HOA president's mailbox destroyed by IED

SEMINOLE - Days after a Pinellas County homeowers' association sent out notices to people without brick mailboxes, someone set off an explosion destroying the HOA president's mailbox.

The incident happened today around 1:45 p.m. No one was hurt.

The home is in the Wind Tree Oaks subdivision along the 10100 block of Windtree Blvd in Seminole.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the management company of the Wind Tree Oaks homeowners' association sent out notices to people they say were not compliant with a requirement to have a brick mailbox.

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Looks like someone didn't take kindly to the notice and responded by using an IED on the HOA president's mailbox.

HOA manager faces Texas charge of misapplication of fiduciary property

A Richmond-area man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of misapplication of fiduciary property involving a subdivision homeowners association.

Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested Taggert Mayfield, 32, who operates Arrow Community Management and contracts with homeowners associations to be their property management agent, said Bob Haenel, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Mayfield is accused of making illegal transfers of funds from one HOA to another, Haenel said.

Avalon at Seven Meadows, which is in the Katy area, contacted the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office with a complaint against Mayfield.

Records show Mayfield transferred $55,000 and $30,000 from one of Avalon at Seven Meadows' bank accounts to an account belonging to another homeowners association.

No Rise in Home Prices Until 2020: Bankers - CNBC

No Rise in Home Prices Until 2020: Bankers - CNBC
The survey conducted by the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association for FICO, found that 49 percent of respondents do not expect housing prices to rise back to 2007 levels for another nine years. Only 21 percent of respondents said they would.

The findings, which authors called “a decidedly pessimistic outlook”, are a sharp reversal from cautious optimism the survey respondents expressed late last year and in early 2011.

In addition, 73 percent of surveyed bankers say they expect mortgage defaults to remain elevated for at least another five years. And 46 percent believe mortgage delinquencies will increase over the next six months.
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Wow. That is the most pessimistic projection I have seen yet.

Eight Defendants Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme in California | California RealEstateRama

Eight Defendants Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme in California | California RealEstateRama
According to court records, the mortgage fraud scheme involved purchasing homes at prices substantially higher than the homes were worth in order for the defendants to receive cash at the close of escrow. The indictment alleges that Shavlovsky recruited Katinsky and Kennedy to act as straw buyers and finance 100 percent of the artificially inflated purchase price of homes by submitting fraudulent loan applications to lenders, which falsely represented Katinsky’s and Kennedy’s employment, income, and intent to occupy the homes as their primary residence.

According to the indictment, Mysin, a licensed California real estate agent, prepared the phony applications and attempted to disguise his involvement with these fraudulent loans by making it appear that another loan officer in his office had handled them. Kokhanets, Boris Murzak, Zinaida Murzak, and Tuzman were homeowners who allegedly sold their properties as part of this scheme. In order to artificially inflate the sales price of their homes, Kokhanets, Tuzman, and the Murzaks are alleged to have signed fake invoices falsely claiming that repairs or improvements had been completed on their properties. After the lenders funded the fraudulent loans, the defendants diverted a portion of the proceeds from the inflated sales price directly to themselves and to businesses controlled by the defendants and others. All seven properties were foreclosed, resulting in more than $1.8 million in losses for mortgage lenders.
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Isn't it amazing how many different types of real estate scams we have seen during these last 15 or 20 years? There was one set of scams when prices were on the way up, then a different set of scams while the market was crashing, and now there are foreclosure scams, and of course we have the ever-popular HOA and condo association scams.

Homeless 'tent cities' could put down roots under Seattle bill - seattlepi.com

Homeless 'tent cities' could put down roots under Seattle bill - seattlepi.com
Homeless camps hosted by churches and other religious facilities would no longer have to move from place to place under a bill passed Wednesday by a Seattle City Council committee.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Homeless-camps-would-no-longer-rove-under-new-2193911.php#ixzz1ZNvn02hl

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The news begins to read more and more like an article in The Onion.

Government losses a big part of state unemployment increases | Economic Policy Institute

Government losses a big part of state unemployment increases | Economic Policy Institute
With so many states struggling to regain jobs lost during the recession, adding public sector workers to the ranks of the unemployed is clearly a step in the wrong direction. Moreover, addressing budget shortfalls through budgets cuts not only decimates the public sector workforce, but it also devastates the private sector. (My colleague Ethan Pollack’s research shows that, “for every dollar of budget cuts, over half of the jobs and economic activity will be lost in the private sector, for a number of reasons,” including the fact that a significant portion of state spending is on goods and services supplied by the private sector.)
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This is all true, but Washington is operating on Tea Party logic now, so it seems that we may continue with this self-destructive course until we no longer have a middle class at all. Then we can enjoy the politics of rich vs. poor, which is always fun to watch unless the riots are in your neighborhood.

