Notes from the Peanut Gallery

I have been enjoying the fray caused by Greg’s post Wednesday inviting one and all to Bloodhound Unchained in November, ... is common among common people.  I used to work with a mortgage broker whose office spent $150,000 per ... , but I do have 2 listings coming online in September).  Suffice to say I am not a big volume hitter.  As I said previously [more...]

Date: 2008-09-12 17:15:51

Blog posts (536) | Videos (83)
 

Chasing A Moving Target

A: A post for the sellers out there after getting some calls recently about this topic. If I had one piece of advice to Manhattan sellers, especially those who own properties that have few special resale features to offer (amazing park or river views, large outdoor space, fireplace, roof rights, amazing location, etc..) [more...]

Date: 2008-12-11 14:25:31

Economic shock and awe

George Will:FDR's hyperkinetic New Deal created uncertainties that paralyzed private-sector decision making. Which sounds familiar.Bear Stearns? Broker a merger. Lehman Brothers? Death sentence. The $700 billion is for cleaning up toxic assets ... have been plentiful. The Republican message for the foreseeable future is three words: "It won't work." [more...]

Date: 2008-11-30 13:53:00

Financial Options for Cash Strapped Seniors

 (Greak Neck, N.Y.) In today’s troublesome economy, many seniors are affected by rising prices and are no longer able to make ends meet with their limited fixed incomes.   A severe medical condition or emergency household repairs can be fiscally devastating to those who do not have significant savings on hand [more...]

Date: 2009-01-07 20:46:23

Another Sad Quarter Ending for Brokerages

The coming end of August will bring to a close the fifth consecutive ugly fiscal period for major investment banking firms. In what has become an all-too-familiar pattern, the waning weeks of the three-month period are marked with jittery trading, rumors of asset sales, and steady declines in earnings estimates from analysts who managed, [more...]

Date: 2008-08-22 08:23:00

Fed?s Stern Optimistic on Treasury Plan to Buy Assets

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern said Thursday he is “cautiously optimistic” about the recently passed Treasury plan to buy ... -related investments from the market in a bid to get the financial system trading openly again. Stern ... of inflation, absent a resurgence in energy and other commodity prices.” He added that inflation [more...]

Date: 2008-10-09 10:52:00

Feds Come Out Of Coma; Say Mortgage Crisis Worse Than They Thought

It’s like one of those TV shows where after an entire season in which everything goes wrong for the star, he finally awakes to find it was all just a bad dream–everything was just fine! Only, in this case, what we have are government officials who have been saying repeatedly that the economy is not as bad as we think but now, [more...]

Date: 2008-07-09 11:15:07

Henry Poole is Here

All Henry Poole wants to do is to be left alone. In most neighborhoods, this would not be a problem, but, in this unpretentious LA neighborhood, for some odd reason, people care. It begins with his perky real estate broker Meg, (Cheryl Hines) who is baffled by Henry’s insistence on buying a certain home which isn’t on the market [more...]

Date: 2008-08-29 06:00:51

Henry Poole is Here

All Henry Poole wants to do is to be left alone. In most neighborhoods, this would not be a problem, but, in this unpretentious LA neighborhood, for some odd reason, people care. It begins with his perky real estate broker Meg, (Cheryl Hines) who is baffled by Henry’s insistence on buying a certain home which isn’t on the market [more...]

Date: 2008-08-30 06:00:51

A Nail In The Coffin In California

The LA Daily News reports from California. “For weeks, mortgage banker Ben Marsh has been swamped with questions from clients worried about losing their homes in this bad economy. ‘What should I do? What should I do?’ they have asked Marsh, who has offered up several options, including renting out a room to help cover the mortgage [more...]

Date: 2008-11-08 16:40:24

Re: What is a “Sustainable and Durable” Ceasefire?

Rick, it’s not a good sign when the State Department adopts environmentalist jargon to address military conflicts ... that we see in Al Gore’s plan to save the future of mankind through the use of “eco-friendly” light ... by a reporter, Rice said she had no plans to visit the Middle East to broker peace in the waning days [more...]

Date: 2009-01-02 18:07:48

Carbon Trading: A $64 Billion Economy And Growing

Josh Margolis keeps a grueling schedule, brokering deals between buyers and sellers and forecasting how government actions could affect his clients ... company CantorCO2e, Margolis is part of an exploding branch of finance in a new commodity: carbon ... going to have a carbon trading system in the near future.” He notes that the president-elect supports [more...]

