In fact, illegal on two fronts: it is against the IRS rules (yes, believe it or not, you are required to take deductions you incurred), and it can be construed as mortgage fraud if you overstated your actual income by hiding your business costs.Finally, as @Nicholas Aiola pointed out, all competent lenders add back depreciation during underwriting, so depreciation should not be changed for lending.

So here’s the dilemma, realtor calls 1 day before closing and says, “I’m advising you that if you buy this house and plan on it being a LT rental but have the loan as a second home and not as an investment loan then you could be committing mortgage fraud” and she doesn’t want any part of it.

On a macro level, it's important that people can dispute fraudulent payments, because fraud happens, so it's not an inherently bad thing that banks support a payer's ability to dispute a claim.

I have credit score monitoring  and actually had my identity stolen 3 times. 100+ points dropped is way too much unless you opened up an account while inquiring.

I am working on a partnership with some friends where we could go in with cash on a 53 Acre property with a 4 bed 3 Bath log cabin and 3 smaller identical cabins that sleep 6 a piece.

That's fraud.

@Ken Maddis, insurance doesn't cover you in case of fraud or gross negligence.

The next targetAs the IRS and the others ramp up their safeguards, identity thieves are now targeting tax professionals, human resource departments and payroll officers to get more data – such as copies of W-2 forms – to put together more authentic-looking tax returns that will slip through the defenses.The group is working to alert those professionals as well as continuing to warn taxpayers as well.

I found that out by searching for posts about his lending company throughout the forums and learned how he tried to scam other other BP's members.Anyways, as a newbie that I am, I had a hunch during the conversations I had with this pseudo-investor that pointed me to verify his identity.

Appraisers are criminals and frauds IMO.