Robert Scheer: The Men We Trusted to Lead Us - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

Robert Scheer: The Men We Trusted to Lead Us - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig
But why is Bernanke just now discovering this after having overseen the Fed’s purchase of trillions in toxic mortgage-backed securities from the too-big-to-fail banks that sacrificed people’s homes in a giant Ponzi scheme? Why did he throw all of that money at the banks without getting anything back in the way of relief for the people the bankers swindled?
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Indeed. Why are Bernanke and Obama and other Democrats just discovering the unemployment crisis that is fueling the continuing foreclosure meltdown? These are the folks the right wingers are always accusing of being socialists, but all they want to do is bail out banks and insurance companies and auto companies, and on and on and on. Meanwhile, back in America, people are still losing their jobs and their homes. And we hear from Washington that we need to balance the budget by eliminating more jobs--government jobs. In the 1930s, FDR's brain trust backed huge government infrastructure construction projects like Hoover Dam and the TVA. Everybody knows the story. We are still getting electricity out of Hoover Dam today. Las Vegas gets water from Lake Mead. Yet here we are today, three years into the Obama administration, listening to the amazing news that our infrastructure is falling apart. I can show you news stories from ten years ago saying the same thing. Maybe the impending election has something to do with this epiphany.

Peter Dreier: California Homeowners Mount a Growing Protest Movement Against Foreclosures

Peter Dreier: California Homeowners Mount a Growing Protest Movement Against Foreclosures
This week, the coalition -- which is called Refund California and includes the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the California Nurses Association, the California Community Reinvestment Coalition, the California Teachers Association, PICO (a faith-based community group) and POWER (a Los Angeles community organization) -- began a multi-week series of protests and public events to call on banks to fix the housing mess, pay their fair share of taxes, and help rebuild hard-hit neighborhoods. They want Wall Street banks to pay for destroying jobs and neighborhoods with their greedy, irresponsible and predatory business practices.

These events are also part of a 10-city campaign aligned with The New Bottom Line, a nationwide coalition of 1,000 faith-based and community organizations that seeks to hold Wall Street accountable.
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It's about time. The banksters are organized for political action. The consumers had better get organized as well.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link.

Toronto condo owners allege massive fraud - Toronto - CBC News

Toronto condo owners allege massive fraud - Toronto - CBC News
In a statement of claim they say Manzoor Moorshed Khan, director of Channel Property Management, was the mastermind of the alleged fraud that included falsifying documents to obtain loans in a condo's name and rigging tender processes to funnel contracts to companies he directed.

In his statement of defence, Khan denied all allegations. CBC News could not reach Khan or anyone at Channel Property.
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Thanks to Mark Paszkiewicz for this link, who says, "No consumer protection exists for condominium home owners in Ontario... and it shows." To learn more about condo affairs up north, Mark advises us to check out the Condo Information Centre, and CAFCOR, the Canadian Alliance for Condominium Owners' Rights.

Tories aim to protect Canadians' right to fly the flag

Keeping a Canadian from flying the flag could result in a fine or two years in jail.

People actually have been prevented from flying the flag in Canada.

Last year, a couple living in a retirement community in the southwestern Ontario town of Lakeshore were told to take their flag off their garage after the homeowners' association complained that it looked “trailer trashy.”

In 2009, Canadian war veterans in Ottawa were told to take their flags off their balconies by their property managers.
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Whether it be the American stars and stripes or the Canadian maple leaf, HOAs and national flags have had a difficult co-existence. Now that the bill is about to be unfurled, watch for the Canadian community association industry to lobby to insert weasel words into the bill to allow HOAs to impose reasonable restrictions on how the flag is displayed. Otherwise, some of those lucrative frivolous lawsuits might dry up.

Albuquerque Real Estate Agent Sentenced to 56 Months in Prison for Federal Mortgage Fraud Conviction | New Mexico RealEstateRama

Albuquerque Real Estate Agent Sentenced to 56 Months in Prison for Federal Mortgage Fraud Conviction | New Mexico RealEstateRama
United States Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales announced that, on September 13, 2011, a United States District Judge sentenced Albuquerque real estate agent Kevin Powers, 51, to a 56-month term of imprisonment for his conviction on 17 counts of wire fraud in connection with an unlawful scheme to defraud mortgage lenders and to obtain over $5.5 million in loan proceeds through false pretenses, misrepresentations, and omissions. Powers will be on supervised release for three years after he completes his prison sentence.
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I wonder if the entire residential real estate industry will make some concerted effort to rehabilitate its public image, or if the bankers, realtors, developers, lawyers, property managers, etc., will just expect all of us to trust them again and start buying at some point. You know--just brazen it out.

