patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,260,146 comments by 15,050 users - Al_Sharpton_for_President, AmericanKulak, Tenpoundbass, WookieMan online now
Police: Realtor® Murders Possibly Related
invite response
2006 Jul 12, 6:35pm 16,925 views 204 comments
« First « Previous Comments 34 - 73 of 204 Next » Last » Search these comments
SQT,
Actually the "fellow" that committed those atrocities HAD murdered before! The way he got the day trading money was by killing his "ex" making it look like an accident and collecting on the insurance money. The PD was aware that something was fishy but couldn't quite pin it on him so it went "cold case". What a jitbag.
Places where someone has met their end kind of weird me out. It had to be kind of creepy going in their everyday? I mean this wasn't "shoot out at the O.K Corral", this was a helpless person being gunned down. That weirds me out. I think Peter P would say "bad karma"?
"meet screwed owner" LOL!
The owner clearly did not appreciate my sense of "humor" as all I said was that "only God can make something perfect, and we're just men".
He huffed at that and basically demanded to get the builder on the phone!
HARM, you're absolutely right. We'd all do well to steer clear of bubble homes, not only for their "blue sky" pricing but for the hasty manner in which they were constructed.
Peter P,
Are you a fan of Vernon Howard? It just seems like you're in this place where NOTHING messes with you. Wish I could be like that.
Mr Vincent,
A couple of months ago I highlighted a complete POS (IMO) house for sale. The price has just been reduced from 538K to 466K and still no activity. That’s a 72 gurrr reduction. There are other homes that have been reduced with no activity after reduction.
Since we both live in Alhambra, I don't know why one of us hasn't bought that house. I expected to be in a bidding war with you!
Sure, it's only got 2 bedrooms, there's no back yard, and the house is small -- probably @800 square feet -- but think of the upside potential! The ad says "needs a little TLC." From that, I assume that there are no granite countertops in the kitchen. I smell a flip!
In fact, what am I waiting for...I'm going to make a bid on that place right now. Can you give me the number of your friend the mortgage broker?
I just read the listing again. The house has 696 square feet! A little smaller than I had envisioned, but I can still make this work. Maybe the cinder block garage can be turned into a third bedroom, or a study!
"Most realtors are good people. Some may be misguided. But we should be nice to them."
Govt. issued flack jackets? How about just keeping the interest rates low and ignoring inflation altogether. Would this be nice enough?
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 4:40am
Are you a fan of Vernon Howard? It just seems like you’re in this place where NOTHING messes with you. Wish I could be like that.
Well, they may be messing with us, intentionally or not. However, they will be in depression for years very soon. I may or may not be sympathetic but I am going to be nice to them. :)
Joe Schmoe,
696 sq. ft? Maybe that would be O.K for a cabin by the lake but 24/7 365? I haven't seen it but it might be better to tear it down?
Oh, no slight intended toward legit attys. It's just in my industry there are times when more ROIC can be attained through litigation than actual investment. They have "career plaintiffs" and they cost everyone. Kind of like a professional victim?
Call 1-800-Stock-Losses for your free case evaluation today!
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 4:53am
There’s going to be a lot of pi$$ed off homedebtors who are going to be looking for someone else to blame. It may the be realtors® and mortgage brokers who become the literal targets.
Let's hope that they do not blame their neighbors for reducing prices..
There’s going to be a lot of pi$$ed off homedebtors who are going to be looking for someone else to blame. It may the be realtors® and mortgage brokers who become the literal targets.
This worries me as well. Let me repeat once more for any readers not paying attention: The "news" story opening this thread is a SPOOF/SATIRE meant for ENTERTAINMENT purposes only. Do not misinterpret this in any way as a "signal" that it's ok to start shooting or assaulting Realtors. There are lots of nice, honest realtors out there just as disgusted with this mess as we are --George being one of them-- nor did realtors "start the fire". We can thank the Fed, Congress and the GSEs for that honor.
I am in no way responsible for anyone else's irresponsible and/or illegal actions.
