In a round table discussion on mortgage fraud, Matthias Blume, senior director of analytics for CoreLogic, discussed a circumstance where a distressed homeowner poured cat urine on the rug so potential buyers are less inclined to make an offer.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The home was being short-sold and the homeowners were not happy.
Others sitting at the round table discussion on real estate transaction fraud mentioned other cases where people would purposely deface the house to make it less appealing and valuable. Doing so is considered a suspicious activity and a report can be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as this type of vandalism may fall under the umbrella of suspected fraud.
CoreLogic closely follows short sale fraud and has done so since the practice began to grow in popularity after the housing bust. Two years ago the mortgage data provider warned that fraudulent activity was evolving.
However, back then, they were probably thinking about financial deviance, like flipping and flopping, more than feline waste.
According to CoreLogic, the highest rate of short sale volumes and suspicious activity is concentrated in 4 geographic areas: California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada.
Also, the company said that the rate of suspicious activity report for short sales steadily increased since the fourth quarter of 2010 and is elevated at 3.7% of short sale transactions appearing suspicious.