Las Vegas Woman Pleads Guilty in Connection with Scheme to Fraudulently Control Condominium Homeowners’ Associations | Nevada RealEstateRama

Las Vegas Woman Pleads Guilty in Connection with Scheme to Fraudulently Control Condominium Homeowners’ Associations | Nevada RealEstateRama
A Las Vegas woman pleaded guilty today for her role in a scheme to fraudulently gain control of condominium homeowners’ associations (HOA) in the Las Vegas area so that the HOAs would direct business to a certain law firm and construction company, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Kevin Favreau of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Paul Camacho of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Sheriff Doug Gillespie of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Marcella Triana, 35, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson in the District of Nevada to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

According to the plea agreement, Triana admitted that from at least as early as July 2005 until at least in or about February 2009, she participated in a scheme to control various HOA boards of directors so that the HOA boards would award the handling of construction-related lawsuits and remedial construction contracts to a law firm and construction company designated by Triana’s co-conspirators.
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And this enormous HOA fraud investigation moves along. Thanks to Shu Bartholomew for the link.

Privatopia ad infinitum

“Our HOA is coming unglued,” Dietmar told me. “We no longer have a board. And the HOA members are not interested in coming to meetings.”

A number of HOAs have gone dormant around the Springs over the years. But Canterbury is different.

On his way out the door, the last remaining board member hired Colorado Management Services to collect dues ad infinitum (that's a fancy Greek term, I think, meaning forever and ever).

CMS collects $150 a year from each of Canterbury’s 55 homeowners. CMS uses the cash to pay the association’s taxes and mails notices of meetings that no one in Canterbury attends.
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Quite a nice arrangement for the HOA manager. No board to report to, the assessments keep rolling in, and the HOA goes on in perpetuity. Call it private government by for profit corporation.

HOA feud in DeSoto pits neighbor against neighbor

DESOTO -- It is a feud that has been going on for months in DeSoto.

It has led to one DeSoto homeowner being tased by police and other homeowners receiving threatening letters in the mail.

Some residents in the Candle Meadow Homeowners Association in Desoto believe there is money that cannot be accounted for in bank accounts and they want to know where the money has been going.
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Fiscal matters are often not as transparent as property owners in Privatopia would like, leading to very short tempers. This story raises a potential double standard with regard to how the media covers HOA governance. Would citizens demanding a municipality account for expenditures be described as engaged in a "feud?"

Make Banks Pay California

Make Banks Pay California
During "It's Time For Wall Street Banks to Pay Week" (September 26-30 in the Bay Area & October 3-6 in Los Angeles) homeowners, community members, faith leaders and students will hold events in hard-hit neighborhoods across the state saying it’s time to make Wall Street banks pay for destroying jobs and neighborhoods with their greedy, irresponsible and predatory business practices.
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Good luck.

Self-service may be new city motto

Dialing a phone to report a pothole is so 2005.

These days, tech-savvy cities offer residents smartphone apps to document quality-of-life troubles.

If you live in San Jose, Glendale or certain parts of Los Angeles, you can point your camera phone at your neighborhood problem, snap a picture, type a description and hit send. The app forwards your GPS coordinates, along with the picture and description, to a city official who can arrange a fix.

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I imagine someone's working on an app for HOAs as well.

Prop. 13 still highly popular, poll finds - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Prop. 13 still highly popular, poll finds - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee
Even though the state is insolvent. Question: if they shut the doors on the local library, stop mowing the grass at the park, fire half the teachers at the elementary school, and lay off a bunch of cops and firefighters--then will people get the connection between property taxation and local public services? However, I agree with Jerry Brown's comment: ""Government has a lot of explaining to do to the people, and unless we can demonstrate a higher level of effectiveness, it would be very hard to get the people to give us new taxes."
Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/23/3932118/prop-13-still-highly-popular-poll.html#ixzz1Ymd8Rz1r

National Fine Print Repository to be a CliffsNotes for contracts - latimes.com

National Fine Print Repository to be a CliffsNotes for contracts - latimes.com
Think of the National Fine Print Repository as a sort of CliffsNotes for contracts. Users will run a search for whatever company they're doing business with. If the contract is in the database, an easy-to-understand summary of key provisions will pop up.

