- On 20 May 2013
in
Makers And Stars Of Porn Being Turned Away By Some Banks,
TechGromit said:
Looks like there money to be made here. Just open a bank and charge a higher interest rate for loans to questionable industries (porn, legalized pot, strip clubs, gun shops, drug dealers, distributors of low yield nuclear weapons, etc). If there's money to be made someone will fill the gap. Hell I would if I had the resources to do so.
Gromit's Bank, the Immoral Bank.
- On 30 Apr 2013
in
Error claims cast doubt on Bank of America foreclosures in Bay Area,
TechGromit said:
Bank of America foreclosed on the house after the bank lost a $27,777.85 cashier’s check Thomas had sent in an effort to save the home.
I can't help to wonder if there isn't a certain amount of fraud here to. Let's say your a realtor investor looking for places to buy, if you get yourself a friend in management that works in a bank could give you a heads up what owners are behind on there payments, well before it listed on a pre-foreclosure website. You take a good look at the properties and decide what are the most desirable to make you the most profit. Now you tell your friend do everything in there power to help the owner get foreclosed on. "lose" paperwork, lose "payments", refuse to help the owner work out a deal with the bank, etc. After the bank foreclosures, you buy the property at a steep discount, re-sell it for top dollar, give your friend a taste and it's on to the next score.
"He took out a $411,200 loan in 2009 to buy his San Ramon house. He was making regular monthly payments of $1,796.40 a month. But in January 2012, Thomas realized the payment on his fixed-rate mortgage had jumped to $3,197.70. The bank gave him no explanation."
Actually I don't understand how the court could have allowed the foreclosure to proceed. You can't change one side of a contract and claim database errors, screw the 27k missing check, any contract law lawyer should be able to make a case to sue Bank of America for loses and damages.
- On 29 Apr 2013
in
The Pension Loan scam,
TechGromit said:
"... he agreed to sign over $353 a month of his $1,033 monthly disability pension for five years in exchange for $10,000 in cash up front. Those terms, including fees and finance charges, work out to an effective annual interest rate of more than 36 percent. After Mr. Govan belatedly did the math, he was shocked."
Same Shit, Different day. Don't people have the forethought to do the math BEFORE they sign? I really can't feel sorry for someone too stupid to protect themselves.
- On 29 Apr 2013
in
How to Fix the Great Real Estate After-Bubble,
TechGromit said:
Rental income ................................. $ 3,584
Other income .................................. 32
Total revenue .................................. 3,616
Expenses:
Property operating and maintenance....1,971
Real estate taxes.......................................1,273
Homeowner’s association fees................391
Property management ..............................459
Total expenses ............................................ 4,049
Net loss......................................................... (443)Subtracting the three BS fees, you still are running a loss, just not as big loss.
Depreciation and amortization.................2,003
Advisory management fee - affiliates .....2,159
General and administrative....................... 881Actually looking at the number, Property operating and maintenance seems really high as well. I wager that a lot of these expenses are one time costs when setting up the fund, next year costs should go way down and they should be able to turn a profit.
- On 27 Apr 2013
in
Fuck CFL, LEDs are the way to go,
TechGromit said:
Frankly the offerings of LED lights have been somewhat pathetic so far. The brightest LED lights are 1780 Lumens (a measure of brightness), CFL's on the other hand go as high as 11,000 Lumens. I have a couple of lights in my garage that are 8,500 Lumens, really brighten up my workshop, they are equivalent to 500w incandescent bulbs. (but only use 100 watts) LED's might have a place in replacing common 60 watt bulbs, but they are not a serious choice if you really want some bight lighting.
- On 27 Apr 2013
in
How to Fix the Great Real Estate After-Bubble,
TechGromit said:
I'll repeat what I said in the other thread. Do not underestimate the extreme power of the billions on Wall Street applied to SFR rental properties.
The new REITs and ETFs will use scale to be more efficient and earn more money than traditional small landlords. Substantial tax benefits will also be passed to investors and because they are dealing in cash, the new class of Wall Street landlord will not have any interest cost.
This isn't an after-bubble. This IS the main bubble with the 2006 peak being a foreshock. I believe my bubble model will apply here and we'll see a peak in about 4-5 years.
The problem with Wall Street is they can't get enough of a good thing. The original idea of combining mortgages into lots to spread the risk and selling them off to investors really wasn't a bad one. It was when wall street continued to demand more of these investment funds, that someone was more than happy to package up crappy mortgages sell them to hungry investors. I see the same thing happening here. Investors will hear about the good returns this type of real estate investment fund yields, they will demand more funds created, to meet demand someone will just throw them together, AAA rated, poorly planned and investors will happily buy the funds, only later realizing they were sold crap that will lose them money.
Later rating companies will make excuses that did not have enough experience rating this new type of investment, that why everything was AAA++ rated.
