By KIMBERLEY HAAS A Los Angeles broker convicted of defrauding lenders to obtain more than $8 million in mortgage loans has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison. Alex Ashod Dadourian, 61, was a licensed mortgage loan broker whose company, Success Funding, doing business as Pride Funding, was located in Northridge, California. Investigators claim that Dadourian received more than $254,000 in fees and commissions by taking out 17 mortgage loans based on fraudulent applications and supporting documentation between 2017 and 2019. Dadourian was convicted on 91 felony charges of mortgage fraud, grand theft, identity theft, and conspiracy, according to a press release issued on Dec. 7. “We won’t stand idly by when bad actors take advantage of…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Two Kentucky real estate professionals who allegedly conspired to rig bids for farmland and timber rights each face up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Barry Dyer and Mackie Shelton allegedly rigged the bids for hundreds of acres of farmland and a tract of timber rights during an auction in April of 2018. The auction took place in Allen County, Kentucky. The bidding reached a point where the only participants were Dyer, Shelton, and two men who had leased the farm together to grow tobacco, according to an article by Bill Estep at the Lexington Herald Leader. Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice claim Dyer and Shelton demanded $40,000 from these competing…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Analysts say that being located near certain grocery stores can have an impact on a home’s value. Average houses near Trader Joe’s are $987,923, compared to $891,416 near Whole Foods and $321,116 near ALDI, according to an analysis released last week by ATTOM, a curator of real estate data. Rick Sharga, Executive Vice President of Market Intelligence at ATTOM, said homebuyers consider where they will do their grocery shopping when looking at houses. “It turns out that being located near grocery stores isn’t only a matter of convenience for homeowners but can have a significant impact on equity and home values as well. And that impact can vary pretty widely depending on which grocery store is in…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have ordered leaders at Carrington Mortgage Services to pay a $5.25 million penalty for deceptive acts or practices. CFPB officials say that Carrington, a non-bank mortgage servicer that operates in all 50 states and is headquartered in Anaheim, Calif., violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act in connection with mortgage forbearances. They allegedly found that Carrington failed to implement protections provided to borrowers with federally backed mortgage loans who were experiencing financial hardship during the COVID-19 public health emergency, according to a press release. A key provision of the CARES Act, passed by U.S. Congress in 2020, was that mortgage servicers were required to provide forbearances of up to 180 days…
Americans agree that military families deal with more financial stress than the average family. Ahead of Veterans Day, WalletHub looked at the best places veterans can live to reduce that burden. The Midwest and South offer the best places for veterans to live well, according to WalletHub’s 2022 Best & Worst Places for Veterans to Live report. The report analyzed the 100 largest U.S. cities for key metrics related to veterans’ quality of life, including the share of military skill-related jobs, housing affordability, and proximity to VA health facilities. Raleigh, NC, took the top spot for the best place for veterans to live, followed by Austin, TX, and Laredo, TX. Madison, WI, and Tampa, FL, rounded out the top five.…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A realtor who works in Florida says he has represented a number of buyers in the past two years that moved to the Sunshine State for more than its warm weather. They were escaping COVID pandemic restrictions, John Alestra, who works at Agile Group Realty in Tampa, said in a recent interview with The Mortgage Note. “A lot of the feedback I got from folks, a lot of it was just they didn’t want to deal with their states. They saw how they handled the pandemic. They wanted to make that move to a state where they felt they could live their lives a little more freely,” Alestra said. Alestra said they missed the basic life they…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A real estate developer has been sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme involving at least two dozen loan transactions totaling $6.5 million. The actions of George Kritopoulos, 50, resulted in more than $3.8 million in losses to lenders, according to authorities at the United States Department of Justice. Kritopoulos, of Salem, was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, six counts of bank fraud, one count of aiding the preparation of a false income tax return, and one count of obstruction of justice on May 27. Kritopoulos was originally charged in September 2018 along with co-defendants Joseph Bates III and David…
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has made significant changes meant to improve lending access to low-income and first-time homebuyers. At the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2022 Annual Convention & Expo, FHFA Director Sandra L. Thompson announced that the agency had validated and approved the FICO 10T credit score model and the VantageScore 4.0 credit score model for use by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two models will replace the Classic FICO, which the GSEs have used for two decades. Thompson said the models will take multiple years and significant effort to introduce to the industry. But will the end result will be “improved accuracy and a more inclusive approach to evaluating borrowers.” The new models improve accuracy by accounting for…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS The vice president of research at the National Multifamily Housing Council says 4.3 million new apartments will be needed by 2035 to meet demand. Caitlin Walter spoke at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference on October 13. She is primarily responsible for conducting NMHC’s research on apartment industry trends, according to the council’s website. Walter said there were 737,000 apartments under construction in 2021. “The issue is that it takes a long time to build an apartment community, and we’re not actually seeing those under-construction numbers turn into completions. And that is largely due to the delays that started during the pandemic that have continued to persist,” Walter said. Walter referred to a study the…
Most Americans want their parents to age comfortably in their own homes, but it can be a challenge for both families and the housing market. Three out of four adults want their parents to be able to age in their own homes, but more than half of Gen Xers don’t feel financially prepared to assist their parents in old age, according to a new study from American Advisors Group. AAG surveyed 1,500 adults aged 40-55 who have senior parents. “The retirement savings crisis is real, and many Gen X adult children are telling us that caring for their parents will be extremely difficult and potentially unattainable,” said Eddie Herda, AAG VP of Brand Strategy. Herda said there is interest in…
