Wall Street Bailout or Democrat Handout?

Enough is Enough. I am sick and tired of watching all the lies and distortions about who is to blame for what is going on with Wall Street.

It isn’t the fault President Bush or Senator John McCain. They both had enough foresight to warn a America of an impending financial disaster. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears or was shouted down by leaders in the Democrat party that were busy padding their pockets while helping their friends get rich and Senator Barack Obama is in it up to his neck while wagging a finger of condemnation and blame at the Bush Administration and Republicans in general.

Now I don’t expect Barack Obama to nationally accept blame for this Wall Street crisis personally or for his party. Honesty and being forthright have never been a priority for Mr. Obama however to blame this Administration and the Republican party is much like an arsonist accusing the Firemen of torching the house.
What is even worse is the fact that Obama is lying about it and the Main Stream Media is swearing to it. “Give Me a Break!” said President Clinton about Obama during the primary and he was right! We have ventured so far from reality and truth that I am not sure that there is enough time before the election to set the record straight.

I have bit my tongue on this subject until it is raw. Now we have “Obama Truth Squads” running amuck in the state of Missouri with Prosecutors and Sheriffs threatening reprisals on Obama detractors. So much for freedom of speech.
Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continue to spew their partisan venom any time they are in front of a camera or microphone. The majority of which are half truths or outright lies. An honest Bipartisan effort will be needed to pass this legislation and Pelosi and Reid can’t shut up long enough to get the job done.

Senator John McCain – Stop attempting to be a Statesmen during this campaign. The McCain I know is a warrior, a scrapper and speaks the truth regardless of who it offends. A straight shooter that will stick up for me! Stop playing nice with someone that endangers the financial and physical security of my family. When Sen. Obama lies, call him out on it. Show us some passion Senator! Don’t show up at a gun fight with a pocket knife! We are counting on you!

Senator Barack Obama – Stop looking into the camera and telling me that you are going to reduce taxes for 95% of Americans when 40% of Americans do not pay taxes. I may not have graduated from Harvard but I can do simple math so stop insulting my intelligence. I have researched your paper thin resume and find you sorely lacking. How many days have you actually served on the job as a US Senator? I believe it is less than 150 actual days on the job. That is less than 6 months actual service as a US Senator. The rest of your time has been spent running for the Presidency. Not only do you have very little experience may of the proposed bills that you have cosponsored shows that you are not only naive when it comes to the economy you are dangerous. You are dangerous on the economy, dangerous on your foreign policy views, show no character with your consistent lies and misrepresentations, demonstrate lack of judgment with by your past associations and your radical socialistic views and associations present a “Clear and Present Danger” to our great nation Sir.

Our financial house may be on fire do to the policies of liberal congressmen forcing banks to generate low income and sub-prime loans while protecting Fanny & Freddy from closer scrutiny but increasing taxes on business and capital gains as Sen. Obama proposes will be like nuking Wall Street.

The Republicans have a plan to help Wall Street with a “Work Out” not a “Bail Out”. By suspending Mark to Market accounting and removing capital the gains tax Wall Street will realize instant liquidity and credit will again be accessible. Other responsible proposals like Federal Insurance on bad loans make more sense and reduces exposure for the tax payers.

The rescue Bill needs to be a stand-a-lone piece of legislation. We don’t need to send billions to a partisan political group like Acorn as proposed by the Democrats or keep home owners in homes that they can not afford at my expense. House Republicans need to make sure that the “Wall Street Bailout” does NOT become another billion dollar “Democrat Handout” so they can buy votes with tax payer money.

Do I agree we should bailout Wall Street? No I do not however our financial house is on fire. Let’s do what is needed to put the fire out THEN look for the arsonist. Unfortunately that will be well AFTER the election is over. I hope everyone takes some personal responsibility to research the real cause of this crisis before they vote on November 4th. If they don’t the only “Change” we have may be what is left in our pockets.

Wake Up America!

Project Lifeline was yet another disappointing program that was launched this week with the pretense of a temporary solution to the ever growing foreclosure crisis faced by the housing industry.

Project Lifeline consist of six of the ten major mortgage companies giving a 30 day reprieve on foreclosures to homeowners that are 90 days or more delinquent on their home payments. This 30 day grace period is intended to allow homeowners that are in default to secure refinancing. Obviously the planners of this new program have not attempted to seek financing in today’s market let alone try to shop a bad credit loan in 30 days or less. (more…)

Morgan Carey (aka SEO Guy) who operates one of the largest real estate forums on the Internet admitted publicly Friday November 2nd on his real estate Blog that his Canadian based company did hack into the Pro Real Estate Network Forum also known as PREN.

