Collier County Property Appraiser used all those inflated sales to appraise the value of my home here on Marco and now I am paying more taxes then I should because they used these fraudulent sales as comps to Calculate the value of my house.

This is only round one. Wait for round two, three and four. Can't wait to see all the realtors names in lights. They will all get what they deserve for helping these goons destroy this island. Then maybe we can get back to normal while they leave the island with their tails between their legs.
I bet most of them won't sleep well in the coming months.

Happy Trails!!!

Round one indeed!
The sooner they all get locked up the better. They give the term "realtor" a bad name.
Lots of good people have been taken for a ride by the various realtors involved in this mess.
For the most part they are "business as usual" even today....But karma's a b1tch....

Is it me or all these names are Spanish??? I guess Marco Island is really becomming West Miami.

It should be called the fleecing of Marco Island by the Spanish immigrants. I don't see the german's, irish, itialians, chinese, etc. doing all the mortgage fraud. Its all spanish names whether its on marco island or in San Diego or New York. Their governments must train them on this before they float them on a raft headed toward uncle sam.

This country is in a mortgage mess right now. A buyer with a 700 credit score and 10% down can only buy either a Hen House, Out House, Bird House or Dog House and none of them come with waterfront boat access behind them. Thanks El Gerneral.

Marcomarc,
I don't see any local realtors named in the indictment.

There is a house across the street from us which we considered purchasing.

The asking price was $475,000.00 or near that.

It did sell and the purchase price was listed at $775,000.00 or close to that.

Obviously, something was going on and I asked around a bit but there was never a good answer.

Now there is.

Some mortgage lender is holding a large, half empty bag and the collateral damage with appraisers, "buyers" loan officers, will not be pretty.

This guy they got was small time compared to the other groups.

Rosenblum said: "I don't see any local realtors named in the indictment."

are you playing stupid? Do you think this will end here? You know better.

If anyone did their homework on all these transactions on marco island as I did. look them up at the county appraiser. You will be amazed at the realtors name that's on all the transactions, all but one. Go ahead call the local marco realtor association and ask them who the agent was.

Do you think he will escape this?. I bet he is not sleeping now.

^ WHO?

I hear today realtors are puckering up.... and not their mouth's...

Marcomark,
Muxo and Harris are are not "spanish" names. The fact that the filth of anyone involved did this in Marco says that there is more to the story. Generalizing hispanic with corruption in real estate is sad thing. Reality is it exists where ever there are dirty people. Am I to assume since your name is Mark that you are a redneck that rides in an airboat? Probably not, but remarks like yours is what divides this country today. Let me know when your next KKK meeting is so that I can be sure to take a picture of you there.

Isn't bigotry a comfort? To make oneself feel better, blame troubles on 'de culud man', 'bad son, evil son,', 'Hispanics', or (insert favorite target group here).

The Axis of Weevils comprised of Markograd thugs and Naples fancy men who made our lives interesting are fine, upstanding, anglos. There's not an 'Hispanic', 'African-American', or - gasp! - Wahloon among them.

But wait! The federal prosecutor seems to bear an 'Hispanic' name. How can this be? Is he 'in on it'? Might our bigoto friends enlighten us?

But it's not about race, is it? Among many twisted 90s legacies is the tactic of 'do it now, backpedal later'. In short, pull your gag, blame an innocent fall guy, and get profitably away.

We're well acquainted with this gag, one pioneered by gutless worms with law degrees. The public's had a gut full of it, so say the polls. The 90s are over, as are the schemes of those aped a couple swinelike razorback grifters.

Their greed shall be their downfall.

Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
20 December, 2007

"The Zecchino Estate Grifters are
a close,'ideal little family'.
They drink their beer from the
same bucket."
- James A. Milmoe,

Shake, Shake, Shake in your Booots!!!!.

Its Hammer-time for the realtors. Don't think they forgot about yooou.

marcomarc, it's not the realtors fault this happend. It would have happend with or with out them. Yes there are a few that made alot of money having these people buy 10, 20, 100 different home but the number is small. I doubt anyone will do any time over this. This is FL. FL likes realestate transactions. All this did is help inflate prices giving people false ideas on what their homes are worth. Now we are paying the price. Prices will continue to fall. People that took hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity will walk away from their homes, investments, second homes, etc.

It goes like this:
A home worth $500,000 in 2005 is worth $325,000 today. The person that owns that home owes $400,000. The same person is FINALLY realizing that it will likely be 10 to 15 years if ever that we see the inflated prices of 2005 again. Why would you want to keep paying the bank when the value is still falling? You can go buy a brand new home for less than you owe and less than your home is worth?
This scenario is being played out across the country with different degrees of losses.

The media would have you believe it's just the subprime people defaulting. That is a lie. Smart people see these as a BAD INVESTMENT. Not worth the mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, etc. My question is, who are the people going to sue for getting caught with these bad investments? The Banks, Alan Greenspan, Mortgage brokers, Investors, Fraudsters, who?