- On 26 Apr 2013
in
How to Fix the Great Real Estate After-Bubble,
TechGromit said:
Really depends on where the houses are located. A lot of houses clustered in one small area makes property management far easier. They can hire someone to keep an eye on the vacate houses, handle renter complaints, lean on slow / non-payer renters. But if they are spread all over the place, then logistics become a lot more of a problem, possibly a money losing venture.
- On 20 Apr 2013
in
Boston Lockdown,
TechGromit said:
Personally I think the police FAILED in there search. They searched house to house, but failed to look in a boat in someone backyard less then a mile from the shootout. I guess they were surprised he wasn't in the middle of the street waving his arms to get there attention, as they drove fruitless around the town in there armored vehicles. If the 19 year old wasn't shot, with an obvious blood trail to the boat, I can't help to wonder if they wouldn't have found him if he hid in a shed and slipped out of town that night after the "intensive manhunt'.
So the lesson is, if you ever on the run for a thousand police, don't hide in a house, hide in a covered boat, they will never dream of looking there.
- On 18 Mar 2013
in
David Siegel went from bankruptcy to his most profitable year ever,
TechGromit said:
Rich people with dog shit everywhere, dead pets,the old man hanging out in his den shirtless with stacks of papers like a hoarder....
I hope his children don't reproduce.
I downloaded it from Piratebay. I recently had a debate on another forum about wealth determines your social class. After seeing this, I think I want to change my opinion. What a bunch of low life's with money. They are trail park trash with a mansion.
- On 4 Mar 2013
in
China's real estate bubble,
TechGromit said:
Did anyone die in that toppled over building? I've had nightmares over things like that.
One death, no details, but the building was still under contraction and unoccupied. I would think it was someone working around the outside of the building with earth moving equipment. So he probably got crushed by the falling building. If they were finishing the inside there would have been a lot more people working inside at the time. You don't send in one guy to sheet rock a 12 story building.
- On 4 Mar 2013
in
China's real estate bubble,
TechGromit said:
That particular toppled over building actually held up really well after the fall, without crumbling into pieces or breaking up at all as one would expect for such a high rise falling on its side.
I read some more details on the building collapse, they were digging under the building to install an underground garage. Now I'm no expert in building construction, but I would think you would want to build the garage first when your building the foundation, then build the building on top, not the other way around.
Also the fountain was just hollow cement pilings into the ground, even if it didn't collapse, I'd be someone concerned parking under the building when a good part of the earth holding the piling in place was removed.
- On 4 Mar 2013
in
China's real estate bubble,
TechGromit said:
Well I'll have to say this much, the Chinese really know how to make a proper real estate bubble. We are rank amateurs compared to these guys. The process has been vastly improved, when this thing pops the repercussions will be far larger and farther reaching. This could very well delay claiming the number one spot in the world's largest economies, perhaps even lose the #2 spot.
- On 3 Mar 2013
in
David Siegel went from bankruptcy to his most profitable year ever,
TechGromit said:
How long before it's insured to the hilt and tragically swallowed by a very mysterious yet financially convenient sinkhole?
I wonder if he has Sinkhole insurance. Houses are not typically covered for sinkholes, that's an additional to your standard policy.
- On 3 Mar 2013
in
16 signs that the middle class is running out of money,
TechGromit said:
#6 "In the United States today, a new car has become out of reach for most middle class Americans..."
I've seen this this article he's quoted on discussed other forums as pure propaganda. The article says the average vehicle cost is 0ver 30k, it's a fact there are plenty of choices of cars between 15k to 20k, also he used a 4 year car loan to boost the car payments and make the payment level unaffordable to most middle class people to support his argument.
#16 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is currently taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.
The last US census was only a few years after the housing market collapsed, the huge housing bubble had a lot to do with the figures the U.S. Census Bureau recorded. i wager the 2020 census will see a reversal in this trend. This will be enough time for all of the foreclosures to work there way through the market and the housing market stabilize to a more historical normal level.
- On 3 Mar 2013
in
David Siegel went from bankruptcy to his most profitable year ever,
TechGromit said:
David Siegel, the Florida timeshare tycoon who threatened to fire all his employees if Obama was re-elected
His company, Westgate Resorts, this year is also hiring 1,500 new employees...
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to work for someone like this. Now if I screwed up or the economy is forcing him to lay-off employees I can understand. But to threaten to fire employees over who wins a election, what football team wins the Superbowl or weather is rains on Saturday is just pure insanity. I wouldn't want that kinda stress in my life for matters I have no control over. There's more than enough stress for reasonable things I can't control.
- On 28 Feb 2013
in
Sequester your own salaries,
TechGromit said:
I know this much, if they don't resolve this situation within a month, I'll be likely looking for a job as a government contractor.
- On 25 Feb 2013
in
Drop-off in first-time homebuyers,
TechGromit said:
This is another reason why this so called housing "recovery" isn't sustainable. The first time home buyers are squeezed out by the cash investors.
