Homeless Man Gets Five Fannie Mae Loans In Florida
The St. Petersburg Times found a homeless man who had bought a few houses. “After struggling much of his adult life with unemployment, homelessness and drug addiction, Johnny Moon Sr. died last year on a dirty mattress on the floor of a small home near Tampa’s College Hill district. Moon left behind a watch, a flashlight and a wallet containing a solitary dollar bill. And more than a half-million dollars worth of real estate.”
“The St. Petersburg Times (inquired) about how the elder Moon had qualified for the mortgage loans. A high school dropout with no job history who got by on food stamps, Moon morphed into a real estate investor. Within a year, he bought five properties and signed for mortgages in excess of $614,000.”
“Those familiar with Moon’s background have doubts about his abrupt transformation into real estate investor. Linda Johnson, Moon’s sister, thinks he was an unlikely candidate for easy credit. ‘He never had nothing much, no bank accounts or nothing like that,’ she said.”
“Records show Moon bought a 12th Street property from for $147,000, triple what the county property appraiser said it was worth, and paid for it with a $147,000 mortgage loan. The Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly called Fannie Mae, ended up with the home after Moon died and the loan went into foreclosure. For Fannie Mae, the loan has become a loser.”
“The lender’s representatives discovered the 86-year-old home with the tin roof has leaks, flooring problems, no sink in the bathroom and no kitchen. As is, it is uninhabitable. The home is listed at $88,500, but so far, no takers.”
“In November 2002, Moon Sr. signed for an $85,000 loan to buy the home at 2204 E Chipco St. Six days later, Moon was arrested and charged with petty theft. A few months after being released and reporting meager income, Moon Sr. signed for four mortgage loans, totaling $529,300, to buy four more properties. The four purchases occurred in a two week period. Three homes eventually went into foreclosure.”
“He somehow got himself to all four closings, records show, and presented a Florida driver’s license as identification, though the state had revoked his license indefinitely during the 1990s when he was classified as a habitual traffic offender.”
Say no to a taxpayer bail-out of the GSE’s.
I think sellers of all these bum properties need to be investigated. Three times the assessed value leads me to believe that big-time mortgage fraud was perpetrated in this case.
Scam: Hire capppers to go down to skid row and ask homeless people to just ’sign some papers’ in exchange for a thousand bucks a crack per signing. Sell ‘em garbage RE at 3X cost, hi-commish no-doc suicide loan, crooked appraiser and RE agent. The homeless guy ODs and croaks and everyone’s happy as a clam– Better than even Glen Gary.
I think the lenders force loans on the uneducated and poor families. They prey on this group of folks who don’t really understand money at all. As long as they make a profit on the loan they are laughung all the way to the bank.
I doubt that a lender is behind this kind of a scam. There is way too much risk in comparison to the profit on the loan. More likely the mortgage broker working with the seller and splitting the gain on the property.
I also find your comment amusing since 4 or 5 years ago the lenders were castigated constantly for failing to loan money to poor familes. Now they are ‘forcing’ loans on them.
I guess it’s nice to have someone to blame.
Oh you are naive
Redlining such that a particular group cannot get loans is different from abandoning all restraint. It astounds me that people who would claim to be Capitalists cannot differentiate between these two. There should be no place for either, anyway.
This type of fraud has been reported many times in the news. NOT one person has gone to jail yet. And the scary part is using the appraisal from this type of fraudulent transaction for legitimate buyers who overpaid and now are subject to a bank ordered reappraisal and possible immediate adjustment of the mortgage payment.
The whole mortgage financing system is broken. These are just small time crooks. The big bosses should be exposed too.
Alan Greenspan, heads of GSEs, hedge funds…
How many went to jail for the S&L melt dowm? Not Jeb Bush.
I think you meant to say Neil Bush (Silverado S&L), but point taken.
Now that is about as loose as lending standards can get, eh?…. Unless they give a loan to a dead person, a child or a pet, and somehow I think stories like that will come out.
