House of the Day: 1171 Dean Street
This four-story house at 1171 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market with an asking price of $595,000 and the full disclosure that it’s a handy-man special. With plenty of original detail, it definitely has potential. Now here’s the weird thing: This house changed hands for $850,000 two years ago according to Property…
This four-story house at 1171 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market with an asking price of $595,000 and the full disclosure that it’s a handy-man special. With plenty of original detail, it definitely has potential. Now here’s the weird thing: This house changed hands for $850,000 two years ago according to Property Shark! So either someone’s taking a serious bath or there’s some mortgage fraud going on. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how a how in this condition in this area will sell in today’s market.
1171 Dean Street [Mark David] GMAP P*Shark
id pay 300k for it
Could be mortgage fraud, but $600,000 actually seems pretty cheap for a 4 story house on Dean. What surprises me is the price they’re asking now. Sign of a rapidly softening market?
Another angle– the fraudsters don’t even have to let the thing go into foreclosure. Before this year, one way to combat mortgage fraud was that any difference in a short sale was regarded as earned income. Thanks to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who believe that no one who is losing their house could possibly be a fraudster or speculator, you can just sell your house for hundreds of thousands less than you paid for it and have no tax repercussions.
I was interested in a house recently that was clearly part of a mortgage scam. The house is located in Crown Heights, vacant and in need of a lot of repair.
Owner A bought the house in 2004 for $350K, then sold it in 2005 to Owner B for $615K, taking out $557 in mortgages which went into lis pendens in 2007.
Owner A is now selling the house again, even though his name is not on the title. It was advertised as a short sale for “$500K, maybe less,” but when I made an offer, Owner A said he would only agree if I paid him $60K cash under the table, defrauding the bank of the rest. As the agent said “he expects to get something out of this for his trouble.”
No one knows where Owner B is, but the agent assures me “she’s in the picture, but Owner A is handling this for her.”
I didn’t feel like sharing a jail cell with them, so I walked away.
also, love the litterbox in front of the fireplace! the smell can just waft right out the chimney.
say the house is worth $600k.
1. scammer a, who owns the house, sells it to scammer b for $850k. scammer b is able to get a mortgage for $800k even though house is overvalued, because banks were lax 2 years ago about credit, appraisals, etc.
2. b stops making payments on the property. bank forecloses or does workout with b. b walks away.
3. a and b split their $200k ill-gotten profit.
4. house ends up back on market at true market value.
not saying that’s what happened here, but that’s one way mortgage fraud can work.
Guy takes out mortgage on 95%(borrowed $807500) of supposed sale amount which is inflated for house needing lots of work.
Guy with same name also involved in scam..
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/broker-city-employee-arrested-in-homeless-program/54726/
This’ll be a nice place for someone who doesn’t mind dying young.
Phony appraisal, to sustain large mortgage. Seller and buyer split mortgage proceeds in some fashion. Buyer now has vastly overpaid for house; defaults and disappears.