You’ve heard all you can stand about that Mad­off guy.  You’ve read about yet another Ponzi scheme, another fore­clo­sure fraud artist, another dis­hon­est bro­ker, agent, etc. You’re dis­gusted about cheats and liars large and small. So am I.

Black sheep are found in every pro­fes­sion. They seem to mul­ti­ply when oppor­tu­nites to cheat are on the rise. How­ever, oppor­tu­nity tempts not only pro­fes­sion­als but ama­teurs. And there are more ama­teurs than professionals.

When Seat­tle real estate was hot in 2005 and 2006 (it started to sim­mer down in August 2007) I missed out on a lot of busi­ness. Who needs an agent to sell a home when an ad on craigslist will bring crowds to the seller’s door? How many For-Sale-By-Owner deals went down with no real estate agent rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the buyer? How many buy­ers went straight to the list­ing agent in the hope of sav­ing some money?

How many more buy­ers used a rel­a­tive or friend with a real estate license just a few weeks old? How many peo­ple got a real estate license just to buy for them­selves and go into the flip­ping homes business?

How many of these do-it-yourself artists are now fac­ing fore­clo­sure?

Too bad there are no sta­tis­tics on this.