Hirsch said about 20 people are reading and summarizing contracts for the database — a job that must be among the most thankless in the tech world. Their explanations will be written so they can be understood by anyone with a ninth-grade reading level.

The database already contains about 2,000 contracts for banks, credit card issuers, cellphone companies and retirement accounts, Hirsch said. In the future, the scope of industries will include mortgage lenders, insurance providers, travel companies and software makers.
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What a great idea. We have become a fine print society. As Tom Waits says (at about 5:06 in this video) in his song "Step Right Up,"..."The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."
Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Obama tax plan: Survey reveals wealthiest towns where America's millionaires live | Mail Online

Obama tax plan: Survey reveals wealthiest towns where America's millionaires live | Mail Online
This is where the lash of socialism will fall when these folks have to pay taxes at the same rate as their servants.

Copyright Troll’s Assets Targeted for Seizure | Threat Level | Wired.com

Copyright Troll’s Assets Targeted for Seizure | Threat Level | Wired.com

The legal woes of Las Vegas-based copyright-trolling firm Righthaven continued Sunday when one of its creditors moved to seize its assets....Righthaven’s first client, Stephens Media of Las Vegas and operator of the Review-Journal, had invested $500,000 into the Righthaven operation last year. Righthaven’s only other client, MediaNews of Denver and the publisher of the Denver Post and 50 other newspapers, is dropping Righthaven. John Paton, the media concern’s chief executive, said it was “a dumb idea” for the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain to sign up with Righthaven, and would be terminating relations at the end of September.
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And the Las Vegas Review-Journal's deep involvement in this shabby episode is the reason why I never link to their articles, even though some of their reporters have done good work on HOA issues.

The Fundamental Flaw with HOA's | Real Estate, HOA's | The Law Office of J. Patrick Sutton :: J. Patrick Sutton Cases & Issues Blog

The Fundamental Flaw with HOA's | Real Estate, HOA's | The Law Office of J. Patrick Sutton :: J. Patrick Sutton Cases & Issues Blog
"HOA's are far too complex for your neighbors to run. That's why they don't!"
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A succinct statement of what is wrong with HOAs, from lawyer J. Patrick Sutton. Thanks to Fred Fischer for the link.

OC Couple Threatened With $500-Per-Meeting Fines For Home Bible Study « CBS Los Angeles

OC Couple Threatened With $500-Per-Meeting Fines For Home Bible Study « CBS Los Angeles
Homeowners Chuck and Stephanie Fromm, of San Juan Capistrano, were fined $300 earlier this month for holding what city officials called “a regular gathering of more than three people”.

That type of meeting would require a conditional use permit as defined by the city, according to Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), the couple’s legal representation.

The Fromms also reportedly face subsequent fines of $500 per meeting for any further “religious gatherings” in their home, according to PJI.
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This is San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, CA, where HOAs and condo associations are everywhere. It is ironic, though, because this city was founded as a mission by Father Junipero Serra.

Calitics:: Help Save Public Libraries from the Privatization Beast

Calitics:: Help Save Public Libraries from the Privatization Beast
Currently, Library Systems and Services (LSSI) is the only private company that offers turnkey private library management in the United States and is often the only company in line to take over a local library system. LSSI has taken over libraries in Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas and California, and has diminished services and staff while relying on more volunteers to make a profit. Privatization threatens America’s public libraries and library services and community residents are upset that they do no not have a voice in the matter. Read the New York Times article about the struggle in Santa Clarita.
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There are lots of corporations just licking their chops and getting ready to sink their incisors into any public function or asset. It started with trash collection and janitorial services, and now we have mercenaries in Iraq, republicans in the House voting to turn Medicare into a voucher program, public school teachers being fired and charter schools spreading, and now...the public library.

Cool Tools: Homesteading Alone

Cool Tools: Homesteading Alone
This might be an option for some folks who don't want any relationship with the neighbors.

Elizabeth Warren On ‘Class Warfare’: There Is Nobody Who Got Rich On His Own (VIDEO) | Election 2012

Elizabeth Warren On ‘Class Warfare’: There Is Nobody Who Got Rich On His Own (VIDEO) | Election 2012
This is just a wonderful response to all this neoclassical economics, "free market" nonsense. I hope she gets elected to the Senate.

Calculating the city's share of foreclosure costs | WBEZ

Calculating the city's share of foreclosure costs | WBEZ
This is about mortgage foreclosure, but if you are interested in hearing me on WBEZ in Chicago this morning, here is the link.

