When we talk about the global Wall Street mortgage frauds during Bush-----we are talking locally about a global Wall Street Development Corporation---or Greater Baltimore Corporation organizing groups to commit the housing frauds. Some groups will be realtors---some will be developers-----some will be tasked with finding the bodies with a pulse during the last of the toxic subpriming. That is generally the local political machines. The 5% to the 1% in our US cities including pols are then the ones profiteering off all that subprime selling ----all the flipping----all the tenet abuse as the 99% simply try to find stable housing. Most property managers are those developers who buy property cheap---bring in global labor pool workers to restore---and then sell or rent for great profit. Meanwhile several years later we find the entire housing market is filled with fraud and corruption costing the taxpayers hundreds of billions---homeowners their homes---and the poor recruited as bodies during the worst of the toxic subpriming are back on the streets none the better. That is where we have been since 2013 -----Obama and Clinton neo-liberals subprimed the housing market AGAIN----with our US city communities none-the-better.
IT IS THE WALL STREET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS WHICH ARE DRIVING THE FRAUDS AND CORRUPTIONS-----AND THESE FRAUDS HAVE TARGETED BLACK AND BROWN HOMEOWNERS MOST SO IT IS A RACE AND CLASS ISSUE. IF A POL IS CALLING OUT SOMEONE AS RACIST LIKE AN UNDERARMOUR PLANK ----AND WORKING HAND IN HAND WITH GLOBAL WALL STREET DEVELOPMENT----HE IS PRETENDING TO BE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE WHILE BEING YET ANOTHER FAR-RIGHT CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL.
Democrats do not do this=====they do not orchestrate massive frauds against working class while using poor as fake home buyers all while bringing a global labor pool of immigrant citizens to exploit as cheap labor---while leaving most of US citizens unemployed---that is FAR-RIGHT WING GLOBAL WALL STREET----NOT DEMOCRATS.
Because we have allowed this to continue it is now hitting our middle-class and our young adults trying to buy their first homes.
Mar 14, 2016 @ 12:41 PM 62,068 views The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Are We Entering A New Housing Bubble?
I monitor and look for unique developments in the real estate market.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Home prices are rising too fast in much of the country. In Dallas and Denver, prices have surpassed their prior peak and have risen over the past two years by 18% and 20%, respectively. Similar gains were recorded in many Western cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, regaining most of the price declines during the bust years to reach very close to their prior peak. Nationwide , home prices have risen by 10% over the past two years, according to the Case-Shiller repeat price index, and by 13% in the median home price.
The national price gains are not super-spectacular, but are nonetheless rising 3 to 4 times as fast as the national average wage growth rate. On top of these trends, overall credit conditions appear to be loosening. The average credit score of mortgages that were approved was 719 in January according to Ellie Mae ELLI +0.58%, which is below the 730 to 740 range of most of last year. Consequently, there are increasing discussions about a new bubble – just like the last one fueled by easy credit - that is not sustainable and bound to collapse.
However, the suggestion of a new bubble is misplaced, because three major items are left out when looking at the current housing market trends. First, even though the credit conditions appear to be easing somewhat, the move is from overly stringent conditions to not-so overly stringent conditions. It is a far-fetched view to imply the current mortgage approval process in any way resembles the loosey-goosey, easy subprime mortgage access conditions of a decade ago.
Anyone who has recently obtained a mortgage will attest to way too many documentation requirements and headaches in getting the approvals. Credit is more accessible today versus last year but still can be said to be tight. After all, mortgage credit scores on just Fannie Mae -backed mortgages today are hovering near 740-to-750 compared 710-to-720 during the bubble years. As for FHA mortgages, today’s approval loan credit score is near 690-to-710 compared to 650-to-660 during the bubble years. Additionally, the pure private-market label subprime mortgages, with strange credit scores and no documentation requirements, are virtually non-existent today.
Second, even though home prices are climbing far above people’s income, exceptionally low mortgage rates have permitted people to buy a home without overstretching their budget. For someone making a 20% down payment, the monthly mortgage payment at today’s mortgage rates would take up 15% of a person’s gross income. During the bubble years, it was reaching 25% of income. The long-term historical average is around 20%. Therefore, a middle-income household does not need to overstretch their budget much if at all to buy a typical home.
The third and most important item that is being less talk about by the new bubble theorists has to do with housing supply. The months’ supply of inventory – measuring how many months it would take to exhaust all inventory at the current sales pace – now stands at around 4-to-5 months. Back during the bubble years, there was a similar figure in months’ supply. However, sales were at frenzy back then, fueled partly by easy subprime credit, with existing home sales hitting 7.1 million and new home sales reaching 1.3 million, for combined home sales of 8.4 million. This frenzy in sales drove down the months’ supply of inventory. In 2015, combined home sales were 5.76 million, or roughly one-third lower. But the reason for the low months’ supply is due to lack of new home construction that still continues to this day. Home-builders constructed an average of 1.9 million new homes across the four years leading up to the bubble peak.
By contrast, the construction of new housing units in the last four years averaged 950,000 per year – half the pace of the bubble year construction. It is this lack of supply that is causing home prices to rise well above people’s income, and there is only one sure cure to getting the housing market back into balance and from preventing home prices from rising too fast: more homebuilding activity. In other words, we are not in a housing market bubble in terms of an inevitable impending home price crash. Rather, we are facing an above-normal home price growth trend, which admittedly is unhealthy on several levels, because of the simple economic law of insufficient supply. We need more homebuilding.
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If one is going to a FORBES----a FORTUNE----a WALL STREET JOURNAL-----now even MARKETPLACE MONEY NPR-----for all financial news you will be told there was no LOOSEY GOOSEY this time. If you are a REAL financial analyst and a citizen who educates BROADLY on financial policies we knew Obama created policies just so these same Bush era subprimings could occur. They were written into our FHA Freddie and Fannie mortgage guidelines.
HERE WE SEE THE TARGET AGAIN------MINORITIES AND IMMIGRANTS.
So, our low-income citizens are being used for SERIAL FRAUD----many families simply want an opportunity to own a home and do not know they are being used to commit fraud. At the same time---it is that 5% to the 1% CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA who organize these frauds by creating NGOs tied to global Wall Street Development Corporation and Greater Baltimore Development. Think how these same practices have been in place overseas in Foreign Economic Zones these several decades and we see how much of US Foreign funding was diverted by fraud leaving those nations with no real development.
Baltimore has operated like this for decades because global Johns Hopkins is that development corporation driving these frauds---overseas and here in America.
'The Federal Housing Administration is a big reason for falling credit scores. So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government housing agencies have slashed credit requirements under pressure from the Obama administration — like the Clinton administration before it — to qualify more immigrants and minorities with low incomes and “less-than-perfect credit.”'
Obama is setting us up for another housing crash
By Paul Sperry
March 12, 2016 | 3:00pm
We learned nothing from the last financial crisis. The housing market is set to collapse, again, and a key culprit, again, is artificial demand created by government policies.
For starters, mortgage-software firm Ellie Mae reports that the average FICO credit score of an approved home loan plunged to 719 in January (the latest month for which data is available) from 731 a year earlier, and well below 2011’s peak of 750.
It’s a dangerous sign lenders are loosening underwriting standards. Lower FICO scores correlate with higher risk of loan default.
The Federal Housing Administration is a big reason for falling credit scores. So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government housing agencies have slashed credit requirements under pressure from the Obama administration — like the Clinton administration before it — to qualify more immigrants and minorities with low incomes and “less-than-perfect credit.”
Meanwhile, home lenders are approving more debt-strapped borrowers. According to Ellie Mae, applicants approved for mortgages in January had an average household debt-to-income ratio of 39%, up from 2012’s annual average of 34%. Borrower debt loads have been creeping higher each year since 2012, when Ellie Mae first started tracking such data.
A recent report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal agency that regulates the nation’s banks, warns that declines in mortgage underwriting standards are mirroring pre-crisis trends.
“Underwriting standards eased at a significant number of banks for the three-year period from 2013 through 2015,” the report said. “This trend reflects broad trends similar to those experienced from 2005 through 2007, before the most recent financial crisis.”
Not since 2006, it noted, have lenders taken on so much credit risk, and it says the hazard will continue to grow this year: “Examiners expect the level of credit risk to increase over the next 12 months.”
A large chunk of the risk is coming from first-time home buyers with shaky credit and so-called “rebound” buyers who previously defaulted on home loans.
In the interest of ‘fairness,’ Obama is lowering credit standards for mortgages — recreating the conditions that brought down the economy in 2008.
The American Enterprise Institute reports that its National Mortgage Risk Index for first-time buyers jumped almost a full percentage point in January from a year earlier, driven by “loose credit standards.” The demand from otherwise uncreditworthy home buyers “is driving home prices up faster than incomes and inflation,” noted Edward Pinto, co-director of AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk in Washington.
This is especially true in hot spots like California, where subprime-mortgage lenders offering interest-only loans with no FICO-score requirements are cropping up from the ashes of Countrywide Financial, the bankrupt Calabasas, Calif.-based subprime giant.
In another sign housing is overheating, home “flipping” is red hot again and hitting levels not seen since just prior to the mortgage meltdown. Nationwide, almost 180,000 homes were sold and then resold last year — the highest level since 2007.
In fact, according to RealtyTrac, flipping in a dozen metro areas — including New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla. — exceeded peaks set in 2005, when investors took advantage of low interest rates and easy credit.
Analysts warn sales from home flipping artificially inflate home prices, increasing the risk of a housing bubble.
“When home-flipping numbers go up, it is usually an indication that the housing market is in trouble,” said Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate in Seattle.
The last housing bubble began inflating in 1997 and lasted 10 years before finally bursting in 2007, in a monumental collapse that crashed markets the world over.
Analysts say the current real-estate bubble started in late 2011, when housing values bottomed. Since then, real median home prices have rebounded to a level that is only about 8% below their pre-crisis peak, which was an all-time record.
Like the last bubble, this one is fueled by artificial demand from government-induced lax lending standards and accommodative interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.
“The result has been a rapid increase in real, inflation-adjusted home prices, with prices up nationally about 16.5% since the home-price trough in 2012,” Pinto said.
He notes that once prices hit 20% or higher, historically, a painful drop in prices follows.
“Home prices are subject to the law of gravity,” he said. “What goes up must come down.”
Pinto noted that prices for entry-level homes have climbed by an even higher 19%, making it harder for low-income borrowers to buy without taking out a high-risk loan they really can’t afford.
When home-flipping numbers go up, it is usually an indication that the housing market is in trouble.
- Chief economist at Windermere Real Estate
Yet these kinds of borrowers are qualifying for such home loans thanks to the liberalization of credit terms. New federal rules regulating mortgages under President Obama’s “financial reforms,” despite claims of toughness, are not limiting the volume of high debt-to-income loans. While the rules do recommend a DTI ceiling, they never set minimum down-payment or credit-score requirements.
Today’s relaxation in mortgage-underwriting standards is largely a function of government housing-policy changes at FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which dominate the nation’s mortgage activity.
As in the last easy-credit cycle, we are seeing “the promotion of policy to push firms to seek riskier products to promote growth,” Wells Fargo Chief Economist John Silvia said.
All three agencies have slashed down-payment and other requirements under pressure from Obama regulators, who include, most significantly, former Congressional Black Caucus leader and Obama appointee Mel Watt, head of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency, which now controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Last year, Fannie Mae launched a new subprime-mortgage product called HomeReady that caters to recent immigrants with weak credit and limited income.
The new loan program, which offers “income flexibility,” allows borrowers for the first time to bundle income from roommates and relatives to meet qualifications for income. They only have to put 3% down, and can use gifts from nonprofit groups to subsidize their down payments.
“There is no limit on the number of non-borrower household members who can be present on a single transaction,” Fannie advises originators. And even then there is “documentation flexibility,” a frightening echo of last decade’s “no-doc loans.”
At least before the crisis, your income had to be your own. But now, as a renter, you can get a conventional home loan backed by Fannie by claiming other people’s income. All you have to do in exchange is take a four-hour online course on the responsibilities of homeownership.
You don’t have to show personal financial independence. You can be maxed out on credit cards and even live in government-subsidized housing. Just as long as you round up enough income-earners and pool finances to help meet a debt-to-income ratio of up to 50%.
And you don’t need good credit.
“If the borrower’s credit score is less than the minimum credit score required,” Fannie tells loan underwriters, “the lender may develop an acceptable nontraditional credit profile” that takes into consideration timely payments on electricity bills and car insurance — and even gym dues — in lieu of payments on credit cards and loans.
Under HomeReady, you can even qualify for a “cash-out refinance” of your mortgage, a type of loan that led to over-leveraging and a wave of defaults during the mortgage crisis.
Now you can get a conventional home loan backed by Fannie Mae by claiming other people’s income.
Why would Fannie offer the same kinds of poorly underwritten loans that forced it into bankruptcy? Because HomeReady aligns “with our housing goals” set by Watt, it says in its HomeReady literature. These are the same government affordable-housing quotas that plunged Fannie and Freddie into the subprime market under the Clinton administration.
It’s all part of a government campaign to ease access to home loans for recent Hispanic immigrants — including those living here illegally. In fact, HomeReady caters to illegal immigrants by allowing borrowers to waive Social Security documentation.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, a pro-immigrant lobbying group, is praising the move, arguing it will bring tens of thousands of Hispanic families into the home market who have been “skipped over” by stingy (meaning prudent and responsible) lenders.
“It’s very encouraging,” NAHREP Chief Executive Gary Acosta said. “It demonstrates that Fannie has done a lot of work on the issue of identifying ways to qualify more people.”
NAHREP is also lobbying heavily for watered-down credit scoring that “take[s] into account the unique spending and savings patterns of Hispanic borrowers,” and it may get its wish.
