Busted! Wells Fargo cancels Vegas bash

I don't think so.

"We had scaled back the mortgage event, but in light of the current environment, we have now decided to cancel." What WERE they thinking about?
Wells Fargo Statement
Wells Fargo mortgage officers Vegas bound

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - Wells Fargo & Co., a bank that received $25 billion from a U.S. Treasury bailout, canceled a four-day corporate event in Las Vegas as other financial firms cut similar perks amid criticism from lawmakers and media inquiries.

"We had scaled back the mortgage event, but in light of the current environment, we have now decided to cancel," the San Francisco-based company said Feb. 3 in a statement.

The lender also abandoned plans for similar future functions.

The move came after the Associated Press reported the bank booked 12 nights at upscale Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas, two of that city's posh casino hotels, as part of a conference for top mortgage officials.

Wells Fargo Statement

Wells Fargo Quarterly Earnings

Wells Fargo Investor Relations

Headlines:

Wells Fargo defends, then cancels Vegas junket

Wells Fargo Cancels Mortgage Meeting in Las Vegas Amid Crisis

Wells Fargo cancels Las Vegas events

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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Wells Fargo mortgage officers Vegas bound

Viva Wells Fargo.

Turns out those ATMs may be one-armed bandits after all. Once one of the nation's top subprime mortgage writers, and recipient of $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, Wells Fargo has booked 12 nights at two posh Vegas casinos to reward mortgage officers, says the Associated Press (AP).

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - The Wells Fargo stage coach is rolling into Vegas this month, loaded with mortgage officers who managed to keep their jobs -- in part -- because of taxpayer money.

The Associated Press reported today the bank, which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month.

It's the latest company to get federal bailout money and then engage in lavish money-burning behavior.

Meanwhile, consumers and small investors who were supposed to get a trickle down payback of their own tax dollars, continue to lose homes, retirement investments and take on extra jobs to pay the mortgage.

Once one of the nation's top subprime mortgage writers, Wells Fargo booked 12 nights at the posh Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas. The hotels will host the annual conference for the company's top mortgage officers, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Subprime mortgages are responsible for a large chunk of millions of foreclosures. Foreclosures helped trigger the housing crash and, ultimately, the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression.

But at Wells Fargo, it's livin' large and business as usual.

AP reports such corporate getaways are bank tradition.

You know, the kind that goes back to the days of bandits robbing defenseless overland stagecoaches.

Later this month, the Wells Fargo's insurance division gets its hootenanny at the likewise posh Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests, AP said.

In previous years, top loan officers were treated to performances by Cher, Jay Leno and Huey Lewis. One year, the company provided fortune tellers and offered camel rides. Every night, employees returning to their rooms found a new gift on their pillows, according to the AP story.

Rooms at the Wynn and the Encore are among the most expensive on the Strip. Both properties have high-end retail stores, including Manolo Blahnik at Wynn and Chanel at Encore, according to AP.

And few leave Vegas without dropping a bundle at the tables.

Turns out those ATMs are one-armed bandits after all.

• Read the full story and weep.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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Viva, Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas has become a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty town. Home buying fear now is as pervasive as speculation was under two years ago, but the smart money may be moving back to town.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Think about it.

A record number of homes for sale.

Home sales half what they were a year ago.

Home prices slashed by as much as 30 percent.

It's a sure bet somebody is making a killing in Las Vegas.

Before you pass Sin City off as just another town sand blasted by the housing bust, the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors (NARREIA) suggests you take another hard look at the City That Never Sleeps.

Scott Meservey with the investment association's development services says foreclosures, short sales and homeowners who've lost their shirts alls makes for great media drama.

But there's an untold story about the growing number of buyers slipping into town paying 10, 20 and 30 percent less than what homes cost less than two years ago, according to the association.

And they are not high rollers.

Meservey, a Realty Executives agent in Las Vegas, says only a fraction of the owner-occupied homes in Las Vegas were purchased -- in a short time span -- with funny money from the last housing boom.

Most Vegas homeowners, on the other hand, are just that. They didn't gamble on buying a home. They have conventional financing and are prepared to wait out the market.

It's a lot like a hungry snake gulping down a wayward pig.

It will pass.

Meservey said a minority of properties are bringing down home values region wide and the fear of buying is as pervasive as speculative buying used to be, but that's created a real housing market sale in Las Vegas.

Dataquick Information Services said November home sales in the Las Vegas area were at a 12-year low in November and the median price dropped at a record 13.5 percent pace during the year.

NARREIA reported recently, the market was awash with nearly 28,000 listings, almost half of which were vacant, indicating speculators simply bailed on the properties.

One door closes and another opens.

Viva, Las Vegas.

• See DeadlineNews.Com's Regional Markets Section.

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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