The Market’s Not The Same In Florida
The News Press reports from Florida. “Area banks are racking up millions of dollars in bad debt, thanks to the softening real estate market in Southwest Florida. Five Southwest Florida banks had a combined $57.5 million in outstanding construction and land loans that weren’t being paid, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for the first quarter of 2007.”
“That’s a 207 percent increase over the $18.7 million the same banks had a year earlier.”
“The median price of an existing single-family home in Lee County has fallen from an all-time high of $322,300 to $268,000 in March, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Meanwhile, the number of homes on the market has quadrupled to about 15,000 as the number of single-family home sales has spiraled down, 636 in March compared with 1,084 in December 2005.”
“Karen Dorway, president of Boca Raton-based BauerFinancial Inc., said, the increase in bad debt was incurred from ‘people who were trying to get in on the upswing. People without the expertise or the knowledge were trying to get in and taking out some of these loans with the expectation that ‘I’ll simply sell it for a profit.’”
“John Perry and his wife bought four properties, two in Lehigh Acres and two in Cape Coral, when the market was hot two years ago and now find themselves in trouble on all but one of the deals. They bought three of the homes from First Home Builders and the fourth from Paul Homes.”
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
“The lenders still should have known the Perrys didn’t have the resources to make payments on the houses, he said. ‘We have no means of making the mortgage payments on these properties,’ he said. ‘We’ve gone to the extent of putting our own personal home in St. Louis on the market. If push comes to shove and we have to pay something, I want that flexibility.’”
“Karen Quanstrom, a loan officer specializing in construction loans for SunTrust Bank’s Fort Myers branch, said she has little sympathy for people like the Perrys.”
“‘Most of these people are in trouble now because they didn’t plan for a worst case, they planned for a best case,’ said Quanstrom, speaking for herself, not as a representative of SunTrust. ‘They want to come back to the Realtor, the broker, the lender, and lay blame.’”
The Sun Sentinel. “Thousands of homeowners in Broward and Palm Beach counties can’t make their monthly mortgage payments and are getting sternly worded letters from lenders who threaten to seize their properties and resell them, likely at a loss.”
“‘It has the potential to get very ugly,’ said David Levin, a housing consultant in Palm Beach County.”
“The number of people facing foreclosure has been building since January. In April, the number of consumers behind on their mortgage payments in Broward County ballooned to 1,135, compared with 248 a year ago, according to a Plantation research firm. The number of people with late payments also rose sharply in Palm Beach County, from 174 to 814.”
“Many of the people who bought in the western suburbs were short-term investors looking to ‘flip’ properties for quick profits, said Shiela Kiniry, state director of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers. Now they’re stuck with properties they can’t sell and, in some cases, wilting under the strain of paying two mortgages.”
“‘I have to believe a lot of those people wanted to jump on the bandwagon while they still had the chance,’ Kiniry said. ‘It seemed wonderful when they put their money down. Unfortunately, the market’s not the same now.’”
The Palm Beach Post. “Land formerly planned for the Opera Place condominium in West Palm Beach will not be sold to an investor group after all. Some residents who thought the project’s 26 stories too tall for downtown.”
“Well, folks, no need to worry about that too-tall building now. The deal’s off. Now we proceed to the next stage in the process: Lawsuits.”
“No outcome yet from a trial last week pitting the Marina Grande condo against buyers who have changed their minds about living at the colorful new Riviera Beach project.”
“D&T Properties bought a condo at Marina Grande but now wants out of its contract, claiming maintenance costs are higher than it was first promised.”
“Marina Grande is fighting back by saying buyers are making excuses to get out of their contracts because the flippers’ market has died.”
“D&T’s is one of two dozen lawsuits by Marina Grande buyers trying to get out of closing on their pre-construction purchases. The lawsuits are part of a trend of home buyers running to the courts to get out of pre-construction contracts on houses, townhouses and condos throughout South Florida.”
The Naples News. “Not being able to pay the bills is rarely a cause for celebration. But after a first try at home ownership landed a San Carlos Park couple in a deep financial bind, Amanda Stark and Bill Berr were willing to try anything to shave away at their debts, even partying.”
“They’re throwing a benefit bash this weekend in the yard of their two-story, yellow-painted home they’re fighting to keep.”
“The route the family is taking, a please-help-us party, might be unusual, but the circumstances are not. The family’s most pressing worry right now is the $3,500 they owe Lee County in past-due property taxes. That debt could eventually force a sale of their home. They’re also struggling to keep up with $1,800 monthly mortgage payments.”
“‘We’re just trying to do everything we can,’ Berry said. ‘We’re not giving up.’”
“They bought their 10-year-old home when prices were high in June 2006, eager to leave behind a rental in Cape Coral. They paid $241,000 for the 1,980 square-foot home, many times the $65,000 the property was worth a decade ago.”
“With that history of appreciation, Berry and Stark said, they never expected the value of a home so near a university and new development would decrease. The fact the home was appraised that summer for $40,000 more than what the seller took for it might have been a sign, but at the time, Stark said, ‘We thought we were getting a good deal.’”
“If they put their home on the market today, though, a real estate agent told them Friday, they’d likely face a $25,000 loss.”
“Things would be easier, maybe even fine, if only Berry still made up to $6,000 a week as a carpenter. These days, though, with the slowdown in new construction, a very good week for Berry would bring in half of that amount.”
