Robin Basichis

MORTGAGE FRAUD

A mortgage transaction of intentional misrepresentation. People usually benefit financially. Sometimes they get rich and sometimes they go to jail.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

A. Straw Borrower or Straw Buyer. The intentions that lie in the mind of the Straw Buyer are usually not about hearth and home. The Straw Buyer is normally used as a shill to fool the lender into thinking the property is being transacted as a normal purchase when in fact they will never occupy the home and in some cases will never make a single payment on it. Straw Buyers are usually cultivated buy the Ringleader who gets them in the game for a portion of the profit made on the grift. A good candidate for a Straw Buyer is a transient worldly person whom possesses no long terms goals, needs money fast and can leave the Country on short notice, alleviating burdens and embarrassments not only for the Ringleader but for the rest of the team as well.

B. The Ringleader. The Ringleader likes to act behind the scenes somewhat like a director of a movie or play. He enjoys pulling on the strings of the players while he goes through the creative process of clearly defining and fleshing out their character and roles. The Ringleader rarely holds any type of licensing or certification because it is not in his or hers best interest. Stealth and anonymity is the preferred form of most Ringleaders. They rarely show up at political rallies, upper-crust social gatherings or community functions. The more advanced Ringleader has an exit strategy that differs from most exit strategies seen in boiler-plate type of business plans. Their exit strategy has more to do with eventually getting out of the Country with their skin still intact or finding a place where they can live the rest of their lives in obscurity once they have reached their financial goals. In theory the exit strategy seems responsible on the part of the Ringleader, but it does not always work well in reality, mainly because Ringleaders tend to be quite greedy and keep redefining their goals by setting the financial bar higher and higher as time goes on. This mindset can expose the Achilles Heel of the Ringleader by keeping them in the game too long causing them too much exposure and eventual capture.

C. Buyer/Seller Broker or Real Estate Agent. Like the Straw Buyers the Broker/Agent are usually cultivated by the Ringleader. Although corrupt Brokers and Agents come a dime a dozen in a town like Las Vegas, they are indispensable to the Ringleader for purposes of feigning legitimacy. A seasoned Ringleader will put Brokers through a rigorous application and interview process. Before a Broker for employment in this area they should seriously consider broadening their knowledge base and seeking coaching if they hope to be successful getting through to a top position after going through the application and interview process. Although Brokers and Agents may have a natural propensity for illegal acts and take to the subject like a duck to water continuing education is advisable. Any corrupt individual can get tripped up with questions like:

•1. Have you ever lost a privileged licensed due to illegal activity such as fraud or embezzlement?

•2. Have you ever been convicted of a felony or gross misdemeanor? If so please explain. If a crime was committed at your former place of employment please include all the details about how you did it and how long it took you to get caught.

•3. Have you filed for bankruptcy within the last seven years? If you have filed in last seven years was it for over at least six-figures? Did you concentrate your efforts on a single entity, individual, organization or did you spread it across the board?

•4. Are you a people person? If you are please explain why.

•5. How would you rate yourself as a Public Speaker using between 1 and 5 as the metric?

•6. Do you have a conscience? If you do have a conscience how big is it and how hard is it for you to control?

•7. Do you consider yourself and sociopath? If the answer is yes can you provide clinical and or empirical proof?

•8. Have you ever committed arson? If you have not committed arson are you open to the idea?

•9. Have you ever served in the Military? YES____ NO____10. If you have served in the Military or government branch of the Armed Services what was the level of you Security Clearance?

•10. Were you ever accused or convicted of desertion, espionage or treason? If you were never accused or convicted of desertion, espionage or treason please explain why in 500 words or less.

Stanly Kaplan has recently added "Ten Easy Steps on How to Commit Bank Fraud" to this year's curriculum package. Although the course is a bit costly it is worth the price of admission. For more information on ground and online classes please go to - www.stanlykaplan.com.

