What is appraisal fraud.

https://youtu.be/3r5LURDt7lA?si=9ah5tjSYqG40TDbb

The Grapevine…

I have always liked reading weekly or daily columns by Earl Wilson, Herb Caen, Jimmy Breslin, etc. This will be the first of a weekly column, mostly about real estate-type businesses. Here are my two cents.

I heard that buying or selling a house right now is as difficult as putting a square peg in a round hole. All y’all know better than me. My wife and I have been working with a realtor in Tampa, Donna Davidson. Bless her Irish soul! She is great to work with. My wife and I found a house in Ocala, Florida, and called Donna with two other listings, all within ten minutes of each other. Donna was, at the time, visiting her sister on the opposite coast and said maybe if she called ahead to the listing realtor, that’s exactly what she did, and she spoke to Ortiz, who was handling one of the listings. Donna asked if he could possibly show the two others; his response was yes. ”We realtors have to stick together.” He was more than happy to do so and contacted my wife. They spoke briefly on the phone as I chimed in that I would give him $50 cash for his trouble. He agreed at 10 a.m. Friday morning, just before 10:30, the time we were leaving, to make the hour and a half drive to Ocala for a noon appointment. At ten minutes to twelve, he calls my wife—mind you, we are ten minutes away—and changes his mind. He now says he wants Donna’s 3% commission on the two other listings, and, get this, he wanted 6% on the house he was showing! He wanted me to screw my realtor broker and collect fifty bucks. Being the New York City boy as I am, I said, Well, you really don’t want to know, and I cursed at him like I was a drunken sailor who hasn’t been on shore leave for two years. We immediately made a u-turn and headed back to Tampa. I turned to my wife and said in my best mafia voice, “Now he’s got nothing.” I’m supposed to be buying from this guy and trusting him, and he’s screwing me even before we meet. I will only give you one chance to be trusted; if you fail, there is no second chance. He had a one-in-three chance of us buying his listing, plus he would have a crisp Grant in his pocket. Now he’s got nothing. Is this common? Also, while I’m at it, who determines the percentage rate for the realtor? Some realtors state 1.75% or 2%. What’s that all about?

Let’s get back to realtors: who do they work for? I am always confused about the buyer or the seller; they can’t sell a house without the owner, right? That’s where the cash is being generated. So they work for you, the owner. However, they play footies with the buyer, saying, “Don’t worry, we can get them down in price.” When my wife and I sold her previous house, we used. Nice people, so I thought they just wanted the listing. When we had a prospected buyer, I knew right away by the sidebar conversations that something was brewing and it was rotten. They asked me if they could have someone inspect the roof, and I agreed. The buyer brings one of his drinking buddies, wearing sneakers and a roofer. They ascended the ladder; they had no tools, had a little pow wow, and left without saying a word. People must think I’m a complete idiot; I am street smart! I have an IQ of 185 on the street! I look and sound like I came out of central casting for a mob movie. You are not pulling any wool over my eyes. Within minutes, our realtor, remembering the person working for me, calls and says in an excited voice, ”You need a new roof; the next strong wind will rip it right off!” I’m smiling and saying to myself, Are they for real? I responded to her, sort of like the drunken sailor, and told her to pick up her sign,For Sale,” which would be in the street. I pulled that sucker out of the ground as if it were a strong man’s cement or wood post and tossed them far in the street. They never came back for the sign, so I kept the 4×4 post and trashed the sign. So I ask again: who does your realtor really work for?

You heard it through the grapevine.

There are so many scammers in the United States. Every part of the country is invested by fraudsters at all levels. I know there are many different types of fraud and each type of fraud is stealing. Fraud is when a natural person maliciously deceives its victims by scamming their victims with the goal of taking advantage of the victim thus causing financial hardship. Common goals of scammers committing fraud is to take money, or assets of monetary or intellectual value or stealing private data, and information from you, your family, or your employer, or your business. Scammers commit fraud via email, text, phone or in person, either on the street or on your doorstep. Some adults may be especially vulnerable to fraud and financial abuse.

• This discussion was modified 3 days, 6 hours ago by  Sapna Sharma.

America is home of the free where the people decide their representatives through el6ctions. Elected officials work for the people. It is the people who pay elected officials to make sure our tax dollars are spent frugally and wisely. Majority of Americans believe our tax dollars are being robbed by greedy government officials who seem to forget that taxpayers are the their bosses and the tax dollars is not their piggy bank to be wasted. Americans need to stop paying taxes and get a complete overhaul of the tax structure and audit where their tax dollars are being siphoned off to.

https://youtu.be/E5kBa4B_19A?si=byMDL2TY61A6qH0q