PANDORA'S WIDGET BOX OPENED!

FRACTIONALIZING&WIDGETIZING MY WEB PRESENCE:

Having encased my Blog in a Blidget ( look over there, at my right sidbar ----> ) for easy posting on my websites, I now find it is possible to do the reverse: Encase my websites in a little square widget to display on my blog. I am flashing on an image of a circular snake biting its own tail.

Widgets apparently have come of age. Any piece of cyber real estate now can be portalled and miniaturized for neat display anywhere, then accessed and used via clickable widgets. I need to consider the possibilities here. Even better: the useful applications to my business and life. Cutting one's internet presences into postage sized clickable picture pieces that are links, messages or gadgets, which I can leave anywhere I feel like, seem to augur mind-boggling possibilities. Leaving a widget trail gives the concept of "marking your territory" a whole new meaning.

For now, here is a Widget Portal to my mortgage lending company's website, Patterson Lending Group, joining my Blogger Blidget with the blog on the widget website. And I do not think I am done yet. The Slide Show Widget is calling me -- also, I do have at least two other web sites to widgetize! There seems to be a programmable aspect to the widgetizing as well, which I will have to explore and root out another day. For now: Serving up the Website-in-a-Widget below.

"THE PONZI SCHEME THAT IS FLORIDA?" CHEAP YELLOW JOURNALISM TO KICK US WHEN WE ARE DOWN...

CANNIBALISM IS ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA AND APPARENTLY THE DIET DU JOUR FOR POLITICAL COMMENTATORS OVERWHELMED BY THE REAL PROBLEMS FACING OUR NATION.

Neil Macdonald's piece on "The Americas" titled "The giant Ponzi scheme that is Florida" smacks of the worst kind of yellow journalism and stoops to low-brow sensationalist labelling, finger-pointing and muck-raking. No I take it back. This is not an honest piece of muckraking as it's not supported by any social conscience or motive. I ask you: with all the troubles besetting our country, is the best choice of topic about America singling out one state and its people to trash, and blaming them for everything wrong?

Apparently We The Florida Homeowners, are solely responsible for the sorry condition we are in, to wit: our home values have shrunk by over 50%, we cannot pay our mortgages and basically have reaped what we, the idiotic Floridians, have sown with our self destructive tax haven policies.

He gleefully quotes a professor at South Florida University, one Gary Mormino, with labelling his own home state "The Ponzi State". This guy who has never been truly famous, now has his name in the papers and on the net and a silly grin on his face in the unflattering photograph after unexpectedly finding himself in the spotlight for trashing his own home state. Thanks, Gary. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
I especially like your comic book version of the Apocalypse of Florida.

The article goes on to list an odd jumble of woes imputed suffered by said Floridans: Bottom-feeding foreclosure sharks driving around in buses to view the homes up for grabs. Colorful descriptions of sad, abandoned homes in the Ft. Myers area. Blaming the cheap retirees loath to vote for State income taxes that might have sustained said communities for now reaping their just rewards of a "stunted government". More colorful phrases sprinkled throughout the piece to add flavor are: "a palm tree fantasy with a tax structure that was insane"; "we are paralyzed"; "massive fraud and lack of oversight"; "minorities who were talked into believing you can own a house on minimum wage"; - those fools, right? What made them think they could have a slice of the American Dream. It labels the high foreclosure load of the Lee County Courthouse in Ft. Myers the "rocket docket", where judge Jack Schoonover zips through a full 190 cases of people losing their homes in one single morning. He quotes the judge as telling a hapless mortgagor losing her home that he can't help her find a job and that "the president has to do that for you".(!) Yes, that advice will surely help her sort things out.

The tainted flavor of the Poor getting what they deserve permeates the piece like rotten fish. Some lowly waitress at an oyster bar had to take a second job cleaning people's homes to stay afloat. Deserves her right, apparently, for being stupid enough to live in a state that has "nightmarish unemployment", "tax hating Floridians" and a government that is "a stunted, business driven entity with nothing to offer". And that's not an America hating Jihad member talking but one of our own.

Apart from the fact that it is a poorly researched, shallow piece of cheap sensationalist yellow journalism with no redeeming social value, I find the tone malicious, evaluative, elitist and judgmental. I further doubt the facts as to Florida being the ultimate national hell-hole of the real estate implosion, bad government and resident's short-sightedness. Visiting the town of Ft. Myers does not an expert on Florida make. Should I mention Las Vegas, Nevada or Phoenix, AZ. I am disappointed that someone with so much experience in journalism finds it fitting to trash a random corner of our country and demonize its citizens for the sake of a cheap piece.

