Duane’s Real Estate Video July 31
| “It’s a great day to be in real estate! Duane Beisner here… sales manager and a sales representative for ERA real estate. | |||
| Duane’s Quote of the Day
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Duane’s Joke of the Day
Two strands of DNA were walking down the street. One says to the other, "Do these genes make me look fat? Duane’s Business Tip of the Day
New sales scripts need to be tested in the market place before allowing your sales force to use them.
Think about it.
Darwin Award of the Day
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This one is about a moment of blissfully pure and unadulterated stupidity happened while this guy was managing a successful franchise exhaust shop a few years back. He had won a contract to build custom exhausts on a series of hot rods. Due to the exacting workmanship required, he did these jobs after hours when I wasn't distracted by customers and staff.
Tired and a bit bored one evening, he took a break, swigged some soda, and set the Coke can down on the pipe rack. It fell neatly into a length of exhaust pipe. This raised some intriguing possibilities. I wondered if a small acetylene explosion would launch a can from the pipe. I proceeded unimpeded with my experiment.
I welded a plate over one end of the tube, and bored a small hole in the side, just above the plate. I dropped an empty can down the pipe and introduced some acetylene and oxygen though the hole. Test one went well. My trusty Zippo ignited the gas and there was a loud pop--but the can launched a measly ten feet in the air.
Being a perfectionist, I knew I could do better. The empty can was slightly smaller than the 3" pipe, and much could be gained by wrapping the can to fit the pipe. Test two was better. The pop was louder, and the can launched upward with enough force to dent the tin roof of the building.
At this point I realized that I could do some damage, so I moved my enterprise out back behind the shop before proceeding with Test three. I carefully wrapped a full Coke can with a rag, oiled to reduce friction. I rammed it hard down the pipe, but could only get it down about one foot. I aimed the tube straight up (to maximize altitude) and filled the three remaining feet with oxygen and acetylene. I must confess that I experienced a brief flash of doubt, but I overcame it, knelt down a careful eighteen inches from the pipe, and lit the mortar.
The result was considerably more violent than the prior launches.
An extremely loud explosion and a searing flash of heat knocked me over. I caught a brief glimpse of a burning projectile disappearing at high velocity into the night sky. The recoil of the launch had driven the tube a foot into the ground, and the open end of the pipe sported a distinct bell shape. Luckily the pipe had held, and had not blown up in my face. Stunned, I staggered back into the shop and knocked over a six foot length of exhaust pipe. Instead of the usual crash, I heard nothing but a high-pitched buzzing. Break time was over. I carried on working.
Half an hour later I was surprised by two cops tapping me on the shoulder. They were a wee bit agitated, as they had been addressing me for awhile and thought I was ignoring them. After much shouting and several written messages, it became apparent that they were investigating a loud explosion heard behind the 20,000-litre propane tank at the gas station next door. The tank was ten feet away from my test site, behind a wooden fence!
The gas station had, of course, been evacuated. Due to my impaired hearing, I had failed to notice the four or fire engines outside, and was blissfully unaware of the mayhem going on next door. Naturally enough, I denied any knowledge, but my burnt and deaf state didn't help my case. Then a curious cop followed the oxy-acetylene hoses outside...
The incident cost me a severe telling off by the cops and permanent hearing issues, but I count myself lucky. I must confess, though, sometimes I sit back and wonder... What was I thinking?
And where did that Coke can end up?
Duane’s Social Commentary
Homeowner wins right to park truck in own driveway
ODESSA, Fla. - It's hard to believe that A.J. Vizzi spent nearly $200,000 defending his right to park his own pickup truck in his own driveway.
When he first moved in back in 1997, Vizzi was told that parking his large truck in the driveway wasn't against the subdivision's rules. But years later, the Eagles Masters Association, which governs the entire community, said it did violate their rules and therefore, the truck had to go.
It didn't end there. Knowing the truck did not fit in his garage, Vizzi decided to stand his ground.
The homeowners association sued Vizzi, and for two exhausting years, the two parties battled in court.
"They just didn't care," Vizzi told FOX 13. "It was like, 'our rules overrule what your community says because we're a master association and, you know, we're right and you're wrong.' I couldn't believe I had to go hire an attorney just to defend myself against this, what was a meritless lawsuit."
In December of 2008, Vizzi and his family got an early Christmas present: A judge ruled in their favor. It was finally over, they thought. But the homeowners association appealed the decision, and off to court they went once again.
Finally, in March of this year, A.J. won again and a judge awarded him more than $187,000 in legal fees just this week.
"I think what people should take away from this is that homeowners should be left alone unless it’s a very serious issue," Vizzi's attorney, Dan Anderson said. "And, certainly, requiring a homeowner to spend over two hundred thousand dollars to defend themselves simply to park a vehicle in the driveway just doesn't make any sense at all."
Despite the cash, it's Vizzi parking his truck in his own driveway that remains the biggest victory of all.
"I think that maybe I was just being bullied by this group," said Vizzi, "and maybe now they'll think twice."
In a news release from his law firm, Anderson said the association will have incurred more than $300,000 in legal fees and costs after paying the Vizzis. He said the Vizzis regret the fact that the homeowners will end up paying the bill, but had no other choice aside from giving in to the association's demands.
Duane’s Real Estate News…
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Barron’s - Landlords rejoice
Demographic and economic forces, together with some perversities of government policy, are combining to push the share of ownership back to where it was in the early 1990s. Already, in the wake of the housing bust that brought on the Great Recession, the share of U.S. households owning homes has slid steadily—from 69% at its peak in 2004 to 67.2% in this year's first quarter. And the rate is likely to fall to its 1993-94 level of 64% by 2015. The flip side of this trend is a rising rental rate, which probably will hit 36% by 2015, versus 32.8% in 2004. Every percentage-point increase represents nearly 1.3 million households, and the average household includes more than two people—so roughly 10 million extra folks could be moving into rentals over the next five years. Why? From now through 2015, the long slog that will unfortunately characterize the economic expansion will bring slow growth in jobs and wages.
That pace of improvement should be just strong enough to permit new households to form, but not robust enough for the members of those households to afford to own homes. In addition, lax lending standards, fraud and predatory lending practices— key factors in the unrealistic bubble in home ownership in the mid-2000s and the subsequent debacle—appear to have become rarer, at least temporarily. Demographics also will deal home sellers and builders a clear blow. Not surprisingly, the home-ownership rate tends to rise with age. For example, while the overall U.S. rate is 67.2%, the rate for households headed by someone under 35 is just 38.9%. Thus, whenever the age distribution of households tilts in favor of younger adults, the overall home-ownership rate declines.
That happened in the early 1980s, when young (and numerous) baby boomers began to form households. And, says demographer Peter Francese, former president of American Demographics magazine, a similar tilt is likely over the next half-decade. Francese projects substantial growth in households formed by people under 35, who mainly rent rather than own. Worsening the shift will be a decline in the number of households led by people 35 to 49 years old—the very ages when there is normally a huge jump in ownership. Francese does expect a rise in households led by people 50 and older, but the boost to ownership from this won't be great. Home-ownership rates tend to level off when Americans reach their late 40s and early 50s.
This is Duane signing off. Happy Trails to you! As always, I am proud to be an American. You can email me at duane.beisner@era.com... Or visit my website at www.rejedi.com
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