Top 10 Mortgage Fraud Red Flags for 2026

<p>Fobby and Justin open with Labor Day mortgage-market news — rates at a 12-13 month high, a surprising bump in purchase applications, UWM&#39;s FHA/VA share gain, Rocket&#39;s broker-poaching offer, and reactions to NEXA&#39;s new &quot;NEXA Unlimited&quot; 100%-revenue model — then spend the back half of the show counting down a top-10 mortgage fraud red-flags list from compliance firm Captify, trading war stories from their underwriting and originating days (a bankruptcy that blew up a refinance, a $32-33M &quot;Robin Hood of mortgage fraud&quot; case, fake-landlord rental scams, and a power-of-attorney bank account standoff) along the way.</p><p>Market news recap</p><ul><li><strong>Mortgage rates:</strong> Freddie Mac&#39;s 30-year average hit <strong>6.71%</strong> (week of Sept 3, 2026) — Fobby called it a 12-month high; Freddie Mac / AP actually reported it as a <strong>13-month high</strong>. Minor correction if precision matters.</li><li><strong>Year-over-year:</strong> Fobby&#39;s &quot;6.50% a year ago, up 21 bps&quot; is accurate — Freddie Mac&#39;s own release confirms the year-ago (Sept 2025) average was 6.50%.</li><li><strong>Purchase applications:</strong> Fobby cited <strong>&quot;purchase applications rose 0.8% for the week ending August 28.&quot;</strong> That 0.8% figure is actually the MBA&#39;s <em>total</em> Market Composite Index (purchase + refi combined). The <strong>seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index specifically rose 2%</strong> that week per MBA&#39;s release — an even better number than what aired. Worth a correction or a &quot;we undersold it&quot; follow-up post.</li><li><strong>FHA/VA share gain:</strong> directionally consistent with the tighter-DTI, higher-rate environment discussed; not independently verified against a specific data source in this pass.</li><li><strong>UWM FHA/VA volume, Rocket&#39;s $10K broker referral offer:</strong> anecdotal on the show; not independently verified — good candidates to source/cite if reused in written content.</li><li><strong>NEXA Unlimited:</strong> confirmed accurate. NEXA Lending launched &quot;NEXA Unlimited&quot; on Sept 1, 2026, giving loan officers access to 100% of revenue on qualifying loans from their first closing, with no flat fee, per-file fee, correspondent funding fee, margin, or closing fee, and no production/recruiting minimum (that requirement remains on the older NEXA100 program). CEO Mike Kortas&#39;s quotes on the show track the actual press release language clo