Responsibility in Real Estate
Yes, I read some of the bubble blogs. Some are well-written and provide good information for consumers trying to figure out what’s happening with the real estate market. Others spend so much time assigning blame and encouraging readers to hide behind anonymity that they add nothing to the conversation.
Sadly, some of the most read are of the latter variety.
What truly amazes me is the utter lack of responsibility assumed in the posts. Everything that is taking place in real estate is the fault of real-estate professionals.
- Realtors are the reason the market rose.
- Realtors are the reason prices are coming down.
- Realtors are responsible for mortgage fraud, even though the majority of us don’t work on the lending side.
- Realtors sent the speculators out in droves to purchase homes (often from home builders who weren’t co-operating with agents … oh wait, that fact doesn’t belong here.)
Why is it our fault? If you read some of the bubble bloggers it’s because the public as a whole lacks the capacity to fend off a sales pitch. Some agent says “real estate always goes up” and the public buys in sufficient numbers to send prices sky-high.
If this actually was the chain of events, then why is it not still working? Has the mind-meld broken? Telepathy being blocked by a solar flare? Seriously, give me a reason.
It’s moronic. And it should be insulting, and probably would be if anyone would take a pause from the adulation to read between the lines.
Buyers and sellers make the decisions, some with the advice of real estate professionals and some without. I’m fairly confident few real estate transactions have taken place with the real estate agent’s revolver planted in a consumer’s lower back. Or even with a buyer’s arm twisted at an odd angle.
Of course, none of us ought to be surprised. It would take too much work to figure out what actually happened. Better to just blame a group of people for no apparent reason and make them the scapegoat for all ills. There’s no harm in that, right?
UPDATED: I had seen this post earlier and intended to include it in this post but went off on a tangent and never returned. Could a Realtor have helped protect this seller? There’s a good chance …
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Hi,
Thank you very much for the article you published on the mortgage bubble. Being a responsible professional yourself you know first hand how mortgage fraud is growing rapidly because of this proposed bubble. We posted your story on our Mortgage Fraud Discussion Board: http://discussionboards.mortgagefraudqc.com/.
A similar thing happened to me in the mid-1990s by a company in Huntington Beach, Anastasi Realty and his brother who owned Anastasi construction. I was a single mother and making a very moderate income when I was coerced with promises of building my credit and hope of my own home ownership one day. After getting reeled in by promises of becoming a property owner (while renting myself), an intermediary orchestrated the loans on the homes that valued approximately $750k for the new construction town homes, back then!. There were first, second and Title 1 (or third) liens on the homes. Another co-worker was also in possession of three other units. After the simultaneous closings and the disbursement of all of the funds, of which I received nothing, the culprits pocketed close to two million dollars off of us. Within two months the “tenants” stopped paying the rents (one of the tenants was the individual who orchestrated the deals). When I began to inquire as the lender’s collection calls began, I was threatened with being turned into the FBI for my participation, and then my children were threatened and I left it alone.
This motivated my desire to learn more and I have had a career in fighting mortgage fraud for the past 10 years. If there is ever anything I can be of assistance with feel free to contact me. We welcome you to visit our Mortgage Fraud discussion board and encourage your readers to utilize our blog as well to share their similar experiences. The reason the criminals are allowed to continue is that their names and company information remain a secret until (and IF) there is a prosecution.
Please let your readers know they can openly share their stories so we can prevent other innocent people searching for the American Dream from having their lives destroyed.
Cindi Dixon, Director
Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Mela Capital Group
Cindi@MortgageFraudQC.com
http://ReportMortgageFraud.Org
http://discussionboards.mortgagefraudqc.com/