The Home Crowd

There was a time, shortly after graduating college when the idea of just packing up the car one day and moving from sunny California to the east coast.  But what to do with all my stuff.  At the time I had a bulky desktop computer, alot of furniture, TV’s, and tons of junk.  Who’d want to move that?  No, sell it, give it, toss it in a dumpster if necessary.

Start over, start clean.  But that takes time, lotsa shopping, and lots of lost weekends searching for the next great coffee table.  Seems like this might be a good product for those brave enough to just go off the grid, leave in the middle of the night, take their clothes and pictures, and leave town with a full tank of gas.

Although it’s just a concept from the designers at Casulo, based out of Germany, it seems as though this would be a great product for those sending the kids off to college (not in furnished dormitory housing), or just someone who needs to relocate and have the basics until they’ve replenished their living environment piece by piece.

(From Casulo via eUpgrader)

I love dogs, so every time I see dog beds, or dog houses that aren’t the typical run of the mill products. You usually see dog beds as the ones sold at most retail spots as carpeted foam pads or giant pillows, and the doghouses are those little sheds or pre-formed plastic bins. But these seem hilarious, and strangely enough, if it was 4 times the size, I’d nap on it from time to time.

From Bark Avenue

Unsightly speaker wires are just expected for those in apartments but it’s understood as it’s a temporary home. But FlatWire has another option for those tenants/homeowners looking to clean up the mess of wires without punch holes in your walls. And perhaps even that’s not an option sometimes. Perhaps you have shared walls between condo units you don’t wanna pierce, wall cavities full of spray foam insulation, or as in the case of many high rise apartments, a concrete wall.

(During Installation)

(After FlatWire is applied to walls, finished, and repainted over)

But what about folding the wires 90 degrees, just fold it upon itself. My big concern about this would be the heat generated by electrical cables as it is, but it seems to be directed at speakers, and low-voltage lighting, not providing the juice to that 500 watt home theater receiver, so I can’t imagine the paint or wallpaper bubbling itself off the wall. Seems like this may be useful for some of us, but just make sure you remember where you ran the FlatWire, so you don’t go and drive a nail through it years later while hanging a painting.

You can order it off their site, but it’s a little steep. 37$ for 25 feet of the speaker wire, or a home theater package for 250, plus their special adhesive, tape, labor (mudding, sanding, repainting or wallpapering if you choose)

Or you could just just run a wire, and paint over that. Sounds terrible, but you know you’ve seen it done before…

FlatWire (via Lifehacker)

Lifehacker also has a great post of “10 ways to get cables under control”, a how-to guide to keeping those cables under control and out of sight.

The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article discussing the practice of “Cash for Keys”, which quite simply, is paying off those living in foreclosed properties to leave, without incident or destruction. Apparently “Foreclosure Rage” is a frequent enough occurrence to cause banks and lenders to send out their associates to foreclosed properties they suspect the residents are still inhabiting and leave a offer of cash to vacate or to call and negotiate a better offer to leave.

How much better?

The owner, a 43-year-old man with two children who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, says he bought the property in 1993 for $140,000. Three years ago, he says he had the house appraised for $440,000 and took out a $207,000 home-equity loan to pay off credit-card bills and buy his wife a new van. His initial payments were an affordable $1,800 a month.

He fell behind, however, after he went through a divorce and his landscaping business faltered, just as his interest rate was rising. The man worked out a payment plan with the bank and borrowed heavily from his father, but, including penalties, his monthly payments rose to $4,000, he says. After two months, he says, he ran out of money, and the bank foreclosed.

He called Mr. Carver after receiving the cash-for-keys note, but was left cold by the bank’s initial $500 offer to leave the house soon, intact and broom-swept. “If I stay here it will cost them a lot more money,” both men remember the former owner saying.

The man says he was just pointing out that eviction is expensive for the bank and says he had no intention of damaging the house. But he had “pushed the right buttons” for Mr. Carver. “He didn’t actually come out and threaten the property in any way,” Mr. Carver says. “But I assumed that he probably wouldn’t be too happy if he got evicted and locked out.”

Mr. Carver consulted with the bank and upped the offer to $2,800.

