FORECLOSURES ARE UP 200% in Las Vegas.

My God, the real estate market must be collapsing! Gladys, start calling the banks to buy up those foreclosures.

Luckily, one of my experts is good friend Mark Baker. Mark's a mortgage broker with Meridias Capital here in Las Vegas. He is also one of the best businesspeople I know.

In an email, Mark put Las Vegas real estate into perspective. Mark says the foreclosure rate in Nevada is 0.45%, less than half the national average of 0.99%. That's according to figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mark writes:

The fact that our foreclosure rate is 'up 200% from last year' is really negligible. That just means that our rate a year ago was REALLY LOW.

Then he closes with: Interesting how the media can make you believe something huh?

Besides opening my eyes again to what's really happening in my own backyard, Mark also helps me drive home one of my recurring themes: the most important journalist in your life is you.

Most reporters, especially TV reporters, don't have the foggiest idea about real estate or the ability to analyze figures. And to be fair to them, it's something we shouldn't expect from them.

This topic arose last Friday when I spoke to the Las Vegas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. I told them about a friend, an author, who was being interviewed by a TV reporter. When the reporter arrived at the author-friend's home, the reporter asked, "What do I ask you?" My friend, an old newsman himself, was aghast—as were the folks at the PRSA who heard the story last Friday.

But I put the situation into perspective. News media outlets run on tight margins. There's more competition from entertainment and the Internet while the advertising dollars have stayed constant. As a result, news companies eventually hire less experienced, lower waged reporters. And, this is the key, they hire fewer of them.

So, this reporter who showed up at my friend's house at night, only a few hours before the newscast, was probably on his fourth of fifth story that he had to shoot and write. When did he have time to do any research? And you can bet the staff back at the station was busy putting together the newscast.

Don't shoot the 20-something reporter when he's being asked to cover the latest domestic dispute while he's trying to get reaction from the man on the street about Paris Hilton, too.

Instead, create a core of experts you can rely on. I mention this tip in my book. It's a mild rip-off from Napoleon Hill, in his classic book Think and Grow Rich. Hill calls this group of experts a Mastermind. For many of us, though, this is just good old fashioned networking. You'd be surprised how many of your friends are experts or who know experts. Get to know them.

Hopefully, you'll be as lucky as I am to have a friend like Mark Baker. I can call or email Mark and if he doesn't have the direct answer, he usually knows where to send me.

Thanks, Mark.