I am in Connecticut today speaking at the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association’s all day seminar, “When is it Fraud?” Joining me in educating CMBA’s members on a variety of issues related to detecting and preventing real estate and mortgage fraud…

• Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Attorney General
• Walter W. Grattan Jr., Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI
• Peter Emerzian, Special Agent- U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
• Thomas Covill, State Agency Counsel - Chicago Title Insurance Company
• Jeffrey Hubble, Connecticut Department of Banking
• Robert Moore, Certified Residential Appraiser
• Ben Niles, Freddie Mac
• Miriam Smolen, Associate General Counsel - Fannie Mae
• Jonathan Peck, Closing Attorney, Peck & Tuneski, P.C.
• Brendan Browne, MGIC

Topics covered include Fraud Scenarios, Title Fraud, Gangs and Illegal Flipping Schemes, Communicating Underwriting Deviations Before and at Closing, Underwriting Guidelines, and Trends in Fraud Detection.

Sponsored by various committees of the CMBA, this exciting and innovative seminar will go a long way toward educating multiple segments of the mortgage banking community–including real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, appraisers, buyers, mortgage lenders, and closing attorneys–of the dangers and associated with real estate and mortgage fraud.

For more information on this event, visit the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association’s Website.

Blogging Systems Group and Ralph R. Roberts have joined forces to develop the International Speakers Blog.

“Ralph Roberts acting on his idea and starting a virtual community for international speakers is absolutely brilliant, I can’t believe someone else hadn’t already done this,” said Ed Primeau, owner of Primeau Productions, multi-media expert and contributor to the International Speakers Blog.

The International Speakers Blog will be a compilation of work, wisdom and inspiration from the greatest speakers, across multiple subject matters, from around the world.

“My goal is to change the world a million people at a time and by having the best speakers, authors and writers from around the world join me, I know this goal can be accomplished,” said Ralph R. Roberts, once named Time Magazine’s Realtor of the Year and official spokesperson for Gunthy-Renker Home. “This is an opportunity to collect pearls of wisdom for today’s generation and future generations to come.”

“Having one online destination where visitors can read, listen and interact with their industry leaders is phenomenal. Additionally, people can learn from the advice other industry leaders are offering up because the information is all in one place.”

This online destination allows the great pearls of wisdom from both.

The blog, built on Blogging Systems’ Community Blog technology, will allow each invited speaker to have his or her own blog to share and create content. Web Users can read, download the information and post comment or questions to any of the contributing speakers.

“The International Speakers Blog will be especially useful for small business owners who may not have the budget to attend events and interact with best of breed speakers and thought leaders,” said Richard Nacht, founder and CEO of Blogging Systems.

Currently, the following International Speakers-experts in sales, commerce, entertainment, technology, humor and diversity-have signed up to participate:

Terry Brock
Tim Richardson
Bobbe White
Ben Cheng
Michael Podolinksy
Ron Kaufman
Andy Birol
Michael Lee
Christine Holton Cashen
Steve Rizzo
Leslie Grossman
Nancy Coey
Ed Primeau
Ralph Roberts
Richard Nacht

Blogging Systems’ blog platform, which can be used to create community blogs, Intranet and company Marketing blogs, is for companies who want to create an online destination site for news and information pertaining to their target market.

“Blogging Systems is excited to expand the reach of community blogging,” said Nacht. “Web Users will be able to leverage the knowledge and expertise of a great number of thought leaders.”

My latest article is now posted on RealtyTimes.com. Here’s a preview:

To Fail at Flipping
By Ralph R. Roberts, CRS, GRI
Co-Author: Flipping Houses For Dummies

How do you earn mega-bucks flipping houses? You line up your financing, plan in advance, build a solid support network, over-estimate costs, under-estimate profits, work hard, and with a little luck and a lot of sticktoitism, you’ll probably earn a good profit. Is is that easy?

Here are ten sure-fire ways to fail at flipping houses:

• Convince yourself that it’s too hard. Flipping houses is difficult, time-consuming, and risky, but it’s not impossible. If you talk yourself out of it before you even try, your flip has already flopped. Pursue your dreams, plan well, stick to it, and you’re very likely to succeed.
• Convince yourself that it’s easy. If you start flipping houses thinking that you just hopped aboard the gravy train, you’re going to be very disappointed. Any venture in which you can potentially earn a high profit requires hard work and sticktoitism and carries some risk.
• Speculate on the housing market. Assuming that housing values are going to rise ten percent annually is likely to lead you into offering too much for a house. Make sure the house you buy today is one that you can sell tomorrow for 20 percent or more than your total investment in the property.
• Get emotional. When you buy a home to live in, it’s okay to get a little emotional and perhaps pay a little more. When investing, deciding which house to purchase and how much to pay is purely a business decision. Make the offer with your head, not your heart.

To read the rest of this article, please visit RealtyTimes.com.