Lies, fraud and felonies in Bend Real Estate

OK, I saw just about the worst thing I've ever seen in my life the other day.

Was it:

2 al Quaeda terrorists shooting a baby deer in the head, cutting off the head, and then skull-fucking the head while screaming their crazy-ass Allah whailings?

No. It was worse.

Was it:

Me attending my dear grandmothers funeral, and during the viewing with the grieving grandpa, yanking out the old ladies crusty used tampon, seeping it in some hot water, and telling the old bastard, "Gramps, it tastes like this smelly old twat fucked 100 guys... no... no, it was worse... 100 BLACK GUYS FUCKED HER IN THE ASS, before she died of cum poisoning!"

Nope, it was much worse.

No, what I saw was so atrocious it turned my stomach.

This is what I saw:

A GOOD LOOKING WHITE WOMAN WORKING AS A WAITRESS IN A ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT CHINESE BUFFETT

NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDDDD!

PLEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZE! MY EYESSSSS!

OK. Sit down, relax, and try to recover. I know, that shit is harsh for a Sunday morning.

I felt awful for this poor gal. Working as a waitress was bad enough. Cuz you could tell she was used to better. But a waitress in a Chinese Buffett? Fuck... this poor thing looked sucidal.

And what's worse, is ahead of me in line, there was YET ANOTHER WHITE GIRL applying for a job. This girl was young, and still hadn't grown used to the finer things in life, but she was standing with something in her hand that almost made me throw up.

It was heinous.

It was...

a RESUME!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! MY GAHD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!FUCK MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!SUNNUFFA FUCKING BITCH!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Yes, you read that right. There was what had to be a 18 year old good looking young white virgin applying for a job at a Chinese Buffet with a fucking resume.

Dude, that is why Hitler made Eva Braun kill herself; otherwise she would be forced to make FILTHY JUZE GANG-BANG PORN for the rest of her life.

THAT, my friends, is what this town is CUMMING TO.

Now, let me be clear; I DO NOT blame the husband of that white hotness serving me water while I slopped at a trough of Chinese mixed-meat shit (yes, she had a ring). No.

I am saying that THIS is what we will have to endure in this place. White women working for motherfucking LING CHOW or some shit. Dude, Ling Chow, is worse than a Gat Damn Niggra when he gots a White Woman under his thumb. Mother fuck!

THIS is why Bend will fall. Some things can be tolerated: Get ass-fucked by a donkey and drinking it's cum from your own ass? Fuck, ask Bledsoe, that's easy.

But a fucking MILFy hot white woman working for fucking Ling Chow at a Chinese Buffett? No. This cannot stand. I mean, last time one of the MONGREL RACES got their mits on a fine white Piece of A, we ended up with fucking OJ.

No, this is what Bend is coming to. WHITE WOMEN marry WHITE MEN and live in nice WHITE PICKET FENCED homes, with WHITE DOGS.

But that shit is NOT going to happen here anymore. The NATURAL ORDER of things is getting butt-reamed, and God's Plan For Whitey is getting turned on it's head. And fucked.

I don't know about you, but I don't even want to live in a World where a hot, white P-of-A has to work at a Chinese Buffett. Fuck that. I mean, my God, that shit is for the Jethro Bodines, the Todd Bridges', and the Tooties of the fucking World. Fucking losers.

Bend is becoming a perversion of all that is good in the World. White women working in a Chinese Buffett? Fuck that. That's bad enough to clean out at least half this town. That shit is the saddest shit I've ever seen.

OK, moving on from that sad, sad shit...

There was a good piece in the Oregonian yesterday, here's some highlights:

Life after the bubble: From American dream to American nightmare

Kevin and Annette Martin celebrated their 15th anniversary by getting foreclosed out of their Newberg house. Kevin's homebuilding business collapsed in the recession, and they couldn't pay the mortgage.

Their bank, JPMorgan Chase, rejected the Martins' request for a mortgage modification and took legal possession of the house Aug. 19. On their anniversary two days later, the Martins and their two young children moved in with Kevin's aunt in her small condominium in Charbonneau.

