Florida realtor rakes in profits

Shannon Behnken of the Tampa Tribune reports of real estate fraud in the St. Petersberg, FL area. "With three months' experience, the agent [Dawn L. Molen] who had never listed a home closed her first sale Jan. 27 in a working-class neighborhood. Her buyer paid $45,000 more than the asking price...over the next eight months, the agent found buyers for 35 more homes...Collectively, the homes sold for at least $2 million more than originally listed." Upon closer scrutiny of these sales, it was found that Molen was not reporting all this profit, nor were the sellers seeing it. "It was going to a third party with ties to Molen, soemtimes without the knowledge of the lenders or the sellers. Federal laws require full disclosure to lenders detailing where the money goes." The Tribune's investigation has triggered three separate state agency investigations, including one by the Florida Attorney General's office.

Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee reports on a real estate transaction by the city of Sacramento which netted an Orange County developer nearly $1 million. In failing to get the details on the property's sale history, the city ended up paying a record price for the land - $218 per square foot when similar properties went for anywhere from $98-145 per square foot and more than twice what the developer originally paid for it.. "Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit that specializes in political ethics, said city staff should have detailed the property flip -- the Clippingers' recent purchase and potential profit -- for the City Council."