D. THE MORTGAGE BROKER/ LOAN OFFICER

Although one is willing to concede there are exceptions to consider when defining personality types, in the grand scheme of things there are really only three types of people who gravitate to this profession. The first type, we will call him Type Number One, no matter how much he may protest, takes his job very seriously. He follows a strict moral code, obeys the law, feels a fiduciary responsibility to his client's, never entertains the idea of embellishing a client's financial position and will always refuse to alter documents. This person's sense of duty and misguided moral nature almost always causes them to fully disclose all necessary details to the underwriter without feeling any guilt or sense of remorse; they actually feel a sense of pride and pleasure for their actions. Type Number One will be the first in line to blow the whistle on any activity they deem as shady or underhanded. Never offer these people special incentives or kickbacks because they will extract a sadistic sense of satisfaction and self-righteousness by turning these things down and reporting you to the authorities. Never trust or confide in Type Number One. These people should constantly be fed misinformation and kept in the dark about all illegal transactions. As unfortunate as it may seem these types of people make it necessary to put locks on desk drawers and file cabinets.

Type Number Two can be an insidious character and can be a more destructive force than Type Number One could ever hope to be. Although no one likes Type Number One they do not hide who they are and what they are capable of doing. Even though they are snakes they have tails that rattle warnings. This is not the case with Type Number Two who has a weak and ill-defined character. Deep down this type has a larceny streak as long as the con-artist's, but because they do not have the guts to set their inner-thief free, they suffer an incomprehensible internal struggle of consciousness and will. Unless something drastic like a life altering experience happens to Type Number Two their cowardice is always the victor of their internal conquest. This inner-turmoil leaves Type Number Two filled with jealousy, hate and self-contempt. His real desire to be in the game with the con-artist is vanquished by denial and fear. This person becomes very dangerous when their frustration and self-loathing turns them into temporary do-gooders and whistle blowers. Unlike Type Number One Type Number Two feels a strong sense of remorse and guilt when he rats out a crew. This type is prone to long bouts of depression that may result in self-affliction like alcoholism, drug abuse and even suicide. Unfortunately Type Number Two makes up the majority of this profession. Statistics and Actuary Charts have shown them to be over 60% of the population.

Type Number Three is your guy or your gal. They are born to lie, cheat and steal. They have no sense of honesty, scruples, or fair-play. Type Number Three is a predator who will stop at nothing to get what he or she wants. They are often entertaining and fun to be around. They will wine dine and shoulder up to you in a way that appears like you have finally found they one true friend. They will ask you for advice, ask you for favors, baby sit your children. They will go to any extreme to prove their loyalty and love for you while they set you up for the kill.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

THE HOUSING CRISIS

I am reporting to you live as a Realtor working in the Las Vegas Market. So far I cannot see foreclosures and double digit deflation coming to an end in the near future. The popular prediction that rings in my ear is that property values could drop another twenty-percent before it's all said and done. That means my home, once worth $500,000 on paper, and now worth about $225,000, will drop to $180,000 if the twenty-percent prediction comes true.

The current note on my property is over $380,000. What to do? I feel like giving the keys back to the bank. For half the money I could rent a comparable home - find an investor or a builder to do a lease-option for up to two years and wait to see how the market shakes out. Maybe I am rationalizing here, but shouldn't wisdom and common sense supersede the shame and guilt of breaking commitments to investors who have sold my loan three times in the last year? Continuing to pay principal and interest on lost equity, isn't that as much of a sin as reneging on a loan?

One of my favorite lines in the movie Forrest Gump is when Bubbah is dying and asks Forrest, "Forrest, why did this have to happen?" You can only imagine what Bubbah was feeling. Why did this have to happen? Before we all have a nervous-breakdown let us take the time to reflect and think about what and who made this happen. Let's start with those monsters in Washington? Why don't we go back in time to the former Clinton Administration? It's as a good a place to start as another. Didn't Clinton and his crew change the tax laws on capital gains in regards to Real Estate?

