Kajj

You must be really bad at managing money to have issues with that much income... Many working couples don't even make that much.

ShadowFalls

westonalan

D.B. Cooper-Nichol

Multiple applications, with different lenders, in a very short time period - that's so each lender sees only a $60k earner, with no debt(?), buying a $300k house. Perhaps not unusual. There was no greedy bank loaning out $1.2M.

I think it's also fair to point out that the Bradley Collin was complicit in the fraud by signing multiple loan applications. I'm sure he was told "this is how it works," but I also tend to think that anyone can smell when they're involved in something shady. What's the old W.C. Fields line - you can't cheat an honest man?

D.B. Cooper-Nichol

one thing i want to mention though - i also remember my father brewing over mortgage papers like he was studying for the bar exam for WEEKS before he even put pen to paper. can anyone honestly say they have this ability anymore? i received papers before i signed, but when i showed up at closing, the papers in front of me were quite different from what i had a look at before. & from speaking to others, it seems RARE anymore to have access to those 6" of paperwork before a closing - sometimes even on refi.

mac-phisto

Nakko

They live in Anchorage, AK now.

JiminyChristmas

Crrusherr

Mortgage brokers have to be the worst: The whole concept is they shop the market so you get the most for your money. Yet they have no legal duty to put the best deal they find in front of you. What they're really after is to get you into the most expensive loan they can convince you to sign.

Realtors have a more stringent professional standard, but the bottom line is they are still sales people. Even though they have some obligation to represent your interests there's still that commission: which affects which houses they show you, when they show them to you, which offers they advise you to accept, and which ones to reject. There's a potential for conflict of interest in each one of those areas.

Ergo, put an unsophisticated buyer into one of these situations and it's no wonder bad things happen. Every last person they talk to: broker, bank, realtor, builder, is potentially leading them in the wrong direction.

*requisite disclaimer: Yes, there are many ethical brokers and realtors working in the residential real estate industry.

JiminyChristmas

ludwigk

No. You expect the guy lending the money to know how risky the recipient is. That's why borrowers aren't put in charge of the bank's money - moron.

SuffolkHouse

bunch.of.wackos

MrGrimes

Concerned_Citizen

MissTic

chrisjames

heavylee-again

GearheadGeek

ideagirl

Mr. Gunn

Yes, he was dumb to get conned so badly, but the bottom line here was that he was tricked into lending his identity to people who took the big bucks in the form of "broker" fees, likely on both the loan and the sale of the properties, and left him holding the bag.

jfischer

Trai_Dep

katylostherart

Blueskylaw

However, I don't think RE Investing is for the uber-rich only. Anyone of any income can do it, if they do it right and bank on the numbers today, not the numbers tomorrow.

I'm RTFA, and it keeps repeating the phrase "they were told". Obviously, this guy COMPLETELY relied on the "experts" at this property management company to steer him in the right direction. He didn't do his due diligence and he got screwed. Which sucks major ass.

ceejeemcbeegee

Steve Trachsel, Ace

Shit, you had better tell someone on Wall Street. 'Leverage' is the name of the game: borrowing 10x to 20x your own investment...in the hope that whatever you're investing in goes in the right direction.

JiminyChristmas

Buying houses you can't afford on the speculation that they will increase in value so that they cover your costs is not an investment, it's a gamble.

I agree. However by this same token "investment" and "speculation" are two sides of the same exact coin. What's the difference between the two? My stock portfolio is full of "investments" but let's not BS ourselves - I'm only in it because I'm gambling that I can sell most of them at a profit in 30 years.

Troy F.

Juggernaut

but hey, if you want a $300k house for $160k, and can stomach the cold, you are golden!

ThunderRoad

Buying houses you can't afford on the speculation that they will increase in value so that they cover your costs is not an investment, it's a gamble.

If I agree not to call these people "greedy", can you not call what middle-income real estate speculators do "investing"? (it's obviously different when people are putting millions into real-estate, Donald Trump-style)

FrankTheTank

The blame lies with the guy who said he'd buy the 4 houses @ 300k each.

the end.

opfreak

PunditGuy

In this case however, the blame lies with the "Executive Premier Management" (does that name even mean anything?) and the guy who bought the houses. Banks can't be aware you're taking out four separate loans at the same time and this guy didn't disclose a lot of stuff to the money lenders.

And alas, I blame the guy who bought the houses. Taking on 1.2 million in debt should at least warrant some research and probably legal counsel. I mean if he got scammed out of a couple thousand I'd feel really sorry for him, but sinking that much money into a shady investment deal is inexcusable.

anonymousryan

I'm not saying this happens in all situations. Sometimes the builder's relatives purchase units at the list price.

KyleOrton

The fact that he makes $60K/annum and lives in a trailer park speaks to his lack of budgeting abilities and lack of finance skills. The poor guy was perfect prey for scammers.

akalish

I wonder why these two anonymous salesmen were peddling houses, and why so many houses from the same development were speculative investments. Sounds like the builder was complicit, paying scammy salesmen to offload the houses by whatever means. So if this speculator guy needs to track down the salesmen, maybe he could be successful via the builder. Of course he might have trouble securing a lawyer considering his financial trouble.

nytmare

seanblood

deedrit

FreeMarketGravy

If you ask me, the buck stops with the banks. They are the one link in this whole chain that all along had the means and sophistication to keep the whole process clean. Not to mention, they had the obligation to not piss away their depositors' money on transactions where they did close to zero due diligence. Of course, we all know now that the banks were up to: they sold the loans to Wall Street, effectively washing their hands of these bad loans before the ink was even dry.

JiminyChristmas

RandoX

chiieddy

AD8BC

thirdbase

What a bullsh@t comment to make. You don't go trolling through trailer parks with dollars looking for the people who know the ins and outs of business. Nope. You go there to exploit people.

There isn't a comment in here yet about the people who exploited this guy. Was he stupid? Yes. Should we have expected him to know real estate law? Not at all. Where were the folks looking out for this guy. Not there. That costs money - taxes. People don't like paying taxes, even in times of war. They'd rather borrow from the Chinese and let guys like this fend for themselves.

SuffolkHouse

unklegwar

BTW $60K a year for painting ain't bad. They were in a trailer? They must be REALLY bad at managing money!

unklegwar

GotanOrange

Pylon83

mercnet

covaro