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The 10 Best and Worst Real Estate Practices {AOL Real Estate}
Aug 26th 2011 7:01PM One thing no real estate agent will tell you now is how many homes in the neighborhood you are looking in are technically in default. If you knew for instance that 10% of the homes in the area you were looking at were essentially "Shadow inventory" you probably wouldn't offer what the agent says is the going "market" rate. Many people who have bought in the last 4 years are now as upside down as people who bought at the top of the market because of the erosion of value caused by shadow inventory coming to light. Find out how many homes are in default in any area you are considering as you could easily find yourself 10 to 30% overvalued within a couple of years if you don't. Have fun with the real estate agent, watch them fumble around telling you they can't find out how many defaults are in the area, or how those defaults may turn into short sales or re-fi's and so can't be depended on as potential drags on local home values. They'll be lying and crying, but that's what they do for a living anyway.
Candie's Double Standard? The Sexy Approach to Preventing Teen Pregnancy {MyDaily}
Apr 8th 2011 10:32AM My sister likes to call those real high, high heels that Candies sells "Catch me, fxxk me shoes." She says that wearing a pair of shoes you can hardly walk in, much less run in, is advertising helplessness and availability, sort of like a crippled antelope is a billboard advertising lunch to a hungry predator. The end result of years of standing on tippy toes in high heels is of course eventual deformity of the feet which reminds one of the old Chinese practice of foot binding. Oh yes, it makes a gals legs look longer and positions her stance, slightly forward with her bottom raised in perpetual invitation eerily reminiscent of our nearest relatives. It's alluring, sort of like a female Bonobo inviting casual social intercourse for a morsel of food. Yep, there is nothing sexier than a chick that can't get away. Insofar as Bristol Palin as the face of abstinence goes, there isn't really any disconnect, crazy is as crazy does, part of what makes sexuality so enticing is it's restriction, the greater the taboo, the more enticing it is to break.
Creative Ways to Say: I QUIT! {AOL Jobs}
Jul 10th 2010 1:39PM A friend of mine called me up to be a Saturn (car) salesman. I'd had the highest CSI (customer service index) at my old dealership and wasn't working because I was living off my investments. I thought, OK, I'm not that busy, a little bored so I'd like to sell cars again and apparently they needed some help, the dealership was in danger of losing it's franchise because their CSI was so low. I got to the dealership and it was a trip! Salespeople on the floor were all juiced up on something (coke/speed?) and acted really weird. No one was making any money either, the top salesman was only selling 8 cars a month! Most were only selling 1-3 cars a month. The salespeople were so jacked up that they'd get mad at each other and have fist fights in the parking lot. I was threatened on the first day I was there by the #1 salesman, he warned me that I better not mess with him or he'd get even. I was shocked, I'd only been there 2 hours, didn't know anyone's name and this guy was already promising to do dark things to me for unknown slights and insults! Even stranger, it was a new car dealership but they only had 13 new cars! They'd apparently refused a shipment of cars and so they didn't have any new cars, just these used ones that they priced at 3 grand over Blue Book and hadn't even been cleaned. You'd find old pencils and pay stubs, all kinds of personal articles in the consoles and glove boxes. Things only got worse 2 weeks later when the manager that had hired me was fired too. I was there for another 4 weeks and management changed (I forget) 2 or 3 more times. I started going into work out of perverse curiosity, I didn't need the money but it was fascinating to watch this train wreck, I'd come in to see who was the boss today and what the salespeople were going to do. The last boss was really a trip! He was this ex-boxer who on his first day (with the new general manager watching) gave the most interesting sales speech I'd ever heard. The title of the speech (I kid you not) was F the customer. My jaw dropped and I looked at my buddy (who'd gotten me the job) and couldn't beleive it, at a Saturn dealership we were having a sales meeting where the line manager was telling the guys "F the Customer, he's keeping money out of your pocket, food off of your table, he's jerking you around and I want you to bend him over the car and just F him!" The top salesguy took this message to heart and sold some poor lady a used Saturn Ion, with 50,000 miles on it, for $13,000 dollars. Amazingly, considering we only had 3 new Saturn Ions, we actually had the same identical car on the lot brand new, for $13,800 before rebates and other incentives. They held this guy up like a god because the profit on the car had been $8,000.00! Anyway, Saturn was going to have a big corporate meeting with all the local Saturn dealerships in attendance, it was going to be a motivational sales