OK, this then is rock bottom. Standards on the way up, please.
In Pasadena last year, they did give a mortgage to a deceased person.
I am pretty sure it was blogged here.
Unbelievable. 9 seconds after I post this plot twist (below), it has already been done. Nothing under the sun in new…
I did read that about the dead in Pasadena getting a loan, and it was urban legend.
I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened or won’t happen, I’m just saying that case was busted as urban myth.
NOT urban legend –truth: http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=21370608
They only give the location as “L.A. suburb”, so can’t say whether it’s Pasadena or not.
why is this surprising?! Should I not believe the Rock Financial guy who tells me he can get me a no-credit, bad-credit, no-doc loan?
Moral: Dead men don’t lie, but they do buy homes.
we did have a customer in prison who tried to get a loan, we were tipped off by a neighbor during the closing process. he had used his cousin to sign the docs. you’re gonna see alot a fraud bubble up to the surface in the coming months. appreciation cured all over the past four years but that train has left the rails.
Speaking of prison-The big number hitter appraiser in my former market went to the can for Fed income tax evasion along with his real estate broker wife.
While he was in prison, he had his appraisal trainee hacks bring him their appraisal reports so he could sign them in his designated appraiser capacity.
Because the guy was so corrupt in his values, real estate broker’s would wait weeks for someone from this guy’s office to do “THEIR” (f*ck the borrower-who he?) appraisal.
Game’s rigged, folks.
This guy is NOT homeless. He has five of them, for Pete’s sake.
Of course, in the upcoming years, we will see many flippers pan handling on the streets. Instead of “get a job” I’ll yell “sell your house.”
And I nearly spit my coffee all over my monitor and CPU just reading the headline.
Awesome! Simply spectacular. Think of the spirit of free enterprise and soaking government programs which was exhibited here. Not necessarily by the dearly departed, but by someone…
I want the movie rights to this story.
And I think the only way to top this story is if he signs for another loan, after his burial of course.
D*mn. Yikes. Anyone want one of those MBS paying a very low premuim for such risk?
David
http://bubblemeter.blogspot.com
LMAO! Sadly, this will not be the first of these stories.
It couldn’t be the case that others involved—agents, brokers, appraisers, etc.—knew what the guy’s situation was and were taking advantage of an old homeless dude, could it? I mean, no one would do that, right? Even a broker couldn’t sink that low. Mr. Moon must have been fooling them all with his charm, all by himself.
I would REALLY love it if the local paper investigated the sale and tried to get a statement from all those involved in the transaction! Better yet, get a camera crew out there to follow the individuals and ask them about it as they get out of their cars, while they put their hands up in front of the camera and say “I have nothing to say about this, you’ll have to talk to my lawyer”. Realtor gets fired from his firm. Banker gets fired. The Feds come in and check all the records of sales……. oh, but that will never happen. And if it does, the fines and jail time will be miniscule compared to the fiscal damage done all in the name of greed……
jumping off soapbox now
heh, the classic 60 Minutes moment. This is the sort of situtation that should lead to someone doing a televised perp walk in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.
yeah, I’d like to see the 60minutes piece too! But, it’s gotta be less a read-em-their-rights piece than a ohmygod-what-are-we-thinking? analysis of lending practices and the way an RE bubble has driven our economy.
I mean, what is the point of these ads for no-credit/bad-credit/no-doc loans? These pitches clearly move beyond the paperwork-reduction tack taken by Ditech in their lost-another-loan-to-Ditech campaign. It’s not just to make life easier for responsible consumers of credit, is it?! It’s to offer loans to people who don’t really qualify for them. What is the point of a banker offering me the opportunity to avoid showing my records of income, of employment, of loan-worthiness, if they’re going to offer me loans only if they think I won’t default on them?
