'My House. My Dream. It Was All an Illusion.'

Joe DiSalvo, a mortgage broker with Continental Mortgage and Investment Corp. in Arlington, reviewed Ortiz's housing documents at the request of The Washington Post and found them loaded with junk fees and an overpriced appraisal. The "excessive" closing costs, he said, were upward of $10,000.

Blissfully unaware, Ortiz hung filmy white and maroon curtains in her home on East Reed Avenue. She put photographs of her family and the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the living room walls. She paid the mortgage every month, sometimes selling jewelry, forgoing other bills or taking out loans to do so. But she owned a home. She was happy.

So much so that she encouraged her niece Karla Ortiz to talk to Salgado. In September 2006, Karla, a Honduran immigrant who cleans houses for a living, was able to buy a half-million-dollar house in Springfield, and she paid $10,000 more than the asking price. Because her credit was poor, she used a friend's name and credit report on the mortgage application. No one blinked an eye.

Karla Ortiz, 30, said she worried that the house cost more than she could afford. Salgado maintains that she never showed houses to Karla Ortiz or anyone else.

Ortiz borrowed $8,000 for a down payment from an acquaintance at 20 percent interest.

She made three $5,000 monthly mortgage payments before the home on Middlesex Avenue went into foreclosure and her friend signed the house over to their mortgage broker.

* * *

The end of Glenda Ortiz's dream came swiftly. By February 2007, she and her husband couldn't pay the bills. Their power was about to be shut off because they owed Dominion Virginia Power $1,185. The city of Alexandria sent letters demanding the $7,215.88 they owed in property taxes.

She fell behind on the mortgage.

The refinance scheme she had worked out with Salgado fell through. The house had not appreciated as expected, and the bank would not help her with a payment plan. Although her name was listed on the deed, she was not listed as a borrower on the loan, records show. Ortiz said bank officials told her that they didn't have the authority to negotiate with her. When she called Hernandez for help, she said, he told her to leave the home.

With the home in foreclosure, Hernandez's attorney sent Ortiz a letter threatening legal action unless she turned it over to him as a gift. "You have caused Saul much damage by ignoring your duties and by taking advantage of his good faith," the letter read in Spanish. Maria Salgado said she borrowed $21,000 from a friend to bring the mortgage payments up to date because she didn't want to ruin her brother's credit. "It was all my fault," she said. "Saul didn't know Glenda."

Ortiz sought out lawyer Howard Woodson for help. In October, he urged her to sign an agreement to gift the house to Hernandez. Although she refused and asked for a hearing, a Circuit Court judge ordered Ortiz to gift the home to Hernandez. It includes a clause prohibiting Ortiz from suing Salgado and Hernandez for fraud, according to court records.