patrick.net

The Housing Trap: You Are a Moron If You Want to Own a Home Unless You Are Filthy Rich.

Patrick K. gives the truth about how the majority of homebuyers plus homeowners are making the biggest financial mistake in their lives & digging themselves a hole of debt plus liability that will enslave them for life.

This book will show you why you as a homebuyer and homeowner are in the biggest potential financial trouble that any generation has EVER experienced in America.

Not getting and reading this book is the equivalent of unconsciously committing financial suicide and inducing yourself a heart attack that will leave you and your family...

HOMELESS on the continent which was founded by your forefathers.

Do you want to be BROKE, STARVING TO DEATH & a SLAVE of your mortgage provider, real estate broker & realtor?

If not than get this book because you are the sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

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Defiantly get an excellent title for the book. Many books have flopped but succeeded after changing the title.

Pricing should be based on the market. Let the market decide what the price should be. Many books have flopped at a lower price but succeeded at a higher price. It's marketing and price can give a perception of value or lack of.

I suggest selling it for $19.97. (Use ending digit 7 because test results have shown it to be the best in getting the most sales.)

And also learn good sales copy and have a good sales ad to sell the book.

Use fastspring.com to process payments for the book. No monthly fee, no sign up fee, no activation fee. Just a percentage of sales. Check it out... It is the best payment processor I have seen with the most possible features. Better than paypal.
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More titles...

Homeownership = Financial Suicide Unless You Are Rich.

Homeownership is Like Having Cancer: Both Are Unnecessarily Expensive.

Homes Are Shelter: Consumable Goods That Are NOT Investments!

Homes Are an Asset: A Depreciating Liability Asset!

Tell me if you like my title ideas and if you would like me to come up with more.

Good luck...

"Don't Get Caught In The Housing Trap." (?)

I hope it's not a Realtwhore bash-a-thon. It's fun to do that here, but no reason to read a book about it. You want it to be an information book, so that the reader takes knowledge away that they didn't have before. It's mighty hard to fight conventional "wisdom". To flip it on it's head, you have to hammer home the falsehoods that "everybody knows",,,,,,"buying a house is(the best) investment you can make". It's important to show people in simplistic terms why the math for that doesn't really add up.

When your goal is a paradigm shift, you want to make the reader think that, in a way, they are coming to your desired conclusions, on their own. I've touted the book "why we get fat and what to do about it" by Taubes here before. It's scientific, easy as hell to read, and you ought to be left thinking "everything i knew was wrong", and be better informed. A simplistic analogy can do wonders

snip from his book---------------

Imagine you're invited to a celebratory dinner. The chef's talent is legendary, and the invitation says that this particular dinner is going to be a feast of monumental proportions. Bring your appetite, you're told--come hungry. How would you do it?

You might try to eat less over the course of the day--maybe even skip lunch, or breadfast and lunch. You might go to the gym for a particularly vigorous workout, or go for a longer run or swim than usual, to work up an appetite. You might even decide to walk to the dinner, rather than drive, for the same reason.

Now let's think about this for a moment. The instructions that we're constantly being given to lose weight--eat less(decrease the calories we take in) and exercise more (increase the calories we expend)--are the very same things we'll do if our purpose is to make ourselves hungry, to build up an appetite, to eat more. Now the existence of an obesity epidemic coincident with half a century of advice to eat less and exercise more begins to look less paradoxical

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as that applies to housing, 'everybody knows' that a house is a great investment,,,,but is it? To tie oneself to 30 years of debt bondage, essentially spend 1/3 of your lifetime of income, before you've even worked those next 30 years, doesn't sound like much of an investment, it sounds like "a death pledge" (to borrow the one posters tag that the etymology of mortgage is death pledge)

hopefully you leave the reader of your book with the information that allows them to decide if homeownership (via the traditional merican way of levering oneself to the hilt, shopping to a monthly payment, and using longterm mortgage) isn't really an investment at all. Sure, eventually the house is paid off. however, if wages are stagnant as the TI part of PITI rise over time, you are left with no more PI, but a burdensome TI bill, and increasing maintenance. Not to mention, in order to realize the gains from an investment, you have to actually sell it. So how great of an investment is buying a 150k house, paying 300k for it over the next 30 years, and then selling it for 200k (you're already down 100k), and leaving yourself with nowhere to live and dollars that have been devalued like a mother fucker, to buy necessities like food, shelter, health care, that have all outpaced your housing cash gains.

