patrick.net

There is also some realtwhore in the article who says “now is a good time to buy”. In Detroit, no less.

To be honest... buying in Detroit right now wouldn't suck, assuming you wanted to live there. The houses can be had for 20k.

I went to a Top 25 ranked high school in the East Coast. I’m simply shocked and appalled at what they consider to be schools here.

Yeah, California used to have good schools, but that was before Prop 13 gutted the tax support for them. Not very surprisingly, if you are not willing to invest money in something, it eventually falls apart.

I think California should have fully-taxed Casinos. Gambling can fund many things.

Back to the topic, a 750K run-down SFH with a decent lot (1/4 acre in the burb) is infinitely better than a brand new townhome. It is all about the land.

Condo is just the worst, the $400 monthly condo fee is not tax deductible, and shoots up faster than inflation.

Of course, the best is just $750K multi-acre dirt in a prime location with no structure on it. But the market may not value it this way, although I personally find much more comfort with dirt than any structure.

To be honest… buying in Detroit right now wouldn’t suck, assuming you wanted to live there. The houses can be had for 20k.

They must be making plenty of land out there...

Shaky Ground

Last week, I ran into a friend I worked with twenty years ago at a senior center. Lately, he's been working on emergency preparedness--helping Seattle retrofit its homes, businesses, and schools to withstand major earthquakes. Supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's $25-million Project Impact, my friend has been developing and promoting inexpensive solutions, and training homeowners, builders and contractors.
"What a great program," I said, "because sooner or later, the big one's going to hit!" Unfortunately, a few days after our conversation, President Bush targeted Project Impact to be eliminated -- to help him give $70 billion in tax cuts to the richest 1% of Americans.

Later that same day -- Wednesday -- a major earthquake hit Seattle. My cat fled, an instant before, and stayed hidden beneath the couch for the afternoon. I grabbed my swaying computer and pushed back sliding file drawers. Pictures fell off bookshelves, shattering their glass. But otherwise my family was completely unharmed. And the city as a whole emerged relatively unscathed. We saved priceless lives and untold dollars in part because this was a deep quake, less damaging than "the big one" still possible, but also because Seattle has been steadily retrofitting vulnerable buildings, bridges, and highways through public programs like Project Impact.

The earthquake -- and Bush's same-day proposed elimination of the very program that helped us prepare for it -- underscores the folly of believing Margaret Thatcher's pronouncement that "There is no such thing as society -- there are only individual families." Invest in our infrastructure, and it will stay mostly solid, even while the ground shakes, rattles, and rolls beneath it. Invest in all our children, and they'll grow up healthy and strong. Invest in our communities, and ordinary citizens will feel hopeful.

It's nice that President Bush sends Seattle his prayers. But hard commitment goes further than easy compassion, not only for "the big ones" still looming, but also for the largely invisible disasters that so many of our citizens face day after day.

There's worse things than septic tanks

You probably have to be Australian to appreciate why I'm :D :D.

Rabbit whacking with standard baseball bats sounds like a waste of energy. The kids need to drive enough 8" nails through the bat so that one hit = kill.

Ummm, for the horrified fluffy-bunny lovers out there, please be aware that where I live rabbits are a devastatingly destructive rural scourge. No mechanism for killing them is considered too extreme. (Well, we'd draw the line at nukes but we've certainly used WMD in the form of biological warfare against them [twice].)

the NM kids are doing a public service, give them some community service credit hours

Can they hunt down some deer too?

We need to make rabbit whacking and deer killing fun for all suburban kids.

Then maybe go after the rabid squirrels.

Malcolm Says:

> You know what kids do for fun? We talked to this
> young girl in a store who told us the main pastime
> apart from getting high is rabbit whacking.
> A bunch of kids ride in a pickup truck with baseball
> bats, and one with a flashlight. When the see a
> rabbit the jump out, surround it, and whack it.

The kids on Kauai get high and go “pig sticking”… A bunch of kids go out with dogs who find a pig then the kids run up with a big knife and “stick it”…

Just another couple reasons why parents pay so much to live in the Bay Area and even more to send their kids to SF and Peninsula High Schools like UHS and CSUS (where there is a good chance that packs of kids don’t run around stoned killing small animals)…

There's nothing wrong with killing an environmentally destructive pest. It's far more useful than playing Grand Theft Auto.