“‘And I’m no slouch,’ Berry said. He’s at the point he half-wishes for a hurricane or two this season so the work would pick up, he said.”
“The terms they borrowed under aren’t helping, either. It’s an 80-20 arrangement, a deal that allowed the couple to avoid a down payment. But it comes with an adjustable interest rate that will start taking their monthly payments even higher next summer.”
“The family knows of at least one other couple in the area who have fallen about six months behind in their mortgage payments, and the San Carlos Park neighborhood is full of ‘for sale by owner’ and ‘for rent’ signs. There are four such signs on their block.”
“Stark said she isn’t sure why they’re selling, but she has her suspicions. ‘People don’t really talk about it,’ she said. ‘I think the reason I’m more comfortable talking about all this and putting it out there is that I think I’m not alone. In fact, I know I’m not alone.’”
‘The current real estate slump may be a blessing to property owners looking for workers to complete unfinished home improvement projects. That bodes well for people who have small projects around the house that have been left hanging because they couldn’t find anyone to do the work during the building boom of 2004-05.’
‘Kevin Kraft, VP of a commercial and residential painting, caulking and waterproofing company, said times are tough. ‘Business is very slow. I’d say it’s dropped off 75 percent,’ Kraft said.’
‘Indeed, the amount of construction work is dwindling, said Ed Farrell, owner of White Water Plumbing in Bonita Springs. ‘Out of the 15 contractors I work with, only one or two have work,’ he said.’
‘For local retailers, the story is similar: Sales are down and season was slow this year. ‘(This year’s season) was kind of like vichyssoise soup — you expect it to be hot and it’s colder than hell,’ said Mary Ladd Tait, who has been in business in Naples for more than 25 years.’
‘The U.S. boat industry has sprung a leak and is taking on water fast, leaving some local workers to wonder if they will go down with the ship. Boat manufacturers employ about 1,200 workers in Volusia and Flagler counties.’ ‘Dustan McCoy, Brunwick’s CEO, also blamed Florida’s ‘difficult housing market’ for Brunwick’s 32 percent drop in first-quarter earnings.’
“property owners looking for workers to complete unfinished home improvement projects” - But it seems that carpenter Bill Berry, accustomed to making $6,000 per week, must be charging at least a hundred bucks an hour. Thanks but no thanks.
If this guy was making 6k a week, and living in a rental before he decided to buy…why didn’t he have money for a downpayment, let alone some savings for his tax payment??
And,if he’s working 60 hrs. at 100 an hour, where did he find the time to plow thru 6k prior to buying??
He used to make over 300k/year, and now can only make sometimes as little as 150k/year. Now he is risking losing a 240K house?
Something here doesn’t walk.
That had to be a misprint. Six thousand a month sounds right. And even at that income he had no excuse for not saving a downpayment. I have to admit the party idea is amusing, especially when so many of that couple’s neighbors are in similar straits. Are they going to forego their mortgages so that Amanda Stark and Bill Berry can pay theirs?
As for the remainder of the stories, when I read about people like John Perry I can’t help but draw the conclusion that he has never visited Fort Myers, and purchased his “properties” after viewing them on the internet.
Within a month or two, Amanda might be hosting a very different, more private sort of “party” if she wants to avoid ending up on the street.
If it’s not a typo we should all be training to be carpenters! I’d be happy with $150.
Holy cow! I didn’t even pay attention. I thought it was $6,000 per month. This idiot was making $300,000 per year as a carpenter and already can’t afford his payments? Where did the money go?
The last thing in the world I would do is to hire some alligator-feeder, knowing he’d want to charge the most amount of money for the least amount of time, effort and materials. No thanks. I’ll wait until I find someone who will take their time and do quality work.
Some people can have as many as at least six different income figures. There is the one they tell the IRS, the one they tell their spouse, the one they tell their buds at the pool table/bar, the one they tell their co-workers, and the one they tell divorce court, and the one they tell their mortgage broker.
Got 10% down?
There used to be a thing called a “rent party”, where someone who needed help with rent would throw a party and get contributions.
I think the analogous term for their party would be “mortgage party”.
He must be stealing from the building site.
I gauge the building and construction industry by pawn shop inventories. When I got the axe in late 90 during the last construction crash, the pawn shops were full of power tools, work-belts, ladders, and contractor supplies. All the tradesmen were pawning their equipment for cash. You could find shelf-loads of skillsaws.
Today is the same. My local pawn shop just cleared extra space for all the power tools. Two years ago, there wasn’t much. Now, you can take your pick of drills, saws, levels, meters, you name it.
Here in Colorado Springs, all the NARsters and real estate bulls are banking on the expected influx of 23,000 military personnel and their families into this area over the next several years. Never mind that most will be relatively low-ranking junior enlisted, most of whom are horrible at managing their money and credit - just look at the proliferation of pawnshops and payday joints around every military base.
“He’s at the point he half-wishes for a hurricane or two this season so the work would pick up, he said.”
“Half” wishing for destruction of other people’s property destruction for his own financial gain is plain and simple Bad Karma. Could it be that his own moral shortcomings brought this upon himself?
I’d like to think there is justice in the universe…where nothing in the universe goes unrewarded or unpunished.
He may also be wishing that a hurricane destroy his own house, to end that little personal nightmare for him. Kill two birds with one stone.
