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I just heard an incredible story that I don't know is true or not but, the point the story makes is going to be a key to any aspiring REO agents success and that is what I want to talk about.

So, Lisa the REO Listing Agent calls me wanting to know if I had ever heard of Rodger the REO Expert. I told Lisa yes, I had heard of Rodger. She stops me mid sentence and ask me if I think he is any good. I wasn't sure exactly what she was referring to so I asked her, good at what? Lisa tells me that Rodger is selling a program where he can get you into REO Bank of North America and he only charges $20,000.00.

After I picked up my chin from the floor I started laughing, it's only $20,000.00, I would charge more than that....I thought to myself. She asked me why I was laughing and I asked her, if Rodger guaranteed she would make her money back. She said on yeah, he told me he could get me in to REO Bank of North America in a couple of months when I join him and a representative of REO Bank at the conference in Dallas later in July. So, I asked her, did he give you that guarantee in writing? She said no however, he was sending over documents via email. I told her to call me when she got the documents.

So, a couple days go by, I heard nothing back from Lisa so, I called her. She got the documents, she was all excited, she was finally going to be in at REO Bank of North America in just a couple of months. So, I asked her, did he give you a guarantee. She said yeah, it's right here in these documents so, I asked he if she wouldn't mind letting me look them over for her, what could it hurt, having an extra pair of eyes, right? A few minutes later, I have the agreement .....and.....well, I didn't see any guarantee.

I called her up and I was like, Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, can you tell me where the guarantee is. She says, yeah, look at page 3, first paragraph......

I read it over and I didn't see any guarantee but I did see, a statement on their commitment to doing all they can to help her get introduced to a Bank of America employee.

I explained to her, what my thoughts on the agreement were and I told her, Lisa...one part of this you are not catching is something the Bank refers to as "Business Need". The bank, regardless of how experienced, nice, bubbly, and charming you are has to have a business need in your area before they are just going to add you to their ranks. Without that, regardless of how much you pay for access, you won't get in. Well, she just didn't want to hear that. Rodger the REO Expert had this big, nice agreement, had a nice car, was at all the conventions speaking, he had to have the inside scoop. In fact, Rodger even gave her references of others he had helped, 2 in fact. So, against my advice, off to the races she went. Paid the $20,000...all up front and now we are about 8 months down the road and she still isn't a REO Listing Agent...with anyone, Rodger is telling her that he is going to shop her out to a couple other banks.

Needless to say, she is beyond pissed off, that $20,000 she paid was her 401k she cashed out and here we are in the midst of tax season and she doesn't have the money to pay the penalty. She can't do much about Rodger, the agreement she signed was very clear and specific, all he was doing was selling access to one person....one bank and if that didn't work out...for whatever the reason, he would shop her around to others.

I guess she got what she paid for.

The ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) filed a petition with a Florida appellate court this month.

The 20th Judicial Circuit Court in Lee County, Florida.They are trying to stop the court from pushing foreclosure cases onto a mass docket that was designed to quickly handle an influx of foreclosure cases.

I couldn't believe with the problems of the last year this could even be a thought in anyones mind. We have to make sure all the foreclosures are heard fairly that is why we have a court system.

All of this at a time when there are reports out that the OCC is set to announce a foreclosure settlements the settlements are with major mortgage servicers over recent foreclosure problems and this will entail from multi-billion dollar fines to forced principal reduction and stricter emphasis on pursuing modifications.

OCC according to Wikipedia:

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is a United States federal agency under the Department of the Treasury. It was created in 1989 as a renamed version of another federal agency (that was faulted for its role in the Savings and loan crisis). Like other US federal bank regulators, it is paid by the banks it regulates. The OTS was initially seen as an aggressive regulator, but was later lax. Declining revenues and staff led the OTS to market itself to companies as a lax regulator in order to get revenue.

The OTS also expanded its oversight to companies that were not banks. Some of the companies that failed under OTS supervision during the Financial crisis of 2007-2010 include American International Group (AIG), Washington Mutual, and IndyMac.

The OTS was implicated in a backdating scandal regarding the balance sheet of IndyMac. Reform proposals from Henry Paulson, Barack Obama, and the U.S. Congress have all proposed to merge the OTS with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.