He came up with the idea when he was campaigning against Bob Dole. Dole was proposing this broad-based tax cut and Clinton needed something to counter it with so he figured changing the rules on capital gains on Real Estate to no taxes for a gain of $250,000 for a single person and $500,000 for a married couple. At the time the NASDAQ was not doing so good and he was looking to stimulate the stock market with something to soften the dot com bust so why not Real Estate. This legislation helped get things rolling down hill from the top for sure. But there was lots of legislation on housing going back to Lyndon Baines Johnson and the changes he made in Fair Lending Practices to minorities. Who did he think he was letting people acquire government backed FHA loans with hardly any money down? Bad things happen when you help the underprivileged find a better life. And Jimmy Carter, didn't he do some funny stuff with the Prime Rate Adjustment and then Reagan and then Bush. They all had their hands in the mess we now face.

All of this horrible stuff we keep hearing about, like loan fraud- cash back at closing schemes - phony builder incentives, oh it just goes on and on. The greed and the thievery that happened in this town is enough to make you sick. But these con-artists and booster, who I will discuss in detail later, were not the people that got this thing started - they were just the flies that hovered over this big pile of dung we continue to call a Real Estate Market.

We are living through the kind of economic downturn that happens once in a century. During tough times humanity has a natural tendency to look for a scapegoat or a patsy to blame for its ills. When blame finds its victim people often experience a collective cathartic effect, especially when the victim is visibly punished. The central problem with blame is that it works as well as a lie as it does when backed up with true facts and hard evidence. Hitler proved this theory beyond a shadow of a doubt when he successfully blamed the Jews for all of Germany's afflictions.

Though blame can work like a magical tonic that soothes the national soul, it often descends in the wrong place and on the wrong people. One has to question whether blame fits our current set of circumstances. You could try and blame the Jews again, but they are much tougher and more vigilant now than they were in the 1930's and 1940's, and in all likelihood would not go along with playing the role of patsy again; so more than likely, and it is my hope, they will be left out of the blame equation, at least for now. So who is left? Who to blame? There has to be someone. We couldn't have fallen into this economic meltdown just by accident. How about the Underclass? We could blame them. Weren't they the ones who took out all of those sub-prime loans and ran up credit card debt they could never afford to pay off? And the people, who enabled the Underclass to obtain those loans, like Realtors, Appraiser and Lenders, we could throw the whole lot of them under the bus for what they done. It's just down right discouraging what happened and somebody has to pay. It seems like there is so much sin to go around, why don't we just blame everybody and be done with it. I will provide a detailed Blame Score Card later on in this discussion. But first I would like to dial back to yesteryear.

Since there are direct parallels between what we are going through now and what took place in the stock market crash of 1929, I would like to do a brief recap of some of the events that took place during the Great Depression.

The Great Depression started in the United States with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. The stock market tumbled because people got greedy. It's a familiar story. Easy money was floating around then just like it was floating around here a couple of years ago. It was easy to buy stocks on margin - ten percent down and you owned yourself a bunch of stock. While it was going up people lived high off the hog, partied to the hilt, drank the bootleg, bought fancy cars and lived way beyond their means. It was the dawn of the age of technology. New inventions, improvements, gadgets and widgets were flying out the door. People wanted more and more of a bigger and better life which created vast investment opportunities. The market kept going up and up like the Las Vegas Real Estate market in 2004, with no viewable end in sight.

The guys on Wall Street and the guys on Main Street said build it and they will come. And they came in droves. While this was going on a monstrous debt was being created through expansion and reinvestment unbalanced by a lack of stock equity, hard assets or savings. Eventually overextension and debt caught up with artificially inflated stock value and the whole thing went down like a bunch of dominoes. All the investing and speculating with borrowed money came home to roost and the bottom fell out. While everybody was overleveraging and getting greedy there was no one was watching the store. Over-indebtedness caused the fall.

Banks that helped people finance their debts began collapsing when debtors failed to payoff their margin call. When the public got wind that banks were becoming insolvent they started pulling their money out. Some people got to the bank on time, others got there too late. Some people jumped out of windows, some rolled over and died. Some people got in their cars and some headed out on foot looking for a better life. There were those that found it and those that died trying.

