Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 7:48 AM
Hispanic Foreclosure Story
Zach Fox of the North County Times researched which realtors have had the worst records of foreclosures among their clients. He exposes the hispanic agents that were taking advantage of hispanic homebuyers - selling them houses with financing they couldn’t afford.
Today’s NCT front-page story:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/17/business/zd6ec264889f5ef44882575270011e969.txt
Here is an excerpt:
“But the NCT analysis found that 21 brokers have accumulated foreclosure rates of 25 to 60 percent, a figure that could go much higher because many buyers are late on mortgage payments but are not yet in foreclosure.”
“All of the agents in these offices had similar sales records: They appear to have specialized in finding Latino buyers, and most of the attached mortgages were from “subprime” lenders that specialized in lending to borrowers with weak credit scores.”
Zach’s story mentions that most of the hispanic realtors were also mortgage brokers – most who were making $20,000 to $30,000 per sale, of houses selling in the $400,000s. You can guess that many of the sales were closed with the promise of being able to refinance later – but Zach couldn’t track if the sales agent may or may not have assisted with any subsequent refinancing. I get mentioned for having one foreclosed client, but unbeknownst to me he had refinanced twice, cashing out $100,000 on top of his purchase price.
Sandicor, our local MLS provider, was reluctant to co-operate with Zach, and never did give him full access to the records. It’s embarassing that our realtor associations and vendors won’t do any policing of fraud being perpetrated by its members, and impede others doing the same.
Posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 7:48 AM in Fraud | 8 Comments » | 
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Here is the guy that prompted me to start blogging. He openly admitted to targeting his own hispanic community. Link to my post; watch the videos–truly sickening:
Chris Nunez
Tyrone | January 18th, 2009 at 9:31 amQuestion: Do you ever worry that you’re talking people into homes that they ultimately can’t handle?
CHRIS NUÑEZ: No. Not at all because they wouldn’t have qualified for the loan. So they can actually handle the payments, you know? Whether it’s a five year or a 30 year loan, they have to qualify first.
There does seem to be a disproportionate number of Hispanic families going down with the ship right now. At least in Vista & San Marcos, where we’ve been looking, almost all short sales we’ve seen belong to Hispanic families.
Shame on the guys who led them to slaughter.
Simone | January 18th, 2009 at 11:33 am“It’s embarassing that our realtor associations and vendors won’t do any policing of fraud being perpetrated by its members, and impede others doing the same.”
Jim, printing this makes me realize that, in a few years when the RE industry is in serious trouble (people using some publicly available variant of MLS, people who think the 3-6 percent commission is ridiculously high, and people sick of hearing “They’re not making RE anymore” or “Now’s the time to buy”), you will be doing fine and making a tidy living in the remains of the traditional RE industry.
I followed you here from IHB a couple of years ago. Interesting stuff even if your market is thousands of miles from me. You are an honest and inquisitive dude, and you should know that most people think the opposite of those in RE nowadays.
Without some self-policing of the RE abuse/fraud, –and just like the idea of pumping tax money into financial institutions that use corrupt accounting instruments–the RE industry will suffocate.
JPV
jprice vincenz | January 18th, 2009 at 1:47 pmAnd not to pile on Jim but that’s another reason why used home salesperson is mostly doomed. People know, they know, not suspect, that trusting a realtor is about on par, maybe worse, than trusting a used car salesperson. Sadly, the vast majority of realtors and none of the realtor associations do anything to change that.
Am I worse off, as the average consumer, taking my chances on redfin than I am signing with a realtor? Hard to argument to make, eh?
ice weasel | January 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pmI thought this sounded familiar. I talked about this in Sept ’07.
http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/2007/09/lifo-and-demographic-consequences.html
In that a poster related:
CHRIS NUÑEZ: When I first started I made a flyer. And what I did, is I went to the churches and while they were at church, I put these on the windshields. And I would get a call from them and they would say, “You know, I was thinking about buying a house. And there was a flyer on my windshield. It was a sign from God.”
DAVID BRANCACCIO: A sign from God…that Chris the real estate agent was ready for their business.
CHRIS NUÑEZ: Correct.
Preyed on his own with 0% down, interest only financing, toxic ARMs.
Rob Dawg | January 18th, 2009 at 8:40 pmAnd my favorite quote…
CHRIS NUÑEZ: You know I usually I get clients who come in here assuming that I came from a wealthy family or I am highly educated or whatever. I usually say you know what, I’m just like you guys. I eat beans like you in the morning.
Rob Dawg,
Tyrone | January 18th, 2009 at 10:20 pmGood memory. I totally forgot about those comments I left back in ’07. Since then, Nunez sold his $1M, interest-only house, and the Carnes’ (also featured in the video) sold their $1M interest-only house for a loss, but then they bought a house for $640K which is now on the market for $540K, and it has been on the market for 286 days. I wish PBS would do a follow-up on these people.
The RE business needs regulation in the worst way.
The Blur | January 19th, 2009 at 8:15 amHey, Jim,
I thought the douchebags over at the SD Realtard association prohibited real estate signs from appearing in listings.
Or, is that only for blogging agents?
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Vista/2177-Opal-Rdg-92081/home/3830961
Chuck
Chuck Ponzi | January 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am