Got 10% dwon?
A hurricane may blow away the house, but the mortgage debt remains. No force of nature can make that go away.
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
This is outrageous! Talk about the definition of moral hazard. These people are selfish fools
Yea, but I don’t think that was the Best quote.
I thought this pinned the attitude of these buyers:
“The lenders still should have known the Perrys didn’t have the resources to make payments on the houses, he said. ‘We have no means of making the mortgage payments on these properties,’ he said. ‘We’ve gone to the extent of putting our own personal home in St. Louis on the market. If push comes to shove and we have to pay something, I want that flexibility.’”
Got that?
“If” we have to pay “something”??? The bubble strategy in short. We “bought” 4 houses. You mean we have to pay for them??? That wasn’t our plan.
But for the rest of us who live here, your “sale” was recorded by the tax assessor and used as a “comparable” sales prices for all the other houses that “SOLD” down here.
Thanks.
These greedheads buy 4 properties…don’t make the quick cash they’re looking for and are whining that their “personal” home is on the market??
Low-life schmucks like this should limit their investing to putting quarters in one-armed bandits…it’s what they can afford and understand.
The really important fact here is that they live in St. Louis. They are now putting their St. Louis home on the market. I would guess they could even get foreclosed on that residence. This just shows the potential for this mess to spread. It is not contained to Florida when the “investors” came from Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Long Island, Queens and places all over the country. Wildfire!
These folks could be the first clients for our Ex - California Flipper… ‘Casey’. He lost 12 homes to foreclosure and can guide them down the path…
Wait a minute, Perry is saying that the lenders should have believed his financial report, but chose not to? Is he complaining that the lenders did not believe the truth, but instead believed an untruth?
Hey, they &#$*%$’ed up- they trusted us.
Personal integrity is on the endangered species list in the real estate world.
You know damn well they submitted liar loan packages . They tried to get owner-occupied loans when they should of qualififed under investor loans applications . Don’t tell me that the builder, the realtors and the borrowers, and the slime loan agent didn’t know it was a short term flip.
I just wonder how many people bought 3 to 5 properties at low downs during the height of the boom claiming the were going to move in . Many people would buy these properties at the same time so one lender could not see what the other lender was doing . IMHO this a fraud because you are trying to get property that you don’t deserve loan wise . Let them crash and burn for their greed and fraud . And the industry can go to hell to .
Good chance they also tried to claim homestead exemption on one of those houses even though their permanent residence is in St. louis.
So now its the Bank’s fault for giving you the loan. You’re the one that agreed to the terms of the loan. You should have added up your payments to see what you can and cannot afford. Also, I would bet that you applied for option arm, no-doc loan so that you can get approved. Now on the flip side if property values were still going up you would not be complaining. Take responsability for your own action!
Was this posted… Couple buy home of notorious murders. Brokers didn’t disclose because they don’t have to…buy hey ,I got my 11.3k commision..Sucker.
http://tinyurl.com/2dmdjn
“There was no way we could ever stay here,” said Johnson, standing in the master bedroom where three of the four died. “It would be like living in a morgue.”
Though the slayings by Eustis police Cpl. Michael Mount received substantial media coverage in Central Florida, the Palm Coast family hadn’t heard about the Feb. 5, 2006, tragedy until a new neighbor casually mentioned it.
…
‘The 2003 law, introduced by state Sen. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican and Realtor, says: “[t]he fact that a property was, or was at any time suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide, or death is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate transaction.”‘
============================================================
Leave it to a Realtor-turned-politician to make a moronic statement like that one. I guess the home must have cleaned up real good, as the new buyers had not a clue that it was haunted until the neighbor casually tipped them off. What a nightmare!
(Oops — on second reading…)
makeintroduce a law which codifies a moronic statement…Does anyone know whether mortgage-holders have been able to dispose of their foreclosed properties as fast as they are acquiring them? Are there any bottom-feeder investors out there buying them up? Or will we be seeing “Son of RTC” in the near future?
Neither. The mortgage-holders will need to restructure loans, corporate organization, and partially forgive mortgage debt. Otherwise, they will continue on the career path that they had chosen for themselves: Real Estate Professionals! Frankly, they will own houses that they lost money on and cannot sell.
This is blowing-up.
Roidy
P.S. Got 1926?
Are you saying the mortgage holders are accumulating these properties rather than selling them (almost always at a loss)? I know FDIC doesn’t let banks do that, but I guess other entities (hedge funds, etc.) that own mortgages don’t have to quickly dump the properties if they don’t want to. What will they do- find a property management company to rent them out? If so, then rents will continue to go down as the supply of rentals increases. Yikes!
I believe this is exactly what will happen. The “law of supply and demand” still applies. The problem is far more supply than demand - 2 to 2 1/2 years in some places. When the market falls, the buyers run. No buyers - no sales. It is coming soon that the properties will not even “dump” or rent. I just don’t seen how this can be “contained to the sub-prime market.” That is wishful thinking.
Roidy
P.S. Got 1926?
“John Perry and his wife bought four properties, two in Lehigh Acres and two in Cape Coral, when the market was hot two years ago and now find themselves in trouble on all but one of the deals. They bought three of the homes from First Home Builders and the fourth from Paul Homes.”
