Things that make you go hmmmm....

[T-Man007]

Ok, as some of you know I'm a Real Estate Appraiser. Well, I was looking up the market trends in this one nieghborhood and found 5 homes that were all purched by a cash buyer and then immediatealy put back on the market for less than they paid for them. One of the hoems took $30,000 less than it was purchsed for. So, I call the listing agent, who just happens to be the same on all five homes, and he said 'we gave the seller a discount on the commision'. Well, the typical commisssion here is 3% and all but one of the homes suffered losses of much more than 3%. So, I dug deeped and found out that the listing agent was also the guy who paid cash for all five homes. Then, he turned around and listed them for less than he paid for then while also offering $5,000 in incentives to use his 'approved' lender. To make things even stranger, he did not disclose that the agent was also the owner. This is agaisnt the law! So, I ask you, what the hell do you think this guy is up to? Is he trying to show a financial loss to pay less in taxes or is he trying to intentionally push market prices down? Very fishy.

PS - in the mean time, I'm screwed because I have to report what the neighborhood trends are and it appears that the trend in this neighborhood is depreciation. If I don't disclose it, I can lose my license, if I do, it will probably kill the deal. No one likes to lend money on a home that's going down.

[daved150]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

THAT'S TUFF BRO!! I CANT IMAGINE WHAT'S ON HIS MIND!! DOES HE OWN THE "APPROVED" MOTGAGE COMPANY? THINKING...IT MAY BE A WAY TO OFFSET THE LOSES, BY PICKING UP THE INTREST...I DONNO...VERY INTERESTING..

[kite]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

Maybe a little laundery involved? Have you considered reporting it?

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

THAT'S TUFF BRO!! I CANT IMAGINE WHAT'S ON HIS MIND!! DOES HE OWN THE "APPROVED" MOTGAGE COMPANY? THINKING...IT MAY BE A WAY TO OFFSET THE LOSES, BY PICKING UP THE INTREST...I DONNO...VERY INTERESTING..

Very interesting it deed! I don't know if he owns the mortgage company or not.

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

Maybe a little laundery involved? Have you considered reporting it?

Yep! I already sent stuff to the Colorado Department of Real Estate and I'm waiting for a call back from the FBI. I was instructed to go this route by a very good friend of mine who is an investigator with the Colorado Dept of Real Esate Appraisers.

In my profession, if you don't report things like this you can lose your license. I've had to turn in guys I know who are appraisers because I was hired to do a review and there was no damn way I was going to agree with their value. That would get my butt dragged into court to defend their value. No thanks to that crap. I've had my fair share of court rooms. LOL

[solidground]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

interesting, definately something a bit off with that situation..im also in the real estate as a career (investor)...did he get these properties in foreclosure? i dont get why he would do this otherwise..maybe hes just trying to show hes taking a loss or just lying about the price he bought it at..

is this neighborhood all one type of ethnicity? that may explain some things..its suprising to see what people will do in order to keep a community segragated

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

interesting, definately something a bit off with that situation..im also in the real estate as a career (investor)...did he get these properties in foreclosure? i dont get why he would do this otherwise..maybe hes just trying to show hes taking a loss or just lying about the price he bought it at..

is this neighborhood all one type of ethnicity? that may explain some things..its suprising to see what people will do in order to keep a community segragated

All good questions, but unfortunately none of it makes sense. This is a brand new developement and he bought the homes directly from the Builder and paid cash. The amounts paid are on the MLS and the assessors records. It's located in one of the more desireable areas of town. So, you can see the suspicion I have. Why buy brand new homes from a builder, pay cash, and then sell them for less than you paid for them? The only logical thing would be income fraud, tax fraud, money laundry, or to intentionally force prices down in a neighborhood. I can't think of any other reason to do it. There have been 16 sales in this developement in the last 12 months. 10 of those are the five houses this guy bought and sold for less. Therefore, it could be assumed that property values have dropped since last summer. As this would be the trend according to the sales over the past 12 months. Not good for people who bought homes in there 2 years ago either. If they paid the same amount he paid, or close to it, and then he dropped the prices, that lowers their values. No matter how you look at it, it can't be legit.

[solidground]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

yea i would lean more towards money laundering or tax fraud..hes not too smart about it (buying all in the same area)

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

yea i would lean more towards money laundering or tax fraud..hes not too smart about it (buying all in the same area)

Oh it's better than all in the same area, he bought all of them on the same damn street and on the same day. That's an idiot right there.

[yamaha147]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

im curious to what u hear back T....How long until u expect to hear something?

[supasaiyan99]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

im curious to what u hear back T....How long until u expect to hear something?

Yeah me too!!!

[solidground]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

t-man do you invest in properties too or just do appraising?

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

im curious to what u hear back T....How long until u expect to hear something?

Well, I don't expect the FBI to get back anytime soon but I do have a call into another guy I know who investigaes mortgage fraud for Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, which are the two main goverment lenders. He is on a first name basis with the FBI here in my state. The government actually asked to move to where he is to investigate fraud for them.

[T-Man007]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

t-man do you invest in properties too or just do appraising?

Funny you should ask. I just put in my first offer ever on a HUD repo and my bid was excepted today. So, we have 48 hours to get the paperwork to them and go from there. This is my first one so I started small. I grabbed this condo for 56k and asked them to pay 2.5k towards closing costs and they took it. This thing only needs carpet, linoleum and paint, that's it. It's only about 860 SF so it wont cost much at all to do those things. The kicker, 3 of these exact same units sold for 75k last fall. So, if I do it all right I should net 10k when it's all said and done. But, as long as I net 10% of the sales price, I'm happy.

Let me ask you, do you keep rentals so you can pull the cash out or do you fix and flip and just pay the capital gains? I know I can do a 1031 tax exchange but I can't do it everytime, from what I've been told. So, I don't know which way I want to go. If I keep it as a rental and pull all the equity out for the next home I will net closer to 16.5k. That's 65% more cash so I don't know what I'm going to do for sure. I looked up rentals and they rent for 450 to 500 and the HOA is like 153. If I max out the 75k I imagine my payment will be somewhere around $500. So, as a rental I would have negative cash flow but I would have more cash for the next one. AND, I won't have the landlord headaches. I just don't know. I have guys who I can consult because this is all they do. They are the ones who told me to start small and work up. Just about all of them started with condos and townhomes and now they have literally millions of dollars in loans. LOL I can't even imagine that. One guy has 2.5 million in loans right now, but he shows and positive cash flow on every single property. So, he's making bank and he's also a Realtor so he can buy and sell without paying comissions. Something I'm probably going to have to do to keep my costs down.

Let me know what you think bro.

[Testify]

Re: Things that make you go hmmmm....

Something is definitely off there T. I'm interested to hear about the investigation.