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First Canadian Title to be exclusive Dorado distributor in Canada

Aug 07, 2007

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
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Aug 07, 2007
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