It is common knowledge that we have a much larger problem economically and that the Florida homeowners approved for loans when the real estate market was booming are not the reason of the current wide ranging economic crash. To imply they are getting what's coming to them is simplistic pap. At a time when we all need to remember we are in the same boat and looking for ways to survive, polarizing our people and instigating verbal witch hunts just brings back the days of the Salem Witch Trials. The worst is that these "spokesmen" given press are just like us - they are not part of the moneyed elite benefiting from billions in government handouts, and what we have to experience they will have to live through too. They are small timers and they will live within our paradigm right alongside us. That's why I call it cannibalism. They are ripping and eating their own. A case of intellectual rabies.

Sunbelt states have always been a magnet for people who want to get away from the cold and less favorable micro economies. In the end, I suspect those warm-blooded states will have the life energy to spring back the fastest, if any of them do. Despite all this trouble, the Broward and Palm Beach County, Florida Census still shows an increase in population of several thousand souls over the last one, so there must be worse places these new wannabe Floridians are coming from. This is a national economic depression and we need to step closer to one another, not further away. The economic hurricane will be survived by those that stand together, not apart. Hurricane Wilma made one tight family out of the residents of the block I live on. We still are bonded like soldiers of war. We fed each other and dug each other out from under fallen trees and splintered roofs. We survived together. Our grass roots are growing tightly in the same soil.

And Mr. Macdonald, the economic Ponzi scheme you seek is at a much higher level but you can't write about it for you are not privvy to that information. Think of this conversation next time you find yourself in Florida for work or vacation.


Charlo in Florida,
Hanging on in the Sunshine State

VALUABLE ADVICE FOR 1st TIME HOME BUYERS

DEAR 1st TIME HOME BUYER, WE NEED TO TALK.....

Today I want you to look upon me, for the sake of some real, honest communication, as your kindly Uncle Charlo, who is the Family Go-To Guy for all things real estate and finance and who has your best family interest in mind. You know, the "blood is thicker than water", nepotism rules, slant on life. Let's dispense with the concept of "convincing" you of anything. I will not stroke your ego, deliver a compelling sales pitch, put on my red clown nose and dance for you.
None of that will happen in this blog. It will be just your Uncle Charlo talking, wanting to give his kin a leg up with 1st time wannabe home buying dreams. So have a seat in my cozy study, sip the nice, hot cup of Joe your aunt Leisa has set by your elbow, and listen up.

" So you want to buy a house, Dear, is that right?" I might ask.

You may respond with something like:
"Uncle Charlo, I hear it's a Buyer's Market and the interest rates are low, and my lease is up in a couple of months. It's time to buy my own dream home!"

If I were a pipe smoker, I probably would lean back and slowly light my pipe just about now. Alas -- I am not. So, in the spirit of getting right down to business I might say:

" You know I have made it a point to acquire a good amount of properties over the years in addition to selling and financing them for my clients, and if you listen up for a few minutes today, set your ego aside and if you get it, you will have a better chance to make your dream of owning your own home come true. Know that whatever I may say it is truth from the trenches and not meant to rain on your parade".

You think of Uncle Tobias and your older sister who are already in their own digs thanks to Uncle Charlo, and you might say enthusiastically (one could always hope):
" Talk to me Uncle Charlo, I'll do anything you say; just get me into a home of my own!"

Or you might think: "Pompous fool! Who does he think he is, trying to tell me what I should do. I know what I want and aim to get it -- with him or without him," and nod and smile weakly.

In a multi-layered civilization and sophisticated economy like ours, smart people pay good money to hire experts and use the information and their skills to get the results they desire. They know what they don't know and know where to find someone who has the vital information they need. They do not cut their own hair, do not complete their own tax returns, do not teach their own kids Algebra, do not grow their own vegetables and they do not try to buy and finance their first house without expert help. Of course we are not talking Homesteading now.

So let's assume you decide to pay attention to Uncle Charlo and track with him closely.

You might say:
"OK well, I want a home -- so where do I start?" You are a linear, practical thinker and not a philosopher delving into the idiosyncrasies of Western monetary systems -- a blog for another day.

Uncle Charlo leans forward, makes some serious eye contact and says:
"You start with yourself. Look at what you absolutely must have in a home and what you can afford to pay every month."

You say: "OK I'll bite. I want three bedrooms, two baths, a large yard and space for an office. I want a newer house, nothing to fix. It has to be within ten minutes to my job. Close to the college for my night classes. I can pay $800.00 a month for the mortgage, maybe $900.00."
You smile confidently. Does this sound like something you might be thinking?

