patrick.net

SFWoman: "Perhaps we should all write to him"

I was counting on everyone's desire to reach out and make new friends. Hehe.

SP,

Dude! Your comments should come with warning labels! Now I have tea all over my keyboard.

SFWoman, would it be too cruel if Jim mysteriously became a new registered member of some men-seeking-men blog (along with photo, ofcourse)?

Realwhore Question for the South-San Jose'ers:

Before my parents sold their home in Dec. '98 and moved to Phoenix,
they had BOB BIGGS as the realtor. You know, the guy with the 1980's motorhome with his stats posted on the side: "$$Five Billion$$ sold since
1978.

Well, he sucked as my parents realtor. Apparently, he was blackballed by other realtors in the area who hated him. As a result, my parent's house in South San Jose didn't budge.

Finally, my mom said "screw it," got another realtor, and it sold within a month.

Anyone have any good BOB BIGGS stories? Is he really all that sleazy of a realtwhore? Is the dude still even around with that big Winnebago motorhome with his stupid stats on it?

In all fairness, I must say that I'd prefer Hugh Jackman or Eric Bana to be my realtor. I will also take Brad Pitt or George Clooney over Gyllenhaal. Jake Gyllenhaal is way too young and idiosyncratic looking to be taken seriously - even as a realt-whore.

For female realtors, I thought single guys preferred Jessica Alba to Angelina Jolie. I think married couples would probably prefer a Lauren Hutton type.

I remember just before moving from Boston there was a RW who put her face on big ads on all the city buses. I don't know why or how, but somehow someone drew mustaches on all of them - it even made the local evening news.

A bit OT, but more FB sob stories from the MSM, this time from back in Boston. The story's a bit long, but the individual FB tales are priceless:

http://tinyurl.com/yzqstq

The homeowner's day of reckoning

As property values soared, we got hooked on the idea of using our house as a bank, pulling out blocks of equity to pay for renovations, vacations, and more. Now, will the softer real estate market cost some of us our homes, our shirts, even our retirement?

astrid Says:
I thought single guys preferred Jessica Alba to Angelina Jolie.

There's guy-hot (Monroe, Jolie, CameronDiaz etc.) and there's girl-hot (Hepburn, GraceKelly, etc.). Overlaps are rare.

SP

astrid: "I thought single guys preferred Jessica Alba to Angelina Jolie."

SP: "There’s guy-hot (Monroe, Jolie, CameronDiaz etc.) and there’s girl-hot (Hepburn, GraceKelly, etc.). Overlaps are rare."

Okay, I just checked who J.Alba was, and realized my analogy (monroe v. hepburn) doesn't quite apply in this case.
SP

@Ha Ha,

My credit score is bigger than yours. Wanna compare? On the other hand, it's not the score that matters, but how you use it. ; )

Muggy said:
I wouldn’t have recognized my realtor without his mug on his card.

That's a plausible theory for how the practice may have originated, but it doesn't explain why they insist on putting it on _every_ page of a 12 month calendar.

One idiot who does business in Fremont handed me a card with his picture taken in front of some lame painting of a Swiss alpine landscape. "Ohh wow - looks like your head is floating over Zermatt! Please help me buy a home!" Didn't happen.

SP

Jon said:
Explain that you’ll pass her name around your office and that you know lots of people interested in buying a house and stupid shit like that.

They lap this up. In fact, it is a prime reason why I don't wear anything with my company's logo when I go to check out an open house.

SP

Correction:
"my company" == "my company where I work".

Not to be misunderstood as "my company that I own"

SP

Then she actually shows up and it’s fuckin’ Skeletor.

LOL.

My question is what is my combined credit score?

I heard that they are taking the middle score.

I do not know why my scores are not as high. I pay off credit cards every month, I have a lot of unused credit and I do not have late payments.

816

Peter P Says:

I do not know why my scores are not as high. I pay off credit cards every month, I have a lot of unused credit and I do not have late payments.

My understanding is that more than unused credit, a history of paying off debt and/or servicing costs (interest) in a timely fashion gives you the high credit score (on top of everything else basic, like no defaults, etc.) Hence, when we closed out our mortgage after sale and now rent, our credit score went down slightly.

But mine's still bigger than Ha Ha's.

Hence, when we closed out our mortgage after sale and now rent, our credit score went down slightly.

I guess I would have to buy a house for it to exceed 800 then. :(

@tannenbaum,
Thanks for the link. I don't read the Chron regularly - I can't stomach the bad writing.

