I recently co-authored a book about real estate and mortgage fraud called Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership with attorney Rachel Dollar. In the book, we offer detailed descriptions of how various scams are pulled off. The intent was not to provide a how-to manual for con artists but to educate real estate professionals and consumers, so they are better equipped to defend themselves against these crooks.

As soon as the book hit the market, several people posted messages here on Flipping Frenzy claiming that our book provided con artists with information that would enable them to avoid detection and prosecution.

When Rachel and I and our writer, Joe Kraynak, originally began discussing plans for the book, we brought up this issue among ourselves. We were well aware that such a book could be used by con artists or con artist wannabes as a rudimentary training manual, but we thought at the time and still do that educating the public would provide a greater deterrent. The biggest threat to real estate professionals, homeowners, and the entire real estate industry is ignorance. The con artists are already well equipped with the knowledge and tools to rip off the system, and their biggest weapon is other people’s ignorance.

If you read any book or article on scams or white-collar crime, you always find explanations for how specific scams are perpetrated. If you go to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) site on identity theft at www.ftc.gov/idtheft, for example, you can pull up an entire list of strategies that con artists use to steal information, including dumpster diving, skimming, phishing, and redirecting your mail to their address. The site even contains a video showing a con artist stealing mail from a mailbox and digging through the trash to obtain discarded documents. The FTC isn’t trying to teach people how to steal identities. The intent is to let potential victims know how identity thieves operate so they are better able to defend themselves.

In Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership, Rachel and I take the same approach, revealing how perpetrators operate, so that potential victims can take practical steps to prevent fraud and be able to spot the signs of a bad deal earlier enough in the process to do something about it. Unfortunately, anything you produce to help people defend themselves against fraud reveals something about how the con artists operate, so it is a bit of a double-edged sword, but the other option–keeping the public in the dark–gives the con artists more ignorant victims to exploit.

Only by being empowered by knowledge can we defend ourselves from the people who already have that knowledge and are committed to using it against us to separate us from our homes and our money.

To help kick off RISMedia’s 2nd Annual CEO Exchange (July 23 & 24 at the Sanctuary Golf Course and Clubhouse in Salida, Colorado), I will be providing each attendee a complimentary copy of my latest book, Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership, co-authored with Rachel Dollar, a legal expert in the mortgage lending industry.

If you’re unfamiliar with RISMedia’s CEO Exchange, it’s an exclusive gathering of over 100 top brokers and Real Estate industry leaders for the purpose of discussing the most pressing issues facing the residential real estate industry today, and as Rachel and I point out in the new book, the most pressing issue is the proliferation of fraud in the Real Estate and lending industries. Real estate and mortgage fraud are a cancer that is eating away at the very foundation of the American Dream of homeownership.

According to the FBI, Real Estate fraud is one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes in the U.S. From 2003 to 2004, reports of mortgage fraud jumped 146%, and another 28% from 2004 to 2005. Reported dollar losses from mortgage fraud increased 90% from 2003 to 2004 and 136% from 2004 to 2005. Currently, lenders report over $1 billion in losses annually from mortgage fraud, and this accounts for only about a third of the losses actually suffered (only a third of the industry is subject to mandatory reporting requirements).

Industry leaders have long known about this growing problem, but con artists are able to adapt as quickly as new legislation is passed. In my experience, the best defense is education–teaching Real Estate professionals as well as consumers exactly what constitutes fraud, how to spot the signs of fraud, how to stop it, and how to get the word out about con artists and their accomplices.

I view the CEO Exchange as the perfect opportunity to further the crusade against Real Estate and mortgage fraud. By getting our book into the hands of industry leaderswe can take advantage of the trickle-down effect. Once industry insiders and thought leaders read the book, they will sound the alarm, and the rest of the industry will begin to take the threat more seriously. By becoming educated and joining forces, we can defeat the con artists and preserve the health of the Real Estate.

Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud: Preserving the American Dream of Homeownership provides real-world examples illustrating exactly how real estate and mortgage fraud are committed, pointing out the common signs of each scam, and providing tips on how professionals and consumers can protect themselves from becoming unwilling victims or unwitting accomplices. Topics covered in the book include:

• Defining real estate and mortgage fraud.
• Demonstrating the catastrophic effects of fraud on individual homeowners; the real estate industry; and local, state, and national economies.
• Differentiating between fraud for profit and fraud for housing.
• Identifying common schemes and schemers, including asset rental, air loans, chunking, double sales, straw buyers, nominees, and faulty appraisals.
• Spotting the warning signs of a fraudulent real estate deal.
• Proven tips and tricks for avoiding fraud and steering clear of gray areas in your real estate transactions.
• Practical advice for real estate agents, appraisers, mortgage brokers, investors, title companies, lawyers, and homeowners.
• Reporting fraud: One person can shut down a shady deal. Why you need to be that person and what you should do when you suspect fraud.
• Guidance on what to do if a con artist has victimized you or a relative, friend, or acquaintance.
• Advice on what to do if you or a loved one has knowingly or unwittingly been involved in a fraudulent deal.

This is just the beginning of a revolution in the real estate and lending industries to take back control from the con artists and other opportunists who are committed to milking the industry dry for their own benefit.

To update a story Flipping Frenzy first reported back in March of 2006, a former University of Southern California Real Estate professor who ran a Real Estate investment scam that lured victims with bogus claims of large returns on investments in commercial real estate developments, was sentenced last week to serve six years in federal prison.

Barry Landreth, 38, of Fullerton, California, was sentenced last Tuesday by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney. A hearing has been set for August 20, 2007, to determine the amount of restitution owed by Landreth. Judge Carney ordered Landreth to surrender himself to jailers by July 30, 2007.

At last Tuesday’s hearing, six victims addressed the Court, with one man, a former Landreth student at USC, saying that Landreth was a professor he trusted and went to for career advice. Several victims testified that the losses they incurred from the scheme have ruined them financially. At least one victim said he would have to work well beyond his planned retirement age to recoup the money he lost to Landreth.

Landreth pleaded guilty in March of this year to a federal wire fraud charge. By pleading guilty, Landreth, a former adjunct professor of Real Estate finance at USC, admitted that he ran two schemes involving purported Real Estate development projects in Chicago and Las Vegas. Through his company, Webster Realty Investors, Landreth offered short-term, high-yield real estate investments in two projects that he called Discovery Chicago LLC and Discovery Las Vegas LLC. Landreth induced victims, including wealthy investors and several USC students, to invest with promises that their money would be used in one of the two projects. In fact, Landreth did not use his victims’ money for either project, but instead spent the money on business expenses for Webster Realty Investors and on personal expenses.

As part of the scheme, Landreth falsely represented to victims that the projects would provide 190 percent returns on investments within 30 days to 45 days.

In court documents, the government presented evidence that Landreth used victims’ money to buy a Cadillac Escalade and several show jumping horses.

The Monterey County (California) District Attorney announced late last week that his Consumer Protection Unit has obtained a civil judgment in a Real Estate fraud investigation involving local business owner Robert Janssen and his company, Abbey Management, Inc. The judgment concludes the District Attorney’s investigation of Janssen’s role in advertising, marketing and providing services in selling Real Estate without a California license. While Janssen did not admit liability in agreeing to the judgment, he will pay $100,000.00 in penalties and victim restitution for his role in the sale of a single Salinas, California, home in August of 2006.

According to the District Attorney Dean Flippo’s civil complaint, Robert Janssen and his company Abbey Management, engaged in false advertising and fraudulent business practices in the provision of Real Estate services and auction sales. Starting in October of 2005, Janssen and Abbey Management (d.b.a. Abbey Properties) represented themselves to be Real Estate professionals and claimed that they did not need a California Real Estate license in order to solicit, promote and sell properties. Additionally, Janssen and his company falsely claimed ownership interests in properties they marketed for sale and used false pretexts to approach and solicit clients whose homes they would try to sell to the public.

As to the unlawful business practices, Robert Janssen and his company acted as Real Estate sales agents in the marketing of homes, the solicitation of homebuyers and the negotiation of sales price, all in violation of the requirement that one must be licensed to provide such services in the state of California.

Under the judgment, Janssen and Abbey Properties will pay $47,588.00 in civil penalties, and will refund $52,412.00 to a former client. In addition, the judgment contains a permanent injunction ordering Janssen to abide by California laws and imposes monitoring terms that allow the District Attorney’s office to verify Janssen’s compliance with the judgment over the course of the next three (3) years.

