October 13, 2007

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


Why are realtors, mortgage brokers, homebuilders and assorted other REIC blaming HousingPANIC and the mainstream media for their predicament?

Why do they call us idiots? Why do they want us to go away? Why do they hate us so?

Isn't it obvious that the HP community is part of the SOLUTION, not part of the problem? And that it was the housing bubble, and their actions, that were truly evil. Not the altruistic volunteer pins that pricked it.

My hope is that realtors and their REIC ilk will come to see that life is short, that blatantly screwing your fellow man for a commission is not a life worth living, and that there is a better way.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

They won't see it until the day they're out on the street looking for a handout from us

Anonymous said...

There is no higher calling than to serve your fellow man

Anonymous said...

They call HPers idiots because of your backwards political views, Not because you are right on the housing bubble.

Anonymous said...

Written By:Greg Swann
On October 12, 2007 1:49 PM

Oh, good grief. Why do you even read that idiot? The projections, taken out of context, of course, are mine. At the time I wrote that, I thought our boom in Phoenix would last eight months longer than it did. Even so, most of my investors did very well on my advice, some profiting in the very high six figures. My short term projections near the end were off, but, in the long run, Phoenix should pay off handsomely. I've discouraged new investors since early 2006, but lately I'm getting calls about the very detailed charts that were omitted from the quote. A newer suburban rental home in Phoenix is cash-flow positive again, which means it will self-amortize regardless of short-term market performance.

Anonymous said...

There is a better way but REALTORS aren't on it

Anonymous said...

People with high school degrees aren't ones to have a lot of self-reflection

Easier to blame others

Anonymous said...

REALTORS weren't smart enough to understand what was going on

Anonymous said...

Most, not all, realtors have a highschool education at best. They have no understanding of economics and finance. Many believed the tripe spewed out by their masters at the NAR. They really thought homes could appreciate at 20% every year to eternity while wages stay pretty flat. It got to the point that people could not even afford teaser rate negative amortization payments and the realtors were still claiming home prices would continue to appreciate. Now it's time for the REIC to starve, for they have destroyed the market with their greed.

Anonymous said...

It's still out there. The belief that a home is the only ticket to easy street.

I just returned from a party where the talk was all about the house down the street that went for 20% below original asking price.

"What a deal", "Totally out of line with the comps", "They must have been desperate", etc....

Ask how home prices can rise faster than personal incomes and the room goes silent.

Anonymous said...

Angelo Mozilo is doing bong hits in the back of the van!

sk said...

=========================
RE: original post
....Not the altruistic volunteer pins that pricked it.(the Housing Bubble)
========================

I have a lot of time for you and your old-style Daily Mirror populist style of writing ( whose Terence Lancaster died recently ) - but to say that the blogs that warned of the housing bubble pricked it is overstating the case.

I still agree with the "altruistic and volunteer" part of that sentence.

Want to rephrase that ?

-K

Anonymous said...

The realtors/mortgage brokers never had it so easy during the housing boom .They knew they were putting people into houses they couldn't afford . The realtors knew they were blackmailing the appraisers .The realtors knew they were double-escrowing houses ,knowing they could hoodwink the appraisers ,which drove up prices .

The realtors had the backing of the media and advertisers for all those years . The realtors knew the lenders agents were cheating on the applications .Funny how none of the realtors finked on their fellow realtors that were committing crimes right before their eyes .Funny what easy money will do to a person during a mania.Bad Karma coming .

Anonymous said...

I left a post over there for 'em.

b

Anonymous said...

>There is no higher calling than to serve your fellow man

"Rubbed with cracked peppercorns and slow roasted." -NAR cookbook

Anonymous said...

You'll love the stupidity coming out of the Seattle Realtors Keith.

Here is a post from a day or two ago on the Seattle PI (newspaper)Realtor blog.

It's a "wannabe" rap making fun of bubble bloggers.

here is the link.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/realestate/archives/123556.asp

here is the tinyurl of the same link.

http://tinyurl.com/ywjgrz

Anonymous said...

Homebuilders are doing just fine, what's the problem?
Comstock just sold 81 homes...........

.....except 78 of 'em were canceled......

Man, that must suck......

