Jed Lane; Fog City Guide

Antolin,

There is no messiah, no one is coming to solve it all and lead the believers to rapture. Obama is just the better of the two choices here now. I'd still rather have grown up in his family than in the rigidity of the elite military family. Life experience is beneficial.

Obama had a young life that, like a steel plant forged his personality to be inclusive and empathetic. McCains young life had an absent, autocratic, patriacal father with a subserviant female role model that most likely would never allow for emapthy or anyother divergent view to be held or uttered. He did nothing well, everything was forced on him and he accepted his legacy with reluctance and petty rebellion. This man is the ultimately the "good little soldier" and he can be counted on to obey the commands of the military industrial complex just as the "decider" has.

A little thing like real estate and the Realtors that make thier living leading clients become homeowners won't matter to McCain at all, ever.

Which would you rather have as a leader in these times. A dogmatic, narrow minded rich man or a dynamic, intelligent, well eduactaed, open minded natural leader. - Tue Oct 14 2008, 09:07

Tom,
First point in my view is that your wrong to believe in the free market. Unfettered capitalism allows greed to overcome rational speculation. Examples would be Enron, junk bonds, the mess that Wall Street has made by parsing loans in such a way that not even a rocket scientist could figure out from the documents exactly what the buyer was buying.
Backing up to how we found ourselves in the position we are in today. The price of real estate started to rise in the mid '90's due to a construction slowdown after the previous downturn caused by the dergulation of the savings and loans. Supply is tight and tech is really starting to boom. The internet has opened the imagination of the public and all idicies look good. The deficit is shrinking during the Clinton years and good times rule.
Wall Street wants a piece of the interest rate action so they begin funding loans marketed through mortgage brokers. Prices continue to rise due to the low interest rates and rising incomes. GW comes into the picture after the tech bust. Wall Street money pulls out of the stock market and chases real estate loan interest. Low interest rates, and lots of money competing to be used allowed people that shouldn't have qualified to qualify for loans. Products that should have been used by sophisticated borrowers were given to people that didn't know what a neg-am was. The payment was doable now and if the equity continued to rise all will be good.
Because the originator of the loan didn't hold it and there was loose regulation if any the loans were sold as an interst rate with a risk factor. If you held a mortgage backed security, you didn't have a lein on the property because you owned a slice of several loans that were packaged together along similar risk factors and interest rates believing that they were vetted before being originated. Sucka
Now the bottom borrowers start to default. Why? I think history will show it was an awakening to the fact that the GW adminisration lied over and over. The Iraqi occupation, drugs that killed came on the market (Vioxx) they were torturing people, our standing in the world was beiing eroded and it was obvious that Blackwater and Halliburton were plunderig the treasury with no bid contracts in the occupation that the people had been lied to about. Lack of consumer confidence is the major indicator of our market. If confidence is down the bug decisions are put off.
To restore that confidence we need a leader that is as smart as we can get. Someone that can show the dynamism of the American spirit. We will be better off with Barak Obama than John McCain. Ask yourself which man's journey is more inspiring. John was born into a military elite family. He rebeled against hhis heritage but never to the point of actually declaring himself seperate from it. He just acted out like most of the privilaged kids I knew growing up. It wasn't untill he got his plane shot down and he was captured that he realized he had a backbone and he could be a leader. What did John do with his leadership ability beside keep up the morale of other POW's in what surely was a hellish situation. did he come back and denounce war or even that war like some did or did he trade that for a position as an elite legislator? Did he ever prevent other kids from having to go die in war. Did he speak out against the military industrial complex? Did he work with the underprivilaged in any meaningful face to face way?

Barak was born to s single, strong-willed woman who by all measures of her generation was a seeker of a more righteous life than the conventional mid-western life. His father was a brilliant young African risiing star who was bekieved to be one of the leaders of Africa after the colonial period ended. He was not born into a tradition that he would rebel against in petty ways. He was born and raised with the self-determining seeker attitude of his mother and his father. He was exposed to multiple cultures and life experiences leading to a well rounded empathetic man that has had an elite education and yet rolled up his sleeves to go into the poorest neighborhoods to do good work for the people that live there.
Who would you rather have represent you in the world? A man that grew up eleite and only found his backbone in pne of the most hellish situations imaginable but has yet to decry the use of torture by our government or a man who has lived in different cultures, has sought the nature of humanity and incorporated it into his person.
Who would you have more confidence in? Who will the rest of the world have more confidence in as a leader?
I say get rid of the current adminstration and lock the treasury doors. They have plundered enough. (I be the Carlisle group is buying bad debt as we speak and then will sell it to the treasury for a profit). - Mon Oct 13 2008, 09:41

