Highest and Best Use

Plastic makes things work and even eco-terrorists would be hard pressed to deny that. Unfortunately plastic comes from oil so there's a problem there. In real estate appraisal the term "highest and best use" means what a property would be worth if it were put to it's best use. An example might be if we were appraising a home in the center of an industrial area. It's value would be much more if it were turned into an industrial use.

So if you toss a 2L coke bottle, a landfill destination is not it's best use. Even if you recycle it, that's ideally not good enough either. They smush them into bales, melt them down, and reform them into what they were in the first place. That all takes a lot of energy. It's like turning the plastic bottle back into a plastic bottle with a lot of costly stops along the way.

But if you apply the highest and best use it comes out like this: the coke bottle gets refilled. End of story. Same product. Same bottle. Endless reuses. THAT is what highest and best means. The label stays. The cap gets resealed. No tossing. No landfilling.

But this solution is so labor-intensive that it is uneconomical. I have two suggestions to overcome that: a) put a $1 refundable deposit fee on each plastic container (not just the current CRV, but milk, yougurt, butter, etc.) to pay for hiring people to separate this material at the landfill or, b) take Sheriff Joe's example and have inmates do this work. Pay 30 cents an hour which applies to their room and board costs at the jail.

But how does this work in real life? Well, until we get sophisticated enough to separate our recycles at the curb we have to do it at the landfill. It's dirty, time-consuming work and not limited to plastic. Think about steel, aluminum, cardboard, glass, etc. Again, inmates make sense here.

Until somebody in Washington or Sacramento gets on board with recycling there are no options other than the old wax-coated milk containers. At least they are biodegradable.

Here is the Flying Heritage Museum's description of this aircraft. Please note the cockpit and canopy and see comments at end of description:

"FIESELER FI 103 V-1
Place in history: The V-1 Vergeltungswaffe (German for vengeance weapon) was the first rocket-powered missile used in war. A precursor to today's cruise missiles, it was aimed primarily against England and Belgium. Launched from aircraft or catapult ramps on land, a simple pulse jet engine gave the V1 a distinctive sound that could be heard from ten miles away, earning it the nickname of "buzzbomb" or "doodlebug." The V-1's main production facility was the notorious underground complex of Mittelwerk at Nordhausen in the Hartz Mountains, where slave-laborers assembled the missiles in appalling conditions."

Editor; this was a PILOTED V-1 which, fortunately for German pilots, never saw action in WW II. As you can see in my photo the engine intake is directly above and behind the cockpit. While the idea sounded good on paper (pilot bails out after aiming at target) for obvious reasons it would not have worked well for the pilot. Believe it or not Hitler felt it was "inhumane" and none were ever launched with ordnance. More info at www.flyingheritagemuseum.com.

A Tiny Bit of Good Real Estate News (for a change)

(Editor's Note: Here are some snippets of sales trends from our trade magazine. Maybe things will begin to turn around soon....):

NEW HOME SALES ROSE 2.4 PERCENT IN JULYSales of new, single-family homes rose 2.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development released Tuesday.

The uptick represents a modest increase from June figures at 503,000, but sales still remain roughly 35.3 percent below July 2007 estimates of 796,000 units.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE ON THE RISE, ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT
Consumer sentiment rose to 56.9 in August, up from 51.9 in July, according to The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™ released Tuesday, indicating a slow shift toward an economic recovery, albeit one that analysts predict will likely take until well into next year to fully materialize.

HOPE NOW REPORTS RECORD NUMBER OF FORECLOSURE WORK OUTS IN SECOND QUARTERHOPE NOW, a private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors working to prevent foreclosures reported today that it helped a record number of homeowners avoid foreclosure in the second quarter, completing more than 522,000 mortgage workouts for loans that were headed for default.

The alliance adds that its mortgage servicers provided workouts for approximately 181,000 borrowers in June, an increase of 14,000 over May, approximately 105,000 of whom received some form of a repayment plan.

HOPE NOW also reports that the total number of foreclosures prevented by mortgage servicers since its inception in July 2007 has climbed to approximately 1.9 million.

