Are you sick of hearing all the different ways people have stolen from one another in the last couple years? Lenders, brokers, bankers, appraisers, investors, money managers and common low-level shysters…It's breathtaking. To read real estate news daily is one of the most depressing things I do.

Still, I'd like to believe most people in the world were not involved. That's hard to substantiate in the news. Every day, a new dirty trick comes across my desk. I was just reading over at www.mortgagefraudblog.com about a woman who lost her job doing appraisals for Washington Mutual, through a contracted company, when she included in the home's neighborhood review that the neighborhood seemed to be declining. She was told to change it. She didn't. Then she went looking for work.

How would you feel if you were the person buying a home, perhaps in a distant city, or at least in a part of town you didn't know well. Let's suppose the area is only a few clicks away from being a ghost town, like Cleveland, Ohio or South Bend, Indiana. Then let's suppose the appraisal comes back with the words "the area is stable economically." Then suppose you close on the house and move in. Half a dozen neighbors move out, leaving the street abandoned and subject to vandalism.

I don't even know whom you could sue. The Realtor? Lender? Appraiser? Loan officer who told the appraiser to lie? I'm not a sue-happy person. I don't think suing someone, especially a person with good intentions, is the way to win the lottery. But neither is over-leveraging in a runaway real estate market.

Grow up, people!