What amazes me about Google's continued media/investor darling status is that, they are basically a very good search engine and advertising venue. Why should that result in stock valuation in the hundreds per share, overshadowing many old-line industrials and DJIA component companies?

I read a while ago that a significant portion of Google's revenue comes merely from re-investment of its cash from other investors. The YouTube deal just highlights this. Remember back when Google would "do no evil" and refused advertisers on the search home page?

Skibum,

No.....no....no. If you pay off your debts early, your credit score will go down because you are not living up to your end of the agreement and not allow the creditor the projected profit.....FACT.

They do look at all the other BS; but I found out about this little factor when I got pissed at my mortgage company and wrote a check to pay off my loan......score went down just over 20 pts.

When I was in business, I was a CC company's worst nightmare. Free card w/benefits and would charge about $20k/month......and then pay in full each month so I would not pay interest. The bank did everything they could to talk me into the wonderful debit card to save me from having to write a check each month....LOL I asked the branch VP why in the hell would I want to stop using their money for free and getting paid to do it.....would he? The last I checked, his face was a blank stare as I chuckled and left the lobby. I *LIVE* for moments like that.

Doug H,
You read my post wrong. I said *exactly* what you are saying. Keeping open loans and credit lines (mortgage, credit cards) increases your credit score, as you continue to pay the payments on time. Paying them off and closing them removes from your credit record any trace of your timely payment history. Why else would I have used my example of paying off my mortgage resulting in a decrease in my credit score?

Can you folks get the Bay Area Hippies to stop protesting the war long enough to help the military with this problem?

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15239501/?GT1=8618

Can you folks get the Bay Area Hippies to stop protesting the war long enough to help the military with this problem?

Afghan marijuana plants? I say burn them down!

SFWoman Says:

> Just in case I ever have to become a Realtor
> I am saving a really great photo of myself,
> taken in 1987, where I look attractive, yet intelligent
> and as thought I’d work for your best interest.

Many of my sisters friends have started using “old” (aka thinner and hotter) photos on match.com to get more dates and don’t want to listen to me when I point out that:

1. It’s “false advertising”
2. They may be getting more “dates” but they are still single…

SQT,

I feel exactly the same way about husband and wife realtor "teams." A little diversification please! They're probably the kind of people who used to invest their entire 401(K) in the same (pets.com) company where they work and receive all their healthcare coverage.

SFWoman Says:

> Could somebody please help our mayor select his girlfriends?
> First we had his wife, rather self promoting, their magazine
> spread made everybody laugh at them. Then he goes and
> dates a Scientologist. WTF? Now he is dating either an
> under aged drinker or girl who lies about her age (by seven
> years) on myspace.

Gavin and his 20 year old (as of a few weeks ago) girlfriend Brittanie Mountz is the top story on sfgate.com

Just think if they get married and she goes in to real estate she can put her picture on bus stops and Marina Safeway shopping carts with the (dirty sounding) name:

Brittanie Mountz Newsom…

P.S. Someone needs to tell Gavin the “1/2 your age + 7 rule” (since it is weird for a guy to date someone younger than half his age + seven years)…

A little diversification please!

How about a husband-and-wife of mortgage-and-real-estate agents? In case real estate goes down, there is still mortgage.

I mean a mortgage to pay... :)

20 year old Brittanie Mountz - you can't make this stuff up!

Brittanie Mountz Newsom…

Don't forget that Newsom's family owns "Plumpjack's"...

What's Plumpjack's?

A Winery - thanks Google

FormerAptBroker:

That's hillarious!

I guess there's a Plumpjack’s Inn as well.

@Jon: Yeah, I know what you're sayin' about the whole online dating thing. It ain't exactly a truthful environment (but then, is that any different from regular dating?). My favorite is all the ladies who list their body type as "Athletic and Toned". Apparently you can be 20 lbs. overweight, but still be athletic and toned. One told me, "I go to the gym at least three times per week," as if you can claim athleticism based solely on trying.

My personal experience was that I got a lot of attention when I first joined, but a disproportionate number of girls were suggesting very nice restaurants that I wouldn't normally consider first date settings. On a hunch, I set my Salary to "No Answer". Boy, did that drop the hits quick. So be warned, folks, there's gold(diggers) in them thar hills!

