Irvine Housing Blog

“true believers are not intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but are those craving to be rid of unwanted self. They are followers, not because of a desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy their passion for self-renunciation.”

“true believers are eternally incomplete and eternally insecure”

-Eric Hoffer

A fool is one who does not do his own homework—

http://www.fbi.gov/aboutus/investigate/white_collar/mortgage-fraud/mortgage_fraud

FBI has shown us the fraud and has been my source besides living with it here.

IR has been the only one to show it in home after home—

Show me another site where you see all the abuse.

@tlc8386:

“This was the epi-center of mortgage abuse and continues to be so.”

I think you’ve said this before but you haven’t proven it. Are you talking about Irvine? I’m sure there is more HELOC/mortgage abuse in other cities than Irvine.

Your FBI link, as far as I can tell, does not single out Irvine.

Take a ook in the mirror.

Um, “look”?

lol Dave, hardly.  I drop in here from time to time—- much less frequently now that I have moved out of Irvine—- and (gasp!) joined the evil loanowner ranks.  But since I: 1) used to be a loyal reader and contributor to IHB back before that *change* in mission, and 2) I actually did live in Irvine for 5 years so this stuff really means something to me. Given how infrequently I comment, that should also give you an idea how infrequently old CK reads IHB.

What’s your reason for spending so much of your life here?

I drop in here from time to time

Yes!  It was just a big coincidence that you leisurely happened upon the blog today moments after Tech Support’s blog meltdown.  Very good.

and (gasp!) joined the evil loanowner ranks

Congratulations on obtaining a mortgage and living the dream.

used to be a loyal reader and contributor to IHB back before that *change* in mission

Oh, the big change in mission. As you can see, the blog has not been the same since that fateful day.

What’s your reason for spending so much of your life here?

It’s a good housing blog with very little interference by moderators.  The blog author runs a pretty open dialog and even lets little pricks like you insult him on a regular basis without resorting to banning or deleting posts.  Have to give some credit for that.

Right on, Dave—- keep on keeping on my man. No matter how infrequently one reads IHB, you can always count Dave saying exactly the same thing each and every day, with special treatment reserved for anyone questioning his hero. For the record, I would hardly characterize one post every six months or so as “regularly insulting him”—- but hey, no point in arguing with you. And if your implication above is that I am also “tech suppport”, think again.  But your mentor can verify that for you.

But as you wish, I’ll just slink back to my little prick world now, because this was just a slow day at work, giving me an opportunity to do a little trolling.  Makes me happy to see I got your blood boiling, though. 

Actually, I’ll slink back out to my backyard for a beer.  I’ll tip one in your honor, my man. I’d love to give you a visual of how I “live the dream” as you call it after a day at work.  You might be surprised at what can be accomplished in life if you shake the bitterness and start approaching life with a glass is half full attitude.  Or get laid.  Whichever may apply to you. 

I’ll expect next time I decide to troll IHB I’ll find I’ve been banned.  So I’ll bid you a fond farewell, AZDavidPhx. Best of luck with that karate thing.

LOL, let’s start a get AZDavid laid fund.  As a charity we may be even be able to claim a tax deduction.

with special treatment reserved for anyone questioning his hero

I’m not that concerned with climbing the water tower with my bucket of paint to defend Irvine Renter’s honor.  You are the one who cast the first stone with your statement: “But if you are good at mindless photoshop images you are a golden god at IHB” which I could only assume was directed at me as I am the one who usually puts up the “photoshopped” images.  That is why I assumed you crawled out of the little prick world.

And if your implication above is that I am also “tech suppport”, think again

Not at all.  The implication was that you read the blog more often than you claim.  I find it hard to believe that someone who comes around once every few months just happened to stumble on the blog today when Tech Support melted down.  Doesn’t wash.

But as you wish

Who said I wished for anything?  I do not care what you do.

You might be surprised at what can be accomplished in life if you shake the bitterness and start approaching life with a glass is half full attitude.

Yes, I am very jealous of you and all of your accomplishments in life.  If only a bank would give me a mortgage I could be the envy of all renters too.

I’d love to give you a visual of how I “live the dream”

Oh, you little tease, you.

LOL, let’s start a get AZDavid laid fund

Well Well, PR.  Word on the street is that you are offering services.  Want to make a Dollar the hard way?  Moo Moo Buckaroo.

Sheesh, I was just trying to help you relax and progress in life.

Easy on the IT karate chop kiddo.  Go back to wishing you were a boomer and forget about getting laid.

Oh, stop being a butthurt little child. You obviously haven’t been “banned”, or your post wouldn’t be showing up.

Glad you invested in an Irvine home! Oh wait, you didn’t…

Did the idea that loan owners claim victim status hit too close to home?

(Due to the limited embedding on this site, it might not have been obvious that my comment was directed at Planet Reality.)

I decided *not* to get into the fix and flip business. However, in and of itself, to me at least, rehabbing old houses does actually seem productive for society.

The real estate game we currently have in our society generally seems rife with abuse. Futhermore, having both a husband and wife work full-time at dreary meaningless jobs to pay a mortgage while they let strangers and technology raise their children and prepare their “food” (much of what McDonalds sells doesn’t seem like food to me) seems pretty awful to me.

But that doesn’t mean old houses shouldn’t be fixed up.

Technical Support,

I saw your exchange on the San Diego fix&flip; blog (Tom something or other).  I am impressed with the level of thought you put into things.  Do you have your own blog?  I’d like to read it if you do.