Is that a sadistic twinkle in Uncle Charlo's merry eyes? He leans forward like a predatory bird and stabs at the air with a finger.
"What did I say? I said: "WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE!" Not what you ideally want to have. Why? You priced yourself right out of a house with that list. Do you really expect to get a three bedroom house in perfect shape for under $900.00 a month including everything? There are taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, home owners dues! We'll do the math later, but now: GIVE ME THE ESSENTIALS OF WHAT YOU MUST HAVE. What is it that you absolutely cannot do without?"

Crestfallen, you feel he is stepping on your dreams, but you say:
"Well I guess I need two bedrooms, one for us and one for little Trevor, and maybe some extra space somewhere in case we decide to have another child. I do need a yard for Dexter. But if I am going to buy a house why not get what I really want?"

"Baby steps," says Uncle Charlie. You are trying to get your first house. You do not want to over-mount yourself financially, and being a 1st time buyer implies that THERE WILL BE OTHER HOUSES IN YOUR FUTURE!" Again he stabs the air with a finger. "This is just a beginning for you. Your first house!"
He scribbles my "must haves" on his yellow legal pad like a lawyer in the heat of a consult.
"Two bedrooms. One bath. A yard of some sort. Everything else is gravy."

"What about being close to work and school" I protest. "That's essential to me!"

Uncle is shaking his head in disgust. "Oh and you suppose we will find a good selection of homes in a postage sized square block around your work? How long do you drive to work now?"

" Twenty minutes". Again, that evil smile. Shatterer of dreams.

Then he softens and smiles all fatherly:
" The Prime Directive for you, as a First Time Home Buyer, is to get into a home, a home you can afford, a home you can qualify for, a home that has at least the basics of what you need and that is located somewhere accessible. It may not be the home of your dreams, it may not be perfect in every way -- are you perfect? It may not be close to everything you do."

"But it will be home of your own, your sanctuary and power base, it will belong to you, it will shelter your loved ones and you will make it yours and come to love it. You will eventually outgrow it -- ergo the term "starter home" , and it will be your stepping stone into real estate ownership. I will fall just short of telling you that any home you can get into is the right one for a first time buyer, but it is almost like that."

" Be flexible, open for possibilities and creative, let people help you if they offer it and do not say no to something that meets your basic needs and looks like it may become a deal for you easily. I am talking about sellers that offer to pay your closing costs, give you a repair credit, help with the down payment and so forth. these opportunities will make a potential home instantly more attractive."

" Be smart about your monthly limit on housing costs. It's not just the mortgage you will be paying. You need to add up everything and keep it within your budget. Look at town homes at lower prices with smaller yards but figure in the association dues. Look outside planned developments for zero home owners dues. Look at flood zones. No flood zone means no flood insurance cost. Look at the taxes. If an investor owned it before, your tax bill will be higher for the first year. Be aware of the costs and maximize your housing dollar."

You might say: "OK. So what can I get for a maximum of a $1,000.00 a month. I know I qualify for around $1,200.00 but I really just want to spend the same as what I am paying for rent now."

Uncle Charlo will nod approvingly and say: " Excellent, you got yourself qualified for a loan already. That must mean your credit scores are over 600, you have two years employment and income documents and you have some funds in your checking accounts for the purchase. What type of loan did you get qualified for?"

"FHA" you might say. FHA is a good program for 1st time home buyers. We offer it here.
" I have $5,000 cash in the bank and might have some more over the next couple of months."

" You need a deal where the seller pays your closing costs, but that is not that difficult to get right now." says Uncle Charlo. "Start looking at around $120,000 purchase price and check all the expenses. Look at anything within a 20 mile radius of your job which I suppose is your "ground zero". Explore. This is the data collection stage. You want choices. Fine tuning comes later."

We adjourn to Uncle Charlo's sunny dining room to snack on the Sunday brunch goodies.
More steaming hot coffee, OJ, muffins, pancakes, bacon and omelettes.

"Uncle Charlo, will you help me find my 1st house?"
Uncle Charlo nods and hands you a buttered muffin.

"Did I ever tell you about the first house I bought?" he says between bites.

But that is the story of another blog.

ANALYZING THE "MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE" INITATIVE

HOW THE BANKS ARE DEALING WITH THE
"MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE" PROGRAM with
additional commentary by USA Today.

Given the scarcity of good news overall for stressed out homeowners, let us carefully review this crumb thrown our way. Most of the Obama funds are being spent on propping up failed financial institutions and there's no "trickle-down" effect from those funds to the home owners, to be sure. Even this Making Home Affordable Program is based on the premise to financially incentivize, i.e. PAY $1,000.00 to everybody concerned to please participate in helping the embattled home owners keep their homes. The lender and the servicer get cold cash to do this, which means they get a huge chunk of the funds just to participate. For the performing loans over the five-year mark, small annual incentives actually go to the home owner as well. Not up front, though. They have to earn them with a perfect payment record.