Bank failures led to the loss of billions of dollars in assets. Outstanding debts became heavier and heavier while prices and incomes fell by 20-50% with outstanding debts remaining at the same dollar amount.

Ten months after the crash and panic of 1929 nearly 750 Banks in The United States failed. Over the course of the 1930's decade over 9,000 banks failed. By the mid 1930's $140 billion in deposits were lost.

The United States and its trading partners jockeyed for the cowardly position of Protectionism which blew up revenue on international trade. Loss of profits from lack of trade affected all streams of income, and crippled the tax base. Industrialists and Big Business cut back on Capitol Spending and cities dependent on heavy industries like iron, steel, heavy machinery were hit hard. Construction in the public sector came to standstill. Farmers saw crop prices drop by 40 to 60 % because of lack of demand.

Not only were the effects of the Great Depression devastating in America, it rippled throughout Europe and other parts of the world creating a political and economic vacuum, setting the stage for despots like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini to seize power and drag us into a Second World War in 1941.

At the Start of the Great Depression:

•• 13 million people became unemployed.

•• Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.

•• Home building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.

•• From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.

In 1937, the American economy went into a heavy decline which lasted through 1938. Production and profits declined. Unemployment jumped from 14.3% in 1937 to 19.0% in 1938.

Coming back to the present, we now start talking about the current financial storm that we are braving. Why is it that investors across the world are in a state of absolute panic? Why are they dumping risky assets like shares and rushing to safe havens like gold and government bonds, stock markets and currencies across the world keep falling?

Stay Tuned...

Truth is people have mixed emotions and misconceptions about Vegas. To me it is one of the most exciting places on earth with a rich cultural history filled with some of the greatest cutting edge entertainers and big risk takers who went boom and bust and came back again. Vegas reflects the American Spirit - a spirit that is wild,violent and crazy. Too many misguided characters in the press, the law, and politics are out to castrate and emasculate those of us who want to preserve our heritage. They want to take away our freedom of choice in the guise of keeping us safe. Life, which is filled with chance and circumstance is not supposed to be safe. Boom Towns which were the Centerpiece of westward expansion were never safe. You got caught cheating in a card game, the guy you cheated could kill you dead right at the table and get away with it as long as there were witnesses on his side. The piano player kept right on playing and the cards got reshuffled.

This place scares a lot of people. I have friends who refuse to come out here because they are afraid they'll do some real dirty stuff that their wives or girlfriends will find out. They are afraid of being exposed for who they really are - and in an extreme place such as this it is real easy to be exposed. That famous slogan - "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas," is like as knife that cuts both ways - bringing in the curious and the adventurous while keeping the faint-hearted, who might benefit from the experience at bay. People who are jealous of Vegas just don't have the guts to be part of it.

With all of its Glitz andSpectacle Las Vegas is still the last American Boom Town. We have events like the Great Tournament of Poker where fortunes can be made and lost in the blink of an eye. We have guys like Bob Stupak who came here with nothing but the clothes on his back and wound up building the Stratosphere - one of the worlds most spectacular structures. It is a place where you can find anything you want, day or night. Come on, come to Vegas and find all kinds of stuff that will satisfy even the most hedonistic and perverted urges - and that's a good thing.

While other cities in this country were sleeping we were busy building mega resorts surrounded by some of the most interesting modern architecture in the world. It is truly amazing what you see when you take the time to look at all the design and detail when strolling through places like The Belagio, The Wynn and The Venetian. Our vision is to be the biggest, the best and the greatest of all the cities. That vision should never be allowed to die. God bless Oscar Goodman, the old Philly Mob lawyer who loves and understands that credo.

Sure we went boom and bust in Real Estate - but that is the nature of this town. We have reinvented ourselves many times over and we will do it again. When the economy gets back on keel an the dust begins to settle people will flood back here for jobs, opportunity and excitement. We will soon return as a major player not only in the Gaming Business but in other industries as well.