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
“The lenders still should have known the Perrys didn’t have the resources to make payments on the houses, he said. ‘We have no means of making the mortgage payments on these properties,’ he said. ‘We’ve gone to the extent of putting our own personal home in St. Louis on the market. If push comes to shove and we have to pay something, I want that flexibility.’”
There we go again - it’s the lenders fault! No personal responsibility. I bet when he was buying these 4 houses he never told the lender he could not afford them. Oh one more thing - he had great credit - now his credit will be terrible for years to come.
“Oh one more thing - he had great credit - now his credit will be terrible for years to come. ”
and rightly so, don’t want these fools going out and borrowing any more money!!! They’ve done a good job displaying their ignorance, lets keep them from doing it again…
there are no victims here. the Perry’s were greedy buyers for buying 4 properties they couldn’t carry and the lenders were stupid for making the loans and not underwriting them prudently.
The victims are us HBB types, priced out for the moment.
“He’s at the point he half-wishes for a hurricane or two this season so the work would pick up, he said.”
I’ve heard this before. It’s beyond the grasp of my cognitive powers to understand how a psychopath can rationalize wishing for a natural disaster and the untold suffering of millions of people to help himself out of a self created financial bind. I guess that’s why he calls it “half wishing”, to absolve himself from the associated guilt trip. Good thing he isn’t god.
How would you characterize stock market short-sellers?
You’ve got to be kidding.
I agree with Tx Chick.
stock short sellers add liquidity to the marketplace, allowing everyone more ability to make easy equities transactions. their short positions also help the overall economy judge the health of the economy, they add more “information” to the market.
Besides, betting against the fortunes of a company may be the correct thing, if that company is wasting needed resources that could be more effectively used elsewhere.
It is not dissimilar from us as bubble bloggers. we WISH for a return to sanity. This would of course bankrupt many businesses who are founded on bubble mechanics. But in the end it is a needed development.
this other man is actively wishing harm on others to improve his business.
It wasn’t short sellers who destroyed Enron and New Century. It wasn’t short sellers that caused the market to crash in 1929 and 2000. Those events were destined to occur and the short sellers capitalized on them. I didn’t have to hope for the housing market to crash. I knew it would so I shorted housing stocks and made good money.
George Soros (who I’m not a fan of, incidently) said the key to amassing his fortune was to find trends whose basic premise was unsustainable, i.e. the Bubble.com “New Economy” valuations, then bet against them. Nothing wrong or unethical with shorting bloated pigs, or exulting in/profiting from the financial destruction of greedy fools.
I wonder if anyone would call Jim Chanos a bad guy. These guys do the digging that saves people if any of them listen.
http://edgar.sec.gov/spotlight/hedgefunds/hedge-chanos.htm
Sort sellers provide the motivation to find an asset’s weaknesses. Absolutely essential if you want truth in the market.
He just may get his wish.
“Overall, we will see more powerful storms across the board than we did last year. We will not get anywhere near the amount of storms that we did in 2005, but it is the intensity of the storms we do get that will be of major concern. It goes without saying that if I were living along the Gulf Coast, Florida, or the Carolinas, I would do all I could to make sure that my family and I were prepared for the possibility of a landfalling tropical storm or hurricane. This is always prudent, but it is especially so during times such as this season, when we are likely to see above-normal storm activity.”
I’ll probably post this in the Bucket or elsewhere: several of my buddies live on the Intracoastal or the ocean, in Brevard County. I visit them most weekends. This month I’ve seen an unusually large number of homongous boats heading north, well after the normal end-of-March Yankee retreat. Puzzled me until I was thinking about these posts today — maybe boat hurricane insurance has recently gone through the roof for boats moored in Florida. That could explain the seeming anomaly of so many more boats leaving “Dodge” than in years past.
Negative.
Lots of boats moving north is normal this time of year… it’s summer up there! Happens every year.
The Dorways of perception, or as William Blake once wrote…
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.”
“Karen Dorway, president of Boca Raton-based BauerFinancial Inc., said, the increase in bad debt was incurred from ‘people who were trying to get in on the upswing. People without the expertise or the knowledge were trying to get in and taking out some of these loans with the expectation that ‘I’ll simply sell it for a profit.’
“Things would be easier, maybe even fine, if only Berry still made up to $6,000 a week as a carpenter. These days, though, with the slowdown in new construction, a very good week for Berry would bring in half of that amount.”
Please tell me this is a mis-print. He’s now struggling making $3000/wk?? Maybe this should be per month?? If he is truly now making $3000/wk, why can’t you afford your $1800/month mortgage??? WTF??
Maybe he’s got 4 “investment properties” and a crack habit.
Yeah, that number can’t be right. If it is, this guy is drowning in debt.
Please tell me it should read $600…..
Maybe they meant $6K a month, $20+hr x 50-60 hrs week + OTpay, could be $6k a month.
How a bank gets robbed nowadays…
21st Century Style
The News Press reports from Florida. “Area banks are racking up millions of dollars in bad debt, thanks to the softening real estate market in Southwest Florida. Five Southwest Florida banks had a combined $57.5 million in outstanding construction and land loans that weren’t being paid, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for the first quarter of 2007.”
“That’s a 207 percent increase over the $18.7 million the same banks had a year earlier.”
Can you say LTCM ? Making huge loans to buddies with no intention in paying then back…wipe them off the books,and let the taxpayers clean the mess…oh yeh, with a resolution “this will never happen again”.
