Tuesday, February 13, 2007

From Ben's blog:


Grand Avenue project approved

While some see it as a model for “smart growth,” others consider it a tax giveaway.

http://tinyurl.com/3c4m3s

Reply to this comment by Robert Coté

What is the difference between “smart growth” and “tax giveaway?”

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

first

Anonymous said...

OK I'll bite.

In order to entice projects which are built for "smart growth" the government can give "tax giveaways" to the builders.

Now it depends which side of the equation you sit on how you consider the project.

Now the best of all worlds would be to have the tax giveaways be zero and the smart growth be advantages enough for the contractor to build it on his dime in totality. This does happen, but in the times of greed and politcal corruption it seems to be an exception rather than the rule.

Oh well....

Anonymous said...

Good Lord that teacher from California got fully funded today!!!


Looks like he's springing for the entertainment tonight....

Rob Dawg said...

Legion;
Here I was, Gin & Tonic close at hand, bad sci-fi on the plasma, macbook and cat on my lap and you go and post this. Down the booze, strangle the cat or toss the laptop through the 50"? Well there's always Sputnik. ;-)

The NRU tuition guy is 59% funded as well. Worse the NRU guy is at 17.50% and the school teacher is at 19.95%.

Bsack to the teacher. 70% PITI and now another 10% to debt servicing prosper.com?

Anonymous said...

Who is Ben?

Anonymous said...

Ben Jones at the Housing Bubble Blog

http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/

Anonymous said...

The NRU tuition guy is unbelievable. Did you check out his question and answer section.

Caseys twin.

Anonymous said...

BTW, Rob Dawg, I’ve been really intrigued with the various Google ads that show up with each off-the-wall headers you’ve had lately – and it appears there is some variance depending on the comments, but it’s not all that significant.
I’m assuming the person who converted Caseyland into lexus modesto thinks it is either A. funny (k, for about 3 seconds) or
B. part of the ExxonMobil/Chevron conspiracy (in the sense of erasing/sidetracking “hater” information – like Casey, but much worse).

Anonymous said...

Sorry Rob, ruined my night too, misery loves company as they say...heh

Hey I wonder if those guys can put up fake posts to get the ball rolling?

Anonymous said...

@backstage from the housing bubble blog

“The roster of agents has sunk to 52, only about half of whom are active. ‘The rest are looking for side jobs at McDonald’s,’ said Home Center President Jason Bosch. ‘It happened overnight.’”


Geez if even this guy is saying that most agents have the skills for real estate, or McDonalds, what does that say about the entry point for becoming a real estate agent. Most of the people at McDonalds are still in high school.


"Would you like fries with that, and while you are here would you like to look at some houses I'm selling?"


“‘To make a living, you had to push a product you didn’t believe in,’ said Aimee Quigley, a Home Center mortgage broker. ‘It was like being a defense attorney where you know your client did it, but you have to say he didn’t.’”

“Quigley says she tried to emphasize how quickly these loans would adjust, but the message rarely got through. ‘Nine out of ten times when these loans closed, we would sit there and say, ‘How long can they hold it together?’”



Gawd whatta bitch!!! Say goodbye to your credit, and your life savings "but hey, momma's gotta buy her a new pair of shoes!" Might as well hand out ky-jelly at the signings.


“Hennigan doesn’t know who the owners were, why they couldn’t pay or where they went. It’s much better this way. He doesn’t have to feel sorry for anyone. Instead, he can concentrate on work. ‘People are walking away from their houses,’ he says. ‘I’m giddy because I’m going to be so busy.’”

This guy reveling in someone else's misery..reminds, me.. of ..us, er never mind, hee hee


Buyers Aren’t Buying, They’re Watching Prices Fall”


Umm wouldn't that make them WATCHERS and not BUYERS?

Anonymous said...

When I first read Casey’s blog, I imagined him as Barbaro – lost potential, screwed by them folks with the $$$ who like to do that sort of thing, but Barbaro was a hero and Casey is just plain lost

Anonymous said...

Barbaro *was* a hero. ::frown::

Casey's a putz.

Anonymous said...

I love you Stephanie (like everyone else here ;)).

Anonymous said...

There are very few threads of hope these days and Barbaro was one of them for me.
I was so bummed when he didn’t make it. It gave me the same feeling as James Kim. Itz be reels f-ing hard to feelz positive around heerz.

Anonymous said...

"Geez if even this guy is saying that most agents have the skills for real estate, or McDonalds, what does that say about the entry point for becoming a real estate agent. Most of the people at McDonalds are still in high school."


Maybe not the entry level staff, but I bet you need to know more to be an assistant manager at McDonald's than you do to be a real estate agent.

In my state, it's a short course and a test (probably also a cursory background check).

And the real estate companies are gurus themselves, selling the dream: "You can be a successful real estate agent. Here's a desk. Answer the phone on weekends and if you make a sale, we'll give you your share of the 3%."

Anonymous said...

I decided to load up on the easy money at Prosper...what you guys think?

ABOUT ME:

I am 27 years old, married for 8 wonderful (ha ha ha, who am I kidding, it's been me and the inflatable doll for years now) years, I have 2 dogs, a cat, a turtle that I think is still alive, and a couple of free loading mice and roaches. I have been "self-employed" for almost 2 weeks. I have not worked since my business idea fell apart.