Watt, who as a congressman once demanded Freddie Mac back loans for welfare recipients in his North Carolina district, has instructed Fannie and Freddie to come up with “alternative credit-scoring models” to FICO and approve more home buyers. “We have the pedal to the metal” on adopting a new model, Watt said.
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When I talk with the global Wall Street players in Baltimore committing all these frauds---using our low-income citizens over and over from higher education frauds----home mortgage frauds----an economy built simply to BULK THE POOR----many are pleased with themselves---they think it is clever.
THIS IS THAT 5% OF GLOBAL CITIZENS WHO ARE SOCIOPATHS TO THAT 95% OF GLOBAL CITIZENS SIMPLY WANTING TO LIVE HONEST LIVES WITH DIGNITY.
On the bus yesterday ---a great place to talk with people about what they are feeling---I didn't have to talk --there was a man from overseas clearly in Baltimore simply to FLIP HOUSES. He was not staying in Baltimore he was recruited to bring LOTS OF CASH-----to buy houses in Baltimore's GHETTOS----he told his friend on the phone ---BALTIMORE IS ONE BIG GHETTO----
His goal was buying lots of houses for cheap-----bringing in his global labor pool construction crews to build what are called SMART CITY HOUSES ----very costly houses in the middle of a blighted community. It has security cameras around the house and property inside and out with flat-screen TVs and up-scale furnishings ---right in the middle of blight.
The same story came from the woman running from her FLIPPED HOUSE----in her case she was running to NYC where the exact same kind of house existed in the middle of the HOOD. She described the NYC house just as this foreign INVESTOR did the houses he was to build. The CASH did not need to be his---could have been anyone's CASH---
WE THE PEOPLE have allowed global Wall Street to deliberately create huge instability in our communities---they are making tons of money but there is a goal towards MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE----and many if these flipping deals are not HONEST.
Housing flipping: It's riskier but more lucrative
Diana Olick | @DianaOlick
Thursday, 6 Aug 2015 | 10:18 AM ETCNBC.com
2.2K
SHARES
Higher home prices are making house flipping harder, but more lucrative.
Flipping, which is generally defined as buying and selling a home in the same calendar year, was popular during the housing boom, when investors could get easy mortgage financing. Now investors need cash, and as lower-priced, distressed homes dry up, they need more cash.
Home flips made up just 4.5 percent of sales in the second quarter of this year, according to RealtyTrac, down from 4.9 percent a year ago. Flipping returns, however, the gross return on investment, increased to nearly 36 percent, up from 24 percent one year ago.
Home renovation projects are keeping contracting companies busy.
"Despite the rise in flipping returns in the second quarter, home flippers should proceed with caution in the next six to 12 months as home price appreciation slows and a possible interest rate increase could shrink the pool of prospective buyers for fix-and-flip homes," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
"While average flipping returns are up substantially from a year ago at the national level and in moderately priced markets such as Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix and Minneapolis, flipping returns are softening in some of the higher-priced markets such as San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Los Angeles," he said.
Nevada and Florida, where the share of distressed homes are still relatively high, are still seeing the most flipping action, but Chicago, Dayton and Baltimore offer some of the best gross returns.
In Washington, D.C., where home prices have flattened, flipping is still popular, but tricky.
"There has been a real sea change. You have to put a lot more work into the homes today," said Christopher Harrison, a real estate investor who is flipping a home in Northwest D.C. "It's interesting because when the market crashed you had a lot of investors making a ton of money on flips you didn't even have to do work to."
Harrison's home is in a pricy neighborhood with desirable schools. He had to put about $400,000 into the property, which he purchased for about $700,000. He doubled the size of the 1,800-square-foot bungalow and listed it at the beginning of July at just over $1.5 million. He has now lowered the price by $54,000 and is considering doing more work to the property, possibly adding a parking space.
"We've gotten a lot of feedback, so we should have it sold soon," said Harrison. "It just seemed like a really good investment."
Flippers are now taking an average of almost six months to rehab their homes, which is an eight-year high, according to RealtyTrac. The higher-end renovations, however, may be adding to soaring profits at home remodeling retailers, like Home Depot and Lowe's.
"The fewer foreclosure deals and longer flipping timelines that we see in the data demonstrate that flippers are getting squeezed on both sides of the profit equation," said Blomquist. "Experienced flippers will often need to enter into higher-risk markets with less solid economic fundamentals to chase better yields."
Flipping is not always profitable. Flips on the lowest-priced homes, below $50,000, saw negative returns in the second quarter. The sweet spot appears to be homes priced at $100,000 to $200,000, which yielded an average gross return of 44 percent.
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Keep in mind none of this happened to this scale until the complete deregulation of Wall Street and the housing industry during CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA. Real Estate speculation has always been around but it was regulated and our government would see that people were protected----today no protections---no enforcement of landlord/tenet rights---
The goals of a US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone like Baltimore would be disruption of low-income community housing with citizens largely renters unable to settle---being deliberately fleeced over and over---and the houses being flipped today are often those lost by Baltimore homeowners from the last toxic subprime mortgage frauds and foreclosures.
Who are these FLIPPERS? US FED and its mortgage buyback was designed to create zero interest on BUNDLED FORECLOSURES then bought and sold by global hedge funds----foreign rich were encouraged to come a flip houses in US cities-----so that is who our foreign bus rider yesterday with all the CASH was-----most of these flippings are done by the global rich.
As the rich guy on the bus touted his plans of buying cheap in the GHETTO the bus riders were openly insulted and hostile to this man because he was very condescending to what were the very citizens living in our low-income communities. This foreign citizen had no clue he was being offensive.
The second problem for US citizens in all this as the article states---these FLIPPERS will temporarily rent these homes with the idea of simply kicking out a tenet at any point these homes are sold.
All of this is supposedly OK because it is in decaying communities but I am here to say it is happening in our middle-class communities now as well----an injustice to one HAS become injustice to a 99% ---this decade will see it harder and harder to be that LANDOWNER.
Business Optimization
If You Can't Flip It, Rent It
April 16, 2008In this first of a three-part series, Danielle Babb, real estate investment expert and author of Finding Foreclosures (Entrepreneur Press), explores alternatives to flipping houses in the current economy. First, renting out your home and riding out the market.
Throughout the late 1990s and well into 2004, investors were flipping houses like there was no recession tomorrow. There was a lot of money to be made--and they were making it. Many owners were selling for 10 to 40 percent above the purchase price within months of buying a property. Those lucky souls who purchased in the late '90s and were able to sell in 2002-2003 could have doubled or tripled their investment.
On a $200,000 investment property (assuming you put 5 percent down), you may have earned $100,000 (50 percent appreciation) on a $10,000 cash investment--a 10-fold return! No wonder investors who flocked to real estate and mortgage companies had such a strong incentive to find suitable loans. It was a sure bet.
Times have changed. In today's uncertain economy, many weary investors are looking at where to put their money. Stocks are dropping; housing prices are decreasing in most areas. Nothing seems to look good. Worse yet, many investors are like me--they own a lot of homes that unfortunately aren't worth what they paid (or perhaps most important, what they owe on the mortgage). They don't want these homes to go back to the bank out of whatever obligation they feel (moral, financial, credit worthiness, etc.), yet they feel trapped in paying these high mortgages (that are also resetting faster than we thought).
You have an alternative--renting out your home. You can become your own landlord or hire a property manager to do it for you. If you're interested in going this route, consider these steps (assuming you're not hiring a property manager and paying the 8 to 10 percent monthly commission):
1. Determine the rental comparative analysis. One site I like is Rentometer.com. By typing in the rental address, city, state or ZIP as well as the type of place the home is, you can see what others are paying in the area. Coupled with Craigslist, this will give you an approximate rental amount. If you're close to a great school and have a nicely fenced-in yard, consider increasing it slightly.
2. Determine what utilities you will pay and what the renter will pay. You may pay water and sewer; all other utilities are up to the tenant. (Make sure to check thelpa.com, the Landlord Protection Agency, for laws in your state)
3. Be very clear with your application requirements. Make sure to ask for credit checks, application fees, etc. You will need these to assess your potential tenant appropriately. This is another way to use the LPA's site; you can run credit checks and download all the forms you need.
4. Advertise! List your incentives, too. Will you allow a first month free? Do you offer an early rental payment discount? If so, say so in your ad. Be sure you stay away from legal trouble and check out the Housing and Urban Development's list of dos and don'ts in your advertisements, too.
5. Once you find a renter, screen, screen, screen! Ask questions, call references, and be sure information on the application matches what you learn. Some people are "professional tenants" and know how to scam even the savviest landlords. Use the LPA's site for information on how to screen out these tenants.
6. Sign a rental or lease agreement, and be sure to monitor your property. Follow the law in each state, but drive by your property or have maintenance crews check on the property when they are on site.
If you can earn enough in rent to offset some of your monthly losses (or even all of them), this is an excellent alternative to letting your home mortgage become delinquent or letting your home go back to the bank.
I am personally toying with another option, too--renting out each room within my home to increase my rental income. If this works out, I will update readers in a future issue!
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It is these low-income house buyers who will get those Obama FHA mortgage loans and they will be that struggling homeowner who often is forced to FORECLOSE
.'Antoine Hayes (standing from left), Eugene Broadway and Keith Hudson operate Benjigates Estates in areas where foreclosed properties can be affordable to low-income buyers'.
This same thing is happening in our poor white communities like Federal Hill, Canton, Hampden----so it is that 5% of all population groups driving these Wall Street housing frauds.
Global Wall Street always throws opportunities to what are called BUSINESS STARTUPS----that have no intention of keeping money or stay in business. Most of these players know they are fleecing the system and the low-income citizens and don't care.
'Bootstrapping backgrounds
Hayes, 35, earned his real estate license while working as a machinist after getting trained at Focus: Hope. Making just $10 an hour with a wife and two children at home, he began working for a real estate agent, taking pictures of homes on weekends. He opened an agency in 2001 and began working with Hudson on real estate ventures in 2006'.
August 18, 2013 8:00 a.m. Updated 8/20/2013
Flipping with a twist: Benjigates hooks up auctioned properties with buyers
By Gary Anglebrandt
Photo by LARRY PEPLIN Antoine Hayes (standing from left), Eugene Broadway and Keith Hudson operate Benjigates Estates in areas where foreclosed properties can be affordable to low-income buyers.
Much has been made of Detroit's entrepreneur-driven comeback, with its plucky startups daring enough to set up shop in greater downtown.
Operating out in the wilderness of Detroit's overlooked neighborhoods is the face of another kind of entrepreneur — or rather three faces, which can be seen on billboards all over the city. The billboards advertise Benjigates Estates LLC and CEO Antoine Hayes, CFO Keith Hudson and COO Eugene Broadway, clad in expensive-looking suits.
Maybe they've been left out of the entrepreneur story because, billboards or not, they're hard to notice, operating as they do in those many neighborhoods often neglected in the Detroit narrative. Or maybe it's because it's hard to tell if these are the good guys or the bad guys.
The Benjamin Brothers, as they call themselves, are in the business of flipping houses bought at Wayne County's tax foreclosure auctions — an emotionally charged business that brings a special array of challenges.
Auction buyers have a reputation as gougers. There are buyers who squeeze occupants through high up-front payments and rent increases, and buyers who try to sell houses at prices occupants can't afford.
David Szymanski, Wayne County chief deputy treasurer, said there are buyers who rent out properties while not paying taxes, let them go to auction and then buy them back under a different entity.
"A large number just go in and evict ... even before they get their deed," said Ted Phillips, executive director of United Community Housing Coalition, a Detroit-based nonprofit that helps keep people in their homes. Phillips recounted intimidation and misinformation tactics, such as threats of police action and falsely telling occupants they aren't allowed to participate in auctions.
That's exactly the opposite kind of business the Benjamin Brothers aim to run, according to homeowners and peers. If the property turns out to have occupants, Benjigates doesn't up the rent or kick them out. It cuts a deal.
"When we buy it and we come to the door and you're in there, you get the first opportunity to own it, whether you were the owner, a renter or just took up residence," Hayes said.
"When you put somebody in ownership, they're more likely not to lose their property and want to pay taxes, want to keep their yard up, want to keep the neighborhood good," Hudson said.
They haven't gone unscathed in their fight, squaring off against lawsuits, stigma and the occasional armed drug dealer.
Shopping the auction block
Every fall, the Wayne County treasurer's office auctions off tax-delinquent properties. Those that don't sell at the first auction in September get shunted to the October auction, where bids start at $500.
Benjigates is among the top buyers, last year buying 442 properties. From its beginning in 2008 through the end of last year, Benjigates had purchased nearly 1,200 at the auctions for a total cost of $1.3 million, or roughly $1,100 per property, according to a Benjigates investor presentation. Of those, Benjigates has sold more than 900.
According to the website WhyDontWeOwnThis.com, which tracks the county auction, the Benjamin Brothers paid $500 to $14,100 for 440 properties at last year's auction, 129 of them for the $500 minimum price. (Two more were acquired later.)
Benjigates then sells the homes in deals structured to be feasible for minimum-wage earners and people on fixed incomes, while still leaving room for profit, company executives said.
Benjigates operates in the lower-income neighborhoods of the east and west sides that arc around central Detroit.
Embry Webb, president-elect of the Detroit Association of Realtors, said regular market prices for homes in those areas vary widely depending on the strength of the block but usually range from $10,000 to $50,000. A typical house in the Brightmoor neighborhood goes for about $15,000.
But that's assuming people have money for down payments on mortgages. If not, rental rates are usually $750 to $850 for three-bedroom bungalows and colonials that aren't in historic neighborhoods.
Benjigates arranges the deal so monthly payments are always $500 or less for periods of either 12 or 18 months. The buyer gets the title at the end of the period. Benjigates does not provide loans, run credit checks or verify income.
There's also a $750 closing fee and a $250 educational fee. The educational fee covers one of three short classes on personal credit repair, home maintenance or real estate business basics that buyers must take as part of the deal. Benjigates set up a nonprofit called Caring Hands of Benjamin to administer the courses.