The Housing Trap: How Buyers Are Captured And Abused

Maybe Shorter; The Housing Trap, Captured & Abused ?
or "captured and milked"
or "captured and harvested"
or "captured, perpetually processed"

How about:

"Living in Captivity: The Plight of the American Homeowner"

Robber Baron Elite Scum says

Use fastspring.com to process payments for the book. No monthly fee, no sign up fee, no activation fee. Just a percentage of sales.

But it's far more expensive than Paypal:

Fastspring: "Pricing is 5.9% plus $.95 or 8.9% flat per order, whichever you prefer."

Paypal charges only 3% plus 30 cents. I don't like Paypal because they have very bad customer service, but they do the job and are far cheaper than anything else I've found.

1. Because they were bribed be some other buyer to hide your offer.
2. To get their own agency both sides of the commission.
3. To get themselves both sides of the commission.
4. To convince the seller that there are no offers, and that he'd better just sell it to the realtor himself.
5. To give the realtor's friend a better deal in buying it.
6. To convince the buyer that his offer was not accepted, and that he better raise the offer.

In short, for any reason that makes the agent more money.

Do I really need to go on? It is never a good idea to let someone negotiate for you when you can't see what they're doing.

Patrick, you know I'm a fan and supporter, but this is simply an exaggeration. I agree with you completely that Realtor Associations did enormous damage to the public during the boom (David Lereah) and should be held more accountable. And, I agree that there are quite a few inept and/or crooked agents out there.

However, that doesn't mean that the best way to get your offer accepted is to circumvent the real estate agents involved. Remember, the Sellers hired their listing agent because they trust them and their advice. Circumventing that agent will probably to more harm than good. Practically speaking, you have a much greater chance of a successful purchase by playing the game the way you are expected to. And by being cool about it.

While everything on your list certainly could happen, those things are far more rare than people here might believe. Believe me, agents are not going to risk throwing away a paycheck by trying to con a client into paying a little more so they can make a few hundred extra bucks. Morality aside, the marginal extra commission is NOT worth it.

Fraud happens. But for most people the best solution is to find and worth with a good, honorable real estate agent who will protect them from your scenarios. Good real estate representation is worth every penny and then some.

Lastly, agents don't really negotiate for their clients. They are messengers and advisers. Often, when talking with the other agent, we discuss hypothetical middle ground on everything from price to closing date, to including the fridge in the deal, and then we go back and share with our clients. But it's always the clients who ultimately decide what actions to take.

Hate the game, not the player.

Agents have the means, motive, and opportunity to cheat both buyer and seller.

All I'm asking for is real transparency and an end to the inherent conflict of interest in being a buyer's agent.

But realtors make their living by preventing transparency and pretending that conflict of interest does not exist, or is not important.

Why aren't buyers encouraged by their agents to mail their offers directly to the seller? The seller could also show it to his agent for advice, but that's not how it works, because transparency takes away the power of agents to block deals unfavorable to themselves.

It is right and good to hate agents that are preventing transparency, and that play down the whopping conflict of interest inherent in our current system.

Why aren't buyers encouraged by their agents to mail their offers directly to the seller, to be sure the seller sees it? The seller could also show it to his agent for advice, but that's not how it works, because transparency takes away the power of agents to block deals unfavorable to themselves.

Listing agents are required to show (or at least communicate) all offers to their sellers. Those who don't are subject to potentially losing their real estate license and potentially ending their career. I acknowledge some fraud exists, but because the risks are so great, it's not as rampant as you might think.

It is right and good to hate agents that are preventing transparency, and that play down the whopping conflict of interest inherent in our current system.

I agree. Agents who misrepresent their clients or details of a deal are a problem and should be punished.

As far as the conflict of interest, I would encourage you consider how trivial a little more commission is in the grand scheme of things. Pretend an agent who sells a $400,000 property has a $10,000 paycheck coming to them. If they conned clients into paying an extra $5,000, they would get an extra $125.00. Ethics aside, it's not worth potentially killing a deal for $125.00 and it's certainly not worth potentially upsetting your client if they ever suspected impropriety.

I think the greater conflict of interest isn't agents trying to get their clients to pay more money, but in agents trying to convince potential clients to take action in the first place. "Buy now or get priced out forever".

gregpfielding says

Listing agents are required to show (or at least communicate) all offers to their sellers.