If you or anyone you know has any information as to the business activities or advertising of Robert Janssen, Abbey Management, Inc. or Abbey Properties, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit would like to hear from you (call 831-647-7770).

A Broward County, Florida, man will spend the next 10 years in prison for charges stemming from an elaborate mortgage scheme. Earlier this week, Paul Small of North Lauderdale pled guilty to three counts of mortgage fraud in a case that involved fraudulent warranty deeds, falsified tax returns and bogus bank statements overstating his assets in a phony company.

In 2000, Small completed mortgage loan application forms in an attempt to purchase real estate in Palm Beach County, Florida. On the forms, he claimed to own property in Fort Lauderdale with a net worth of more than $1 million. He submitted fraudulent warranty deeds that supported his ownership claims, as well as three years’ worth of tax returns and financial statements showing that his phony corporation, KDP Investment Corporation, had millions of dollars in assets. To further the scheme, Small submitted copies of bank statements for investment accounts with assets in excess of $850,000. The investigation, conducted by Florida’s Department of Financial Services in conjunction with the United States Postal Inspection Service, ultimately revealed that Small did not own any of these assets.

Small was charged with three counts of third-degree mortgage fraud and faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He was sentenced earlier in the week to nearly three years in prison for the fraud charges, but will also serve a concurrent 10-year sentence for failing to appear at earlier court dates as a habitual offender.

The U.S. government announced yesterday the unsealing of an indictment charging 26 people with participating in a wide-ranging scheme to commit mortgage fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the defendants–including Galina Zhigun of AGA Capital of Brooklyn–committed fraud by submitting loan applications and supporting documents, which contained false information and material omissions, to sub-prime lenders who made nearly $200,000,000.00 in loans that otherwise would not have been funded.

According to the U.S. Attorney, from 2004 through December 2006, AGA Capital and its successor, Lending Universe Corporation, and another related brokerage, Northside Capital, brokered over one thousand home mortgages and home equity loans–with various sub-prime banks and lending institutions–with a total face value of at least $200 million dollars.

AGA Capital, Lending Universe and Northside Capital earned a total of at least $4 million in commissions and fees on the loans. The sub-prime lenders that issued the mortgages and loans brokered by Northside Capital, AGA Capital and Lending Universe are said to have suffered actual losses of at least $4.5 million as a result of the defendants’ scheme.

If convicted, each of the 26 defendants faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail on each count of the indictment, along with a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the crime.

In mid-June, Reuters reported that “U.S. home foreclosures in May jumped 90% from a year earlier, reflecting a poor spring housing market and foreshadowing even higher levels later in 2007.” And this was only one of dozens of articles I read in June declaring the current foreclosure crisis and warning that the worst is yet to come.

Well, June came and went, after which I was contacted by Julie Tripp of The Oregonian, who told me that foreclosure rates in the Pacific Northwest were lower than national average. According to Julie and the Mortgage Bankers Association, Pacific Northwest homeowners are less likely than those nationwide to be behind in their mortgage payments, but the percentage of Oregon and Washington loans in foreclosure is creeping upward. Julie says that with the smell of blood in the water, foreclosure sharks are beginning to close ranks, attracting the wounded with promises of rescues that never come.

From yesterday’s online edition of The Oregonian:

To make matters worse — and yes, it gets worse — con artists are targeting homeowners in foreclosure with pitches about saving their homes. But what they’re really doing is setting the vulnerable homeowner up for a scam that skims all of the equity from a property and leaves the borrower nothing.

Oregon’s mortgage regulation chief, Berri Leslie, has seen a handful of equity-skimming schemes in the past six months and has tried to help unwind the disasters. But because the scammers are not mortgage brokers or bankers, they don’t come under the purview of her office. The Department of Justice investigates so-called mortgage-rescue schemes through the state’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act and has received 56 complaints or inquiries about them since 2003.

