Atlas could be outdated but I'd be wary of a potentially fraudulent Certification Statement...

Hello everyone,My name is Paul and this is my first post on BP.  I'm a 36 year old Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran (no longer on active duty) looking to purchase my first investment property sometime late next year. ...

To summarize some key points and address your questions directly: 1) WHY the Fed is raising rates: The Fed's first job is to combat inflation.

You're probably not intending to be fraudulent, however as the Community Manager here, I feel compelled to inform you that lying on a mortgage application, stating that you intend to use the property in one way when you actually intend to use it in an altogether different way, is mortgage fraud which is a felony punishable by up to $1 million in fines and significant prison time.We recently released an episode of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast with @Jon Lallande, where he gave mortgage tips and we touched on mortgage fraud near the end.

I would be okay with compliance testing if they put the same amount of effort towards catching fraudulent applicants. 

There's a place right up the road from me that I bet was fraudulently acquired.

According to Civil Code 2945.1(a), the term refers to any person who represents that, for a fee, they can perform any of the following services:Stop or postpone the foreclosure sale;Obtain any forbearance from any beneficiary or mortgagee;Assist the owner to exercise the right of reinstatement;Obtain any extension of the reinstatement period;Obtain any waiver of an acceleration clause contained in any promissory note or contract secured by a deed of trust or mortgage on a residence in foreclosure or contained that deed of trust or mortgage;Assist the owner to obtain a loan or advance of funds;Avoid or ameliorate the impairment of the owner’s credit resulting from the recording of a notice of default or the conduct of a foreclosure sale;Save the owner’s residence from foreclosure; orAssist the owner in obtaining from the beneficiary, mortgagee, trustee under a power of sale, or counsel for the beneficiary, mortgagee, or trustee, the remaining proceeds from the foreclosure sale of the owner’s residence. 1Note, this definition is applied to both those who provide legitimate foreclosure advisory services as well as those who do so for a fraudulent purpose.

Luckily I had security questions on file ( as I could not sign in on my owners account because the codes were being sent to the fraudulent email and phone) and I reached a customer support rep who spent a long time, but deleted the fraudulent info and replaced my own info and contacts information.  

So basically what you are saying is that if I were to refinance now knowing that it will be rented soon, that would essentially be fraudulent because it would need to be refinanced as an investment property?

Secondly it's actually fraudulent.