Ms. Lisa Says:

> The story of how a Bad Appraiser makes a
> Good Appraiser look stupid:

It is really a story about how a Bad Appraiser will help a Realtor and Mortgage Broker get paid.

> Immediately suspicious when an appraiser is
> said to “know the area”,

Come on, all appraisers “know the area” it’s not like they typically fly them in from India…

> Of course I showed this to the appraiser friend,
> who pulls out the comps that are on the exact
> same street, closer in square footage, and similar
> in condition. Those range from $775K to $790K.

Residential appraisal is a big joke today since they only look at “what comps sell for” so if three crack smoking idiots buy condos in your complex with neg am IO loans for $250K more than you paid the “value” of all the condos goes up by $250K (the actual appraisers are even a bigger joke since most will do anything to get some of the shrinking business)…

Ms. Lisa,

Sad, truly sad. The difference in commission would be what, 3 grand? Not that it's totally insignificant but you have to suspect that this "dog and pony show" is done more to create the impression in buyer's minds that there really ARE multiple bid situations=hot market! Thanks for sharing that revealing story.

We had a septic system for about 10 years. I had to replace a section of drain pipe (in January) and was not having any fun. However the total cost was about 50 bucks and I had the tank pumped out twice to the tune of $150 each time. So the total cost (after original system was installed) was about $3 a month.

However if you have septic, chances are you're on a well also. Those can be major dollars! In truth the costs for a well/septic sys. are about the same as city sewer/city water. (That's how they know they can keep raising the fees!) I'd have to say our well water was better tasting but by the end of summer you couldn't do a load of clothes, shower, cook and flush all at the same time. Again, a wash.

kurt,

Can we do that in an environmentally sensitive way?

(I don't want to eradicate all deer, or all rabbits, or all humans, just restore the environment to some sustainable balance?

The kids on Kauai get high and go “pig sticking”… A bunch of kids go out with dogs who find a pig then the kids run up with a big knife and “stick it”…

I think that is a little different because that is somewhat of a tradition, and the pig is a feast. At least there everyone surfs. There is a lot of idleness but that is a cultural judgement. I actually love the Polynesian culture. Maui is a great place. NM on the other hand has no such culture, just for fun I asked this girl if she had ever ice skated, skiied snow or ice the answer being no to everything someone in CA would take for granted. Wabbit whackin' no that's a new one for me, maybe she thought I was deprived for not having ever done that.

SP -
Its rocky at best! A year ago everyone was praising AMD, but today AMD is going into restructuring (Layoffs, office closures). Already happened to HP, Seagate, Intel and spreading with the downturn. No! 2007 to 2008 will not be that bright. I expect earnings for Q1 to be lower.

astrid,

It's not that humans can't be more responsible. We certainly can! It's just that when you're at the top of the food chain you get to determine which species are "pesky".

DinOR,

I don't know. Are we still considering FBs to be responsible?

I mean human.

Strange mental slip, even for me.

@astrid,

Well I'm certainly not! I'm by no means an environmentalist. I'm just stingy. My father once said we could run a mirror image of America just with what's wasted. I DO believe we can be more efficient and likely improvements will follow. :)

"Is this a case of the realtor creating in his buyers mind that this property is “hot” so he might want to overbid?"

In past years, no one would dare overbid. Even in SF Bay Area it was unheard of. All the old times I spoke to would never put offers over bid. Its all been madness over the past 8 years or so.

What people did in the past was negotiate and not capitulate., if the seller was asking 10 the offers are usually 8 or 9, and then negotiate if needed. I dont ever recall all this talk about multiple bidding. The population here doesnt warrent it. It only makes sense if you had the same 10 buyers all putting in offers for 10 homes. Each seller would say I have 10 offers each ( or 100 offers total). Extreme example but close to what has happened.

Malcom,

It's been awhile since I've read it but I'm pretty sure Margaret Mead's description of Polynesian Culture didn't invole getting whacked on "ice" before gutting a pig? I've long wanted to have a "way station" between the west coast and the Philippines but the only place "I" could afford to leave vacant most of the year would be on the "Big Island". I've been warned by locals and regular visitors alike that the drug/violence/vandalism/squatter problems are out of control.