Luckily for us…
Our neighbors invested in a boat, mainly so we could freeload off of them, os so it has turned out.
‘The U.S. boat industry has sprung a leak and is taking on water fast, leaving some local workers to wonder if they will go down with the ship. Boat manufacturers employ about 1,200 workers in Volusia and Flagler counties.’ ‘Dustan McCoy, Brunwick’s CEO, also blamed Florida’s ‘difficult housing market’ for Brunwick’s 32 percent drop in first-quarter earnings.’
Now’s a great time to buy in Florida. Sellers want to get out before Hurricane David or Leslie arrive. However, it’s also a good time to wait until October when you can see what damage Hurricane David or Leslie have wrought to this sellers.
Happy Sunday prospective buyers in Florida.
After selling NYC, I think it is too early to buy FL. I’m guessing at least another year before bottom; probably two years. I have been watching Flagler and Volusia home prices very closely now for about four (4) years and they are very slow to move down. Gordo
What ever happened to this couple?
http://tinyurl.com/39dn66
I looked up the property records and it looks like they did go ahead on the 533,000 McMansion purchase after all.
I would love CNN to do a follow up story on how the couple is enjoying their double/triple payments with high utility bills etc.
It will be really interesting when they get their first tax bill it should be around 7-9,000.
I also noticed that the comps are selling for -400,000 now.
To think they had a nice four bedroom home with a small mortgage in a nice area and just blew it off as if it was a single wide in the back woods someplace.
This couple takes greed to a new level.
But I bet the koi were delicious.
That house is as sterile as an operating room. And the idea that a koi pond will “add value” to a house in this part of the country–or in any part of the country–scrapes the bottom of the stupid barrel.
My vote for funniest post of the weekend
They ended up closing on 10/26 for 533k. I still don’t see the sale of their old home. I found this by searching the Orange County Property Appraisers site: http://www.ocpafl.org/
Property Taxes are close to $7k per year. Not sure what insurance is, but it has to be high. HOA’s? Don’t know. And then financing $533k and also having to pay over $3 a gallon in gas because they live way out in the boonies. About an hour drive each way to work for both of them if they work in downtown. Electricity costs are way up too.
The current address if you want to Zillow it is:
3029 CURVING OAKS WAY
ORLANDO, FL. 32820
If their old home has not sold, then they are stuck paying two mortgages.
“I absolutely need the profit from my old home to afford the new one,” says Young. “Even with rental income from one of the homes, there’s no way I can afford both mortgages at the same time.
They new two mortgages would be industrial strength stupid but they did it anyway. Maybe they should run for some elected office?
Got 10% down?
I remember that story when it was current. Just doesn’t seem like it was that many months ago. Interesting grave-digging.
What truly amazes me is how fast things have gone downhill since that story. To think that couple still believed that there was a hot real estate market back in Sept 2006. Now here we are eight months later and the market is dead. Just goes to show how quickly this collapse is actually happening.
What equity?
But remember some of the posts last Sept…a lot said wait until after Jan. 1 and the FBs will hit the iceberg. Once again, the blog and posters were on the money.
Agree that if Mr. Berry was making $6000 per week, I am definitely in the wrong line of work. Maybe $6000 per month? Otherwise, he sure as heck ought to be able to pay that mortgage, and have money left over to go to the casinos (he appears to like to gamble).
“Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.”
Carlos Castaneda
If your house isn’t selling, move your Assemblage Point!
“If they put their home on the market today, though, a real estate agent told them Friday, they’d likely face a $25,000 loss.”
Only a 25K loss if a meathead decided to buy it.
And then it goes on to talk about the FSBO and “For Rent” signs littering the neighborhood. I think the agent told them a fib. There is no way they come within $25,000 of what they paid. Keep dreaming, you dreamers.
Either a meathead or a dingbat.
Got 10% down?
“Thousands of homeowners in Broward and Palm Beach counties can’t make their monthly mortgage payments and are getting sternly worded letters from lenders”
OH NO! not a sternly worded letter!
As your punishment, you will write on the front of your house, 86 times, in bold grafitti…
“I will never borrow that, in which I can’t pay back”
Don’t force us to send you another sternly written letter~
Lenders of last resort
LOL.
LOL. The senders of such “sternly worded letters” are quaking in their boots, realizing they have no leverage whatsoever with any FB who’s aleady underwater on their crapbox and feels no compulsion to play by the bank’s rules, when they can simply leave the keys on the granite countertop and leave the lender holding the bag.
In Florida, the lender can go after your other assets if you leave the keys on the granite countertop…
The most accceptable happenstance would be o.j. losing the last of his assets…
How many of these Bozos actually own anything free and clear?
I have personally been surprised at the efficacy of sternly-worded letters. I have an effective lawyer at Bryan Cave in PHX. I grant you, there has been only one sternly-worded letter in the past two years, but before that, I probably used him about a once a year to harrass someone I thought was putting me too far down the list. The verbiage is daunting, I think not so much because the tone is slightly threatening, but because the words are very big and long and nobody understands them. In most cases, the borrower gets in touch with my lawyer right away, and catches up payments promptly. But, that was then, this is now. Luckily the worst I can say about any borrower right now is that someone whose payment was due on Friday the 18th (of May) is a couple of days late.