I moved here in 1992 when things were shiny and new and the possibilities seemed endless. People came in droves from places like California with lots of money to spend. They set themselves up in nice lifestyles with pools, fountains and courtyards in places like Green Valley and Summerlin. I wonder what the next wave of folks will be like? Probably a little more conservative - but as long as the piano player keeps on playing we'll have game going on.

Who can we really blame about the housing crisis? I work as a Realtor in the Las Vegas Market and I don't see the end of depreciation in sight just yet. Some people say property values could drop another twenty-percent before it's all said and done. My home was once worth $500,000 on paper is now worth about $225,000 and if it goes down another twenty-percent it will be worth $180,000. I have a note on my place for over $380,000. What do I do? Right now I feel like giving the keys to the bank and going out and renting a house the same size as mine for half the price. I could get an investor or a builder to do a lease-option with me for up to two years - so I could hedge my bets and wait to see how the market goes. Meanwhile what do I do with my current home? Should I short-sell it - or should I talk to the bank and try and convince them to do a Loan Modification. I do Loan Modifications and Short-Sales for home-owners all the time, but I am having a hard time taking the bulls by the horn and doing something proactive with my own home. The note on my property has been sold to an investor group. I wonder what they bought the note for. Maybe they paid $180,000 or less. Should I keep on paying them principal and interest on $380,000 - sounds like the honorable thing to do, doesn't it? After all I am an American, and as an American we are supposed to do the right thing?

One of my favorite lines in the movie Forrest Gump is when Bubbah is dying and asks Forrest, "Forrest, why did this have to happen?" You can only imagine what Bubbah was feeling. Why did this housing thing have to happen and who can we blame? Let's start by blaming those monsters in Washington. What about the Clinton Administration? Wasn't he they guy who changed the capital gains tax laws on Real Estate? He came up with the idea when he was campaigning against Bob Dole. Dole was proposing this broad-based tax cut and Clinton needed something to counter it with so he figured changing the rules on capital gains on Real Estate to no taxes for a gain of $250,000 for a single person and $500,000 for a married couple. At the time the NASDAQ was not doing so good and he was looking to stimulate the stock market with something to soften the dot com bust so why not Real Estate. This legislation helped get things rolling down hill from the top for sure. But there was lots of legislation on housing going back to Lyndon Baines Johnson and the changes he made in Fair Lending Practices to minorities. Who did he think he was letting people acquire government backed FHA loans with hardly any money down? Bad things happen when you help the underprivileged find a better life. And Jimmy Carter, didn't he do some funny stuff with the Prime Rate Adjustment and then Reagan and then Bush. They all had there hands in this mess we are looking at now. All of this horrible stuff we keep hearing about, like loan fraud- cash back at closing schemes - phony builder incentives, oh it just goes on and on. The greed and the thievery that happened in this town is enough to make you sick. But these con-artists and booster, they weren't the people that got this thing started - they were just the flies that hovered over this big pile of dung we continue to call a Real Estate Market. Always remember trouble rolls down hill from the top, so all of this had to happen at the top otherwise it wouldn't make sense. What we need to do is find a patsy to blame. There has to be something or somebody that we can concentrate all our hate and frustration on for letting the Real Estate Market go up in smoke like it did. How about the greedy investors who bought up all the new construction and just dumped them when the bottom fell out? Why don't we just single them out and call it a day? Who's to say they weren't at the top when this all happened. It could of been anybody so why should the investors be let off the hook so easily. I say we get some dogs and torches and go after those people and give them what they deserve, like a good lynching or burn them at the stake. We haven't had a public execution in awhile. I think it would be good thing. All the major Networks could cover it. It would be all over My-Space and You Tube in a matter of minutes. CNN would run it at least a hundred and fifty million times and Nancy Grace would stick her face in the camera and tell us the same old stale details for years to come.

Seriously, all this conspiracy stuff gives me a headache. Who really cares who started all of this? The things I find interesting are the con-artists and the boosters who got in on the game once it got rolling. Some of them made a killing and kept the money. Some of them made a killing and blew the money and are now in prison or living in their car. It was like Oceans Eleven out there. It took a crew of people to take down the banks for big money. This interests me. I saw it first hand in real time when it was happening and I knew many of the players.

