awgee

Sounds right. They tax you on the upside and you can’t deduct the loss on the downside. Most guys I know who play with classic cars do not show them as investments and simply sell at a profit (maybe after all costs of insurance, license, new parts) but do not report it as there is no escrow or way for IRS to track them. Not saying it is right but it is the way they do it. A couple of years ago DMV agents were walking around the Pomona swap meets watching for guys who"jumped title” by buying a car on Sat and reselling it on Sunday without paying sales tax or license. Guys walk around there with thousands of dollars in paper bags.  Interesting little niche.

Enjoy!

I have access to the LA Times and OC Register archives - I couldn’t find anything quoting Watts from the late 80s or 90s either. The only mention of Watts in the OCR is a ‘93 brief:

LAGUNA HILLS

"A new interactive visual display system gives new meaning to the phrase "Let your fingers do the walking" for potential homebuyers. Visual Listing Service allows real estate agents and the public to sit at five 17-inch computer screens and call up multiple pictures of homes in the Saddleback Valley. Buyers not only can specify price, location and other features but can "wander" through the interior, depending on how many views of the home are in the system. Designed by Realtor Gary Watts  , the company is the result of five years of videotaping hundreds of homes that he showed to agents at weekly board meetings. The company will open the first of the year. Watts expects to have more than 3,000 properties in his data bank by the second week of January. "

Also found this interesting one from 2004:

"IRVINE To those who think Orange County’s real-estate market is a house of cards that’s about to fall in, Gary Watts  says think again.

Home prices aren’t going down next year, as several economists predict, the real- estate broker and economist said. They’re going up.

Fifteen percent next year, he predicts, and because demand for homes will outpace supply for the next 15 years, prices could continue climbing through 2020.

"These people have the income. They’re rich," Watts said. "People in Orange County are rich.""

I don’t think my google-fu skills are quite up to graphrix’s, though.

In the early days Gary did a presentation with a lot of humor about once a year at what was then the Saddleback Board of Realtors ( forerunner of the South Orange County Board) with coffee and cookies by title companies. He got no press nor did he pass himself off as a "Guru". I do not believe that he was compensated at that time for his presentations. He also did his thing at some of the larger real estate offices. I don’t think that in that era there would be much of a record since it was pretty much just a realtor putting on a simple presentation for other agents.
I would never have used him in my positions with the major builders. I think the press caught on to him in the mid 2000’s and he became more known outside of the brokerage community.
I did enjoy his presentations but it was just one guy’s opinion.
Enjoy!
 

It is possible the he could be right THREE times.  The watch could be stuck at 1 o’clock on the day when we change the time back an hour from 2 am to 1am!

Gary should just turn left three times.  Then he’d finally be right.

I can’t help thinking somewhere along the line he realized there was money to be made in telling people what they want to hear, so he did.

Gary Watts 2008 Forecast PDF.

This may be posted somewhere else, but I couldn’t find it. Could this guy be any more wrong?

IrvineRenter - 07 November 2008 09:35 PM

Gary Watts 2008 Forecast PDF.

This may be posted somewhere else, but I couldn’t find it. Could this guy be any more wrong?

No… seriously, he really couldn’t be any more wrong than he was, and in fact he is/was the wrongest of the wrong. Oops… looks like someone hasn’t paid their web designer to update their page in a while.

I really wonder how those 2005 purchases worked out for him?

He must serve Kool-Aid and kookies with his presentations.

Granted this is just name coiningkidink, but the irony is delicious.

Turns out there is an NOD on a property on Apache Dr. in Wagon Wheel and the home debtor’s name is Gary Watts.  he-he. 

That is the Gary Watts.

Ouch! That is what you get for getting high off your own supply, and buying a home in 2005 with only 10% down. Now instead of Kool-Aid, you just are underwater. I wonder if that is an option ARM. Oh this is ironic.

graphrix - 24 March 2009 08:51 AM

That is the Gary Watts.

Ouch! That is what you get for getting high off your own supply, and buying a home in 2005 with only 10% down. Now instead of Kool-Aid, you just are underwater. I wonder if that is an option ARM. Oh this is ironic.

NO WAY!  Are you cereal?  THE Gary Watts?  Of “The Economy in Orange County is strong, so home prices will not fall” fame?  The “Will you buy my DVD?” Gary Watts?  NOD?!?!  WHOA!  Get out!

Personally I like Wagon Wheel, but I can not imagine a big real estate cheese like Gary Watts living there.  Is it an investment property?  A flip?  A home for an offspring?  What gives?

I’d like to know how you know for certain that it is him, I believe you, I am just wondering. I would also like someone at the Register to do a story on this, that would be so much fun! Maybe they should interview him again

tmare - 24 March 2009 10:48 AM

I’d like to know how you know for certain that it is him, I believe you, I am just wondering. I would also like someone at the Register to do a story on this, that would be so much fun! Maybe they should interview him again

Let’s just say… that public records are a wonderful thing. That, and what is the likelihood that the Gary Watts would be the listing agent on his own home? If it sells for the price shown on Redfin, then a 22% loss is in the bag.