"nor did realtors "start the fire"
Now THAT is absolutely true. While they did benefit from the bull run they were hardly the architects.
Just curious, when was the last time anyone saw a RE listing on C/L where it actually looked lived in? I've seen a lot of blatantly unoccupied homes, staged homes, about to be repo'd homes and that unmistakable "flipper look" homes, just can't recall seeing any that looked lived in. Just wondering.
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 5:35am
I just have trouble with people who refuse to take responsibility of their past actions. If their investments went poof, they should blame no one but themselves.
I just have trouble with people who refuse to take responsibility of their past actions. If their investments went poof, they should blame no one but themselves.
I generally agree with the caveat emptor principle; however, would add that there's a lot of deliberate, malicious disinformation floating around out there. For every greedy specuvestor going in with eyes wide open, there is also a naive young couple looking to buy their first home being partly suckered into overpaying and taking on crushing debt, thanks to industry-standard FUD and bait-and switch tactics.
Plus we had our glorious former Fed chief shilling for option-ARMs at the worst possible moment (when rates were still at 1%), when he damned well knew that HE was about to raise them. Almost everyone involved in the Realtor-Mortgage-Industrial Complex had a hand in creating this mess, from the Bubble-blowing Fed, to the risk-shifting GSEs, to the sacred-cow deduction protecting NAR lobbyists, to chicken-shit politicians.
No one is completely innocent in this game, no one is completely blame-free. However, some are a lot more deserving of blame (and pain) than others.
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 5:46am
BTW, recent geopolitical disturbances may trigger a flight-to-quality into US bonds again, causing interest rates to be lowered. On the other hand, people who are anxious about their future may attempt to seek security in homeownership.
Perhaps planets are just not aligned for the housing bubble to bust.
There really is no sense to making light of this. It's real and it is upon us. There will be animosity in abundance and we're already seeing the "blame game" being played out in markets from coast to coast. Since 70% + Americans "own" their own home there's bound to be a few nut jobs in the bunch. In Portland alone there were 4 stockbroker suicides following the dot.bomb era. Much of this is reported simply as a suicide but those in the industry now exactly why this individual was "distraught".
HARM said:
Plus we had our glorious former Fed chief shilling for option-ARMs at the worst possible moment (when rates were still at 1%), when he damned well knew that HE was about to raise them.
I have often wondered what AG was up to when he made this recommendation. I have my own theory about it. There is a good documentary which is occasionally re-run on PBS called "Commanding Heights." The documentary includes a discussion of the back-room Fed-engineered bailout of LTCM. Before the crisis hit the headlines there were a lot of back room machinations to figure out how to keep the thing afloat so as to minimize a systemic meltdown.
So my theory about AG's ARM endorsement is that similar machinations were taking place regarding a hidden bailout FNM and the rest of the mortgage industry. Low rates hammered big institutional mortgage lenders like FNM because they were carrying on their books a ton of mortgages which could be (and were) refinanced at substantially lower rates. Yet FNM did not have the same ability to refinance its cost of funds, since Fannie and Ginnie Mae bonds carry a fixed rate of interest.
So.... the Fed decided to try to offload some of the interest rate risk on to consumers going forward (from 2001) in order to give FNM a chance to get its books in order. Of course, we are still waiting for the restated FNM financials. Should be interesting when these finally make into the public domain.
PS: HARM, thanks for the link to Randy's earlier post on ZIRP--interesting reading.
Glen,
Some time back HARM said that GSE's basically were designed to:
Privatize Profits and
Socialize Risk!
I'm not exactly foaming at the mouth to hear the "re-stated numbers" b/c we all know it will be fluff and hot air. I guess the only thing that remains to be seen is just how blatant this is going to be!
Please unlock my comment. I have no idea what blasphemous words I happened to use.
reposting with some grammatical fixes.
The democrats have ruined this country by pandering to the poor with all kinds of zozialist programs.
Peter, regarding US interest rates (long bonds), I think you have a good point. However, with JCB raising their interest rates, the YEN carry trade will have to unwind. That’ll result in selling US bonds and paying back the borrowed YEN. Therefore, there’ll be downward pressure on US bonds (upward pressure on long-term interest rates). Correct me if I’m wrong.