Here’s how they work, according to Ralph R. Roberts, a Detroit real estate executive and author of “Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud“:

The classic foreclosure-rescue scheme starts when the con artist gets foreclosure information from county public records or by reading legal notices. In Portland, such a detailed “trustee’s notice of sale” can be found in the pages of the Daily Journal of Commerce, including names and addresses of property owners in default, amounts owed and the date of proposed sale on the courthouse steps.

The scammer then calls on owners, sometimes within days of scheduled foreclosure sales. He says he can save their homes if they sign lease-option contracts to sell their properties to the scammer, who says he’ll rebuild their credit rating during the lease so that they can qualify for a loan when the lease expires, then buy back the property.

Depending on the scheme, the scammer either takes control of the property, taps its equity using a refinanced loan, or pockets the homeowners’ payments.
Some investment seminars teach similar techniques as an “investment strategy,” Roberts says.

“It is one of the most often taught ways of buying property with ‘no money down,’ Roberts says. But the purpose is to get the property and strip its equity, not to teach investors how to earn a reasonable rate of return.

“Foreclosure-rescue scams always increase when the housing market begins to decline,” Roberts says. “As foreclosure rates continue to rise, we see an inordinate increase in the incidence and frequency of such schemes.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a consumer alert about mortgage-foreclosure scams, including the following warning signs. Watch out if an individual or company:

• Calls itself a “mortgage consultant,” “foreclosure service,” or similar name.
• Contacts or advertises to people whose homes are listed for foreclosure.
• Collects a fee before it provides services.
• Directs you to make your home mortgage payments to the individual or company.
• Tells you to transfer your property deed or title to the individual or company.

As Julie points out at the end of her excellent article, if you cannot pay your mortgage, call your lender to find out what help is available. Also, consider calling the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to find a legitimate counselor at 800-569-4287.

In an update to a story we first covered in early-August of 2006, an Orange County, California man who ran Mortgage Capital Resource Corporation (MCR), was sentenced earlier this week to four years and nine months in federal prison and ordered to repay banks more than $9 million he swindled in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Kenneth Christopher Ketner, now 58-years-old, of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges–both felony counts–in federal court in Santa Ana in August of 2006. Drawing on lines of credit from commercial lenders, Ketner and MCR falsely claimed to be funding home loans for borrowers throughout the country. Rather than using the commercial lenders’ money to fund mortgages as promised, Ketner, with his attorney’s help, diverted the money to pay personal expenses, such as a home and a Ferrari sports car, as well as credit card and payments for a yacht.

To conceal that he had misappropriated the money, Ketner caused MCR to find new loans that lenders would agree to fund. He then used the money earmarked for these new loans to pay off the original borrowers whose funds he had misappropriated, thereby keeping the scheme alive.

From John Gittelsohn at The Orange County Register:

Ketner was supposed to have been drummed out of the mortgage business in 2001, when his company lost its state real estate license. But Ketner, who was indicted for criminal fraud in 2005, continued to make a living from the mortgage business, according to defense and prosecution court documents.

“I have no one to blame for these tragedies except myself,” Ketner said Monday, choking back tears as he read a statement to U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna. “I know from the deepest part of my heart I will never be involved again in anything illegal in any way.”

Ketner said he has turned his life around — sobered up, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, become the benefactor of a New Orleans church devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and taken responsibility for his wrongdoing.

But prosecutors argued that Ketner’s turnaround came only in response to the threat of prison.

“He has continued to engage in fraud, not just past conduct that led to this indictment, not just past the indictment, but to this very day,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Stolper told the court Monday.

Ketner has not been charged with any offenses subsequent to the fraud scam that ended in 2001. But federal law enforcement officials said his case illustrates the lack of consumer protection in California’s mortgage industry — even from someone who pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud.

“Ken Ketner has admitted to taking advantage of all of the weaknesses available in the mortgage industry to defraud related parties, from lenders to borrowers, all for his own personal benefit,” said Peter Norell, head of the FBI’s white collar crimes unit in Santa Ana. “These types of frauds are serious and worthy of allocating resources to investigate because it hurts everyone involved and takes advantage of those seeking the American ‘dream’ of homeownership.”

And there’s more:

Ketner’s former company, Mortgage Capital Resource, specialized in issuing second mortgages used by borrowers to consolidate debt, giving them access to lower interest rates and tax benefits — all perfectly common and legal.

