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I’ve recruited and trained, directly and indirectly, over 300 loan salespeople in my career.   I learned, as a new Branch Manager, that one way to enhance the overall production of the team was to practice the Nobel-Obama strategy.  Here’s what we did:

We’d look for a promising new originator and make him the sales leader.  Oftentimes, we’d pick the second-best performer, in a group of rookies, and feed him preferential leads, shower him with extra training, and “crown” him the tiger of the bunch.  The reasoning behind that strategy was that the second-best performer would rise to the challenge and be that superstar while encouraging the legitimate superstar to challenge the golden boy. 

It helped if the golden boy had a compelling story to tell.  One young man emancipated himself from his parents at age 16, put himself through college, and even slept 2-3 nights in his car while temporarily homeless.  He had been homeless because he was waiting for his initial commission check at his first sales job.  He certainly had a better story to tell than the well-connected young lady who grew up in the tony suburb of Scottsdale so we crowned him the superstar.

What we did was to encourage the sales staff to believe that hard work was the key to success rather than having an ”advantaged background”.  We wanted the team to believe that if the golden boy could make six figures, anybody could.  It didn’t always work.  Usually, the polished young lady would defect to a competitior.  Business got tough, the golden boy would struggle or implode, and our competitor profited from our mistake.

Some might consider what the Nobel Committee did today brilliant.  Crowning an international golden boy encourages other heads of states to mimic our President’s behavior.    I imagine Ahmenijad might be inspired to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons, the new Cuban leadership might stop killing and imprisoning dissidents, and the Dalai Lama will stop telling lies about Mainland China.  Absent conflict or challenging times, the Nobel strategy might succeed as well as the one I used on sales rookies in the ’90s.

Today, I’ve learned an easier way to attract talent.  I look for eager, accomplished, smart people now and offer them equality of opportunity.  Allowing people to own their accomplishments makes for a more productive sales team.  That strategy puts us in the difficult spot of having to earn our associates respect rather than to bribe them for it but it affords me less drama.

PS:  I heartily congratulate our President on this prize.  While I don’t always agree with his foreign policy, throngs of Europeans do.  It is always a great day for America when our President, unbeknownst to him, is honored with any prize.

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Wondering about the future of VA home loans and FHA mortgages?  Listen to my interview with Bloodhound Blog contributor, Tony Gallegos.  We discuss:

• San Diego County VA mortgage statistics (the market share number is going to astound you) 
• Why VA loans have the lowest default rate among all four major loan types (including conventional prime).
• Why FHA isn’t really going broke (contrary to my earlier statement, it’s doing quite well)
• Why lenders are initiation stricter guidelines on FHA loans than HUD requires
• Why I suggest that HUD is asking FHA-approved lenders to do the “heavy lifting” for them

The interview last about 40 minutes; the perfect treadmill companion. 

Listen to it here.

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Sorry to go all Mike Ferry on you but at the end of the day, you’re time is better spent following would be home buyers, driving from open house to open house, with a carefully designed plan to  “run into them” at the 7-11, every Sunday.

PS:  Been there, done that, got the twee-shirt

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Most loan originators are grateful for the “government option” in the mortgage markets because of the liquidity crunch. I submit that the reason for the mortgage liquidity crunch was TOO much government involvement in housing and its increased involvement has ruined mortgage banking. That’s going to be a hard concept to grasp because all of us have relied on the government, at one time or another, to insure the mortgage loans we make. Lend me your mind for a few minutes and consider what might have been had we weaned ourselves off of the milky government teat for a free market approach to residential real estate loans.

Government lending didn’t really start until the 1920s with farm and home loans. FDR’s New Deal supercharged the idea of US government-backed home loans as a “band-aid” to the Depression-era liquidity crisis. Poorly-trained, high school social studies teachers taught us that the New Deal policies are what saved the American economy. In fact, evidence suggests Federal intervention ultimately prolonged the Depression, curbed creativity and innovation in lending, and turned the residential lending industry into a ward of the Government.

