The goal of Patrick.net is to liberate buyers from the commission-based real estate system that attempts to enslave them with mortgage debt.
About Patrick.net
By Patrick Follow Wed, 5 Sep 2012, 5:41pm 24,335 views 63 comments
In Menlo Park CA 94025
Watch (1) Share
Quote
Permalink Like Dislike Viewing Comments 1-40 of 63 Next » Last » See most liked comments
|
Patrick is moderator of this thread. |
Follow
Befriend (4)
52 threads
4,416 comments
Corning, NY
Premium
I like the site pretty much as-is. There's always room for incremental improvement, but I can't think of anything specific at the moment.
Follow
Befriend (16)
769 threads
7,714 comments
Boca Raton, FL
Premium
I don't like the paging since it makes it harder to find older posts on a thread, which I reference often. Also the links still don't seem to work between pages of a thread. Other than that, the site is great.
Follow
Befriend
19 threads
1,534 comments
Los Angeles, CA
now if patrick could only find a way to make money off a 'non purchase' he will be a bazzillionaire.
Follow
Befriend
1 comments
Is this site actually ready for some QA work? (grin)
Follow
Befriend
1 comments
In 2003 I stumbled across the MSN money board, and one person said something very profound.... They were referring to the prices of homes going up at unnaturally high amounts... I will never forget the poster, he said , " Could this be a bubble?"..... That odd word in his statement started my own quest and hunger for information that saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life. You see, we were living in Montreal, my husband was on a temporary duty assignment.... the Government was paying our living expenses and we were saving his salary and living off of mine. The plan was in 2007 to return to the States ( Florida) and purchase a home. I saw the prices of homes going off into the Stratosphere and I got really worried. I knew that it could not be right... The prices of homes aways had gone up 6% every year with a 3% deduction for inflation, my deceased Dad who ( he was a real-estate broker) told me that as a child... I never forgot. ... Like bread went up 3% each year so did your salary...So you would see a true 3% appreciation of your home. I continued to read and research and one day I stumbled across this site. It looked a bit different back then and the information was worded differently as nothing at that point was happening in the market except prices were going up 30% YOY... The site, It was still making the very strong arguments and talking points on why it was a HORRIBLE time to purchase. This site nailed the truth 100%. After this site I found Thehousingbubbleblog.com and became a faithful reader.... Everything that was ever predicted came true and in 2007 we came to Florida. We signed on a nice rental and hunkered down and waited..... The cracks began to show a bit later in 2007 and in 2008 we started throwing offers on short sales.... The banks were not budging yet to much and they were unsure on how to do short sales.... We continued to rent, wait and throw " insulting, low ball offers"... I fired several realtors along the way, if they did not agree with my strong belief that we were see at least a 50% decline in prices... I fired them... Finally in 2010 we purchased our dream home for 215,000 on two acres with a pool. Our house is amazing, the workmanship and details are of the highest quality. The man who was selling owed 780,000 on this house due to his many, many HELOC"S. After many months of waiting our short sale was accepted but the seller had to also come to the closing table with a check in hand to the bank to avoid getting sued. Thank-you Patrick for saving us from making the biggest mistake of our lives. We paid the majority in cash for our home and took a small mortgage to give us the Tax deduction. We also were able to get the first time home buyers Tax credit due to my husband being deployed overseas.
Our payments are 1/3 of what our rent was.
Thank you for writing that fantastic article. If you still have that original one... I would love for you to re post it again.
You nailed it, even before the Housingbubbleblog.com was created by Ben Jones.
Follow
Befriend (3)
23 threads
130 comments
Minneapolis, MN
Thank you for your dedication to this site, Patrick. It's one of the very few places that I check out every day. Love the newslinks and the forums are usually pretty civilized, which is refreshing. Hope you're making enough dough to keep it going, as I would hate to lose this resource.
Here's to your good health!
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Thanks! I often feel insane for keeping this running, but it's kind of my pesonal mission in life to warn people about the mortgage debt trap.
Haven't figured out how to make a living from it yet, but now that users are voting on the links on the home page, at least it doesn't take as much time every day.
Follow
Befriend (9)
70 threads
930 comments
San Leandro, CA
Patrick says
I find it troubling that virtually all information sources in our society are dependent on using artifice to build our confidence.
