Las Vegas Real Estate Agent
creates Brouhaha with
Time Magazine Article
In case you’ve missed it, Time Magazine recently featured an article about Las Vegas that was, as intended with something that comes from Time Magazine, quite entertaining. You can read the original article here:
I’m going to go back and comment on this article but first, let’s go over some local Las Vegas real estate articles concerning this particular Las Vegas real estate agent.
Unflattering Time Magazine Article – 08/26/09 - Las Vegas Real Estate Agent under fire after some Unflattering Statements in Time Magazine.
Buying and Bailing – 08/30/09 – I personally find this the best article on the subject since it questions if it’s possible to do in the first place.
That’s not so, local attorneys and sales agents say. Simple economics makes such a maneuver impossible for the vast majority of homeowners.
Consumers who try to obtain a new home loan while overleveraged on their current primary residences won’t get far, even if they lie on their mortgage applications, said David Horton, with the law firm Salas & McQuigg.
It’s hard enough to get a home loan nowadays.. much less get one if you have $200K + in negative equity.
Time Article Riles Association – 09/04/09 - Las Vegas Realtors riled by Time Magazine Article, ask Association and Nevada Real Estate Division to investigate.
In all fairness.. the Las Vegas Real Estate agent featured in the Time Magazine article has stated that she was misquoted in the original Time Magazine Article. I’m certainly not defending any of the statements in the article but I do have to question the article itself.
Just a clarification concerning the
original Time Magazine Article:
It’s an entire city of John Dillingers, feeling guiltless for stealing from the banks. Boemio is well aware that short selling isn’t ethical and is exacerbating Vegas’ economic problems.
Wow. We are an entire city of John Dillingers stealing from the banks? I find that quite an amusing statement in an article featuring how bad everything is in Las Vegas. And… Short Selling is Completely Ethical if the homeowner has a sincere financial hardship.
Stealing from the banks? Banks are in this situation from lax lending standards and doing loans they should have never made in the first place resulting in higher home prices for everybody – especially in heavily speculated areas such as Las Vegas where lenders did several loans for people buying multiple homes.
Exacerbating Vegas’ economical problems? Homeowners in a financial hardship that get out of an overpriced mortgage are not contributing to the economic problems of Las Vegas. If anything… lowering their debt to income ratios actually helps by creating more disposable income. Think about this… where is the money going on that big mortgage? The argument that short selling and foreclosures creates lower home values can easily be countered with the debate on how home values got to their peak levels in the first place.
Las Vegas’ economical boom was created from easy credit that eventually led to too much debt …the credit eventually ran out as Americans got buried in debt and this has obviously created challenges throughout the country… not just Las Vegas. And unlike some areas / industries relying on Federal Government handouts, at least the Casinos in Las Vegas are doing what it takes to get the rooms filled.
I’m certainly not advising Las Vegas homeownersto rush out and “steal from the banks” as the uneducated writer suggests all of Las Vegans are doing… just clarifying a stigma any homeowner has to get over concerning their home loans when they face a true hardship.
There is absolutely Nothing wrong with doing a short sale if a homeowner has a hardship and is certainly much better then just walking away and letting a home go to foreclosure.
Ok.. enough of the ranting.
Fantasy Las Vegas Real Estate story?
Just another Las Vegas Tale?
A lot of focus has been on the Las Vegas real estate agent featured in the article. Somehow though.. reading over the entire article (a couple of times) I really have to question just how much of the article is fantasy to begin with.
Was the real estate agent featured just a little overzealous and exaggerate? Highly possible. Was the Las Vegas real estate agent misquoted? Also possible since there are some hints of fantasy in the article written.
A combination of exaggeration and misquoting?
More then Likely.
Reviewing the photo essay of Las Vegas that accompanies the article also certainly provides some insight of what the writer was wishing to accomplish. It appears that the writer and his photographer went out of their way to look for the worst of Las Vegas. Included is a survey from Las Vegas strippers, a trashed Las Vegas Bank Owned home (like this is not happening anywhere else in the country), and a picture of for sale signs in front of a development that was a bad idea to begin with. Oh… and If I could place a bet on this… I would bet the American Flag next to the foreclosure notice was cleverly placed there for some added emphasis. 
