lender "is investigating what appears to be a concerted effort to deceive the company" and that Argent will help customers who have been victims of fraud. Argent is the company that loaned the money for Brown's home, but the lender has since sold the loan to another finance company.

Mortgage firm New Century files Chapter 11
New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans.The Irvine, Calif., company said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half its work force.