If Heaven exists, Patrick, you're there dude.
Still ! The question remains, "How to make a decent living as a whistle blower" ?
Dear old Dad eluded, "Jarvis & Gann will age & die as near paupers".
Which leaves us with the moral decision. Become a farmer and sell some honest commodity or create some scam and deceive yourself into wealth. WAY too many are opting for the later. (see politics) Some people will buy shoes that promise a Kardasian ass. Shouldn't they be separated from their money ? Tempting HUH ?
You LOOK smarter than Zuckerberg .... How about "TRUTHBOOK" ? Sell or provide information to politicians criminal records. Too overwhelming ? OK "LIARSBOOK" ?
Have you approached any Real Estate Appraisal firms with the info you have amassed ?
Follow
Befriend (3)
803 comments
Problem is you have only been taught a couple of ways to succeed. One is learn the basics or get a "higher education". ALL train you to run their empire. Build your own. See you think you have to function in this system in some way. Point is you don't. You get to the bottom line its what about gas, cable and electricity and you say fuck it and start all over again.
My point is you know nothing about self-suffiency so your stymied. A lot of people don't even know what the fuck it is. The question? If you got fired from you jobbie. What would you do the next day. Freeze. Right there. Two choices find another jobbie and have a nice lackey day or hit the shelter.
Ok another world. They taught you everything about self-sufficency in school. Lets say that. Not the fucking cub scouts either. Everything you need to know about self-sufficency. Now get fired or let someone give you some shit. Ok fucker bye. You know what to do. See. Thats the whole point here. That shows you who calls the shot right there. No other reason if they really cared about you they would teach that. However they need you for some kind of labor in their system. Dosen't matter Wal-mart checker. Fireman. Garbageman dosen't matter. All has to be done. See. Don't have a Wal-mart checker their labor dosen't get fed and goes to work naked. Don't have a fire department that house you pay for monthly burns to the ground since you don't own it and they can throw you out. Well they just lost an asset. Garbage means sick workers if not picked up not to mention a trashed asset and a deteriorating neighborhood see they own a lot of that.
My point is your being used for something. See. They can "use" you. Well fuck that your not a kitchen appliance. See they are taking your valuble time. Using you as labor. Its your life. You only got one.
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
I agree. I first heard this point made here:
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
As Professor Domhoff says, it's all about control over labor.
And George Carlin says the same thing: it's all about creating obedient workers
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=636835
Follow
Befriend (3)
13 threads
2,227 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
I'd like to see a section with concise advice on potential problems with houses that one may be able to discover during an open house and how to do so. Things like:
Old plumbing
Copper pipes attached directly to iron (usually found at water heater)
Aluminum wiring
Out of plumb walls
Foundation problems
Insufficient water runoff around house
Historical floodplain and liquefaction zone
Crime
Insect problems (I hear the Argentine ants in Foster City are particularly bad)
Termite damage
Mold
Dryrot
Uneven floors
Rotted gutters
Sticking doors
Sound transmission (e.g. one can't listen to TV at a reasonable volume in separate room without disturbing the rest of the household)
HVAC issues
etc.
Many of these are issues that should come up in a proper home inspection but it'd be nice to be able to screen for these and other items well ahead of that point. Bonus points for advice on potential severity and costs to fix.
Follow
Befriend (3)
803 comments
Carlin was good no doubt. I take anything on mainstream media with a grain of salt however. Carlin could drive home some really good points.
I like Dennis Leary's stuff. He and the truth never meet. However he's hysterical. Letterman I would like to hit with Brooklyn bus. However thats my own personal foilble.
The simple thing to me is this: Private owned banking system. Can print what it wants. Rates that make even usury look stupid. Its not the percentage. Its the amortazation. Front loaded interest. Its not simple interest.
I want to show everyone something here. Its called Kazakhstan. Russia was never the dump a lot of you thought. I dated a Russian girl once, broken english. I said to her at the game I took her to. I guess you people had it pretty bad over there. She said what are you talking about we have everything you do. I thought WTF. Am I going blind or something all I ever saw was women in bubuska's and people growing cabbage and a couple of buildings with minarets. She laughed telling me all the stuff they have over there. Honestly I was dumbfounded at what she was telling me. Anyway heres is Kazakhstan see for yourself. Really in all reality they have a similar system and debt also. I always wondered about what she said to me. I guess this is what she was talking about. No one I ever knew has even been to Moscow. Where she was from.
