Lise Howe, Assoc. Broker and Attorney Licensed in DC, MD, VA,Coldwell Banker

Joy Jackson, a former exotic dancer who became president of the Metropolitan Money Store, was sentenced yesterday to more than twelve years in jail. She was convicted of stealing millions from Washington area homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure. She used the cash to buy jewelry, fur coats and vacations, and to cover a lavish wedding at the Mayflower Hotel, where Patti LaBelle serenaded guests who feasted on lobster and drank Cristal.

The Metropolitan Money Store advertised on gospel and R&B stations and promised to help people keep their homes and repair their credit. Instead, Jackson and several co-conspirators, including her husband, Kurt Fordham, took titles to properties and drained them of equity. The company directed owners to transfer title of their homes to third-party buyers for a year. During that time, Metropolitan said it would borrow against the value of the home and use that money to pay the mortgage and repair homeowners' credit ratings. It also promised to help owners obtain better interest rates.

Instead, Metropolitan siphoned off the equity and Jackson and others spent the cash. The company also stopped making mortgage payments on the houses.

Prosecutors said they have found 117 victims in the scam, but hundreds more have been identified in a related civil lawsuit.

The Judge who sentenced Jackson to 12 years and seven months in prison and ordered her to pay more than $16 million in restitution, called mortgage fraud "a fever that seems to be spreading around the country.... A sentence in this case is going to be noticed by those out there who think of doing this kind of behavior," the judge said.

Jackson wept during her apology to a courtroom full of her victims. She said, "I opened the company out of true love. I opened the company to help," Jackson said. "I know I have good in me, but I allowed greed to overcome me."

Prosecutors said Jackson and her co-conspirators left a trail of devastated homeowners in Maryland, Virginia and the District who thought they were digging out of financial problems, only to find they had been cheated. One woman lost the home her great-grandmother had purchased years earlier, according to court records. A man who was the first in his family to own a home said he was swindled by the company and is fighting to keep the house.

Margaret Neal, one of the victims, told the judge that her husband worked three jobs to keep their Annapolis home. After going to Metropolitan for help, they lost the home to foreclosure. The family ended up sleeping in a car and needing a food pantry.

"Joy Jackson Fordham took our American dream and turned it into a nightmare," Neal said. "Joy Jackson Fordham lived the life. Now my home is gone. There is no going back. Gone. Sold. Remodeled. You, Joy Jackson Fordham, did that to me."

At least the bad guys get punished once in a while.

If you are facing foreclosure, be sure to seek the advice of a reputable Realtor and attorney. Please don't go to these storefront fly by night organizations. Check them out and never transfer your home to a third party! If you need help in the DC metro area, call Lise Howe with Coldwell Banker at 240-401-5577 or email her at lise@lisehowe.com.

My New Year's Resolution - (I am either early or very late) - is to institutionalize EVERYTHING - to systemize my workload. Monday is for following up with new buyers from open houses; Tuesday is to contact all the sellers; Wed. is .... You get the point.

I decided to include the following in my report to sellers each week.

1. Who Showed the House and comments

2. What has sold in the neighborhood and new listings or new price changes.

3. What we did this week and how it worked.

4. What we are going to do next week.

5. Mortgage Update.

6. Hits on Realtor.com and my company's website.

7. Link to Video Tip of the week on Coldwell Banker's You Tube site. (Sorry for all you non-CB agents!)

So, what else do you include in your reports to sellers? What do sellers want to hear from their agents. Obviously, the number one complaint people have about their agents is lack of communication. If I institutionalize this report for myself, maybe I will stand out from other listing agents! Here's hoping at least!

If you are thinking of selling your home in DC, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, or Northern Virginia, and you want an agent different from the rest, call Lise Howe of Coldwell Banker at 240-401-5577. lise@lisehowe.com

After a detailed search of homes in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, my clients found a townhouse that they liked enough to make an offer on. After a lot of back and forth, they agreed to pay top dollar for the property, subject to a house inspection.

My clients had not really planned on moving. Indeed, they had just paid $8000 for new hardwood floors upstairs in their current home, but suddenly, they had found this new townhouse, and they had decided to make the offer.

When we did the inspection, we discovered that the air conditioner was not 2 years old as the seller had promised, but actually was 11 years old. The hot water heater was electric, not gas, as the Multiple Listing printout said. (The seller had said it was electric in the seller disclosure, but the listing agent didn't pay any attention to that when inputting the listing into the MLS.)

The marble floor in the foyer wasn't marble; it is ceramic tile, despite what the listing agent had said in the multiple listing service printout. My buyers weren't too disturbed about that since they could see with their own eyes that it wasn't marble. Thedisturbing issue discovered at the house inspection, however, was that the MLS prepared by the listing agent clearly states that there is hardwood under the carpet in 3 bedrooms, and a wood floor in the family room downstairs (although it is obviously carpet.)

Given that the buyer paid top dollar for this property, in part because it had a new air conditioner and hardwood floors, the buyer is a little upset. The seller is willing to give a credit for repairs, although not enough for a two year old air conditioner, and nothing for new hardwood floors. The seller's explanation is that the information contained in the multiple listing service is deemed reliable but not guaranteed, and they are SORRY about the confusion.