It’s not merely an easier scam for those willing to commit felonious-type fraud, it’s wholesale fraud worked into the system…
Hmm, smells just this itme (on NNJ bubble today) about loan fraud scheme, in which realtors found fake buyers for various properties to pocked inflated loan $$$ :
http://www.inman.com/inmannews.aspx?ID=50946
Straw buyers. A few local crook realtors have made millions in my town doing this same crap. Its all over the street, yet no one has done anything about it. I guess the govt has other things to work on.
It’s time for LEGAL hard working Americans to take to the streets to demonstrate…..’No Tax Payer Bailouts’…..can you imagine the fear that would strike in the banking, mortgage, and housing industry !! Ole Ted Kennedy could get lots of Senate air time on this one….
I’m with you. No bailouts for whoever is left holding the bag.
Oh, and let’s have a few large class action lawsuits (in the free market tradition!)
sorry for typos - item and pocket…
I love the part where he did a 45 day stint in the pokey for his daring heist of a can of Tuna from winn-Dixie.
Why not name the lenders and appraisers? ( Oh , I forgot, that would actually accomplish something rather than reporting about a DEAD man.)
I was really proud when I signed the papers for my first (and only) mortgage. After reading that article, I guess it wasn’t such a big deal.
A homeless man who owns five properties without a
roof over his head.
Classic.
Right up there with “feeding the squirrels”
What’s next? Free grocery bags packed with $100 bills?
Incredible.
Does this mean we ‘won’ the ‘war’ on homelesness?
Can we declare ‘war’ on idiocy now?
LOL….homelesness is unfortunately going to get a lot worse…Poor guy probably died thinking he was rich!
Nice to know my competition for a fairly priced roof over my head…
With the written description for the 86 y/o home (TIN ROOF, RUSTED -B52’s)
“Great starter investor home! Lots of potential. Handiman special. Needs a little TLC and some finishing touches to make this place your home! Natural sky lights! Sold as is…..
“Cute little charmer! Waiting for an investor with a lot of imagination and vision.”
So now we know that Fannie Mae underwrites a sub-subprime tranche…
OT, but what has these bubble stocks riled–nucular fear, or something else?
http://tinyurl.com/o7skt
Think it could have been a case of identity theft?
Yep, that’s what I was thinking .
The full article heavily implies that the brokers (his son and his business partner) was the one using his identity.
I guess those no ratio/stated income loans work on just about anyone that can fog a mirror. There really needs to be an investigation on this. This nonsense needs to be accounted for and the people involved should be dealt with.
OT, but clearly the bubble is not bursting in DC…CNBC just did a little blurbly segment on NAR predictions for 2006 (the usual, but more so, still a ’seller’s market’, high plateau, etc…from Lereah) and since the “news” wasn’t that bright the bubbly red-head reading it from DC added “but, just last week in neighborhood a house sold for 250,000 over asking, so take that into account”. Okay, honey, thanks for that important alternate perspective! Do you think she owns in that neighborhood, or rents?
We’ve seen things priced so rididulously low compared to comps that the 250K over number does not surprise me. Realtors are getting desperate to keep up the illusion of the mania. They price it 200K lower than all comps and then brag that there were mulitple offers and the property sold for 10-15% over asking. Even with the bid up— many homes are selling for less than comps on the same streets last year…list price means nothing…..its all smoke and mirrors…
Interesting…..
I heard that too. Clearly, these people all have their vested interest, so it must be painful to tell it like it is. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it was something she heard from another neighbor, i.e. she hasn’t got any facts to back it up.
File this one in the SHOESHINE BOY file.
may have had the correct skin tone fo da loan
see community banking law
thanks clintonistas’ !
6 years of Republican control have done NOTHING to change this. Both party’s SUCK!
Yup. We always seem to be picking between the lesser of two weasels…
I’ll third that.
STOP complaining ,and get back to work…Someone has to pay for this
mess. Next thing you’re going to tell me is Fannie is an irresponsible lender making unsound decisions who’s financial health is key to our entire economy…
It just dawned on me…… I’m afraid that with all of this RE boom crashing down we’re going to see at least one incident of someone “going postal”.
