I hope that real estate agent who was also the loan officer gave all of his customers a RESPA disclosure so they could decide if they were comfortable with the potential conflicts of interest.

What happened to the good old fashioned concept of avoiding the appearance of impropriety?

My mother taught me that healthy competition was a good thing but to remember pigs get fat but hogs get slaughtered. What does that mean? It means do a good job competing to get your bigger market share but don’t try to take it all.

Companies or individuals who compulsively seek to squeeze every available drop of potential cash from a transaction, wearing as many hats as possible to get it, no matter how unethical – have simply lost their way. We need to help them find once again, the ethical high ground or at least we can educate consumers to avoid the hog who wears too many hats to serve anybody well.