They're broke, unemployed and visibly stunned at their rapid plunge from the middle class to the newly poor. A bomb of debt vaporized the Martins' once-comfortable life.

The heavy load of leverage they had assumed in hopes of grabbing their piece of the pie proved their undoing. "I believe in the American dream, the white picket fence and the whole thing," said Kevin, 38.

"But now, we're just in survival mode. For 14 months, it's been survival mode."

[... lot's of stats...]

The Martins now number among the grim statistics of the painful financial realignment. Maximum leverage was the norm in the high-stakes residential construction business when Kevin Martin started his company early this decade.

He and Annette first borrowed $120,000 in 2003 to buy land north of Newberg and build their own 2,600-square-foot house. Kevin went to work remodeling a historic home in Tigard and building spec houses in Yamhill and Washington counties.

But building the business required money. As their house gained in value, they refinanced their home loan multiple times. Kevin's grandmother and father co-signed on loans he took out to build homes in Tigard and McMinnville.

In the most recent home refinancing, the Martins took out a so-called negatively amortizing loan from Washington Mutual, one of those lending industry "innovations" that Lansing wrote of.

The loan was structured so that the amount they owed actually increased each month. By 2008, the Martins owed $512,000 on their house. They also owed $563,000 on a construction loan from Liberty Bank.

OnPoint Community Credit Union repossessed their three cars after the Martins stopped making payments on Kevin's 2008 Dodge truck. They didn't realize until afterward that their car loans were cross-collateralized: If they defaulted on one, the lender could seize all three.

OK, so these poor fuckers OWE over $1 million, own three vehicles, at least one of which is BRAND NEW. What I just love is the simpy-ass VICTIM SOB STORY here.

These fuckers, times several MILLION, are WHY this country is in the fix it's in. They borrowed a fucking million dollars, and LOST. And now the Oregonian is doing a VICTIM story on them. Here's a comment at the bottom of the piece:

Posted by beattlejuice

October 10, 2009, 8:47AM

WOW, SORRY, but very little sympathy here for one half the the interviewees. you borrowed a over a million dollars!? and your homebuilding bisiness went kaput and you bought a 2008 new truck? I could never do that.

It is because I have always lived within my means. I never even bought a kayak 20 years ago because i could not pay for it in full in 3 months or less with credit cards. I am one of those poor smucks who does not owe a dime to anyone and i have never "walked away from a debt or financial responsibility"...so please, please stop this "where is the american dream crap" because the dream is not stupidity.

I cannot relate, however, you have my sympathy or your troubles...trust me. The other interviewees are more sympathetic, but still 2500 to 3500 per month on a mortage, what were you thinking and where were you living and i could never afford that luxury; how could you? oh yes, your different.

I agree with Portowick here, some of you have a sense of entitlement that I never had, maybe it was upbringing, but I never thought i was entitled to anything. I worked. and when i was not working and unemployed i really worked double time searching for any job. I can see that our forefathers principles have eroded over time. Still, i feel your pain, but cannot relate.

I have to agree with this bastard. Here's another pissed off cunt:

Posted by jory

October 10, 2009, 10:53AM

Message to America: When you borrow money, you're taking on a big risk and you have to pay it back. Why is this concept so hard to sink in?

Plan for the unexpected. It is not if but when you get sick, when you get laid off, when the economy goes into recession. These are no unforeseen events. They happen all the time and for those caught unprepared it is disastrous to them. Tough luck. Learn from your mistakes and stop asking for handouts.

This is going to happen... and really already IS HAPPENING... by the MILLIONS.

VICTIM MENTALITY.

It's NOT MY FAULT. I just got caught up in something beyond my control. Couldn't stop it. Not My Fault.

This is probably WHY we have a shrieking pack of liberals in control... RePugs tell you that shit is YOUR FAULT. The Obaminator tells you Everything Will Be OK, I won the Nobel Peace Prize, so I oughtta know, right?

