I’ve been hearing a few familiar clichés on the radio recently…
“Tired of setting your money on fire every month?”
“Stop throwing away your money renting!”
Maybe you thought that the dramatic and decisive collapse of the housing bubble would have rid us of this type of nonsense marketing. Well, you thought wrong. The twist this time though, is that the advertiser in question isn’t pushing residential real estate, but 800-1,500 sqft garage bays in a sort of garage condo type building.
Setting Your Money on Fire
Tired of setting your money on fire every month, renting storage?
…
Lots of you… have stuff you love or hobbies you love with no good place to put it or do it! GarageTown solves that problem forever, while you make a smart investment in commercial real estate.
…
Stop paying rent!
You Don’t Even Have to do the Math
If… you’re renting commercial space, your cash flow is taking an unnecessary beating.
…
Stop throwing away your money renting, and start saving by owning.
…
Check out the five-year financing plans available. You don’t even have to do the math! We did it for you!
I thought you all might get a good afternoon laugh out of those ads.
“massive fireplace, a caretaker’s residence and other outbuildings”
Oh, and the second one happens to be formerly owned by one Al Capone.
When I do finally decide to jump into the housing market, I think I’d be doing myself a disservice not to seriously consider other parts of the country where your housing dollars seem to go a bit further than they do in Seattle.
P.S. – Yes, I realize the $2.5 million price tag on Capone’s hideout is the starting bid for a foreclosure auction which is not really directly comparable to the price of a MLS-listed home. This post is meant to be light-hearted. Note the “Humor” tag.
Okay this is just too funny not to post. Over in my favorite forum thread Detrimental Listing Photos Everett_Tom spotted this gem [update: the listing photo has since been changed—original screenshot here], where the (presumably) brown grass in the listing photo has been extremely poorly painted over in bright green in the only photo on the listing. Shortly thereafter, I spotted another similar example [original screenshot here], where the digital green spray paint is creeping all the way up the fence.
I was looking through the real estate section Half Price Books recently and stumbled upon an interesting book: Tips and Traps When Buying A Home, by Robert Irwin. The edition of this book I was thumbing through was published in 1996, and was just chock full of all kinds of helpful advice, such as this:
You want to buy as soon as you see prices going up. Never mind that it’s a seller’s market and you’ll have to pay more today than you could have for that same property last year. If prices are going up, the home you buy today will be worth even more next year and, hopefully, more still the year after that. You want to catch and ride the wave.
And this:
How Do You Know When the Market Turns Around?
It’s easy to tell. You can simply read the real estate articles in your local newspaper.
…
Or you can make contact with a real estate broker, announce that you want to wait until the market gets better, and ask for a call when there’s a turnaround.
Following below is a four-page excerpt from this 238-page book of gems that I found to be especially entertaining. I hope you enjoy it as well. Click any page to enlarge it to a more readable size.
The foreclosure scammers are out in force, and they’re coming at the “opportunity” from all angles. Not only are there unscrupulous people out there trying to dupe struggling home debtors out of their money, but now even the financially stable (homeowners or not) are apparently becoming targets.
Check out this spam I recently received:
From: 1 Day Dough To: The Tim Subject: Flip REOs With Proof Of Funds
It’s no secret that the biggest area of opportunity in Real
Estate right now is in For’eclosures. There is a tidal wave of
them for us to ca’sh in on.
The rules of engagement have changed though.
The good news is I’ve cracked the code and so no there’s NOTHING
to hold you back.
Join me Thursday June 4th at 8:00 PM ET /5:00 PM PT for a fr’ee
webinar where I will share with you the details on how you can
start flipping For’eclosure deals immediately with none of your
own mo’ney or cre’dit.
Space is limited. Reserve your seat now here
[website address removed]
Here’s to you and me making 2009 our best year EVER!
W’ow. I should probably ju’mp on this opportunity right AWAY!
