From: "Bubba" 
Newsgroups: alt.invest.real-estate
Subject: Re: If a real estate agent can find profitable properties for you, why can't he/she just buy them and make profit for him/herself?
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 07:35:45 GMT


"SteelVest"  wrote in message
news:2d16f32.0307141932.93a6af5@posting.google.com...
>  wrote in message
news:...
> > "Baird Spalding"  wrote in message
> > news:lWiQa.7932$Sf1.869@fe02.atl2.webusenet.com...
> > >
> > > On 13-Jul-2003, pete  wrote:
> > >
> > > > Thanks for the replies.  The reason I asked is because i'm thinking
> > > > about real estate investing.  I was advised to find an aggressive
> > > > agent that can find good deals that are profittable.  I then think,
if
> > > > they can find good deals that are profittable, why don't they just
> > > > keep the deals for themselves? why would they let me make profit on
> > > > the properties when they only make money on commision fee? any
thought
> > > > on that? TIA
> > >
> > > Some Realtors see investing as grief or that it's illegal. Since I
started
> > > that Flipping IS Illegal thread, I've asked the question of three
> > > experienced Florida Realtors. So far three for three think it's
illegal
> >  and
> > > investing, the way it's done, is shady at best. They told me not to
waste
> >  my
> > > time with investors, they'll only get me into trouble. On Monday I'll
call
> > > the NAR legal hotline and speak to a lawyer and settle it once and for
> >  all.
> > > I suspect they don't know what they're talking about.
> > >
> >
> > Keep in mind that the lawyer that you speak with may also not know what
he
> > is talking about.  It is quite possible that you will get three
different
> > answers from three different lawyers.  Quite a few years ago, I was
trying
> > to set up a bid depository for a building subcontracting trade.  This
was
> > being done to keep General Contractors from shopping the bids further
after
> > they were awarded the contract on the project.  I was told by at least a
> > dozen lawyers that it was illegal.  I kept looking until I found one who
> > said there was nothing illegal about it.  He had already done this same
> > thing for another trade.  The point is, even if it had been proven
illegal
> > at a later time, all they could do is issue me an order to cease and
desist.
> > You can not be prosecuted for a crime that you have committed while
> > following the advice of your attorney.  That is, as long as you are not
> > conspiring with him.
>
> don't count on it
> legal advice is no defense to a crime or every fool would say "my
> lawyer said it was ok!!!"
> GJG@SteelVeEst.com

We are not talking about a guy going out and committing a petty crime and
then blaming it on his lawyer's advice.  In this case the other lawyers were
telling us that we could be prosecuted for price fixing.  You have to
understand that the average lawyer is incapable of saying "I don't know" so
you get a quick and often incorrect answer.  The fact was that the lawyer
that we finally used had already structured a bid depository for another
trade.  And we were told by more than one source including the states
attorney's office that if a complaint was filed, under the circumstances,
even if it was determined to actually be price fixing, they could not
prosecute us.  They said all they could do to us was issue an order to cease
and desist.  Now, if we continued after that, it was a different story.
OTOH, the lawyer could be disciplined before the bar for stupidity even if
he had been sincere in his advice to us.