Although these were merely paper transactions and did not involve an actual sale, the transfer prices were as much as 10 times the initial acquisition price, thereby fostering the illusion that properties were being developed and sold at significant profits.Aside from the $2.5 million spent on advertising, O'NEAL also allegedly used investor assets to pay more than $2.5 million in salary and commissions, more than $700,000 to furnish Pinnacle's offices, and more than $3.5 million in general and administrative expenditures.

Just as with illegal drugs, the temporal happiness it promises is a fleeting illusion, quickly replaced by a grim reality.

You are under the illusion that your only expense with the second property will be the mortgage payment.

This is why using % for analysis can only result in illusions).Using % for analysis means nothing, and it usually results in nothing but illusions (there's an echo in here...I think in addition to the one I mentioned in the beginning). 

So the idea to remove mold from a house is an illusion.

A person's first success story proves that what they're chasing after isn't an illusion, it legitimizes the whole thing.

Mostly because it creates the illusion that everyone's comments are of equal value.

or give the illusion of choice, allow the dog but remind them that it must be accompanied with it's owner at all times.

It gives people the illusion of productivity while saving them from making the mistakes that will inevitably happen when trying something new. 

Its a smoke and mirrors tactic to give xyz investment the illusion of making more money that it actually does.