I really thought I was over my quaint vintage dump RE search...

OK, first here is a hot ass who lost track of her fishnets:


What do you guyz think of this...?

I see some potential that hasn’t been marred by granite countertops and such…

Dear Internet

I would like to buy this lovely, historic, foreclosed Pac Heights home, but seem to be lacking a few million dollars...
What should I do?

Groovy Gangsta Heroes

Tanuki Coon Dog Central
"Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home.

His little Cape Cod is an urban Appalachia of coon dogs and funny smells. The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man's teeth; the wallpaper is as flaky and dry as an old woman's hand.

Beasley peers out his living room window. A sushi cooking show plays on the television. The neighborhood outside is a wreck of ruined houses and weedy lots.

"Today people got no skill and things is getting worse," he laments. "What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."

A licensed hunter and furrier, Beasley says he hunts coons and rabbit and squirrel for a clientele who hail mainly from the South, where the wild critters are considered something of a delicacy.

Though the flesh is not USDA inspected, if it is thoroughly cooked, there is small chance of contracting rabies from the meat, and distemper and Parvo cannot be passed onto humans, experts say.

Doing for yourself, eating what's natural, that was Creation's intention, Beasley believes. He says he learned that growing up in Three Creeks, Ark.

"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense."

Hunting is prohibited within Detroit city limits and Beasley insists he does not do so. Still, he says that life in the city has gone so retrograde that he could easily feed himself with the wildlife in his backyard, which abuts an old cement factory.

He procures the coons with the help of the hound dogs who chase the animal up a tree, where Beasley harvests them with a .22 caliber rifle. A true outdoorsman, Beasley refuses to disclose his hunting grounds.

"This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard."

Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in.

A beaver was spotted recently in the Detroit River. Wild fox skulk the 15th hole at the Palmer Park golf course. There is bald eagle, hawk and falcon that roam the city skies. Wild Turkeys roam the grasses. A coyote was snared two years ago roaming the Federal Court House downtown. And Beasley keeps a gaze of skinned coon in the freezer.

Thursday's shall be Beasley Urban Heroes days - if I can find enough of them.

Happy Weird Fishnet Friday!

You Must Be Weird Or You Wouldn't Be Here!

After seeing this Like...Dreamsville post tumbling about on Tumblr lately, I was reminded that I had intended to post it somewhere, but must have been distracted by all of the fishnets.

[MP3] City Center - Open/House


More NSFW Hot Ass in Fishies can be found here.

John Nefastis - A scientist obsessed with perpetual motion. He has tried to invent a type of Maxwell's demon, in an attempt to create a perpetual motion machine. Oedipa visits him to see the machine after learning about him from Stanley Koteks.
Stanley Koteks - An employee of Yoyodyne Corporation, Oedipa meets him when she wanders into his office while touring the plant. He knows something about the Trystero, but he refuses to say what he knows.
Randolph Driblette - The director of the production of Wharfinger's The Courier's Tragedy seen by Oedipa and Metzger. Driblette is a leading Wharfinger scholar, but he commits suicide before Oedipa can extract any useful information from him about Wharfinger's mention of the Tristero. Oedipa's meeting with Randolph after the play, however, sparks her to go on a quest to find the meaning behind Trystero.
Mike Fallopian - Oedipa and Metzger meet Mike Fallopian in The Scope, a bar frequented by Yoyodyne employees. He tells them about The Peter Pinguid Society. Oedipa searches him out again later.
Genghis Cohen - The most eminent philatelist in the LA area, Cohen was hired to inventory and appraise the deceased's stamp collection. Oedipa and he discuss stamps and forgeries.
Professor Bortz - Formerly of Berkeley, now teaching at San Narciso, Bortz wrote the editor's preface in a version of Wharfinger's works. Oedipa tracks him down to learn more about Trystero.
...
After being defeated by Thurn und Taxis in the 1700s, the Tristero organization goes underground and continues to exist, with its mailboxes in the least suspected places, often appearing under their slogan W.A.S.T.E., an acronym for We Await Silent Tristero's Empire, and also a smart way of hiding their post-boxes disguised as regular waste-bins. In the plot of the novel, the existence and plans of the shadowy organization are revealed bit by bit, or, then again, it is possible that the Tristero does not exist at all. The novel's main character, Oedipa Maas, is buffeted back and forth between believing and not believing in them, without ever finding firm proof either way. The Tristero may be a conspiracy, it may be a practical joke, or it may simply be that Oedipa is hallucinating all the arcane references to the underground network, that she seems to be discovering on bus windows, toilet walls, et cetera.