Years ago…
A coin dealer of dubious-ness on eBay, was on the verge of ripping me off to the tune of a coupla grand, he was on the right coast, me on the left, nothing but excuses about why I didn’t get my coins, that i’d bought and paid for…
I finally had to go to the fictional “Family friend in the f.b.i.” angle, as a last resort.
I sent him an e-mail about how this old family friend, higher up in the fbi, and how his world would come crashing down, say the word…
I received a refund check (good check, shocked me) within a week.
Bluffing works in life, sometimes.
The verbiage is daunting, I think not so much because the tone is slightly threatening, but because the words are very big and long and nobody understands
Your “clientele” probably have a hard time trying to decide which way to open the envelope.
listen to all the crybabies. Had to listen to a bunch of these dopes over the past several years boast how much their house was worth. Now….silence.
lol!
Inbesting Been Berry Berry Bad…
Everything you’ve done so far is good enough for instant entrance into “The Slouch Hall Of Fame”
“‘And I’m no slouch,’ Berry said. He’s at the point he half-wishes for a hurricane or two this season so the work would pick up, he said.”
You’re no genius, either, Berry.
“Don’t sell yourself short judge, you’re a tremendous slouch.” (caddyshack)
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
Typical American. Wanting to take all the credit for making a profit but laying blame on someone else for a major loss on a big gamble. We are ripe for a Stalinist dictatorship. Anytime a culture of nonaccountability permeates a society, the red flag is not far behind.
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
Well, Perry, you’ll get your wish. Lenders are tightening because of folks like you. Unfortunately, however, this means there won’t be a GF able to buy your house anytime soon.
I’d say a fascist corporate state is a lot more likely than a Red dictatorship. We’re already more than halfway there. Look at the privatization of our military and “private armies” like Blackwater, or private for-profit prisons - creepy. Look at the GOP trying to ban Dr. Ron Paul from future debates because he dared to speak truth to power.
Amen, Sammy, Ron Paul has the goodwill of people. However, a fascist corporate state would be short lived. Vanity Fair Magazine has an excellent article in the June issue on the similarities and differences between the Roman and US Empires. Disintegration comes with privatization and mercenary armies. Rome had these, too.
Palmetto,
OT, but check out the Wash Post today on poisoned human food imported from China..FDA knows but is powerless to act…corporate interests in US too intwined in China.
Apple juice, vitamins, seafood, even twinkies.
Our gov’t. have surrendered.
All those useless housing tracts…chinese peasants will buy them for pennies…under the new camnesty plan.
Thanks for the tip, Brothah spike66. This weekend, I took steps toward formulating a new “life strategy” for myself, went to a local safety and security seminar. Will be changing some personal habits to adapt to the new environment. How I shop for food and other products will now become a part of that.
Burns my naked patootie when I see posts about “competing globally”. What that means to me is, lower your standards, become a lowlife pig and poison the quality of life for your neighbor. The best way the US can compete globally is to withdraw from “global” markets, accepting only decent trading partners, like Japan, for example, which at least produces a decent auto and electronics and for the most part, observes reasonable human safety standards. Then re-asserting former standards in manufacturing, agriculture, education, innovation, construction, etc. The gov may have surrendered, it doesn’t mean the rest of us have to become “surrender monkeys”. Personally, I think the housing bubble has been instrumental in destabilizing the US, along with other factors like illegal immigration.
“When, in the course of human events, etc., etc.”
Palmetto,
what is a safety and security seminar? Please explain.
http://www.preparedness.com/
I think “preparedness” is going to be the Next Big Thing. I’m looking for well-positioned companies to invest in. After Katrina, the thinking 1% of the population saw the folly of counting on government to come to their aid in a natural or man-made disaster, and will take steps to ensure their own safety and survival in the event of a local or national emergency.
spike, look for my post to ChrisUSC in the “What Do You See In Your Market?” thread. Basically, it is the “Refuse to Be A Victim” seminar put out by the NRA (weapons is a very small part, focus is on awareness, personal safety and security techniques, etc.) A trained member of the community you live in gives the seminar. Very informative.
As ever, thanks palmetto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKITUOl0NBc
Palmetto,
I doubt if more than 5% of the populace has even heard of Dr. Ron Paul, much less has any accurate and informed idea of what he stands for. The MSM has predictably treated him like a fringe candidate and non-entity, and are acting like Rudy came out the victor in their confrontation during the Republican candidate’s debate. See the actual clip on Utube and judge for yourself - to me, Ron Paul made a completely valid point: when you have an interventionist and meddling Imperial foreign policy, it might come back to bite you. It’s unfortunate that he looks like the Keebler elf, because his message is exactly what the country needs to hear.
“It’s unfortunate that he looks like the Keebler elf”
I dunno, looking like a chimp wasn’t any impediment to the current occupant of the WH. But the difference is, Paul would run a fair election. This seems to have gone out of fashion.
The Naples News. “Not being able to pay the bills is rarely a cause for celebration. But after a first try at home ownership landed a San Carlos Park couple in a deep financial bind, Amanda Stark and Bill Berr were willing to try anything to shave away at their debts, even partying.”
“They’re throwing a benefit bash this weekend in the yard of their two-story, yellow-painted home they’re fighting to keep.”