The deal structure reflects Detroit's distorted residential market, they said. About 40 percent of the homes Benjigates buys are occupied, Hudson said. Most occupants are renters or owners who didn't leave. About 20 percent are squatters. Former owners typically had property tax debt from $5,000 to $12,000, and many had mortgage debt of $30,000 to $110,000, he said.
Buyers are responsible for property tax payments, including those levied in the period between the auction sale and when the new buyer signs a Benjigates contract — taxes Benjigates technically is responsible to pay.
Benjigates says in this market it can't pay the taxes and offer prices feasible to low-income buyers, and that's why it set its contracts to periods of 12 or 18 months: The county's tax foreclosure process takes three years; after Benjigates' buyers finish their contracts, they have up to two years to catch up on the taxes.
Extending the contract period or raising the monthly amount squeezes people for money they don't have and lowers a buyer's chances of fulfilling the contract, Benjigates said.
The homes are sold as-is, although Benjigates helps buyers find affordable contractors for needed repairs.
If the buyer can't pay repair costs all at once, a monthly payment plan is set up.
Benjigates also gives buyers an information packet on how to defend property titles because although the county auction process clears titles of old liens, lawyers try to collect old debts anyway, and it pays for home insurance for the duration of the contract.
Bootstrapping backgrounds
Hayes, 35, earned his real estate license while working as a machinist after getting trained at Focus: Hope. Making just $10 an hour with a wife and two children at home, he began working for a real estate agent, taking pictures of homes on weekends. He opened an agency in 2001 and began working with Hudson on real estate ventures in 2006.
Hudson, 38, has owned a clothing store, a mortgage business and an event promotion business. He started out of high school mowing lawns. In winters, he picked up washers and dryers dumped in alleys and turned them in for scrap. He saved $7,000 and bought his first property at auction in 1998.
Hayes and Hudson later met Broadway, 53, who has a background in property management. He also was a pastor for 23 years and a parochial school English teacher for three. He came aboard and helped structure the business model for Benjigates, which launched in 2008 with $20,000.
Benjigates receives funding from private sources, mainly two individual investors who charge high interest rates because it's a high-risk line of business, Hayes said.
Last year, the company had $1.1 million in revenue, and the company is profitable, Hayes said.
When asked if Benjigates tries to reach a certain dollar amount for each property, Hudson laughed and said, "Throw it against the wall."
The business has faced two lawsuits.
A lawsuit filed in February by Detroit-based lawyer Steven Budaj says Benjigates charged his client monthly fees that effectively amounted to a 70 percent interest rate, well in excess of the state's 11 percent limit on land contract deals. Budaj is seeking class-action status.
Hayes said the source of this lawsuit is a former customer who, after fulfilling the contract, was upset about the property tax bill and contacted the lawyer for her postal worker union.
Benjigates had monthly finance fees of between $125 and $175 in a previous version of its contract that it is since has dropped, Hayes said. Benjigates does not provide loans and it's up to the court to decide whether the old fees amounted to interest, he said, and the contract makes it clear that the buyer is responsible for paying taxes. Budaj did not respond to a subsequent call for further comment.
A second lawsuit, filed by Detroit anti-foreclosure attorney Vanessa Fluker in April, attempts to retrieve a property from Benjigates, arguing the county mistakenly sent the property to auction even though, according to the suit, the disabled, elderly woman who owned it was current on her taxes and had been granted hardship exemptions.
Fluker said the woman's family offered to pay the $1,600 that Benjigates paid for the home, plus a little extra for the trouble.
"This is egregious ... tossing out some senior citizen," Fluker said.
Benjigates takes the position that if there was a mix-up with the county, it's on the former owner to take it up with the county. Hayes said the woman has several adult children who live with her, and Benjigates offered to lease the home to the family for $750 a month, but the family declined.
"We bought this house in October (and) we have not gotten a dime, nor do we have possession of our property," Hayes said.
Path to ownership
Situations at acquired Benjigates properties run the spectrum, the partners said. Some occupants owned their home free-and-clear for decades but couldn't keep up with the taxes. In some places, the landlord kept collecting rent after the county took the title. In others, lenders might take ownership of the property but not pay the taxes.
The home of George Parsons, a 57-year-old retiree in Brightmoor, went to auction when the landlord didn't pay taxes. Parsons became a homeowner in May after making $500 payments to Benjigates for 18 months. He's considering buying another home for his children.
"They're giving people a chance to own a home in a short period of time," Parsons said of Benjigates. "It's not like they're making that much more."
Janice Lewis bought 17 homes from Benjigates — the first two on contract, the rest with cash — to get into the rental business, which has been successful enough to allow her to leave a nursing job.
The first Benjigates home cost Lewis $3,000 in 2011. She bought a second one for $8,000 and moved her family into it, walking away from a $157,000 mortgage that cost her $1,200 a month. She later bought the house at a sheriff's sale for $13,000 and now rents it out.
Revolving doors — and revolvers
It doesn't always go so well. When Hayes and his partners show up to one of their new purchases, there can be welcoming arms from neighbors, disgruntled former occupants or drug dealers.
"I'm surprised we haven't found a dead body or a million dollars yet," Hayes said.
In one incident two years ago, Don Boggs, a buyer of one of Benjigates' homes, was hit in the face with a Molotov cocktail thrown by a woman who had been an occupant before Benjigates bought the property. Boggs sustained burns over 40 percent of his body and was permanently scarred. His home was destroyed. The offender was convicted of assault with intent to murder. Benjigates gave Boggs a new house.
What kind of intimidation have the Benjamin Brothers experienced?
"It's all the way to the wall, brother," Hayes said.
"Guns drawn. They think we're on their block," Hudson said.
Webb said Benjigates deserves credit for going into some of the worst areas of the city and would like to see the business get attention, and help, from the city because "they're making it as easy a road as possible to homeownership."
"They're promoting homeownership and getting properties on the tax rolls, which is good for the city," said Webb, who funnels clients to Benjigates when they can't secure mortgages.
Other buyers naively look for returns of $20,000 to $30,000, Webb said. "In 2005, that was doable. Now, you're lucky if the house is worth $20,000."
This leads to a revolving-door effect in the homes, he said, with people getting forced out when the owner refuses to work with the occupants.
Szymanski at the county treasurer's office said he's heard Benjigates is "very reasonable." He did not care for the way Benjigates bakes tax avoidance into its business model and said the company does risk losing properties back to the county. But a deal possibly could be worked out if it means keeping homes from becoming vacant, he said.
Phillips, from the nonprofit United Community Housing Coalition, said he gives Benjigates credit for lasting in the business more than a few years. "They're not gouging, but they're also recognizing a reality."
But he also said more funding for nonprofits would keep more people in their homes for even less money.
The profit margins on some deals, and the viability for some buyers to be able to adhere to the terms of their contract, are hard to predict
For some deals, the company offers a "term-option contract," a hybrid between a lease option deal and a land contract that does in fact give it the best of both worlds — fast evictions and no responsibility for maintenance.
Without the ability to evict, Benjigates' formula starts to unravel, Hayes said. By the time a foreclosure on a land contract is approved, the occupant already is behind by several months. Then the occupant has another six months, in the state of Michigan, to make good on the payments.
With the market showing some signs of health, Benjigates is looking for outside investors so it can get into more traditional funding.
The company's work could play as important a role in the comeback of Detroit's neighborhoods as the actions of business leaders downtown, Hayes said, adding that he wishes they would "extend their hand and meet us in Midtown."
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This is what a global Wall Street Baltimore Development Corporation calls AN ECONOMY. The executives at Greater Baltimore Development are MY 5% TO THE 1% WHITE WALL STREET PLAYERS.
While all this community housing instability grows the second goal is this------building a SMART CITY HOUSE in the middle of the HOOD----is done to manipulate property tax rates-------rental rates go higher and higher just because that few SMART HOUSE rehabbed housing is in that community. The stresses from ever higher property taxes----or rental rates pushes more working class homeowners out of their homes and pushes low-income and middle-class renters out of a community.......THAT IS THE GOAL OF WALL STREET BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT---while these 5% Wall Street players are allowed to pretend they are business startups.
Here is that global Wall Street Baltimore Development
'labor and justice' organization tied to housing justice with leaders who will push all the Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA candidates and their policies that always KILL THE 99%. The amazing thing about this entire network of fraud and corruption is this-----Baltimore could easily have had a normal economy with all these citizens employed being paid a middle-class wage and yet people want to be PLAYERS. It's the MERCHANTS OF VENICE fever for those players always used and thrown under the bus because only the old world MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% get to keep the wealth stolen.
'Phillips, from the nonprofit United Community Housing Coalition, said he gives Benjigates credit for lasting in the business more than a few years. "They're not gouging, but they're also recognizing a reality."'
Every US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone has these 'non-profits' called COMMUNITIES UNITED---UNITED COMMUNITIES-----UNITED HOUSING-----UNITED FOR HOMES-----again the grassroots citizens participating in these non--profits are really advocating for low-income housing but these COMMUNITIES UNITED non-profits are really controlled by a global real estate and development corporation-----tied to our local Baltimore Development and they work in tandem to organize the very low-income citizens wanting housing justice with all the subprime toxic mortgage frauds all while knowing those citizens will lose their homes soon after an economic crash. What is even more damaging is when these global corporations disguised as NGOs induce already homeowning citizens to refinance or otherwise connect their houses to debt just so they will lose them to foreclosure.
For over 27 years, United Communities has developed neighbourhoods where parks, pathways and vibrant streetscapes frame some of life's most memorable moments.
For more than 27 years, United has developed new communities where parks, pathways and vibrant streetscapes frame some of life’s most memorable moments.
With operations in Calgary, Edmonton, Sacramento California and a resort community in Kimberley, British Columbia, United operates with one common mission and philosophy.
United Philosophy
For more information on our parent company, Anthem Properties, please visit anthemproperties.com
**************************************************
United for Homes
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United For Homes Campaign Relaunch — Originally Aired Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The United for Homes campaign is a collaboration of more than 2,300 individuals and organizations working to end homelessness & housing poverty. We have united to urge the reform of the mortgage interest deduction—a $70 billion a year tax write-off that largely benefits America’s highest income families—and reinvest the savings in housing that serves families with the greatest, clearest, most pressing needs through solutions like the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and rental assistance programs.
If you believe in our solution to end homelessness, build a strong foundation, and strengthen communities, join the campaign and share our message on Twitter and Facebook.
Here we see what will be coming and is likely whom building that 'SMART HOUSE in the middle of the hood' is behind. This is just ONE VENTURE CAPITALIST example of what will be many hitting our US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones and building SMART HOUSES in the hood.
We are shouting that this is not only going to hit low-income communities---this will be that mechanism were homes worth millions of dollars take a Baltimore's CITY CENTER COMMUNITIES----it will come soon after these SMART HOUSES IN THE HOOD.
All of this needed a deregulated housing market in order to allow these extremes in housing within communities----standards have kept housing values similar for taxation and public services maintenance---- no doubt our 5% to the 1% are thinking they are owning real estate in these communities but NOT REALLY.
'Venice clearly is positioned as the greatest beneficiary of this influx of capital, but several factors now besetting the beachside community — a pushback against development, a brewing movement to secede from L.A. (aka Vexit) and a homeless epidemic — may push some newly minted millionaires to spend their riches in adjacent nabes'.
The L.A. Hood Where Snapchat Millionaires Will Snap Up Houses Post-IPO
9:00 AM PST 12/20/2016 by Peter Kiefer
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
The $5.7 million white aluminum-encased Wave House on Morningside Way was designed by artist Mario Romano.
Venice's already busy market will get even hotter as an expected early 2017 IPO for parent company Snap will unleash fresh wealth likely to spill over into Santa Monica and Playa Vista while locals block development and cry, "Vexit."
With Venice-based Snap eyeing an IPO at a reported valuation of $25 billion in the coming months, the stage is set for the greatest unleashing of homegrown tech wealth that Los Angeles has ever seen. For the past year, the technology company founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, formerly known as Snapchat, has been gobbling up office space around the famed Venice Boardwalk, and the ripple effect of an IPO will deeply impact nearby residential markets as well. Venice clearly is positioned as the greatest beneficiary of this influx of capital, but several factors now besetting the beachside community — a pushback against development, a brewing movement to secede from L.A. (aka Vexit) and a homeless epidemic — may push some newly minted millionaires to spend their riches in adjacent nabes.
"[Snap is] the 800-pound gorilla in the room," says Paul Habibi, a real estate developer who also teaches finance and real estate at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. "I don't think there are IPOs that rival the size of this one anywhere other than Silicon Valley."
Snap has just 325 employees, which gives it one of the highest valuations per employee ($77 million) of any major technology company. But it's growing at a healthy clip (120 L.A.-based jobs are now open, according to its website) and has expanded its office footprint to include space at the Santa Monica Airport.
Co-founders Murphy and Spiegel — both already fabulously wealthy — linked up during their fraternity days at Stanford. Murphy bought a two-bedroom house in Venice mere blocks away from the company's headquarters, while Spiegel and his fiance, Miranda Kerr, own a Gerard Colcord-designed home in Brentwood purchased for $12 million. And while it is unclear how many of their employees will join their financial ranks (Snap declined to comment for this article), it is safe to assume that dozens, if not hundreds, of newly created millionaires will be hitting the market, which already has brokers lining up.
Halton Pardee + Partners founder Tami Pardee notes that abrupt influxes of tech money generated by a booming Silicon Beach in recent years haven't led to a market frenzy. "They are going to stagger their buying. When Google came in, the market didn't go crazy overnight," says Pardee, who is working with a number of Snap employees. She cites a $4.4 million Marmol Radziner-designed four-bedroom on Santa Clara Avenue as the quintessential tech home. "A lot of these buyers have never had that much money, and engineer types tend to buy smaller houses. They are not used to the flash — it's a personality thing. They are looking for 'soulful' homes."