The rules are irrelevant when enforcement is impossible.

Realtors set up the system to make enforcement impossible.

gregpfielding says

consider how trivial a little more commission is in the grand scheme of things.

It's not the little more commission that's the problem in itself.

The problem is that the buyer's agent doesn't get paid if the buyer does not buy. That's why they encourage suicidal overbidding. The fact that the agent gets a bit more from the higher bid is just a bonus he gets for betraying his client.

Realtors set up the system to make enforcement impossible.

Not true in this case. If a listing agent mistreats another agent (or their client), they are absolutely at risk of disciplinary action by their local board, including a possible suspension of their license. Agents file claims against each other all the time. My only gripe is that the backlog around here puts any hearing at a year or more.

However, I do agree with you that the situation is often murky. When there are multiple offers, it is sometimes hard to know exactly what the Seller thinks of your specific offer. Often there is no counter.

The problem is that the buyer's agent doesn't get paid if the buyer does not buy.

I agree. Find an agent with a legitimate long-term appreciation of happy clients as opposed to one who desperately needs a paycheck right now.

errc says

",,,,,,"buying a house is(the best) investment you can make". It's important to show people in simplistic terms why the math for that doesn't really add up.

This is one of the really difficult parts of the situation and one in which the real estate/investment industry takes full advantage. What percentage of people can/will understand how exponential growth mathmatics applies to their life? How many can be shown that the time element is the most crucial to growing your money which means saving a lot early? That plopping down such a high percentage of your life earnings with agreement to pay back more is the opposite of that strategy and means someone else growing their wealth exponentially?

Unfortunately, a lot of people might be best off just being trapped into saving at least a little money by buying a house because they don't seem to understand the benefits of saving anything. Of course, by saving money in a house I mean they will probably be able to sell the house and get some money back at some point.

gregpfielding says

Not true in this case. If a listing agent mistreats another agent...

I'm saying that there is no way for the seller or his agent to know about a buyer's offer if the buyer's agent or seller's agent decides to "lose" the offer.

Similarly, there is no way for the buyer or the buyer's agent to know about a seller's acceptance of an offer if the seller's agent or buyer's agent decides to "lose" that acceptance.

No one can know anything, really, except the agents.

It's a truly horrible system, except for agents. They can exploit both sides and no one can prove it.

20 (Maybe 15) to 40 years ago, making payments on a stable or slightly appreciating asset with stable employment was not a terrible idea or way to go.

I think that's how so many people got duped in the middle of the past decade and into this one, they believed 'housing would never go down'. They didn't realize the game and rules had changed.

And, thanks to that 'Patrick Guy' on the internet, I didn't fare too bad, even though I certainly didn't have the game plan (Or level of fraud) understood a decade or so ago. (Always like to say that when applicable.)

Robber Baron Elite Scum says

Use fastspring.com to process payments for the book. No monthly fee, no sign up fee, no activation fee. Just a percentage of sales.

But it's far more expensive than Paypal:

Fastspring: "Pricing is 5.9% plus $.95 or 8.9% flat per order, whichever you prefer."

Paypal charges only 3% plus 30 cents. I don't like Paypal because they have very bad customer service, but they do the job and are far cheaper than anything else I've found.

The increase in their rate is more but the increase in your conversion rate of sales you will get will pay the expense but also give a profit to make it worthwhile using...

Why an increase in conversion? Because of branded order forms & personalized synchronization to your site that makes buyers feel like you are not an amateur.

Along with acceptance of a multitude of currencies. So buyers can pay in their own currency. And you have so many options on pricing & payment techniques to increase conversion like...

The 30-day hold... Where you can tell buyers that they can try the book for 30 days without any charge on their card until 30 days. They have thirty days to try the book & if they are not satisfied... They just have to email you or contact you before 30 days to avoid any charge on their card.

This technique has doubled the normal refund rate but... Triple the normal sales conversion rate.

This is a marketing technique which as I am aware of is not possible with PayPal unless you go with their merchant account which has many fees, huge application process & will require a lot of technical know-how to set-up but also get all the features Fastspring offers.

You can also have payment plans for buyers with Fastspring. So buyers can pay off the amount month to month if they don't want to pay the full amount at once. This also increases sales. (It works for all industries including real estate & car sales as I am sure you are aware of.)

