Letters to the editorMortgagePress.comMortgage fraud prevention
I just read an article in The Florida Mortgage Press
written by Ralph LoVuolo Sr., CMC. I've got to tell you, I was
taken aback by his words. My wife and I own/run a mortgage broker
business and title company. We are middle-aged (I am 52; my wife is
45) and were raised by very moralistic, ethical parents. My wife is
a very intelligent woman—an attorney and a PhD. As a title
agent, I have personally seen the fraud that has been perpetrated
on the unknowing victims and have seen what greedy brokers do to
people. As a mortgage professional, I am one of the do-gooders in
our community and am an advocate for doing the right thing for
people when they are seeking to make what is likely the biggest
investment of their lives. My wife and I have very high standards,
ethically and morally. We don't put people in loans knowing they
are going to have to refinance two years down the road, and we
don't bang them with three- or four-point loans, either. We are
only six years into the business, but got schooled by the good
people in the industry. Bravo for this article. I am thrilled to
see someone standing up and saying something about these young kids
who don't know beans about doing mortgages, who are bragging about
their four-point loans. Have a great day, and thanks again for the
great article.
Brett Berardinelli, General Manager
Coco Mortgage and Coco Title Company
I just finished reading the article by Ralph LoVuolo Sr., CMC in
The Florida Mortgage Press. I am a 30-year veteran of the
business and hold the Certified Mortgage Consultant and Certified
Residential Mortgage Specialist designations. His article sounded
like I was talking to myself. In short, he nailed it. There are so
many bad actors in our industry right now that it literally makes
me sick. Account reps are coaching loan officers to commit fraud
daily. One of the reps who I caught (there have been many)
explained to me that:
1. Everybody does it;
2. Your company won't have to buy the deal back, because we never
enforce those clauses in our contracts; and
3. She had to "bend the rules" if she was going to "keep up"
(presumably with her quota, income, prestige, etc.).
She is no longer our account rep, although she still works for
the lender.
Loan officers often call me for advice after one of these
"training sessions." The ultimate question is always, "Should I do
it?" I use humor to make my point, responding, "How do you look in
orange?" or, "Is the rep going to do the time with you or for you?"
or, "Your spouse and kids are going to miss you." These make the
point without having to say what really needs to be said, which is,
"That's a federal offense, you idiot!" Actually, being a native New
York City boy, my response would be far more colorful ...
My company's chief operating officer and I often joke about how
much more money we could make if we condoned just a little bit of
cheating and the huge amounts we could make if we operated the
company like many of our competitors do. Neither we nor our CEO
were raised that way, both at home and in the business. Our ages,
by the way, are 46, 51 and 52, which proves one of the points of
his article. As you well know, there are plenty of over-35 career
criminals out there in our industry. The influx of younger
money-hungry loan officer "newbies" serve the older criminals well,
providing insulation from the criminal activities that the older
ones have been practicing and perfecting for years. Once the
newbies are trained, the veteran criminal doesn't have to do the
crime himself; he simply has his employee do it for him and splits
the profits.
Thanks for listening to my (not particularly well written) rant,
and keep up the good fight.
Bob Scarpetta, CMC, CRMS