Date: 2008-12-20 06:59:27

How to Read a Stock Chart in Just Five Seconds

Whenever I tune into CNBC, I’m usually blown away with the raw amount of data thrown at me. For the average person, there’s no way to separate what’s useful from what isn’t, so people often rely on the pundits to tell them. I’d prefer not to do that - I know from my experiences in following politics obsessively that pundits rarely are telling the [more...]

Date: 2008-10-07 14:00:52

MLS 5.0 - Peeling The Onion

Commenting on this post might make you feel all tingly inside like when you sit on a massage chair or put a battery on your tongue.   The MLS 5.0 (as Saul Klein and others are calling it) is being pitched as a much-needed, national parcel-based repository of data controlled by NAR with an “easy” single point of entry [more...]

Date: 2008-08-18 20:13:27

Unforeseen Repercussions All Around In Florida

The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. “Here in the eye of the nation’s financial storm, the Fed sits motionless, watching as inflation rises at the quickest rate in 17 years and home prices fall faster than any time since the Great Depression. Economists say this rare mix of consumer inflation and housing deflation has everyone in a bind [more...]

Date: 2008-08-07 14:10:02

Thinkorswim, The Best Broker

by Walter Fox There was a time when people have not been relaxed credit financial institutions because of its stringent conditions ... , its customers around the world. They are well-known consultants in the field of futures and options trading ... and found stock option trading and currency trading to be very fruitful. More people jumped into the fray [more...]

Date: 2008-12-19 09:09:37

Real Estate Ghost Story

  From the archives. Pity me not but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold. Hamlet, Act 1 Scene V (Ghost) This is a true story ... Victorian at 1 LaVeta Place at the end of a Dead End street. The listing broker, Ellis Realty, wrote ... out of the deal. The Stambovskys called the broker and asked for their money back. “No way”, said [more...]

Date: 2008-11-01 00:22:28

The World Is Not Ever Going To Be Like It Was

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. “ACORN, an advocacy organization representing low-income communities, staged a rally at a Wachovia branch at Mission and First streets in San Francisco on Wednesday, with about 30 people calling on the bank to be more flexible in adjusting loan terms to prevent foreclosures [more...]

Date: 2008-09-04 19:48:00

Creative Financing In Large Real Estate Transactions

I have a friend who has fallen on hard times, and he owns home that is (was) worth well over $1M. Like most Americans, he has the home pretty well leveraged, in fact owing much more on it that it is worth today. As you can suspect, his moral is low right now and he does not know what to do [more...]

Date: 2008-10-10 12:38:03

How are they doing now?

After yesterday’s less than stellar day on Wall Street, I couldn’t help but think of this post that I wrote back in October 2006. A mortgage broker had a suggestion for his clients on how to deal with a cooling housing market ... do so at lower prices. What does this mean to me? Now is the time to think about the future [more...]

Date: 2008-10-07 13:00:22

Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference New York City 2008

Foreclosure.com Founder, President and CEO, Brad Geisen, was today a featured speaker at the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C ... investor, developer, broker and property asset manager who has launched multiple businesses ... a virtual portfolio empire that includes several of the stickiest online real estate destinations available [more...]

Date: 2008-09-25 18:41:16

Somebody Was Asleep At The Switch In Florida

The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. “Sorrento Springs, an upscale development amid the lush, rolling pastureland of rural Lake County…has an 18-hole golf course, a resortlike clubhouse, tennis courts, walking trails and neat rows of two-story, earth-toned homes with architectural flourishes. Now it is rife with foreclosures [more...]

Date: 2008-07-22 13:28:03

Real Estate Ghost Story

From the archives. Pity me not but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold. Hamlet, Act 1 Scene V (Ghost) This is a true story ... Victorian at 1 LaVeta Place at the end of a Dead End street. The listing broker, Ellis Realty, wrote ... out of the deal. The Stambovskys called the broker and asked for their money back. “No way”, said [more...]

Date: 2008-11-01 00:33:34

Taking Discounts As A Way To Liquidate Property

The Palm Beach Post from Florida. “Homeowner Chentella Harper-Graham fell behind on her mortgage payments after a one-two punch to her pocketbook. Her husband lost his job as a clerk at a law firm, and she became caretaker for her ailing mother. The West Palm Beach woman was among the flood of Palm Beach County borrowers facing foreclosure, [more...]

Date: 2008-06-11 14:46:09

The Bailout of Abominations

By Robert Higgs of The Independent Institute: As a rule,we may assume that any statute containing the word “emergency” in its title, preamble, or statement of purposes is a bad law. If you want an apt example, consider the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which the president signed into law on Friday, October 3, 2008, [more...]