[Part 1 of 1]

I appreciate your compliment. Really. I do. I’m trying to avoid commenting on blogs, let alone creating my own. I enjoy writing so much that I’m afraid I’ll become a “blogaholic.” Seriously.

Look at Irvine Renter. He’s written some very clever things; I’ve learned very much reading this blog. However, Irvine Renter seems like he’s a blogaholic to me. Blogaholic may sound cute, but I think like all addictions it’s unhealthy.

In spite of some of our apparently clever arguments, neither Irvine Renter nor I are really very wise. Honestly, I think we both often cleverly proffer foolish ideas.

For example, Irvine Renter has repeatedly claimed that investors should buy cash flow positive rental properties not cash flow negative ones. Although at first blush, this seems sensible, clearly it is sheer nonsense for it is based on unsupportable implicit assumptions that have often turned out to be wrong.

Warren Buffet has deftly debunked the somewhat popular myth of the so-called “efficient market hypothesis” which claims somewhat unbelievably that stocks are always priced properly (as Buffet has written, “In the short run the stock market is a voting machine; in the long run it’s a weighing machine). However, sometimes, even if a property is cash flow positive, it turns out to be a loser property because rental prices and property values turn out to head downwards.

Similarly, merely because a property has negative cash flow, doesn’t mean the property will be a bad investment. It may be that both property values and rents will go up in the future. Therefore, the negative cash flow may merely be a temporary phenomena. Actually, in some cases negative cash flow may scare away other investors and therefore help to artificially depress the current market price of a property.

Of course, Irvine Renter implicit assumption is that the efficient market hypothesis is correct. It’s not a reasonable hypothesis at all; it’s sheer, unadulterated, nonsense much like the notion that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” All men equal? Really? 2 + 2 = 4. Equality isn’t a term that should even be applied to human beings.

Instead of uber-rational nonsense underpinning the notion of efficient markets, investors should focus on a deceptively subtle and complex notion: value. Similarly, when it comes to how to treat human beings we should not focus on the rationalistic term of equality but on another *extremely* subtle and complex notion: justice.

It seems to me that folks like Irvine Renter and me, enjoy “hearing ourselves think.” Personally, I’ve been inadvertently mislead by some very clever folks who mistakenly doled out foolish advice which I gobbled up like a hungry mouse greedily devouring cheese laced with strychnine. Now, if you want to read something really wise and enlightening, I recommend joining a traditional religious community and reading their ancient holy books in the manner they proscribe.

Personally, I’m Jewish (as if my obsessive intellectualism wasn’t a dead giveaway). Therefore, I went to synagogue this morning. Reading this week’s Torah portion and the accompanying commentary made me realize how much *genuine* wisdom is contained in that ancient document. As I read this week’s Torah portion and the accompanying commentary, I felt like a mere novice setting out to learn a little wisdom. It was a *very* humbling experience. You know the old saw, “The more I learn, the more I learn how much I have to learn.”

I plan to get out of this “blogging game” and start going to pray each morning in synagogue. As far as I see it, in terms of human nature, essentially there’s nothing new under the sun. Therefore, why try to recreate the wheel when numerous ancient religions already contain much of the accumulated wisdom of the ages? And unlike my “clever” advice in these “astute observations”, the wisdom of the ages has actually stood the test of time. In a week or two who’s going to read this cute little blog post? A thousand years hence, the wisdom of many of our world’s current religions will likely still be avidly read by millions of people.

As Paul Simon sagely observed, “It’s every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.” Will Rogers, Babe Ruth, and the Beatles “all owned the world” in their day. They were “It” man! Now they are but distant memories on their way to being confined to the dustbins of history.

On the other hand, Jesus, Mohammad, the Buddha, and Moses have been studied continuously as wise and holy teachers for thousands of and thousands of years to this very day (literally).

[Woops, the previous post should have started with, “Part 1 of *2*”, this is Part 2 of 2]

If you are intent on reading a blog I’d recommend one I came across recently. It’s by Rabbi Daniel Perlo at Adat Shalom here in West Los Angeles.

http://www.adatshalomtorah.blogspot.com/

Rabbi Perlo is still young and therefore has much to learn but although he hasn’t even been rabbi at Adat Shalom for a year yet, I think he’ll have a very long and very successful career there. I think he’s on the road to becoming a “super duper” rabbi.

I particularly liked this post:
http://adatshalomtorah.blogspot.com/2011/04/power-of-ritual.html

Hopefully this is one of last “astute observations” I’ll post on this blog. Personally, much like television, although the internet has potential to be used for good, sadly mostly we (I) become addicted to it.

Why do we sit mesmerized in front of brightly lit screens instead of congregating with real people who are part of our own authentic communities?

We seem to be like the proverbial moth drawn to an artificial light. Perhaps moths flew up towards to moon so as to be caught up in winds that would distribute them around the world and thereby increase their chances of surviving. Perhaps we are instinctively drawn to the safety of a campfire (which was the first artificial light). But perhaps now this instinct leads us to indulge in unhealthy behavior, such as spending countless hours- looking to outside observers like zombies in a trance- as we sit in front of televisions and computers. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. We’ll never know most of the *whys* in life. Frankly, I think we will all doing very well if we learn but a few of the *whats* in life.

Hey, feel free to take my advice, after all, as this blog post clearly demonstrates, I’m not using most of it myself!