You get easy google analytics intregration... So you can track EXACTLY where sales are coming from in google adwords & all other mediums.

Tracking sales along with your marketing is crucial to success & only the businesses or merchants who do it tend to be 99.99% of the time the ones who successful than they unsuccessful 95% of merchants.

You can have the buyer be automatically sent the ebook digitial file with Fastspring & done securely with amazon servers.

So don't have to send every buyer an email of the digital copy manually. By the time, you ares towards your 1000 buyer, you would have wished that had an automated system to handle it for you...

You can do that with PayPal but NOT without good technical know-how & you will be responsible to maintain it... With Fastspring, it is done automatically for you in just minutes. It is like having hired technical staff for you.

Selling a physical book? You can have automated fulfillment services intregratef by Fastspring. You do NOT have to keep loads of books in your basement & have it converted into a warehouse. After your 1000th buyer, you will be tired of running around everyday to the post office, UPS or FedEx store to ship the physical books to the buyers along with manually packaging everything...

If you hire an employee, you will no only have to pay a fair wage but also health insurance & abide by intensive labor laws which includes over-time compensation. Unless you hire illegal workers or exploit child labor, which you do not want to do, due to severe penalties if caught by authorities.

Your ebook is also automatically stamped with buyers name & email for their copy to prevent piracy. Do you want to do that manually?

Affiliate networks. Easy intregration to all affiliate networks with Fastspring.

Paypal also accepted by Fastspring.

Customer service also handled by Fastspring with phone customer service as well. After your 1000th. service request you will be exhausted & pouring coffee down your throat to get some energy from all your fatigue just to respond.

More payment methods than Paypal.

Accept customer payments through Visa®, Mastercard®, American Express®, Discover®, JCB®, PayPal™, bank transfer, check, money order, and purchase order. Payments are accepted in ten major currencies in addition to the US Dollar.

Price testing, split testing, cross sells, up sells, support for iPad, iPhone, Android & Mobile phones.

Coupon support.

And most importantly sales tax is automatically handled for all states and countries you will make sales from. Tax compliance - Doing it yourself will be a pain in the neck. All of it handled for you by Fastspring.

All these features paid by double rate fees yet you gained at least triple the sales than before plus you are doing a lot less work with maintaining technical stuff & doing the general hectic work.

PayPal is the worst payment processor for merchants to use as a primary one. I do suggest that merchants offer it to buyers but not as they only option & defiantly not as their primary processor.

All the successful businesses do NOT use PayPal as their primary proccesor. It is just an option they add for buyers convenience, nothing more.

PayPal is horrible for businesses to use. It is inefficient, inflexible, too much work to set-up, horrible support & a pain if you ever have a problem.

Even for small business because it's lack of features & flexibility limits the business to growth...

And if it by chance grows by luck from using such a horrible payment processor... The inefficiency quickly becomes very transparent & the merchant also realizes they are probably even losing sales by using Paypal as a primary payment proccesor.

Fastspring also doesn't lock you in. If you also want to sell in B&N & Amazon Kindle store... You are free to do so.

Try Paypal first. Test your sales & how much work you have to put in for 60 days.

Then try Fastspring. Test your sales & how much work you put in.

I'm willing to bet Fastspring will win in getting you the most sales & minimal work. Probably 90% less work than if you used Paypal & you have to do a bunch of busy work with technical & general routine stuff that becomes very annoying after a while.

PS. I agree that expensive doesn't always mean you are getting what you paid for, as you have seen with the housing market. But in this case, I really feel that PayPal is not a good solution & will actually cost you without you knowing it until you switch with Fastspring. Test out both & see which one gives you the most sales along with the least headache plus the most flexibility.

Yes they can exploit both sides and no one can prove it.

So you take an exam and get your own license and DIY your own home sale. Wont work on buying.

You're worthy, but I think it should be a separate book with a different tone. That's the one that should be titled "Realtors Suck!"

BTW, I ordered the first proof copy today! It should arrive in a couple of days, then I'll check it over, make corrections, and I should be ready to sell it by the end of this month!

It's only 110 pages, but they are sharply pointed and useful pages, no fluff. I've come to the conclusion that $14 is an OK price as long as I also include shipping in that.

I recommend having someone else look at it - a friend or wife or something. There might be something right in front of you that you don't see because you're so involved with it.

So cool - can't wait to read it.

