That should be a pretty obvious statement, but it just seems like people don’t believe in it anymore. The Real Estate industry has taken a beating in the public’s opinion during this whole market downturn. Ethics have come into question, especially the use of “liar’s loans” (stated income and stated assets) and adjustable rate mortgages. You would think we would have learned some lessons and maybe, just MAYBE, we would strive to do things the right way.
Unfortunately, I can still see too many questionable tactics being employed to buy real estate. The latest one that is becoming a problem in my area are buyers being coached to get accepted offers on multiple short sales. The theory being that if you have enough in contract, something will approved by a bank and you can bail out on the other sellers and take the first that goes through.
This is wrong on so many levels, but some agents and buyers don’t seem to care. Why should they worry about a seller getting dumped out of escrow and having their bank foreclose the home? Or all the hard working agents, brokers, lenders and escrow people who thought they had a deal, only to find out they were being lied to and they won’t be getting paid? It certainly doesn’t matter to them that they’ve lowered inventory for other buyers that might actually go through with the purchase.