Real Estate Investor, or pauper or merely a front man?

The St.Petersburg Times reports:

After struggling much of his adult life with unemployment, homelessness and drug addiction, Johnny Moon Sr. died last year on a dirty mattress on the floor of a small home near Tampa's College Hill district.

Moon, who looked far older than his 56 years, died of pneumonia brought on by malnutrition. He left behind a watch, a flashlight and a wallet containing a solitary dollar bill.

And more than a half-million dollars worth of real estate.

In the last months of his life, Moon left his signature scrawled on a variety of deeds and mortgages recorded at the Hillsborough County courthouse.

A high school dropout with no job history who got by on food stamps, Moon morphed into a real estate investor. Within a year, he bought five properties and signed for mortgages in excess of $614,000.

Moon appeared to be an astute picker of properties, finding value others did not see in Tampa's older neighborhoods. He paid well above market value yet managed to get loans to cover all, or nearly all, of the purchase price.

Three months before his death, Moon sold one home for $180,000 - $75,000 more than he paid 17 months earlier.

Those familiar with Moon's background have doubts about his abrupt transformation into real estate investor.

Leverage and fraud can make anyone a success story in real estate.