C.A.R. REPORTS SALES INCREASED 43.4 PERCENT; MEDIAN HOME PRICE FELL 40.3 PERCENT IN JULY Home sales increased 43.4 percent in July in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 40.3 percent, C.A.R. reported Monday.

"Sales improved significantly in July 2008 and remained above the 400,000 level for the third consecutive month," said C.A.R. President William E. Brown. "Deeply-discounted, distressed sales continue to drive volume in many regions of the state. July also was the first full month during which the effects of higher $729,000 conforming loan limits likely had an impact on closed sales."

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during July 2008 was $350,760, a 40.3 percent decrease from the revised $587,560 median for July 2007. The July 2008 median price fell 4.5 percent compared with June's revised $367,130 median price.

New Property Management Services

We are excited to announce that we are launching a new service to complement our real estate business . . . a property management enterprise called, well you see the image. We now have a broker's license that permits this service and have completed five college courses as well as survived the 5 hour state exam to reach this point.

With sales still in the slow lane many property owners are putting their homes on the rental market to generate cash flow and we are ideally positioned to service clients in Lake Shastina not only because of the license but the fact that unlike most management companies in our county with accounts in Lake Shastina, we live here.

So if you or a friend own a residence that has been on the market for too long and are thinking of putting it up for rent please give us a call. We can send you an outline of our program and explain our service in more detail.

Sicko Math

I'm sure you remember those endearing word problems we all enjoyed in school .... Little Jimmy goes to the store to buy apples. His mommy gave him 46 cents and each apple cost 5 cents. It was 1,320 feet from his home to the store. A train was passing him at 37 miles per hour. Was it sunny or raining when Little Jimmy got home? I don't know about you but they very nearly spelled the end to my academic experience. I began wondering just how enjoyable a ditch digging career might be at that point.

So it was recently that Sally and I had the opportunity to revisit those warm, fuzzy moments when we began studying for our brokers' licenses. The test for this license is 200 questions and five hours long and made up entirely of word problems with multiple choice answers. And as Billy May says on TV, "BUT WAIT, IT GETS EVEN BETTER !"

Real estate seems to be made up of large doses of law and math. If that doesn't scare you out of the business right there add in word problems with a clock ticking on the wall, proctors marching up and down the aisles, passes needed to go to the bathroom, etc. You get the picture.

So this is where one's test-taking and reading skills come into play big time, because the sickos who write these mind-benders WANT you to fail. That's right. They've made it but you can't, HA, HA. They try every conceivable twist and trick to catch you off guard. Remember double-negatives? "Which of the following are not non-recurring costs?". I think the trick is to cancel the negatives out so it reads 'which of these ARE recurring costs' but don't hold me to that.

Questions may have what we used to call "trigger words" like "always" or "never". Or they will turn on a key word like "approximately" or "nearest to" or "most likely". Sometimes it matters if a word is plural or singular that is, just one letter may spell the difference.

These question writers also include not only useless information that you don't need for the solution but misleading data as well. One clever example began with "John borrowed $2600 to buy a car..." followed by (and I'm not exaggerating) six full sentences full of the term of the note, where he got the loan, when it was due, the interest rate, ad nauseum. And the last sentence, the question itself read "What was the principal amount that John was obligated to pay back?" Duh. $2600 was the correct answer but you had to squirm your way to it through all the smoke and mirrors to see it (another test skill . . . read clean through not only the question but every answer before you jump).

Of course answer choices are also disasters waiting to happen, too. There's always that d) choice, "NONE of the above (!)". You tremble in your shoes to pick that one, it's like they're daring you. And how about "all the above", "none of the above", "a and b only", "c and d only"?

But the really fiendish answers to nasty math questions are all correct; three of them if you do the problem in any one of the three likely wrong ways and one if you lucked out and picked the right way. This is especially fun because many of the tougher questions require multiple calculations in a chaining order, that is, you do one set of figuring and then go back and calculate another set from the answers to the first set to finally drill down to the right answer.