In a nutshell, here's the deal:
1) Have a Fannie or Freddie loan under $729,750? (no sub-prime loans are eligible).
2) Are you a bona-fide owner-occupant? (no second homes or rental property).
3) Are you still CURRENT on your mortgage payments, or at worst 1 times 30 days late in the last 12 months? (There go half of the needy homeowners).
4) Then you are invited to call your loan servicer or a designated FNMA lender and apply for a refinance or loan modification before June 2010.

You will:
1) Have to prove your current PITI payments are OVER 31% of your income (that should be easy for the bulk of us).
2) Your home value has not bitten the dirt to a point where the new loan would be OVER 105% of your home's value; this includes the refinance costs. ( There go maybe a third of us).
3) Having to prove income and assets as if you were applying for a new fully documented loan may be difficult for the originally stated income applicants, small business owners and such.
(Since many homeowners are in need of help BECAUSE they have suffered a vanishment of income, this is a good one and bound to eliminate many in need).
4) You have to WAIT till your servicer gets around to your deal. (By then you may be late with a payment and ineligible).

This list of criteria effectively thins out the applicants to a trickle because:
1) This is a program made palatable for the LENDERS and not to save needy homeowners.
2) They only want you if your house makes value and you are still on top of your game, if a bit winded.
3) You will have to QUALIFY for the new loan fully, probably more stringently than for the one you now have. Those that lost serious home value and have had a real struggle financially are NOT part of this deal.
4) Basically it is helping those in the least amount of need. As is usual with bankers, you get to borrow money if you are able to demonstrate you are basically doing OK.
5) Any second mortgage holder must agree and remain in second place even if the balance goes up. (Good luck with that one!)


The Problems: Part of the problem is that in reality, many home owners have been late more than once in the last year and are struggling to make the payments. So those that actually are having problems are NOT ELIGIBLE. Home values have many home owners upside down beyond the 105% mark and those are the ones that really need the help and are most likely to lose their homes. Given the steep declines in values anyone with an original loan of 80% or above will probably not qualify, since the shrunken current value will be out of this tiny box.
The bank gets paid by the government to write a viable deal based on their Old School criteria, with possibly a lower rate for up to five years as a concession. No reduction of principal of course, leaving most home owners as upside down loan-to-value wise as before. Nit-picky stepped up rates over five years in case of a lower than market initial rate, or a balloon payment take more piranha nibbles out of these deals. In case you are coming out of an Option Arm into the accelerated rate term of your loan your rate will definitely go up, no question. And still they want you to be grateful.
If you DO manage to qualify, the papers you sign will put you ON PROBATION for three months and if you are not perfect in your payment record, you lose the deal. Imagine, if you were put on a trial period when you get a regular new mortgage - and after three months they decide to call the loan if you did not pay exactly like clockwork? You would lose your house and any equity in it. Well basically, this is what will happen here, too. They'll call the loan due.

The View From The Pit: President Obama tries to buy the financial institution's cooperation with more money that they deserve, but the image I get is him standing at the tall iron gates of Scrooge McDuck's Estate trying to advocate him into leniency towards his poor tenants who are losing their homes because of earlier sanctioned, impossible-to-meet loan terms and destructive economic forces that are as unchangeable for the homeowners as any force of nature. The harvest has been a bust, no grain was brought in. Yet anyone without grain will not get a chance to beg for their homes. "GAME OVER" for debtors.

I would not want to be in President Barack Obama's shoes.
Going to the Scrooge McDuck Estate trying to buy leniency for his harried constituents without a shotgun loaded for Bear is a thankless task. Why is the President trying to romance loan modifications out of the financial institutions, anyway? Give that poor man some knee pads. In this emergency, should he not have some additional powers? Privately I ask myself, is there not a better way to bail out our nation, than to just give billions to the financial institutions who mis-managed the devalued financial instruments to begin with? Why can't we have a democratic instead of a capitalist solution here? Why are these billions of dollars not being used to catch up or pay down the homeowners loans commensurate with the equity loss incurred and cut out the banking middleman? Or find some other way to help the home owner in the cross-hairs directly. Too simple, I guess. Bankers run the world, and banker will get paid. We are in for a rough ride, Citizens.
Too late for that now anyway, the bail-out funds have been given to the bankers.

