Steve Kelley's (skelley777) Blog

Incredible. Realtors have lots of "Codes of Ethics."  There are theoretically, at least in Texas, laws in place to protect consumers.  There is even a Texas Real Estate Commission that has a big budget, staff, and the appearance of maintaining the practice of real estate as a "regulated" professi...

Incredible. Realtors have lots of "Codes of Ethics."  There are theoretically, at least in Texas, laws in place to protect consumers.  There is even a Texas Real Estate Commission that has a big budget, staff, and the appearance of maintaining the practice of real estate as a "regulated" professi...

Just the other day I had a client pay me a compliment.  It may have been the most insightful, and maybe even shocking, comment that I have heard, and it has not left my mind for one moment.  The statement was "The reason we really like working with you is because you don't act like a Realtor." We...

Do you hear a huge flushing sound?  Could be that meant another $85 billion of YOUR dollars just went into bailing out AIG company.  Was this drastic move necessary?  That is debatable.  The government says it had to be done to stabilize world financial markets.  Maybe so, but NO ONE actually kno...

Without going into partisan politics, one has to wonder about Obama's comment to Katie Couric on the 9/16/08 nightly news.  She inquired, in wake of the massive current financial problems, such as with Merrill Lynch and AIG, what he would do to "fix the problem."  Obama's response was "I would ov...

Now we enter a new era.  The federal government, which many people believe to control a magic money making machine, has stepped in to bail out roughly half of the mortgages in the U.S.  The holder of these securities, was of course, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  These are the quasi-governmental ag...

It appears that the powers that be have finally grabbed a sleeping giant by the tail, i.e., the beast called mortgage fraud.  It is unfortunate that this action was initiated not by skilled regulators protecting consumers, but rather by politicians trying to focus blame on someone besides themsel...

Some years ago, there was law passed that resulted in something called "Truth in Lending".  One of the rationales for this was that lenders weren't always totally honest about loans, interest rates, and the like.  Now I could easily write a long and titillating book on the current abuses in lendi...

A lot of folks have gotten real excited about what is known as "flipping houses."  primarily, based on a television show, called "Flip This House", there has come to be a widespread misconception regarding the ease of making a quick buck through real estate.  Although I have often warned folks th...