SF startup helping to make housing crisis worse

Herdfan

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Corporations are doing their best to destroy single-family home ownership. And we are letting them.

But I don't see that being an issue with this particular company since most first-time buyers aren't buying in locations where people would want a second home. But I also see why neighbors are unhappy.
 

SuperMatt

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Corporations are doing their best to destroy single-family home ownership. And we are letting them.

But I don't see that being an issue with this particular company since most first-time buyers aren't buying in locations where people would want a second home. But I also see why neighbors are unhappy.
Corporations are people, my friend.

But this is the natural progression of capitalism. The wealthy become wealthier. They need to invest those billions, so now they choose real estate. Eventually, billionaires will own all land in America and all the serfs will just pay rent. And if it all goes south, the government can bail them out again like in 2008.

Deregulation and more tax breaks for the wealthy are not going to solve this.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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Corporations are doing their best to destroy single-family home ownership. And we are letting them.

A lot of this happened during the big mortgage crisis. One of the biggest almost went bankrupt because they thought they could just buy a ton of foreclosed houses and charge high rent. They couldn’t figure out that whole pesky managing the properties aspect. Obama bailed them out as he left the white house.
 

SuperMatt

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A lot of this happened during the big mortgage crisis. One of the biggest almost went bankrupt because they thought they could just buy a ton of foreclosed houses and charge high rent. They couldn’t figure out that whole pesky managing the properties aspect. Obama bailed them out as he left the white house.
There were 2 bailouts - one in 2008 at the end of Bush's term and a stimulus in early 2009 from Obama. I wasn't aware of another one in 2016. Am I missing something?
 

thekev

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Once again, there is a Futurama clip relevant to this situation. I couldn't find the clip on its own. It's at
1:03 in case the embedded version doesn't start from the right time.

 

Chew Toy McCoy

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There were 2 bailouts - one in 2008 at the end of Bush's term and a stimulus in early 2009 from Obama. I wasn't aware of another one in 2016. Am I missing something?


"So in its waning hours, the Obama Administration gave a completely unjustified bailout to private equity landlords, that Fannie Mae is guaranteeing the income of all but the bottom tranches of Blackstone’s latest rental securitization.

Let us stress that there is absolutely no policy justification for this. The mission of the government sponsored agencies is to promote home ownership, not to give real estate speculators a “get out of losses or underwhelming returns for free” card. Even worse, rather than forcing the private equity industry to take some well-deserved lumps for miscalculation, it will encourage them to continue to compete with lower-income prospective homeowners for purchasing properties. That means it will be even more difficult for young people to buy homes. Lambert has pointed out repeatedly in his stats wrap in Water Cooler that real estate markets are suffering from a shortage of homes. Having private equity continue to be on the prowl for lower priced properties that they know they can unload from an economic perspective means that the pauperization of the middle class is now official policy."
 

JayMysteri0

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Bear in mind you guys are ignoring the obvious. This is true capitalism trying to make money by doing the least amount of effort. It isn't all about corporations or bail outs, it's about using the corporate designation in a different way to skirt laws.

All this startup is, is the return of Time Shares, which are illegal in some places now.

It's not complicated, all these geniuses basically did was resurrect one of the oldest scams & repackaged it for legal reasons.

When I read this earlier,


it's literally what this screamed. Some guys with money who are like this guy...



with no shame. It's tech bros thinking if they repackage the wheel, it means they discovered the wheel. They just have to call it something else with some legal bullshit, and they imagine themselves geniuses because they had the money & connections to try this shit.

Fortunately for some ideas it eventually runs into face of those who are actually affected, and they try to fight back.
 

SuperMatt

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"So in its waning hours, the Obama Administration gave a completely unjustified bailout to private equity landlords, that Fannie Mae is guaranteeing the income of all but the bottom tranches of Blackstone’s latest rental securitization.

Let us stress that there is absolutely no policy justification for this. The mission of the government sponsored agencies is to promote home ownership, not to give real estate speculators a “get out of losses or underwhelming returns for free” card. Even worse, rather than forcing the private equity industry to take some well-deserved lumps for miscalculation, it will encourage them to continue to compete with lower-income prospective homeowners for purchasing properties. That means it will be even more difficult for young people to buy homes. Lambert has pointed out repeatedly in his stats wrap in Water Cooler that real estate markets are suffering from a shortage of homes. Having private equity continue to be on the prowl for lower priced properties that they know they can unload from an economic perspective means that the pauperization of the middle class is now official policy."
I have been reading about this. Despite what the folks at “naked capitalism” say, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t appear to be directly under the control of the President.


Even though they went into conservatorship in 2008, they still have an independent board of directors that makes the decisions and reports to Congress, and they send their profits to Congress.

It doesn’t seem at all like a last-minute deal with Obama, and I cannot find any evidence of that… just the insinuation from the link you provided.

I also found it interesting that when I searched “obama Fannie Mae” I found dozens of right-wing sites with links about Obama using them to fund Obamacare… 🤷‍♂️

 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I have been reading about this. Despite what the folks at “naked capitalism” say, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t appear to be directly under the control of the President.