meeting. I went to the meeting and saw the new general manager and sat right next to him. They actually had a moment where everybody could go around and share a "Saturn" moment about their dealership. I stood up and told the whole story I just put down here to the whole room, the corporate people too. The new general manager turned purple with shame and tried to weasel out of some of my claims but the other salespeople from my dealership verified everything I said and even added to it! It was all for naught though, Saturn was on it's way out and they'd apparently stopped caring about their image (this was the LA area). I went back to work two days later (after my scheduled days off) and it was so weird, everyone there knew that I'd completely exposed the weird outfit that was running the dealership. It took them 5 more days to let me go, I'd only sold 6 cars that month and so they terminated me for non-performance. They told me to go clean out my desk and acted surprised when I told them I didn't need to, I'd never put anything personal in or on it. The sad thing is though that it was the last time I ever sold cars. I really liked selling cars, with my old Saturn dealership (I'd quit to pursue artistic projects) I'd helped alot of people get transportation that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to get. I was able to make money and actually help people. They weren't always the fanciest, fastest or sexiest cars but they were pretty reliable and inexpensive. I got to sell a few nice used cars too, it was always fun. I hated my experience at the other dealership, I hated what they put their sales staff though, alot of those guys would have made more money if they'd been less conflicted about what they were doing, or if they'd been taught to sell right. I lost my interest is selling cars after that.
Lease-to-Own Lure: Alleged Real Estate Scam Preyed on Absentee Owners {Rented Spaces}
Jun 8th 2010 3:57PM I got caught by a scammer just like this. He was a genuine seeming person, had all sorts of bank statements showing substantial amounts of money and his real estate agent (who I knew) vouched for him up and down as being Mr. Perfect. She even had a credit report showing him as a solid 700 score (bogus). Even better he was a contractor and I was looking to hire someone to renovate my other house. He didn't just want to rent, he wanted to rent to buy. Now at this time (and still) real estate market values were plummeting and so I had some reservations. Even though he signed on for the Fair Market Value of the property at the time I felt a little bad because I figured values were going to continue to decline. However, with credit for rent paid I guessed that the rent received would equal the decline in value and we could still strike a bargain at a reduced price later if he didn't choose to excercise his option.(man I was wrong, the prices dropped 80%!) He really did seem nice and I was very hopeful that we would become business partners and friends. If things worked out I could get him plenty of other jobs through other associates I knew, I even referred him for a painting job. I also called his references and now wonder if it wasn't him on the line pretending to be someone else. He showed up and only had one check for the first months rent and wanted the keys. Wisely, I said, "No, not until I get the security deposit." He hemmed and hawed about how his money was on hold as he established a new account in town but I held firm. He then showed up with the second check from his real estate agent for the security. I thought that was a little odd, I'd never known a real estate agent to advance funds for a client, but the agent confirmed she was advancing the funds but could I hold the check for a week until he got his funds transferred? I'd worked with this agent before and she did do some weird hinky things like this so I said OK and handed over the keys. I too didn't cash the checks first and guess what, both were bad, his was a closed account and his real estate agents had insufficient funds. Well, 3 months later I finally finished eviction and he disappeared after selling off the washer and dryer and trashing the house. I was fortunate though in that his rush to get into the house and subsequent going south kept me from doing any renovation work with him. His real business was running renovation scams, he would start work, hire guys and not pay them, then stop work and try to get more money to finish and disappear. Then he started forging checks (some of which he wanted me to cash(I didn't) and give him the money even though he had already dropped bad paper on me) on other people he'd roped in and even managed to get American Express to add him to several business accounts just by fast talking AMEX over the phone. He'd then run up the card and split. He also completely furnished his house with one of those rental furniture places and stiffed them and stole the flat screen TV's and computers he rented. What a mess. Nothing as bad as what those wall street crooks did to me but still, it was more personal.
Virgin Atlantic's pervy new in-flight cocktail {Gadling}
Jun 6th 2010 3:31PM I always have the 5 hour energy drink before a flight because it doesn't have a crash later.
