Category: Real Estate (page 138 of 266)

by Jim Duncan

Realtor, Real Estate Ethicist

Author website

Last week on my blog I noted what would happen if my local real estate market were to become a “declining market.”

This week brings a perspective from the Washington Post and the Consumerist that “declining markets” equate “redlining.”

Redlining:

Redlining refers to the illegal practice of refusing to make residential loans or imposing more onerous terms on any loans made because of the predominant race, national origin, etc., of the residents of the neighborhood in which the property is located.  Redlining violates both the FH Act and the ECOA.

Does the determination that a particular neighborhood or area has declining values really equate racial redlining, or are the lenders using good judgement (something they seemed to have been lacking over the past few years)?

Race is a tricky and always delicate topic, but I just don’t see the parallel between declining values and race.

One of the folks at FortiusOne sent me a link to this map showing the counties listed by Countrywide as declining.

by Odysseus

Big, Beautiful Bloodhound

Author website

The power supply on my Mac has bee acting flaky for weeks. Last night it finally died the true death, so I have to take it to the Apple Store to get it swapped out.

So there are three special prizes in my CrackerJack box:

• No Mac
• Windows instead
• A delay in the judging of The Odysseus Medal competition

I’m guessing that enough people will be in the thrall of the Super Bowl that I won’t be missed. (For my own part, I think football could only be improved if the games were played in national forests. With Redfin agents as the referees.)

In any case, like the Phoenix herself, I’ll be back to normal shortly.

 
Amending this: Monday afternoon, he sobbed. I’ll do the Odysseus Medal tomorrow night, using Noon today as the cut-off for this week’s nominees. My apologies. In the mean time, it’s like I’m in Vegas — limited connectivity — but without the views or the liquour.

by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Being just slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, taxes are of great import to me. I believe in principles long established. One of them is small government works better for its citizens than large government. Lower taxes are better than higher taxes as long as the bills are being paid, our military is strong enough to deter aggressors, and basic constitutional government functions are adequately funded.

One of the breakthrough economic theories to be proven in the red hot fire of real life application has been the Laffer Curve. Arthur Laffer’s theory was adopted as fundamental to economic recovery by Ronald Reagan during his 1980 presidential campaign.

I’ll let the video below speak for itself, but will allow myself a few pithy observations.

The first time the Laffer Curve Theory was applied tax revenues skyrocketed. The U.S. Treasury’s own records show revenues generated from the early 1980’s tax cuts went up an aggregate 95%. The period measured was the time Reagan took office until he left office — just short of double in eight years. I expect this will be shown in Parts II and III when they’re released.

Actually, the first time the theory was applied was before anyone, including Laffer himself had even thought of the Laffer Curve. It was John Kennedy who cut the top marginal rate from (I’m not making this up.) about 90.5% (!) down to a paltry 70%. The reason Kennedy used was that it would spur the economy, and increase the actual tax dollars collected. Go figure. History shows he was dead on right. That top rate remained until Reagan cut it to 28% over two decades later.

Opinion — If we ever get income taxes, capital gains taxes, and corporate taxes where they belong, and combine them with cuts (elimination?) in the fat of government spending — we’ll see an economic surge that will make the Reagan boom look like a blip on the screen. But alas, I daydream. Cockroaches as a species will die before pork barrel spending does.

Opinion — Together with the significant liquidity increases in both the U.S. and European Read more

by Geno Petro

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

High Body Count

1+1=3…A Mastermind Alliance. I first learned of this concept over 20 years ago during one of many telemarketing seminars I attended as a tenderfoot insurance salesman. I can’t recall which one exactly, but I’m certain the motivational speaker cashed my post-dated check—a sign up now and pay later gimmick included in the 2 week Increased Performance Guarantee.  My office buddy and Mastermind phoning partner Sam, however, bounced his post-dated check and eventually got sent to a collection agency before escaping  the business for good without ever making a nickle, or for that matter, an appointment as an insurance man.

This was all back in a time when I truly wanted to believe that ‘No‘ meant ‘K.N.O.W; the ‘Client’ (person on a list) really needed to know more to make the ultimate buying decision; and a shoeshine and a handshake?….well shucks, “I just want to earn your business, Mr Fencestraddler.”  Somehow, even though I tried to fancy myself a believer, all the sales talk never sounded quite right coming out of my own mouth.  And even though I had long since left the business at the time, I publicly applauded the Do Not Call legislation of 2003 and all the crappy jobs and unrealized frustration it eliminated from people’s lives.

My Sales Manager, a guy named Charlie who initially recruited me into the business, called me in for a chat one morning after three months on the job. He had a picture window above his cherry wood credenza that overlooked a dense forest preserve behind the office. His three remaining walls were plastered with ceremonial photographs, sales award plaques, and framed certificates, all about him. He had an electric shoe buffer next to his cherry wood desk and a full length mirror behind his door with a sign above that read: Would You Hire This Person?

A few months earlier he convinced me to give the insurance business a try.  He and one of his trainees sold me a rinky dink burial policy one snowy night–a ritual in itself that lasted three solid hours and culminated with my signature and a check for the first month’s premium just as Letterman was coming on the tube and my dinner withered to ash in the oven. My ‘belief in the product,’  he said, was ‘the Read more