Crooked Realtors in Nevada

There are those who will say that the Pimpernel they know can be down right mean when forced to deal with liars and cheats. I don't see it that way, I just think that when someone is trying to steal from you it is okay to address the issue directly and in public, call them out on their deceit. That is basically what I do on this blog and I don't even get paid for this.

Well, a relative asked me to go out to Nevada where he is selling his house and help him make sure he was treated properly. What I found was utter corruption in one small community by the realtors of that community. I want you to know what I found in case you find the same thing in your community. Firstly, the realtors in this town got together and agreed to fix the price of realtor services. A realtor usually gets 5% of the sales price of a house when sold and often splits it with the buyers agent. In this place the majority of realtors have colluded to make the price 6% that is automatically split between both realtors. Price fixing is illegal nationally, it is a federal law that prohibits it.

The next thing I found was that the property listings have a whole lot of mistakes in the MLS, this is basically the official advertised selling price of a property. The MLS showed my relatives property having half the size that it does and as a result the value at half of what it is. Some realtors even brought "comps" to prove to him he was getting a good price. The only problem was that the comp sales were not comp sales at all and they knew it. It gets better.

A little Pimpernel background. I first started following real estate when I was about 16. I followed it because it sure seemed important to my parents and all the smart adults I knew. After graduating law school I went to work at a Title Insurance company and became a title examiner and quite a good one because I studied up on how to draw out legal descriptions and I recorded many deeds. I also investigated the permits for properties and eventually was offered a job as a Vice President at one company, I took a job in the government instead at one third the pay. When a friend of mine decided to become a realtor, she used to ask me for advice and help in understanding the market, she later became a mortgage broker and I had an interest in the company acting as an advisor. Eventually I was asked to give a two day seminar to people involved in real estate in Nevada. The seminar occurred before the market crash which I told the people was coming and when it was coming, both ended up being true. I know how to appraise a property and have been responsible for completing leases of commercial property as large as 65,000 square feet. I should probably also point out that for the purposes of lawsuits I have been found qualified to be an expert regarding public easements and have actually been asked to write a book on the subject. The realtors that my relative and I met with did not know anything about me other than I was a relative and advising my relative. They were dumb and answered my questions mostly, after a bit, they got more guarded.

So lets look at the game that they were playing. They assumed that the Zillow quote would impress us; but, I had to point out that it underestimated the property by half as it was based on a MLS (that is where Zillow gets most of it's information) that showed the property at half the size it is. One of them attempted to tell me that it is real hard to fill out the MLS because it has drop down selection menus. The mistake in the MLS was not a mistake, it was intentional. The person who placed the property in the MLS, prior to my relative buying it, was a relator representing a large bank and my guess is that the loan was actually owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac as are just about all mortgages in the United States. The banks merely act as processing agents for the fed. By the way, the MLS did not reflect the property tax records, the title and deed or even the view of the Insurance company. The realtors we met with did not seem bothered by this and recognized that it was twice the size. They tried to tell me that the MLS listing was probably just a mistake by some fool. It was more than that.

I haven't even mentioned half of the corruption in that town regarding property sales. The realtors we met with wanted to give their "investors" a chance to look at the property prior to correcting it and putting it in the MLS. Hmmm, they said it like it was a good thing; but, they didn't know that I knew what pocket listing are and how they disadvantage the seller and benefit the buyer by limiting competition. I should probably mention that the realtors I met with also worked for companies that were property management companies. Hmmm, isn't that a conflict of interest? If you hire a realtor to sell your property they are supposed to represent your interests and not the interest of the buyer or their own company which will act as the property manager for the buyer if they sell your house?

I don't know exactly how I will deal with these people in the future; but, a change in their actions is not negotiable. What is the old saying, "Change or die", that is too merciful to those who conspire to steal from their neighbor. What if I just see them all go to jail and lose their licenses? Isn't that nicer? Have a great weekend, I will thinking and strategizing.

The Establishment Plan To Get Rid of Trump

The Republican establishment does not like Trump. They do not dislike him because he wants to keep out illegal aliens, that is something the RNC has supported in the past as have most of the establishment candidates. They don't hate him because he distrusts the Muslim world, the Republican is vehemently anti-Arab Muslims and are happy to bomb innocent civilians to take out a couple of ISIS members, they certainly don't mind collateral damage. They do not hate him because of his stance on abortion as the party is split over the issue. So why do they hate him? They hate him because they do not own him, he is his own man, good, bad or indifferent.

Now lets talk about how the wealthy that control the party are going after Trump. In July they laughed at him and said his was a joke candidacy, not serious and being done just to get publicity. In August they began looking for a new dismissal of his candidacy by saying nobody would take him seriously and that he was too crude. In September and October they were saying that his support was not going to last and that he would soon drop in the polls, he went up again anyways. In November and December they began attacking him for every brash comment he made, they said he was extreme for promoting the same things the party promoted because he used crude words. He continued to rise in the polls. Sometime in December they began to understand that the old tricks would not work with the public when it came to Trump. Their tactics are old and everybody knows it. The tactics are the ones designed by the media and political consultants to knock a candidate out of a race. He went up in the polls anyways.

Because nothing has managed to hurt Trump, the establishment has decided it is time to take out the other non-establishment candidates starting with Cruz and Carson. They believe that if all the other candidates go away, the voters will pick Jeb. They have made an incredibly stupid tactical mistake. During World War II, Germany could have invaded England and taken it over; but, when England did not fall as quickly as expected (mainly because America was illegally helping Britain as we were not yet in the war). they turned to the east and put all their resources into attacking Russia. Germany ended up losing that war on both fronts. It is particularly amusing to see the wealthy stick to Bush who is in the single digits while saying that Cruz and Carson who are in double digits should drop out of the race. Here is an article, read and think.

Yahoo - CNBC - Trump? Carson? Here's who should drop out. They believe if Carson drops out his votes will go to Bush or maybe Rubio. People who support Carson and people who support Cruz do not like Rubio much or Bush at all. At best half of Carson's voters would go to Trump and that would give him 45% in the polls. The article claims that candidates should literally drop out so that Bush can get their votes.