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• El Bastardo 2018-11-13 9:21:04 AM Part of the tactic was to convey to you that there was independent legal advice. Why would retail investors assume they are required to seek out their own legal counsel on investment products? You don't do this with conventional products (mutual funds, equities, etc). The way it was marketed to retail investors primarily was to show you that there was a pseudo due diligence and that they 'looked out for your best interests'. I know because I interviewed several brokers that marketed this stuff. It was all smoke and mirrors with meaningless and distorted comparisons to other investment products. The brokers were trained to provide comparisons to equity markets (e.g, TSX primarily...that is a few key sectors with more volatility than the S&P for example), to these 'fixed rate safe returns of 8% with security'...and none understood that there was no volatility with these products because guess what? There was no secondary market. No pricing = no volatility. The argument made by these brokers on several occasions was that: why pay for costly legal expenses when the borrower covers the costs? Of course you will not pay for legal expenses. You don't for others, so why this one? Especially since it was marketed as a conventional retail investment product....through registered accounts on top of it.

• Michele Hall 2018-11-12 1:33:20 PM When I took my brokers course in 1990 we were taught about appraisals and how to read them. Also a a good broker, I often inspect the home prior to sending my appraiser out to the property. Its just good business in questionable circumstances .

• Michele Hall 2018-11-12 1:28:43 PM Ron, why would you not enlist your lawyer to review everything before you invest . If you work with a lawyer supplied by Fortress that should be your first red flag. I feel awful for the investors who lost everything. However did anyone seek legal advise outside of the Fortress group ? Not the lawyer supplied by them ?

• GW - Appraiser and appraisal reviewer 2018-11-12 12:56:45 PM Many lenders order appraisals totally independent of the brokerage and realtor chain, and even independent of the local lending team, to ensure there is no bias and the appraisal is truly an independent view form someone who is not involved with a specific transaction. Furthermore, if the broker or agent is NOT listed as a client, the appraiser is not allowed to discuss the appraisal, in whole or in part, without specific written consent of the client.

• GW - Appraiser and appraisal reviewer 2018-11-12 12:49:38 PM Theoretically there is ZERO "wiggle room" because the appraiser should be using the best and most suitable comparable sales in the appraisal and adjusting them properly. Once completed an appraiser is NOT ALLOWED to change an appraisal or appraisal report unless there is new data that was somehow missed when performing the appraisal. A big question is how do arbitrarily change the opinion of value without changing some information or correcting some other error? Mistakes occur and these can be corrected (a negative adjustment that should have been positive, or a misplaced decimal) but the appraiser must note what was changed and why before changing a value. To change a report otherwise is a violation of the standards wherein appraisers must not accept or perform an assignment where a specified result is required. In the example above it suggest that the agent has a good idea of values but it was only one appraisal and it may not have been the same type or property vis-a-vis style, age/condition, size, etc., and that property may not be reflective of the overall community.