re: property scams 4 cnrs program
looks like the same thing is happening in the US, property scams, refinancing on increased equity etc.
http://www.marketwatch.com/discussions/msgReader.asp?siteId=yhoo&parentId=3&forumId=33&boardId=21293&msgId=26 Its quite long so here is the first paragraph
Appraisers Feel Heat Amid Talk of a Bubble By JOHN HECHINGER Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal From The Wall Street Journal Online EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. (Jan. 15, 2003) -- Hotel worker Danny Ruiz was living with his wife and four children in a cramped New York apartment when he saw a television ad promising the family a way out. "Why rent when you can own your own home?" a Pennsylvania builder asked. The company even offered to pay his rent for a year, while he saved for a down payment. So the Ruizes fled the city for the Pocono mountains, where they bought a three-bedroom Cape Cod in 1999 for $171,000. But when they tried to refinance less than two years later, the home was valued at just $125,000. "I flipped," says Mr. Ruiz. His wife, he says, "went nuts." In a time of rising real-estate prices, how could their home have lost so much of its value? The Pennsylvania attorney general has a theory: an inflated appraisal. State officials have sued an appraiser and builder, saying they colluded to sell inflated Poconos property to 170 homeowners including the Ruiz family. The state has also launched a criminal investigation..."