Since we are in a knowledge based business I feel compelled to share this information with you. It is up to you and your conscience whether or not to persue any of things once you finish my article. So, let's get down to business. Most of the fraud that I am referring to hinges on and begins with finding the crooked Appraiser. This is primary. You must find a corrupt appraiser first before you can get things to roll down hill and make some real trouble. Wait a minute, I'm wrong. You need more than one corrupt Appraiser because none of them stay out of jail long enough to do more than a couple of deals -so it is better to have a whole stable of corrupt Appraisers at you disposal- that is if you are going to do proper bank fraud. And you have to have the right attitude about the whole thing. Your not hurting the Banks, they have plenty of money. You're Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. By helping yourself you are helping others. That's the point of all of it. To help people. You must keep this mantra in the forefront of your mind at all times. You must continually remind and teach it to others.

After the Appraisers are round up it is time to find a Sleazy Attorney. It is preferable to find an attorney who has been corrupt for years- has been thrown out of several firms for immoral practices - and is drinking and gambling heavily, and needs to keep on feeding a dirty habit and multiple addictions. He or she is the profile that you should be looking for. The Sleazy Attorney is instrumental in drawing up documents that are filled with smoke and mirrors and have the overwhelming capacity to confuse the lender. Before you bring the Sleazy Attorney on board always get a sampling of phony documentation they have in their resume or portfollio. I would always advise hiring a seasoned Sleaze Ball Attorney and never go with someone fresh out of law school. Although they may think they are up to the task they just don't have the experience or the cynicism to do the job the way it is supposed to be done. Next thing your are going to need to fill out your ensemble is a computer Geek that knows how to phony up all kinds of false documents. Although Geeks are not to be trusted they rarely speak in public - as their communications are normally limited to text messaging and emails. Face to Face encounter is not the Geeks forte, which can lend itself as an asset to your organization.

Once you have the Appraiser, the Lawyer and the Geek in place the rest is easy. You need a couple of greedy Realtors who don't mind crossing the line. I would say in the town of Las Vegas this would be as easy to find as a tight Slot Machine on the Strip. Then you need a Lender/Broker who knows how to make everybody look like a millionaire on paper. Although these Lenders are becoming more and more of a rare commodity you should still be able to track one down from the old days. If you are having trouble finding one I would suggest contacting either the County or State Correction System. I am sure they will be able to direct you to someone in Human Resources who can make a recommendation. Lastly you need the Title People. They are very important - because at the end of a transaction, all of the dirty things you and your team did that should be disclosed to the lender, must to be shoved neatly under the carpet and hidden by your last line of defense, usually the Title Girl who you take out for drinks, at the Title Company. As your business grows it may be advisable to start your own Title Company - it just makes things so much easier.

That's all for now. Next time I will talk about Staw Buyers and Shell Corporations.

I am sure most all of you seasoned Brokers and Realtors know about this stuff, so I figured why not give the rookies and the newbies a little education. Please keep an eye out for my new CE class. I'm sure the division will approve my lesson plans in a heart beat once I submit it to them.

No one knows when the hard times will pass us by. Many of us are guilty of terrible sins such as Greed, Lying, Laziness, Overconfidence, Vanity and Gluttony. It is easy to point fingers and throw stones, but the fact of the matter is we were all in this together and there is certainly enough sin to go around. I watch in awe at the news-footage of Bernie Maddox sporting a ball cap as he strolls down his favorite street in Manhattan passing by his pent house - then I watch his last steps of freedom as he enters into the courthouse on his way to jail for the next 150 years; which is kind of a long stretch for a guy Bernie's age. I ask myself if his outing is a coincidence or has he been thrust into the spotlight in perfect timing by higher powers to serve as an example of our indiscretions of the recent past. The numbers keep on changing on how much Bernie actually stole but it was a lot. Hitler with minions of henchmen and troops under his command and at his disposal was only able to wrest about a $150 Billion out of Europe, and Hitler must of had lots more juice and been a hell of a lot meaner than Bernie, don't you think?

