I stumbled upon John Harper’s blog after he posted a comment on True Gotham. There is some very interesting information on his blog and this fascinating case study on real estate ethics and fraud is especially revealing. It’s an incredible story of someone posing as a rock star to perpetrate fraud.
John seems to have handled this as well as could be expected and fortunately didn’t let his potential commission cloud his judgement in the way the buyer’s agents did. I see this all the time. And may I say that this isn’t exclusive to real estate agents but when you’re talking about big commissions, it happens all too often that agents are counting their money which often short circuits their brains and prevents them from doing the due diligence that they would typically do in any other transaction.
I see agents all the time get so excited about all cash big deals that much of what they have learned or normally practice goes right out the window. Not much different than the guy who provides wiring instructions to the Nigerian Prince who sent him en email. When opportunity seems to be knocking, keep your brains turned on.
