Fraud in real estate, are you being victimized? - Part IIWritten by Willard Michlin
The phone range and Peter was on other end of line. "Willard, I have a friend of mine that has a real estate problem." I said, "Send him over." Two hours later, Jerry sat in front of me terribly upset. Three years earlier, he had been talked into buying a 4 unit building in partnership with Smooth Talker, a knowledgeable, smooth talking real estate salesman. Smooth Talker offered to find property, arrange financing, manage building and even put up down payment. Jerry was told that all he had to do was use his perfect credit to qualify for loan and then sit back, wait seven years and money would come rolling in. Smooth Talker also promised that two of them would do more deals and Jerry would make over $100,000. What Jerry did not know and he would not figure out until 3 years later was that Smooth Talker had no intention of splitting anything and Jerry could kiss his perfect credit goodbye. 3 years ago, Smooth Talker had Jerry and two other buyers, buy three buildings, located on one street. The buildings cost $150,000 each. Smooth Talker put up $1,500 down payment for each property, while at same time, telling buyers that he was putting in $12,000.00 for each. There was an unexplained difference of $10,500 each. Smooth Talker also collected a $9,000 Real Estate commission on each. Smooth Talker also agreed to take building in as-is condition, with no inspections and without requiring seller to make any repairs. There were, unknown to Jerry $10,000 worth of air-conditioning as well as other work. Smooth Talker had those other two buyers borrow from Federal Government a remodeling loan of $48,000 to make needed repairs. When those other two buyers each got their loans, Smooth Talker took all money and said he spent it on Jerry's building. Let me clarify that. Smooth Talker stole money from other two investors, telling them he used it on Jerry's building. That is still stealing. My research later showed that he did almost no repairs to any of buildings, and what little repairs he did have done, were not even paid for.
| | Small Business Success - It’s a Matter of ConfidenceWritten by Diane Hughes
I was floored! I couldn’t believe what they were saying! But there they sat -- three of biggest film stars of our age -- telling world they had issues with confidence. I was watching an interview where Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore were talking with Oprah Winfrey. Their conversation gave me a lot to think about in regard to small business success.It started with Meryl making a comment about a movie she’d starred in. Her joke was about fact that she actually quit movie before it began filming and then ended up following through with her commitment after all. At this point, Nicole and Julianne chimed in. "I do same thing!" was cry. As I watched these three huge film stars go back and forth with their issues of insecurity, it dawned on me that I had something in common with these movie icons. As a small business owner, I constantly question myself. I wonder if I have imagination, talent, skills, or drive to make it online. Yes, I’m earning a full-time living on Web. I’ve done so for quite some time now. But that fact seems to play a tiny part in establishment of my self-esteem. Like most small business owners, and apparently at least three giant film stars, there is a constant struggle with what we *think* we can do, and what we can actually achieve. Self-doubt creeps in and - if we let it take hold - we want to quit. We question our abilities and even our successes. It has potential to be devastating. There is something else I learned from this interview, however. While all three of these ladies had gone so far as to call their agents and tell them they weren’t making movies they were contracted for, they still did them. Even with high levels of insecurity, they got themselves together and marched onward.
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