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
Pardee’s 3,644-square-foot new build on Santa Clara is steps away from Abbot Kinney.
Several brokers predict that the stretch of Millwood Avenue running from Abbot Kinney to Lincoln Boulevard will be of particular interest due to a growing concentration of notable neighbors. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mark Boal has lived there for several years, and actress Emilia Clarke recently spent $4.64 million on a 2,800-square-foot home on the street. Two homes that neighbor the one purchased by the Game of Thrones star recently were renovated by designer Kim Gordon; one sold to the Norwegian producing/songwriting team of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, the brains behind Stargate, which has churned out hits for Beyonce, Rihanna and Wiz Khalifa.
"Tech buyers want something that is unique, and they want walkability," says Partners Trust broker Mark Kitching, who predicts the area north of Oakwood Park also will lure buyers thanks to its proximity to Abbot Kinney and Rose Avenue. That street has emerged as a rival thoroughfare of chic boutiques and hotspots like the newly redesigned Rose Cafe, where Robin Wright and Arnold Schwarzenegger have brunched, and the Indonesian restaurant Wallflower. But much of the housing stock in Oakwood requires significant renovation, Kitching notes — and the typical tech buyer is looking for a turnkey purchase. That may mean expanding a search beyond Venice, which has seen development of several new homes grind to a halt because of delays in the permitting process.
Courtesy of Brian Cooley/Partners Trust
Kitching has the listing for a $3.7 million unit on Eastwind Avenue that features a rooftop lounge.
Farther north is the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, where residents can walk to Main Street and the Expo Line. It's drawing interest from tech buyers, according to Partners Trust's Alex Quaid, who is listing a two-bedroom, three-bath Mina Javid-designed bungalow on Second Street for $4.5 million.
To the south, several new homes have come online in Playa Vista, which has evolved from Silicon Beach spillover territory to tech epicenter, with Google and Facebook building out their corporate campuses and Imax and Yahoo recently relocating there. Playa has seen multiple Brookfield developments this year — including the briskly selling Everly and Marlowe single-family homes, priced from about $2.5 million to more than $3 million, depending on the features.
Courtesy of Todd Goodman
Quaid’s $4.5 million, 2,500-square-foot Ocean Park listing houses smart-home technology in an 1898 Craftsman.
But Playa's turnkey options can't match the hipster credibility of Venice proper, especially a unique new build like the striking Wave House, a $5.7 million Halton Pardee + Partners listing on Morningside Way; the artist-designed, aluminum-encased five-bedroom is the stuff of a tech exec's California dreams — and a smart place to park some IPO millions.
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
Halton Pardee + Partners’ Nancy Osborne holds the listing on the 5,700-square-foot new build.
"Venice is as solid as a rock," notes Douglas Elliman's Juliette Hohnen. "If you are a New Yorker or from San Francisco, this is where they all want to live."
Unlike its tech forefathers Google and Facebook, both of which are fashioning large, contiguous campuses in Playa Vista, Snap has built a network of offices that more closely resembles an archipelago across Venice. Just blocks from the boardwalk and in some cases right on it, the company has been snatching up parcels of office and residential space that stretch north to Navy Street and south to Market Street. "They run a lean ship, but to become the company they want to become, they have to keep scaling," says Ben Bajaran, an analyst for the market research firm Creative Strategies. Venice presents challenges for a operation that ultimately may be seeking a building big enough to fit hundreds of employees under one roof — which may explain why the company signed a five-year lease for 80,000 square feet of space at Santa Monica Airport this year.
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I talked with a young woman who was at her wits end because she could not buy a NEW VACUUM cleaner in Baltimore that would last more than a year-----paying $100 each time to replace it she decided she would have to buy a KIRBY $1,000 vacuum just to have it last more than a year. I explained that any $100 vacuum should last for a decade or two---the problem for citizens in Baltimore because there is no
RULE OF LAW, NO AGENCY TASKED WITH OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS TIED TO CONSUMER SAFETY OR CLAIMS, OR PUBLIC JUSTICE
then global corporations manufacturing say a vacuum cleaner would target Baltimore stores for DEFECTIVE products-----I had the same occur more than once and it is deliberate targeting of Maryland and Baltimore citizens. This occurs even more in low-income communities so this lady was no doubt forced to buy vacuums at $100 each every year because of this.
My point is this-----think about how much technology costs today----how high of a rate for online services and internet can a US citizen go when 99% of people are being pushed to poverty? The costs for US citizens to buy, maintain, repair SMART HOUSES will be prohibitive for 99% of people. They are starting with what are lower price SMART HOUSES and they are building these in our CITY CENTER COMMUNITIES.
NO AFFORDABLE HOUSING HAPPENING HERE!
STAMFORD, Conn., September 8, 2014 View All Press Releases
Gartner Says a Typical Family Home Could Contain More Than 500 Smart Devices by 2022
Smart Homes to Offer Numerous Innovative Digital Business Opportunities
Gartner Special Report Examines Trends in Digital Technologies
The falling cost of adding sensing and communications to consumer products will mean that a typical family home, in a mature affluent market, could contain several hundred smart objects by 2022, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that the smart home will be an area of dramatic evolution over the next decade and will offer many innovative digital business opportunities to those organizations who can adapt their products and services to exploit it.
"We expect that a very wide range of domestic equipment will become 'smart' in the sense of gaining some level of sensing and intelligence combined with the ability to communicate, usually wirelessly," said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "More sophisticated devices will include both sensing and remote control functions. Price will seldom be an inhibitor because the cost of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling a consumer 'thing' will approach $1 in the long term."
The number of smart objects in the average home will grow slowly for at least a decade because many large domestic appliances are replaced infrequently. However, although a mature smart home won't exist until the 2020 to 2025 time frame, smart domestic products are already being manufactured and the first digital business opportunities they enable have already emerged.
Smart domestic product categories are manifold and range from media and entertainment, such as consoles and TVs, to appliances, such as cookers and washing machines, to transport technologies, security and environmental controls, and healthcare and fitness equipment.
Wireless technology will be a key foundation of the smart home and most of the device categories will be connected wirelessly although no single technology will dominate. Gartner expects Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular and various proprietary and mesh networking wireless technologies will all find a place in the smart home. It's therefore likely that a range of gateways and adapters will be necessary to bridge between the many different standards and protocols. Many domestic wireless smart objects will be portable and won't have ready access to a wired power supply, so battery manufacturers will profit from the smart home as will developers of power supply and storage technologies such as wireless charging.
The smart home will enable new opportunities at all three levels of Gartner's digital business framework — business process (improving existing processes), business models (new business approaches that disrupt existing markets) and business moments (intercepting and exploiting transient business opportunities).
Examples of key business opportunities facilitated by the smart home include:
Consumers are also likely to have concerns over data usage, security and privacy. Digital business models will rely heavily on the additional information that smart products collect compared with their "dumb" counterparts. But inappropriate use of this information could generate a consumer backlash. Business models that analyze information, especially those that combine information from several sources, must pay great attention to issues such as consumer opt-in, education and data security, and product developers should consider external audits of their information usage.
A lack of interoperability and standards may also hinder adoption of smart devices. Currently, the smart home domain is a confusing technical jumble that includes many different networking technologies and protocols, most of which are proprietary and don't interoperate. Some interoperability initiatives are underway; however, it's likely that although islands of interoperability will emerge around specific vendors and products, the domain will remain technically fragmented through 2020.
"Devices in the smart home will demand connectivity; some will demand high reliability as they'll be performing vital functions such as health monitoring, so homes will require reliable high-speed Internet connections," said Mr. Jones. "If these connections fail, many domestic devices might be forced to operate in, at best, a degraded manner. If homes become as dependent on good connectivity as businesses they will need fallback systems."
More detailed analysis is available in the report "The Future Smart Home: 500 Smart Objects Will Enable New Business Opportunities." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/document/2793317.
This report is part of the Gartner Special Report "Digital Business Technologies." The special report can be viewed at http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/digital-business-technologies/. The transition to digital business models will require the coordinated application of mulitple classes of technology. This special report on Digital Business Technologies explores five of these areas which are essential for success with digital business.
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'Retired neurosurgeon and pundit Dr. Ben Carson thinks it would turn the US into a third world nation and lead to unrest that would lead to martial law, as Off The Grid News recently reported'.
For those not knowing the significance of a TRUMP and his BEN CARSON as HOUSING SECRETARY ---Carson is GLOBAL JOHNS HOPKINS AND YALE SKULL AND BONES----ergo ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1%.
I shout at our 5% to the 1% thinking they are making a killing in these Wall Street housing frauds and schemes---they are no doubt living high these few decades----what Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins have as development goals are a CITY CENTER FOR GLOBAL 1% AND THEIR 2% with our stock market and US DOLLAR currency gone WITH THE WIND. There will be no pinning wealth to other national currencies---this coming sovereign debt fraud and economic crash will take down all wealth but that global 1% and their 2%.
Here we see our Baltimore 'leader' telling us the US is going to be that third world nation and of course he is FEDERAL HOUSING AGENCY. This is MOVING FORWARD CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA NOW TRUMP and the 5% to the 1% Wall Street players know to where this is going----they just don't know they are not included!
HERE IS THE GRID THE 99% OF AMERICANS WILL BE ON-----OFF THE GRID!
How The Coming Dollar Collapse Will Leave Americans Destitute
Written by: Daniel Jennings Financial
An increasing number of financial experts are saying the United States dollar is no longer a reliable and dependable currency – and that its downfall is inevitable. There are even some experts who think the dollar is so unstable that the Chinese Yuan will soon become the world’s reserve currency, or currency of choice.
“Our addictions to debt and cheap money have finally caused our major international creditors to call for an end to dollar hegemony and to push for a ‘de-Americanized’ world,” investment advisor and financial strategist Micheal Pento wrote in an op-ed piece for CNBC.
Others agree.
“In my view the dollar is about to become dethroned as the world’s defacto currency basically,” Canadian billionaire investor Ned Goodman said. “We’re headed to a period of stagflation, maybe serious inflation, and the United States will be losing the privilege of being able to print at its will the global reserve currency.”
Goodman believes the US already is in another recession. The unemployment numbers are understated and the “real” unemployment number likely is closer to 15 percent, he said.
Over half of 200 international institutional investors surveyed by the Economist think that the Yuan will eventually replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The reserve currency is the money most commonly accepted for international trade.
Why Reserve Currencies Matter
Having money with a reserve currency status enables a nation to dominate and control the world’s financial markets, as their currency is used for international trade and transactions. The US has the ability to maintain a $17 trillion national debt largely because the dollar is the reserve currency.
A nation with a reserve currency can simply print money to pay its debts.
In past centuries nations such as Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal lost their status as super powers in part when their money lost reserve currency status. Reserve currencies collapse because people no longer trust or believe in the governments that issue them.
Goodman says that the US dollar became the reserve currency in the 1970s because Saudi Arabia agreed to only accept only the dollar as payment for oil. Goodman noted that at least one major producer, Russia, is now accepting Yuan in payment for oil.
Goodman was referring to a deal that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin made last May. Under the terms of deal, Russian companies can borrow money directly from China in exchange for oil.
The US dollar once was backed by gold and silver, Goodman said, but now is “backed by nothing.”
Australia Starts Using Yuan
One of America’s oldest and closest allies may have taken the first step to ending the dollar’s reign as the reserve currency. CNBC reported that the Yuan will now be traded in Australia’s financial markets. Among other things that will let Chinese customers pay Australian firms in Yuan. China is the biggest market for Australia’s exports such as iron and coal.
Story continues below video
The Australian government has endorsed the deal because China is Australia’s biggest trading partner. Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s Assistant Treasurer (treasury secretary) even went on CNBC’s Asia Squawk Box show to endorse the deal.
“It’s a big vote of confidence by both countries in the future of the relationship,” Sinodinos said. Not even recent economic problems in China seemed to dampen Sinodinos’ enthusiasm for the arrangement.
“There’s no doubt that the Chinese authorities are having to manage issues in the financial sector to make sure that growth is sustained, but they’ve shown great skill at that in the past they were very adept at the fallout from the global financial crisis,” Sinodinos said. In other words, Sinokinos believes the Chinese are doing a very good job of managing their economy and their currency is reliable.
How will the Dethroning of the Dollar Affect You?
Observers disagree widely on how the end of the dollar’s reign as reserve currency would affect the US economy and average Americans. Retired neurosurgeon and pundit Dr. Ben Carson thinks it would turn the US into a third world nation and lead to unrest that would lead to martial law, as Off The Grid News recently reported.
Goodman believes there will soon be a massive sell off of US dollars that will lead to inflation. He also suggested a way for people to protect their assets.
“The Chinese have three and a half trillion US dollars and they’re spending these dollars as quickly as they can, and it will not be long before the rest of the world and the US will be thinking likewise. I do.” Goodman said.
In the 1930s, everyone wanted US dollars, he said, but today they’re trying to get rid of them. He thinks that many investors are trying to spend all of their dollars to buy hard assets in order to avoid losing money invested in dollars.
That means average people might be able to protect themselves by investing in hard assets such as gold, real estate or silver, Goodman said.
IT IS THE WALL STREET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS WHICH ARE DRIVING THE FRAUDS AND CORRUPTIONS-----AND THESE FRAUDS HAVE TARGETED BLACK AND BROWN HOMEOWNERS MOST SO IT IS A RACE AND CLASS ISSUE. IF A POL IS CALLING OUT SOMEONE AS RACIST LIKE AN UNDERARMOUR PLANK ----AND WORKING HAND IN HAND WITH GLOBAL WALL STREET DEVELOPMENT----HE IS PRETENDING TO BE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE WHILE BEING YET ANOTHER FAR-RIGHT CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL.
