Short Sale Fraud – While not yet a law or an official policy, problems loom on the horizon thanks to a new take on short sales. The latest opinion released from Freddie Mac on short sales presents legal and practical issues for short sale investors.

On Friday, April 16, 2010, the organization posted an educational article titled “Emerging Fraud Trends: Short Payoff Fraud.” The article stated, in short, that short sales could be fraudulent if the lender does not have information about a pre-arranged flip of the property after the short sale to another buyer. This is a serious yellow flag for short sale investors who make their living negotiating good short sale deals with banks, then selling their new properties to other buyers for a profit.

The article described scenarios and red flags for short sale payoff fraud. The scenario was set up around a short sale negotiator or facilitator that engineered a short sale of an 80,000 dollar home with outstanding debt of 100,000 for 70,000 dollars. The facilitator does not disclose that he already has an outstanding offer for $95,000 from a second end-buyer. When both transactions close and the facilitator pockets his profit, Freddie Mac considers him to have committed fraud since Freddie Mac has now taken a “larger than necessary” loss on the sale.

The writer encourages everyone involved in short payoffs to look out for short payoff flags. These flags include sudden borrower default, a borrower who is current on other obligations and the buyer of the property being an entity rather than a person. Additionally, they encourage people to look for an option clause in their purchase contracts that allow the buyer to resell the property.

Everyone involved in a short payoff is encouraged by Freddie Mac to report potential short payoff fraud the second they become aware of a second purchase contract for a higher price. Short sales may not be breaking the law, but Freddie Mac’s PR team certainly wants the process to be as difficult as possible for all real estate investors.