This whole country is losing it's sense of ACCOUNTABILITY. Do you know what that means? That means CONTRACTS RE-WRITTEN. That means NO TRUST. That means CONSTANT RENEGGING. No hbm, I didn't say "reniggering" or some such. But being a rePug Nazi, I was probably thinking it....

It means that we are NOT being forced to learn our lessons over this fiasco. All the PAIN will be papered over, and the gubmint will take care of it.

But I can tell you right now, that this shit will end BADLY. When the people lose accountability, the government loses accountability. And when the government loses accountability you end up with COMPLETE CHAOS.

There is some whacky shit going on in the World economies. Little irritating upstarts, are starting to bypass economic giants. China is going to make more fucking cars than Japan next year! I mean, WTF?

White women are working for Chinese fuckers...WTF!

NO ACCOUNTABILITY. This is our legacy to our kids. It has consequences on all levels from one-on-one dealings to global economic implications. It means YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYONE.

OK, I'm going to reprint the Atlantic Monthly piece in it's entirety, primarily because bend Media has it's head firmly in the sand and WILL NEVER address or even acknowledge that Bend is thick with thieves in RE, and that this is one of the most corrupt and sinister towns in the World:

Robust Oregon Real Estate Market Poisoned by Fraud

"People have tried to bribe me. I've been threatened, both verbally and with a gun," real estate appraiser Richard Hagar tells me, recounting the heady days of the Pacific Northwest's housing boom, when unscrupulous loan originators in places like Bend, Oregon would aggressively demand his work confirm a dictated appraisal value, often many tens of thousands above the actual market value.

In Hagar's view, "This recession we're in was triggered by loan fraud. That's the end of it." Situated on the northern tip of the Great Basin at the foothills of the Cascades, with lush evergreen forests to the west and high desert grasslands to the east, the small central Oregon city enjoyed a population boom through the last decade. Retirees flocked to Bend for its clean mountain air and slow pace of life, while moneyed adventurers--mostly from California--came for winter skiing and summer outdoor fun.

Ranked the sixth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country by the US Census Bureau in 2005, Bend's population increased from 50,000 residents in 2000 to nearly 80,000 today.

Now that population is contracting slightly, largely as a result of the rampant wave of foreclosures.

In a community with such rapid growth, the bursting bubble reverberates powerful shock waves.

By this writing, the number of mortgage defaults had more than tripled from their 2007 end-of-year total. Roughly half the properties currently on the market in Bend are either bank-owned or going through the short sell process, in which the owners close deals for less than their mortgage's value.

So much discussion about the real estate boom and bust focuses on irresponsible buyers, who overextended themselves in purchasing homes they couldn't actually afford, often with dreams of re-selling and making fortune off ever-increasing market values. But during a seminar Richard Hagar gave in Bend Tuesday evening, he pointed his expert finger at one insidious culprit: fraud.

Hagar expounded on this theme for me in a two-hour phone interview last night, after which I hung up somewhat disillusioned that most of the crooks who created the housing bubble would likely escape punishment, while their victims will struggle for years to regain footing after foreclosure, bankruptcy, and complete emotional and financial destitution.

Hagar has more than three decades of experience in the real estate industry, starting out as an agent in the mid-1970s, then becoming an appraiser in the 1980s, eventually earning the highly-prestigious SRA designation by the Appraiser's Institute. He holds real estate investments and still works as an appraiser, though much of his time over the past decade has been occupied by advising government officials on legislative efforts to regulate the mortgage industry, assisting law enforcement with fraud investigations, consulting on related legal cases, and conducting lecture tours to educate industry professionals and the public on how to identify and avoid engaging in fraud.

Real estate and mortgage fraud can manifest in various forms, but the particular variety that significantly infected the market in Bend involved mortgage brokers pressuring appraisers to overvalue properties for sale.

According to Hagar, in the early 2000s he first started hearing from his law enforcement contacts about this kind of problem popping up with increasing frequency in Bend. The corruption seemed to grow a little more pervasive with each passing year, until 2004 when it accelerated rapidly.