In 2001, Ketner was sued in federal court in Santa Ana by Household Commercial Finance, an Illinois bank that extended a $20 million line of credit to Mortgage Capital for home loans. Instead of using borrowers’ money to fund the loans, Household Commercial alleged, Ketner personally pocketed more than $9 million to buy investment property, cars and boats, to support his family as well as a person described by federal prosecution documents as his “asexual mistress.”

Ketner settled the suit, but never made a $5 million payment that was part of the settlement agreement, said Household Commercial’s attorney, Carlos Solis. The Department of Real Estate revoked Mortgage Capital Resource’s license in 2001 after Ketner refused to allow an examination of the company’s account books.

Federal prosecutors began investigating Ketner in 2000, but the case got put aside for nearly two years after 9/11, Stolper said. He was indicted in 2005 on 16 counts of fraud and pleaded guilty last August to two counts of mail and wire fraud.

In his sentencing brief, Stolper wrote that Ketner “created a Ponzi scheme, except that instead of using new investors’ money to pay back old investors, defendant was using new loan money to make good on old loans. Like all Ponzi schemes, defendant’s collapsed under its own weight.”

FlippingFrenzy.com’s original post about Ketner’s guilty plea and pending sentencing created quite a stir. For months on end, readers posted comment after comment about Ketner and havoc caused by his actions and associations with others in the mortgage-lending sector. At the end of the day, however, I had to remove over 100 inappropriate comments that were made on that original post. As a reminder, comments of an off-topic or personal nature are not tolerated here on FlippingFrenzy.com. Ketner made his own bed and now he has to sleep in it.

Enough said!

When you apply for a mortgage loan to purchase a home, your loan officer or lender gathers financial information from you and plugs it into a program that analyzes the loan’s relative level of risk. The information you supply includes your monthly or annual income, the total value of your assets (cash, savings, retirement, cars, any other property you own, etc.), and any other loans you may owe on. If the information you provide qualifies you as a low-risk borrower, the lender can afford to offer you a few perks, including a hassle-free loan approval, lower interest rate, and not requiring you to purchase mortgage insurance.

Banks and other lending institutions hedge their bets on statistical models that assess risks, and one factor they consider in that model is the down payment. Statistics show that borrowers who can afford a down payment of 10 percent or more are less likely to default on the mortgage than borrowers who cannot afford a 10 percent down payment. And if you are one of the unfortunate masses who cannot come up with that 10 percent down payment, you may find yourself either not being able to qualify for a mortgage loan or having to pay extra in interest and for mortgage insurance.

To get around the down-payment requirement, some real estate insiders are guiding homeowners or home buyers to bend the rules a bit—they use a silent second mortgage (or “silent second,” for short) to cover the down payment. A silent second mortgage is a mortgage loan from another lender or a seller held second, that covers the down payment but is not disclosed to the first mortgage lender. The silent second essentially fools the lender into thinking that you are a low-risk borrower and really could afford the down payment. It is a somewhat subtler form of Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud.

Now, many people attempt to justify the practice of silent seconds by saying, “There is nothing silent about the mortgage. I know about it, the person lending me the money for the silent second knows about it, and the bank that is lending me the money for the first mortgage is getting its required 10 percent down payment, so what is the problem?”

Well, several problems accompany silent second scenarios.

• First, by using a silent second, you are borrowing 100 percent of the home’s value. If house values dip or you fail to properly maintain the property, it could quickly become worth less than you owe on it. If you default on the loan, the bank stands to lose money.
• Second, it falsely qualifies you for perks that you do not legitimately qualify for, such as not having to pay mortgage insurance.
• Third, it misleads the lender into approving a loan application it may have rejected had you provided accurate financial information. It is an additional debt with a repayment schedule that the lender does not know about.

Whenever you apply for a loan, you are required to sign a Uniform Residential Loan Application, often referred to as a 1003 (ten-oh-three) stating that the information you provided on the loan application is accurate and complete. Omitting a “minor” detail, such as a silent second you took out to cover the cost of the down payment, would make you guilty of committing Mortgage Fraud—a felony. No matter how harmless it may seem, no matter how many other people are doing it, it is still fraud, so don’t do it.