In other words.. further proof that the journalist went out of their way to sensationalize a story by looking for the worst of Las Vegas. (And for some reason as I read that article the tune ”That’s What you get for Waking up in Vegas” is stuck in my mind.)
The biggest crime I see in this article is the writer and the Las Vegas real estate agent breaking into a home. It’s been mentioned that there was a video taken of the crime taking place but it has since been removed from Time Magazines website. So now you have to question the ethics of the writer in the first place. I don’t care where you are from.. breaking into a home without permission that you don’t own is illegal. Writing about it and videotaping the crime just borders pure stupidity in my opinion and suggests that the article was written with the intention to raise an eyebrow or two.
Final Analysis of the Article?
Entertainment purposes only. If you’ve read the article and don’t know Las Vegas… don’t take it for it’s word. The article does make the Las Vegas real estate agent look bad and the profession but I have a strong suspicion that it is exaggerated to begin with.
I think the big question that should be asked is how credible the article is to begin with. The writer should have taken the time to do some fact checking and to verify if the statements made by the Las Vegas real estate agent interviewed were even credible to begin with. Unless of course… she was misquoted. What’s the point of fact checking Buy and Bail techniques if the truth is not your intention to begin with?
Before throwing the real estate agent (and the profession) underneath the bus, people should be questioning the validity of the article (and writer) itself. Just because it’s in a Nationally known magazine does not make it entirely true.
This is also a Friendly Reminder of being careful where you get your Las Vegas Real Estate news in the first place.
…. That’s what you get for Waking up in Vegas…
Paul Francis, CRS
Prudential Americana Group – Realtors®
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058
September 6, 2009 at 10:47 am
Great article! I live in Las Vegas and besides working for Shaw Productions Inc I too have been a Realtor in Las Vegas for over 10 years. My personal home has a mortgage on it of $825,000 yet it’s only worth now about $400,000. My loan is an ARM which becomes due in one month. It doesn’t take a mathmetician to realize that I will be sunk next month right along with the other homeowners.
September 7, 2009 at 5:06 am
Thank you,
I won’t consider you a “John Dillinger stealing from the banks” if you have to do a short sale…
Obviously… many Las Vegas Realtors have taken a 50% cut in pay since home values have dropped 50%+.
September 6, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Paul – absolutely brilliant review of the Time article – you stated exactly what I wanted to point out very eloquently. Thanks – I’m linking back to you on this one!
Jan
September 7, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hello Jan,
Thank you so much for the kind review…
After analyzing the original article, I think the writer, Joel Stein should have done some fact checking before publishing that article.
I also think the particular focus should be on Time Magazine. Instead of our local association and newspapers focusing on the agent.. perhaps they should be doing some real investigating / analysis on the validity of the article to begin with.
As a short sale specialist and you teaching Las Vegas real estate agents on how to do short sales… we both recognized right away that this issue of Time Magazine / Time Article should be filed under Fiction.
September 6, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Excellent dissection of this article that tried to take something that is rare and make it seem like everyone is doing it.
From what I have found out, the so called agent had not even finished her licensing course yet, was not a member of the National Association of Realtors and had only been with a broker for a short period of time.
New agents have a hard enough time trying to just find buyers and sellers to work with them, not sure how this new agent managed to get involved in what we all know is a scam and then managed to get herself national exposure.
September 7, 2009 at 6:01 am
Hello Larry,
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. It’s always nice to hear the opinion of a Broker/Owner from another state.
As you point out concerning the agents experience.. I’ve never even heard of this Las Vegas Real estate agent in the first place.
Joel (the writer of the Time Magazine Article) obviously did some research on finding the least experienced Las Vegas real estate agent and using them to accomplish his goal…