Here's a story about some people you can't trust. Two realtors from Prudential Fox Roach's Margate, NJ, branch were involved in my purchase of a house. Mark Arbeit was one of them, who represented me and my wife; Lou Solomon was the other, who represented a dumpy, pasty-faced, high-fivin' mortgage broker, from whom we purchased the place. Nine days after we moved in, I discovered a leaking underground oil tank in a small concealed shed, back-to-back with the full-sized shed.

Well, my first step was to request from Pru-Fox a copy of the standard NJ seller's disclosure form, which covers oil tanks, and which had been advertised as available for inspection on the property's MLS description. Whoops, I was told, there never really was a form completed. OK. Knowing that realtors, for their own purposes, keep meticulous records of lookers who go through their listings, I next asked for the list of prospective buyers who had been through my place, some of whom doubtlessly found the tank and let it be known that was why they weren't buying. This request must have hit too close to home because, at that point, I was told to beat it, that I owned the place, and just to get over the fact I'd been hoodwinked.

I subsequently came across some info on Mr. Arbeit in The Washinton Post archives for June 20 and 25, 1987. Seems that before he reinvented himself as "Realtor to the Stars, " Mr. Arbeit was an assistant elementary school principal but got bounced from the post on account of, er, improprieties, shall we say, with some poor schoolboys. NJ requires all realtors to possess "good character, " so I took my info on Mr. Arbeit to NJ's Real Estate Commission. This thoroughly corrupt board gave me the brush-off; Pru-Fox gets whatever it wants in NJ, and it wants its boy, Arbeit, out there fleecing the rubes.

I've heard from a realtor friend that my name is still a punchline among all the realtors in Margate; Mr. Arbeit, Mr. Solomon, and their doughy mortgage broker pal all point to me as proof they are so slick they can unload even a toxic waste dump. You know what's really funny, though? You'd think a big outfit like Pru-Fox would do something to vet its "sales professionals." Well, read about Mr. Arbeit and think again. Makes you wonder how many realtors with similar histories Pru-Fox has lurking around its many offices, with access to bedrooms in the homes of all the supposedly "savvy" sellers who list with Pru-Fox.

Two realtors from this outfit-- Mark Arbeit and Lou Solomon-- teamed up with a repulsive mortgage broker to stick me with the broker's house over a leaking underground oil tank. These three high-fivin' jokers thinks it's a laugh riot. You want a laugh riot? Read about Mr. Arbeit in The Washington Post archives for June 20 and 25, 1987, then think about all the "savvy" sellers who actually trust Pru-Fox with keys to premises on which young boys might be present. These clowns think I'm a joke? We'll see who laughs last.