Democrats do not do this=====they do not orchestrate massive frauds against working class while using poor as fake home buyers all while bringing a global labor pool of immigrant citizens to exploit as cheap labor---while leaving most of US citizens unemployed---that is FAR-RIGHT WING GLOBAL WALL STREET----NOT DEMOCRATS.
Because we have allowed this to continue it is now hitting our middle-class and our young adults trying to buy their first homes.
Mar 14, 2016 @ 12:41 PM 62,068 views The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Are We Entering A New Housing Bubble?
I monitor and look for unique developments in the real estate market.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Home prices are rising too fast in much of the country. In Dallas and Denver, prices have surpassed their prior peak and have risen over the past two years by 18% and 20%, respectively. Similar gains were recorded in many Western cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, regaining most of the price declines during the bust years to reach very close to their prior peak. Nationwide , home prices have risen by 10% over the past two years, according to the Case-Shiller repeat price index, and by 13% in the median home price.
The national price gains are not super-spectacular, but are nonetheless rising 3 to 4 times as fast as the national average wage growth rate. On top of these trends, overall credit conditions appear to be loosening. The average credit score of mortgages that were approved was 719 in January according to Ellie Mae ELLI +0.58%, which is below the 730 to 740 range of most of last year. Consequently, there are increasing discussions about a new bubble – just like the last one fueled by easy credit - that is not sustainable and bound to collapse.
However, the suggestion of a new bubble is misplaced, because three major items are left out when looking at the current housing market trends. First, even though the credit conditions appear to be easing somewhat, the move is from overly stringent conditions to not-so overly stringent conditions. It is a far-fetched view to imply the current mortgage approval process in any way resembles the loosey-goosey, easy subprime mortgage access conditions of a decade ago.
Anyone who has recently obtained a mortgage will attest to way too many documentation requirements and headaches in getting the approvals. Credit is more accessible today versus last year but still can be said to be tight. After all, mortgage credit scores on just Fannie Mae -backed mortgages today are hovering near 740-to-750 compared 710-to-720 during the bubble years. As for FHA mortgages, today’s approval loan credit score is near 690-to-710 compared to 650-to-660 during the bubble years. Additionally, the pure private-market label subprime mortgages, with strange credit scores and no documentation requirements, are virtually non-existent today.
Second, even though home prices are climbing far above people’s income, exceptionally low mortgage rates have permitted people to buy a home without overstretching their budget. For someone making a 20% down payment, the monthly mortgage payment at today’s mortgage rates would take up 15% of a person’s gross income. During the bubble years, it was reaching 25% of income. The long-term historical average is around 20%. Therefore, a middle-income household does not need to overstretch their budget much if at all to buy a typical home.
The third and most important item that is being less talk about by the new bubble theorists has to do with housing supply. The months’ supply of inventory – measuring how many months it would take to exhaust all inventory at the current sales pace – now stands at around 4-to-5 months. Back during the bubble years, there was a similar figure in months’ supply. However, sales were at frenzy back then, fueled partly by easy subprime credit, with existing home sales hitting 7.1 million and new home sales reaching 1.3 million, for combined home sales of 8.4 million. This frenzy in sales drove down the months’ supply of inventory. In 2015, combined home sales were 5.76 million, or roughly one-third lower. But the reason for the low months’ supply is due to lack of new home construction that still continues to this day. Home-builders constructed an average of 1.9 million new homes across the four years leading up to the bubble peak.
By contrast, the construction of new housing units in the last four years averaged 950,000 per year – half the pace of the bubble year construction. It is this lack of supply that is causing home prices to rise well above people’s income, and there is only one sure cure to getting the housing market back into balance and from preventing home prices from rising too fast: more homebuilding activity. In other words, we are not in a housing market bubble in terms of an inevitable impending home price crash. Rather, we are facing an above-normal home price growth trend, which admittedly is unhealthy on several levels, because of the simple economic law of insufficient supply. We need more homebuilding.
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If one is going to a FORBES----a FORTUNE----a WALL STREET JOURNAL-----now even MARKETPLACE MONEY NPR-----for all financial news you will be told there was no LOOSEY GOOSEY this time. If you are a REAL financial analyst and a citizen who educates BROADLY on financial policies we knew Obama created policies just so these same Bush era subprimings could occur. They were written into our FHA Freddie and Fannie mortgage guidelines.
HERE WE SEE THE TARGET AGAIN------MINORITIES AND IMMIGRANTS.
So, our low-income citizens are being used for SERIAL FRAUD----many families simply want an opportunity to own a home and do not know they are being used to commit fraud. At the same time---it is that 5% to the 1% CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA who organize these frauds by creating NGOs tied to global Wall Street Development Corporation and Greater Baltimore Development. Think how these same practices have been in place overseas in Foreign Economic Zones these several decades and we see how much of US Foreign funding was diverted by fraud leaving those nations with no real development.
Baltimore has operated like this for decades because global Johns Hopkins is that development corporation driving these frauds---overseas and here in America.
'The Federal Housing Administration is a big reason for falling credit scores. So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government housing agencies have slashed credit requirements under pressure from the Obama administration — like the Clinton administration before it — to qualify more immigrants and minorities with low incomes and “less-than-perfect credit.”'
Obama is setting us up for another housing crash
By Paul Sperry
March 12, 2016 | 3:00pm
We learned nothing from the last financial crisis. The housing market is set to collapse, again, and a key culprit, again, is artificial demand created by government policies.
For starters, mortgage-software firm Ellie Mae reports that the average FICO credit score of an approved home loan plunged to 719 in January (the latest month for which data is available) from 731 a year earlier, and well below 2011’s peak of 750.
It’s a dangerous sign lenders are loosening underwriting standards. Lower FICO scores correlate with higher risk of loan default.
The Federal Housing Administration is a big reason for falling credit scores. So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government housing agencies have slashed credit requirements under pressure from the Obama administration — like the Clinton administration before it — to qualify more immigrants and minorities with low incomes and “less-than-perfect credit.”
Meanwhile, home lenders are approving more debt-strapped borrowers. According to Ellie Mae, applicants approved for mortgages in January had an average household debt-to-income ratio of 39%, up from 2012’s annual average of 34%. Borrower debt loads have been creeping higher each year since 2012, when Ellie Mae first started tracking such data.
A recent report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal agency that regulates the nation’s banks, warns that declines in mortgage underwriting standards are mirroring pre-crisis trends.
“Underwriting standards eased at a significant number of banks for the three-year period from 2013 through 2015,” the report said. “This trend reflects broad trends similar to those experienced from 2005 through 2007, before the most recent financial crisis.”
Not since 2006, it noted, have lenders taken on so much credit risk, and it says the hazard will continue to grow this year: “Examiners expect the level of credit risk to increase over the next 12 months.”
A large chunk of the risk is coming from first-time home buyers with shaky credit and so-called “rebound” buyers who previously defaulted on home loans.
In the interest of ‘fairness,’ Obama is lowering credit standards for mortgages — recreating the conditions that brought down the economy in 2008.
The American Enterprise Institute reports that its National Mortgage Risk Index for first-time buyers jumped almost a full percentage point in January from a year earlier, driven by “loose credit standards.” The demand from otherwise uncreditworthy home buyers “is driving home prices up faster than incomes and inflation,” noted Edward Pinto, co-director of AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk in Washington.
This is especially true in hot spots like California, where subprime-mortgage lenders offering interest-only loans with no FICO-score requirements are cropping up from the ashes of Countrywide Financial, the bankrupt Calabasas, Calif.-based subprime giant.
In another sign housing is overheating, home “flipping” is red hot again and hitting levels not seen since just prior to the mortgage meltdown. Nationwide, almost 180,000 homes were sold and then resold last year — the highest level since 2007.
In fact, according to RealtyTrac, flipping in a dozen metro areas — including New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla. — exceeded peaks set in 2005, when investors took advantage of low interest rates and easy credit.
Analysts warn sales from home flipping artificially inflate home prices, increasing the risk of a housing bubble.
“When home-flipping numbers go up, it is usually an indication that the housing market is in trouble,” said Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate in Seattle.
The last housing bubble began inflating in 1997 and lasted 10 years before finally bursting in 2007, in a monumental collapse that crashed markets the world over.
Analysts say the current real-estate bubble started in late 2011, when housing values bottomed. Since then, real median home prices have rebounded to a level that is only about 8% below their pre-crisis peak, which was an all-time record.
Like the last bubble, this one is fueled by artificial demand from government-induced lax lending standards and accommodative interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.
“The result has been a rapid increase in real, inflation-adjusted home prices, with prices up nationally about 16.5% since the home-price trough in 2012,” Pinto said.
He notes that once prices hit 20% or higher, historically, a painful drop in prices follows.
“Home prices are subject to the law of gravity,” he said. “What goes up must come down.”
Pinto noted that prices for entry-level homes have climbed by an even higher 19%, making it harder for low-income borrowers to buy without taking out a high-risk loan they really can’t afford.
When home-flipping numbers go up, it is usually an indication that the housing market is in trouble.
- Chief economist at Windermere Real Estate
Yet these kinds of borrowers are qualifying for such home loans thanks to the liberalization of credit terms. New federal rules regulating mortgages under President Obama’s “financial reforms,” despite claims of toughness, are not limiting the volume of high debt-to-income loans. While the rules do recommend a DTI ceiling, they never set minimum down-payment or credit-score requirements.
Today’s relaxation in mortgage-underwriting standards is largely a function of government housing-policy changes at FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which dominate the nation’s mortgage activity.
As in the last easy-credit cycle, we are seeing “the promotion of policy to push firms to seek riskier products to promote growth,” Wells Fargo Chief Economist John Silvia said.
All three agencies have slashed down-payment and other requirements under pressure from Obama regulators, who include, most significantly, former Congressional Black Caucus leader and Obama appointee Mel Watt, head of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency, which now controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Last year, Fannie Mae launched a new subprime-mortgage product called HomeReady that caters to recent immigrants with weak credit and limited income.
The new loan program, which offers “income flexibility,” allows borrowers for the first time to bundle income from roommates and relatives to meet qualifications for income. They only have to put 3% down, and can use gifts from nonprofit groups to subsidize their down payments.
“There is no limit on the number of non-borrower household members who can be present on a single transaction,” Fannie advises originators. And even then there is “documentation flexibility,” a frightening echo of last decade’s “no-doc loans.”
At least before the crisis, your income had to be your own. But now, as a renter, you can get a conventional home loan backed by Fannie by claiming other people’s income. All you have to do in exchange is take a four-hour online course on the responsibilities of homeownership.
You don’t have to show personal financial independence. You can be maxed out on credit cards and even live in government-subsidized housing. Just as long as you round up enough income-earners and pool finances to help meet a debt-to-income ratio of up to 50%.
And you don’t need good credit.
“If the borrower’s credit score is less than the minimum credit score required,” Fannie tells loan underwriters, “the lender may develop an acceptable nontraditional credit profile” that takes into consideration timely payments on electricity bills and car insurance — and even gym dues — in lieu of payments on credit cards and loans.
Under HomeReady, you can even qualify for a “cash-out refinance” of your mortgage, a type of loan that led to over-leveraging and a wave of defaults during the mortgage crisis.
Now you can get a conventional home loan backed by Fannie Mae by claiming other people’s income.
Why would Fannie offer the same kinds of poorly underwritten loans that forced it into bankruptcy? Because HomeReady aligns “with our housing goals” set by Watt, it says in its HomeReady literature. These are the same government affordable-housing quotas that plunged Fannie and Freddie into the subprime market under the Clinton administration.
It’s all part of a government campaign to ease access to home loans for recent Hispanic immigrants — including those living here illegally. In fact, HomeReady caters to illegal immigrants by allowing borrowers to waive Social Security documentation.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, a pro-immigrant lobbying group, is praising the move, arguing it will bring tens of thousands of Hispanic families into the home market who have been “skipped over” by stingy (meaning prudent and responsible) lenders.
“It’s very encouraging,” NAHREP Chief Executive Gary Acosta said. “It demonstrates that Fannie has done a lot of work on the issue of identifying ways to qualify more people.”
NAHREP is also lobbying heavily for watered-down credit scoring that “take[s] into account the unique spending and savings patterns of Hispanic borrowers,” and it may get its wish.
Watt, who as a congressman once demanded Freddie Mac back loans for welfare recipients in his North Carolina district, has instructed Fannie and Freddie to come up with “alternative credit-scoring models” to FICO and approve more home buyers. “We have the pedal to the metal” on adopting a new model, Watt said.
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When I talk with the global Wall Street players in Baltimore committing all these frauds---using our low-income citizens over and over from higher education frauds----home mortgage frauds----an economy built simply to BULK THE POOR----many are pleased with themselves---they think it is clever.
THIS IS THAT 5% OF GLOBAL CITIZENS WHO ARE SOCIOPATHS TO THAT 95% OF GLOBAL CITIZENS SIMPLY WANTING TO LIVE HONEST LIVES WITH DIGNITY.
On the bus yesterday ---a great place to talk with people about what they are feeling---I didn't have to talk --there was a man from overseas clearly in Baltimore simply to FLIP HOUSES. He was not staying in Baltimore he was recruited to bring LOTS OF CASH-----to buy houses in Baltimore's GHETTOS----he told his friend on the phone ---BALTIMORE IS ONE BIG GHETTO----
His goal was buying lots of houses for cheap-----bringing in his global labor pool construction crews to build what are called SMART CITY HOUSES ----very costly houses in the middle of a blighted community. It has security cameras around the house and property inside and out with flat-screen TVs and up-scale furnishings ---right in the middle of blight.
The same story came from the woman running from her FLIPPED HOUSE----in her case she was running to NYC where the exact same kind of house existed in the middle of the HOOD. She described the NYC house just as this foreign INVESTOR did the houses he was to build. The CASH did not need to be his---could have been anyone's CASH---
WE THE PEOPLE have allowed global Wall Street to deliberately create huge instability in our communities---they are making tons of money but there is a goal towards MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE----and many if these flipping deals are not HONEST.