I will close with a small example which will probably send me to Folsom for revealing state secrets, but it's for entertainment purposes only. If you think you have the right answer call me and I'll let you know.

"Sue agreed to buy a home for $310,000 and she deposited $15,000 into escrow. A bank has agreed to loan her 80% of the appraised value which is $295,000. The settlement costs are to be charged to the buyer and amount to 5% of the purchase price. How much additional money must the buyer deposit? a) $74,000 b) $89,500 c) $ 74,500 d) there is infufficient information to arrive at an answer."

PS: Most of you are smart and will get this one but I did not have enough time to scour all seven cram exams (200 questions each) to find the really evil ones.
PS#2; you surely caught the first trap: is her loan $295,000 or is that the appraised value?

The Civil Forum Last Night

I hope you had time to watch this. It displaced the local and national news on my TV anyway. It was a back-to-back interview with each of our leading candidates by the pastor of a church named Rick Warren. I've never heard of the man and I am curious how this program gained center stage in prime time.

It was riveting to be sure. Hard questions, good commentary. Both candidates squirmed to some extent and each revealed strengths and weaknesses. It seemed as if (contrary to how you feel with "official" interviews on the standard CNN & ABC channels) that the candidates were not given the questions ahead of time. Hooray for that in my view, why should they have a chance to rehearse their answers, anyway?

But my problem is that it seemed faith-based, to use a phrase that Mr. Warren posed. Too many questions about church-related issues. It felt almost predestined, to use another religious word. Why were we asking about religions in other countries at all, and not any questions about the sad state of the economy here?

For example, there was a question that said "should we have merit pay for teachers?". I almost gagged. Hey, let's do that for politicians, what do you say? Of course I'm a retired teacher (and yes, I agree with merit pay) but aren't we dodging here? Those who write the laws are exempt from most all our rules. Minimum wage being the least of them. How about rewarding politicians who actually do their job and represent us . . . you know, we the people?

Why was this major media event held in a church in the first place? Couldn't the major networks have done a better, less biased job? Yes, it seemed biased. In favor of conservative, right wing, heartland America. Is that wrong?

What do you think?

Putting Our Resources to Good Use

This is called "cage fighting", where opponents attempt to bloody eachother into subission and thus gain some sort of prize. Personally, I think this is embarassing to our nature and civilized state. I mean, let's go back to Rome, shall we? Where gladiators killed eachother for praise and reward. So why, ten centuries later, are we still enamored with blood-letting?

Well, that's another subject. I'd rather address how this perversion could be adapted to our modern world . . . . make these people soldiers. I mean, who is more qualified? Physical fitness? Hummph. Motivation to kill? There. So why not use these testosterone mistakes defend us?

It's the money you see. If we could pay soldiers what these guys make it'd be different. But we can't. So let's move to the next level.

Pro sports makes millions in this country. Players get mega-million contracts and stadiums are awash with eager fans. The sports franchises appear to be the singlular exception to our present recession.

So.

Let's put our sports pros where our soldiers are. They are fit. They are motivated. All we lack here is the money. But maybe if we diverted the revenue from all the pro sports events into the military budget we'd come out even.

Then we could watch our wars on ESPN.

Vertical Farming

This is Dickson Dispommier, a 67 year old microbiologist at Columbia University. In the September issue of Popular Science he argues that agriculture as we now practice it, is broken. Using 40+% of the available land it is the biggest polluter on the planet and consumes vast amounts of energy and resources.

He proposes instead vertical farms that would solve many existing issues because to start with, they would be located in the centers of our largest cities, thereby removing the huge energy issue of not only harvesting each crop but also transporting it to market.

His 30 story city-block tower would generate enough food and water to feed 50,000people and use the city's sewer supply for not only the water for the plants but fuel to heat them (it is essentially a greenhouse after all). A process has already been invented and tested for separating sewage sludge from effluent and drying it for fuel while purifying the water by using zebra mussels and non-edible plants.

A core concept in this self-sufficient farm is "aquaponics", a combinating of fish farming and hydroponics whereby dirty fish water is used to feed the plants and the plants return clean water for the talapia fish which live in the water beneath them.