So not only are those in foreclosed properties not forced out, but they get a cash bonus to possibly help get a jump start at finding an apartment and get their financial life back on track. The banks however, consider the ‘cash for keys’ practice commonplace and find it beneficial to pay out a small sum rather than to try to market a foreclosed property which has been trashed. Some angry foreclosure owners, it seems, have gotten back at the banks by trashing their homes. Pouring paint on the carpet, having their pets use the home as a giant litterbox, and holes in the walls are commonplace reports. And the banks just find it easier and definitely more profitable to sell a foreclosed home which is in good shape. They’re not even rehabbing/remodeling the trashed ones, they’re taking less to move a trashed foreclosed property rather than put out the time, effort and money which as we’ve learned, only returns 80% at best, usually, of the remodel cost.

Lesson: Take the money and run; Don’t pack up the appliances, smear goat’s blood on the walls and leave the middle of the night.

Buyer’s Revenge: Trash the House after the foreclosure (Wall Street Journal)

DB Fletcher Design out of the UK, has this table which I saw for the first time a couple of years ago, but I still find it impressive with its circular expanding action, for which I can’t even comprehend the machinery within the table itself.

Its intended uses are for the home and the deck of a yacht. I don’t have a yacht, so I’m not even getting into that discussion, but I could imagine how great it’d be to have one of these at home. How? Well, you’re definitely volunteering to host thanksgiving dinner upon delivery for one. Difference is, you likely won’t set up the table until after all the guests have arrived. And as soon as all the oohs die down, you can bust out the ol’ centerpiece. The kid’s table, would be of course, your previous dining table.

Here’s a video of the Fletcher Capstan Table

At their site they have 3 videos available, but I found that one to be the best, as it is the only one with sound. And for good reason, that thing’s loud! I’ve heard quieter pin-setters at a bowling alley.

Anyhow, interested? It’ll set you back about 50-70K according to their website. And it only comes in circle-shaped. Seems like a square shaped table would be great also, so long as it could shape-shift on a 90 degree turn so as to still keep you squared off in whatever dining space you place it in.

DB Fletcher – Link.

Recently, in Miami and Las Vegas, the news broke on BankUnited’s blacklist of condominium properties. BankUnited as well as other lenders have adjusted their guidelines and will not write loans for properties named on the BankUnited list published by the South Florida Business Journal as well as other projects and geographic areas. Now, lenders in this market are not able to establish a value-to-loan value on these condo projects, and have established their guidelines based upon these factors -

Declining market value was the biggest culprit, followed by high investor concentration — as much as 70 percent in one case. BankUnited also cited numerous foreclosures, delinquent homeowners association dues, structural-based litigation and the bank’s existing exposure in the buildings.

(from the South Florida Business Journal) – The Blacklist can be found at the article here.

photo credit: alexdecarvalho

So if you’re in the market in South Florida, you just find another lender right? Well, in december, Vertice ( Wachovia’s wholesale lending unit) stopped writing mortgages for ALL South Florida Condos. If you can find a lender who is, let me know, because I want to know what they’re doing right (and hopefully not disastrously wrong).

As of the first quarter of 2008, South Florida is the most foreclosure-prone market in the U.S., but Las Vegas isn’t far behind and is facing their own hardships as well.

Almost 70 luxury high-rise projects were planned in Southern Nevada last year, totaling 45,616 units, reports Restrepo Consulting Group, a local real estate research firm. However, only 10 of those projects have broken ground; and, 27.5 percent have been suspended or canceled. Many were victims of the souring housing market.

(From the Las Vegas Business Press) – Article here.

So, more casualties to the housing bust. The Seller looking to get out from under a property before risking foreclosure and the Buyer who finds a bargain condo that they could afford even with a traditional mortgage. The Seller is not going to find the same pool of potential buyers as they would have previously, thus leaving them to likely settle for an offer they find less than desirable. The buyer, who may already havegood credit and had been pre-approved by a lender, will find themselves blocked from an opportunity.

Who benefits from this? The buyers with the cash on hand. It seems that very few lenders are going back any prospective buyers, so those with the cash ready may find themselves with some great deals for their home/investment.