Michell writes;
WOW leave your own political views aside and really think about it. This housing market was created by everyone in this country democrat and republican. Every president, every senator, every city councilman, every buyer and every seller. We did it as a collectiver group because we did not regulate housing or banking to the exent we should have.
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We did not all participate in this and you need to understand the function of government better. We can't regulate housing and banking. Markets that are deregulated end up like this or Enron. Unbrideled capitalism eats it's young every time.
The current administration has cut the versight of so many functions of the government in the past eight years it is scary. One example; the army when occupying a country as we are in Iraq, is supposed to be able to protect itself, feed itself, and protect American civilain or diplomatic personel. Not in the Bush Cheney world. No we hire Halliburton, KBR and Balckwater to provide all of those functions. No bid contract and Balckwater is not subject to our laws or the laws of Iraq.
I work on emergency response issues here in earthquake country and if the Bush Cheney style of government is in place when we have a major earthquake I can realistaclly see Blackwater being sent in because FEMA is not funded. Scary!

Cathy writes;
I don't like Nancy Palosi and the Dems that control Congress. I may vote against Obama because I am concerned about putting one party in complete control and did I mention I don't like the Speaker of the House. Congress has the worst approval rating ever. I am more concerned that if Obama wins he will be a one term President because of the congressional crowd and Washington will run amuck and become too liberal more like Nancy Palosi.
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As a centrist Democrat myself and a supporter of Nancy Pelosi for many years methinks that Cathy has been listening to the wrong sources. Speaker Pelosi is a centrist democrat who is being challenged because she would not seek the impeachment of GW for lying and leading us into a war to overthrow the Iraqi government and occupy the oil feilds.
She is a pragmitist and a realist. She believes strongly in the values of America. The ones that the founding fathers used that were so radical at the time. Personal freedom, the golden rule, being moralistic and trying to be on the right side of conflict or stay out. Those progressive American ideals.

If you think McCain is a capapble leader just look at his choice of runnnig mate. He chose her because she is a woman. But there are more qualified women to choose from and for my money the winnig choice would have been Condelezza Rice. Imagine how hard it would be to beat a war hero and the current Secretary of State. He made the wrong choice probably after being advised by the wrong people. People that want to continue to control our governemt and empty the treasury. so he is controlable and not too smart.

I want people in positions of power because they are smart. I don't care what demographic they come from I want smart people at the helm. Sarah Palin may be tenacious and she might even be bright but she is being handled and before that she was a nobody. - Sun Sep 21 2008, 13:39

Althoug I agree that it depends on your goals. Thre are some things to consider. One that few look at is the vacancy factor. If your tenent is gone from the single family you have lost 100% of your rental income. If you have a 3 unit and one is vacant you're down only 33% of your rental income.

If the rents are low you have some upside that either you can realize or you can offer to the next buyer.

Single family homes are not subject to all the rent control that multi family is in SF but they are subject to the state's and city's eviction controls. They are seperate and many don't realize that.

Beth, I can help you do the analysis and discuss your goals. I am a fan of triple-net leased commercial property for real estate investment. With that property investment you own the real estate but the tenent takes care of all the typical landlord responsibilities. No toilets, trash or tenent headaches. - Wed Oct 8 2008, 11:32

The link has expired so I can't get the address. Trulia is getting some advertisements that are come-on postings.

If this is a city hall steps buy, you need to have vast experience and considerable resources and time to buy successfully. Payment must be in cash or cashiers check and in full on the steps. No contingencies and no backing out. Mnost of the time whenever I've gone there the sale is postponed or the lender sets a reserve price based on loan amount and obviously the property isn't worth the loan amount or the owner would have sold it. - Wed Oct 8 2008, 11:24

So I'd be interested to hear what Marty S knows about TIC loans and how often Irivine CA has TIC properties for sale.

Share with us you experience and how you can help Rocky Marty. - Tue Oct 7 2008, 12:41

The conforming limit right now for the "conforming jumbo" is $729,750. The other is $417,000. TIC finacning is a different catagory though. The TIC financing is commercial rates not residential. Therefore you will pay a higher interest rate and you will also have a restricted market for financing, both puirchase and refinance. Typically one lender wants all the loans on the property.

Waiting might be benficial and then it might not. We are in very uncertain times with forces moving markets that seem to be beyond anyones comprehension. My advice to you would be to look for as long a term loan that you can presently afford and not to bank on refi or appreciation. Look for long term shelter and stability. - Tue Oct 7 2008, 10:15

Ed,
It is my understanding, although I'm not an attorney, that for a lease to be valid it has to be a "habitable space". So if there is no CO then you would be likely to prevail. COntact the rent board with all your documentation and if they can't answer all your questions then contact an attorney to look at the lease. What you are looking for are promises made by the owner that are not being met.
The issue with electrical and plumbing permits might not mean much. They don't show up on the 3R report and are many times included in the overall permit. The CO is everything.
The CO is needed for each unit individually.
In everything you stste there is no reason given as to why you want out. - Sun Oct 5 2008, 10:09