SQT,
I wasn't sure how to up/down load the pictures of my rented sh@tbox so I e-mailed them to you. Can you create a link so all may witness the care and quality that goes into today's homes?
Many thanks,
DinOR
Thanks for the link, SQT. It's fairly critcal of the GSEs overall, but I take exception to this part:
"By eliminating this temptation [of holding large portfolios of MBSs] and increasing oversight, the housing GSEs can be the shining institutions that they claim that they are - and that we aspire for them to be," he said.
I see absolutely no reason why the GSEs even need to exist, or at least exist as quasi-government entities --with the gargantuan moral hazards & implicit taxpayer bailout "guarantees". What public "benefit" have they provided exactly? Have they lowered housing prices? Just the opposite, in fact. Have they lowered overall mortgage interest rates? Nope --Alan Greenspan himself debunked that myth a while ago. The private MBS market, if freed from GSE & Fed manipulation --and, *gasp* actually regulated in a way to benefit CONSUMERS-- could handle mortgage liquidity and risk just fine, thank you.
But, overall this was about as critical as comments coming from Congress can be, I suppose.
Today's yield curve (from http://www.treas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/yield.shtml)
1 m 3 m 6 m 1 y 2 y 3 y 5 y 7 y 10 y 20y 30y
4.88 5.05 5.27 5.22 5.12 5.07 5.04 5.05 5.08 5.23 5.12
Very clear inversion.
Regarding posting images:
Try ImageShack. You can post a link to your shack-hosted images. It's free.
GC, Sorry but I could not find the blocked comment in my moderation queue. It's generally best to spell 'socialist' as 'soc-ialist' and post your links one at a time.
@DinOR & SQT,
I have a solution for the image file uploading/hosting issue. I don't have time to go into it right now, but we can speak offline after business hours.
seamus,
Uh for them to be considered "sales people" would tend to imply that they had at least a working knowledge of the product? Most are "tools". They just mimic what their broker told them to say. There is little independent thought and certainly NO consideration as to what would be best for the "client" long term.
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 7:39am
How can anyone resist granite countertop? Must over-bid 100K to get it! :)
SQT/seamus,
Yeah, but the difference is that a "salesman" stays with it until he/she closes the deal. Realtors on the other hand simply play the numbers game. They know we all need a place to stay and most of us own. So if you don't buy maybe the next guy/gal will! They cruise people around looking at a few homes and let you sell yourself. They're just there to write up the offer. That's not "selling" Not in my book.
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 7:57am
So if you don’t buy maybe the next guy/gal will!
They may also pressure sellers too:
If you don't reduce your price now maybe your unneighborly neighbor will! :)
OT: Black Sea Fleet May Move to Syria
http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2006/1087/print
Another Great Game on the horizon.
Peter P
2006 Jul 13, 8:57am
Let's see... how many potential conflicts are we looking at?
1. North Korea
2. Iran
3. India-Pakistan
4. Israel-Syria
History will look back at this era and tell us that the future of US is being decided in the middle east. If Americans lose there, the Americana (and the attendant way of life) as we know today will cease to exist.
It is debatable whether US should've invaded Iraq or not. But once US decided to get involved, she has no choice but to stay until total victory (in the political sense). That's why I find those politicians clamoring for US disengagement in Iraq either totally ignorant or traitorous.
The Middle East is the throat of US, South America her under-belly, Western Europe her former allies.
To US, North Korea is just an annoyance. To Japan, a manageable threat.
If the Russians are planning to move their Black Sea Fleet to Syria, they had better hurry up! LOL.
« First « Previous Comments 34 - 73 of 204 Next » Last » Search these comments
"Bring it on, I'm not afraid," says David Lereah
The Disassociated Press
By Jeff Gannon
July 12, 2006
A series of shootings that wounded 13 California Realtors® statewide during the past two months may be linked to an earlier set of assaults, slayings and the reckless speculative mania that killed four San Diego agents, police said Tuesday.