Motherf8&ker;... “Conditions: Short Sale/Subject to Lender Approval”. That dirt bag should be required to bring the $100k to the table that he would need to close this thing. Mmmm… I’m tempted to call the lender to let them know this house is not owner-occupied and shouldn’t qualify for a short sale. He is the last person in the world that deserves TARP money. Gary Watts has now risen to the top of my “people I will kick in the nuts if I ever see them” list.

graphrix - 24 March 2009 04:27 PM

tmare - 24 March 2009 10:48 AM

I’d like to know how you know for certain that it is him, I believe you, I am just wondering. I would also like someone at the Register to do a story on this, that would be so much fun! Maybe they should interview him again

Let’s just say… that public records are a wonderful thing. That, and what is the likelihood that the Gary Watts would be the listing agent on his own home? If it sells for the price shown on Redfin, then a 22% loss is in the bag.

Help some of us less savvy folks here out…. Are you saying that this is Gary Watts’ house? Or not his house? Someone is living in it, that’s for sure.

Regardless of who is living there, the redfin description on it is classically hilarious. “This property will take your breath away!”. Why? What is breath taking here in this charmless stucco box? Is it the dying 10 foot square patch of lawn in the back next to the fading Sears Roebuck patio furniture? The cluttered interior design from the Clinton era? The mismatched kitchen appliances? The bland Home Depot cabinets and fittings? The dirty clothes hamper and WalMart boombox artfully displayed in the den? What exactly is supposed to take my breath away?

Maybe it smells like cat pee when you walk in? That would take my breath away.

He owns it, but he doesn’t live in it. It was an investment property, because in 2006 15% was in the bag. Supposedly, banks are not approving short sales for investment properties, or use TARP money for people who do not live in the home. Since Countrywide/BofA has received TARP money, then he should have to come up with the cash and not bilk BofA and taxpayers out of $100k. He should be hung by his balls.

These “second homes at da river” are all gravesites waiting to be filled with the bodies of thier owners.

There isn’t any action out there for any properties at any price from what I hear.  The bank is getting this one back.

I have one thing to say…. dirty rat bastard!! OK, two things to say… no way in hell should this guy get off the hook with a short sale.

The word KARMA comes to mind.

tmare - 24 March 2009 10:48 AM

I’d like to know how you know for certain that it is him, I believe you, I am just wondering. I would also like someone at the Register to do a story on this, that would be so much fun! Maybe they should interview him again

*Paging Erika Chavez*

That’s it! I am sending this email to my congressman (Ed Royce), Gary’s congressman (Gary Miller), and for sh*ts and giggles, I will send it to Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Barnyard Fife, er I mean Barney Frank, and Chuck Schumer. I will also send it to Erika Chavez and Matt Padilla at the OCR.

Subject: For a fact: I am seeing TARP money going to those who do not deserve it

To whom it may concern,

It has come to my attention that the owner of 21 Apache, Rancho Santa Margarita, 92679 has received a notice of default from Countrywide (AKA Bank of America, a TARP recipient). This property is currently in escrow as a “short sale”. The price on the listing is $599,900, and if sold at that price would require approximately $100,000 of taxpayer/TARP money to cover the amount of liens on the property, when the non-occupying owner should be responsible for this share in the loss, and not the taxpayer.

Gary Watts, the owner of 21 Apache is also owner of XXXXX Vista Del Lago, Mission Viejo, CA 92691 (his primary residence), and several other properties in Orange County California. He has been one of the worst real estate agents (Realtors), in his “predictions” of the local housing market. He claims to have called the housing bust in the early 90s, but it has only been hearsay… claiming they were there to witness his great prognostication in that time. However, it is on record that he missed the current bust http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/abox/article_891975.php I have several more articles I can reference showing how incredibly wrong he was, and how he would have helped perpetuate this economic crisis, by making people believe in his lack of fundamental economics. TARP money is not supposed to be used to help non-owner occupied residences, and it is especially not to be used to help people who perpetuated the problem and drank their own Kool-Aid. He should be foreclosed on, and no TARP money should be used to subsidize this person.

This also proves that more accountability and regulation is needed for those involved in real estate transactions. Can you imagine if a stock broker at Morgan Stanley said, “15% appreciation is in the bag”? This is the greatest investment most people ever make, and you have people like this who claim, unprecedented returns compared to history… if he was a stock broker, then he would be in jail for the claims he has made. He should be in jail, and he should be made an example of what a fraud he truly is.

I look forward to your immediate attention and action on this matter, as this is a fraud to TARP, congress, and the taxpayer.

Crackercakes

Graph-send it to the Register and the Times also.

graphrix - 24 March 2009 08:51 AM

That is the Gary Watts.

Ouch! That is what you get for getting high off your own supply, and buying a home in 2005 with only 10% down. Now instead of Kool-Aid, you just are underwater. I wonder if that is an option ARM. Oh this is ironic.

It’s definitely a negam loan that had a very low teaser rate.

tmare - 25 March 2009 02:49 AM

Graph-send it to the Register and the Times also.

Yeah Graph, send it to the local papers….oh how funny would it be if they ran a story on the situation and crackercakes would be the secret informant.