EXPLANATION OF BAD CREDIT:

I have always been responsible with my finances (when you have an allowance, you feel different about spending) but 2 years ago my credit scores (damn card was maxed out at $200) slipped because I wanted to dream and dream big. I wanted to do what most people only dream of, to make a leap of faith, to venture out of my parent's weekly allowance and start my own business. People laughed at my idea, my parents and friends (both the real and imaginary one)called me crazy, but I decided to follow my dream. I started a business where I went from house to house picking up used pampers. I had a ton of people wanting to unload the stuff, but my popularity was my own undoing. As a single person, with no team that I could outsource this to as of yet, it was tough to sit there night after night putting diapers in the dish washing machine load after freakin load, and boy do I mean LOAD (lol, that pun always gets a laugh at the dinner table). Doing it by hand was even tougher. I just don't think people believed that despite the obvious stains still in the diapers, that they were 'ahem' sanitized and safe for use.
Things are much improved and I know this because I have paid my dues, and I am feeling rather magical lately (this may have something to do with sniffing my own product, at least that's what the pink elephant keeps telling me). I just feel that something big is going to happen, something that will change my life! I know this because I always hear my mom talking on the phone with some Doctors about "Jackets, some shockingly new therapy, whether or not I really needed two kidneys and what do they mean I can't give more than 5 liters of blood per week". I think I am some kind of of new super human that they need to test.

WHAT I WILL DO WITH THE MONEY LOANED TO ME:
I will be paying off:

1. Jamba Juice Card..don't ask, I know there is some kind of secret addicting drug in there.

2. Pay off late fees to blockbuster..yeah, so I never rewound, sheesh. I am still fighting them about whether or not I still have Rocky 4 after 3 years and why I shouldn't have to pay 5336 dollars in lates. (I know I have it, it's under my bed waiting for it to go up in price so I can sell it on EBAY)

3. My Credit Card 200 dollars. 195 apparently was the annual fee for getting the card. I tried to withdraw the 5 bux at a cash machine but the ATM just made a laughing noise.

4. 1000 dollars. It seems that dish washers aren't made to clean plastic diapers..yeah Mom, like that's in the manual.

5. 25 dollars for a shovel..I still have all those diapers to bury somewhere, and apparently you can't just leave them at the curve for pickup.

6. 20 dollars for Kinko's, ummm..my team of computer experts where I post this from.

7. 10,000 for some kind of surgery my parents say I need..something that rhymes with robotomy.

8. 400 dollars dinner expenses. Just because I am broke doesn't mean I should not go out right to dinner once in a while right?



The rest I will use to rebuild my savings account. Oh

My income is 20 dollars a week, plus an easy extra 5 big ones if I take out the trash. I am expecting it to jump to 4000 a week once that chain letter I got, sent in a dollar and got added to, kicks in. I know that that has got to tell you people that I can spot opportunities and hidden gems. I am also apparently the publishers clearinghouse winner so you know the money is in the BAG!



My DTI is not accurate , I swear to GOD my alcohol level was not over the legal limit!

I wanted to insert a picture of some random baby I found on the net in this post but I don't know how. I also don't know what the point of it is but it seems most of the other prosper people asking for money do it.

I hope to pay people back IF and only IF I am able to without working, moving, increasing my breathing, blinking, or any other form of activity which I may consider hard.


Yeah I'm bored, dammit.

Anonymous said...

Ooooo for those of you with nothing better going on, take a gander at TALES OF A SEATTLE ESTATE INVESTOR.

http://seattlerei.blogspot.com/

It's a shorter read than Casey's, but you'll get the abbreviated version where he
gets lucky at the peak of the boom, decides he was BORN to be in real estate, feels that he is magical, goes out and buys a ton with the belief that he knows what he is doing while everyone else doesn't, feels like a big shot while he and his wife fly around looking for 'investments' quits his job, goes on trips out of the country which he can't afford, attempts to enlighten the reader about fraud in the industry, gets his ass handed to him on a platter with the real estate crash, bemoans the fact that the market sucks and if only....decides that his goal is 10K/month of passive income when he is already underwater(I swear do they all read the same book? I'm losing 6K per month so I'll just decide I'm gonna start making an amount that 99.9% of Americans can only dream about)...
Gets one of his houses flooded


pretty much drops off the face of the earth December 27 2006.


It's like Deja Vu!

Anonymous said...

Reading the first page of the Seattle Eric blog was enough for me. The whole $10K passive income and buying apartment complexes pisses me off. No need to rewrite a response. My reponse to Casey on 1/23 and posted here should suffice.

http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/2007/01/market-alert-casey-reaches-all-time.html#c518475443079652517

Anonymous said...

Woops sorry Rob, can you edit that last post..christ I just pulled a Casey.

Anonymous said...

Legion,

Nigel ain't jumping ship. The advice he posted on IAFF is the same today as it was in September.

See it here - http://slcrealestate.blogspot.com/2006/10/casey-serins-dilemma.html

Damn, I wish I'd listend.

Anonymous said...

Caseee said:
--go back to your hater club and spread your poison there--

New blog name for this place:
THE POISON HATER CLUB

---------------------------------------
Isamu said:
--Exurban Nation just got owned, son.--

Oh no! To be "owned" by Casey is to fall into neglect and be reclaimed by the bank, just before the FBI drags a screaming Casey away just like Bill Macy getting dragged out by the cops in FARGO!

Anonymous said...

I don't know who half of you people are, but thank you for providing entertainment to me each day. I was reading IAFF for about 2 months, got bored and impatient and luckily came across this site.

Granted, I am a deer in headlights with most of the commentary, but it's at least entertaining.

So on this great day of Valentine, thank you for providing me with laughs. It makes me feel better knowing that there's a certain C.S. out there. My life isn't so bad after all.

Anonymous said...

Gotdamn, this hater poison sure tastes SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!

Here's my recommendation for our official beverage, tentatively called "hater poison":

one part rum
two parts jamba juice
one wheatgrass shot (optional)
$33 overdraft (required)
one part soda
garnished with lime slice and salted glass
shaken repeatedly, while cursing at it

Anonymous said...

Ben = my favorite blogger in the whole wide blogosphere. <3