I can't say I understand this statement. If the first time buyers are being squeezed out by investors, they don't stop existing, do they? If we ever run out of investors, the first time buyers will still be there to prevent any significant price slide.
- On 22 Feb 2013
in
Is employer-provided health insurance worth it,
TechGromit said:
Well lets see, I pay roughly $2,500 a year for me and my wife for health coverage. And on my taxes, the company I work for reported they paid $7,000 for our medical benefits, that's $9,500 total. I can't believe that any open market coverage is going to be less for better coverage. One thing you need to remember is the more employees the company has, the better deal they get from the insurance companies. The company I work for has over 300 employees.
I have a friend that was working for a company that had less then 15 employees and he was paying $600 a month for coverage for him, his wife and daughter. I don't know how much his company chipped in, but I'm sure it was at least as much as he was paying, that would make the total about $14,000 a year.
Last year my wife was working for a company that has over 5,000 employees and we were only paying $100 a month for better coverage then we have now.
- On 22 Feb 2013
in
WOW! Getting foreclosed on has consequences?,
TechGromit said:
I am on a HOA board at a condo complex where I own 2 units. The board is the only thing keeping the place from turning into a crime infested slum.
This is the propaganda HOA's use to justify there existence. If we let people do what ever they want, they will have over grown grass, broken down cars in the driveway with no wheels, trash in the yard and "Cannibalism Anarchy". And this does occasionally happen in some neighborhoods, you have that one person that uses there yard like a dump. But when you buy a nice house in a community, chances of it turning into a "crime infested slum" are slim at best. They really are not needed in nice areas, people who can afford to buy in a nice neighborhood generally are not the Beverly Hill Billies.
HOA could actually work, if the they are fairly set up where the homeowners can have some over them and the rules are minimal. Do we really need rules on what color a homeowner can paint there front door, how many flowers a homeowner can plant in there garden or how tall there grass can be before they have to cut it. HOA are often run by retired people on a power trip, there are some well run, good HOA's, but they are in the minority. Usually what happens in the developer sets up the HOA, and writes the bylaws to favor them. Then way over charge for the management services. If the HOA could use the free market, they could save a ton of money, but often the rules are written so its next to impossible to get rid of the management company. It ends up being a cash cow for the developer years to come.
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
What the Heck is Going on at the Gas Pump?,
TechGromit said:
I'm thinking that the speculators are making the prices of whatever they speculate in more volatile, probably way more volatile than they would be otherwise.
Your only looking at one side of the equation here. When oil prices go up, people immediately jump to the conclusion that some oil tycoon is getting rich from us. The simple fact is oil really hasn't increased much in price, the main cause of the price spike in oil refineries shutting for maintenance have caused a temporary spike in prices. I don't know if there is any governemnt control on when private companies decide to shut down or go offline for maintenance, but there certainly should be. If too many refineries shut down for maintenance at the same time, it could cause a huge gas shortage at the pump.
It's also certainly doesn't help that several refineries have shut down completely, The Hess Refinery Port Reading, NJ recently shut down due to losses, It looks like oil refinery market is pretty competitive, they are not making a huge profit on the oil they refine. While competition is a good thing, the problem is when there is only just enough refinery to meet demand, when one of them shuts down for maintenance it has an immediate impact of the market with higher prices. It would really only take one big accident (like a fire that destroys it) at one of the major oil refineries to force prices up another $1 a gallon for years until it could be rebuilt or replaced by other refineries.
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
Zombies in foreclosure,
TechGromit said:
good luck with that. the owner has a personal debt to the HOA, so they can sue you as an individual if they choose. They can sell your debt to a collection agency even after your foreclosure. They could garnish your salary, or attach your car.
They can? First I'm hearing of that. I heard stories where the were able to put liens on property to collect outstanding debts, but garnish wages or attaching your car would require a court order.
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
Rape On Christian Mingle.com,
TechGromit said:
I heard that someone on Rape.com got converted against their will to christianity.
The Horror!
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
How much can you afford? = How deeply into debt can you possibly get?,
TechGromit said:
So aren't realtors responsible for knowingly giving bad advice all day long to every buyer they work with?
It's really no different than a salesperson that knows the product he's selling is a piece of crab, you can get a better one cheaper elsewhere. But it's his job to make you think your getting a good product at an excellent price. No Sale, No Job, No paycheck. It's pretty simple.
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
How much can you afford? = How deeply into debt can you possibly get?,
TechGromit said:
You shouldn't spend more than 25% of your income on housing.
I always remember it being 28%.
- On 21 Feb 2013
in
How much can you afford? = How deeply into debt can you possibly get?,
TechGromit said:
Why don't realtors be honest and just ask their clients how deeply into debt they can possibly get?
I disagree. It's not a sales person's job to help you manage your finances. A Real Estate agent should not be obligated to ensure you can afford a house anymore than a Car or TV sales person is. It's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, to make sure your can afford something, not salespeople.