Local Real Estate Comments and Ramblings

I rarely reblog anyones posts but this was a great idea that I wanted to share.  There would be many ideas and variations of ways provide afforadable housing for veterans.  If nothing else lets at least give them an extra discount or ta break on VA foreclosed homes.

If you like the ideas that Richard expressed then by all means pass this along to your friend - and your congressman.

 

Atlanta pending home sales, are they up or down .....YES!

There have been recent news reports that pending home sales are up.  That is a good thing, right?

Last week Jim Crawford put up a great post,Atlanta Pending Home Sales - The Truth Behind the Numbers!.

Jim correctly pointed out that many of the current pending home sales are really not pending homes, they are just lease purchases.  A week or two ago I got the email from FMLS stating that the status of "lease purchase was being eliminated and all lease purchases would now be reported as pending sales.  It didn't really click for me since I don't do lease purchases. They almost never close and they are a crummy deal for buyers.  They can be a good deal for sellers if all they really want to do is rent the house.  If the seller thinks it will sell from the lease purchase they are greatly misguided.

Anyway I did a sampling of Cobb county pending sales sales and here is what I found. For all types of property (land, commercial, single family, condos, etc) there are 1204 pending sales.  I narrowed my sample to single family pending sales in the Hillgrove High School district. The list prices for these pending sales ranges from $74,900 to $624,900.

48 pending sales.

13 of those have closing dates that are 6 months or more after the binding agreement date.

6 of the 48 have closing dates that have passed by at least 30 days!

In other words, 27% of the pending sales are probably some form of lease purchase.  So are pending sales up or down? I say in truth they are down!  What's your opinion?

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Bob Southard, e-Pro, Realtor ®, Solid Source Realty, Inc. Buy a home, Sell a home, in Powder Springs, Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Smyrna, Dallas, Hiram,and Cobb, Paulding, Douglas, North Fulton, South Cherokee, County, Ga. Call me for all of your real estate needs. Visit my website Call me for all of your Real Estate needs 770-656-9134 Copyright © 2008 By Bob Southard, All Rights Reserved   Follow Bob on Twitter , FaceBook, and LinkedIn

Health care, stimulus, and cash for clunkers



The recent and now revived "cash for clunkers" gives us good insight in to the results of government programs.  

1. If you put money if the peoples hands you will get an immediate response and see the results of the "stimulus".  Personally, I think the people should just be allowed to keep their own money to spend on cars, boats, ipods, or whatever they want to spend it on.  Give us a tax cut without the large government program.  However the results speak for themselves.  I think by all accounts a lot of people went and bought cars.  

2. If it is a government program the cost will always be higher than projected.  That is how the $1 billion became $3 billion.

3.  The government program will be muddled with bureaucracy and red tape.  There are many numerous reports of frustrated dealers who have sold cars and not yet received rebates from the first round of "cash for clunkers".  If the dealers don't receive the rebates they will "unwind" the deals and the folks who have had a shiny new car in their driveway for the last 2 weeks or so will end up getting their clunker back.  There is a term in the car industry called "spotting deals". Basically when you sign that stack of paperwork in the dealers finance office, one of the docs says that the deal is not done until all details are approved.  You sign and drive the car home but if the bank turns down the loan (or in this case the govt never approves the rebate) you will be required to come back and renegotiate the deal or return the car.

This $billion used car rebate program is from the same folks who want to supply us with a $trillion health care program.

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Bob Southard, e-Pro, Realtor ®, Solid Source Realty, Inc. Buy a home, Sell a home, in Powder Springs, Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Smyrna, Dallas, Hiram,and Cobb, Paulding, Douglas, North Fulton, South Cherokee, County, Ga. Call me for all of your real estate needs. Visit my website Call me for all of your Real Estate needs 770-656-9134 Copyright © 2008 By Bob Southard, All Rights Reserved   Follow Bob on Twitter , FaceBook, and LinkedIn

I live in the 13th district of Ga. and my congressman, David Scott, held a town hall meeting this weekend. The stated purpose of the meeting was to discuss a local highway project but the meeting was opened up for questions on all matters at the end.

If I would have known about the town hall, I would have tried to be there. From what I saw on the video, it did not look to me like the Dr. asking the question was in any way rude. As a matter of fact he seemed down right calm and polite especially when contrasted with Congressman Scott’s response.

"I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help" is the punch line to a joke. Government programs are filled with overburdening bureaucracy, inefficiency, and waste. Why on earth would a government run health care program be any different? The health care model as it is proposed has been tried in Massachusetts, Tennessee, Canada, England, and many other places. The results have been the same. While it does provide universal coverage there are long waits and rationing of services. Some people are simply declined the care they want or need.

I have not heard any explanations from any supporters of the current proposals that make it different from other government insurance programs. Tell us how this program will succeed where the others have failed and maybe you’ll get more support.

We have been told that if we like our private insurance that we can keep it. Technically the proposal allows that … until we decide to shop around or change jobs. Then we are forced in the public option. Unacceptable

The writers of the current proposal understand that there will be rationing and that older patients will be denied services. No problem, the included end of life counseling in the legislation. That’s right, we just let them die and tell them it’s ok. Give them some counseling and even teach them how to commit suicide. Unacceptable.

In England the lines got so long that the Parliament passed a law saying all patients must be treated within 4 hours. No problem. Now when the wait gets up to 4 hours they lock the doors until the line gets shorter. The 4 hour clock doesn’t start ticking until the patient is actually inside the building. Some of the hospitals keep a line of ambulances outside for the patients to wait in.

I am in favor of health care reform but, not a government take over. Here are just a few ideas that I think need to be addressed.

*Tort reform. Drs. And hospitals need to be held accountable but there needs to be a limit on the size and scope of the lawsuits.

*Streamline the system. Have the insurance companies use the same or at least similar forms so the Drs don’t need a huge staff just to make the insurance claims.Make it easier for doctors, insurance companies, and patients to share needed information.

* Focus on the chronically uninsured. Everybody knows the 48million uninsured is misleading. Don’t cover illegal immigrants. Make COBRA more affordable so that it is easier to keep coverage between jobs. Many of that of the 48 million can afford health care but they choose to have 2 car payments instead. Many of them are young people who earn enough money or have inexpensive options available from their employer but choose not to take it because they think they don’t need it. When you weed through the numbers there are actually about 12 million people who really are uninsured. Let’s figure out how to get decent care delivered to those people who really need it.

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Here is more on the story from 11Alive News here in Atlanta.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-13th) was involved in what many called an embarrassing display of losing his temper at a town hall meeting in Douglasville last weekend.

In the meeting, Scott lost his temper and began yelling at a crowd that included two people who came forward during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting to ask Scott about his stance on the health care plan proposed by the White House and being debated on Capitol Hill.

The city of Douglasville taped the event and you can see Scott become increasingly agitated after a question about health care……Read the entire story here

http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=133599

video (3:10)

 

 

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Bob Southard, e-Pro, Realtor ®, Solid Source Realty, Inc. Buy a home, Sell a home, in Powder Springs, Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Smyrna, Dallas, Hiram,and Cobb, Paulding, Douglas, North Fulton, South Cherokee, County, Ga. Call me for all of your real estate needs. Visit my website Call me for all of your Real Estate needs 770-656-9134 Copyright © 2008 By Bob Southard, All Rights Reserved   Follow Bob on Twitter , FaceBook, and LinkedIn