Twice, in recent history, did residential lending attempt to divorce itself from this dependent relationship…twice, we failed. Current legislators use these failures as evidence for why free market capitalism is “dangerous” when left unchecked. In reality, the de-regulatory efforts towards banking in the 1980s, and securitized real estate lending in the earlier part of this decade, were constrained by a government-provided safety net (FSLIC insurance and expansion of the GSE mortgage conduits) akin to bad parenting.

Consider the teenager. Adolescence is the awkward period between a child’s dependence on his parents and the independence from those parents that comes with adulthood. Responsible parenting dictates that greater responsibilities be given, as the adolescent ages. Responsible parenting rewards the adolescent for good choices and levies punitive restrictions as consequences for poor choices. It is when parents indulge the adolescent in freedom without responsibility that adolescence continues to the child’s middle-age years.    In short, if Biff kills his girlfriend in a drunken driving accident, in Dad’s Porsche, and Dad’s lawyer gets him off, Biff is going to continue to drink and drive. Dad removed the moral consequences that comes with the responsibility of adulthood.

The government is guilty of bad parenting and mortgage lenders will be perpetual adolescents because of that. The 80’s banking deregulation permitted savings and loans to expand its loan customer base without removing the “safety net” of FSLIC insurance. Was it any wonder that the adolescent loan officers engaged in “drunken driving”-type loans? The result was insolvency of the FSLIC.  Savings and loans were folded into the FDIC insurance system and we all went on our merry way. What regulators should have done was rip a page from the Barron Hilton playbook and disinherit those wards.

More insidious was the social engineering that was associated with our most recent demise. The Community Reinvestment Act, among other wealth redistribution efforts, blurred the lines between government and industry and created a moral hazard unseen in human history.  Government “social engineers” provided a huge safety net for mortgage lenders with a quid pro quo provision that certain wealth redistribution tactics would be incorporated into the lending guidelines. Is it any wonder that (a) the system collapsed? and (b) the lenders engaged in REALLY risky behavior?   This “bad parenting” was akin to the cougar mother who trolls bars with her teenage daughter, for casual sexual encounters. Why would we be surprised if the young lady contracted a communicable disease?

Today, mortgage lenders make few, true “free market” loans. One look at the jumbo mortgage market will show that the real cost of mortgage capital is in the 6’s, for borrowers with pristine credit, lots of income, and at least 25% in equity. Ask any Californian looking for a $1,000,000 loan about the costs and hassles associated with a jumbo loan approval. Where did all the creative financing options go? Why won’t an ambitious bank should step up and dominate a profitable niche ?

The private mortgage market just isn’t as profitable as the “government option” right now. Government-subsidized banks have access to really cheap capital (around .5% carrying cost) and can lend it out with a loan guaranty, at 5.5%.  This is less than what the free market is telling us is the “real” retail cost.  If a foreign competitor engaged in this type of behavior, in another industry, it would be gulity of “dumping“.  The government option is creating a “single-payer” system for real estate finance which curbs creativity and innovation.

It’s gonna bite us in the ass….again.

FHA will be “technically insolvent” in two weeks.  The FHA Commissioner is complaining that there a bunch of “bad teenagers” in his home.  He’s wrong; the FHA is a bad parent. Instead of addressing the problems with its lending guidelines, the FHA Commissioner’s solution is to find richer “bad teenagers”.  If we learned anything from the most recent attempt to divorce ourself from government lending, it is that wealthy teenagers just create bigger losses.

What’s the solution?  Kick governments out of lending…for good.  If Governments want to offer home loans as an employee benefit, like teachers and veterans get, they need to originate and fund those loans themselves rather than to offer them as a loan guaranty through the mortgage industry.  We need to kill the “government option” and let healthy lenders develop profitable loan  products .  It’s going to be ugly in the short-term.  A larger liquidity crisis will develop which will accelerate the housing price decline to a ridiculously low level.  Properties will be so cheap that only a fool wouldn’t lend against them-

-that will be the beginning of the profitable private mortgage market.