Let me get this STRAIGHT ! They’re throwing a Party in Naples to SUPPORT their House Gambling ADDICTION and LOSES ?
Yeah Right…Throw a lobster and steak on the barbie for me…I’ll jet right down with a case of wine.
Morons.
I remember when benefit bashes were for worthy causes, like helping to pay the medical bills for kids with cancer.
This blame shifting is an indication of our societal melt down. It isn’t his fault he killed his wife. He was scolded as a child.
I recall when I first noticed this crap. My son was playing little league baseball 25 years ago and we were within a run of winning a big game. All of a sudden the coach put all the scrubs in the game and we lost.
I was flabbergasted and asked my wife what the hell the idiot was doing. She said, “well they think it is more important that everyone gets to play than winning.”
So basically my kid was taught that no matter how hard you try by taking responsibility for the outcome it is really up to others as to what happens and you have little control of the outcome. Essentially, mediocrity is encouraged and teamwork and striving for a goal is subject to infringement by authority.
I am damn glad the Marine corps did not have the same philosophy when I was in.
Dude. It’s a kids baseball game, not the World Series. Lighten up.
No. Dimedropped has a good point. The lessons learned as kids have a great influence on their future. For decades, the drive has been toward mediocrity.
Good point ,so true .
Why shouldn’t young people be taught to win in sports . Out in the real world it’s a jungle and the sooner a kid learns that the better .
Kids who don’t learn that excellence counts grow up to be fools.
When would you suggest they learn that life is competitive?
When they’re 21?
Thanks and that is a good point too-winning is a habit-show me someone who does not desire to win and I will show you a loser.
So so true. Like in AYSO soccer, everyone gets a trophy, no one keeps score… like heck! The kids sure do keep track of the score, they know if the “won” or “lost”. And when everyone gets a trophy and everyone is deemed special regardless or their effort or merit, kids realized pretty quickly that it’s bull, If everyone gets a trophy then it’s no longer special, it becomes valueless. The kids become cynical. You can’t give kids self esteem, they need to earn it by doing something special.
dimedropped….you are a freakin idiot.
Barry and Amanda are typical Americans. They take no personal responsibility when things go bad, and it was all of their own doing. They were too busy ‘liberating equity’ to speculate on these new houses that they never intended to pay for or live in.
I went to a concert in a casino yesterday. I ‘invested’ $15 in the one armed bandits. Do you think I can get Barry to cover my loss. The casino shouldn’t have let me in, and risk the now their $15, even though it was cash in my wallet? I figured that was enough of a ‘donation’ - and doesn’t matter that the other times I walked out with $10 or so. Of course, I just stick to a small amount. These asshats and their party take the cake. I would have shown up, eaten their food, and left without giving them and their greed a dime.
Meanwhile, the number of homes on the market has quadrupled to about 15,000 as the number of single-family home sales has spiraled down, 636 in March compared with 1,084 in December 2005.”
So this market went from 3.5 months supply to 2 years supply? My oh my, what a difference one and a half years can make. Makes you wonder how much supply there will be twelve months from now. But not to worry, next year’s Superbowl will fix everything. It’s in the bag.
Got 10% dwon?
Bill and Amanda take the cake for brassness. What did their ‘benefit’ say? “We f&cked up on buying this house and now need your help (dig deep for save our house) to save our sorry asses”? I truly wish them that their ‘guests’ took the last shred of their credit card and didn’t ‘donate’ a dime to them.
I have been reading Ben’s blog since he started it. Yes, a big difference from public denial to a big realization about something that was so obvious. Ben and Amanda are poster children for the insanity of what this became. The strawberry picker. ‘In the Bag’. Liarah. LAY. Barbequed squirrels. Liberating equity. Get priced out forever. Thank you Ben for saving many of the smart people’s a$$es.
The Sun Sentinel. “Thousands of homeowners in Broward and Palm Beach counties can’t make their monthly mortgage payments and are getting sternly worded letters from lenders who threaten to seize their properties and resell them, likely at a loss.”
“‘It has the potential to get very ugly,’ said David Levin, a housing consultant in Palm Beach County.”
It ISN’T ugly…IT’S called REALITY.
Florida HAD it’s FREE for All Money Making Fantasy in Housing. They want more Fantasy…Take a Day Trip to Disneyworld Before they REPO your house.
You people are so pessimistic about the good people of Florida who only wanted a piece of the American Dream. Shame on you. Don’t you understand that when the going gets rough, Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf and all the elves and dwarves will come to the rescue of Men?
You people really don’t know your history do you?
Many of these newfangled real estate investors seem to have a hobbit of ignoring history.
“Perry said the lenders ’should have definitely given some credence to our financial report, even though we had great credit.’”
“The lenders still should have known the Perrys didn’t have the resources to make payments on the houses, he said. ‘We have no means of making the mortgage payments on these properties,’ he said. ‘We’ve gone to the extent of putting our own personal home in St. Louis on the market. If push comes to shove and we have to pay something, I want that flexibility.’”
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To me this quote is the perfect example of what was wrong these last 5 years in the RE business. Total A$$hats like the Perry’s allowed to “invest” in a market that used to have a fairly high degree to barrier of entry.
Right .And to go from a 10% investor market to a 50% to 70% investor market in many areas is proof of just how much the boom was a investment scheme ,rather than getting people into long term home ownership .No bailouts for the gambler investors .