"The definition of market value is a matter of federal law," he says. "If appraisers had been following that definition throughout this growth, we would not have created the problems we now see."

"It's almost unheard of for an appraisal to 'make value,'" Hagar asserts, but throughout the housing boom in Bend, that seemed to be the norm. For the Bend appraisers, "They'd have an order coming in with a 'minimum value needed,' and if you couldn't make the value, the mortgage broker would just go down the street. He wouldn't hire you again, or wouldn't pay you."

In Hagar's view, "Almost all the bubble is related to them."

"There were people here forcing monstrous" overvalued loans, Hagar says. Once buyers signed paperwork on a loan larger than the value of their new home, they entered into the new purchase already completely stripped of equity, owing more on their mortgage than the house was worth.

Even before the market started to dive, these people couldn't sell their house for the amount they'd paid. At this stage, it's difficult to estimate what percentage of Bend's real estate bubble would be more appropriately described an illusion created by false valuation of properties.

In an environment plagued by an inflation deliberately orchestrated by a loose conspiracy of those profiting from higher prices, the term 'fair market value' becomes almost meaningless.

According to a 2007 report from the financial service companies National City Corp and Global Insight, Bend, Oregon overtook Naples, Florida to earn a dubious distinction as the metro area with the most overvalued real estate in the nation.

The median single-family house price had nearly doubled to $324,000 over the previous four years. Overall, the report estimated Bend real estate listings to run 78.7 percent over the survey's valuation price.

Mortgage brokers originated 70-90 percent of the loans, so Hagar places the largest share of blame on the unscrupulous in their ranks, though also points out many had to be complicit in order for the bubble to reach such extremes.

A modicum of vigilance would have immediately recognized corruption in the process, so the banks allowed it to happen, he says.

Most real estate agents wouldn't have known any better, but if they had figured it out, they wouldn't want to lose the higher commissions they enjoyed from the overvaluation.

At the request of state law enforcement officials, Hagar began making quarterly visits to Bend in 2005, offering his seminar on the basics of mortgage fraud to anyone who would attend. Unsurprisingly, many locals did not like him.

Blog postings and chain emails trying to discredit his work circulated through real estate industry networks. One time in late 2006 or early 2007, a Bend real estate agent reached him on his cellphone, launching into a full-throated tirade as soon as he answered.

"She yelled, 'There's no fraud in Bend. You can't say that. We're not scammers. We wouldn't do that. You'll destroy our real estate market,'"

Hagar recounts, adding his own response: "Hmmm, actually, you're destroying your market." That real estate agent, it later turned out, was representing a major housing developer (now bankrupt), which had begun offering illegal incentives to help close deals with prospective buyers--not an uncommon practice, but also, technically, a form of fraud.

Hagar guesses the woman didn't even realize she was personally engaged in fraudulent practices, ignorance being one of the primary causes for the crime's prevalence.

A legal team pursuing a mortgage brokerage accused of predatory lending in Bend recently requested Hagar review the company's files for evidence of fraud during the discovery phase of proceedings.

Hagar randomly reached into cabinets and started pulling out stacks of files. He'd found his first clear example of fraud within 15 minutes. By the time he worked his way through the files, Hagar had discovered about 80% of the loans involved some form of fraud, a percentage he says is in line with what the FBI discovered in a national audit of closed loans.

Those cases could represent a wide variety of fraud, but Hagar brings it back around to the role of appraisers, estimating, "There would have been 50-70% less fraud if appraisers had done their job."

Off the top of his head, Hagar can think of at least 30 Bend residents who would deserve to be indicted, tried, and convicted for their role in the fraudulent activities that artificially inflated the local community's housing bubble.

However, he says, "The reality is only about 5% will ever be caught."

"Poisoned by fraud"? Fuck man, that is a damning piece.

"Hagar had discovered about 80% of the loans involved some form of fraud..."

