The Minnesota attorney general’s office is investigating potentially exploitative real estate transactions that have targeted Somali and Hispanic immigrant homebuyers in the state.

The attorney general’s action follows a report by ProPublica and Sahan Journal last year that revealed how contracts for deed — an alternative home sale agreement made directly between a seller and a buyer — can lock purchasers into inflated prices and unfavorable terms, and sometimes lead to eviction and the loss of their life savings.

“We have received a high number of complaints about predatory lending practices,” Mark Iris, an assistant attorney general in the office’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “Our office is concerned with the potential for abusive lending tactics that extract wealth from already impoverished communities.”