Good luck, Home Owners, with running the qualification gauntlet and scraping together some of the crumbs of the MAKING HOMES AFFORDABLE program.

Many will go hungry because only the name is a mouthful.

ECONOMY IMPROVES BASED ON PEOPLES FEELINGS, NOT STATISTICS

JUST LIKE WITH A SERIOUS, LIFE THREATENING ILLNESS, ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS NOT ALWAYS BASED ON GRIM STATISTICS AND PROBABILITIES, BUT ON PEOPLE'S DETERMINATION AND DESIRE, SUPPORTED BY POSITIVE FEELINGS, FOR THINGS TO GET BETTER.

It appears now that the American people themselves are driving the economic recovery by their own fervent and deeply felt desire for things to get better for each and every one of us. Positive sentiment not only can cure cancer but apparently raise our economy from its knees and make it walk tall again. Watch this video from the WSJ video collection and listen closely. What is driving the recovery is the spirit and positive energy of the people to heal our country in the face of contradictory and even dismal statistics, such as the housing market decline contributing a 1.5% loss in our GDP or a projected 10% unemployment rate.

The people of America built this country, and even a major dismembering of our financial back-bone by greedy and irresponsible men with too much power and not enough social conscience cannot paralyze what we have built. We are the spirit of our nation. May it walk tall again and reflect our love for each other and our indefatigable spirit. The soul of our country are the people, not the game players.



Looking at empirical date of economic statistics does not support the sentiment spreading through our country that things are getting better, any more than a low white blood cell count can depress an ill person's determination to get well. In the book "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gagwain, this phenomenon is explained by her information that thought empowered with emotion creates reality, for good or bad. So our reality is shaped by our feelings and thoughts, which precede the creation of our experienced reality. So, if we feel good about the future of our nation and we expect things to get better, they will. Let us create our future life in our country as secure, prosperous and in tune with our individual as well as global survival goals.

COME SEE MY OFFICE AS I WORK WITH CLIENTS!

I OWE YOU THIS POST ON WHY TO BUY FLORIDA REAL ESTATE NOW -- AND I WILL DELIVER

Charles Patterson, Property Management Services


Dear Readers:

Having valiantly controlled my gag reflex after swallowing, in the name of research, this saccharine PR bloggage about a Trumanesque Pleasantville , Florida blog (give me a moment here, I just threw up a little in my mouth again from the off after taste), I am now adding not just a few grains but a whole shaker's worth of iodized rock salt and a bit of freshly ground black pepper.

OK I'll admit it's true, there seem to be some indicators that it may be a better time to buy real estate now than, say, during the Black Abyss Days of mid-2008. Trying to be fair here, guys.
So let's cede a few points to the apple-cheeked Pleasantville optimist exhorting us to "buy Florida Real Estate now":

So sales are up a titch (17% supposedly), mortgage rates are down in the 5's, and it's nice to get up to $8 large off 2009 taxes for those hens teeth buyers, namely neo-credit worthy first time home buyers - but golly gee whiz I just have trouble with the Gov's pronouncement: "It does not get much better than this. You don't want to wait. Prices have gotten as low as they can. Now is the time, while the deals still exist." Trust me, the deals will continue to exist.

Realtor quotes that "savvy investors have returned to our market. But we're also seeing a lot of young families, who are buying a home to settle down and establish roots in the community. That's a sign that people aren't leaving the area, aren't leaving Florida" Segued by the Gov's: "of course they are (establishing roots) -- it's Florida. Why would they go anywhere else?" sound like self-serving pap or a tree house full of scared children singing in the dark. Actually, the Gov was saying thanks to them for keeping on in a losing business.

But the cheery homilies being bandied about are not entirely accurate. People are leaving Florida for the Carolinas and elsewhere, and savvy investors are still trying to dump their depreciated properties left and right. And is this the bottom of the market? In a Pig's Eye.

Where do I start. How about here: How can one support a stance of level or rising property values with foreclosures continuing unabated, more and more homes in REO buckets of hapless lenders, the vacant property count increasing like shrunken heads on a medicine man's loin cloth and deteriorating neighborhoods becoming unsafe and unattractive? The grim hedge fund reapers are scraping devalued properties into their distressed asset portfolios by the hundreds of millions.

Everyone's financial stress is exacerbated by credit companies' tactics of raising interest rates into the high 20% range after one late payment or an (allowed) over-the-limit purchase paired with dropping unused credit limits down to actual balances at the slightest provocation. The scrutiny of mortgage applicants could not be greater. The bail-out trillions paid to the banks disappear like water in sand --- no "trickle down" effect going on.