Strike3 you are out of touch with the status of things on marco island, while you are true with the general statement. What you don't know is that this case in particular had the same realtor on almost all of the transactions. Do you believe for one minute he did not know what was going on. Do you think it would have been wise to ask the client whay they are buying 15 homes on marco with NO MONEY DOWN and then get a $200,000.00 bill or so back on each deal. Do you still think that is not the realtors fault. It is and in the law thats called a criminal conspiracy.... This nonsense was never a bad investment. It was a huge scam by the Torrens, their straw buyers and their realtors who knew what was going on and looked the other way for money. They can't say now it was the other guy. It wasn't just the other guy, it was the realtor too. His days are numbered too. Don't forget about the sellers too. They were approached by the buyer through the realtor who convinced them it was a good idea, it was legal, when it was not, why, so they could sell the sellers home, look like a heavy hitter realtor, and oh, I forgot, to get that big fat fradulent real estate commission. So now you are caut up!!!

marc,
I'm not trying to argue with you. My statement regarding the BAD INVESTMENT applies too all who bought during the boom. The boom prices were never real. The people you speak of helped to create the overinflated prices. An investment you are upside-down in is a bad investment. Especially one that may not break even again for 10-15 years with a high carrying cost.

I am well aware of how the scam worked. It would have worked the same with or without realtors. The Torrens 15 homes are nothing compared to what the other "investment" groups bought. At the end of the day all this will cost the Torrens is a few hundred grand in attorney fees. The straw buyers will plead stupid. The lender, appraiser, and title agent may see a different outcome. I have serious doubts that any realtors will do time.

This is how the entire city of Miami does business everyday. Like it or not people from Miami will make Naples/Marco West Miami in the near future. There is no land left in Dade county and home prices are still high. So, my advice is this: learn spanish, take Miami business practices 101, change your last name to Rodriguez, Martinez, Dominguez, what ever, (changing last name optional, but proven to be beneficial) and you will be OK. Or, just move.

Dear all-

First of all, do not tell me as realtors you do not look at the final closing statement. We are not talking about the economy, we are talking about fraud.....this is not about people losing money on a bad investment, this is about people getting away with de-frauding a bank. Need I remind you that when you complete mortgage applications, you are signing under penalties of perjury...yes, you can go to jail. Realtors are not merely brokering the deal...they too are held to a standard...an ethical one at the least.

How about the little old lady that has a 2nd home here and cannot put the home as her homestead...is it fair to her that her home is OVERinflated on the property records because of bogus sales?

How often does the realtor get involved with the appraisal...of course, they are involved...the last thing they want is for the home not to be appraised for the mortgage value...so PLEASE do not claim ignorance here...you all know what is going on.

I don't think the guy yelling about REALTORS knows anything about Real Estate. The Realtor has nothing to do with the loan. That would be the mortgage broker that handles the loan & the Real Estate Appraiser is who has final say in the transaction as to the value of the property. Yes, I am sure Real Estate Agents call about an appraisal that came in low. The Appraiser works for the bank. So its his job to protected his client and stand firm on the value. Once again if you reread this story.. I didnt see a Realtors name anywhere.

Disney

You may not have seen a Realtor name yet but you will. When a house is listed for sale at $475,000.00, and it closes at $740,000.00 no one involved can claim ignorance. Beyond the law (and there is very likely a criminal case to be made)Realtors are subject to a code of ethics and I can't imagine that there will not be a professional misconduct case in near future. Stay tuned.

Douglas Lee Carter, 61, of Naples, put together all of the Collier County deals, paying roughly half the sales amount on homes and negotiating with sellers on mortgages and promissory notes to cover the remainder, according to sellers.

Among Carter's early buys was a home at 155 Bald Eagle Drive, where he operated his real estate business until a recent move.

Old News but read more here....

http://www.nationalfieldrep.com/more....

Giddy Up

Douglas Carter tried to buy a couple houses I had for way more then they were worth, I can't believe he is not back in jail yet.

This is all you people need to know:

This is how the entire city of Miami does business everyday. Like it or not people from Miami will make Naples/Marco West Miami in the near future. There is no land left in Dade county and home prices are still very high sending the want to be home owners here. So, my advice is this: learn spanish, take Miami business practices 101, change your last name to Rodriguez, Martinez, Dominguez, what ever, (changing last name optional, but proven to be beneficial) and you will be OK. Or, just move.

Wow. I saw the article entitled "Wide sweeping fraud sting reaches Marco Island" and I immediately assumed that they were referring to "Celebrate Marco" or "Support Marco" fraudulent websites that are making the rounds.

Putnam your group has the market cornered on fraudulent websites. I know your group can not handle the truth. These web sites offer a realistic look at the issues. Are you just scared that your followers will start to get information from another source besides your web sites?

I have been to that web site, first of all there is no contact info on it or a place to e-mail the owner of the site. I do not know of any legitimate web sites that do not have contact info on them. Also the owners info in the whois is blocked but I was able to find out the owner is John Arceri of Celebrate Marco. Seems fishy that John Arceri and Celebrate Marco would start a web site and keep their identity secret.