PS:  You might accuse me of hypocrisy because I originate a lot of government-guaranteed home loans.  As a mortgage originator, my responsibility to my borrowers is to arrange financing at the least costly terms .  As a private citizen, my responsibility is to point out why this system will ultimately fail.  As you can see, I love my job so much that I’m thinking about a solution for the inevitable problem.

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I asked if SMM were dead as a precursor to our session with the Phoenix Association of REALTORs.   A few of y’all mentioned that social media was helpful as a lead generation tool.  I suggested this yesterday and  I want to be perfectly clear about the utility of social sites as lead generation pools.

Serially creating overly commercial, spammy messages on your Facebook status bar is never going to be effective.  Kelley Koelher once said in my Unchained session that you’re supposed to be SOCIAL on social media.

I don’t disagree.  I often liken your behavior on social media like a party, wedding, or community event.  If you showed up to cousin Fred’s wedding and handed out your business card, you should be tossed out on your ear.  If  bride Wilma’s sister asks you “What’s the market doing ?”, it makes sense for you to get her number and reconnect with her a week later.

Now, more than ever, prospecting is paramount to success as a REALTOR.  Consider this video of Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, discussing the shift from marketing to prospecting.

Here are my takeaways:

1. the 8 X 8 is about cementing a relationship.  These can be phone calls, interactive comments on social media sites, e-mails, and postcards.  I think 3-4 different forms of media touches hardens the relationship cement quickly
2. the 33 touch is about saturation.  I can’t stress enough that you must have permission to continue this saturation strategy on a prospective client
3. The monthly newsletter is a non-threatening way to buy brain cells.  My yellow postcard might only be read for the 8 seconds it takes to go from the mailbox to the wastepaper basket but it does get read.  I get calls from it.
4. The principles of direct marketing are more important now than ever. This means that you should ask people questions…directly (eg- do you know any teachers looking to buy their first home?)

How do social media play into this strategy? Here’s a Facebook tactic:

1. Call everyone on your “friends list”
2. Ask them who their REALTOR is in (your town)
3. If they have one, politely move on.  If they don’t, ask if you can adopt them.  If they don’t live in (your town), inform them that you know they’ll refer someone to you one day and want to be know as their (your town) REALTOR
4. Look at their “friends” list for someone whom you find interesting; ask for an introduction

Does that sound creepy? Well, that’s sales, folks.  Lead generation is the MOST important part of your job.  Keller and Papasan suggest that 3 hours of your day be dedicated to lead generation daily.  Can you imagine how supercharged your business would be if you took their advice and optimized the social media contacts you spent years developing?

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Greg Swann and I conducted our super secret stategy session, last week in Phoenix.  The results are in; there will be a one day BloodhoundBlog Unchained Online Marketing Conference in San Diego.

Mark your calendars for Friday, November 13, 2009.  The conference will go from 10AM until 5PM and be held within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center.  We picked this date for a number of reasons:

• we didn’t want to conflict with the scheduled Cyberprofessionals’ meetings
• it’s the day after REBAR Camp
• we can have a happy hour afterwards
• easy fly-in and outs are doable; the location is a short cab ride from the Lindbergh Field (SAN)

The cost will be $49.00.  A $10 discount will be offered to alumni and the Cyberprofessionals.  If you’ve already reserved a spot, we owe you some money.  Expect that refund this week.

Much more information provided later this week; the location will be confirmed by Monday and the schedule will be up on Friday

PS:  if you’re planning on attending the Grand Opening of the NAR Expo,, you’ll  have plenty of time to make it there before the 7PM deadline.

PPS:  There will be limited seating so jump on this when Greg sets up the Paypal link.

