I have often wondered how effective consumer protection agencies are in state governments.

Maybe I shouldn't be taking it literally, cause I don't understand the concept.If I get a paycheck - I get paid right after the government , state, county, health insurance company get paid.

GAMLS you have to pay an ongoing fee for instead of when a sale occurs like FMLS.With FMLS you still have to hit yearly minimum brokerage sales numbers or get hit with a big fee.What I learned from that experience is that many agents have a sense of entitlement.I would find that maybe only 20% to 30% of the agents would have a closing that month.So to scale this if I had 100 agents you might have 6,000 to 9,000 a month gross coming in.For that though it is a major headache.Many agents are part-time and rusty or an investor wants to run a hair brained scheme.My favorite is a new agent that just left a 50/50 brokerage that has almost zero training and wants to join my firm.They would want you to train them and spend hours and hours for a 300 trans fee.I am not even mentioning the amount of paperwork you have.Agents not keeping up with education requirements,not paying license fees and getting a lapsed license,getting a suspended license for child support, government loans,etc.Getting IRS orders to take any commission your agent gets and pay to them etc.I now have about 18 agents and haven't taken anymore for over a year.I do way better and make more working my own deals.Paperwork and headaches are less and I don't babysit have to constantly watch agents anymore.I would say it's good to have the brokerage license just don't add any agents unless you keep it small and they agree to a fat commission split for your time invested.If they him and haw kick them to the curb!!

The socialists in government decide to over ride the free market by use of judicial rulings, executive rulings and Presidential bullying.

yep, i have tenants write their full name and address and unit number on the deposit slip...it's their responsiblity to do this, so i can make sure i know who's paid...luckily, i haven't had any trouble yet (knock on wood) some people in lower income areas need you to ride their butt to get the rents..they may not pay unless yuou aer physically infront of them anyways..others wil complain about the 'system' and not trust it...a lot of my tenants don't trust banks, the mail, the government, the landlord, etc.

There is absolutely no way for the government to continue to spend at the levels they are.

The government will wise up and figure out this is not a rule you want to start with the economy the way it is.

It varies state by state on what level a real estate broker/agent can help a seller with a short sale on the residential side.In some states brokers/agents simply submit a contract and attorneys for the parties do the rest.In some states brokers/agents can help with workout options but in other states they must hold a mortgage license.There is also Federal requirements and disclosures brokers/agents must use when listing a short sale.The government calls it "the short sale streamline process".I call it a bunch of red tape that isn't needed which creates more government oversight and bloat wasting our tax dollars.Depending on loan type if the property is FHA then they can only accept a certain amount off of appraisal.A few years back it was easier to massage the bpo using different strategies to get close to your purchase number.Today more banks are using agents with experience doing bpo's and also the banks have controls in place to almost eliminate any manipulation by investor purchasers on value.Another point is if your area is declining by 1 percent a month and it takes 3 months for an approval by the time you close you have lost 3% in value.How you approach a short sale and an acceptable number will depend on what you are doing with the property.Margins and hold times are different for assigning,flipping,and rentals.

(which IMHO was fake unemployment anyway, with all the jobs being created by the government).For anyone looking for a new place to invest, maybe you should consider OKC!

Section 8 comes from appropriated funds and while HUD may get axed in funding, cuts will probably come from other areas.Like any government agency, there is fraud, waste and abuse, over staffing, probably more pencils purchased than they really use.But cutting the existing Section 8 funds will not be on the tableas they are obligations made.