Harford and Cecil County Homes

Earlier this evening, I participated in an hour long tele-conference hosted by "Active Rainer," Ralph Roberts.  The conference dealt specifically with real estate fraud featuring a panel of expert speakers along with a number of victimized consumers.  It's my understanding that Ralph is going to ...

Publicly traded companies frequently talk about an intangible concept known as "corporate culture"; so should you.   The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) initiated an era of behavioral study in a corporate sense while sparking the birth of an enormous consulting industry to provide guidance and training...

Earlier today, Ardell DellaLoggia encouraged "Active Rain" readers to share examples of their role models in her article, "The Russian Tea Room-NYC.  I responded positively to the idea, but admittedly needed a little time to draft a proper tribute.  I was fortunate to have exposure to a number of...

The Center for Responsible Lending released two studies in 2006 that are, in my opinion, important reference sources for every real estate professional.Unfair Lending: The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on the Price of Subprime Mortgages Released in May, 2006, the study revealed a pricing disparity...

You might want to think twice the next time a title company tries to buy your loyalty with expensive gifts, memberships, tickets to sporting events, golf tournaments, etc.  Or, maybe I'm wrong and that never happens. This past fall, HUD concluded a 3 month investigation into certain marketing pra...

The image is a wedding photo of my maternal grandparents who immigrated to Baltimore from northern Europe.  They worked as transient farm laborers and toiled at other menial jobs to eventually purchase a town home in a community known as Fells Point.  Fells Point, adjacent to Baltimore's inner ha...

To my way of thinking, public awareness will eventually prove the most effective deterrent to real estate fraud.  Still, I'm convinced that the professional development of industry insiders is, for now, the proper focus of fraud prevention efforts.  The continuing education offered to realtors, m...

In his book "the brand you 50", Tom Peters wrote: "So choose - and reject clients with the utmost care. Yes, you do have the power to choose ... and to reject ... That is ... professionally ... I am those whom I serve ... That is, I am professionally defined by those with whom I do business ... Y...

I would like to take a quick moment to thank everyone who, earlier this week, responded to my first post on Active Rain, "The Silent Second Revisited."  It's great to be part of a supportive and appreciative group of professionals.  I've decided to construct a separate article around a comment su...

On November 26, 2006, the Orlando Sentinel published an article entitled "Hear this loud and clear: A "silent mortgage" is fraud."  The article was written by syndicated columnist Robert Bruss, Inman News.   The term "silent mortgage", synonymous with "silent second", is one that I hadn't heard f...