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  • September 12, 2006 at 11:13 PM #7489
    SD Realtor
    Participant

    Sulieman was in court today for the assault charges on the FOX reporter. Judge pumped up the bail to 200k.

    On a related note the California RE Fraud division is investigating his mortgage frauds. Recall the original story on this guy was that he defrauded people by purchasing property in thier names, then collected rent on each home until the home was foreclosed on.

    As a side note, every single person he defrauded was not represented as a Realtor. They were clients who worked directly with him. Recall this guy is a mortgage broker.

    I know lots of people don’t think much of us but I did want to report that fact.

    September 12, 2006 at 11:29 PM #35133
    vcguy_10
    Participant

    Good point, SD-R. Once the market “corrects,” the newbie realtors will be gone, and then only the professional realtors will stay.

    Some people don’t realize that it is the NAR’s job to be cheerful of the market and to present data in a way that makes buying or selling attractive. Unfortunately, many expect the NAR to give unbiased investment advice! That’s like expecting GM to tell you objectively about the environmental impact of Hummers.

    As a smart consumer, you know that GM is in the business of selling cars, and you take their marketing claims with a grain of salt. Same with the NAR.

    September 13, 2006 at 6:04 AM #35140
    Chrispy
    Participant

    So – let me get this straight. Sulieman acted as a mortgage broker in all of these transactions. Was there no realtor on the other side – ie, representing the seller of the properties that were then turned into bogus rentals?

    I guess my real question is, how did this happen? How come no one “higher up” in the system prevented this? Sulieman certainly picked his victims well – the guy I saw on TV did not look like a property baron.

    September 13, 2006 at 12:44 PM #35173
    Anonymous
    Guest

    A $200,000 bond means he’ll lose $20,000 if he buys a bond from a bail bond place– unless he has $200,000 to use as collateral until he shows up for his court date. Uf!

    September 13, 2006 at 11:28 PM #35293
    SD Realtor
    Participant

    Hi Chrispy, it is hard to say what happened in each transaction because the Fox news team didn’t go into the details.

    So how did this happen? Well again, in all real estate transactions the buck stops with the broker. On the buyers side Sulieman was the broker. He handled both the financing and the real estate duties for the buyers.

    I have stated before that I do real estate and only real estate. I believe that doing loans and real estate is conflicting, (although lucrative for the broker). Also I am not sure if sdrealtor would agree with me, but when the other broker in transactions I am involved with is a mortgage broker, I usually end up doing more work because in general they do not do diligent work. Frequently the representation they provide is poor at best. That is a topic for another post…

    So Chrispy you asked about the other broker, the sellers broker. Well what do you propose that broker should have done? If all the paperwork was in place, and escrow proceeds smoothly what can be done? I have had transactions where I never met the other agents principals. Also it is not common practice for me as a listing agent to contact the buyers personally and verify that they indeed are buying the home. So if all the docs are in place, and things do not lag in escrow, this sort of stuff can happen.

    Is there a higher power in place? Well yes there is the DRE however, again, this is fraud that was perpetrated, not a violation of DRE law. It is not any different then people stealing your identity and spending 20k on a shopping spree.

    As you said though Chrispy, the people that got defrauded didn’t look like the sharpest tools in the shed.

    September 14, 2006 at 6:05 AM #35294
    Chrispy
    Participant

    Thanks, SDR. I guess my next question would be… why hasn’t this happened more often? (kidding) I think the types of property also had some part in this – they looked like really ragged rentals.

    September 14, 2006 at 9:20 AM #35302
    sdrealtor
    Participant

    SD R,
    Mortage brokers acting as real estate agents is a recipe for disaster. Many of the worst abuses against clients I have seen have come under these circumstances.

    SDR

    September 14, 2006 at 3:58 PM #35383
    aguho
    Participant

    Yeah…… nothing like getting 3% on the front end and 3% on the back end AND a 2.5-6 % realtor commission to top things off ! This has been standard ops in most Filipino and Hispanic real estate businesses here in the South Bay.That’s why the coming crash in real estate will adversely affect these two groups of people more than others.

    As a side note, 2 more realtors are defaulting on their ” investment” properties in Bonita Creek here in National City.

    I believe that every realtor should lose his/her license if any property they show ownership in ends up in foreclosure.

    aguho

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