[quote=CA renter]FWIW, I called the FBI quite a few years ago regarding these short sale scams. They flat-out told me that they didn’t think it was prevalent enough, and that they didn’t have the resources to follow up on this type of crime.
It sucks, but there it is. Crime really does pay. :([/quote]
In my example, this Chula Vista family simply borrowed too much off their property in order to vastly improve it. Most of of their cash-out refi/HELOC went into the property. The property was WORTH spending that kind of money on but they should have done the improvements slower, as they had the cash.
But it worked out so that their family had enough “connections” to get a family member to list it as a SS and another family member standing in the wings to quickly purchase it all cash and lease it back to the “owners” who were about to lose it.
The end result is property stayed in the family and essentially had 70-75% of it’s debt stripped from it! Wa-laa! All those expensive materials (aside from the “free” stonework from the family biz) were for free, they got a ~2500 sf rambling ranch cosmetic fixer for free and essentially just paid for the large flat lot in a coveted area.
How’s that for self-serving machinations (and no one even had to file for BK protection)?
Moral hazard or effect on neighbors values be damned!
