Thursday, May 10, 2007

Housing Transfer Fees

Tom McClintock has another fight on his hands. This time a very good bill intended to explicitly outlaw property transfer fees has been hijacked to actually legalize the practice. Read about it and why it is important.

An utterly insidious practice now spreading across California is the “private transfer fee.” It is a new invention of developers who want to build housing tracts, but are faced with hysterical opposition by the usual suspects...


[See Steph no scary she-hulks just scary politicans. Now it'a my turn to wake up in a cold sweat and feel for my wallet.]

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

FIRST!

Anonymous said...

And

Anonymous said...

Murst!

incessant_din said...

Unbelievable. I really hate Realtors now.

Miranda Mayer said...

LOL... Politicians. Even scarier. The stuff of every child's nightmares. They slither around and hide under beds and closets. Watch your wallet indeed.

FA-Quers

Anonymous said...

Ho-ho-ho!

Well, Dawg, the boom is officially over, the bubble is officially here.
Now, even Leftist dullards have figured out a way to leach money from real estate.

Just a thought, isn't there disclosure laws in CA?

If there's a "hidden rider" on the sales contract, that the Buyer isn't aware of, then that contract SHOULD be null and void, with the seller(s) being liable to eat the shit-biscuit both from the Buyer AND the Mortgage Company.

Like most laws, this seems crafted only to create jobs for attorneys.

Of course, if I have to pay a vigorish of 5% of the gross to Lesbian Treehuggers United, then guess by how much I'm going to drop my offer price?

(A lot more than 5%, I can assure you).

Anonymous said...

I have a lot of respect for Senator McClintock in spite of his hyperbolic rhetoric in reaction to every attempt by local government to secure funding that can't get raided by the state legislature. (To his credit, he has not participated in the looting.)

However, suggesting that "innocent third parties – in this case, future homebuyers" would be suckered into "an agreement to which they were never a party" is a stretch. The transfer tax would be disclosed at purchase like any other tax or obligation that runs with the land. Buyers really ought to make themselves aware of the full costs of owning when making the purchase. Caveat emptor, and all ya know.

If you cared to have a real discussion about municipal finance, this is an interesting idea about how to capture the value of community investment like roads and parks and so on from the folks who benefit the most - the second and third buyers who may have enjoyed tremendous appreciation from being located in a community that has good roads and parks and such. (and if you think that the increased property tax that comes from rising property values helps support things like local roads and parks and such, let me introduce you to the very strange world of California municipal finance. It doesn't.)

But anyway, I don't expect to have a rational discussion here. I am already afraid of the attacks in response to suggesting that local government can add value.

Let's get back to the fun stuff, and bash Casey. And let me raise a glass to Yulia; her pay up or get out ultimatum gave Galina the guts to demand better performance.

Miranda Mayer said...

Modified the new Caseypic a bit.

Anonymous said...

now that nigel has revealed that he gets paid per ad impression, it feels too dirty to visit his web empire

Anonymous said...

By the way..anybody else sell ALL their stock after Casey revealed he had an interest in it? I know I did this AM, and I saved almost 12 grand when the stock I was holding lost about 1.30 in one day. For those who are wondering, that's after I had reached almost 18 grand over the last two weeks.

I swear to God, going against whatever CAsey does is like the sweetest form of passive income I can think of!

Kennedy's new quote should be "When that money repellant Casey started talking to me about stocks, I KNEW it was time to get out"

Gypsy Pete said...

New KC comment!
***
Galina took away my corporate credit card because I broke the promise of no more credit spending (I promised it on Sunday). I put up a fight but then gave in. But in a way I deserved it. Except we didn’t discuss the punishment for breaking the promise. So I felt it wasn’t completely fair. And this is just the beginning of it…
***
What a fucking child. She'll cut off his dick when he's asleep I hope.

Anonymous said...

Shit, Nigel's gonna be pretty pissed with that knife wound at the back of his neck.

Gypsy Pete said...

Legion - took me a while to work that out... I was thinking more of two "birdies" with one cut....

And just WTF did he buy in the week with his supposed corp. c/c?

Oh and Galina sweety... we - the haterz™©® - give you permission to go out and run that card up to the limit - you deserve it all baby! You know you do... just tell us what you bought honey - ok?

Anonymous said...

@pmspms
heh heh, yeah, that's what makes it funnier, not so obvious.