Glenn Beck Tells NRA Members: Fight the 'Marxists' at the Polls {Politics Daily}
May 16th 2010 1:56PM It's just crazy to hear these people rant about marxism and socialism when their boy, G.W.Bush was the guy who merged public and private capital to bail out the banks. Essentially that's what communism is about, combining public and private money and allocating it to the common good. All this nonsense about marxism, communism, socialism has obviously gone by the wayside now, the theoretical right wing is as left as it can get, it's just that instead of merging public and private capital for the good of the many it is done for the good of the few, the top shareholders of B of A, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Chase ect.... And all the cockamamie stuff about churches emptying out isn't because of some sort of plot, it's because theologies cannot keep up with real time change because they are frozen by the precepts of the past. The last 200 years have brought an era of discovery and change both socially and technologically that has over run the constraints of fundamentalist, frozen, stagnant thought. All the fundamentalist sects are feeling it as they are abandoned in favor of what is frankly, the new reality. We live now in a world that is smaller, closer, more dangerous and crowded than ever before. To pretend that we can live like our ancestors did even a century ago is not an option, nor practical. As such the fundamentalists of the world are lashing out, trying to turn the clock back, to bring us into another dark age. I personally applaud our current administration for so valiantly trying to manage the implosion economically and socially that has been brought on by the nonsensical superstitious and incompetent conservative movement. Obama shows great integrity, patience and honor by listening and trying to create a dialouge with the party of NO and their crackpot rabble rouser final solutionists. I look forward to the future now, whereas before I was very discouraged.
Sarah Palin Tells NRA Convention Obama Would Ban Guns if He Could {Politics Daily}
May 15th 2010 1:50AM I think and fear that Palin is possibly becoming seen as a crack pot, nut case, attention whore and it only happens because of of all the strange stuff that is attributed to her. I think it must be the drive by left wing media putting words in her mouth. No person could possibly say so many stupid things or be so convincingly unreliable. I don't really beleive she resigned from the governorship of Alaska, that hoax must be put to rest! I don't even think her daughter was really pregnant, or her last child has downs syndrome. These lies must stop! There should be an investigation into who is attributing all these odd things to Sarah Palin!
JaMarcus Russell Released by Raiders {Fanhouse NFL Blog}
May 7th 2010 2:03AM He should go into investment banking next. The losers there get bonus's, government bailouts and paydays that make NFL stuff seem puny.
Top al-Qaeda Leaders Killed in Iraq {Politics Daily}
Apr 19th 2010 2:39PM OK. So the Sunni resistance has successfully been dealt a set-back by the shiite Iranian/Iraqi coaliton. However, it really doesn't mean a thing because the game is to keep us futilely engaged in proxy Iraq/Afghanistan frontless wars, pouring in treasure and manpower for as long as is possible in two theaters of combat so as to erode our ability to respond to Iranian nuclear ambition. Everyday, we get played, paying our enemy/allies and buying time with our casualties. What suckers we are! George Bush!
Army to Court Martial Officer Who Doubts Obama Was Born in U.S. {Politics Daily}
Apr 14th 2010 10:31PM I'm so glad to see that the war is still in the news. It's going really well too, it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon and there's even a good chance that it will soon be the main source of employment for the youth of America. I just don't understand why everybody doesn't want to go right now. I mean, talk about an experience. Living in Afghanistan is like camping out all the time! What fun! And what characters those Afghani's are, bogus elections, corrupt, drug lords, heroin capital of the world. It's not often a kid from America gets to go to a place to far away and different! The whole country only has one semi-paved road! Where the sense of danger just makes the experience so fulfilling. Wow, I'm just like Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney, I wish I could go but darn, just can't and am too busy at home. It's gotta be cool though, driving around in humvee's, dodging IED's (or not), dealing with people who hate your guts just because you didn't come from their bombed out looking village that never has had plumbing, clean water or even a medical facility. Imagine seeing a culture that just wants you dead! It's just like a video game for keeps, plus you can cut loose and possibly kill someone too! Legally! Get a medal for it. Imagine, killing some poor hillbilly who never had a drink, a girl, danced, listened to music, or had electricity. It'd be like putting him outta his misery. I'm just so glad that those people are getting democracy, boy do they ever need it. Maybe once they get it together they'll actually let their girls learn to read, maybe even the boys too. What a great place! I'm so glad we own it now! I've been thinking, hey, I'm getting old, maybe I could get hooked on heroin now that it'll be getting cheaper. There's just nothing bad you can say about Afghanistan. It provides employment, it makes jobs here at home and abroad, it's like a billion dollar a week workfare project where nothing ever really gets done. If we keep at it, in another hundred years they may even have 2 paved roads!