True, not every neighborhood is the same - and maybe this is an issue of geographic pockets; some with rising and some with dropping values. But the Florida market is not sustained by pockets like a wheel of Swiss cheese, some parts with cheese and some with just bad smelling air. The golden, creamy center of the real estate market must be whole and sweet to merit a call of stable or rising home values. Well enough of the food-related metaphors. You want to know if I recommend buying real estate.

Er -- generally, no. With some exceptions. Here they are, in a nutshell:

1) You buy 40% or more under market value. And yes, the property can have some work to be done. Nothing terminal, mind you. If the market drops some more, you have bought at tomorrow's value. With a cushion.

2) You do not need to make a chunk of change quickly from flips. You are OK with living in the home or renting it out for a couple of years. This isn't a seller's market.
Yes some people claim to be flipping and making money. I do not know of any that are doing really well with this. I do know investors that are trying to sell older inventory and flips, but it's not easy going since buyers are not easy to qualify.

3) You understand that in exchange for the quality of life home ownership grants you, you may be in a home that does not appreciate and possibly depreciates and you may pay more overall than for a rental of comparable amenities. But you will not have a landlord, you can have your pets, you can live with your partner of choice in peace, and you can get thirty year fixed rate mortgage money at the lowest rates in decades -- if you qualify under the new loan standards, that is.

4) Hail, Intrepid Investor, I bow to your valor. Cash is king and if you can fling around some of it you will find amazing deals. Yes do read number 2 above.

5) If you can buy discounted equity portfolios or form an investor team to do so, do so. I would if I could. Maybe I will. Want to participate? How does 30 cents on the dollar of property value sound?

6) Nothing wrong with lease options or (gift) wrap financing by sellers. If it drops too much all you lose is your option money. Keep it low. Meanwhile you will have a nice place to live. I would expect there are some homes one can pick up for a couple thousand in walkway funds. Do it five times with a $2,000 bill and you have five investment homes. Play the rental game right and you might just have a cash flow. Risky but doable.

I am out of steam and apparently not riding along on the "this is the bottom -- buy buy buy" band wagon. I do want to mention that I can help you select properties that will fit like the proverbial camel through the eye of this particular needle. I must further confess to picking off some properties in the $40,000 range that are renting nicely for $1,100 per month. Value in the low $100's, cash flow $400.00-plus per month. I find them almost every day. I want to buy more. So am I saying it's time to buy or not? Charlo speaks with forked tongue?
Yes I suppose, I am saying to buy -- if you do it like this.

But buy at market? You must be kidding.

More to come.....

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

Check out my new collage!

Get my collage or Create your own

PICTURE COLLAGE OF PATTERSON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CONDOS MANAGED BY ME, CHARLES PATTERSON

Hello Again, Valued Readers!

IF A PICTURE IS REALLY WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, HERE ARE A THOUSAND PICTURES, WHICH SHOULD TELL YOU AS MUCH AS I COULD WRITE HERE IN A MILLION WORDS.
Yes, that is me, Charles A. Patterson, peeking out of some of the pictures as I physically drive and inspect my managed communities and speak with some owners, tenants and workmen. It's getting hot out there, guys! This is Florida you know.
I do not get to sit in an air conditioned office since I consider it importnat to drive all the properties regularly to ensure they look as good and run as smoothly as I want them to. The collage was done in Picasa, and there will be more to come, presumably saving me millions of words more in the future.

SOME OF THE FLORIDA PROPERTIES WE MANAGE

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY -- THAT IS THE QUESTION! WHY NOT TO BUY REAL ESTATE NOW:

Howdy, Valued Reader!

Come on in and let me inject you with another addictive dose of my street-wise real estate news!

When smart Contrarians like Brett Arends (see WSJ article/Personal Finance "The Case For Buying a Home Right Now" begin to turn bullish on real estate it's time to pay attention. Needless to say I am the ultimate real estate Bull and love to see The Morphing of the Bears documented in the hallowed pages of the WSJ.

Having said that, now let me play Devil's Advocate to Brett Arends, the Devil's Advocate playing Devil's Advocate to himself in the above article.

Got that? Good. Assuming the opposition viewpoint has brought me much joy and knowledge in life. Walking in another's shoes and all that.... Some other shoes do at times seem a tad --- small -- I must admit. Just the other day I was walking around my office barefooted, well, because my own leather loafers were a bit tight.

First let me whip this self-professed Contrarian's softening bullish tendencies back in line with some of his own nasty facts (link to his nasty facts here).

I say: Do not buy real estate now.
Not yet, Maximus, not yet.