Even though they went into conservatorship in 2008, they still have an independent board of directors that makes the decisions and reports to Congress, and they send their profits to Congress.

It doesn’t seem at all like a last-minute deal with Obama, and I cannot find any evidence of that… just the insinuation from the link you provided.

I also found it interesting that when I searched “obama Fannie Mae” I found dozens of right-wing sites with links about Obama using them to fund Obamacare… 🤷‍♂️


Honestly this is a story I’ve heard told on multiple progressive podcasts and videos, which admittedly they have their angle and agenda.

Even if this wasn’t a last minute or direct move, the fact remains that the government efforts favored home equity corporations over individual home buyers and I think the reason is simple, banks and corporations have the means to pay loans back…even if that includes screwing people with interest and fees. The average home buyer doesn’t have the means to create money out of nothing of value on a large scale. It’s just the cold hard truth. It’s also the cold hard truth that politicians will drone on about Main St but give all the money to Wall St with the hope they’ll do the right thing despite their nearly unbroken track record of doing the exact opposite. If anything “doing the right thing” is just to get positive initial press while they iron out the details of their next scheme.
 

JayMysteri0

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Another thing to keep an eye when it comes to real estate. I've been seeing this come up more & more.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440749090875215872/

This is what seems to have gotten the long brewing conversation / conspiracy theory pushed to the forefront
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440789402167373833/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441134452193705988/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441219015330840580/

It's been a recurring theme I've seen when it comes to real estate. Instead of "time sharing" like Picasa did, it's buying homes to dictate the market around them. The other supposed plan seems to be own lots and turn them into rental properties.


What's interesting is that all of this seemed to finally gain the attention of those accused.


Something to keep an eye on for future would be home owners?
 

Eric

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Another thing to keep an eye when it comes to real estate. I've been seeing this come up more & more.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440749090875215872/

This is what seems to have gotten the long brewing conversation / conspiracy theory pushed to the forefront
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440789402167373833/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441134452193705988/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441219015330840580/

It's been a recurring theme I've seen when it comes to real estate. Instead of "time sharing" like Picasa did, it's buying homes to dictate the market around them. The other supposed plan seems to be own lots and turn them into rental properties.



What's interesting is that all of this seemed to finally gain the attention of those accused.



Something to keep an eye on for future would be home owners?
It's insane right now, the house we bought 2 years ago has gone up by more than $200,000 in the central valley because so many people have moved out from the bay area, many buying homes for way over asking sight unseen, it's a frenzy. We even have local ads from what looks like sleazy loan sharks saying 'we want to buy your house as is!!"

When it comes to Zillow we've totally lost any faith in their Zestimates, it's often wildly off the mark and you can't really figure out why but it almost appears suspect. Of course you can always do your own comps in your local area but you really have to ask a local realtor.
 

SuperMatt

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Another thing to keep an eye when it comes to real estate. I've been seeing this come up more & more.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440749090875215872/

This is what seems to have gotten the long brewing conversation / conspiracy theory pushed to the forefront
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1440789402167373833/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441134452193705988/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1441219015330840580/

It's been a recurring theme I've seen when it comes to real estate. Instead of "time sharing" like Picasa did, it's buying homes to dictate the market around them. The other supposed plan seems to be own lots and turn them into rental properties.



What's interesting is that all of this seemed to finally gain the attention of those accused.



Something to keep an eye on for future would be home owners?
Well if Zillow says they’re being falsely accused, they must be telling the truth, right? 🤔
 

Herdfan

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Didn't even know Zillow was flipping homes. :oops:

But now they will probably dump them depressing prices for those who just bought at the top of the market with little or no money down.
 

Eric

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Didn't even know Zillow was flipping homes. :oops:

But now they will probably dump them depressing prices for those who just bought at the top of the market with little or no money down.
Was news to me also but the news recently reported that they're backing off of it because it requires people to do actual physical work and they've been struggling with that.
 

JayMysteri0

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Was news to me also but the news recently reported that they're backing off of it because it requires people to do actual physical work and they've been struggling with that.
We mentioned it in this thread in September, even saying it was something to keep an eye on because they created their own bubble.
 

Herdfan

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Was news to me also but the news recently reported that they're backing off of it because it requires people to do actual physical work and they've been struggling with that.

It's not easy. I have done a couple and there is a reason I don't do more. I see these TV shows where the flippers use 100% contract labor. No way you can make money doing it that way unless you steal the house in the first place, which is hard because so many people are trying get into the flipping game. You need to be willing and able to get in there and do a lot of the work yourself.
 

SuperMatt

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Remember Zillow?

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1455249718985043971/

What happens when a company gets in the 'flipping game' and buys up thousands of homes?

🤬
Zillow’s share price dropped 30% in a matter of days and they laid off about a quarter of their data science employees. Here is a (very) detailed work on what may have gone wrong.

 
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