Housing flipping: It's riskier but more lucrative
Diana Olick | @DianaOlick
Thursday, 6 Aug 2015 | 10:18 AM ETCNBC.com
2.2K
SHARES
Higher home prices are making house flipping harder, but more lucrative.
Flipping, which is generally defined as buying and selling a home in the same calendar year, was popular during the housing boom, when investors could get easy mortgage financing. Now investors need cash, and as lower-priced, distressed homes dry up, they need more cash.
Home flips made up just 4.5 percent of sales in the second quarter of this year, according to RealtyTrac, down from 4.9 percent a year ago. Flipping returns, however, the gross return on investment, increased to nearly 36 percent, up from 24 percent one year ago.
Home renovation projects are keeping contracting companies busy.
"Despite the rise in flipping returns in the second quarter, home flippers should proceed with caution in the next six to 12 months as home price appreciation slows and a possible interest rate increase could shrink the pool of prospective buyers for fix-and-flip homes," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
"While average flipping returns are up substantially from a year ago at the national level and in moderately priced markets such as Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix and Minneapolis, flipping returns are softening in some of the higher-priced markets such as San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Los Angeles," he said.
Nevada and Florida, where the share of distressed homes are still relatively high, are still seeing the most flipping action, but Chicago, Dayton and Baltimore offer some of the best gross returns.
In Washington, D.C., where home prices have flattened, flipping is still popular, but tricky.
"There has been a real sea change. You have to put a lot more work into the homes today," said Christopher Harrison, a real estate investor who is flipping a home in Northwest D.C. "It's interesting because when the market crashed you had a lot of investors making a ton of money on flips you didn't even have to do work to."
Harrison's home is in a pricy neighborhood with desirable schools. He had to put about $400,000 into the property, which he purchased for about $700,000. He doubled the size of the 1,800-square-foot bungalow and listed it at the beginning of July at just over $1.5 million. He has now lowered the price by $54,000 and is considering doing more work to the property, possibly adding a parking space.
"We've gotten a lot of feedback, so we should have it sold soon," said Harrison. "It just seemed like a really good investment."
Flippers are now taking an average of almost six months to rehab their homes, which is an eight-year high, according to RealtyTrac. The higher-end renovations, however, may be adding to soaring profits at home remodeling retailers, like Home Depot and Lowe's.
"The fewer foreclosure deals and longer flipping timelines that we see in the data demonstrate that flippers are getting squeezed on both sides of the profit equation," said Blomquist. "Experienced flippers will often need to enter into higher-risk markets with less solid economic fundamentals to chase better yields."
Flipping is not always profitable. Flips on the lowest-priced homes, below $50,000, saw negative returns in the second quarter. The sweet spot appears to be homes priced at $100,000 to $200,000, which yielded an average gross return of 44 percent.
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Keep in mind none of this happened to this scale until the complete deregulation of Wall Street and the housing industry during CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA. Real Estate speculation has always been around but it was regulated and our government would see that people were protected----today no protections---no enforcement of landlord/tenet rights---
The goals of a US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone like Baltimore would be disruption of low-income community housing with citizens largely renters unable to settle---being deliberately fleeced over and over---and the houses being flipped today are often those lost by Baltimore homeowners from the last toxic subprime mortgage frauds and foreclosures.
Who are these FLIPPERS? US FED and its mortgage buyback was designed to create zero interest on BUNDLED FORECLOSURES then bought and sold by global hedge funds----foreign rich were encouraged to come a flip houses in US cities-----so that is who our foreign bus rider yesterday with all the CASH was-----most of these flippings are done by the global rich.
As the rich guy on the bus touted his plans of buying cheap in the GHETTO the bus riders were openly insulted and hostile to this man because he was very condescending to what were the very citizens living in our low-income communities. This foreign citizen had no clue he was being offensive.
The second problem for US citizens in all this as the article states---these FLIPPERS will temporarily rent these homes with the idea of simply kicking out a tenet at any point these homes are sold.
All of this is supposedly OK because it is in decaying communities but I am here to say it is happening in our middle-class communities now as well----an injustice to one HAS become injustice to a 99% ---this decade will see it harder and harder to be that LANDOWNER.
Business Optimization
If You Can't Flip It, Rent It
April 16, 2008In this first of a three-part series, Danielle Babb, real estate investment expert and author of Finding Foreclosures (Entrepreneur Press), explores alternatives to flipping houses in the current economy. First, renting out your home and riding out the market.
Throughout the late 1990s and well into 2004, investors were flipping houses like there was no recession tomorrow. There was a lot of money to be made--and they were making it. Many owners were selling for 10 to 40 percent above the purchase price within months of buying a property. Those lucky souls who purchased in the late '90s and were able to sell in 2002-2003 could have doubled or tripled their investment.
On a $200,000 investment property (assuming you put 5 percent down), you may have earned $100,000 (50 percent appreciation) on a $10,000 cash investment--a 10-fold return! No wonder investors who flocked to real estate and mortgage companies had such a strong incentive to find suitable loans. It was a sure bet.
Times have changed. In today's uncertain economy, many weary investors are looking at where to put their money. Stocks are dropping; housing prices are decreasing in most areas. Nothing seems to look good. Worse yet, many investors are like me--they own a lot of homes that unfortunately aren't worth what they paid (or perhaps most important, what they owe on the mortgage). They don't want these homes to go back to the bank out of whatever obligation they feel (moral, financial, credit worthiness, etc.), yet they feel trapped in paying these high mortgages (that are also resetting faster than we thought).
You have an alternative--renting out your home. You can become your own landlord or hire a property manager to do it for you. If you're interested in going this route, consider these steps (assuming you're not hiring a property manager and paying the 8 to 10 percent monthly commission):
1. Determine the rental comparative analysis. One site I like is Rentometer.com. By typing in the rental address, city, state or ZIP as well as the type of place the home is, you can see what others are paying in the area. Coupled with Craigslist, this will give you an approximate rental amount. If you're close to a great school and have a nicely fenced-in yard, consider increasing it slightly.
2. Determine what utilities you will pay and what the renter will pay. You may pay water and sewer; all other utilities are up to the tenant. (Make sure to check thelpa.com, the Landlord Protection Agency, for laws in your state)
3. Be very clear with your application requirements. Make sure to ask for credit checks, application fees, etc. You will need these to assess your potential tenant appropriately. This is another way to use the LPA's site; you can run credit checks and download all the forms you need.
4. Advertise! List your incentives, too. Will you allow a first month free? Do you offer an early rental payment discount? If so, say so in your ad. Be sure you stay away from legal trouble and check out the Housing and Urban Development's list of dos and don'ts in your advertisements, too.
5. Once you find a renter, screen, screen, screen! Ask questions, call references, and be sure information on the application matches what you learn. Some people are "professional tenants" and know how to scam even the savviest landlords. Use the LPA's site for information on how to screen out these tenants.
6. Sign a rental or lease agreement, and be sure to monitor your property. Follow the law in each state, but drive by your property or have maintenance crews check on the property when they are on site.
If you can earn enough in rent to offset some of your monthly losses (or even all of them), this is an excellent alternative to letting your home mortgage become delinquent or letting your home go back to the bank.
I am personally toying with another option, too--renting out each room within my home to increase my rental income. If this works out, I will update readers in a future issue!
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It is these low-income house buyers who will get those Obama FHA mortgage loans and they will be that struggling homeowner who often is forced to FORECLOSE
.'Antoine Hayes (standing from left), Eugene Broadway and Keith Hudson operate Benjigates Estates in areas where foreclosed properties can be affordable to low-income buyers'.
This same thing is happening in our poor white communities like Federal Hill, Canton, Hampden----so it is that 5% of all population groups driving these Wall Street housing frauds.
Global Wall Street always throws opportunities to what are called BUSINESS STARTUPS----that have no intention of keeping money or stay in business. Most of these players know they are fleecing the system and the low-income citizens and don't care.
'Bootstrapping backgrounds
Hayes, 35, earned his real estate license while working as a machinist after getting trained at Focus: Hope. Making just $10 an hour with a wife and two children at home, he began working for a real estate agent, taking pictures of homes on weekends. He opened an agency in 2001 and began working with Hudson on real estate ventures in 2006'.
August 18, 2013 8:00 a.m. Updated 8/20/2013
Flipping with a twist: Benjigates hooks up auctioned properties with buyers
By Gary Anglebrandt
Photo by LARRY PEPLIN Antoine Hayes (standing from left), Eugene Broadway and Keith Hudson operate Benjigates Estates in areas where foreclosed properties can be affordable to low-income buyers.
Much has been made of Detroit's entrepreneur-driven comeback, with its plucky startups daring enough to set up shop in greater downtown.
Operating out in the wilderness of Detroit's overlooked neighborhoods is the face of another kind of entrepreneur — or rather three faces, which can be seen on billboards all over the city. The billboards advertise Benjigates Estates LLC and CEO Antoine Hayes, CFO Keith Hudson and COO Eugene Broadway, clad in expensive-looking suits.
Maybe they've been left out of the entrepreneur story because, billboards or not, they're hard to notice, operating as they do in those many neighborhoods often neglected in the Detroit narrative. Or maybe it's because it's hard to tell if these are the good guys or the bad guys.
The Benjamin Brothers, as they call themselves, are in the business of flipping houses bought at Wayne County's tax foreclosure auctions — an emotionally charged business that brings a special array of challenges.
Auction buyers have a reputation as gougers. There are buyers who squeeze occupants through high up-front payments and rent increases, and buyers who try to sell houses at prices occupants can't afford.
David Szymanski, Wayne County chief deputy treasurer, said there are buyers who rent out properties while not paying taxes, let them go to auction and then buy them back under a different entity.
"A large number just go in and evict ... even before they get their deed," said Ted Phillips, executive director of United Community Housing Coalition, a Detroit-based nonprofit that helps keep people in their homes. Phillips recounted intimidation and misinformation tactics, such as threats of police action and falsely telling occupants they aren't allowed to participate in auctions.
That's exactly the opposite kind of business the Benjamin Brothers aim to run, according to homeowners and peers. If the property turns out to have occupants, Benjigates doesn't up the rent or kick them out. It cuts a deal.
"When we buy it and we come to the door and you're in there, you get the first opportunity to own it, whether you were the owner, a renter or just took up residence," Hayes said.
"When you put somebody in ownership, they're more likely not to lose their property and want to pay taxes, want to keep their yard up, want to keep the neighborhood good," Hudson said.
They haven't gone unscathed in their fight, squaring off against lawsuits, stigma and the occasional armed drug dealer.
Shopping the auction block
Every fall, the Wayne County treasurer's office auctions off tax-delinquent properties. Those that don't sell at the first auction in September get shunted to the October auction, where bids start at $500.
Benjigates is among the top buyers, last year buying 442 properties. From its beginning in 2008 through the end of last year, Benjigates had purchased nearly 1,200 at the auctions for a total cost of $1.3 million, or roughly $1,100 per property, according to a Benjigates investor presentation. Of those, Benjigates has sold more than 900.
According to the website WhyDontWeOwnThis.com, which tracks the county auction, the Benjamin Brothers paid $500 to $14,100 for 440 properties at last year's auction, 129 of them for the $500 minimum price. (Two more were acquired later.)
Benjigates then sells the homes in deals structured to be feasible for minimum-wage earners and people on fixed incomes, while still leaving room for profit, company executives said.
Benjigates operates in the lower-income neighborhoods of the east and west sides that arc around central Detroit.
Embry Webb, president-elect of the Detroit Association of Realtors, said regular market prices for homes in those areas vary widely depending on the strength of the block but usually range from $10,000 to $50,000. A typical house in the Brightmoor neighborhood goes for about $15,000.
But that's assuming people have money for down payments on mortgages. If not, rental rates are usually $750 to $850 for three-bedroom bungalows and colonials that aren't in historic neighborhoods.
Benjigates arranges the deal so monthly payments are always $500 or less for periods of either 12 or 18 months. The buyer gets the title at the end of the period. Benjigates does not provide loans, run credit checks or verify income.
There's also a $750 closing fee and a $250 educational fee. The educational fee covers one of three short classes on personal credit repair, home maintenance or real estate business basics that buyers must take as part of the deal. Benjigates set up a nonprofit called Caring Hands of Benjamin to administer the courses.
The deal structure reflects Detroit's distorted residential market, they said. About 40 percent of the homes Benjigates buys are occupied, Hudson said. Most occupants are renters or owners who didn't leave. About 20 percent are squatters. Former owners typically had property tax debt from $5,000 to $12,000, and many had mortgage debt of $30,000 to $110,000, he said.
Buyers are responsible for property tax payments, including those levied in the period between the auction sale and when the new buyer signs a Benjigates contract — taxes Benjigates technically is responsible to pay.
Benjigates says in this market it can't pay the taxes and offer prices feasible to low-income buyers, and that's why it set its contracts to periods of 12 or 18 months: The county's tax foreclosure process takes three years; after Benjigates' buyers finish their contracts, they have up to two years to catch up on the taxes.
Extending the contract period or raising the monthly amount squeezes people for money they don't have and lowers a buyer's chances of fulfilling the contract, Benjigates said.
The homes are sold as-is, although Benjigates helps buyers find affordable contractors for needed repairs.
If the buyer can't pay repair costs all at once, a monthly payment plan is set up.
Benjigates also gives buyers an information packet on how to defend property titles because although the county auction process clears titles of old liens, lawyers try to collect old debts anyway, and it pays for home insurance for the duration of the contract.
Bootstrapping backgrounds
Hayes, 35, earned his real estate license while working as a machinist after getting trained at Focus: Hope. Making just $10 an hour with a wife and two children at home, he began working for a real estate agent, taking pictures of homes on weekends. He opened an agency in 2001 and began working with Hudson on real estate ventures in 2006.