1) The home price-to-salary ratios are still well above 3 in many markets. Why not wait till they plummet further, maybe even to 2? In some markets no doubt they will. This would make a house worth buying at, say 2 or 2.5 times one's annual salary. And I say: take home pay. All that "gross" income they used to base mortgage payments on is just ghost money. Can't make a payment with gross income because it is not there. Net income is real money. The bank wants real money every month.

2) Admittedly, home prices have dropped like the proverbial shoe by 30 percent overall from their highest value levels in 2006. But is that it? No, I say: The other shoe has yet to drop, and it will. Take a look at the earlier home price climb from 2000 to 2003 and safely knock off another 30% of today's prices. That is today's prices, reduced by another 30%. Yep. Do the math.

3) There is ample evidence that bursting bubbles take several years to balance out, see our own country's earlier one in 1989 or Japan's. We may have a few more years of low-suds living before business as usual returns.

4) Why buy when rentals are plentiful and cheap, and good tenants are oh so desired by landlords stuck with said devalued properties they are unable to unload due to lack of equity. Just yesterday I had lunch -- read: a chilled bottle of Lipton's Diet White Tea -- with a 2006 equity millionaire three times over who wanted to divest himself of some of the real estate. First order of business was to cross off the list all the properties that had no equity or upside down equity and were not marketable. Can't sell if you have to bring cash to the closing table.

5) Another caveat for hopeful born-again property owners: The luster is worn off the wings of the glamorous real estate investment butterfly. Tenants are getting really good at ripping you off. The ex-real estate millionaire and I traded an hour's worth of war stories as to how ingenious professional ripoff tenants are finding ways to nail landlords in this sharky economy. Like the tenant that moved in with one month's rent, half a month's deposit, two mattresses, plastic storage bins and a card table and a small child in tow, telling him "You will not get another dime from me -- try to evict me if you want", and successfully squatting for a total of four months and leaving hundreds in utility bills to boot. She had a great job, nice car and dressed like a professional. Apparently a pro at ripping off landlords and ready to pack and move when absolutely necessary. After eviction court costs the net income is close to zilch. Landlording ain't what it used to be. Nothing lordly about it now.

6) How do you plan to maintain an American Pie lifestyle in your new home with three to four houses on your block vacant, boarded, regularly broken into and squatted in by assorted folks? One or two neighbors have not made their mortgage payments for the last year and freely discuss how much longer they think they have before they have to move. Your next door neighbor has just been served an eviction notice and you feel bad because you know the owner and like him, and you know the tenant and her situation too. And how do you plan to prop up your home's value which depends on other sales and the condition of the neighborhood? Where's that Pride of Home Ownership now? Up in crack pipe smoke.

Do I exaggerate? Sadly, no. I end this post affirming the worst: Homes are still priced too high, further devaluation is almost a certainty, bursting bubbles do not sudse up again within a paltry two-year time span and history tells us we are in the middle of a huge economic trough we have to trudge out of one tired step at a time. Lovely. Have I made a case for stepping back a tad and keeping your checkbook in your pocket just for now? I see you non-plussed, maybe nodding. Feel free to respond in a comment.

OK. Now prep yourself for tomorrow's blog: I will destroy my own case with a vengeance and deadly blows of logic to make you want to buy property from me by the six-pack. Make you want to write me bad checks just to tie up some homes NOW. Let me toast to this adventure with some more Lipton's White Diet tea. Cheers!

Yours Always,

"Blood-In-The-Streets"
Charlo Patterson, LCAM, CRM, M.Ed.

NEUTRON BOMB ASSET LIQUIDATION STARTEGY! SHOCKING BLOOOMBERG ARTICLE:"California Foreclosures Jeopardize Renters as Banks Seize Homes"

Hello again, Dear Reader;


Now this Bloomberg article reports an interesting tenant removal tactic practiced by the leading foreclosing banks:

Banks are breaking local rental laws in evicting hapless tenants from foreclosed homes in their feverish rush to take possession of the property. Now this is a lose/lose scenario for sure: Here we have occupants actually WILLING AND ABLE TO PAY THE RENT TO LIVE IN THE HOME, many with a long record of prompt rental payments, and the banks want them to move out instead of taking their offered rent money, leaving the homes vacant, without a cash flow and open to vandalism and vagrancy.

Why? The banks claim they are "not equipped" to "deal with" tenants. They want the empty homes but not people who want to occupy them and pay? They rather just sell the homes sixty cents on the dollar than deal with live and breathing people in the foreclosed homes. This sorry lack of basic "infrastructure" deprives the home of its highest and best use, the tenants of their legally leased and paid for domicile, and crashes the value of the real estate in a distress sale. Brilliant. I am at least glad to see that not all lenders have this fire sale mentality going on. At least Fannie an Freddie Mac do not treat their tenants as shabbily with their REO, apparently JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are some of the ones that do.

