For those of you wanting to make a short sale on your house, you’d better keep an eagle eye on your good old Homeowners Association. They’re starting to get pretty crafty in keeping the neighborhood operating budget full.
For homeowners who are suffering through the housing mess and living with underwater mortgages, working out a short sale might help you save some of your retirement nest egg. The banks take a well-deserved loss, but you’re happy because you’ve found a buyer and you’ve escaped your nightmare of a mortgage.
Gather a group of people who are members of different homeowners associations and you’ll hear tales across the spectrum of human behavior. Some HOAs are run by groups of well-intentioned, reasonable people who want to help their neighbors and see to it that their association quietly performs the duties of mowing grass, doing repairs on common areas, maintaining a certain level of neatness, watching safety. They try to do their duty without interfering much in neighbors’ day-to-day lives.
A lawyer?!? Dang! The first lawyer in the Las Vegas HOA scandal to admit he’s a crook! Huge news!
The Las Vegas HOA corruption case marches steadily onwards. Today (Monday, 10/24/11) an eighth defendant pleaded guilty. He’s the first lawyer to take the fall for official corruption, and falsifying HOA election results. Sadly, he will get a reduced term for testifying against all the other criminals who took part in this effort to scam the residents of Las Vegas and their insurance companies. But at least his testimony will help bring down other lawyers, judges, police officers, and public officials whose names are yet to come out.
