It’s not just a burgeoning problem that’s destroying neighborhoods and creating havoc in the real-estate market: Mortgage fraud is now also the target of over-the-top TV-show parodies. Yes, “FSI: Fraud Scheme Investigation” is . . . a training video for bored mortgage professionals — or anyone who’s suspicious (or wants to be) that he may be surrounded by unlawful real-estate hijinx.
But really, “FSI” is so much more than that. Designed for “maximum employee learning retention,” the DVD has been a runaway hit for Interthinx, a company that ordinarily provides risk mitigation and compliance tools for the financial-services industry, but occasionally breaks out of that mold to film comedy-dramas like this or its predecessor, “Desperate House Lies.”
What’s that slow, steady thump booming from the corner of Moonlight Dr. and Braesheather in Meyerland?
Why, it’s the sound of a crudely improvised “wrecking ball” fashioned by a frustrated excavator operator, trying to smash the extremely strong foundation of the Carousel House! The foundation refused to break using more conventional techniques.
The Swamplot reader who sent in the video above, taken yesterday, calls it Robert Cohen’s revenge. Cohen designed and built the house for his family in 1964. There are more than 100 piers under that slab. The reader reports that the demolition equipment has apparently broken several times and had to be welded on site or replaced more than once. And so the shovel picks up the “ball,” drops it, then scoops it up again. Demolition is proceeding, uh . . . slowly.
If you can spare nine minutes and want a lucid explanation of what’s been going on in the mortgage markets, British comedians John Bird and John Fortune explain it all in this video.
Swamplot covers real estate, home design and renovation, architecture, and the landscape of Houston, Texas. Swamplot did not flood during Allison — or Ike! Honest! Read more