Sooo, more than likely, he used the credit card to
go to Lake Tahoe, buy starbucks coffee and treat himself to dinner while at Tahoe, finally pay the rent to his sister as well as the advance, treat himself to a massage because he is gonna be so busy making money soon he won't have tim elater.

Gypsy Pete said...

There's absolutely no way Galina is going to be opening her legs in her current state of mind I'd say so I reckon KC deserved that massage...

Seriously - she should (but we know she won't) cut the card up.

Hell - poor woman - God she must be in a frightful state.

Legion - you gotta blog mate?

Anonymous said...

@pmspms
no blog, too busy playing computer games.
I'm sure he used the credit card for his tahoe trip which is why he insists it was a business trip.

Anonymous said...

Commingling Business and Personal Funds

When a business owner uses business money to pay personal expenses, or moves money back and forth between his business and personal accounts, then the corporation or LLC is more likely to be pierced. The judge will see this loose treatment of money flowing back and forth between the owner and the corporation as a sign that the company had no true separate existence from the owner. Rather, the company was an "alter-ego" of the owner.

If you as an owner don't respect the difference between the company's money and your personal money, then the court won't either. Instead, the court will presume that if the company can pay your personal expenses, then you can personally pay the company's debts.

There are two ways to avoid this. First, open a separate business checking account. All business expenses and income must flow through this account. Only business expenses should be paid from this account and only business income should be deposited.

Secondly, get a business credit card. This will not only give you access to some startup cash, but it will also help you track your business expenses. Again, only use for business uses--not for personal expenses. When you want "personal" money out of your business, you need to either pay out a salary, a dividend, or a profit distribution--all properly documented.


Casey stepped over the line with this scam, as he jsut proved that the only way to stop him is to arrest him.

Anonymous said...

Generally, the plaintiff has to prove that the corporation was set up to perpetrate a fraud, or at least show that the incorporation was merely a formality and that the corporation never held proper shareholder meetings to distribute profits as dividends. This is quite often the case when a corporation facing legal liability transfers its assets and business to another corporation with the same management and shareholders. It also happens with single person corporations that are managed in a haphazard manner. As such, the veil can be pierced in both civil cases and where regulatory proceedings are taken against a shell corporation.


Factors for Court to Consider
So grossly undercapitalized that fraud is likely
Failure to observe corporate formalities
Intermingling of assets of the corporation and of the shareholder
Treatment by an individual of the assets of corporation as his/her own
Failure to pay dividends
Siphoning of corporate funds by the dominant shareholder(s)
Non-functioning corporate officers and/or directors
Concealment or misrepresentation of members
Absence of corporate records
Was the corporation being used as a "façade" for dominant shareholder(s) personal dealings
Failure to maintain arm's length relationships with related entities
Manipulation of assets or liabilities to concentrate the assets or liabilities
Other factors the court finds relevant
It is important to note that not all of these factors need to be met in order for the court to pierce the corporate veil. Further, some courts might find that one factor is so compelling in a particular case that it will find the shareholders personally liable.

flailing forward said...

Translation of an excerpt of Casey's German article (babelfish):

In the USA the property market is located on the dump.

“speculators are now punished”
How simple it could be to come at capital shows up by the example of Casey Serin: The 24-Jaehrige bought eight houses in eight months, without carrying a cent out pre-payment. “banks are pleased, if they can lend money”, tell it. “nobody asked for collateral.” The programmer did not intend to collect so many houses; it wanted to enter, reconditions, with profit again steps out - so, as he on “material the Estate & Wealth the Expo” in San Francisco had received, a fair, with which also Donald Trump arose. 1,5 million dollar the Immobilienmogul receives for such meetings. It the fee is safe, its listeners the fast wealth is only promised. Casey Serin made, as it admits, “a set of errors” - under that giving immediately its job up - and slipped in the express speed into the bad ones. When the first business beside-went, it bought always new houses, in order to cover with the hoped for profit its losses, similarly as a player in read Vegas, which increases its employment after each failure. Occasionally it sat on 2.2 million dollar debts; now, after he lost all houses up to one, there is still scarce 500,000 dollar. “speculators are punished now”, say Christopher Cagan of the financial analysis company roofridge American Corelogic. Because the best times are get it past and now those, “in the riskiest business got involved”, say it. “that is not different than at the stock exchange.” After Cagans computations threaten 1.1 million hypotheken with variable to collapse thus not fixed interest rate the majority of it in the coming year. The expected damage of 326 billion dollar Cagan considers however strengthable.

flailing forward said...