I guess money talks. But that's why we're all on this blog anyway, right? :)

skibum Says:

> Don’t forget that Newsom’s family owns “Plumpjack’s”…

The Newsom family has just “worked” at Plumpjack, other than a small minority interest none of the Newsom’s have ever owned much of the Plumpjack empire.

Plumpjack was started by Billioneer Gordon Getty (who named the company after an opera he wrote) and he picked Gavin to pretend run things along with his son Billy while he paid professionals to actually run things.

Getty picked Newsom pretended to run things to thank his Dad who stepped up in the 70’s and risked his life doing a ransom drop in Italy to get Getty’s nephew back from kidnappers and since his son Billy did so much blow he was rarely in any condition to even pretend to run things.

After Newsom pretended to run things at Plumpjack for a while Willie Brown and the Burton machine did some surveys that found out that women and gays overwhelmingly thought that Newsom was cute (and would vote for him) so they put him in to politics while they continue to professionals to actually run things.

While Gavin never did any more than “pretend to run things” I’ve heard from the people at Plumpjack that his Mom (who was on the Plumpjack payroll when she died) and his sister (who’s mother in law is a RW and has her face plastered all over town http://www.streetsofsanfrancisco.com/ )
actually worked hard for the company…

Doug H Says:

> No…..no….no. If you pay off your debts early, your
> credit score will go down because you are not living
> up to your end of the agreement and not allow the
> creditor the projected profit…..FACT.
> They do look at all the other BS; but I found out about
> this little factor when I got pissed at my mortgage
> company and wrote a check to pay off my loan……
> score went down just over 20 pts.

You don’t need any debt to have a very high (top 1% credit score). I’m sure it is a fact that Doug’s score dropped when he paid off his loan, but the drop probably had more to do with the “change” in the credit profile than the lack of debt. I’ve been friends with a guy since undergrad (when he helped me get through statistics) who works at Fair Isaac he has told me a few things (even though he is not supposed to ever talk about the back end of the model that he works on with the other math guys). Stable people have high scores (like people who slowly pay off loans or people who never get loans). You never want to close an account unless it is an open line of credit more than three times your annual income. The model will give you bonus points for having a Macy’s card for 10 years, but will take a way points based on the $5K limit of the Macy’s card since it represents $5K potential debt that can get you in trouble. It is not until the limits get huge (around 3x your income) that the “potential debt” subtracts more than the “open account in good standing for years” adds…

> When I was in business, I was a CC company’s worst
> nightmare. Free card w/benefits and would charge
> about $20k/month……and then pay in full each month
> so I would not pay interest.

If you were charging $20K a month the credit card company was probably making about $5K a year in merchant fees… Not exactly the “worst nightmare” say compared to the guy who charges $20K a month for five months then gets the debt wiped out in BK…

Former,

Since I took CC as well as used them, my contract was for 1.38% plus 27 cents/transaction.....so do the math and you'll have their top line profit from my activity. Then subtract the money cost from the balance to get the bottom line cost/profit.

Oh, your extreme example would be the WORST nightmare; but my point is my, or anyone else, who uses CC as free money is something they abhor. Minimum payments @ 22% is being a good little CC customer.

ajh said:
Hopefully all 50.

shouldn't that be 7??? Here's a gratuitous article on ongoing declining affordability and perth and darwin rapidly playing out...

ahh, canberra, mainframe dinosaur, things are getting clearer now... (i'm actually in a very similar boat)

if you really want to use a spreadsheet, microsoft map is integrated into excel, i believe. going onto the web, perhaps use either google or M$ mappoint, which bloated cashcow do you want to support?

DS said:
going onto the web, perhaps use either google or M$ mappoint, which bloated cashcow do you want to support?

I have an idea - perhaps you could suggest a nice little communist venture that provides the kind of features that these 'bloated cashcows' do at no cost to ajh.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

SP

Doug H

I went to B School with a guy in CC finance. According to him the CC debt issuers lose significantly on customers who pay in full each cycle. The transactional fees mostly go to the big network companies -- ironically they are being scrutinized right now for antitrust & collusion. Visa or MC will take a very sizable per txn cut leaving the lenders (which are banks and such) only the interest, late fees and add-ons to make any profit on. This is also the reason why most such lenders will keep jacking your credit limit if you pay in full, as they know that statistically a certain number of "monthly payers" will eventually get stuck for a few months in the case of some hardship. At that point, they can recover a lot of lost interest in just a couple of months, due to the huge balance.