I think I stand corrected on something I said YEARS ago on this blog: That this bubble, in this town, was the result of financial "incentives" gone awry. That we were merely swept up due to "fortuitous" circumstances. That Bend was swept away due to serendipity as much as anything by the housing bubble.

BULL FUCKING SHIT.

We're now finding out something that is becoming clearer EVERY FUCKING DAY: This town is rife with corruption. There are thieves, scoundrels, and grifters in every corner of private commerce, media and local government that wanted this bubble to happen, and MADE IT HAPPEN through FRAUD, LIES, DECEPTION, and almost certainly FELONIES.

This town is RIFE with criminals; they are RUNNING this place. Look at Patty Smelly Cunt Moss: Besides having a cunt that smells like a hobo's boot, she has driven CACB into the ground with liar loans and fraud loans that have brought that bank to it's knees. She'll be gone in weeks, and the whole crumbling structure will fall into the abyss. And I'll cry crocodile tears for the investors who have lost HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS at the hands of this psycho bitch from hell.

And yet... The Bully still Hero Worships this psycho. Here's a nice ironic excerpt where Moss finds religion on credit quality

Businesses, banks alike caught in credit crunch

“Demand is still fairly strong for small-business loans,” said Patricia Moss, president and CEO of Cascade Bancorp, the Bend-based parent company of Bank of the Cascades. “But no matter what level of demand you have, a business still has to qualify. You can mitigate risk with price, but you can’t move away from the basic range of underwriting criteria because that demonstrates whether a bank can be paid back. A bank shouldn’t take an undue risk of not being paid back.”

I like the title... "CAUGHT in the credit crunch". VICTIM MENTALITY. "CAUGHT". Like it's a fucking coyote trap or some shit.

The people in the piece can't get a loan TO STAY ALIVE. Moss pipes up and says she can't give out loans, cuz THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN, the MINSKY MOMENT has arrived, and bullshit loans can't be issued like they once were, and the WHOLE FUCKING PIECE exudes the idea that ALL INVOLVED are VICTIMS, and are blameless for WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THEM.

If you agree with this, then you my friend, do not understand what it means to at least make a weak attempt at being financially prudent and living within your means.

I get the funny feeling that the financially prudent are actually going to get fisted most of all when this is done.

The government is loaning Corporate America TRILLIONS. They are taking the money at 0%, and buying treasuries making 4%. 4% of each TRILLION is $40 BILLION. THAT $40 billion has to be repaid. BY FUCKING TAXPAYERS! That's US. You & me, who did not Get Rich on this fucking fiasco, are lining the pockets of those who caused it.

I'm telling you folks, there is a transfer of wealth, the likes of which will never be seen again, going on right now. It's from our kids, and grandkids to todays wealthy. They are being decimated. This country is AGAIN mortgaging it's future for the sake of a chosen few to go from rich to ridiculousy rich.

Started under Bush, and is being staunchly perpetuated by the Obaminator. Fuck you if you think different.

That said, I think we're at an inflection point: This "recovery" is being sold like nothing before. To me, it feels like some sort of engineered recovery, so the rich would have one last chance to bail out on an imploding situation. Sounds ridiculous, right? Then I reiterate the fucking TRILLION DOLLAR LOAN SCHEME math again.

Trillions are being transferred to corporations. But this cannot go on forever. This is itself a LAST GASP of liar-loan fraud from the US government to corporate AmeriKKKa, before the whole edifice collapses into a smoldering heap.

So I tell you now: If you got stocks, SELL THEM NOW. If you got a house for sale, MARK IT DOWN AND SELL IT NOW. Got extra cars, PUT THEM ON CRAIGSLIST. SELL YOUR SHIT. BATTON DOWN THE HATCHES. Cuz this "recovery" will soon be exposed for what it is: The biggest FRAUD, LIAR LOAN ever perpetrated in the history of mankind.

hbm, please teach me to be liberal racist motherfucking nerd, like you!

I glad whitey working to fund these mega-jugs!

"Ling Chow? You hire the white bitches! KITTY MAU!"