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Greg Swann and I are working together, later this week.  We’re meeting in Phoenix to do some video work (mostly Q & A stuff), discuss the what we want BloodhoundBlog Unchained to look like,  and host a discussion about SMM at the  Phoenix Association of REALTORs (with Kerry Melcher).

We KNOW social media marketing works because we’re both busy but we really want to start measuring the efficacy of each effort.  BloodhoundBlog Unchained is a labor of love.  Our profits have been miniscule but we learn so much from the process of hosting the conference.  Hobby or not, we’re still committed to producing the premier three-day workshop, about online real estate and mortgage marketing, in the industry.

One of the reasons Greg and I have such a great partnership is that we approach the same issue from completely opposite camps.  Many of you have seen us “do our bit” about filling the funnel vs. pure pull marketing. I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret; we both practice what the other preaches.

I watched the forced registration issue with great interest.  I’m spending thousands of dollars to have a similar IDX for mortgage rates developed.  Naturally, I want to recoup the thousands as quickly as possible without threatening the customer to the point of having her click away.

I’ve watched people preach expertise about SMM who have never dealt with a bad Yelp rating, never engaged a stranger about their profession on Facebook, and haven’t monitored their blog comments in a year.  We’re all trying to find the highest and best use of our time while providing good content for the stranger who graces our websites with a question.

I want those people to become prospects, then customers, then clients, then sneezing fans but I don’t want to spend all day wired to the laptop or answering questions via e-mail.

Our critical mission is to find out what works and what doesn’t.  Most of the ideas we develop come from questions in these little workshops we do. People ask us questions and Greg and I try to find the answers.  Those answers usually come from you; we observe  what you try, swipe it, and try to improve upon it.

I’d appreciate it if you could answer some questions for me.  If you have any questions, ask ‘em and Greg and I will stick them on our list:

1- How are you engaging with anonymous strangers on the internet?  How are you moving them from the wary question to think of you as a trusted advisor?

2-Which online medium is converting best for you?  …connecting with old friends and customers on Facebook?…meeting local folks on Twitter? …your IDX system?… e-mail marketing?… blogging?

3- Which offline techniques are converting the online relationship?  Why?  When?  How does it work?  More importantly, how does it fail?

4- What social media suck?  Seriously, I found Gather.com and AARP to be a waste of time.  LinkedIn Answers works for me if I jump on the telephone but it is mostly ineffective.  Where did you waste most of your time?

I appreciate your thoughts, insights, and questions.  As always, we’re intrigued with how to make this engine run more efficiently, want to figure it out before everyone else, and share it with the finest group of people on the net; the BHB community.

Many thanks in advance for your contributions.

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“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose“- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Carr, 1849

Hat tip to Matt Graham and Adam Quinones of Mortgage News Daily

You gotta hand it to the powerful Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBAA).  What they lack in imagination, they make up for in chutzpah.  The MBAA released its report “Recomendations for Future Government Role in the Core Secondary Mortgage Market“.  This six page report (the other six pages are pictures and such) essentially suggests that the Federal Government charter “Mortgage Credit Guarantor Entities” (MCGE) with a mission to purchase whole loans from originators and issue securities for purchase by investors.

These MCGE’s will be different from the existing GSE’s inasmuch as they:

• require originators to retain 5% of the risk of the underlying loan values in the form of “set aside” capital
• will be subject to “strong and effective regulatory oversight”
• will only guarantee “core” mortgage products (30 and 15 year fixed rate loans)
• will issue securities with the “explicit” guarantee of the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury rather than the former “implicit” guarantee

The MBAA did recommend that the existing infrastructure of the “outdated” GSEs be used to establish new MCGEs.  It recommends that initially, the number of MCGEs to be established should be…

two or three.

As I’ve said before, I criticize too much.  As a taxpayer, I should be outraged but as a mortgage banker, I’m keeping my mouth shut;

I want to be President of Manny Fae before I retire.

