When we bought our eventual retirement home we did so with the plan to use it as a vacation rental - that way we would still use it when we wanted but could earn some income to take the edge off the 2nd mortgage.

When it came time to do the financing we were looking at rates with our mortgage lender guy. He showed us the rates for renting vs. not renting. Renting the property costs a half a point on your APR.

His advice was to not tell the bank we were planning on renting. I looked at him and said, “You understand that’s mortgage fraud, right?”

We disclosed the intent to rent and paid the extra half point. We eventually stopped renting it and re-fi’d it down.

So Lisa Cook damn well committed mortgage fraud. What makes it worse is that she a Fed governor, one of the people in charge of the economy and more than anyone else should be held accountable for what goes on in the financial markets.

Integrity. Sometimes it costs you half a point on your mortgage but I’d rather have that than the money.