The end of the world as they know it for realtors is now here: Ramen costs set to soar

Here's the bad news from South Korea - coming soon to America.

RamenPANIC is here!

The Lee Myung-bak administration has laid out a series of measures to fight inflation, including eliminating or reducing import duties on grain and oil products.Still, the price of ramen soared 12.8 percent from a month earlier while bread jumped 8.8 percent.

HousingPANIC EXCLUSIVE: Interview with publisher of the Ramen Noodles Blog

As a service to American Home Mortgage's former workers, and especially our out-of-work realtor and Desperate Homedebtor readers, this EXCLUSIVE HousingPANIC interview with Ed over at ramenramenramen:

HP: You're blog is wildly popular with ramen-eating-realtors looking for new ideas. Did you ever think ramen interest would soar while housing prices crashed?

RAMEN: Haha, I would've never linked ramen interest with housing prices, but now that you've written about it, I guess it makes sense. But besides the cheapie billion-packs-for-a-dollar kinds of ramen, there're also a lot of "upscale"instant ramen, usually found in Japanese/Asian stores that sell for $3 to over $5 bucks a bowl!

HP: Some realtors don't care about flavor, they just need the cheapest ramen they can find. What do you recommend?

RAMEN: The best choices are probably the familiar Top Ramen http://www.nissinfoods.com/topramen/ and Maruchan, which doesn't appear to have an English web site, but I know they have a large factory in Southern California because I happen to pass by it often! I think even Wal-Mart has their own private label brand of instant noodles. Other places to buy cheap instant noodles is in Chinese, Vietnamese, or Korean supermarkets.

Another web site that might be fun for your "ramen-eating-realtor" readers is "the Official Ramen Homepage" http://www.mattfischer.com/ramen/ which has tons of creative recipes using instant noodles. You can save money *and* have a good meal at the same time!

HP: For the realtor that does (pigs fly) sell a house, and wants to splurge on a ramen-feast, what tips could you offer?

RAMEN: If you go to a Japanese supermarket, you'll often find a good selection of "bowl" noodles (instant noodles in a styrofoam bowl. These are really popular in Japan, and some of them are really fancy. There are even bowl noodles modeled after the ramen in popular ramen houses across Japan!

Here's and old favorite http://www.ramenramenramen.net/2005/02/07/ramen-rating-15/ As you can see, some of these bowl ramen come with lots of ingredients, and even meat!

The meat in this bowl ramen was particularly good (and thick too! some bowl ramen have paper-thin slices of meat): http://www.ramenramenramen.net/?p=13

I just tried this one a few weeks ago. The list of ingredients is almost gourmet and ranges from green onions, ginger, and bamboo, to judas ear mushrooms! http://www.ramenramenramen.net/2007/07/13/ramen-rating-seabura-tonkotsu-ramen/

Or better yet, I recommend everyone who enjoys noodles to patronize a local ramen house. If all you've ever had was instant ramen, you'll be amazed at the difference!

HP: I see you sell a "ramen lapel pin" - do you think realtors will be allowed to wear this along with their Century21 or Re/Max lapel pins?

I don't see why not! Who knows, it might even be a good conversation starter that'll lead to a sale!

AN URGENT MESSAGE FOR ORANGE COUNTY REALTORS, MORTGAGE BROKERS AND HOMEDEBTORS

Local stores are running out of Ramen noodles!!!

Hurry - buy Ramen now while you still can. They're not making more Ramen you know. If you don't buy Ramen now, you may not be able to afford Ramen in the future.

Blown Mortgage has the scoop

For Keith: Any Correlation Between OC Ramen Sales and Latest Mortgage News?

A long day for your blogger here at BlownMortgage - how about a little levity? For our friends over at Housing Panic:

I just took the below photo tonight at my neighborhood Pavilions. I live in the heart of Orange County. Any correlation between the run on Ramen and the recent events in the mortgage industry? I mean our whole county is based on lending the folly of real estate according to Slate - there has to be something to it … RIGHT???!?!