Build a house for less than $5000 | Cira Car

Build a house for less than $5000 | Cira Car
And what an awesome house it is. Bilbo Baggins would love it.

Eight Forty-Eight | WBEZ

Eight Forty-Eight | WBEZ
I will be on this program in Chicago tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 9:30 or so Central, talking about the mortgage foreclosure situation.

Baylor Religion Survey reveals many see God steering economy – USATODAY.com

Baylor Religion Survey reveals many see God steering economy – USATODAY.com
About one in five Americans combine a view of God as actively engaged in daily workings of the world with an economic conservative view that opposes government regulation and champions the free market as a matter of faith.

"They say the invisible hand of the free market is really God at work," says sociologist Paul Froese, co-author of the Baylor Religion Survey, released today by Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
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This should be an interesting election we have coming up.

Residential Construction and Government Purchases Are Much Bigger Trailing Sectors than Business Equipment

Residential Construction and Government Purchases Are Much Bigger Trailing Sectors than Business Equipment
Then in late 2008 the economy falls off a cliff: business investment in equipment and software collapses, housing investment collapses further to far below any equilibrium level, and exports collapse. Exports and business equipment and software investment start to recover in the third quarter of 2009. If only their good recovery performance had been matched by a recovery in residential investment and an increase in government purchases, we would due fine.

But there was no recovery in residential construction. There was no increase in government purchases. And starting in 2010 the shrinking government sector puts additional downward pressure on the economy.
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Economist Brad DeLong nails it. Take a look at the charts. What is holding back economic recovery? The real estate development industry is still in a state of collapse, and governments at all levels are cutting back and laying off workers.

Bramhall father arrested for 'stabbing to death burglar who broke into his home' | Mail Online

Bramhall father arrested for 'stabbing to death burglar who broke into his home' | Mail Online
A wealthy family man was arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday after allegedly stabbing a burglar to death with his own knife.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038785/Bramhall-father-arrested-stabbing-death-burglar-broke-home.html#ixzz1YLo5Pcvq

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The decline and fall of the British Empire seems to be complete. A man can't even defend his own home.

Low home appraisals hurting housing recovery, agents say - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Low home appraisals hurting housing recovery, agents say - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
A May 2009 law required that appraisers work independently and without undue influence from mortgage brokers, lenders and real estate agents. Mortgage fraud prosecutors say the overhaul was necessary to curtail conflicts of interest and bloated estimates that contributed to the housing debacle.

More than two years later, real estate professionals say the change has inadvertently led to innaccurate appraisals, which is delaying a housing recovery.

"This requirement is costing everybody, including the consumer, because we're not getting quality appraisals," said Tim Singer of Coldwell Banker in Fort Lauderdale.
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Here's how I translate this from RealEstateSpeak to English: "The boom in housing prices that you all loved so much was fueled in large part by bogus appraisals that allowed the whole nation to fantasize about endlessly-increasing property values, without limit. Now appraisers are being confined to boring old reality. If you want your house to increase in value, let us go back to making things up."

Tension in subdivision? Byron uses AK-47 to scare neighbor - The Freeman » The Freeman Sections » Cebu News

Tension in subdivision? Byron uses AK-47 to scare neighbor - The Freeman » The Freeman Sections » Cebu News
The confrontation started when Garcia’s group took over the leadership of the homeowners association of the subdivision yesterday.

Among the first things he did was to change the guards by removing those that were hired by the subdivision developer, Filinvest, with those from Password Security Agency.

Garcia said that when he called the attention of his neighbor about the speed bumps, the American cussed at him.

He alleged that the American told him, “I don’t care who you are. You are nobody.”

Garcia said that he did not like what he heard and showed his AK-47 to the American and said, “Yes, I am nobody but I have this.”
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Yeah, so just in case you think your HOA president is difficult to deal with, try the Philippines. Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Home, Home on the Lane | Sightline Daily

Home, Home on the Lane | Sightline Daily
Vancouver, BC—the city that has served as a North American icon for creating liveable inner cities—is having its own “laneway” renaissance (as alleys are known here). However, in Vancouver, the revival was spawned by sky-high real estate prices, a lack of affordable housing, and an ingenious plan to create ‘hidden density’ in the city’s most desirable single-family neighborhoods. Whereas some might see these underutilized swaths of pavement as merely needing a little beautification, the City saw it as an opportunity to provide badly-needed rental units.
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Tiny, tiny homes in alleys.