Gone would be pesticide runoff and the need for massive doses of fertilizers and pesticides. The building would be self-sufficient and even have a market on the ground floor level where the goods would be sold, including "meat" grown from stem cells from sheep, chicken, and beef. No more slaughter houses and inhumane chicken farms.

Enough of these structures in large cities would support the entire city population and eliminate the mega-corporate farms now occupying so much of our landscape. Dispommier claims one 30 story prototype could easily be erected and tested for the price of one year's farm subsidies now being paid out.

Editor's note: I apologize that I have not provided more detail, I did this piece from memory so to get more, just get a copy of the September issue of Popular Science (as I plan to).

Those Pointey Little Bullet Birds

I'm sure you have them too, these tiny fellas that fly like we only wish we could. I have absolutely no statistics to share . . . wingbeats per second, calories consumed, etc. But it's obvious, isn't it? Hummingbirds are just incredible works of not only physics but art, too. The color. The nervous behaviour. The unbelievable aerodynamics.

And they also have their dangerous side. I don't know about you but they fly much like a 30-06 and seem to me anyway, just as fast. And did I mention they're pointey at one end? I duck reflexively although I know perfectly well they'd never run into anybody. I mean, if they did they'd stick like an arrow, right?

For some reason they don't get along well, either. They spend more time making sure the other guy DOESN'T eat than they spend eating themselves. No wonder they're starved all the time.

And then there's the road trip they make every year. Mexico, isn't it? Can you imagine these aerial yellowjackets flying all that way? I mean they seem to fly awfully fast here at ground level, I wonder how in the world they have enough gas for a trip like that.

We bought those decals in the shape of butterflies and leaves that you put on your windows to keep them from dashing themselves brainless against the pane. The stick-ons are translucent so you can see through them into the yard but somehow iridescent in the bird's eyes so they DON'T see through them into the house. Once in a while a hummer thumps the glass anyway so I don't know how much good they are. At least the little critter seems unhurt and buzzes away in one piece.

I enjoy these humvees a lot more than GM's.

Should We Keep Our Police Department?

There were far more people at the Community Services District (CSD) board meeting last night than usual and the overwhelming sentiment was yes, we want to keep our PD. That said, what the board finally voted on seemed confusing to many, including this writer.

There were three issues / resolutions to be decided: have a non-binding 'advisory' vote on the November ballot to keep the PD or look into other options; disband the PD and spend existing dues on other means of protecting public safety; and finally, should we raise the assessment for the PD from $65 to $97 per parcel per year?

The first two failed to pass but the last one did, 3 to 2. So there will be one measure on the November ballot not three. This reflected the attitude of the 30+ audience and by far most spoke up in favor of keeping the department. Probably one of the most compelling arguments voiced was that although the Citizens Task Force showed very few calls for law enforcement that may in fact have been because the police are here in the first place. Our rate of crime is so low in other words, because we have a police department to prevent it. Sort of like the ounce of prevention idea. Many in the audience felt that if we gave it up and relied on the Sheriff crime would move in to our community.

Following on this idea a 40 year law enforcement veteran said that other communities that had given up their PD's were sorry they did. He went on to reinforce the opinion that having a PD in the first place was a major reason our crime rate is so low. Interestingly, there seemed to be a large share of retired law enforcement in the audience who not only spoke to this point but picked Lake Shastina to retire to.

Another question brought up by the audience was since we pay for protection by the Sheriff already in our taxes, why would we need to pay again for the same thing? As one person put it, in fact shouldn't the county refund what we pay now since we have our own PD and aren't using their services?

Anyway, a powerful meeting indeed. I hope each of you turn out to express your feelings not only on the November ballot but at the next two town hall meetings in September and October. I'll post times and dates as we get closer. This is and important decision folks, and we need to make ourselves heard.

Editor

Jack & Francine

This is Francine. Of course we don't know if she is a she. Maybe she is Frank or Floyd or something. But the thing is we've had her for probably three or four years now and her partner (he was Frank we think) jumped out of the aquarium one night and I was not able to revive him . . . that is to say he did not try to swim around in the toilet bowl.