What a Pathetic Political Circus Show!

Shame on you Mr Bush by *kasovitz

Gee, I was so reassured by Bush's speech!

WALNUTS amusement with David Letterman!


In case you missed it, I highly recommend reading this mother of all rip-offs article I mentioned in the comments earlier today.


WALNUTS!

Tentacled Tattoo

CJ’s a huge H.P. Lovecraft* fan, so he got together with Mike Tidwell of Obscurities, Dallas and together they came up with this masterpiece.

Other thoughts: Why is it that real estate agents can't spell? A listing in my inbox included the following description:
Description: Romantic cottage for all ages! Smallest jewell on the tierra! Perfect for downsizers, first timers, condo alternative, investment, fixer client etc. Bid opening Sept 16. Call LO for bid package. As Is sale.Court confirmation required

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!
Charlie the Unicorn via the (NSFW, but the video is) Money Shot blog:

Sherman H. McCoy pretty much sums it up with the following statement: It's not porn, it's just a trip...

Gummy Bears, Unicorns and crappy music:

Another Pathetic Foreclosure Story

I nearly choked on my omelette while reading this one in the Sunday paper this morning.

I'm glad it's done," Gardner said wearily. "I just want to sit down and have some Hennessy."
...
Most foreclosures nowadays are homes purchased just a year or two ago with no money down. But the Gardners' home is different. Joann's parents, Johnnie Gardner, 87, and Estelle, 88, bought the two-bedroom in the Sobrante Park neighborhood in 1954 for $11,500. His salary as an electrician at the Oakland naval shipyard allowed them to make the payments.

But in recent years, Joann and her brother refinanced it several times for increasingly larger amounts.

The final refinance at the end of 2006 left the family owing $454,000. The monthly payments of $3,362 exceeded the household income of $3,144.

What happened to the money from all the refinances?

Gardner can't quite say. Some went to paying off credit cards; some was eaten up in huge loan fees. What is clear is that the family has not made a mortgage payment since December 2006.

Foreclosed family's last goodbye to home

How does someone lose track of $454K?! I'd really like the complete story on this one. Where's the brother who was also involved in these refinancing schemes? Smoking crack somewhere?

Seeker of Sweet Deals™ Addiction Returns

This short sale is currently listed well below Zestimate and it includes a new foundation, roof and other key structural fixes for an Art and Crafts era house.
Here's the 5 year Zillow chart:

Nicely preserved vintage details:


Here's the 10 year Zillow chart:

Due to issues with a "tenant" who is getting free rent I haven't seen the inside yet. However, what I saw from the outside suggests someone put some serious effort into key structural issues within the last 5 years. The newly reinforced foundation couldn't be older than that. Given places like this other sweet deal™ (in a far more expensive location) that can make a huge difference in real cost vs. Zestimate.

Thoughts?

I love real estate in foreclosure!
I love Craftsmens
I love entangled sheets
And Victorians!
Boom de yada!
Boom De Yada!

In other news, I was amused by this video Ogg sent me:



"Safe as Houses" via Fabulist!

More on the Foreclosed Congresswoman

As mentioned in the comments yesterday Congresswoman Laura Richardson denied foreclosure reports stating "the residential property in Sacramento California is not in foreclosure and has NOT been seized by the bank." Hmmm, perhaps she has a different definition of foreclosure given the latest reports.
According to the WSJ:
The Sacramento home of Rep. Laura Richardson was sold in a public auction two weeks ago for $388,000. The Southern California Democrat bought the house for $535,000 with no money down in January 2007 and owed nearly $575,000 to Washington Mutual when the mortgage was sold earlier this month at a significant loss to Red Rock Mortgage Inc.

Additional details from a recent L.A. Land post from the L.A. Times:
They took a beating," James York, the Sacramento real estate broker who said he bought Richardson's house at a foreclosure auction, told the Daily Breeze.

