Although it has good guys and bad guys and more than a few cowboy metaphors, Robert Bianchi’s new book shouldn’t be mistaken for the latest Western to hit the shelves. “Beyond the Stampede” takes a hard and serious look at the downfall of the residential real estate market and how savvy homebuyers and investors can profit going forward.

The founder of Westlake Village-based mortgage lender London Funding Corp., Bianchi recently penned the 75-page book as a resource for potential homeowners and real estate investors, as well as for his fellow real estate professionals, many of whom he says stand to gain some “clarity” about the housing boom and bust. The book is a quick read — I finished it in about an hour and a half — and is available for purchase at www.beyondthestampede.com as either a paperback or an electronic download.

“High leverage, high commissions and dramatic swings in our real estate economy liken our industry to the Wild West,” Bianchi writes. The “cowboys” of the industry enticed the housing market to thunder along to all-time highs, he says, as pushy real estate agents and mortgage brokers encouraged too many unqualified buyers to pursue homeownership.

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