While I understand that, I am a bit confused about the effect of the buyer's reliance on representations in the multiple listing service by the listing agent as to the nature of the property being sold. This was the only place that the buyer could get information about the house on which to base his decisions on the value of the house. The buyer did not feel comfortable pulling up the carpet which was securely glued down before negotiating for the purchase of the property since the elderly owner was still living there with all her furniture.

Now it seems that the options are (1) suck it up and buy the house that now appears to be really overpriced or (2) walk away from the house that they really want.

I remember learning as a young agent to NEVER EVER NEVER promise hardwood floors if you didn't absolutely know that there was hardwood there. I remember the story of the agent who promised that there was hardwood in the dining room, but it turned out the hardwood was just around the perimeter of the dining room rug, but under the rug was plywood. The story was that the mistaken agent gave the new buyers hardwood floors in the dining room as a house warming gift.

Similarly in the DC metro area, we never promise square footage, so that we don't have to give that extra 10 or 100 square feet of living space as a house warming gift.

So, is that all mistaken? Can I promise anything with impunity and let the buyer hold the bag? Is it caveat emptor still? So I can promise the buyer an elevator in a house, a two car garage, an acre of land, gas fireplace, seaside view - all in a studio apartment in South Dakota?

Can someone explain the rules of the game to me so I can explain them to my buyer? Because I thought an agent had to exercise due diligence to ascertain the correctness of what is said about the property being sold.

If you are looking for a home in Bethesda or Chevy Chase, you should definately consider Kenwood Park.

Kenwood Park is a community in Bethesda Maryland built in the late 1950s along River Road between Goldsboro Road and Wilson Lane. It is slightly less than 600 homes with values ranging from the high $700's to the mid $2 millions.

Currently there are 4 homes on the market for sale.

6004 Lenox Road, Bethesda, MD 20817

6004 Lenox Road is an elegant residence on a corner lot in Bethesda. With 5 bedrooms, 5 full baths and 2 half baths, this home has all the amenities you could need. There is a garden room with soaring cathedral ceilings, two fireplaces, a terrace, butler's pantry, billiards area, spa, table tennis room, office, gift/craft room. Easy commute to DC and surrounding suburbs. Est. taxes: 16,700. Asking $1,649,000 (reduced from $1,900,000.) Listed by WC&AN Miller.

6264 Clearwood Road, Bethesda, MD 20817

If you don't need such a large home as Lenox Road, then perhaps 6264 Clearwood Road is the answer. This brick rambler is an easy walk to Walt Whitman High School & Thomas Pyle Intermediate School. Downtown Bethesda, the C&O Canal, & Kenwood Country Club are just minutes nearby. RideOn Bus 1/2 Block Away. Easy Convenient Access to Beltway, DC & VA. Updated Kitchen with Granite Countertops & New Appliances. Est Future Tax & Non-Tax Charges 1st Fiscal Year of Ownership $8996.89 With 5 bedrooms, 3 and a half baths, it is listed for sale for $850,000 by Long and Foster.

There are several other homes for sale in Kenwood Park, and if you would like more information about them, just give Lise Howe of Coldwell Banker a call at 240-401-5577. She is the perfect realtor to find a house for you in Bethesda or Chevy Chase

I start each morning by checking my email messages and a few posts on Active Rain while I am waiting for the coffee to drip. This morning I read an blog by Dean Jackson which gives four great topics to blog about from www.realestateblogideas.com. Dean noted that 1 person in 20 plans to buy a new house next year.

I confess that my day brightened when I read that 1 person out of every 20 plans to buy a new house. I imagined myself walking through a mall this afternoon surrounded by potential buyers - Every 20th person I saw was going to be a candidate to buy a house. I was definately ready to start my day with such a motivating image.

Intrigued by the website, I clicked through to it and saw that the title of article he had referenced from MSNBC actually was ONLY 5% PLAN TO BUY A HOME NEXT YEAR. The first paragraph reads as follows:

NEW YORK - Just one in twenty Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they're most likely to be 34 years old or younger and living in the South or West, according to a survey released Wednesday.

WOW - that's depressing. Only 5% plan on buying a home next year. How do you find that needle in a haystack?

Oh, wait. I passed 5th grade math, and am in fact smarter than a 3rd grader. 1 in 20 is the same as 5%, but somehow, 1 in 20 sounds better for some reason.

As always, and particularly in Washington, DC, presentation is everything. Spin over substance. But when you are self employed like we are, it is so important to keep up beat - to live on the peaks rather than mope in the valleys. So, I may in fact go to a mall this afternoon and look at all those 1 in 20 people walking around that will buy a house from me in 2010. That is the thought that I am going to hold on to, rather than the 95% of the population that won't!

If you are that one of the twenty looking for a new home, be sure to call Lise Howe at 240-401-5577 or check out her websites, www.dchomenews.com, www.homesinchevychasebethesda.com, and the newest addition, www.kenwood-forest.com to find that dream house! Lise will make sure that your purchase or sale is the easiest you have ever experienced! Put Lise and her team to work for you!