Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Do institutional investors raise housing prices? Interesting (and to be fair I often confuse Blackstone and Blackrock).
- Trump declares legal war on sanctuary cities.
- Jonathan Turley on Newsom's gerrymander problem.
- From the archives: The 7 habits of freedom loving academics.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Glenn Reynolds - the Elvis problem. On a related note I've toyed with the idea of starting a church of bacon and beer.
- The Trump Administration reportedly has a new trade deal with Japan. The deal is said to include a $550 billion investment in the US and a 15% tariff.
- Where are vacation homes located in the US? Couldn't help but wonder if hunting "camps" are counted as vacation homes?
- Sovereign Wealth Funds: A political slush fund in disguise.
Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- Seven options to help reduce the cost of the Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill.
- From the archives: How much could Batman bench press?
- Peter Attia on thinking critically about AI
- Secret mortgage blacklist leaves people with unsellable condos.
This is an issue and story I've been following and wondering about the fallout.
Steve makes some excellent points and I thought I'd share my anecdotal information. Recently I both sold my place and bought a home with my girlfriend so I have some first hand knowledge. We used the same real estate agent for both transactions and I was pleased with both.
As far as selling my place: my agent, who is also a friend, had me ask for $30,000 more than I planned on but he knows the market. He had to do all the advertising and was there the day of the Open House to answer questions from all comers. I was on vacation and it sold for the asking price the same day! As far as I'm concerned the extra money more then paid for his services. Sure it was a good payday for him but remember all those people who went to the open house all also had agents. Also remember my agent was chosen after years of being an honest, good guy to his friends who weren't in the market.
Buying a place we had three basic requirements: it had to greatly reduce my girlfriend's commute, a fenced in yard for our dog, and a smaller home (just me and her) - no need for more than 2-3 bedrooms or 1-2 bathrooms. We saw multiple houses and made multiple offers and was outbid on each by someone offering well over the asking price each time. We didn't pay a dime for those unsuccessful bids. The home we bought we offered the asking price and made the offer right away. We had everything lined up thanks to our friend.
We would hire him again in a heartbeat and heartily recommend him. When the verdict was announced I never checked if this may have meant money coming back to me. We signed paperwork and went into this with our eyes open and would do it again.
My question is does that signed paperwork that specifies the commission rate supersede anything else? What to keep the better agents to ask for more then the industry standard 5-6%?
More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.
- In the movie Dr. Hotez to be played by Stephen Root.
- Color me surprised - Peter Hotez has a history of refusing to debate anyone who disagrees with him. Yet he'd call for their censoring in a drop of a hat.
- Jonathan Turley on the utter failure of Merrick Garland. Thank God he wasn't allowed on the Supreme Court. Perhaps the biggest political hack of my lifetime.
Stonehenge, advertised in 1915, was bought for £660 by a man called Cecil Chubb who, mistakenly thinking his wife might like it as a gift, ended up giving it to the nation.
One of the cool nuggets found in this article on 125 years of property sold through Country Life (a publication I was unaware of but take is big in England).
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