James Andrew Ryan pleaded guilty to four counts of forgery involving fictitious quitclaim deeds. In each instance, Ryan went looking for what he judged to be run-down homes with unkempt yards. He wrote down the address and researched the owner’s name through county records. Ryan then forged the owner’s name on a quitclaim deed and finished it off with a bogus notary public seal. The phony quitclaim deed, showing the owner’s interest conveyed to Ryan, was then recorded at the Pierce County, Wash., auditor’s office.

The Ryan case may be the first known case of real estate fraud focusing of run-down homes coupled with bogus quitclaim deeds. The most common real estate fraud known as equity skimming, or rent skimming, typically includes a supposedly good-hearted investor looking to help a desperate homeowner. Instead, the investor persuades the homeowner into believing the investor will pay the bank a sum of cash to keep the mortgage from going into default if the homeowner “rents back” the home from the investor. The investor then runs off with two to three months of rent and sometimes even the title to the house.

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