PS:  Read the whole report here.  Pages 5-10 are the meat of the proposal with lots of pretty pictures and footnotes on the other pages.

PPS:  Look for the more powerful National Association of REALTORs (NAR) to offer immediate support for and pledge lobbying efforts  for the establishment of MCGEs

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August 14, 2019  is a sad day for me because I realize that I ruined my family’s future.  Oh, how I wish I would have kept my mouth shut  !

My daughter, a brilliant and accomplished student was rejected by all the Ivy League colleges despite her stellar work in high school.  Each rejection letter said the same thing; ideologically undesirable.  Fortunately, she was accepted at my Alma Mater but her inability to access student loans (she was branded as “ideologically undesirable”) left her with no money for college.

She’ll have an opportunity to attend a State-sponsored college if she successfully completes her mandatory service in Organizing for America.  She’s going to have to keep her mouth shut and tow the line, though.  She is atoning for her 9th grade paper entitled “God Will Provide:  Why We Shouldn’t Fret About Climate Change“.  Her teacher reported her to the Government website and that, combined with my record of dissent, determined her future.  We almost lost her to the Child Education Services Agency with that little transgression.

President Robert Menendez signed the Good Children Can’t Be Left Behind Act of 2017.  That Law taxed the money I’d saved in her 529 plan, at 75%, to support the education of disadvantaged youth and I protested on Twitter.  I suppose my protest was misguided in retrospect.

President Menendez was elected by a sweeping margin when he ran against former Senator Mel Martinez in the first ever race-neutral Presidential election.  Former President Obama signed the Neutrality in Elections Act of 2013 and it was agreed that Presidential elections would be held with a specific race/ethnicity as the qualifying factor, every eight years, so as to offer opportunity to all Americans.  We  The G.O.P originally nominated George P. Bush but his ambiguous ethnicity disqualified him for this particular election; he’ll have his chance in 16 years.

I called that reverse discrimination on Facebook.  A so-called “friend” reported that status update to the Government website and I was heavily fined for that comment six months later.

I mentioned that I was short on cash.  Fed Chairman Summers capped real estate and mortgage brokerage fees at $500/file under the Consumer Financial Protection Act.  I had hoped to land one of the Federal Housing Counselor jobs where I could perform the pre-closing counseling, prior to the 14-day rescission period, because that paid twice as much but I was branded as ideologically undesirable back in 2010.  The fine I incurred for seditious speech, on Mortgage Rates Report, when Fed Chairman Summers was confirmed sealed that fate.

My poor wife was dumb enough to stick with me after she rejected the advances of one of the State Environmental Appraisers, on an inspection for one of our clients.  Had she accepted his proposition, my daughter might be off to Brown University and my wife would be enjoying quarterly vacations in Europe.  Today, she’s stuck with annual stay-cations (we’re not supposed to travel more than 250 miles without a permit) and you already know about my daughter.

All is not completely lost; I have my memories of Bloodhound Blog.  What a lively bunch we were…so full of idealism !  Al used to wave the flag, Greg warned us of the Government-Industrial Complex, Don drew parallels between old movies and political shenanigans, and Sean was sure the Government would zap his brain.  Alas, I realize that those memories must stay in my mind because I can’t afford the luxury of free seditious speech anymore. 

Don’t feel sorry for me, though.  It’s not so bad.  I still have my health (care).

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If you’re considering a reverse mortgage, get it now. The reverse mortgage market is going to blow up as big as the sub-prime market did.  This time, like last, it’s those “durned borrowers” acting differently than the rockets scientists predicted they would.  In the sub-prime market, it was assumed that people would honor the old paradigm:  mortgage payment, car payment, then consumer credit.  Sub-prime borrowers sacrificed the house payment, in order to keep their credit cards active, and the world turned upside-down.

The reverse mortgage borrower is about to screw things up royally; he’s going to live longer than expected….and like sub-prime, that risk is not priced into the current market.