A lot of manufacturing there. A lot of what they pull out of Afganistan will make its way there of course. I never got over what she said to me. That was such a long time ago to. Like 94 or something. I guess she was telling the truth.
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
New renter says
OK, I started a new discussion on that topic here:
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1212537
Maybe it will grow into something useful.
Follow
Befriend (13)
103 threads
3,768 comments
Patrick says
Wall street banks run this country, so to them it's beneficial to sell CDO's. The more debt individuals take on, the more Wall Street makes in their crony deals with Washington.
Follow
Befriend (3)
803 comments
Follow
Befriend (3)
28 threads
747 comments
Tarzana, CA
:-) And 'you' have for me, not only at the top of the market, but on this downside too.
I want to share a story. I had dinner with some friends last week. I know they bought in 2008, granted in a location neighborhood, so, as of yet, the slide hasn't been too drastic. I asked a simple bait question, 'So, what do you think of the Real Estate market?' A quick response, 'I don't think about it, my house has gone up $200,000, what do I have to complain about?' The wife chimes in, 'My Realtor said anything under $700,000 is flying off the shelf'.
'I' know, neither response is true. I felt a bit guilty actually.
Follow
Befriend
12 comments
I was in Moscow 10 years ago. It's a modern city like any other. It's also THE most expensive city I've ever been to and I've been to many many. I stayed at the Hotel Rossia (now demolished.) One half was for guests, the other set up for prostitution (I found out the hard way after taking the wrong elevator.) Had to buy some underwear while I was there (don't ask) and they wanted $60 a pair! The food was equally pricey and awful and the service was dreadful. I guess the workers hadn't been sufficiently indoctrinated into the world of fake smiles and flair.
At the time Moscow was run on grift and charlotonism, you didn't dare drink the vodka at the bars as the workers poured it out and sold it for a pretty penny on the black market and refilled it with the bathtub fermented stuff that could put you on your back.
I was staying with a Swedish architect who was overseeing the building of the first IKEA...I just heard that they pulled out completely from Russin this year. No surprise...all he did was complain about all the bribing he had to do to get anything done.
I was there for "Russia Day" which the locals told me was just some made up nonsense that they started recently. I watched the parade go by from the 5th story flat...snipers lined the rooftops. After the festivities cleaning crews stormed the streets and within minutes the whole thing was spotless. The trains also ran on time.
It was outside the big city centers that things were so grim (Just like China I might add.) There you found your babushkas selling rotten lettuce on the pothole filled streets and 3 legged dogs stammering aimlessly. You had to have a permit to live in the city. A vision of our future?
Follow
Befriend (3)
803 comments
I was watching the OWS protest channel on the NATO wolfpack protestors. There is an Occupy Bohemian grove there also. For the unlearned thats where all the big shots go and worship a huge owl. WWJD he would WMD of course. If we go to war with the huge owl of course. There is a deferment sign up for students that want to avoid fighting the huge owl. Not to mention his troops and the carnage they can create.
Follow
Befriend (3)
28 threads
747 comments
Tarzana, CA
Tanking Housing Prices says
Including me! I didn't even get an new email listing from Redfin today. The banks are holding the properties to create a false utopia or something. ;-)
Follow
Befriend (3)
803 comments
aurelius says
How very interesting. I have never really seen anything of Russia you wonder why documentries aren't focusing on just the daily life. I would find that highly interesting. In that I enjoy other cultures. I enjoy people. College I could find no fit sociology courses. So I took the next best thing. Culture, to me is fascinating. All the other show and tells we are "given" every day means little in comparison of subject to me anyway.
That is the very reason why places like Brazil and other places you don't get shown the "good life". Of course a country wants to retain its labor and well base. That is very natural of course. When I make that statement people come back with American Gothic. We don't know what to do. Of course they don't. They completely no understanding of self-sufficency. Yet the concept is there. Its up to the individual to investigate for themselves of course.
Places like the Philipines I have no interest in don't ask me why. South America, Africa places like that where we are shown nothing but skinny's. When actually quite the opposite is true. A lot of it is self-sufficency which is not shown. People that are dependants on a system of lending and loans. Where their basic need are trucked in to keep them at work. Have no concept of that very large part of the world that does exsist that is self-sufficent and doing really well. That they are purposely not shown. Because their labor is needed for someone elses use.