Date: 2008-10-07 18:10:36

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/2/2009

In tonight’s news: Israel is poised to send ground troops into Gaza.A Muslim family was removed from a plane before takeoff, and is being compensated by the airline for the error. CAIR is in high dudgeon about the incident.Thousands of shoes were dumped on a Miami expressway — is that a message for President-eject Bush? [more...]

Date: 2009-01-03 04:42:00

A Lot Of People Have Been Greedy In California

The Ventura County Star reports from California. “Brian Hill jokes about his uncanny timing. He finely calibrated the moment in the spring of 2006 at which he bought his $630,000 home on Thames River Drive at RiverPark in Oxnard. ‘I think the value started dropping right after we put in the down payment,’ Hill said. ‘Right when I signed [more...]

Date: 2008-12-09 17:54:23

A Heck Of A Deal In Florida

The St Petersburg Times reports from Florida. “Tampa Electric lost more customers than it added in the third quarter, an unprecedented reversal that slashed the utility’s profits and promises to delay power plant building. ‘We’ve never seen this since I’ve been working at Tampa Electric,’ said Gordon Gillette, [more...]

Date: 2008-11-01 16:24:17

McCain takes on the fundamentals’ ad

In response to the Fundamentals ad, John McCain appeared on six American TV shows yesterday trying to explain his use of the phrase “the ... and excess that has damaged their futures.” The Times of London reported today that McCain has called ... in recent months. Obama has called for greater regulation of investment banks, mortgage brokers [more...]

Date: 2008-09-17 11:31:48

Discover Flaws In Florida Foreclosure Reporting

With all the national talk about foreclosures getting louder this year, we decided to start tracking foreclosures in Tallahassee. The first thing that we discovered is that not all foreclosures are alike, so we have some explaining to do first. Foreclosures Simplified When somebody has been late on payments on a loan secured by real property, [more...]

Date: 2008-09-18 11:31:54

Sunday Slime Frauds

Genuine Assistance neened Dearest Beloved, Contact me on my private email ( ahbibs@cantv.net ) Tel…. +22509363691 I know this mail will come to you as a surprise since we have not had previous correspondence, please bear with me. I will really like to have a good relationship with you, and I have a special reason why I decided to contact you [more...]

Date: 2009-01-11 08:49:06

Clark Kent Blogs Real Estate

We have a special guest blogger today — Clark Kent, from Metropolis.  Some say he’s some kind of superhero but there’s no proof of that– except he keeps running into phone booths (which are hard to find these days). Author: Clark Kent Speeding Bulletin Holy green balls of kryptonite, what the heck is happening in Metropolis? [more...]

Date: 2008-11-20 05:14:30

New York Taxing the Internet

Remember back when you received bogus Email's claiming there was going to be a tax on the Internet?  Ahhh… those were the good ol’ days ... who broker affiliate deals that I wasn’t wanted.Dear element 5 / share-it! Affiliate,We have been working ... forward to resuming our relationship in the future if the situation allows.We have appreciated [more...]

Date: 2009-01-09 16:43:00

DrumBeat: August 7, 2008

The Peak Oil Crisis: Masking the Peak As world oil production has never peaked before, there is no historical basis for making informed judgments as to what is going to happen. All we know is that some six billion people, living in some 200 economies on this earth are soon going to be confronted with getting by on less than the 86 million [more...]

Date: 2008-08-07 12:29:19

Die Broke: Spend ’til the End

Smart personal finance is all about balance. You work while you’re young to provide for the day when you may not be able (or willing) ... and vigor for an uncertain future. In a worst case scenario, you may not even live long enough ... , Stephen Pollan offered a controversial approach to retirement. Instead of focusing on the future [more...]

Date: 2008-07-24 12:00:52

What Bush Got Right

A broad shift in America's approach to the world is justified and overdue. Bush's basic conception of a "global War on Terror," to take but the most obvious example, has been poorly thought-through, badly implemented, and has produced many unintended costs that will linger for years if not decades [more...]

Date: 2008-08-18 21:16:31

You Just Don’t Know When The Rolling’s Going To Stop

The Aurora Sentinel reports from Colorado. “When local Realtor Sunny Banka shows any home to a potential buyer, she immediately heads downstairs. As the number of foreclosed and abandoned properties boom with the current housing crisis, copper wire, piping and other building materials are valuable commodities, [more...]

