We have used REA's but we found many sellers
> and buyers won't deal with them, I suppose because
> of they're slime ball reputation.
> So we did a few deals without them and they actually
> went smoother than using them, seller and buyer
> face to face, the way it ought to be.
> Paying a REA a big commision is paying for double
> talk from a talking head,
>
> We saved BIG money doing our own research and
> advertising. Basically REA's are obsolete.
> What do guys think?
Makes sense and good post, I was going to post something similar.
What other methods are you aware of to track down real estate? Gov't depts?
A concern I have is how, apparently, developers purchase land (how/from whom?) for relatively cheap, subdivide and cookie-cutter-shtick/shlock it, and then squat on it for a ransom.
That paragraph is filled with misconceptions. Land isn't cheap, never has been, and is getting more and more expensive all the time. Land developement costs are on the moon. Its alarming how much coin one must drop by requirement of authority in order to do with their land what they wish, and all along the way its riddled with compromise.
I believe the cookie cutter schtick is a result of the enormous up front costs of land aquisition and developement. Quite frankly, by the time they get to the point of actually assembling a crib the budget is straining and the investors are complaining because it has taken so long to just get this far.
You may remember this: I designed a developement for some folks on an island with 54 upscale single family residences. The streets were installed, lighting, lots divided, signage installed, etc., then out of no where a greenie found an abandoned eagles nest within legal proximity to cause concern. The nest had been abandoned but nobody had documented how long it had been abandoned. Federal law stipulates all eagle nests must be documented to have been abandoned for at least 5 years and the developer must provide proof of such.
So there they sat, $11mil backwards in the developement and no way to move forward for another 5 years, now what? The developer hired a high priced attorney who found a gray area in the law and took advantage of it. The developer had to surrender 30% of the land to another thug from a wetlands agency in exchange for leniency on the eagle thing, in other words, the nest had to be abandoned for 3 years rather than 5.
So, a gov't agency made a law about an animal that humans had to abide by, after the fact. (if they made a law where the animal had to abide by a human the animal would just ignore it) Then that agency forced (extorted) the property owner to give some of his property to another gov't agency just because.
BTW: By the time all of it was settled, red tape takes forever, the original 5 years had lapsed, the nest was certified as abandoned and the almost broke developer tried to move forward. He has built 5 homes there, but with the downturn in the economy it is highly speculative whether any of the other lots will sell without steep loss in already spent money.
This is just one example. SW Florida is littered with these social experiments, many with HUD signs on them right now.
I said 'ransom', so we seem to be in agreement.
Leonardo DiCaprio apparently bought an entire island off the coast of Belize, and plans on a resort, even though he hasn't necessarily worked any harder than your average nurse or designer-- an entire island, that he's going to 'develop'. Meanwhile he just produced a green documentary about the multitude of environmental issues we face.
What's wrong with this picture?
I suspect it's one way our current economic system ostensibly works; growth-oriented profit maximization. These are at ultimate odds with people and the environment. It appears that even you've made a choice to live in the woods so to speak-- outside of a developer tract.
It begs the question as to whether designers, developers, bankers, oil execs, etc., live in their own shit they create for everyone else. Where and how do they actually live?
Given the crazy behavior, I'd ignore it too.
Just wait 'till mother nature really starts extorting. It will make you hanker for the good ol' days of gov't extortion. Eagles, etc., have rights to live too and we're losing species at unprecedented rates. The empty-nest-halting-development anecdote is symbolic and may be indicative of similar things to come if/when people wake up to the bigger picture.
Apparently a randomly placed bundle of sticks has rights too. BTW: In 2004 hurricane Charlie eradicated that bundle yet the 5 year rule continued. So, ghost sticks have rights too I suppose. Regardless, a faceless concept, democracy, gets to make zillions of rules for the herd members to follow and most of them do just that.
Yesterday I sat in the woods eating my balony sandwich lunch and pondered this very notion for a spell, the audacity of the whole thing. Then I came in an logged on and saw a blurb about Obama's outrage that Korea had the nerve to launch a rocket, and how that violated somebodies rules. Rules, rules, rules.
I've had it up to here with rules.
The bigger picture is the declining rate of the boundaries of enslavement.
Only by the couple that built it. If the original couple abandons it for whatever reason it will never be occupied by others. (eagles are monogamous and if one of the couple expires the other one lives out its life alone - no nest needed)
When I was about 7 years old living in rural Pennsylvania I frequently roamed the forest. Once, I found a baby robin that had fallen from the nest but was still alive. I asked my dad if I could put it back in the nest and he explained why I shouldn't do that. He said my smell would be on the baby bird and the parents would abandon the whole nest.
18 years later when I went to alaska to trap and hunt I learned how important smells, or lack there of, are to wild animals first hand.
Lots of things, from various angles. I saw a video where he was chastizing people for their behavior regarding the *green* issue of the day. He should clean his own act up and let other people alone.
Regarding his land: Rulemakers use the monopoly on force to tell Leo what he can and can't do with his own property. Most unfortunate, and immoral. The degree of *hardness* in his work is irrelevent to just about everything except as a pivot point for those consumed by envy.
Where others gravitate to envy but I frequently see inspiration.
For the sake of in some sense clarifying my stance, let me give you 2 simplified hypothetical scenarios:
If every rich person were to buy up all the land in the world, then there'd be little land left for anyone else, and what was left would be very expensive.
If a native American tribe owned all the land in America and a European tribe came over and bought it with all the money they had, it would still not equal the value of the land.
With all the literature pining for my attention so that it might take a few lifetimes to get through, why should I read him in particular?
What if gov'ts stole money from people and bought up all the land with it, then charged outrageous sums from everybody to live on it?
Is it an urban legend that the indians did not believe in owning land? If not, then how could they sell something they didn't own?
I'm working on a book right now titled something like "365 ways to deal with stress" and I am continuously amazed at what some publishers think will sell. Not long ago I did one called *Obamaland*, a guy from england preaching to the choir about the messiah. Enough already.
6 months ago I blew $200 at amazon and haven't touched any of them yet...........
Did you know that history says baseball was invented in Cooperstown NY in 1839 by a dood named Abner Doubleday, a man that gained his famousness mainly from his role in the civil war, and its all based on the word of his best friend another dood named Abner something or other who was declared mentally unstable and eventually committed a homicde on himself, and no other proof at all?
Coincidently, the rules Doubleday supposedly wrote for baseball look hauntingly similar to those written about a ball game in a 15th century british novel.
Thats from a book I worked on a couple months ago about the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Next in line: a book dealing with the entire history of Darwin, ought to be interesting, and then one by an astronaut from the early 70's.
Oh, did I mention that I have broadened my horizons, in many ways? heh
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