patrick.net

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.

SP

perhaps it wouldn’t matter in my ideal socia1ist co-operative utopia (not the repressive totalitarian command capitalist regimes of the 2nd world), because there wouldn’t be a housing affordability crisis and home ownership issue to whinge about in the first place… altho the soviets had quite a few technical firsts in their time, not bad coming from a largely pre-industrial agrarian society… remember who put sputnik up and the first animal in space… and excellent architectural software products like ArchiCAD have come out of places like hungary...

but i suppose you could choose google ‘don’t be evil’ — except when being paid to filter content by the chinese — or M$ for the flow-on to the bill and melinda gates foundation…

other than that, the poster’s comment was gratuitous, and exposits an extreme position that I’ve certainly never taken… aka the ’straw man’ argument in rhetorical philosophy…

DS

@FAB,
A minor points about Plumpjacks. You always like to make your statements with such apparent authority:

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.

How do you explain this from their website:

http://www.plumpjack.com/history.html

Closer to home, San Francisco composer and philanthropist, Gordon Getty, wrote an opera he called "Plump Jack." The fun-loving and irreverent spirit of PlumpJack clearly excited the sensibilities of Gordon's close friend and business associate, Gavin Newsom.

PlumpJack was founded by Gavin Newsom, whose personality is revealed in response to an expression of concern upon his first appointment to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1997. '

Do you just make shit up as you go along?

I wrote:

> 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.

Then skibum Says:

> How do you explain this from their website:
> http://www.plumpjack.com/history.html

The web site is “correct” that Newsom "founded" Plumpjack (since Gordon Getty has always called him a "founder"). The Newsom's campaign web site was also “correct” when it said he was "raised by a "single mother" (since his Mom never re-married, but unlike most kids raised by “single mothers” he grew up surrounded by Millionaires (too many to list), Billionaires (the Getty’s), Celebrities (including his Uncle Ed Asner) and Politicians (including his cousin Nancy Pelosi).

Gavin is a nice guy, but his family does not "own" Plumpjack (when he was running for Mayor the campaign finance disclosure forms showed how little he owned). If you want to find out how much effort he put in to "founding" the company talk to the real estate owners that leased the space or the early staff that worked there...

P.S. The Chronicle reported a while back that Gordon Getty personally owned 96 percent of the Plumpjack winery and 96 percent of the partnership that runs the (kid friendly according to SF Woman) Plumpjack Squaw Valley Inn

http://www.sfist.com/archives/2006/09/07/gavins_back.php

"The intriguingly-spelled Brittanie Mountz, who played women's lacrosse for Sonoma State. "

Brittanie Mountz is definitely no BMW 7 series.

hee hee - i'm only halfway there...

On another OT note, last night for about an hour and a half two enormous black helicopters flew in very tight circles over a couple of blocks on the eastern side of Pacific Heights.

some sort of black op... probably escorting alien spacecraft... or giving elvis the sightseeing tour he requested...

SFWoman Says:
On another OT note, last night for about an hour and a half two enormous black helicopters flew in very tight circles over a couple of blocks on the eastern side of Pacific Heights. ... Why would helicopters fly in tight circles like that for such a long time?

Aah, that was probably just heli-Ben. So that is how they get people to buy Pacific Heights condos for 2.5M, I guess. :-)

SP

Speaking of self promoting "His & Her" real estate "teams" I just heard a golden one.

The couple that owns our local mini mart are the nicest people. They moved up to OR from Sacramento several years ago and they're well liked and respected here. Because they were new to the area they bought a double wide on it's own lot just a few blocks from their store. After a while they asked the same realtor (TM) that got a comm. for selling them their house if they could buy the vacant lot next door so their kids could have some place to play.

Long story short, he/she not only do not sell her the lot but they buy the house next door, sub-divide the lot, slap up a McMansion and do a cosmetic flip on the aging adjoining house! Oh yeah!

Now, not only does she not get the lot for her kids to play there is a McAlbatross "shoe-horned" where there was a vacant lot and their "flip" would be better off being burned to the ground. (Built 1905) and occupied for years by elderly man and badly neglected. With friends like this, who can afford enemies! Oh, btw you can't so much as push your shopping cart without seeing this couples mugs plastered all over it! How do these people live with themselves? Forget it. I want out. The whole "process" sucks.

Obviously this nice couple's needs did not fit well with the designs/needs/wants/desires of Mr. & Mrs. Realt-whore/s! Evidently serving clients needs are not a very high priority for most realt-whores and as shown in this particular incident (you wind up giving them ideas and then having to compete against them!)

I guess if the realt-whores had went to the effort to get the lot sub-divided for them there wouldn't have been all that much of a commission in it for them and how would they have sold them YET ANOTHER house when they'd have ample room for addition/expansion? (The way these pukes look at it they'd be screwing themselves TWICE by not looking after their own interests!)

