The duty of the KCRAR Housing Opportunity Committee is to discover, create, and implement programs that allow homebuyers in our area the opportunity to achieve the American dream of Homeownership.  Along with that duty also comes the responsibility that we must do all that we can to protect consumers from unscrupulous lenders that may engage in predatory mortgage lending practices.

Predatory mortgage lending practices strip borrowers of home equity and threaten families with foreclosure, destabilizing the very communities that we Realtors work and live in. Due to the rise in predatory mortgage practices and mortgage fraud in the recent past the Housing Opportunity Committee has chosen its 2007 focus to be on educating consumers and Realtors about this very important issue. 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures the most prevalent categories of abusive practices include:

• Loan flipping -- repeatedly refinancing loans, charging high fees each time.
• Excessive fees and "packing" -- adding fees far exceeding those justified on economic grounds, often through loan terms, such as the financing of points, fees and pre-payment penalties, single-premium insurance (to cover the balance of the loan should a borrower die, paid in one sum and added to the amount financed) and balloon payments (those due at the end of a loan that are significantly higher than monthly payments).
• Asset-based lending -- lending based on a borrower's overall assets, rather than income and ability to repay.
• Outright fraud and abuse.

Please attend our upcoming program on predatory lending and mortgage fraud that will help you to protect consumers from becoming victims.  (See the article on an upcoming seminar elsewhere in this issue.)

Thank you,

Fran Cashion, 2007 Housing Opportunity Committee Chairman