LAUSD to Bury Homeowners in Property Tax Increase!

As unbelieveable as it may seem, the Los Angeles Unified School District is using a financial loophole to raise property taxes on hundreds of thousands of homeowners, all without any vote or public discussion. I’m not talking about a 1% or 2 % rise. The current rate is $123 per hundred thousand. Officials for the LAUSD are talking about rates above $200 per hundred thousand by 2012. I’m no mathematician but it looks to me like an untenable weight on homeowners who are already struggling under a tremendous financial burden. Home many more forclosures and for how long do the authorities expect us to continue to bend over? I believe that we must bring this issue front and center. Organize with Twitter and Facebook. Only our collective will can stop this action!

Please contact me if you can help me join in opposition!

It wasn't enough to be Sherman Oaks adjacent?!

Incredible! A rather large area of Van Nuys is about to become; ta!da! Sherman Oaks! Yes sports fans, in an effort to reduce the lower valued area, they've now created many more higher value homes. What's in a name? Obviously money. I'm sure the reviewers of this decision will split equally. Those Sherman Oaks agents who now see a dilution of their higher valued homes and those Van Nuys agents who are looking at property movin' on up.

The city is the true broker here. They'll get their share no matter how this actually plays out.

It wasn't enough to be Sherman Oaks adjacent?!

The Power of an Idea!

And the beat goes on..and so do the layoffs. Yes, predictions are that it will get worse before it gets better. OK, I'll buy that. So times are tough and people are out of work, or at least paid work.

Does anyone else see the silver lining out there? All across the economic spectrum there are a great many talented, self motivated people out there with a lot of free time on their hands. Sure, a lot of them will wait it out, send out a few resumes and collect their unemployment.

But wait! In garages, workshops and at computers all across this great land, there's a discernible buzz. Wheels are turning, lights are flashing and innovation is, well innovating. These are smart people, talented people who didn't have the time or motivation to do something about something. Now they can, now they will!

I believe that in the next year, we will begin to see more innovation and creativity than we have in the last decade. Oh the power of an idea! It's always been about small business. That's where it always begins; it will be no different this time.

So, don't expect our country, with so many talented people, to just float along with the breeze.

We have set sail on a new tomorrow, full of promise and excitement. Raise the anchor and full speed ahead!

"Is this a dagger I see before me?"

Anyone else out there experiencing the "revenge of the appraisers"; sucking the lifeblood out of home values, all at a time when we can least afford to donate. Have you heard about HVCC? it ain't no heating or air conditioning system. Rather, what we have here is a now over-regulated system that ties the hands of our dear friends, the appraiser and yields withered values that frequently scuttle our hard fought escrows/contracts. It appears that the New York State Deputy Attorney-General's office helped craft this travesty that usurps our core belief that the buyer and seller have agreed on the price for a home. Here comes the Spanish Inquisition that now has the power to give a thumbs up or down to any deal based on such restricted guidelines that it sacrifices price accuracy for political expediency. How can we expect a broad base recovery if only one side of the market is working. I'm referring to foreclosures, reo and short sales. I know many agents are making out like bandits (excuse the expression) while the vast majority of us who work on more traditional sales are being staked though the heart like a dagger. The pendulum has now swung to its extreme again from too easy to too hard. I'm just looking for the middle of the road. Is that stage left or right? I'm just looking for a new direction!

Tsunami Warning!!

Greetings Fellow Surfers!

I had the opportunity to rise with the sun this morning; and looked out to sea to see what I could see. There, just out on the horizon, I saw the formation of what appears to be a wave, but just not any wave.

Based on the groundswell, shape and direction, I believe that this baby will become a tsunami. For the last few months, all the elements of a perfect storm have been gathering.

Have you seen the lowest home prices in a decade? How about the 50 year lows in interest rates? Did you think this eruption would not make waves?

While you've been standing on the beach with your pail and shovel building sand castles with an Open House sign in front of them, or scanning with your metal detector for buried treasure, the slow steady churn has begun.

I feel it my civic duty as both a Realtor and a concerned fellow citizen to sound the alarm. Look up! look out there, it's coming baby! Prepare for the ride of your life or the mother of all wipe-outs!

I've got my board waxed, my sunblock on and my listing contract in a watertight container.


Ready or not here it comes!

Go Get The Cheese!!

You can’t pick up a newspaper or surf on-line without being barraged by an avalanche of bad news about the economy, real estate or Brad & Jen. Come on people, did you really expect that as soon as Barack Obama took office that everything would just spring back to the way it was? Happily, I am not one of those people.

You see Desperaux (the mouse) had it right! While all the other mice scurried off and cowered when the light came on, Desperaux remained steadfast, eyes wide open.

So, are you a man or a mouse? I vote with the mouse.

When the world is illuminated, we can see all the abundance that it has to offer. When you cower and head for the hills, you fail to see the beauty and opportunity that is out there.

In my 14 years of real estate experience, I have never witnessed such a promising market. Really! Buyers and Sellers alike. Don’t live in fear. Desperaux was right! Go get the cheese!

Believe We Must!

Why are we buying into all this doom and gloom? How does that make you feel? Keep telling people that the sky is falling long enough and eventually they will start believing it. Invest yourself in your inspired reality. OK we are faced with many unresolved problems right now, but that is nothing new. Life has always been about dealing with problems. The difference is that we have become a civilization of mindless minions. Life is a struggle. That has not changed. What has is our resolve and our courage to meet our challenges and obligations. We have morphed into the "I'm not responsible generation", it's not my fault. An unrealistic sense of entitlement; that somehow we are owed health, happiness and prosperity. We are not. We are not even guaranteed tomorrow. For the last 50 years we have shifted our paradigm and along with it we lost our grounding in this earth, our respect for the earth , our true reality. We have become a nation living in a self induced drug haze.Snap out of it people! We still have the power to change our reality; a new story has yet to be written. Are we men or holograms? Shadow or substance? Fear I fear is the new reality. We fear losing our, (fill in the blank). I say we must become the new pioneers of tomorrow. Strike out with a renewed sense of determination and hope. Let us lift the veil of darkness and despair and see our world as it is, as it can be. In the face of our creator we can see the eternal joy and exileration of life. How precious is our next breath! How fragile it's beauty. Find your joy and repel those whose thoughts and actions seek only to tear us asunder. Believe we must!