A reverse mortgage is basically a negative amortization, no-payment required loan.  Actuaries consider the borrower’s life expectancy,  discount a reasonable return on the future loan balance, and loan the borrower whatever is remaining.  When the borrower dies, the loan balance can be paid off so that the heirs can “reclaim” the asset or the house is sold.  The deal goes sour when the now 65-year old lives past his expected death date.   Consider that baby-boomers are the healthiest (and largest)  generation; they could add 4-5 years to that life expectancy.

The loans are still being underwritten as if the oldest baby-boomers were just 56 years old.  Throw in the fact that a tremendous amount of home equity evaporated, since, 2007, and you have a recipe for disaster. While you remember the wreckage an uptick in defaults had, on a levered sub-prime secondary market, imagine how those measly four years could cause the Great Recession of 2030, complete with bailouts.

The warehouse lenders know it, too. Ask reverse mortgage originators why a seemingly healthy market turned ill this year and you’ll hear them blame the liquidity crisis.  Reverse mortgage originators will cry that the sub-prime collapse caused warehouse lenders to adopt a bunker mentality, which is killing a healthy mortgage product.  They’ll tell you that their product has NOTHING to do with sub-prime and they’re correct.  Reverse mortgages and sub-prime loans have only one thing in common;

they were both priced on faulty risk models.

PS: A default (in the forward mortgage market) happens when the borrower misses a series of mortgage payments.  A default (in the reverse mortgage market) happens when the borrower doesn’t die quickly enough.  Forget the concept of moral compunction.  How are we gonna foreclose on these future octagenarians,  kill them?

PPS:  There is nothing wrong with this product if you’re a borrower, over 62 years old.  In fact, this may be the cheapest money you’ll ever borrow.  Get it while you can.

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It’s just that I can save 70% by going “blue”:

I’m just a greedy business owner, trying to cut corners, right?

Can you imagine what this is going to do to residential real estate?

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Sean Purcell and I are really figuring VA-guaranteed  jumbo loans.  We’re getting a steady stream of business from high-cost California counties.  One of the common misconceptions is that VA loans are capped at the county loan limit, like FHA and conventional mortgages.  I’m going to walk you through the formula to determine the required down payment and maximum loan amounts for VA jumbo home loans.

STEP ONE:

___Lesser of purchase price or appraised value +

___Add the 100% financing VA funding fee =

___Gross loan amount

STEP TWO:

___ VA county loan limit * (.25) =

___ Veteran’s maximum entitlement * 4 =

___ Maximum VA guaranty (including funding fee)

STEP THREE:

___ Gross loan amount (from step one) * (.25) =

___ Required Guaranty -

___ Veteran’s maximum entitlement (from step 2) =

___ Required down payment

STEP FOUR:

___ Purchase price -

___ Required down payment (from step three) =

___ Base loan amount (before adding funding fee) +

___ Applicable LTV-adjusted VA funding fee =

___ Total loan amount after down payment

Let’s try a $650,000 purchase price in Maricopa County, where the county loan limit is $417,000, for a first-time VA loan user.

STEP ONE:

$650,000 (purchase price) +

$13,975 (2.15% funding fee) =

$663,975 (gross loan amount)

STEP TWO:

$417,000 county loan limit * (.25)=

$104,250 (maximum entitlement) * 4 =

$417,000 (maximum VA guaranty)

STEP THREE:

$663,975 (gross loan amount) * (.25) =

$165,993 (required guaranty) -

$104,250 (maximum entitlement) =

$61,744 (required down payment)

STEP FOUR:

$650,000 (purchase price) -

$61,744 (required down payment) =

$588,256 (base loan amount) +

$8823 (applicable LTV-adjusted funding fee) =

$597,079 (total loan amount after down payment)

Don’t be confused by the entitlement and loan amount; just follow the formula and any VA-approved underwriter will accept your figures.  As you can see, the required down payment, for this example,  is only 9.4%.  I’d probably round it up to an even 10% down payment so that the funding fee would drop to 1.25% instead of 1.5%.  Putting down an extra $3900 saves the veteran $1625 in the funding fee.

