SEATTLE - It's hard to believe how two, 800-square-foot condos in West Seattle and a modest rambler near White Center went from golden opportunities to disaster for two brothers, Ross and Rhys Fernandez, in a matter of months.

KING

There are 17 properties, worth more than $9 million, in the Seattle area that Andrew Vaughey owns, recently sold or put in his wife's name in the last two years.

Rhys says it has trashed his credit.

"Oh, absolutely, without doubt," he said.

Last year, the Fernandez brothers wanted a piece of the fast-paced Seattle real estate market.

They jumped in with a buddy, mortgage broker and realtor Andrew Vaughey, who had an enticing pitch.

"You guys are crazy, you're missing out on the boat, you gotta get into some real estate, tell your brother, I can get him into multiple properties, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it," said Ross.

The brothers bit. They snapped up the two condos and the house near White Center. Vaughey said the sellers were eager to get rid of it.

"This is the best deal of all time. It was basically, you can't lose," said Ross.

It all seemed great, until the high mortgage bills arrived.

"It takes my breath away to this day. I don't know if people that make twice my income could afford a property with payments of that size," said Rhys.

The payments were nearly $10,000 a month for the three properties.

The brothers went broke trying to pay.

"We were selling personal property, furniture, depleting savings," said Ross.

Ross is now selling his primary residence to try to get out from under.

"It's very difficult giving up a home, yeah, that we've dreamed about our whole lives," he said.

How did the brothers end up in this mess?

It was all about trust. They admit to wanting to make a quick buck and they trusted Andrew Vaughey to make it happen.

The KING 5 Investigators have uncovered that Andrew Vaughey lied to the banks to get the brothers into loans they couldn't afford.

According to Rhys' W-2 form, he made about $97,000 selling cell phone parts last year. But on the loan application, he made $138,000, inflated 41 percent, to make the deal go through.

We showed our findings to Adam Stein, president of the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers.

"It's fraud. It's loan fraud," he said.

"Harming the consumer is going to harm our industry and you can't stand and let things like this happen," said Stein.

Rhys Fernandez says he was also blindsided because he never saw, or signed, many of the documents sent to the bank.

We checked.

Forensic Document Examiner Tim Nishimura analyzed several of the real estate documents for us, including the purchase and sale agreement on the house.

Nishimura: The evidence is overwhelming that the signatures are forgeries, non-genuine.

Frame: Someone else besides Rhys Fernandez signed these documents?

Nishimura: Yes.

We wanted to know more about the mortgage broker, Andrew Vaughey. We found he used to be a stockbroker, but was kicked out of the industry two years ago for allegedly "defrauding customers" and trying to "harass and intimidate" a securities investigator.

He also appears to be a high-roller in the real estate world. There are 17 properties, worth more than $9 million, in the Seattle area that he owns, recently sold or put in his wife's name in the last two years.

And we've uncovered that he threatens business associates and clients when deals aren't going his way.

We obtained text messages, full of obscenities, sent from Drew Vaughey's cell phone to the Fernandez brothers' real estate agent.

Some of them read:

"You don't want to (blank) with me, you little piece of (blank)!"

"You may want to be careful. Your boy Ross is being watched...."

"It could get ugly for the Fernandez brothers."

We asked Vaughey about lying on loan applications and forging signatures. He had nothing to say.

His attorney, Ali Nakkour, did talk, and said Vaughey has not engaged in mortgage fraud and did not forge documents. He said his client is a law abiding businessman.

"I don't think he's in the business of taking advantage of anyone. And I don't think he has taken advantage of anyone," he said.

We uncovered even more about Andrew Vaughey. Remember how he told the Fernandez brothers the owners of this house were eager to get rid of it?

That's true, but he failed to tell them that for all intents and purposes, HE was the real owner. Vaughey hid that fact by putting a relative's name on the title and paying that relative to do it.

Vaughey put a healthy price on the property. His appraiser concluded it was worth $605,000.

It's a suspicious figure. Right after the Fernandez brothers bought the house, a different appraiser said it was worth only $450,000.

And a Windermere Real Estate market analysis done for the KING 5 Investigators found it's only worth $400,000.

While Vaughey pocketed a profit on the sale, plus loan broker and realtor fees, the Fernandez brothers have given up. The home is in foreclosure.

"And the harm you see as a result of this, the people having financial difficulties, the damage to their credit, the damage to the neighborhoods when those homes get on foreclosure," said Adam Stein.

"He's a great salesman, I'll tell you that," said Rhys. "He's a great salesman and stupid me and stupid us, my brother and I, for trusting someone with a silver tongue, really."

The Fernandez brothers are now suing Andrew Vaughey and his associates.

And Vaughey has responded, saying he didn't do anything wrong, that it must have been other people in his office that lied on the loan applications and someone else must have forged the documents.

The KING 5 Investigators have been in contact with other people who say they have had nearly the exact same thing happen to them.

We've also learned that the state was investigating Vaughey at one point for mortgage fraud, but that didn't go far.

We've been told that the King County Prosecutor's Office is watching our story, as is the FBI, and they are very interested in our investigation.