Wonder how that 96% cancellation rate will affect the NAR stats......

http://tinyurl.com/32svyg

Anonymous said...

I left this comment at truegothan Swann's message:
My rumble opinion is that Greg misled a lot of good people into bad investiments. Comeon, when you are a realtor in an area you know what people can really afford with their income. When you use creative financing, you are gambling, expecting the market to keep appreciating to unreal valuations. He advised people to take a neg-am with negative cash flow at the top of the market... unbelievable.

Frank R said...

There is no higher calling than to serve your fellow man

Oh please. Do us all a favor and go read some Ayn Rand. You best serve society by providing something of value, AT A FAIR PRICE. Sorry but there is no higher calling than serving your own happiness. When man dedicates himself to serving his fellow man, he no longer serves himself, he collapses, and collapses with him.

In any case, the REIC scum is blaming all of this on HP and the MSM because, in their retarded world, nothing is their fault and nothing is their responsibility. Since this must not be their fault, who else to blame but bloggers and the media?

Anonymous said...

Keith,

sounds like they are talking about your often talked about "mark to market" issue

"As Wall Street firms and hedge funds mark value of similar investments they held to their new lower values, they face potentially huge hits to their profits."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/business/14bank.html

Anonymous said...

Guess what. It's pretty much the mainstream media who started the bubble in the first place.

Anonymous said...

It's so much easier to blame others for your own greed and disaster. Everyone was a victim regardless of their individual reasons which were far from pure.

Anonymous said...

Keefer,

I honestly think you are overreacting to this. Most realtors know the msm/bloggers had nothing to do with this.

You can find those that do obviously, but they are in the minority.

Now of coure most realtors are convinced the recovery is just around the corner. That is a whole different issue.

Osman said...

In any case, the REIC scum is blaming all of this on HP and the MSM because, in their retarded world, nothing is their fault and nothing is their responsibility. Since this must not be their fault, who else to blame but bloggers and the media?

Frank, perhaps you should go dust off your Ayn Rand. If you're a practitioner of Objectivism, you can't blame the asset bubble on the facilitators of the transaction. The bloggers are obviously not to blame either. When people get greedy, get themselves into toxic mortgages, ignore the fundamental analysis, etc, they should take personal responsibility and own the results. *That's* Objectivism.

Anonymous said...

If you're a practitioner of Objectivism, you can't blame the asset bubble on the facilitators of the transaction.

If they only facilitated the transaction, then they are blameless. However, they participated in the fraud.

realtors = fake multiple bidders
mortgage brokers = liars loans
appraisers = hitting the numbers
ratings agencies = AAA ratings for toxic CDO's

That along with all the propaganda and lies about real estate means that the REIC is as much to blame as the fraudsters and idiots who played the game.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
They call HPers idiots because of your backwards political views, Not because you are right on the housing bubble.


Well, "backwards" for some is really moving forward for the country as a whole.

I don't consider Ron Paul a "backard" political thinker ... in fact, he's the only candidate I've heard so far who has the guts to tell it like it really is - and that's why the real backwards thinkers won't vote for him.

burn baby burn said...

Drop Acid not interest rates

Anonymous said...

"The Act of Protecting your neighbors Interests,and property is the act of Protecting your own."
Read that a Yahoo group web site.

Anonymous said...

HP for Nobel Prizes

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com
/262/story/153475.html

Nobel Prizes look to economics

Given the churning turmoil of global markets sparked by the U.S. subprime crisis, soaring oil prices and a renewed strength by foreign currencies, it might seem appropriate that any of those issues could figure in determining the winner of this year's Nobel economics prize.

But, say watchers of the secretive prize, that's too tough a call to make given that the people who ultimately decide the winner - or, in years past, winners - tend to favor economic theories that have had time to take root, grow and prove resilient.

"It is so hard to predict. Last year it went to the labor market area, so perhaps it will be statistics this time, but then again the securities market hasn't won for about 10 years," said Hubert Fromlet, the chief economist of Swedbank in Stockholm.

Speculation on this year's prize has included economists who deal with international trade, macroeconomics and the labor market, among others.

Anonymous said...

They hate us for our freedom.

Sarcasm off.

Smug Bastard