Very few jumbo loan programs allow for a down payment of 10% with no mortgage insurance.  This makes the VA-guaranteed jumbo mortgage tough to beat.  The first question you ask for  any loan application should be…

Did you serve ?

It could make a huge difference.  Good luck and good funding.

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Listing agents, considering offers might advise their sellers to counter-offer with a mortgage rate buy-down strategy rather than to reduce the sales price.

We like to help our agents with charts from our Mortgage Lens program.  The chart helps to illustrate the power of leverage, to both the seller and buyer, and gives us a shot at the loan business.

(N.B.- The chart shown doesn’t match the scenario below)

Here’s a scenario designed to meet both the buyers’ and sellers’ objectives:

The property is listed at $300,000; an offer comes in at $283,000.  One of the most important benefits of the lower price, to the buyer, is the lower mortgage payment.  An 80% loan on $300,000 (at 5.25%) would yield a P&I mortgage payment of $1,325.  Lowering the price to $283,000, would lower the loan to $224,000 and the payment to $1250/month.

Consider a mortgage rate buy-down as the counter-offer. For two discount points (about $4800), the seller could reduce the rate to 4.75% and the payment to $1251.  The buyer gets the payment he wants and the mortgage rate buy-down strategy saves the seller some $12,200.

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I’ve been critical of California’s Proposition 13 because of its progressive nature. It penalizes immigrants and younger families to favor older, wealthier nativists.  Howard Jarvis’ intent was to stop the California’s Legislature from its runaway spending; the Legislature did no such thing. In fact, the California Legislature has increased spending, over the past 31 years,  in spite of the intended purpose of Proposition 13.

As much as I think Proposition 13 is bad public policy, I’m glad it’s on the books. The inevitable bankruptcy of California will cause its citizenry to take a hard look at the cost of the Great Social Experiment its Legislature pursued. Jeff Brown and Sean Purcell are subject to my cautionary warnings that the wealth-eating zombies in Sacramento won’t stand for their citizens’ impudence; I believed that one of those ghouls would try to repeal Proposition 13, citing its’ progressive nature.  I was wrong; they hired a henchman.

Meet San Francisco Recorder-Assessor Phil Ting; he wants to change Proposition 13. Phil Ting is spinning his attack on Proposition 13 as corporate welfare. Ting claims that Proposition 13 unfairly benefits commercial property owners at the expense of residential property owners:

Paradoxical to the law’s initial intent, the commercial property loopholes in Proposition 13 have actually shifted the tax burden away from corporations and onto the backs of residential property owners.

For example, look at San Francisco, where I currently serve as assessor- recorder. Thirty years ago, commercial property owners contributed 59 percent of property tax revenues and residential property owners contributed 41 percent. Today, we see a virtual flip: commercial property owners contributed just 43 percent of property taxes in 2008, while residential property owners contributed 57 percent.

Sounds reasonable,  right?  Bear in mind that Ting called the Catholic Church a tax deadbeat for reapportioning its parish properties to local control, a measure all California Catholic Dioceses are enacting.  This politically-motivated measure was payback for the Church’s involvement in a ballot initiative this past November.  Ting’s the perfect hired gunslinger for the California Left.

Liberal, spend and try-to-tax legislators are trying desperately to figure out how to circumvent the will of California voters  so that they can maintain The  Great Social Experiment; Phil Ting’s their cowboy.

California is so broke its issuing its own currency . We have two options in the Golden State:  cut expenses or raise revenues.  Look for more politicians to jump on Ting’s bandwagon and try to repeal Proposition 13 to fill up the coffers.

” Repeal Prop 13 or file Chapter 13 ! ” will be their rallying cry.  I’m voting for the latter.

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