Toxic Real Estate Agent

[Lloyd Bonafide]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/06/14/business/z59f136b05b81e69b8825745900596f89.txt

Romero sold 122 homes since 2004, according to a North County Times analysis of publicly available tax records and the computerized listing service used by local real estate agents.

Of those sales, 75 have entered foreclosure. Nine additional homes engaged in so-called short sales, where the lender agreed to sell the house for less than the mortgage in an effort to avoid foreclosure.

Impressed by Romero's pitch, they refinanced and took out loans for more than they could afford, they said.

Romero's employees encouraged them to lie about their incomes and aided in creating fictitious businesses to support those numbers, they said.

Two clients said Romero's employees created nonexistent home-cleaning businesses.

In one case, they said, Romero appeared to have prepared false tax statements. The incomes stated for the client and her husband were both inflated and used on a mortgage application, said Maria Manzano, the client.