Instead of someone going into a court room proceeding and shooting they will walk into the offices of all those involved in ’scamming’ them (true or not) into a home loan that ended up in bankruptcy and family destruction and just mowing people down. I really think it could happen
People going postal is already a foregone conclusion.
I think things will get so bad that desparate Babyboomers will build towers to jump from.
Who has to build them? There are thousands of then under construction in Miami, Tampa, Palm Beach, San Diego….
Wow. Agency paper! I wonder what the subprime lenders are up to!
OT :
Here is a headline that caught my eye.
1-800-Flowers Buys Fannie May
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12254954/
A good example of identity theft :)?
Cologne on a sasquatch.
Sounds like a Countrywide customer.
You guys are cruel. Maybe the dead guy was just all hyped up after going to one of Trump’s “How to be a Ka-zillionaire through real estate” seminars. I think he was just trying to make a better life for himself and his family. Perfectly reasonable.
Thanks Ben, for this. A lady at my work and I had our good belly laugh for the day. (She has no money, she’s been talking about buying a condo, and of course I’ve been presenting the bearish case to her.)
Well, she has a job. I guess she can get 5 or 6 mortgages.
That’s nothing. I heard there’s a pine tree in Vegas that owns six homes. Gonna put in some granite, flip that sh!t, and buy some nice bling to spruce up the branches for Christmas.
oh that got me my first bellylaugh for the day, thanks!
funny.
I wood believe it,
Please don’t needle the owner!
FBI on CNBC right now talking about Mortgage Fraud….Buyer is in bed with lender…..Buyer buys property….Buyer then gets new appraisal with higher price….Buyer is now seller….New buyers enters with new loan from same lender….
i should check into the mortgage fraud headlines that have plastered the Detroit News every couple weeks for the last months…that, and title fraud articles. I don’t subscribe, and tend to be busy coralling kiddies at the grocery store so only notice sometimes…
apparently mortgage and title fraud are hot crimes right now in the motorcity….
My letter to Congressman Jerry Lewis:
Dear Congressman Lewis,
I write to you today concerned about the state of our economy, specifically as it relates to the housing sector. I believe that the U.S. is on the brink of multiple collapsing sectors, including housing, lending, and even our federally sponsored GSEs like Fannie and Freddie.
The last few years of the housing boom in the U.S. has primarily been driven by wild speculation by people who, 10 years ago, would never have been able to qualify for any home loan. See, for example, the story of the homeless man in Florida who managed to obtain mortgages for five homes (which Fannie Mae bought). This has been fueled by supremely loose lending standards of banks. Over 80% of all home loans in So. Cal. have been of the interest only or adjustable rate (or even negative amortization) type. These dispicable products are the only way people are able to “afford” such outragous prices. But rest assured, these prices can not continue.
Already in the market we are seeing slowdowns, which is going to eventually cause a wave of foreclosures. You see, home equity lines of credit have been used in recent years to fuel a spending spree boom by consumers (perhaps the only reason we didn’t have a major recession post .com bust). Hundreds of thousands of home”owners”, leveraged to the hilt, are going to find themselves upsidedown and unable to refinance once their ARMs reset in the coming months–all in the face of much higher interest rates.
I write to you today to ask that no schemes of taxpayer bailouts be concocted when the fallout begins. I did not buy into this housing bubble nonsense on the front end, and I refuse to pay for its ramifications on the back end because our government feels sorry for reckless speculators at the individual, bank, or GSE level. People should be responsible for their own choices.
Please keep this in mind.
Your Constituent,
Bryce Mason
P.S. If you would like to hear the other side of the housing market, contrary to the usual media and Realtor(R) spin, check out http://www.thehousingbubbleblog.com, where Ben Jones collects newspaper clippings from all over the world about the coming bust.
great letter.
Great letter…. Lou Dobbs needs this too
“I did not buy into this housing bubble nonsense on the front end, and I refuse to pay for its ramifications on the back end because our government feels sorry for reckless speculators at the individual, bank, or GSE level. People should be responsible for their own choices.”