Hudson, 38, has owned a clothing store, a mortgage business and an event promotion business. He started out of high school mowing lawns. In winters, he picked up washers and dryers dumped in alleys and turned them in for scrap. He saved $7,000 and bought his first property at auction in 1998.
Hayes and Hudson later met Broadway, 53, who has a background in property management. He also was a pastor for 23 years and a parochial school English teacher for three. He came aboard and helped structure the business model for Benjigates, which launched in 2008 with $20,000.
Benjigates receives funding from private sources, mainly two individual investors who charge high interest rates because it's a high-risk line of business, Hayes said.
Last year, the company had $1.1 million in revenue, and the company is profitable, Hayes said.
When asked if Benjigates tries to reach a certain dollar amount for each property, Hudson laughed and said, "Throw it against the wall."
The business has faced two lawsuits.
A lawsuit filed in February by Detroit-based lawyer Steven Budaj says Benjigates charged his client monthly fees that effectively amounted to a 70 percent interest rate, well in excess of the state's 11 percent limit on land contract deals. Budaj is seeking class-action status.
Hayes said the source of this lawsuit is a former customer who, after fulfilling the contract, was upset about the property tax bill and contacted the lawyer for her postal worker union.
Benjigates had monthly finance fees of between $125 and $175 in a previous version of its contract that it is since has dropped, Hayes said. Benjigates does not provide loans and it's up to the court to decide whether the old fees amounted to interest, he said, and the contract makes it clear that the buyer is responsible for paying taxes. Budaj did not respond to a subsequent call for further comment.
A second lawsuit, filed by Detroit anti-foreclosure attorney Vanessa Fluker in April, attempts to retrieve a property from Benjigates, arguing the county mistakenly sent the property to auction even though, according to the suit, the disabled, elderly woman who owned it was current on her taxes and had been granted hardship exemptions.
Fluker said the woman's family offered to pay the $1,600 that Benjigates paid for the home, plus a little extra for the trouble.
"This is egregious ... tossing out some senior citizen," Fluker said.
Benjigates takes the position that if there was a mix-up with the county, it's on the former owner to take it up with the county. Hayes said the woman has several adult children who live with her, and Benjigates offered to lease the home to the family for $750 a month, but the family declined.
"We bought this house in October (and) we have not gotten a dime, nor do we have possession of our property," Hayes said.
Path to ownership
Situations at acquired Benjigates properties run the spectrum, the partners said. Some occupants owned their home free-and-clear for decades but couldn't keep up with the taxes. In some places, the landlord kept collecting rent after the county took the title. In others, lenders might take ownership of the property but not pay the taxes.
The home of George Parsons, a 57-year-old retiree in Brightmoor, went to auction when the landlord didn't pay taxes. Parsons became a homeowner in May after making $500 payments to Benjigates for 18 months. He's considering buying another home for his children.
"They're giving people a chance to own a home in a short period of time," Parsons said of Benjigates. "It's not like they're making that much more."
Janice Lewis bought 17 homes from Benjigates — the first two on contract, the rest with cash — to get into the rental business, which has been successful enough to allow her to leave a nursing job.
The first Benjigates home cost Lewis $3,000 in 2011. She bought a second one for $8,000 and moved her family into it, walking away from a $157,000 mortgage that cost her $1,200 a month. She later bought the house at a sheriff's sale for $13,000 and now rents it out.
Revolving doors — and revolvers
It doesn't always go so well. When Hayes and his partners show up to one of their new purchases, there can be welcoming arms from neighbors, disgruntled former occupants or drug dealers.
"I'm surprised we haven't found a dead body or a million dollars yet," Hayes said.
In one incident two years ago, Don Boggs, a buyer of one of Benjigates' homes, was hit in the face with a Molotov cocktail thrown by a woman who had been an occupant before Benjigates bought the property. Boggs sustained burns over 40 percent of his body and was permanently scarred. His home was destroyed. The offender was convicted of assault with intent to murder. Benjigates gave Boggs a new house.
What kind of intimidation have the Benjamin Brothers experienced?
"It's all the way to the wall, brother," Hayes said.
"Guns drawn. They think we're on their block," Hudson said.
Webb said Benjigates deserves credit for going into some of the worst areas of the city and would like to see the business get attention, and help, from the city because "they're making it as easy a road as possible to homeownership."
"They're promoting homeownership and getting properties on the tax rolls, which is good for the city," said Webb, who funnels clients to Benjigates when they can't secure mortgages.
Other buyers naively look for returns of $20,000 to $30,000, Webb said. "In 2005, that was doable. Now, you're lucky if the house is worth $20,000."
This leads to a revolving-door effect in the homes, he said, with people getting forced out when the owner refuses to work with the occupants.
Szymanski at the county treasurer's office said he's heard Benjigates is "very reasonable." He did not care for the way Benjigates bakes tax avoidance into its business model and said the company does risk losing properties back to the county. But a deal possibly could be worked out if it means keeping homes from becoming vacant, he said.
Phillips, from the nonprofit United Community Housing Coalition, said he gives Benjigates credit for lasting in the business more than a few years. "They're not gouging, but they're also recognizing a reality."
But he also said more funding for nonprofits would keep more people in their homes for even less money.
The profit margins on some deals, and the viability for some buyers to be able to adhere to the terms of their contract, are hard to predict
For some deals, the company offers a "term-option contract," a hybrid between a lease option deal and a land contract that does in fact give it the best of both worlds — fast evictions and no responsibility for maintenance.
Without the ability to evict, Benjigates' formula starts to unravel, Hayes said. By the time a foreclosure on a land contract is approved, the occupant already is behind by several months. Then the occupant has another six months, in the state of Michigan, to make good on the payments.
With the market showing some signs of health, Benjigates is looking for outside investors so it can get into more traditional funding.
The company's work could play as important a role in the comeback of Detroit's neighborhoods as the actions of business leaders downtown, Hayes said, adding that he wishes they would "extend their hand and meet us in Midtown."
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This is what a global Wall Street Baltimore Development Corporation calls AN ECONOMY. The executives at Greater Baltimore Development are MY 5% TO THE 1% WHITE WALL STREET PLAYERS.
While all this community housing instability grows the second goal is this------building a SMART CITY HOUSE in the middle of the HOOD----is done to manipulate property tax rates-------rental rates go higher and higher just because that few SMART HOUSE rehabbed housing is in that community. The stresses from ever higher property taxes----or rental rates pushes more working class homeowners out of their homes and pushes low-income and middle-class renters out of a community.......THAT IS THE GOAL OF WALL STREET BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT---while these 5% Wall Street players are allowed to pretend they are business startups.
Here is that global Wall Street Baltimore Development
'labor and justice' organization tied to housing justice with leaders who will push all the Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA candidates and their policies that always KILL THE 99%. The amazing thing about this entire network of fraud and corruption is this-----Baltimore could easily have had a normal economy with all these citizens employed being paid a middle-class wage and yet people want to be PLAYERS. It's the MERCHANTS OF VENICE fever for those players always used and thrown under the bus because only the old world MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% get to keep the wealth stolen.
'Phillips, from the nonprofit United Community Housing Coalition, said he gives Benjigates credit for lasting in the business more than a few years. "They're not gouging, but they're also recognizing a reality."'
Every US city deemed Foreign Economic Zone has these 'non-profits' called COMMUNITIES UNITED---UNITED COMMUNITIES-----UNITED HOUSING-----UNITED FOR HOMES-----again the grassroots citizens participating in these non--profits are really advocating for low-income housing but these COMMUNITIES UNITED non-profits are really controlled by a global real estate and development corporation-----tied to our local Baltimore Development and they work in tandem to organize the very low-income citizens wanting housing justice with all the subprime toxic mortgage frauds all while knowing those citizens will lose their homes soon after an economic crash. What is even more damaging is when these global corporations disguised as NGOs induce already homeowning citizens to refinance or otherwise connect their houses to debt just so they will lose them to foreclosure.
For over 27 years, United Communities has developed neighbourhoods where parks, pathways and vibrant streetscapes frame some of life's most memorable moments.
For more than 27 years, United has developed new communities where parks, pathways and vibrant streetscapes frame some of life’s most memorable moments.
With operations in Calgary, Edmonton, Sacramento California and a resort community in Kimberley, British Columbia, United operates with one common mission and philosophy.
United Philosophy
- To act with integrity, respect, dedication and understanding.
- To be customer focused.
- To lead by example.
- To value information and communicate it freely.
- To add value and cut waste.
- To provide our customers with continually improving products and services that are responsive to their needs.
- To create and maintain an environment where responsible employees can achieve their objectives.
- To allocate and focus corporate resources for maximization of stakeholder value.
- To respect, study and learn from our competition.
For more information on our parent company, Anthem Properties, please visit anthemproperties.com
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United for Homes
Endorser Webinars:
The UFH endorser webinars are scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month at 2 pm – 3 pm ET. Register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7240878184486109953
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United For Homes: Media Training — Wednesday, February 8, 2017, 2 pm - 3 pm ET
The February United for Homes endorser webinar will focus on media training. The webinar will identify talking points, review sample tweets and posts, and review sample op-eds that can be used as best practices for engaging the media around this campaign.
Register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7240878184486109953
Previous United for Homes (UFH) Webinars:
United For Homes Campaign Relaunch — Originally Aired Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The United for Homes campaign is a collaboration of more than 2,300 individuals and organizations working to end homelessness & housing poverty. We have united to urge the reform of the mortgage interest deduction—a $70 billion a year tax write-off that largely benefits America’s highest income families—and reinvest the savings in housing that serves families with the greatest, clearest, most pressing needs through solutions like the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and rental assistance programs.
If you believe in our solution to end homelessness, build a strong foundation, and strengthen communities, join the campaign and share our message on Twitter and Facebook.
- Click Here to View the Powerpoint Slides from the Webinar (PDF)
- Click Here to View the Webinar Recording (MP4)
Here we see what will be coming and is likely whom building that 'SMART HOUSE in the middle of the hood' is behind. This is just ONE VENTURE CAPITALIST example of what will be many hitting our US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones and building SMART HOUSES in the hood.
We are shouting that this is not only going to hit low-income communities---this will be that mechanism were homes worth millions of dollars take a Baltimore's CITY CENTER COMMUNITIES----it will come soon after these SMART HOUSES IN THE HOOD.
All of this needed a deregulated housing market in order to allow these extremes in housing within communities----standards have kept housing values similar for taxation and public services maintenance---- no doubt our 5% to the 1% are thinking they are owning real estate in these communities but NOT REALLY.
'Venice clearly is positioned as the greatest beneficiary of this influx of capital, but several factors now besetting the beachside community — a pushback against development, a brewing movement to secede from L.A. (aka Vexit) and a homeless epidemic — may push some newly minted millionaires to spend their riches in adjacent nabes'.
The L.A. Hood Where Snapchat Millionaires Will Snap Up Houses Post-IPO
9:00 AM PST 12/20/2016 by Peter Kiefer
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
The $5.7 million white aluminum-encased Wave House on Morningside Way was designed by artist Mario Romano.
Venice's already busy market will get even hotter as an expected early 2017 IPO for parent company Snap will unleash fresh wealth likely to spill over into Santa Monica and Playa Vista while locals block development and cry, "Vexit."
With Venice-based Snap eyeing an IPO at a reported valuation of $25 billion in the coming months, the stage is set for the greatest unleashing of homegrown tech wealth that Los Angeles has ever seen. For the past year, the technology company founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, formerly known as Snapchat, has been gobbling up office space around the famed Venice Boardwalk, and the ripple effect of an IPO will deeply impact nearby residential markets as well. Venice clearly is positioned as the greatest beneficiary of this influx of capital, but several factors now besetting the beachside community — a pushback against development, a brewing movement to secede from L.A. (aka Vexit) and a homeless epidemic — may push some newly minted millionaires to spend their riches in adjacent nabes.
"[Snap is] the 800-pound gorilla in the room," says Paul Habibi, a real estate developer who also teaches finance and real estate at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. "I don't think there are IPOs that rival the size of this one anywhere other than Silicon Valley."
Snap has just 325 employees, which gives it one of the highest valuations per employee ($77 million) of any major technology company. But it's growing at a healthy clip (120 L.A.-based jobs are now open, according to its website) and has expanded its office footprint to include space at the Santa Monica Airport.
Co-founders Murphy and Spiegel — both already fabulously wealthy — linked up during their fraternity days at Stanford. Murphy bought a two-bedroom house in Venice mere blocks away from the company's headquarters, while Spiegel and his fiance, Miranda Kerr, own a Gerard Colcord-designed home in Brentwood purchased for $12 million. And while it is unclear how many of their employees will join their financial ranks (Snap declined to comment for this article), it is safe to assume that dozens, if not hundreds, of newly created millionaires will be hitting the market, which already has brokers lining up.
Halton Pardee + Partners founder Tami Pardee notes that abrupt influxes of tech money generated by a booming Silicon Beach in recent years haven't led to a market frenzy. "They are going to stagger their buying. When Google came in, the market didn't go crazy overnight," says Pardee, who is working with a number of Snap employees. She cites a $4.4 million Marmol Radziner-designed four-bedroom on Santa Clara Avenue as the quintessential tech home. "A lot of these buyers have never had that much money, and engineer types tend to buy smaller houses. They are not used to the flash — it's a personality thing. They are looking for 'soulful' homes."
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
Pardee’s 3,644-square-foot new build on Santa Clara is steps away from Abbot Kinney.
Several brokers predict that the stretch of Millwood Avenue running from Abbot Kinney to Lincoln Boulevard will be of particular interest due to a growing concentration of notable neighbors. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mark Boal has lived there for several years, and actress Emilia Clarke recently spent $4.64 million on a 2,800-square-foot home on the street. Two homes that neighbor the one purchased by the Game of Thrones star recently were renovated by designer Kim Gordon; one sold to the Norwegian producing/songwriting team of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, the brains behind Stargate, which has churned out hits for Beyonce, Rihanna and Wiz Khalifa.