“To me this quote is the perfect example of what was wrong these last 5 years in the RE business. Total A$$hats like the Perry’s allowed to “invest” in a market that used to have a fairly high degree to barrier of entry.”
The barrier of entry is what kept prices in line with income for many years….the downpayment requirement, 6 months savings, no credit card debt, etc.
But not to worry….these same yo-yo’s on the margin who drove the market up and made it impossible for anyone unwilling to take on a suicide loan will now drive it back down.
Realtors’ income goes bust
By JUDY STARK
Published May 19, 2007
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ADVERTISEMENT
Offbeat News Video
All those Realtors who spent the past few years raking in big bucks in the housing market? The ones who cashed in big-time on the run-up in home prices?
They wish.
The median income of Realtors last year was $47, 700, down from $49, 300 in 2004, according to a newly released survey of members of the National Association of Realtors.
Members licensed as brokers earned a median of $73, 700 last year. Those licensed as sales agents earned a median $34, 600.
As for all those people who thought, a few years ago, “This is a booming market! Anybody could make money here!” . . . So they got their real estate licenses, and they made money, all right. Realtors with two years of experience or less earned a median of $15, 300. That hardly pays the cell phone bills and fills the tank with gas.
The typical Realtor is 51 years old, works 40 hours a week, and has been in the business for seven years. Just 4 percent say real estate is their first career. Most came from management, business or financial fields, sales or retail, office or administrative support.
Nearly six in 10 Realtors are female.
Eighty-seven percent are Caucasian, 6 percent Hispanic, 4 percent African-American, 3 percent Asian, 1 percent American Indian and 1 percent other. Respondents could choose more than one category.
Members in the business two years or less handled a median of $800, 000 in business. Those with at least six years’ experience handled $2.6-million. Perseverance has its rewards.
[Last modified May 18, 2007, 16:37:35]
I would need to know how many hours work it took to get the 47k average . Also its a know fact that only 15% of the realtors make the really big bucks .It looks like the median was 4 or 5 home transactions and that aint’ a lot of work .
The Naples News. “Not being able to pay the bills is rarely a cause for celebration. But after a first try at home ownership landed a San Carlos Park couple in a deep financial bind, Amanda Stark and Bill Berr were willing to try anything to shave away at their debts, even partying.
They’re throwing a benefit bash this weekend in the yard of their two-story, yellow-painted home they’re fighting to keep.”
From my personal experience, partying is a better way to incur debts than to extinguish them. In light of this story, mortgage-burning parties seem so 20th Century…
Carl Spackler: License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They’re like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that’s all she wrote.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/18/national/a064947D35.DTL
Golf Courses, man, I said Golf Courses!
Wow, some moron actually got mad that his kid’s little league team lost….25 years ago? Hey dumbo, all the kids have to play at least 2 innings. Their parents pay to play also. Any kid that is a star can go for extra coaching and be on elite teams. Once the kids are out of little league, the good ones keep playing, the bad ones do something else. Any idiot who thinks little league is for teaching lessons about a hard life is a total complete moron. Had I been there 25 years ago and you said something….I would have busted you right in your damn nose.
Who whizzed in your wheaties, huh, Jon? What word in dimedropped’s post didn’t you understand? I’ll bet the word was “scrubs”. And any coach who would put the “scrubs” in at the last inning when the team was about to win the game is a politically correct surrender monkey jerk. He could have given them their innings earlier. What’s the point of any game? To win, otherwise why even play? Childhood’s as good a time as any to learn lessons about teamwork, loyalty, winning and losing. Better kids should learn these life lessons in little league then have to grow up and learn them on the fly in hellholes like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The ONLY thing those “scrubs” learned or would have learned sitting on the bench that day is not “hard work”, “the American way” and “survival of the fittest”. They would have learned that their coach was a horse’s ass. Also, any coach that would have violated league rules to win a game is waaaaaay too involved, is living vicariously (sp?) through a kid and is probably a pedophile.
Let kids run around and have fun.
Here is a history lesson for you guys. In the fall of 1978 the New York (Football) Giants were playing the Philadelphia Eagles at the Meadowlands. Giants were up by five points or so and there was 30 seconds left in the game. What did the Giants do? Did they take a knee and win? NOPE! They RAN A PLAY!!! Joe Pistarcik (sp?) fumbled a handoff to Larry Czonka and Herman Edwards of the Birds scooped the ball up and ran it in to the end zone for a touchdown. EAGLES WIN! E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!
Now,…why didn’t NY take a knee? Back then, many old-time/old school coaches (like the then NY offensive coordianter who called the play) considered it POOR SPORTSMANSHIP to take a knee!!! So for all you morons out there that think the “good old days” was all about “making boys into men”, “win at any and all costs” and “mercy is for the weak” and “strike first strike hard” cobra cai karate stuff, well,…you are wrong.
If on that fall 1978 day, the Giants did whatever was needed to win, they would have simply taken a knee and won. So, if anything the year 2007 (where a team would never dream about running a play in that situation) is the year of win-at-all-costs. Not 30 years ago.
I wish you people would stay on topic. It’s called an allegory, learn to deal with it.
Can someone PLEASE remind me that we are working with a totally new economic model in South Florida? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.
San Carlos park is in S.Fort Myers… Not Naples.
Carpenter wages in Naples are about $15.00 per hr