Now we are faced with problems. I have been a Realtor in Las Vegas for a long time and I watched Vegas, which once was a Jewel in the Desert turn bust in the wink of an eye. Lots of people lost big money in Real Estate. Homes values have dropped to less than half of what they were at their peak value. It may take investors and regular folks the rest of their lives just to get back to even. Getting back to even is not what this town is all about. Normally people who venture to come here come here to win. The spirit of Las Vegas is to Win or go Bust. Take you chances and roll the dice- if you don't make it they hand you a cup of coffee and a bus ticket and say better luck next time. After all there is always a next time.

But what happens now - what do those who are caught in homes with negative equity that could match the national deficit, what do we do? I've been reading posts all over the Internet written like fire and brimstone by these holier than now pontificators rambling on about how dare someone walk away from a property and default on the bank. They made a deal and a promise to fulfill an obligation to their lender who trusted them and had faith that they would make good on their loans. The paradign among these so called dogooders is how dare someone try and do a Short-Sale or a Loan-Modification. It is just plain wrong and UN-American to boot. You should stay in that house until you die, because you'll never be able to sell it, and pay off the note will probably never bring you equity. This is how you preserve the American Dream. You do it by sticking to your guns and following through with what you said you were going to do.

What would Bernie do? Would he hang around and pay on a bad note? No, Bernie would find another guy to assume the note and walk away Scot Free - but we all can't be Bernie. If you could would you talk to him if you were looking to get out of a jam? If he gave you some good advice that was less than Kosher would you follow it? Of course you wouldn't because if you did be no better than one of those foreigners that don't recognize a deal as a deal. You know the ones - some even wear turbans on their heads and smile in your face while they are stabbing you in the back. Do you want to be just like one of those people?

How much guilt are you supposed to feel about wanting to get out of a bad situation? What price would you have to pay on Judgment Day when the Big Guy goes thumbs up or thumbs down on your eternal fate? Is there an objective reality here or should the financially challenged walk with their heads pointed to the ground from now until the end of their days?

I ask these questions because I see the guilt and shame in people when I meet them to set up a Short-Sale or a Loan Modification. People are basically set up to do the right thing and only a small portion of the population is out to defraud. Bernie fits into the one-percent category - a Sociopath with a genius mind who preyed on his own kind and all of those who thought they could trust him, but most of us are not like Bernie. We want to do the right thing. We want to pay our bills and meet our obligations.

What if there is another objective reality that not all of us are aware of. We all know that the Government bailed a bunch of banks who were stealing like thieves in the night - but is that really anything new? But, to all you pontificates out there - what is really the right thing to do when as non-performing note gets sold into a portfolio for ten cents on the dollar. A note that was once worth $500,000 has been sold and now carries a value of a $150,000. Should the poor guy who got caught in a default and had his note sold for peanuts still pony up the same amount of money he was paying on the original note? Maybe he should, or she should - but I don't know.

How are we going to come out of this time? Our economy is fueled by two things - housing and cars, and both commodities are in the tank. We need to come out from under the dark clouds that the media has hung over our heads and start rebuilding. Nobody knows how long its going to take, but the time to start with real solutions is now. It's the people that are going to have to step up and do it, you can't depend on Obama - what's he going to do - send out more platitudes about Vegas? The government isn't going to do squat - we as citizens have to dig ourselves out of the mess we dug ourselves into.

If you are in a tight spot with your lender go have a pity party. Go see your Priest or Rabbi and pour your heart out to him and ask for redemption. Catholics - take you friends to confession, there is nothing like it to purge your sins. Make an act of contrition by saying a few Hail Mary's and Our Father's then give me a call so I can help you out with the bank.

I do Loan Modifications and Short-Sales. I am very reasonable and I always answer the phone. So, call me at 702-279-8025 or email me at robsellsvegas@gmail.com