Puzzled by the fact that a major Deep Creek real estate firm is still promoting "no money down buying" ..

See #6 under what their "buying guide" covers.

I hope people using their services understand that, as far as I can tell, none of them are certified financial planners or advisors and thus should not be giving "investment" advice for pay (and as one of their REALTORS told me last week free advice can be the worst advice). As for nothing down, here's a little something I read a while back about the history of nothing down. And here is a warning from BankRate.com about these type of loans.

If everyone would have heeded the warnings given in these sources we would not be in the real estate/sub-prime mess we are in right now in this country. Notice John Reed indicates it is very difficult for a buyer to complete a no money down deal for a rental (investment) property that is "ethical", "legal" and "profitable". Also note that both sources were composed prior to the onset of the current meltdown. At least someone out there is still trying to promote financial responsibility and sanity while so many lenders, flippers, gurus and REALTORS posing as investment advisors use self-serving campaigns to encourage Americans to risk everything. Meanwhile those giving the questionable advice are profiting from the risk taking of others. Only in America.

The more people who take the bait and follow the "plan" the more money everyone in the dirty food chain makes and the bigger the eventual losses are for those playing the part of the greater fool (see Greater Fool Theory). And yet people keep falling for it and the government keeps bailing people out without punishing the people responsible. Completely absurd! And rest assured if the proposed mortgage bailout plan being discussed in Congress is eventually passed (which I assume it will be because everyone is in love with "free" money in an election year) I will be one angry taxpayer.

Don't forget to check back to Dan's Deep Creek Blog for future updates.