So we got Jack, a sucker. Excuse me, a pyclostomus___an impossible word to spell by the way, so I'll just use sucker if that's all right with you. Incidentally, have you ever tried to look up a word that you can't spell in the dictionary? How do you do that??

He . . again, we have no idea but he's too ugly to be a girl and anyway it just seems like it should be a couple . . he looks like a small shark except for his mouth.

But his mouth is why we got him. You see this type of fish spends all day inching his way along the sides of the tank eating the algae. We put one in our other (tropical) fish tank for this reason, too.

The goldfish tank is spotless now. Well, I mean as clean as one could expect__I wouldn't drink the water myself. And Francine? Why she helps in her own way, too. Maybe all goldfish do this but she spends her day in a vertical position cleaning the gravel. She'll pick up one piece, mouth it and then spit it out. She goes over the whole bottom this way while Jack is busy vacuuming the sides.

Anyway, they both accept visitors so if you'd like to come witness this miracle of nature just drop by anytime.

Critical CSD Board Decision Thursday Night !

(Following is an email message from John Kilburn urging attendance and input at the meeting Thursday night. It will be at 5:30PM at the Community Center):


THE ONE OF THREE PROPOSED BALLOT MEASURES FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION WILL HAVE A PROFOUND EFFECT ON THE EMERGENCY SERVICES, TO SAY NOTHING OF OUR TAXES, IN LAKE SHASTINA FOR YEARS TO COME.

GO TO THE WEB SIGHT - http://www.lakeshastina.com AND CLICK ON CSD AGENDA FOR 8/7/08 - WHICH YOU CAN READ OR PRINT IF YOU WISH.

I SUGGEST YOU ATTEND THE FAIRLY SHORT MEETING TO MAKE YOUR/OUR VOICES REGISTERED WITH THE BOARD. THE TASK FORCE GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ARE POSSIBLE - IF THE CSD BOARD SELECTS THE CORRECT ORDINANCE.

THE NEED FOR POSITIVE CHANGE - AND THIS WITHOUT ANY NEW TAXES - IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE. IT IS UP TO YOU TO HELP DETERMINE THE NEXT STEP. SEE YOU THERE. JOHN KILBURN, LSPD TASK FORCE.

Battery-Powered Lawnmowers

I bought this mower because it was about the same price as a gas engine one and I am tired of oil changes, new spark plug & air filter, etc. Gas mowers are noisy too, and they pollute more than a car I'm told.

I already own an 18 volt B&D tool set (drill, flashlight, circular & reciprocating saw) and a B&D weedeater that uses the same battery as the tool set so I ended up with four batteries and two chargers. I like not having to drag a cord around the shop and the weedeater got me to thinking about the new battery-powered lawmowers.

It has a lead-acid battery that you take out and recharge between mowings. I can do my front and rear yards twice on one charge. It stays on the bench in winter making the mower chassis so light that I can hang it up in the garage to loosen up floor space.

Mine can mulch, side discharge, or bag and after a mowing I remove the battery, tip the mower on its side and hose off the underside of the mowing deck. This removes the grass that sticks there, improving the "throw" of cut material.

So why am I writing this? Electricity is generated mostly by coal-fired plants so this isn't really a "green" alternative to a gasoline mower. But hopefully the national debate will begin to focus more on how we generate electricity than on how we use it. In other words plug-in electric cars are important sure, but if we continue to make the juice they use by buring coal the carbon dioxide is still being pumped into the air, even more of it as the demand for electricity rises.

Everyone knows that coal is bad. Fossil fuel. So is natural gas. So if the pressure is on battery-powered mowers, cars, etc. then let's look harder at how we generate that juice: wind, solar, hydrogen, tidal, even nuclear. Anything that doesn't spew out harmful gasses.

I'm not an environmentalist actually, I'm just interested in how we as a society try to solve issues like global warming and energy. I would bet there are many of you readers who are also concerned.

