Texas Mortgage & Real Estate Fraud Defense Attorney

Mortgage and real estate fraud cases involve criminal acts surrounding the misstatement, omission, misrepresentation, inflation or fraudulent submission of a mortgage financial loan or mortgage vehicle for purposes of obtaining illegal profit. If you have been charged with mortgage fraud or real estate fraud by the FBI or Federal Bureau of Investigation, contact one of our mortgage or real estate fraud defense attorneys today in Austin at (512) 338-0529, or in San Antonio at (210) 558-2869, or toll free at 1-877-414-9817.

Examples of the types of mortgage or real estate fraud include:

Property Flipping - Law enforcement may suspect a "flipping" scheme when someone purchases a property, has the property appraised at a higher value than the purchase price, and then sells the property in a short period of time. This type of conduct is illegal if the appraisal information is fraudulent. In a typically property flipping scheme the property is repurchased several times for a higher price by associates of the "flipper." After three or four sham sales, the properties are foreclosed on by victim lenders .
Silent Second Mortgage - Law enforcement may suspect mortgage fraud when the buyer of a property borrows the down payment for that property from the seller through the issuance of a second mortgage. This is illegal if the mortgage lender is misled into believing that the borrower has invested his own money in the down payment, when in fact, it is borrowed.
Straw Buyers - Frequently, this occurs when the identity of the borrower is concealed through the use of a third person who allows the borrower to use the third person's name and credit history to apply for a loan. Many people do not think that this is illegal, and sometime family members, relatives or friends are asked to lend their good credit for purposes of obtaining a loan for the true unidentified purchaser or purchasers. This is an illegal scheme, and one should be weary in allowing their social security number or credit to be used by another for a fee or for purposes of obtaining a fraudulent loan.
Identity Theft - A stolen identity may be used on the loan application. The name, personal identifying information, and credit history are used without the knowledge of the person whose identity was stolen.
Inflated Appraisals - An appraiser acts in collusion with a borrower and provides a misleading appraisal report to the lender. The report inaccurately states an inflated property value. The key element here is if there is the fraudulent intent to intentionally inflate the appraisal value of a real property when in fact the comparable sales do not support the inflated valuation.
Foreclosure Schemes - The perpetrator identifies homeowners who are at risk of defaulting on loans or whose houses are already in foreclosure. Perpetrators mislead the homeowners into believing that they can save their homes in exchange for a transfer of the deed and up-front fees. The perpetrator profits from these schemes by remortgaging the property or pocketing fees paid by the homeowner.
Equity Skimming - An investor may use a straw buyer, false income documents, and false credit reports, to obtain a mortgage loan in the straw buyer's name. Subsequent to closing, the straw buyer signs the property over to the investor in a quit claim deed which relinquishes all rights to the property and provides no guaranty to title. The investor does not make any mortgage payments and rents the property until foreclosure takes place several months later.
Air Loans - This is a non-existent property loan where there is usually no collateral. An example of an air loan would be where a broker simply invents borrowers and properties, then establishes accounts for payments, and maintains custodial accounts for escrows.

We serve the following States, Cities, Zip Codes and Counties:
Texas, Austin TX 78731, Georgetown TX 78626, Cedar Park TX 78630, Westlake TX 78746, Pflugerville 78660, Bastrop TX 78602, San Antonio TX 78248, Corpus Christi TX 78401, Harlingen TX 78550, Houston TX 77024, Waco TX 76701, Killeen TX 76540, Alamo Heights TX 78209, Hill Country Village TX 78232, Lakeway TX 78734, Southlake TX 76092, Lago Vista TX 78645, Dallas TX 75225, Ft. Worth TX 76177, Del Rio TX 78847, Laredo TX 78040, Eagle Pass TX 78853, Brownsville TX 78520, Edinburg TX 78539, El Paso TX 79901, Giddings TX 78942, Goliad TX 77963, Gonzales TX 78629,Helotes TX 78023, Hewitt TX 76643, Hutto TX 78634, Liberty Hill TX 78642, Burnet TX 78611, Katy TX 77450, Kerrville TX 78028, Kyle TX 78640, La Grange TX 78945, Laguna Vista TX 78578, Lampasas TX 76550, Las Colinas TX 75062, League City TX 77573, Lockhart TX 78644, Hutto TX 78634, Lubbock TX 79401, Lufkin TX 75901, McAllen TX 78501, Midland TX 79701, Nacogdoches TX 75961, Fredericksburg TX 78624, New Braunfels TX 78130, Odessa TX 79760, Pearland TX 77581, Pharr TX 78577, Pleasanton TX 78064, Port Aransas TX 78373, Port Arthur TX 77640, Port Isabel TX 78578, Port Lavaca TX 77979, Poteet TX 78065, Rockdale TX 76567, Rockwall TX 75032, Round Rock TX 78664, San Angelo TX 76901, San Antonio TX 78259, Schertz TX 78109, Seguin TX 78155, Seagoville TX 75159, Shavano Park TX 78231, Shreveport TX 71101, South Padre Island TX 78597, Sugar Land TX 77478, Sulphur Springs TX 75482, Sweetwater TX 79556, Taylor TX 76574, Texarkana TX 75501, The Woodlands TX 77380, Tyler TX 75701, Universal City TX 78148, Uvalde TX 78801, Victoria TX 77901, Waco TX 76701, West Lake Hills TX 78746, Wichita Falls TX 76301, Woodlake TX 75865, Woodlands TX 77381, Westlkake TX 76262, White Oak TX 75693, Zavalla TX 75980, Travis County, Williamson County, Hays County, Bell County, Bexar County, Anderson County, Bandera County, Baylor County, Bee County, Blanco County, Brazoria County, Brazos County, Bricoe County, Brooks County, Burleson County, Burnet County, Caldwell County, Cameron County, Collin County, Dallas County, Denton County, Ector County, Ellis County, El Paso County, Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Grayson County, Gregg County, Guadalupe County, Harris County, Hays County, Henderson County, Hidalgo County, Hunt County, Jefferson County, Johnson County, Kaufman County, Kerr County, Lamar County, Liberty County, Lubbock County, McLennan County, Matagorda County, Midland County, Montgomery County, Nueces County, Orange County, Parker County, Potter County, Randall County, Smith County, Tarrant County, Taylor County, Travis County, Val Verde County, Victoria County, Walker County, Webb County, Wichita County, Williamson County