One House Tells the Whole Story

You don’t need a map to see what’s happening within the Mile. Walk any block and you’ll find it: homes owned by New Square residents in individual names, homes parked in opaque LLCs, homes financed as “personal residences” that were never lived in. The details change. The structure doesn’t.

One house on Schettig Court captures the entire scheme in miniature.

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Case in Point: 10 Schettig Court, Spring Valley

Public records show that Yechiel Cohen, residing at 21 Koritz Way in New Square, purchased 10 Schettig Court, Spring Valley, NY 10977, for $650,000, supported by a $617,500 mortgage dated November 19, 2021

The mortgage documents are unambiguous.

They explicitly state that the borrower is required to occupy the property as his principal residence within 60 days and to use it as his primary home, language standard to Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac owner-occupied loans and relied upon by lenders when approving high-leverage financing

That requirement was not optional. It was a condition of the loan.

Yet by all available, observable information, Cohen never lived in the home.

Not temporarily.
Not briefly.
Not then.
Not now.

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The Mortgage Pipeline Is Familiar

The loan was originated by Zev Gruenzweig of Funding Source Corp, a mortgage originator whose name appears repeatedly across property transactions tied to New Square buyers and Mile-adjacent properties

Different houses.
Different buyers.
Same structure.

• Personal-use mortgages
• High loan-to-value ratios
• Explicit occupancy obligations
• No actual occupancy of the mortgagee 

This is not a paperwork error.
This is not confusion.
This is a system that only works if the occupancy representations are false.

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This Is Why One House Is Enough

You don’t need dozens of examples to understand the problem – though there are many, a few of which were already published. But the below appears to be fact time and time again: 

1. The mortgage requires owner occupancy
2. The borrower never occupies the property
3. The financing would not exist without that designation
4. The same mortgage channel appears again and again
5. The house becomes another quiet asset within the Mile ecosystem

When this happens repeatedly, the conclusion isn’t emotional. It’s logical.

Somehow following the law appears to be treated as optional inside a closed system.

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Walk the Mile and You’ll See It Everywhere

Within the Mile, this is no secret.

• Properties being illegally converted into and rented out as SRO’s 

Each house looks small on its own. Together, they form a shadow housing market, one that quietly risks reshaping neighborhoods while bypassing the safeguards meant to protect lenders, communities, and fair access to housing.

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This Is Not About One Borrower

It’s not about Yechiel Cohen.
It’s not about one address.

It’s about a repeatable model:

• Acquire
• Finance as personal use
• Never occupy
• Rent out as SRO 
• Retain control
• Move on to the next property

That model only survives because it’s rarely challenged and almost never documented publicly.

Until now.

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Exposure Is the Only Pressure That Works

These arrangements don’t collapse because someone complains quietly. They collapse when the paperwork is laid out, one house at a time, until the pattern is undeniable.

These lenders may or may not respond to outrage.
But perhaps they will respond to risk.

And communities don’t protect themselves with silence.
They protect themselves with sunlight.