According to administrators of PREN and Mr. Carey’s REW Forum Hacking Apology sites someone from REW used a password from a former Client that is now a Forum Moderator at PREN to hack into the system and delete threads that openly discussed many ethic violations and misconduct of Morgan Carey and Real Estate Webmasters. PREN immediately discounted the Carey apology as little more than damage control and called for Morgan Carey to name the employee, dismiss him/her and file a criminal complaint with the Canadian authorities. This has not taken place as of the time of this posting.

It seems as though passwords can be harvested from these public real estate forums and inasmuch as we all tend to reuse the same passwords it leaves us open for identity theft. It is recommended by industry experts to use passwords that are unique to any public forum and to NEVER reuse any password on bank or email accounts.

Although SEO-Guy (Morgan Carey) blames an unnamed employee for the forum break-in and has downplayed the incident law enforcement agencies have now been involved since Federal Statutes have been violated.

The recent fire storm in the real estate forums is an unwelcome distraction for those of us that are already besieged by an industry slump and poor press. This classic “David vs Goliath” reenactment is certain to gain more negative press for the housing industry as Agents from several states have been adversely affected by REW Forum Hacking and deletion of these threads.

According too many experts in the field of “Search Engine Optimization” back-links from these forums aide in search engine rankings for real estate websites. When these aged pages and agent links were deleted it negatively impacted the rankings of the Agents involved and the PREN forum itself. Since most real estate transactions begin on the Internet these prized search engine rankings can be worth a great deal of income to any Agent or company fortunate enough to have them.

I was also informed that Morgan Carey and REW has SEO and link Clients competing from many of the same markets of the Agents that were impacted in PREN. In my humble opinion the action taken by REW gives SEO Guy’s Clients an unfair advantage and is outright Industrial Sabotage.

Please remember to change your passwords if you belong to any of these public forums to protect yourself from identity theft. This is becoming an extremely cut throat industry I am ashamed to say and all precautions need to be taken.

~Rhonda McMillan
Broker

This week we have all watched in horror as thousands of homes have been lost in the recent California Wild Fires.

While the wild fires are almost an annual event now do in part to mismanagement of public and private lands as well as urban sprawl, this year was especially devastating with over 1 Million residents evacuating thus far.

Why does a Columbia Missouri real estate Agent pay so much attention to a natural disaster in California you ask? Simple economics for us in Mid-Missouri is the short answer. In my almost 20 years of involvement in the Missouri real estate market I have noted a substantial surge of California property buyers after every major natural disaster and I predict this one will be no different.

Why do California residents choose Missouri? That answer is simple as well. California property owners are some of the savviest home buyers in the nation. They generally do their home work when faced with relocation. Missouri offers more bang for their buck than most competing states and their dollar has considerably more buying power than it did in California. Once a California home owner cashes out they are surprised at just how far their proceeds will go. Funds from the sale or insurance settlement for a modest 2 bedroom ranch style home on 5 acres in southern California can be converted to a ranch consisting of 200-300 acres with a 4+ bedroom modern home with all of the necessary outbuildings. This is an example but I have seen it happen time and time again.

Another major reason that California property owners relocate to Missouri is for the same reason they are in Southern California to begin with. They tend to be lovers of nature. While Missouri does not have the desert landscape and terrain they are accustom to, our hardwoods, forests, pristine rivers and wildlife are enough to please any nature lover.

Southern Californian’s typically are horse lovers. There is an estimated 300,000+ horses in San Diego County alone. Missouri’s hardy pastures and rolling hillsides are well suited to horses, cattle or any other type of livestock.

And as for cattle, Missouri is second only to Texas for cattle production and even leads Texas as the number 1 state in the nation for cattle per acre.

According to one of our biggest referral partners Al Rosson of Cabrillo Mortgage & Realty Services, property owners have begun inquiries in to selling before the fires are even out. Al says that this is not unusual and that even home owners that did not suffer a loss often consider selling due to the fact they are simple tired of all the near misses.

When I asked Al about the future of real estate in San Diego he replied “With the natural beauty of San Diego and weather that is remarkably similar to the Canary Islands San Diego County will continue to have some of the most sought after property in the nation. While many residents will relocated soon after this fire, there are many more that are waiting to move in. We will recover and be stronger than ever. We always do”.

So while our hearts go out to all of the home owners in Southern California that have suffered a loss I can assure them there is a brighter road ahead….the road to Missouri.

~Rhonda McMillan