Follow
Befriend (13)
52 threads
2,639 comments
Premium
Patrick says
Word.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
I didn't see this section before.
What I would do, if I owned a site like this from the bubble years, is make a best of book with a time line of when it all started like in 2004.
We bought our last house in 2003 and felt we got a pretty good deal. It's 3400 sq ft for $302K. $150 a sq ft was a good deal at the time. In 2004 things started to go crazy.
I would take quotes from commenters who were ahead of the curve, and make that time line, probably starting in 2001, and corresponding to Federal interference with the housing market.
I think George Bush made a speech where he mentions the rise in home ownership, like when Clinton promised a personal computer in every home. The big difference was the cost, and the mortgage.
I seriously don't think the bubble, from a public perspective, is clear enough.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
LiarWatch says
Well, no it's not. Depending on size, even in that day it was hard to hit $125K per sq ft.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
OK, you have a blog. How long has it been up?
I think the real meat is that about 2004 blogs started to have an influence at a time when prices were rising.
There were the cheer leader blogs like Blood Hound in Arizona, but there were some that crept up that were the doom, and gloomers. It was a crazy time of massive fight, and fits over what was happening.
What's interesting today is that the same arguments are starting all over with just a little encouragement from the worst economic crisis we have seen since the Great Depression.
It's probably just me, but I find it extremely interesting.
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
David Losh says
Since 2004.
I had the domain name before that, but didn't really do much with it till then.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
Patrick says
That seems to be the magic number. So it was three years of appreciation in prices.
Look at the amount of government interference to prop up pricing. Do you think after the election the plug can be pulled on this excessive spending, and the Real Estate market would be allowed to correct? Could that be as close to a soft landing as we could get?
No guts no glory, but if you put together a reasonable timeline of the bubble, and puncuate it with some of the more colorful remarks from those days you may be able to show how the bubble formed, and the thinking of the public.
You obviously have a reaction to the bubble, and others here do also. So I would think in this next year we'll see some type of resolution to the housing crisis.
The bubble bloggers have a real handle on what happened, how it happened, and how it may be resolved, but I think that is an untold story.
The internet has become a powerful tool, but it's much more of a forum with an opposing view.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
War says
OK, I may be including land cost in that.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
War says
You're really going to have to help me with that because there are the materials, and labor at $80 per square foot.
Those materials include needed appliances, ducting, electrical, and plumbing. How's this working out?
Follow
Befriend (7)
30 threads
1,222 comments
31 male
Premium
who needs plumbing, electric and duct work?
Build now like the amish for 60% less
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
LiarWatch says
I'm just saying that to build there are costs. I'm asking you how you get a profit from $80 a sq ft.
Follow
Befriend
2,826 comments
Monterey, CA
LiarWatch says
The one thing you're an expert on.
Follow
Befriend
2,826 comments
Monterey, CA
LiarWatch says
Did the truth hurt?
Follow
Befriend
2,826 comments
Monterey, CA
Still deleting your posts I see. Nothing changes as far as you're concerned. Anyway, how's the job search going? Are your parent's not getting impatient for you to move out by now? I think they want their basement back.
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
LiarWatch says
Just saying "Stop lying" or "Get honest" over and over doesn't help anything.
Please don't do that.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
War says
LiarWatch says
OK, help me out with this then, how do you build in all 48 States at $80 per sq ft, and get a profit.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
War says
It's your claim. How do you build a house for $80 a sq ft with a profit?
What's the material, and labor cost you are using?
My basic back of the envelop calculation puts 2000 sq ft at $67 per sq ft, for basics. There isn't a lot of wiggle room in that, let alone great salability.
Follow
Befriend (5)
31 threads
2,265 comments
Premium
http://www.home-cost.com/construction-cost-per-sf.html
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
War says
If someone is not being truthful, see if you can prove it. That would be more useful.
Follow
Befriend (2)
8 threads
1,139 comments
Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
Premium
curious2 says
Really cool.
Follow
Befriend (54)
5,191 threads
6,158 comments
46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Follow the data as it evolves. Look for new and interesting charts.