Bailouts are part of modern American history. They have the unfortunate consequence of leading people to make monumentally foolish decisions, with the reasurance that the government will make them whole if things turn out badly.
Same can be said for almost every “social” program.
Your optimism in drafting this letter is very commendable. I have had way too much difficulty convincing those in my immediate circle to want to bother trying to change politicians’ minds.
Awesome letter. Let’s all send to our federal and state representatives, as well as the governors and president.
A pine tree in Las Vegas has got to pretty rare. Where is he (or she) storing the mortgage docs? LOL
Online Home Price Poll in Bruce Springsteen’s Backyard.
I ‘m going to vote now - thumbs down!
Home prices headed up, down at Shore?
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/11/06
What will happen to home prices in Monmouth and Ocean counties this year?
That’s this week’s online business poll question.
Have prices peaked or do they still have room to grow? If the do, by how much? Conversely, if you think prices are headed down, will they fall slowly or will the real estate “bubble” burst?
To record your answer, go to http://www.app.com and click on the Business section. Readers are invited to e-mail us their comments as well.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060411/BUSINESS/604110317/1003
somehow the vision of bruce’s young couple of old, “born to run”, transformed into the modern version of wild specuvestor condo-buying strap-your-hands-cross-my-preconstruction-priced-document-signing-pen baby…is truly disturbing. Was it a better world when the jerseyshore’s best buy employees were more interested in cruising, or are they still?
I just voted in the aforementioned Monmouth County poll. The direct link is:
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BUSINESS and the poll was on the right hand side of the page.
At 12:49 PM, there were 70 votes and the % of -10 to -15% was 17.1%.
Records show Moon bought a 12th Street property from for $147,000, triple what the county property appraiser said it was worth
The county assessor might have thought it was worth 2/3rd’s of the asking price, but some sleazebag, number hitter did the appraisal for the mortgage company that did the deal.
What is FNMA’s stock price $54.00???
Short this dog-boatloads more of this crap out there.
I don’t see why loans to the indigent are such a big deal. In a booming real-estate market, when the vast majority of prices are rising, why shouldn’t banks loan to everyone, and anyone, who wants to borrow against a house? The vast majority of the properties are gaining 20% a year, so who cares if a few outliers are actually duds? You will make money on volume (i.e. there will be quite a few properties that do appreciate). And it doesn’t matter that a given borrower is unable to make good on the payments. Just sell the house six months later, and the loan is paid off. Everybody wins!
Anyway, don’t blame the lending institutions. They only market mortgages that are acquired by after-market investors. It’s the pension funds and foreign invstors who are really eager to give their money to anyone buying US real-estate. They know that US real-estate prices always rise substantially, so any potental losses from loans are minimal.
Only 5? This is why the homeless will never get anywhere.
If he had really put some effort in he could have had at least 10.
Shameful example of laziness. Shameful.
:-p Now thats comedy funny stuff
Don’t forget $550/mo.SS and food stamps. He was 56 how does that work? We are paying people to be house flippers? Where do I sign up…
To sue brokers who originate this stuff, there is an AIG company called IMARC, based in California. They do it on a contingency basis. They go after brokers and realtors and everyone. Also, tracking the prosecutions and sentencing is a site called mortgagefraudblog.com Really good.
I believe that the Fed was pushing to restrict mortgage loans to “living” people.
Commies.
admit it guys, this is kind of funny.
a homeless man purchasing property? I can see Leno and Letterman having a field day with it.
(sad, but funny)
You can check out johnny moon’s mugshot on the local sheriff’s office website at http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/. Just select “inquiries online” at the top, “arrest inquiry” under JAIL, and type in his name. If this guy actually had to show up someplace and sign papers, there’s no way anyone involved could have possibly thought it was a legit deal.
http://tinyurl.com/zjqef
I would be scared to loan him a buck, and expect it back.
The cool thing about dating homeless chicks is that after the date is over, you can drop ‘em off anywhere!