Another Nigel quote for the reference book:

"The housing sector is facing some challenges after riding all time highs for so many years, but company profits, stock values and jobs remain very strong.

Let's invite this Goldilocks in and have her stay for a while."

Nigeypoo has a gift for saying things that he'll have to distance himself from a year from now.

Anonymous said...

So if Casey broke his promise to not use the corporate credit card (a promise he made on Sunday), then what specifically did he buy that made her take the card away? I guarantee it wasn't small potatoes or she wouldn't have gone batshit on him.

"casey is that a new LAPTOP??!!"

BTW, now that I know Nigel's advertisers pay by the impression, I am officially boycotting. It's good entertainment i.e. people beating his ass, but frankly he's inviting people to do so because it puts money in his pocket. So please, please people, comments or no, ridiculous content or no, please leave Nigel's blogs - don't give him any money. Even if it is only enough to get his shirts dry cleaned.

Anonymous said...

hmmm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sercasey/493416873/

Anonymous said...

Psst - anyone see Casey's WalMart-Wedding-Ring-For-Loozerz™??

http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/221/casey-serin-mention-in-stern-german/#comments

flailing forward said...

TK, I suggest switching to Firefox and getting AdblockPlus and NoScript. It's all free, easy to use, and will prevent you from contributing to anyone's CPM count. Spybot Search and Destroy is another good free utility that prevents your system from accepting adware cookies (doesn't help aagainst CPM though). Regardless, I doubt Nigel is making more than $100/mo from his ads. If it's worth becoming an internet punching bag to him for 100 bucks, that's sad but so be it.

Anonymous said...

Christ, how can anyone believe anything that shithead writes? "Galina took my sweet shiny card away, but I guess she had to, because I was holding it to my head threatening to use it or else!"

C'mon.

Shithead thinks he can get away with this "I'm just so dumb, stop me before I spend again!" persona, it's just laughable.

And he takes photos of tax bills before he opens them? Suuuuuuure. I'm sure the bill is real, I sure would'nt want any envelopes sent certified by the tax guys, that means they're serious, you have something they REALLY want you to read. But who in their right mind takes the time to pose such a letter, on top of their other bills they intend to ignore?

No way. It's all a pose. The scammer is trying for the "Oh poor pity me" act to try and sell a book. Anything which cannot be verified should be considered fiction, period.

The fun thing is, if the State is knocking for their sheckels, it's going to get real fun really soon. The tax guys work fast once the die is cast, shithead is going to learn that Cashcall is a walk in the park compared to the Franchise Tax Board, who DOES have the power to lock down accounts and levy fines, apply garnishments and throw you in jail, even if you did nap through a deadline, but *meant* to do things on time.

I've watched other people go through Hell and back because of the FTB and the IRS, which is why I never play games with taxes.

If it were anyone but Casey, I would say, take that letter, even if it's unopened, to a lawyer, NOW. If the FTB is sending you certified mail, you most likely NEED one. I had a return amended by the IRS and FTB, and even the letters from both telling me, with the new amount due and fines and such were send via normal mail, not certified.

No, whatever is in that envelope is serious business - need-a-lawyer serious. The FTB really wants to know that A. shithead got the letter, and B. they want a response.

As for shithead? let's all pour an adult beverage and watch shithead get nailed for using his shiny corporate credit to pay for a lawyer for a personal debt, and Galina throw him out for going into her purse or wherever she hid the card.

It should be a blast! :)

Oh, PS, if you're reading, shithead - you had better have been keeping DETAILED records of any income you AND Galina are making, as you are probably now a target for an audit. Congrats, shithead, you got the attention of the taxman, enjoy the anal probe you are now almost certainly facing, I hope you got your records in order.

Karma is a bitch, huh?

Anonymous said...

@ eek said...

Funny! Casey gets certified mail from the local tax collector. Does he open it? Naw....he's got to prioritize and plan what to do with it instead!

So he takes a pic and uploads it to flicker. Then shuffles it to the mail pile scheduled to be opened in June.

Another hard day's work completed at the office! Itsallgood!

Anonymous said...