The Daily Breeze report is based on public documents the newspaper published on its website, and an interview with York. It is at odds with Richardson's statement yesterday, in which the Long Beach Democrat said she had worked out a loan modification with her lender, and would "fulfill all financial obligations" on the property.

The Daily Breeze: "Rep. Laura Richardson lost her Sacramento home in a foreclosure auction two weeks ago, and left behind nearly $9,000 in unpaid property taxes. Richardson, D-Long Beach, appears to have made only a few payments on the house, which she bought in January 2007 for $535,000."

The newspaper's report -- that the house was foreclosed and an auction took place -- appears to conflict with Richardson's statement that the house "is not in foreclosure." (see the entire statement at the bottom of this post). Richardson's office has not responded to a request from L.A. Land for additional information about her mortgage and loan modification. The Daily Breeze reports she declined to be interviewed about the controversy.

The newspaper's report also calls into question Richardson's statement that she had worked out a loan modification with her lender and would fulfill all financial obligations related to the property. The Daily Breeze reports that the house sold for only $388,000, far below the $574,000 that Richardson owed on the property. Further, the Daily Breeze reports that the new owner, York, "assumed responsibility for Richardson's unpaid property tax bill of $8,950.79."

"Tell Laura I'd be happy to have her pay my property tax," he told the newspaper.

Also:
Richardson: Delinquent on $8,950 in taxes

Notice of Trustee's Sale

One of Richardson's first votes upon arriving in Congress last fall was on the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. The bill helped homeowners by preventing the federal government from charging income tax on debt forgiven in a foreclosure, such as the $200,000 forgiven in Richardson's foreclosure.
Joining 385 of her colleagues, Richardson voted aye.

I just don't get it. Why would she lie about something that could be so easily verified? Will she next say that she didn't realize her home was sold in a public auction two weeks ago? I guess we'll find out...

Video UPDATE!
(Disabled due to annoying AARP commercials)

Seriously Seeking “Advise”

Victorian House by ~smokleopian

I’m not much of a condo person and have been watching the market for the past couple of years in hopes of an upgrade to a real house (or multiplex) that isn’t subject to the whims of an HOA.
Other than tracking a few properties online, I haven’t been actively looking and instead waiting for prices to drop. One of them is a short sale that has dropped nearly 300K below the Zillow Zestimate and looks like a pretty sweet deal, so I viewed it today and am considering making an offer. Supposedly two other offers were already submitted. Ideally, I would prefer to make an offer subject to sale of my condo, yet I do have a line of credit that would allow me to put 20% down without contingencies and enough equity to list my place at a below market value. While it’s an old house (with the structural issues one finds in Victorians), whoever owned the place before the “facing foreclosure guy”, put some money into upgrading plumbing, electrical, central heating and air conditioning, automatic watering, etc., so it’s not in bad shape in comparison to many similar ones I’ve looked into and has the added bonus of commercial zoning in a downtown location, so if all else fails could be raised and replaced with a commercial building. In essence, I like the location, the house has potential and the price is quite nice, but I’m risk adverse and unsure whether to risk an offer without a contingency of sale – even if I could wing it for a few months.
Onto the bizarre viewing experience today…The place was supposedly vacant, but this guy was there apparently cleaning and said we couldn’t view one of the bedrooms because someone was asleep in there. He didn’t have a strong command of the English language (to say the least), so we assumed he was hired by the selling agent in preparation for an open house she was holding an hour later. Well we later realized the “cleaning guy” was in fact the “owner” of the house and bought it over a year ago for over 100% financing. He currently owes one lender 600K and the 2nd 150K and it’s currently listed for significantly less. He seemed so nonchalant about the whole thing one would never know he owned the house. When we asked him specific questions about the roof, electrical, zoning, etc. he really didn’t seem to have a clue. Apparently when it was first listed there were appliances that are now missing. He said they were broken, but one wonders if he pawned them to pay mortgage payments he couldn’t afford. Overall, it was a perfect example of why there’s a mortgage meltdown. If the guy barely knew anything about the electrical upgrades, roof, plumbing, retrofitting, etc. of the house he bought for over 3 quarters of a million dollars how could he possibly understand what he was getting himself into? Given his poor English, I wonder if his original brokers spoke Spanish. Most likely, they didn’t or if they did, clearly didn’t explain what he was financially responsible for. WTF?