I don't want to start the week off on the wrong foot but every time I see a husband/wife "team" all I see is the potential to get gang raped.

SFWoman Says:

> On another OT note, last night for about an
> hour and a half two enormous black helicopters
> flew in very tight circles over a couple of blocks
> on the eastern side of Pacific Heights.

Last night (about 6:00 pm) there were three small (not black) choppers flying around the GG Bridge as I drove home from Sears Point...

RE: black helicopters

My instinctive guess would be that they were using thermal imaging to find umm... greenhouses. The more likely case is Cheney visiting someone on the DL.

Schwarzenegger pushes emission markets

http://tinyurl.com/ur4el

Now this is an environmental movement I can accept. See, the free market can find a solution to the environmental problem. Perhaps Schwarzenegger is not that bad. (Although I was not having nice thoughts about him when I ate foie gras yesterday.)

fyi: Just updated the akr thread with an, uh... appropriate graphic.

How about this guy:

http://www.webcubic.com/realtors/warren/

Yes, I want a realtor who likes to jump hurdles while in a suit and on the cellphone.

RE: black helicopters

Cash drop from Ben?

@skibum, thanks man, you can't "un-see" things ;)

you can’t “un-see” things

Try a hypnotist. Find one that is NOT also a realtor or you may be hypnotized into something regrettable. ;)

@skibum,

Which one is the dude?

@skibum

Ugh.

Ugh is right.

Personally, I don't care how unattractive the Realtor is, as long as they don't try to outright swindle/defraud me. I'd take a honest Realtor who looks like Helen Thomas any day over a dishonest one who looks like Carmen Elektra.

That said, this is my idea of an ideal agent:

That said, this is my idea of an ideal agent

Huh?

Please hide the thread graphics. I am going to need therapy.

Can we please replace the thread graphics with Harm's image above? Christ!

Please hide the thread graphics. I am going to need therapy.

:lol: Sorry, Peter P. If you squint then quickly scroll down to comments, it's not so bad.

My gods, I come back to check the thread and there's this abomination staring me in the face. It may not be as bad as goatse, but please please make the bad man go away.

Ok, ok, I removed the offending graphic above and replaced it with HARM's dream agent. For those who still care to see it, but don't want it on the front-page:

I still think s/he/it's SOOOOOO pretty!

HARM Says:

I still think s/he/it’s SOOOOOO pretty!

Dude, You're a sick, sick man!

Ok, ok, I removed the offending graphic and replaced it with HARM’s dream agent.

Still... having... difficulty... breathing.....

Come the day I actually buy a house, maybe I'll use the abomination graphic to conceptualize the owners that I'm negotiating with. Demonizing the opposition is useful in any conflict.

Having that James-Bond-Babe as my buyers agent would be useful; any offer from her is going to sound very enticing.

I guess that explains SP's original question; charismatic negotiators have an extra edge. Perhaps after months of polishing POS properties into "cozy gem in the rough" listings, realtors have an inflated sense of their own attractiveness.

One of my friends put in an offer of the asking price for a SFR house on the Peninsula that came on the market on Friday.

And immediately he was outbid by 5%. Ouch. It's still 2005 in some neighborhoods on the Penn.

@eburbed,
What price range and what neighborhood?

And immediately he was outbid by 5%. Ouch. It’s still 2005 in some neighborhoods on the Penn.

It meant nothing.

I was looking at a townhouse in the good part of Sunnyvale earlier this year before MSM bubble coverage. It dropped its price twice with no takers. Then it dropped a little bit more and it started a bidding war!

If someone puts a crappy condo in EPA for $1, it may be sold for forty million percent over asking.

Most people bid only if it is cheap and nice. Such a house is likely to be "reasonably" priced for the "market". Of course, they will have company.

It was ~$7xxk

Fortunately, there price wars like this:

http://www.burbed.com/2006/10/16/fairoaks-war-gets-worse-now-its-a-3-way/

It seems to me that the South Bay is getting hit harder than the Penn.

It was ~$7xxk

7XXK for a SFR on the Penn.? Is it a 1950 2/1 "bungalow"?

@eburbed,
The Sunnyvale units you have on your site are U-G-L-Y!
Are they condo conversions from rental units?

The Sunnyvale units you have on your site are U-G-L-Y!
Are they condo conversions from rental units?

For less than 500K you can get a much-newer unit at Compass Place (Arcadia Ter). I used to rent a condo there, it is not too bad. (At least they were built as condos with individual garages.)

Hey,
Has anyone else noticed on the (current) thread graphic, her patch says, "Estate Agent 69," and I can't quite make it out, but I think her button says, "Make an Offer."

7XXK for a SFR on the Penn.? Is it a 1950 2/1 “bungalow”?

Is there any other? Pretty good views of the Bay though. :)

The Sunnyvale units you have on your site are U-G-L-Y!
Are they condo conversions from rental units?

Not sure - though I don't believe so.