This is one of my favorite photoshops lately.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3905-Trentwood-Pl_Sarasota_FL_34243_1105730869

“Furniture in photos is virtually staged.”

(sorry, don’t know how to imbed the link.  This listing is worth the effort of cut/paste, its that ugly)

Now we’re getting places where a lot of people in Irvine can pay cash.

That’s very healthy.

Sometimes I can manage to do it correctly.  I think it goes like:

<a href=“http://www.google.com”>Google</a>

So using the above:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3905-Trentwood-Pl_Sarasota_FL_34243_1105730869

I don’t know how to post a link either, but here’s a fun website I visit occassionaly:

Lovelylisting.com

People post crazy listing photos from around the world and post silly comments about them

Who gives an 85 year old widow a $556,000 loan?

Video interview of widow, 85, facing foreclosure

That site is great. I encourage everyone who enjoyed this post to check it out.

IR

Good Work this week.

BTW, love that photo collection.

Thank you, Lee. BTW, if you ever wanted to write for the IHB, let me know. Your observations are astute, and we are certainly like-minded. Sometimes when I read your comments, I feel as if I wrote them.

irvinerenter@irvinehousingblog.com

Someone who intends to unload the loan before the widow has left the parking lot.

Boy, she burned through the money in a hurry.

Oh. It might help to know that there is an running joke over there about those white, plastic stackable patio chairs - which is why they are featured in so many of the photos

(those chairs seem to be EVERYWHERE!)

Thanks for some great morning belly laughs.
My employer is notifying us of a 8% paycut starting August 1 (our last pay increase was Oct. 2007). At least I have a job, benefits, a home,family, and my health. Let’s not talk about the 17 year old son who is lazy as hell.

Lee:

What does REIC stand for?

Tell him the 8% pay cut eliminates his allowance and see if he goes and gets a job.

Sounds like the same 8% cut that all UC employees are getting… yippee!

Lee in Irvine,

Your contributions are always appreciated. If you ever change your mind about writing, please let me know.

tickedofftaxpayer,

REIC is the Real Estate Industrial Complex. It is an allusion to Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the strength of the MIC (Military Industrial Complex).

The MIC is “an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs.” Substitute real estate for weaponry, and you understand the REIC.

“The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

The REIC is very powerful, particularly here in California.

Perhaps I should make this a post….

Thanks for the explanation.

Tell yuor boss to screw the paycut! Don’t work for a penny less. If you give a little today to give you security in the short term you’ll find that you’ll be hung out to dry for the long term. 8% today, 10% next year, its a slippery slope my friends.

Wow, this listing disappeared already!  Showing up as delisted right after the umpteenth fake relisting.  Amazing! 

IrvineRenter, the agent must have read your comments and decided to polish up the listing a bit more (or maybe just got shamed)... LOL

As a matter of fact I do work at UCI. Sorry to see you are one of those people who delights in taking joy in bashing the University. Hey, I just work here. I don’t make the policies. I’m a 20 year employee looking forward to my pension, which I’ve worked for. I’m a staff employee, not faculty. The majority of us are paid lower wages than you probably imagine and we do have to pay towards our medical plan monthly. Hell, I’ve spent $50 each month for 20 years just to park my car.

Interesting to see the iron bars on the doors and windows, Personally, i have never seen this anywhere in my 10 odd years in Irvine. I wonder if this ‘feature’ is specific to this locality in Northwood.

That apartment is in a pretty nice part of Irvine. I doubt that those bars are necessary.

Ride a bike? There i saved you $600 a year in parking alone. It isnt as if Irvine isnt bike-friendly. That’s not even counting potential gas savings and if you tossed the car all together (im sure your family has another one) you can save on insurance payments and maintenance costs as well.

If you think that is somehow out of the question, take the bus.

I’ve seen homeless men in cardboard boxes that are bigger than 475 sq. ft.  I can’t believe someone would $130,000 for this, let alone $250,000.

I think its just a poor choice of screen door.  It does look like a prison combined with the vertical blinds on the sliding glass door.  Is it really asking too much for the agent to retract the blinds and turn on their flash before taking that second picture.  It probably wouldn’t be pretty but it wouldn’t look like a jail cell if the vertical blinds weren’t in view and the white walls and carpet were visible.

IrvineRenter,

The board in the toilet is an old plumber’s trick for adding leverage on the inner rim (the strongest part of the bowl) while trying to separate the wax sealing ring underneith the toilet.  One can get a similar increase in torque on a wrench by using a long pipe around the handle.