Clues in the serial shootings possibly point to the same perpetrator, San Diego Police Inspector Clouseau said, but so little is known that detectives are frustrated and need help to break the case.
'We have no description,' said Clouseau. 'This has been very perplexing for us. To have this many incidents without at least one witness, it's not making sense. All of them occurred during open houses in vacant condo towers all over the city, so you'd think there would have been some interested buyers around at the time, right? So far, we haven't even found one! '
Clouseau said investigators connected the two sets of crimes after discovering new information related to some underwater flippers and f@cked borrowers. He declined to elaborate, saying only that 'we believed in potential for this kind of vigilantism existed ever since affordability levels dropped below 8%.'
Detectives have been tracking the 13 shootings, which began May 2, as part of an unusual f@cked borrower crime wave. Police said they believe the recent shootings are related to 25 shootings that began when month-over-month prices began to fall in November 2005 and killed at least four people: two sub-prime mortgage brokers, plus a Realtor® and house "stager", who were hosting empty open houses. The actress who played "Suzanne" in the notorious Century 21 commercials has also been shot, though unfortunately it's looking like she will recover.
The 13 latest shootings all happened early in the morning, when eager buyers should have been lined up to start bidding wars --but weren't. "I don't know what's more depressing," said Ginger Bohland-Aliotta, "being a potential murder victim, or having to sit around all day staring at empty rooms while my youth and will to live slowly drains out of me. Frankly, I think I'd rather take the bullet."
Clouseau said he thinks more than one person may be responsible, and one of the suspects drives a light-blue colored 1963 T-Bird. Clouseau wouldn't say if he thought the shooter fired from the car, or what kind of gun might have been used.
Since August, a local FB task force has also been trying to catch a serial refinancer dubbed the "Equity Liberator", who authorities believe is responsible for obtaining five fraudulent HELOCs and a series of stated-income cash-out refis, when he actually had no job and was equity negative.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced a $100,000 reward for information about either the serial Realtor® killer or the Equity Liberator.
According to a self described "debunker of Realt-Whore propaganda" who spoke on condition of anonymity, the killers may also be targeting high-profile Realtors®, such as NAR chief economist and media whore David Lereah. "After he wrote that execrable book, Liar-realtor basically signed his own death warrant," says our source. "He's going to catch a bullet eventually --it's 'in the bag'. And speaking of 'in the bag', I'm convinced Gary Watts may be next in line, and possibly Leslie 'equity liberation' Appleton-Young."
"I could be next," chirps Leslie Appleton-Young
"My violent end is 'in the bag'," insists Gary Watts
When asked what these real estate lightening rods could do to protect themselves from homicidal f@cked borrowers, our informant offered this advice: "Whatever you do, don't vary your daily routine. Make sure you keep doing the same things you always do the exact same way. That way, you'll throw the stalkers off guard, because they'll be expecting you to change your pattern."
"Besides," he added, "if you start doing things like wearing kevlar or having guards follow you everywhere, then the killers have already won, right?. I mean, what better way to demonstrate your iron resolve and committment to housing than by NOT protecting yourself. Only pussies 'cut and run' when they're threatened. You're not a pussy, are you David...?"
He also added, "On a totally unrelated topic, if anyone reading this happens to have David, Leslie or Gary's home address, could you please contact me? No particular reason..."
Copyright 2006 The Disassociated Press. All wrongs denied. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed, spoofed, read aloud, publicly derided or used as birdcage liner.
________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER:
This “news†story is a SPOOF/SATIRE meant for ENTERTAINMENT purposes only. Do not misinterpret this in any way as a “signal†that it’s ok to start shooting or assaulting Realtors. There are lots of nice, honest realtors out there just as disgusted with this mess as we are –George being one of them– nor did realtors “start the fireâ€. We can thank the Fed, Congress and the GSEs for that honor.
I and the owner of this blog are in no way responsible for anyone else’s irresponsible and/or illegal actions. --HARM
To see the original news story that inspired this spoof, click here.
________________________________________________________
#housing