And turning off the utilities and padlocking the home? Were a regular landlord to do this, boy would they find themselves in a court of law in a hurry, and properly fined to boot! Being a property manager and priding myself on running a clean shop just makes me shake my head at these illegal activities.

Really, what good does it do a poor tenant to even know that the law is on her side and she can stay in the home for the allotted thirty to sixty days -- depending on that state's laws -- when her house is locked, the utilities are turned off, and there is a Sheriff at the door telling her to get her stuff out NOW? Scary, heavy handed tactics, and illegal to boot. Are we back in the Robber Baron days where people are chased off by force, not law? Apparently....yes.

Harsh times do not need to be exacerbated by harsher illegal tactics. Good tenant deserve to have their rights respected, even if it takes a reasonable amount of time to deal with the toxic fall-out of a foreclosure. Beyond the basics: Would it not make sense to let the good tenants stay in possession? Give them a new lease and collect the rent? They are actually paying to live in the home, and such cash flow could positively impact the alligator aspects of a foreclosed home. Not to mention having someone in the home who is willing to take care of it and not leaving it vacant, vandalized and open for squatters.

I see the blind windows of many empty homes as I drive through my town, some broken, some boarded up. Every street has at least a couple. Some are so empty that I do not run into a soul for a whole block. Destroyed habitats of humanity. These used to be $300,000-and-above priced homes just a couple years ago. Trashed, vacant, creepy. ..... Cheap.

This methodology goes along with the lock-step mentality of a bank that kicks the owner out of the home because he cannot pay a $400,000 mortgage instead of refinancing him at actual property value. and then puts the home on the market for $150,000 for anyone else to buy.
Anyone but the owner gets the new deal. Nice.

Good property management preserves the value of the home asset, protects the owners from loss and unnecessary expense, abides by the established laws of the land that govern legal conduct of all parties involved and stabilizes a neighborhood by proper stewardship of resources. How can a bank say they are "not equipped" to deal with this? What they are apparently not equipped to do is to follow the local tenant laws or treat people decently.

This NEUTRON BOMB approach to real estate asset liquidation is the most toxic and wasteful property management style imaginable: "Save the real estate and make the people disappear" -- and we are giving these institutions HOW MANY TRILLIONS to de-populate our communities?
Why? So they can turn our neighborhoods into ghost towns?

How do you feel about that?


Here's Charlo Patterson, LCAM, CRM, M.Ed, from Florida,

Feeling the Fall-out of the Bank's Asset Liquidation Neutron Bomb Strategy

HOW MUCH IS THAT BLOGGIE IN THE WINDOW?

Found this Blog Display Widget and it is beautiful! Compact yet information rich.

I can post my blog "Charles Patterson Talks About Florida Real Estate" in a small spot on all the web pages of my sites:
http://www.cpenterprisesinc.net,
http://www.pattersonpropertymanagement.com,
http://www.pattersonlendinggroup.com.

The Blog Display Widget is well designed and shows my blog titles and the starter text of my most recent posts. I can add the code snippet to any page or site, and it opens a little window into all my bloggy goodness yet to come. I aim to use it on my social networking pages, both personal and business. One blog for all. The dynamic content of a blog benefits any claim on the web you have a staked a presence. I love it when I find something that really works well -- and I want to share! Here's what the bloggy window looks like:




THE PORTABLE MINI BLOG! YES!

Yours Truly,

Charlo in Florida

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF FLORIDA REAL ESTATE IN 2009

Dear Real Estate-Bloody-Edge-Information Seeker;

The time has come to add my own juice to the waves of doom and gloom swamping our country's economic shores.

Every time we watch a national financial index dive or see home prices melt further down like snow in Florida (pun intended) I wonder why I am so busy and in the process of opening up a new real estate management, sales and financing office right here in the epicenter of the recession's exploding-bubble impact zone.

What I have to say is as follows: Take Heart, take some Dramamine to counteract the financial vertigo and get busy with constructive activity. I am. As in so many other situations, let us rescue our own economy one person at a time. I refuse to subscribe to the economic "Slippery Slope Mentalty" and hereby assert my contrarian viewpoint that there is traction available, albeit with a bit more toe and finger digging required on our part. Care to comment? Please do.

As to my personal economic glass, it appears most certainly at least one third full of sweet Lipton's Diet White tea. More news to come.

Sipping slowly, I remain:

Yours Truly,

Charlo Patterson in Florida, LCAM, CRM, M.Ed.