How can a people be so uneducated that they can't see they are living in paradise? So ungrateful that 4 hours of your day aren't adjudicated toward snow removal and grid-lock commute that you have to get HIGH? What a waste.

That could happen but buyers are only supposed to put one offer in at a time.

That sort of multiplier effect is definitely a possibility and probably did happen. I know my gut has always told me that we were basically just selling houses back and forth just at increasing prices due to the frenzy.

Space_Ace,

Sometime back we had a great thread on the dead language of negotiating. Just by looking around it might as well be in the Dead Sea?

DINO, I was of course referring to the relationship of the pig, and yes meth is a blight everywhere. I was referring more to the 60's surfer lifestyle of those who might surf all day smoke some pot hunt a pig and have a party.
I do have to say though that constant paradise gets old after awhile. That reminds me of one of my born again friends in high school who was a little stumped when I asked him, "wouldn't heaven get a little boring after awhile?"

I would get stir crazy living in Hawaii. At a Luau someone asked me if I would ever move there, I replied, would you like to eat chocolate for dinner every day? Peter, you are excluded from this question.

Malcom,

Well... I was stationed in the Philippines for an awfully long time and never got bored with it. Then again, it's a 24/7 place and Manila actually makes Las Vegas look "boring". If you never get tired of fishing this is the place.

Most of life IS boring and most of us aren't on drugs.

Could life ever be really boring if you have a high speed internet connection and a postman?

I mean, the worst case scenario is that you buy a bunch of Linden$, date cartoon hookers and flip virtual real estate.

SP,

I bet the Other Place is pretty good by now. Somebody probably overthrew the old management, installed some air conditioners and built saunas to take advantage of the abundant geothermal energy.

Kind of like the new Las Vegas.

I think I do it right. I have a plain simple house and I can just go explore those fun places when I want to. I like fishing also, in Cabo I caught a nice Mahi Mahi.
As long as they aren't bothering me, I don't care if people do drugs; meth and those other ones cause crime and decay, but some surfer smoking pot on a beach with his friends has absolutely no social impact on anyone.

Some people could live on an island forever, I need a change of scenary.

http://www.mlslistings.com/common/properties/propertyDetail.asp?open=0&page=1&mls_number=714473&type=property&name=

Cambrian flip? Asking $764k - sales history:

11/30/2006: $646,000
03/03/2005: $660,000 -- Someone lost money on the '06 sale?

Astrid, that is the other extreme. Idle consumption, the trademark of the baby boomers. People nowadays really do live like kings. I want that please send it to me, it is not even necessary to get out of bed. I think that is why most things that I have sold on Ebay go to someone in the Midwest.

http://www.mlslistings.com/common/properties/propertyDetail.asp?open=0&page=1&mls_number=714473&type=property&name=

Cambrian flip?

lunarpark,

I'd say based on the photos, most definitely! You have the low-end yet stainless steel appliances, crappy looking "travertine" marble kitchen tiles, fresh paint, no furniture, new bathroom mirrors but the same old toilet and sink. A tell-tale sign in the kitchen is the stove abutting the fridge. Now how do you suppose you can cook and wiggle your way around to get crap out of the fridge or freezer, when by opening the freezer door you block the stove?

"I have a plain and simple house"

Amen to that! Over the weekend I helped my daughter and son-in-law put up their new fence. They have a 1,600 s/f 60's ranch on a decent sized lot. Unlike the "high stakes" game of flipping and decorating upscale homes, the projects tend to be simple, effective and...fun!

My wife and I have not only ruled out any form of McAlbatross we've rediscovered the excitement of starting (and finishing) an entire project in just one weekend! My in-laws on the other hand are discovering just what a hassle undergound sprinklers can be. Uh, no thanks.

skibum,

You could tell the grout between the tiles hadn't fully hardened yet too! Good eye my man! Also please to note the the back deck is incorrectly done. While it does have more eye appeal to run planking the length of the deck it is structurally incorrect. Staggering the boards creates more stability and will last much longer without swaying and wandering.

(At least it takes your eye of the power lines in the backyard though)

Nice try flipmeister, you have fooled no one!