Date: 2008-08-29 15:25:37

Tough time to be the new LendingTree

The folks at IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) broke into five different companies this week with the real estate and mortgage related assets now under the ... broker with simply the best domain name in the business. The rest of the properties are a collection ... Realtor.com is lumbering more quickly these days.) The big question for the future of this unit is whether [more...]

Date: 2008-08-21 16:34:58

Just lost your shirt? C’mon invest some more !

by Jordan Weir Every day, the stock market seems to continue its precipitous drop towards worthlessness, crushing hopes, dreams, ... the dividends from the stock far into the future, shorting a stock is a simple technique the masters ... in the future), hopefully for less. By doing so, you make a profit equal to the difference between [more...]

Date: 2008-12-26 12:02:27

Historic Shifts

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.--Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)One of the problems with the blame game affecting the views of our contracting economy is that we fail to recognize the seismic shifts that occur among populations ranging from aging baby-boomers to new births – as well as flows [more...]

Date: 2009-01-12 16:29:00

The War In Israel and America's Double Standard

It was just 6 months ago that the Bush Administration was criticizing Russia for using disproportionate force against the Georgians in its effort to counter Georgian aggression against Russian soldiers and civilians in South Ossetia this past Summer.But now the White House and the State department are not saying a word about the disproportionate [more...]

Date: 2009-01-11 10:15:00

Buyers Just Don’t Think It’s The Right Time To Buy

The Keene Sentinel reports from New Hampshire. “The upscale, four-home neighborhood on 40 acres in Chesterfield that Jim M. Larkin invested in has turned out to be a nightmare. ‘I threw everything I had into it and it’s put me on the brink of bankruptcy,’ Larkin said in a phone interview with The Sentinel this week [more...]

Date: 2008-09-12 14:31:11

The Level Of Honesty Has Increased In California

The Pasadena Star News reports from California. “Thousands of worried customers swarmed IndyMac Federal Bank FSB branches across the San Gabriel Valley on Monday. They came in response to a federal takeover of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. on Friday after regulators decided the bank did not have enough cash to meet its obligations to depositors [more...]

Date: 2008-07-15 22:43:16

There Was So Much Money To Be Made

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports from Georgia. “State regulators issued a prescient warning to Georgia banks three years ago. If they kept lending mostly to real estate developers, the banks were told, they risked huge losses, or even failure, if the housing bubble burst. The warning, however, was just that [more...]

Date: 2008-12-28 17:51:39

TicketPredator.com - Finding & Buying Tickets Online

What it does If you reside in the United States and are looking for tickets for any upcoming event such as a concert or a crucial sports match, ... directly from the ticket broker that you feel suits your needs best. In their own words “Ticket ... tickets from the comfort of your front room. Some questions Will the site branch out in the future [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 14:35:00

Obama’s Economic Team Announcement

Lots to read, so here’s the whole thing… ==== Good morning. The news this past week, including this morning’s news about Citigroup, has made it even more clear that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions. Our financial markets are under stress. New home purchases in October were the lowest in half a century [more...]

Date: 2008-11-24 19:31:18

Forex Trading Common Mistakes

Learning about the common mistakes made in foreign currency trading will help you to improve your skills and chances of being successful ... potential losses.- Abusing LeverageWith Forex brokers offering up to 400:1 leverage, it’s easy ... for trades based solely on what the technical indicators are telling us can result in large losses [more...]

Date: 2009-01-11 19:48:00

We Won’t Be Seeing Prices Like This In The Future

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. “Foreclosures across the state surged to a 20-year high during the last three months, as tens of thousands of additional Californians lost their homes and more than 100,000 neared the brink. Notices of default rose nearly 125 percent from a year ago during the second quarter and trustee deeds [more...]

Date: 2008-07-22 21:57:43

Energy/Credit/Currency Crisis Open Thread

In what feels like the middle of a multi-round heavyweight bout, the world financial markets continue to be buffeted tonight, ... energy and commodities prices and considerably less confidence in the overall system than in weeks ... banks. And since this liquidity goes only to banks and major broker-dealers, the rest of the shadow [more...]

Date: 2008-10-06 13:50:22

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/3/2009

The situation with the Russian gas pipeline through Ukraine is interesting. The new pipeline through the Baltic — which will allow Russia to cut off supplies to Eastern Europe without disturbing the flow of energy to its reliable Western European customers — is not ready yet, so the cutoff of gas to Ukraine is having effects further west [more...]

Date: 2009-01-04 04:50:00

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