However, why anyone would try to break the wax seal *while the bowel is full,* as in the photograph, is beyond me.  The photo is a “before” picture.

Regards,
Hard Numbers

“California unemployment rises to 11.5% in May

Reporting from Sacramento—California’s unemployment rate shot up to 11.5% in May, its highest level since current record-keeping began more than three decades ago.”  LA Times

Are they as prevalent as ice cream trucks in Jim the Realtor’s videos?

Thanks for the explanation. I had no idea what that was for. You are right, though, why would someone do that while the bowl is full. What a mess!

Gosh, you know I would except I have a phobia about bikes and busses. People on bikes seem to be hit by cars on Culver frequently and busses aren’t as cute as my Beetle. 
Plus I have to contribute my share to the Parking Dept so they can build more parking garages for the 14% less students for 2009-10.

...i thought the blinds were iron bars…lesson for the realtor.

Sarcasm, cynicism, resignation.  Yep, you work at UCI.

IR, thanks for starting off my Friday right! I love the photos and commentary. Sh1t hilarious.

The photoshopping of house photos cracks me up.  Are they expecting people to see a fancy painted house, and then show up to see a faded piece of crap and ignore that fact?

Sometimes the listing agent can’t be bothered to get out of their car and photograph the property.

In that picture, the agent couldn’t even be bothered to use the brakes.

Wow!  What’s up with the shower?  That’s going to require some major drywall replacement.

If you like the above you will LOVE this place. WORTH the visit for the pics!

The picture were really funny, except I was eating lunch while reading the blog.

As for UCI staff employees, most don’t get paid the big bucks (higher than other university, but not like the administrators and some senior faculty).  The gouvenator has targeted the lower paying position for the cuts.  Home aid worked reduce from $12/hr to $8/hr.  Big saving?  I’ve only heard of reduced hours for the higher paid positions.  Not a real cut in rate.  When their on salary cutting their hours is a no brainer.  Cut the hours I spend on the job, but leave my pay alone.  Great for the top administrators.

Haha, “Don’t drive?” You’re not from Orange County, are you? At least the $50 was taken out pre-tax.

Take the bus? Again, you’re not from OC, are you? I love how a 15 min drive turns into 60 mins on OCTA.

I used to work at UCI…yeah no one I knew made tons of money, most left within 5 years so pension = useless, much rather have a 401k.

I have to laugh about the more expensive homes that have the same issues with listing photographs.  The most expensive property in San Diego County… 929 Border Ave. in Del Mar… 6 photos (photoshop tweaked) of landscape and view only, 2 are duplicates of the same view, no virtual tour ($76M asking price).  I guess better photos and $100 for a virtual tour is too much to ask for such a shoddy listing.

The listing is off the market.  The $149,387 (01/14/2009) was that the borrower’s balance on the loan?

Random numbers like that ($149,387 as opposed to $149,000) almost always are.

I like those “updated bath” descriptions with corresponding pictures of cabinets with psychedelic teal paint from the flower power era.

Perhaps it is contructed from an ancient egyptian sarcophagus? Otherwise, it must be fun to take showers with midgets. That is the only way I can explain two shower heads, one half the hieght of the other.

Sold For:  $149,387 (01/14/2009)

according to updated listing, btw.

Paying to park at work?!?!?  Something’s SO wrong with that.

The only good thing about widespread paycuts is that deflation soon follows.  If everyone gets a paycut, and credit dries up, then soon no one can afford as much as they used to, and various goods & services will start to cost less. The people who make money off you will also take a paycut.  Thus, an 8% paycut may not be that bad if everything you buy costs 8% less.  But that only occurs if the general population as a whole receives a paycut.  If you’re the only one, or you’re the only industry, then you’re screwed.

IrvineRenter,

No problem.  By the way, I found this little gem before logging off for the weekend:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHoMzhnSgja1KQZorxv2CgyIuMXwD98U0KTO0

Read towards the bottom how one of the first cutomers paid for her ‘space flight’ ticket by mortgaging her San Diego home for the $200,000 ticket price.  Apparently, you _can_ be shot into space for that amount of HELOC abuse.  I can only imagine what she wrote on the loan paperwork as to the reason she needed the funds for.  Amazing!

Regards,
Hard Numbers

That was the bank taking it back, not the sale of the property by the bank to an actual purchaser.

I used to live in San Diego, but left CA because of the insanity mentioned daily on this blog. 

I know this property is looking cheap (50% off peak), but let’s be real.  $300/sq ft. ?!?!?  That is still WAY overpriced.  For that kind of money I expect diamond studded walls.