Recently in X-Tra, Miscellany and Admin Category
(This will remain on top through Thanksgiving. Scroll Down for newer entries.)
This cause means a lot to me. It seems the absolute minimum I can do for these wonderful people who are essential to this country.
Project Valour IT helps injured service people reconnect with the internet by furnishing voice activated laptops to wounded service folk who have lost the use of one or more limbs. This is critical because it allows them to do things everyone else has come to take for granted while they're going through treatment for their wounds, and afterwards.
These folks stepped up to the line to defend you, me, our friends, family, and even that jerk who runs this website that everyone hates, and it cost them one or more limbs. Seems an awfully small measure of appreciation to help them be able to surf the internet and send email while undergoing treatment and afterwards, because I've yet to meet any of them who really got their hands back.
Please, give what you can if you can. These men and women deserve a lot more than this, but this is what I'm asking you to help with. I know it's rough; I understand if you're not in a position to do so. But please help if you can
(PS the manufacturer sells these laptops at cost or even a bit below. They don't make a penny)
Here's the Soldier's Angels page that tracks the overall progress. (if you have a website, join there!)
Prevent this shame from happening to us. Please.
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."
They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.
They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.
The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an, we thought we'd call an' tell.
"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made-"
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
Rudyard Kipling
Please help if you can.
I informed Zillow and their Mortgages Unzipped site that I was withdrawing as a contributor more than 24 hours ago, and that they no longer have my permission or endorsement to use my image, my name, or anything about me upon their site. I gave them a more than reasonable amount of time to remove my name from their site.
In my opinion, their content and lack of control of content and lack of policing the accuracy of content reflects unfavorably upon me in a professional capacity, and I no longer desire anything to do with them.
As of this moment, they still have not complied with removing my name as a contributor, thus invoking appearance of authority to use my name and image, an authority they no longer have. I have saved the emails and screen capture image (among many other things) from several points this week.
If there are any attorneys reading this willing to take the case on a contingency basis, I am interested in pursuing legal remedies.
One of those moments you can't plan and can't stage: Ramona was taking her bath last night when Julia (our dachshund) evidently decided that she was dirty. Either that, or she just wanted into the bubble bath to play with Ramona!
Once per month, I run a web carnival, called the Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate, all the articles submitted that are actually helpful to the consumer of real estate information. It's now up for the month of September at that link.
If you would like to submit for some future month, The guidelines are here.
The tooth was taken out on Wednesday, as I said on my other site, and completely forgot to add here. Bleeding stopped Thursday, I have graduated down from Vicodin to Ibuprofen as of Thursday evening. Since Ibuprofen doesn't hit me nearly so hard, I'm planning to be back from mostly involuntary hiatus on Monday. I wrote two articles Saturday morning, which are set to publish Monday and Tuesday. I was going to write more but at this point I just don't know, because I'm pretty depressed about Mellon.
This week I was intending to start here with some more local articles, about the neighborhoods of the area where I work, as well as at least one Hot Bargain Property and Real Loans for Real People, but we'll have to see how things shake out. I loved that little dog.
Newly Written Articles
Customer Disservice and Alienation - Why Nobody Talks to My Clients Except Me - even a dental office mistake is something a good agent can learn from
If You Don't Think Agents Are Valuable, Do It Yourself. If you really think agents aren't worth anything, stop asking us to work for free, or give free advice.
Charles Schumer Administers Coup-de-Grace to IndyMac How to change a corporation from hurt but salvageable to dead meat, and cost the taxpayers four to eight billion dollars - all by publishing one letter.
Updated Articles
The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home talks about the expected costs of holding off one, two, or more years to buy the property you are interested in. In San Diego County right now, the reward for moving before the crowd will be much greater.
Stupid Negotiating Tricks: Appeal to Pity (or Falling for Appeal to Pity) talks about one of the common tricks of a certain type of buyer - and seller.
The Lure and the Trap of Debt Consolidation - Payment Versus Cost of Interest talks about how dangerous loan consolidation is - and how to do it right.
Signing Off Loan Conditions talks about the actual process of getting loan conditions signed off, with some common tricks of the less scrupulous loan provider thrown in.
Real Estate: Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be talks about how to get from where you are to where you want to be when what you want is more than you can afford right now.
Just got home from running a couple of errands, and when we got back, Mellon was dead.
She was fifteen years old, and not in good health, so I'm not all that surprised, but it is like losing a family member. This has not been a good year for me, in any way, shape or form.
She was a pureblood dachshund, black and tan with a silver grey dapple on her. Her name was out of Tolkien elvish, "Friend" it meant, and she was. No champion dog she, but one of the most eye-catching dogs you ever saw, and she loved attention. I knew when I bought her that her hips were bad, but she was such a sweet little dog her whole life that everyone loved her, even though she started losing her mobility before she was five. All she wanted out of life were regular meals and a little affection. I did my best to provide those, and in return, she loved everybody. She never so much as growled at either of the kids, or anyone else for that matter (except Julia, who I felt guilty about introducing into the family with her so old and hampered).