Foreclosure Scams

If it weren't already bad enough, along come the scammers, trying to cheat the already desperate homeowners who are in trouble. As reported in the latest AARP Bulletin, be on guard against unsolicited help. It's a sad fact of life that some people actually grasp onto these cold-callers or cold-mailers in their foreclosure fears.

The truth is what it always has been __ know whom you are dealing with. Many times that means to stay local. Craigslist always warns that but if your bank or lender is distant, take the meaning figuratively. At least you know them, that beats a mail piece from Miami.

In some cases the offer to help amounts to giving title to the suspect "until things get better" at which time you can "buy the home back for nothing". Of course they don't say it like that but after all the fine print you end up homeless and they are on title.

Take heart if you are, or know somebody who is in dire straits with a lender. Just a few days ago President Bush signed into law a massive bail-out measure that will allow homeowners who are in trouble the chance to convert their troublesome mortgages into new 30 (or more) year government-guaranteed fixed-rate FHA loans (see previous story).

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling at 800-388-2277 is all set up to take calls and start the ball rolling. There is even a free home loan counseling service in Redding at 800-750-2227.

I don't know the details yet but the law appears to have two caps; one in dollars and the other in numbers of people (400,000) so the upshot is to get in line EARLY and get the process going.

And in the meantime, do NOT sign anything with people you do not know. This is especially true for online offers, mail offers, and anonymous phone calls. Just say "NO". Then call the 800 numbers above and get started.

Doggie Parks

The picture says it all . . . "When are we going for a walk???" . . . and walks are nice. Necessary even. But there is another element that many communities are turning to. Doggie parks.

These are fenced areas where people bring their dogs to socialize. This is important because left alone or on run-lines dogs get mean. I've seen my share of penned and chained dogs and so have you.

Dogs are social, just like we are, and keeping one on a chain all day makes them aggressive. If people would fence their yards and give the mutts more freedom that'd be one thing. But they still need to mix with other dogs and learn to get along which is why doggie parks work so well.

They don't have to be large and the only "cost" is the fence. Typically volunteers police them and owners bring bags for the 'gifts' their canines leave behind.

Now here's the thing: Lake Shastina has a bunch of areas that are dedicated to "parks". They are at present undeveloped. Why not make a few of them doggie parks where people can socialize while their dogs do the same?

Any support for this?????

FHA to the Rescue !

This is big news. Homeowners in trouble with their lenders may qualify to in effect, re-finance their existing mortgages into the government-guaranteed FHA 30 year ("or more") loan. Here is the digest from our state association:

FEDERAL HOUSING BILL NOW LAW:
This week, President Bush signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. This sweeping legislation primarily seeks to protect homeowners from foreclosure, stop declining home prices, and stabilize the mortgage industry. Major provisions of the new law affecting the real estate practice are as follows:
$300 BILLION IN FHA REFINANCING: Under the HOPE for Homeowners Program, 400,000 distressed homeowners can pay off their troubled mortgages and replace them with more affordable, FHA-insured loans.

To qualify, a borrower's monthly payment on existing mortgage loans must be over 31% of his or her income as of March 1, 2008 (hence demonstrating the borrower's inability to afford the original loans). The original loans must have been originated before 2008, and secured by the borrower's principal residence (as well as only residence). Also to qualify, the borrower must satisfy FHA underwriting requirements for the new FHA-insured refinance loan.

The FHA refinance will be a fixed rate loan up to $550,400 for at least 30 years, and will include charges for FHA insurance premiums. The maximum loan-to-value ratio of the FHA refinance is 90% of the appraised value. If the refinance proceeds are insufficient to pay off the existing liens, the refinance will not go through unless the original lenders voluntarily agree to accept a short payoff as payment in full. Rules will be established to allow, among other things, equity sharing for the original junior lienholders.

Upon obtaining the FHA refinance, the borrower must share with the FHA at least 50% of any equity realized through a subsequent sale or refinance. The FHA's share in equity will be based on a sliding scale of 100% of any equity realized within the first year of the FHA loan, 90% the second year, and so on, but not less than 50%. The HOPE for Homeowners Program shall be in effect from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2011.