What if your relatives loan you the money? If they loan you the money, you are still fall in the silent second scenario. Now if they give you the money, you are safe and have committed no crime.

Remember, whenever you fail to disclose information to a lender that may compromise your ability to obtain loan approval, whatever the reason, it results in deceiving the lender and failing to honor the letter and the spirit of the law.

For some investors, the recent downturn in the housing market looks like opportunity. Some of the most aggressive investors go after foreclosures; homes that people have lost after they have fallen behind on mortgage payments or taxes. In light of the fact that John Wiley & Sons just released my latest book, “Foreclosure Investing For Dummies,” I recently sat down with The Washington Post’s Mary Ellen Slayter to talk one-on-one about the pros and cons of investing in foreclosures and how investors can minimize risks while maximizing returns.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Tips From a Foreclosure Investor

Sunday, July 1, 2007; Page F06

Q. Who is a good candidate for investing in foreclosures?

A. It’s right for someone with a secure job, solid cash flow and lots of cash on hand — someone who wants to make some money on the side. If you’re married, your spouse needs to be on board, too. I like for people to use their own money. But if you don’t have enough cash but you’re willing to do the work, find a partner. My first “bank” was my grandmother. I didn’t pay her interest, but every time I made a deal, I took her out to lunch. If you really want to do it, you can always find sources of investment capital.

And who’s not a good candidate?

Anyone who thinks this is easy money. It’s a myth, perpetuated by all these late-night TV gurus, that you can get rich quick doing this. If you’re in financial trouble, this is not going to bail you out.

Why would someone want to look into this now?

There’s never been quite so many opportunities for individual investors to buy foreclosures. There are just so many of them. Before, the market was chiefly controlled by good old boy networks, through the banks’ brokers.

How does it work in declining markets, which are the ones that are most likely to have lots of foreclosures?

You account for this in the price you pay for the property. You make your profit when you buy, after all; you realize it when you sell. There’s a formula in the book that helps you adjust for a soft or flat market. My wife once pointed out to me that no matter what the economy looks like, people are still going to buy and sell houses. They’re still going to get married and start families. Even if 10 percent of workers are laid off, the other 90 percent are still working. They will still need housing.

Describe the perfect property for the foreclosure investor.

It should be in a good neighborhood. And you should be able to see clearly what you need to do to fix it up and sell it.

What kind of work is usually involved?

All kinds of things, inside and out. Look at the doors, windows, roof, concrete — everything. Properties that are in foreclosure aren’t always in great condition. After all, the owners couldn’t afford the mortgage payments. They probably couldn’t pay for maintenance either. It’s important to have a thorough, professional home inspection before buying. But if that’s not possible, then you should at least inspect the outside of the property yourself — all four sides.

You’ll also need staging (making the property look pretty) to move the property if the market is slow. Once you start working, multitask to fix things up as quickly as possible. Timing is everything. Every day you keep a house off the market, you’re losing money.

What types of properties should investors avoid?

Don’t buy if there are a lot of distressed properties on a block.

Don’t invest in foreclosures long distance. You need to be able to see what you’re buying. And don’t touch pre-construction projects.

Also, avoid any deal in which somebody promises you cash back at closing. This is never legal. Stay away from that.

What are some other things that potential investors should keep in mind?

Always have a Plan B. Not every house on the market sells right away. You may need to rent the place out for a year or two after you fix it up. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can lower the tax rate on your capital gains .

And be prepared to lose money sometimes. Even I don’t hit home runs every time.

What about guilt? Do you ever feel bad that by profiting from foreclosures, you’re making money off other people’s hardship? How should people handle those feelings?

Of course you can feel guilty. So don’t take advantage of people. You’ve got to try to make it a win-win. Sometimes the best thing to do is help the person keep their house. I’ve run into situations like this, including one in which the woman who co-owned the house just got behind after one bad event. She didn’t want to ask for help from her family. But instead of buying the house after foreclosure, we made some phone calls that helped her keep it. You’ll get more opportunities that way than being a vulture. And you’ll sleep better at night.

For more information about my latest book, “Foreclosure Investing For Dummies,” please read this blog entry on my other site, AboutRalph.com.

To order “Foreclosure Investing For Dummies,” go to Amazon.com.