A Baltimore rowhouse sells for $40,000. Just months later, it changes hands again for around $200,000.
There’s just one problem: According to a new lawsuit, virtually nothing happened to the house in between.
That dramatic leap in value was allegedly repeated across dozens of Baltimore properties as part of a sprawling mortgage fraud scheme that one lender says left it with more than $14 million in losses.
AmeriTrust Mortgage Corp. filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland, accusing a network of real estate investors, a mortgage broker, appraisers and title companies of working together to make inexpensive properties appear far more valuable than they really were.