@Dumbfounded

You can read the first line of the letter, it says 'I, Dave Irish, Tax Collector of the County of Sacramento, State of...", which means that it's about a tax bill.

Plus, the Dept. of Finance isn't gonna blow $4 to deal with business licensing or any routine matters.

Nope, shithead is fucked. Should be fun to watch him try and spin it, ignore it, or flounder trying to deal with it.

Next up: 'Can anyone represent me for free?"

You're fucked Casey. Use the last of your corporate credit for a good lawyer, maybe you can salvage something. Yahoo ads don't mean shit when the taxman comes calling.

Jake said...

Here's the tax man's web page! http://www.finance.saccounty.net/

Anonymous said...

More evidence that the American Justice system is broken.

"Paris Hilton may not serve full sentence" (Yahoo News)

Unfortunately, Casey can ignore the tax bill and the Utah payment. All that will happen is leins will be put against the respective houses.

Also, Galina cutting up the credit card means she thinks she can take control and save him. So Casey gets several more months to find a new meal ticket with a credit rating.

Jake said...

Oh, and don't forget all of his yummy contact info.

Dave Irish
Director of Finance
(916) 874-6705
(916) 874-8904 - Fax
irishd@saccounty.net

Sacramento County
700 H St., Rm. 4650
Sacramento, CA 95814

Anonymous said...

The website says and processes property tax collection so presumably they are looking for missing property taxes or at least a record of who owned what, when and who owes what property tax.

Jake said...

What are some of his former addresses ? Go here, in IE only, and you can enter in the address to see the amount due.

Rob Dawg said...

Dared,
Excellent analysis/commentary. You call it correctly that McClintocks firebrand rhetoric is just that. In conference, in person he's pragmatic and effective at the necessaries.

Things like improvement districts and the like are legal but these are different. Transfer fees fund public goods and thus should come from public funding sources. They are using a private transaction for special interest programs that would never pass public muster. I would love to have a discussion about municipal finance I'll set one for this weekend as a no Casey zone and we can take our time. Okay?

Jake said...

On 6842 Burdett Way, Sacramento, he owes: none

On 8256 Calla Way, Sacramento, he owes: $964.41

Jake said...

I wondered who paid the Calla tax bill on April 10th, it was foreclosed on him by then, but it was for $1,943.78.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:05 AM, Anon

Unfortunately it's probably just unpaid property taxes. All they do is take the property to sheriff sale and that's already been done.

The big problems won't occur until the IRS and the State of California comes after him. These will happen, but probably not for another year or so.

Anonymous said...

@Dumbfounded
You may be right, but that it's certified I think means something.

If he owes $900 on Calla, it may be behind enough that the letter is saying they are taking it to a judge to get a settlement, in which case it should get interesting as he has no income (that he's reporting) to garnish...could be the Vdub goes missing one day, with a letter stapled to Yulia's front door saying it was seized for back taxes, as it's his only tangible asset (unless he was smart enough to put it in Galina's name).

I don't know how far it has to go before they start taking assets, so maybe we can all learn by watching how long it takes them to start stripping shithead of his.

We all know he won't be spending his fix^^^^ corporate credit on taxes. Oh no. He only pays taxes with other people's money.

Anonymous said...

Calla Way is the first house that he traded for Burdett. The taxes were probably paid by the new owner

Anonymous said...

So he owes $900 on a house he sold a year and a half ago. Nice usual attention to details, Casey. God what a shithead you are.

'Oh, I forgot, I just kinda figured the new owners would get it up to date, I lost the bill, I'll get right on that any day now, everyone skips out on their tax bills!"

Take your pick.

Okay, so a $1000 tax bill isn't that skeery, unless he's lazy and it goes to a judge. Most people would just set up a payment plan (if he isn't paying off any other tax bills, and it locks him out of that when the BIG bills come in next year), or if he had any credit he could just pay it off with a CC. Most people could knock off a $1000 bill in 6 months to a year, no problem.

IF thats what this is about, of course.

Knowing shithead, he'll do nothing and it'll grow into a bigger problem, that's what he's really good at. My dad taught us at a young age how not to procrastinate and put off problems, so they don't grow into crisis. Shithead seems to have been taught nothing.

Anonymous said...

Casey does not owe taxes on the Calla way house. The taxes on that house are not past due. That $900 is not due until July and the current owner owes that not Casey. What ever that certified letter is about it does not involve the Calla way house.