Can you make a documentary instead? I would watch it.

Sure, I'd love to. Any filmmakers out there want to help? My own ability with a camera is limited.

Maybe you can try recruiting an up and coming film artist at an art school.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Imagine the extra sales you'll generate with an endorsement by the legendary APOCALYPSE FUCK!

You'll just change to someone else again, you were once my little Tony...

I would have dropped trou for you if you had been Tony Soprano, tho. My secret heartthrob - the way the treated all those nubile young (totally fucked up) women...

Manero is different. His little friend was probably too little... But I digress. Buy Patrick's book and you'll see if you're quoted.

While you're at it, buy mine. Momma needs a new pair of trou to drop...

I hope there are a lotta pictures.

Sorry no pictures yet, but maybe next edition if I can find some that I have the right to use.

I'm thinking of leaving the printed price at $14 on the book, but actually selling it for only $9 to people who order it from Patrick.net directly. Crazy, or good marketing?

I'd like to preorder if possible.

FortWayne says

'd like to preorder if possible.

Me too, Patrick. Any ideas on cover art? Gotta get a good About the Author photo.

Thanks, it's flattering you want to pre-order. I don't have an order form on my site yet, but if you Paypal p@patrick.net $6 to cover the printing cost of a proof copy, I'll mail you a pre-book! Meaning that it's still not fully baked, but you'll get it before everyone else and can give me feedback to incorporate in the real edition.

If you do that, please also email me your mailing address so I know where to ship it.

A long-time reader is working on cover art, but I haven't heard from him in a while so I'm not sure how it's going. The proof copy just has a red cover. I like red. Attracts attention, and it's the color of my bubble logo. And it's like blood, and warnings, and stop signs.

I don't have an About the Author photo. It seems kind of vain. But maybe it also humanizes the book. Dunno.

I don't have a Paypal. I bet my daughter does. I will ask. Otherwise, what about some old school $$$ in envelope?

You gotta have a frontispiece picture, Patrick. Preferably, something dramatic and brooding. You are in the Bay Area so maybe work in some windswept gloom..this guy has the right idea...

gregpfielding says

When there are multiple offers, it is sometimes hard to know exactly what the Seller thinks of your specific offer.

It's impossible to know what the seller thinks of your offer or even if it was ever seen by the seller unless you contact the seller yourself.

When I put in an offer on a property last year, I tracked down the seller on FB and send him a message letting him know I had put in an offer. The reason is that I was getting flack from his agent about my offer being too low. He told me I shouldn't even bother with it. I forced the issue, sent my private message on FB, and I ended up getting a signed back counter offer. I don't trust middlemen. Nope.

JodyChunder says

what about some old school $$$ in envelope?

Cash is great, and perfectly legal to send through the mail:

Patrick Killelea
PO Box 832
Menlo Park, CA 94026

I got the first proof copy today! They don't seem to let me order additional proofs though. I don't see why not, but now I can't promise I'll send out the book until I get the real copies, maybe in 3 or 4 weeks. But first three orders are $6 each.

After that, I think the price will be $12 including shipping and tax, since $9 was a bit low to include shipping and tax, and $14 felt too high for a 110 page book.

Patrick -- I am not a bargain shopper. Bargain shopping is what helped kill America. Jody is hi-dollar. I prefer to pay the $14.

Money sent via Paypal. Will take the book digital or hard copy, just can't wait to read it.

The cover of the book should be the aflac duck roaming around a monopoly board taking a big fat crap on Park Place with a big red hotel sucking up all the rent

skinnyninja says

Money sent via Paypal. Will take the book digital or hard copy, just can't wait to read it.

OK, you're first in line!

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

The cover should feature a family trapped in a burning building, howling in mortal terror as a Realtor paints the word DOOMED in scarlet on the for sale sign in the front yard.

Nah. The for-sale sign should have a realtor next to it, spray painting "this place is on fire!"

elliemae says

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

The cover should feature a family trapped in a burning building, howling in mortal terror as a Realtor paints the word DOOMED in scarlet on the for sale sign in the front yard.

Nah. The for-sale sign should have a realtor next to it, spray painting "this place is on fire!"

"Motivated seller! WON'T LAST!"

elliemae says

Nah. The for-sale sign should have a realtor next to it, spray painting "this place is on fire!"

"Death of a Sales Man"... what too soon.. has it been taken.. LOL!