And this from the Slate article on why the run on Ramen:

It's not entirely surprising that Irvine is a center of reckless real estate lending and borrowing. It's a classic industry cluster of the type seen in areas that lack natural resources. Detroit's auto manufacturers encouraged the local growth of auto parts suppliers, companies that finance auto purchases and publications that cover the auto industry.

In Silicon Valley in the 1990s, the people who created dot-com companies were co-located with the venture capitalists who funded them, the investment bankers and brokers who helped take them public and with many of the investors who got killed when the NASDAQ tanked. Irvine may have built up a diversified economy, but it remains a company town -- one whose fortunes are highly leveraged to the highly leveraged real estate industry.

OK folks, time for a little street theatre. We're gonna send ramen noodles to Lawrence Yun at the NAR

You know the little guys are hurting - with home sales cratering, and realtors (and the NAR) completely discredited and disintermediated, it's time for...

The HousingPANIC "Realtors are People Too" Top Ramen Drive

Here's all you have to do

Pick up a few packages of ramen at your local store, and send 'em off to:

Lawrence Yun

National Association of Realtors

430 N Michigan Ave.

Chicago, IL 60611

Include a note "Keep up the great work Lawrence! Your lies and spin make us laugh every day! Love, your friends at HousingPANIC". Or just do your own thing. He'll get the point.

Post here if you've sent a package off, and I hope he finds a fair way to distribute the goodies to the 1.2 million hungry little guys. At least they'll get something for their NAR dues.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Think real estate clerks and mortgage brokers who steered Desperate Homedebtors into depreciating assets they couldn't afford (while earning their big commissions) are getting a few angry phone calls and emails these days?

Can someone explain to me why 1.2 million fools pay the NAR membership dues?

I don't think this incompetent and corrupt organization could do more damage to real estate clerks if they tried.

If I were a real estate clerk (ho ho, ho ho he he, ho ho ho ho ho he he he he he ho ho)

OK, seriously, if I were a real estate clerk (he he he hehe ho ho, heh he ho ho ho ho ho)

OK, one last try. If I were a real esta...

I can't get it out. But you know what I mean.

Anyway, instead of sending the NAR membership dues every quarter, I'd be gathering up my fellow real estate clerks and marching on NAR HQ in Chicago, turning the place over, and demanding the resignation of everyone in the building.

Real estate clerks of America - what are you doing? How much more of the NAR incompetence and blather will you stomach? Are you really THIS stupid? Don't you realize you're run by monkeys? Yes, you'll be losing your job soon. But at least go down with a fight! REALTOR REVOLUTION!

NAR Responds to 60 Minutes' May 13, 2007 Segment
CBS News Magazine Show Misses the Mark

In the world of political campaigns, it's a standard ploy to set the stage with an empty chair when one candidate refuses to debate his opponents. The CBS show 60 Minutes gave the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® the empty chair treatment in a May 13 segment that examined the impact of online brokerages on the real estate industry.

The show featured interviews with a representative from the now-defunct eRealty and the president and CEO of Redfin, but no one from NAR, even though NAR twice offered and prepared Association spokespersons for interviews with Leslie Stahl. It was CBS that made the decision it would rather interview our opponents and let them make unanswered -- and inaccurate and unfair -- accusations about REALTORS® and NAR policies.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Do you think ramen-eating real estate clerks and mortgage brokers have figured out yet that their greed, lies and corruption killed the golden goose?

The economy will collapse, lives will be ruined and millions of them will go unemployed, all because the corrupt NAR leaders, conmen mortgage brokers and unethical real estate clerks just couldn't help themselves.

They wrongly focused on the short-term windfall and their greed, at the expense of their morals, value as human beings, and career futures.

They made their beds. Now they get to sleep for the rest of their lives in the moral gutter, knowing they lied to, cheated, conned and stole from their fellow man. Yes, there may be a few moral, honest, ethical and genuine ones amongst the professions. But the majority killed it for the minority, and the rot at the top (TCDL) stained the lot.

The terms "Mortgage Broker" and "REALTOR®" will forever have a stench associated with them, and for good reason. The golden goose is dead.