SANFORD, Fla. -- Buy low and sell high: that is our free-market system at its best, but a WESH NewsChannel 2 investigation found something amiss when it comes to some Seminole County real estate.

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Investigation Launched Into Seminole Real Estate Sales

Homeowners believe there's some wheeling and dealing going on which doesn't seem to add up. State and local leaders are also investigating.

A good number of homeowners in the Retreat at Wekiva are on edge. Resale prices of some homes are apparently out of their control. Homes resold at a much higher price than available new homes. The profit is good, but is it too good?

"The inflated values of the homes could cause the mortgage company to foreclose upon on the homes. They are going to be vacant for certain period of time and are not going to be kept up for a certain period of time, and they' are going to sell for below market value," homeowner Donna Maynard said.

Although it is not illegal to sell a home for a profit, it is illegal to falsify a home's value. Sensing that inflated prices on real-estate flyers that were left outside of their homes may affect their taxes, several homeowners went to the county property appraiser in search of answers.

While assistant property appraiser David Johnson advised that an investigation into the matter has already been launched, he highlighted several suspicious listings in the area that immediately drew his attention.

"The average price in that neighborhood was about $220,000 to $227,000, but some of the sales are at $350,000 to $357,000 for that exact same model," explained Johnson. "It raised a red flag that they weren't typical for that neighborhood, by a substantial amount of money."

These are prices the county refuses to use for tax purposes.

"Their concern is that we have some mortgage fraud or a scheme to defraud at the Retreat at Wekiva," according to Seminole County Sheriff's Investigator Sgt. Dan Purcell.

The sheriff's office started investigating not knowing that state officials from the Office of Financial Regulation have already been researching the case since January of this year.

The sheriff's office report stated that state officials are "investigating this case administratively and criminally."

If there is fraud, people could be arrested, fined and licenses could be lost. But targets of the investigation have told neighbors that it is worry over nothing since homes in the community are undervalued, making them an attractive investment.

Officials said the homes that sold for curious amounts were all were closed by the same title company, linked to the same mortgage company, and may have all been appraised by the same person.

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