"Tech buyers want something that is unique, and they want walkability," says Partners Trust broker Mark Kitching, who predicts the area north of Oakwood Park also will lure buyers thanks to its proximity to Abbot Kinney and Rose Avenue. That street has emerged as a rival thoroughfare of chic boutiques and hotspots like the newly redesigned Rose Cafe, where Robin Wright and Arnold Schwarzenegger have brunched, and the Indonesian restaurant Wallflower. But much of the housing stock in Oakwood requires significant renovation, Kitching notes — and the typical tech buyer is looking for a turnkey purchase. That may mean expanding a search beyond Venice, which has seen development of several new homes grind to a halt because of delays in the permitting process.
Courtesy of Brian Cooley/Partners Trust
Kitching has the listing for a $3.7 million unit on Eastwind Avenue that features a rooftop lounge.
Farther north is the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, where residents can walk to Main Street and the Expo Line. It's drawing interest from tech buyers, according to Partners Trust's Alex Quaid, who is listing a two-bedroom, three-bath Mina Javid-designed bungalow on Second Street for $4.5 million.
To the south, several new homes have come online in Playa Vista, which has evolved from Silicon Beach spillover territory to tech epicenter, with Google and Facebook building out their corporate campuses and Imax and Yahoo recently relocating there. Playa has seen multiple Brookfield developments this year — including the briskly selling Everly and Marlowe single-family homes, priced from about $2.5 million to more than $3 million, depending on the features.
Courtesy of Todd Goodman
Quaid’s $4.5 million, 2,500-square-foot Ocean Park listing houses smart-home technology in an 1898 Craftsman.
But Playa's turnkey options can't match the hipster credibility of Venice proper, especially a unique new build like the striking Wave House, a $5.7 million Halton Pardee + Partners listing on Morningside Way; the artist-designed, aluminum-encased five-bedroom is the stuff of a tech exec's California dreams — and a smart place to park some IPO millions.
Courtesy of Brandon Arant/JSPR
Halton Pardee + Partners’ Nancy Osborne holds the listing on the 5,700-square-foot new build.
"Venice is as solid as a rock," notes Douglas Elliman's Juliette Hohnen. "If you are a New Yorker or from San Francisco, this is where they all want to live."
Unlike its tech forefathers Google and Facebook, both of which are fashioning large, contiguous campuses in Playa Vista, Snap has built a network of offices that more closely resembles an archipelago across Venice. Just blocks from the boardwalk and in some cases right on it, the company has been snatching up parcels of office and residential space that stretch north to Navy Street and south to Market Street. "They run a lean ship, but to become the company they want to become, they have to keep scaling," says Ben Bajaran, an analyst for the market research firm Creative Strategies. Venice presents challenges for a operation that ultimately may be seeking a building big enough to fit hundreds of employees under one roof — which may explain why the company signed a five-year lease for 80,000 square feet of space at Santa Monica Airport this year.
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I talked with a young woman who was at her wits end because she could not buy a NEW VACUUM cleaner in Baltimore that would last more than a year-----paying $100 each time to replace it she decided she would have to buy a KIRBY $1,000 vacuum just to have it last more than a year. I explained that any $100 vacuum should last for a decade or two---the problem for citizens in Baltimore because there is no
RULE OF LAW, NO AGENCY TASKED WITH OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS TIED TO CONSUMER SAFETY OR CLAIMS, OR PUBLIC JUSTICE
then global corporations manufacturing say a vacuum cleaner would target Baltimore stores for DEFECTIVE products-----I had the same occur more than once and it is deliberate targeting of Maryland and Baltimore citizens. This occurs even more in low-income communities so this lady was no doubt forced to buy vacuums at $100 each every year because of this.
My point is this-----think about how much technology costs today----how high of a rate for online services and internet can a US citizen go when 99% of people are being pushed to poverty? The costs for US citizens to buy, maintain, repair SMART HOUSES will be prohibitive for 99% of people. They are starting with what are lower price SMART HOUSES and they are building these in our CITY CENTER COMMUNITIES.
NO AFFORDABLE HOUSING HAPPENING HERE!
STAMFORD, Conn., September 8, 2014 View All Press Releases
Gartner Says a Typical Family Home Could Contain More Than 500 Smart Devices by 2022
Smart Homes to Offer Numerous Innovative Digital Business Opportunities
Gartner Special Report Examines Trends in Digital Technologies
The falling cost of adding sensing and communications to consumer products will mean that a typical family home, in a mature affluent market, could contain several hundred smart objects by 2022, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that the smart home will be an area of dramatic evolution over the next decade and will offer many innovative digital business opportunities to those organizations who can adapt their products and services to exploit it.
"We expect that a very wide range of domestic equipment will become 'smart' in the sense of gaining some level of sensing and intelligence combined with the ability to communicate, usually wirelessly," said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "More sophisticated devices will include both sensing and remote control functions. Price will seldom be an inhibitor because the cost of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling a consumer 'thing' will approach $1 in the long term."
The number of smart objects in the average home will grow slowly for at least a decade because many large domestic appliances are replaced infrequently. However, although a mature smart home won't exist until the 2020 to 2025 time frame, smart domestic products are already being manufactured and the first digital business opportunities they enable have already emerged.
Smart domestic product categories are manifold and range from media and entertainment, such as consoles and TVs, to appliances, such as cookers and washing machines, to transport technologies, security and environmental controls, and healthcare and fitness equipment.
Wireless technology will be a key foundation of the smart home and most of the device categories will be connected wirelessly although no single technology will dominate. Gartner expects Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular and various proprietary and mesh networking wireless technologies will all find a place in the smart home. It's therefore likely that a range of gateways and adapters will be necessary to bridge between the many different standards and protocols. Many domestic wireless smart objects will be portable and won't have ready access to a wired power supply, so battery manufacturers will profit from the smart home as will developers of power supply and storage technologies such as wireless charging.
The smart home will enable new opportunities at all three levels of Gartner's digital business framework — business process (improving existing processes), business models (new business approaches that disrupt existing markets) and business moments (intercepting and exploiting transient business opportunities).
Examples of key business opportunities facilitated by the smart home include:
- New products and features — From improving usability with the addition of gesture or voice control to updating or enhancing a product's features throughout its life span, smart products have the potential to considerably improve existing products.
- Revenue and cost-saving opportunities — Examples range from the automatic replenishment of consumables in domestic products (e.g., coffee capsules, water filters and vacuum cleaner dust bags) to the interception of purchase and replacement decisions.
- New business models — Examples include new combinations of products and services that threaten traditional companies. For example, a service provider could integrate information from low-cost sensors combined with other smart products such as smart locks and domestic sensors to create new cloud-based home monitoring and security services that undercut traditional burglar alarms.
- Social and government initiatives — In some countries governments will see the increasing intelligence of domestic technology as a way to influence consumer behavior or improve the delivery of services to citizens. For example, sensors and smart products could enable differential taxation; tax on water used for washing could be lower than taxes on water used to irrigate the garden. Another example might be smart trash cans that report when they're full and need collecting.
- Analyzing and monetizing information — Virtually all smart domestic objects will contain some type of sensor, and some will contain many sensors. Collecting, analyzing and monetizing the information collected by smart products will be central to many IoT-based digital business models.
Consumers are also likely to have concerns over data usage, security and privacy. Digital business models will rely heavily on the additional information that smart products collect compared with their "dumb" counterparts. But inappropriate use of this information could generate a consumer backlash. Business models that analyze information, especially those that combine information from several sources, must pay great attention to issues such as consumer opt-in, education and data security, and product developers should consider external audits of their information usage.
A lack of interoperability and standards may also hinder adoption of smart devices. Currently, the smart home domain is a confusing technical jumble that includes many different networking technologies and protocols, most of which are proprietary and don't interoperate. Some interoperability initiatives are underway; however, it's likely that although islands of interoperability will emerge around specific vendors and products, the domain will remain technically fragmented through 2020.
"Devices in the smart home will demand connectivity; some will demand high reliability as they'll be performing vital functions such as health monitoring, so homes will require reliable high-speed Internet connections," said Mr. Jones. "If these connections fail, many domestic devices might be forced to operate in, at best, a degraded manner. If homes become as dependent on good connectivity as businesses they will need fallback systems."
More detailed analysis is available in the report "The Future Smart Home: 500 Smart Objects Will Enable New Business Opportunities." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/document/2793317.
This report is part of the Gartner Special Report "Digital Business Technologies." The special report can be viewed at http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/digital-business-technologies/. The transition to digital business models will require the coordinated application of mulitple classes of technology. This special report on Digital Business Technologies explores five of these areas which are essential for success with digital business.
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'Retired neurosurgeon and pundit Dr. Ben Carson thinks it would turn the US into a third world nation and lead to unrest that would lead to martial law, as Off The Grid News recently reported'.
For those not knowing the significance of a TRUMP and his BEN CARSON as HOUSING SECRETARY ---Carson is GLOBAL JOHNS HOPKINS AND YALE SKULL AND BONES----ergo ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1%.
I shout at our 5% to the 1% thinking they are making a killing in these Wall Street housing frauds and schemes---they are no doubt living high these few decades----what Baltimore Development and Johns Hopkins have as development goals are a CITY CENTER FOR GLOBAL 1% AND THEIR 2% with our stock market and US DOLLAR currency gone WITH THE WIND. There will be no pinning wealth to other national currencies---this coming sovereign debt fraud and economic crash will take down all wealth but that global 1% and their 2%.
Here we see our Baltimore 'leader' telling us the US is going to be that third world nation and of course he is FEDERAL HOUSING AGENCY. This is MOVING FORWARD CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA NOW TRUMP and the 5% to the 1% Wall Street players know to where this is going----they just don't know they are not included!
HERE IS THE GRID THE 99% OF AMERICANS WILL BE ON-----OFF THE GRID!
How The Coming Dollar Collapse Will Leave Americans Destitute
Written by: Daniel Jennings Financial
An increasing number of financial experts are saying the United States dollar is no longer a reliable and dependable currency – and that its downfall is inevitable. There are even some experts who think the dollar is so unstable that the Chinese Yuan will soon become the world’s reserve currency, or currency of choice.
“Our addictions to debt and cheap money have finally caused our major international creditors to call for an end to dollar hegemony and to push for a ‘de-Americanized’ world,” investment advisor and financial strategist Micheal Pento wrote in an op-ed piece for CNBC.
Others agree.
“In my view the dollar is about to become dethroned as the world’s defacto currency basically,” Canadian billionaire investor Ned Goodman said. “We’re headed to a period of stagflation, maybe serious inflation, and the United States will be losing the privilege of being able to print at its will the global reserve currency.”
Goodman believes the US already is in another recession. The unemployment numbers are understated and the “real” unemployment number likely is closer to 15 percent, he said.
Over half of 200 international institutional investors surveyed by the Economist think that the Yuan will eventually replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The reserve currency is the money most commonly accepted for international trade.
Why Reserve Currencies Matter
Having money with a reserve currency status enables a nation to dominate and control the world’s financial markets, as their currency is used for international trade and transactions. The US has the ability to maintain a $17 trillion national debt largely because the dollar is the reserve currency.
A nation with a reserve currency can simply print money to pay its debts.
In past centuries nations such as Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal lost their status as super powers in part when their money lost reserve currency status. Reserve currencies collapse because people no longer trust or believe in the governments that issue them.
Goodman says that the US dollar became the reserve currency in the 1970s because Saudi Arabia agreed to only accept only the dollar as payment for oil. Goodman noted that at least one major producer, Russia, is now accepting Yuan in payment for oil.
Goodman was referring to a deal that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin made last May. Under the terms of deal, Russian companies can borrow money directly from China in exchange for oil.
The US dollar once was backed by gold and silver, Goodman said, but now is “backed by nothing.”
Australia Starts Using Yuan
One of America’s oldest and closest allies may have taken the first step to ending the dollar’s reign as the reserve currency. CNBC reported that the Yuan will now be traded in Australia’s financial markets. Among other things that will let Chinese customers pay Australian firms in Yuan. China is the biggest market for Australia’s exports such as iron and coal.
Story continues below video
The Australian government has endorsed the deal because China is Australia’s biggest trading partner. Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s Assistant Treasurer (treasury secretary) even went on CNBC’s Asia Squawk Box show to endorse the deal.
“It’s a big vote of confidence by both countries in the future of the relationship,” Sinodinos said. Not even recent economic problems in China seemed to dampen Sinodinos’ enthusiasm for the arrangement.
“There’s no doubt that the Chinese authorities are having to manage issues in the financial sector to make sure that growth is sustained, but they’ve shown great skill at that in the past they were very adept at the fallout from the global financial crisis,” Sinodinos said. In other words, Sinokinos believes the Chinese are doing a very good job of managing their economy and their currency is reliable.
How will the Dethroning of the Dollar Affect You?
Observers disagree widely on how the end of the dollar’s reign as reserve currency would affect the US economy and average Americans. Retired neurosurgeon and pundit Dr. Ben Carson thinks it would turn the US into a third world nation and lead to unrest that would lead to martial law, as Off The Grid News recently reported.
Goodman believes there will soon be a massive sell off of US dollars that will lead to inflation. He also suggested a way for people to protect their assets.
“The Chinese have three and a half trillion US dollars and they’re spending these dollars as quickly as they can, and it will not be long before the rest of the world and the US will be thinking likewise. I do.” Goodman said.
In the 1930s, everyone wanted US dollars, he said, but today they’re trying to get rid of them. He thinks that many investors are trying to spend all of their dollars to buy hard assets in order to avoid losing money invested in dollars.
That means average people might be able to protect themselves by investing in hard assets such as gold, real estate or silver, Goodman said.
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