She may have started losing her mobility early, but until recently you could always tell when she was happy. She would run little circles of joy when something good happened - special treat, mommy and daddy paying attention to her, or even just mealtime. She'd go round and round, hips pumping despite how damaged they were. She wasn't in pain, she just couldn't move as easily as most dogs any longer. When she lost the ability to run in circles, we bought her a little canine wheelchair that she hated because she couldn't get under the couch to take shelter from Julia. She couldn't run and play like the puppy, so the girls started ignoring her, but she was still happy with whatever anyone would give her in the way of affection.
Like every other dapple dachshund I've ever seen, she started losing patches of fur quite early. She was such a pretty dog when she was young, but even my wife (whom I met when Mellon was about three) had never seen her with all of her fur, and all of my pictures of her when she was younger (the way I want to remember her) are in storage. Luckily, she lived in San Diego, and she had a sliding glass door her whole life that got good sun in the afternoon. You always knew where you'd find Mellon in the afternoon - right there in that sunny spot.
Goodbye sweetie. Whereever dogs go, may you always have a warm sunny spot and as much food and affection as you need, without any young puppies who don't understand that you're old and can't play like that. You helped me in a very bad time of my life, and I will miss you badly.
I am very sorry for the sparse output this week, especially after last week's vacation. I'm sitting here on Percocet and my jaw still feels like someone is stabbing it with an icepick. While this is an improvement, it's still very difficult to think, work, or drive. I do not think I'll be able to do anything more than reprints until we get clearance to extract that tooth. That moment cannot come too soon for me. I've already lost three full days of work over this, and the pain isn't any fun, either.
Effective today, I'm going to start doing things a little different. I'm going to keep publishing the general consumer articles - but over at Searchlight Crusade, and I'll link to them from here.
The articles here will continue - but they will cover things such as bargain properties, currently available loans, and market conditions in the area I work - in other words, heavily concentrated in and around the city of La Mesa, with some relevant items for the rest of San Diego county. There will also be a few other minor changes to the format here, but the site will be quite recognizable.
Today's new consumer article is How to Buy a Bargain Property
![100_7572[1]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2571378852_1ee4bb6ded.jpg)
I'm very proud of Hilda, who earned an Advanced Level Presidential Award!
It's been quite a while since I did one of these. I should probably do them more often, just to make my point.
This Eyesore Is Falling Apart But Was It Designed by a Famous Architect!
General: La Mesa, 3 Bedroom, 1.75 Bathroom
Con:
What's Wrong With It: Quicker and easier to ask what isn't. Sits on a secondary street that's the main route through the neighborhood. Cars fly up and down that street at freeway speeds at all hours of day and night. No grass and nowhere for kids to play. Several nice mature trees, but their root systems are spreading, the front yard is covered in ankle deep plants to no good purpose, the back yard is split up into half a dozen areas too small to get any use out of, and has a small cracked and leaking swimming pool that's currently the color of ichor and a breeding ground for mosquitos.
The building itself may have been designed by some famous architect, but it reminds me of the pre-WWII navy housing over in Linda Vista and Serra Mesa. It's basically a long rectangle the width of the lot and maybe twenty feet wide. The window frames are falling apart, I don't think anything has been painted for at least thirty years, the carpet reminds me of my elementary school library (it's about that old, too).
There are at least three major cracks in the concrete slab floor. The wall paneling looks like it's probably original 1949, and was sitting in someone's mountain cabin before that. I counted seven major structural cracks in the wall before I got tired of the game, and any number of smaller ones. Nor is the ceiling exempt. I was kind of nervous it might fall in on me.
Why It Hasn't Sold: New on the market, and I wouldn't expect it to last. Structurally, that is.
Who it's Not Appropriate For: Anybody who can't afford to tear it down and start over - and that includes the landscaping. It may have been designed by some famous architect, but it's been maintained by Larry, Moe, and Curley, with assistance from the Addams Family.
Pro:
Selling Points: It does have a reasonably large lot. Unfortunately, zoning in the area is solidly R1. I'd peg the likelihood of getting an up-zone at "none"
Who Should be Interested: Nobody. Danger, Will Robinson!
Why it's a Bargain: It's not. The only way to salvage this property is to "accidentally" run a bulldozer through it. Forty-seven times.
Financial:
What I think I can get it for: Why would you want it? The owners aren't ready to be rational about this property. Let me go find you something else better. That's easy. The hard thing would be finding something worse!
Monthly Payment examples: I think if they paid me $1000 per month, I'd consider taking it off their hands.
With no down payment: They don't pay me, I don't take it.
With 20% down: 80% of nothing is still nothing.
Investment potential: If you keep it ten years and it averages only 5% annual average appreciation per year: Based upon a purchase price of 0, the property would still be a Money Pit. If you held it those ten years before selling, you would net whatever the negative of ten years of property taxes and insurance is. Not to mention what you'd have to pay to get rid of it.
To learn more: Why would you want to? I felt like I had wandered into a story by HP Lovecraft. I would be happier if I'd never seen it! But I escaped with my life and some small shreds of sanity!
Contact Information:
Dan Melson, Buyer's Agent
Action Realty Inc
9143 Mission Gorge Road, Suite A
Santee, CA 92071
619-449-0723 X 116
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