This is an absolutely true story. In 2007 I got in touch with a major Las Vegas area drug dealer. Or, at least, he had been one. I met him years earlier at a party thrown by High Times magazine at Sahara. At the time, he had grow houses for pot all over Las Vegas. I wanted to get a tour of a grow house for a story. For example, he explained how he owned two houses connected that split the power between them so that the electric bill would not alert police. The two houses also had a secret door that allowed him an easy escape should the grow house be raided into a house with no evidence of any crime (where on paper he was just an innocent renter) and a getaway car.  In the end, he was not willing to show me any of his houses. He was too paranoid. By 2007 that had changed. He would be thrilled for me to show an interest in houses. Only the houses were no longer grow houses. I am exaggerating only in that they were not even the same houses. He had left drug dealing to become a real estate refinance expert as well as a go-to person to help people with bad credit get loans.

One relevant fact: my condominium does not have a mortgage (I lost the money up front, thank you).  That detail did not matter to him. And, my aversion to any risk was brushed aside with an assurance that the Las Vegas housing market only goes up. He was excited about the size of the loan he could get me. In fact, he also tried to explain to me what a great deal he could get for me on another loan for another house, a no-money-down house, regardless of my income. I would have gone from owning one home clear to having mortgages on two houses. I declined.

In short: A major drug dealer found real estate finance a more lucrative job. I did not get that at the time. The entire conversation made no sense in 2007.  I assumed his wanting a more legal life for his family which by that time included children.

We have all learned a lot about the real estate business in Las Vegas since then. And, a very recently retired drug dealer must have fit right in with his new refinance colleagues back in 2007. This story is the latest example of that culture in Vegas

(Crazy Horse 3 photo by Lanie Crosssman: this is the size house I could now buy–strippers included– in Las Vegas for the same money paid back in 2007 for my tiny condo)