Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
If you’ve bought or sold a home, you know that there’s a giant amount of paperwork involved in the transaction. In the years before the 2008-2010 mortgage crisis, many lenders were duped with fake identifies of buyers or fabricated financial statements. As a result, the amount of paperwork involved with buying and selling a home skyrocketed after the mortgage crisis.
Since the mortgage crisis, most home loan closings involve several identity checks, multiple confirmations of financial status and many other checks and balances to ensure that the deal is legitimate.
Anyone who has sold or purchased a house knows that the paperwork involved with the transaction can be unbelievably voluminous. The large quantity of paperwork is largely due to the fact that most people borrow money to buy their homes, and owner-occupied home loans are indirectly subsidized by the federal government through creation and promotion of a market for the loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Many lenders were duped with fake identities of buyers, fabricated financial statements and other criminal misrepresentations in the years during the home building heyday, before the 2008-2010 mortgage crisis. Understandably, the amount of paperwork to close a home loan skyrocketed as a result.
Read more about buying and selling a home in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Buying and selling houses
Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Buying and selling houses,” by Lee R. Schroeder, April 9, 2016