These stories are nauseating. Here’s another California Homeowners Association which has decided that kids are ‘Satan’s Spawn’ and need to be harassed out of the neighborhood. It’s understandable that HOA boards want kids to be safe. But I drive around neighborhoods all day long and see basketball hoops and skateboards and hockey nets. There’s rarely a story of any kid being hit in a neighborhood.
We’ve done enough in the PC world to screw up our kids’ heads. I’d far rather see kids playing basketball than getting fat playing video games.
Fie on the Whitney Oaks Community Association in Rocklin, California. Fie. Yes, I know that’s a little archaic. But it just feels good to say.
Zillionare FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg is trying to start his own HOA in Palo Alto, California. He just doesn’t want anyone else to live there except him.
Understandably, when Zuckerberg built his own mansion he wanted some privacy and bought up all the homes around him. He can afford to toss around 38 million bucks. But he’s being sued by a couple who claim they were conned into selling their property at too low a price to a ‘mystery’ corporation that turned out to be Zuckerberg.
I sympathize with this billionaire wanting some privacy and security. He’s probably got more stalkers and paparazzi than George Clooney. But with his wealth why would you subject yourself to the incredible invasion of privacy that happens during depositions and court testimony? To Zuckerberg, 1.7 million dollars is pocket change. Pay these reptilians off and get on with life!
So many people are buying retirement homes in Mexico. But before you make that leap, study a recent condo seizure by a court that ruled Americans have no rights in Mexico. This poor lady (linked below) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for her Mexican condo. But a lien filed by the workers against the developer ended up in her losing everything.
Actually, this same kind of thing could happen in many countries. As an American, you have rights that no one else in the world possesses. Treasure those rights. Guard those rights. Be militant about those rights. And just remember the old saying: “Anyone who ever made a difference was once called a trouble maker.”
Some folks thought I was crazy when I claimed a Nevada Supreme Court decision could make it impossible for many people to get a mortgage. The court ruled that a 6000 dollar HOA lien could extinguish an 800 thousand dollar mortgage.
How is that possible?
How is that fair?
What mortgage company official in his or her right mind make loans in such an area? Is it any wonder that thousands upon thousands of Nevada homes are for sale and there are no buyers?
How bad does a lawyer have to be to get five or six years in prison? If he’s stolen millions of dollars, if he’s got more bar complaints against him than any other lawyer, if he’s defrauded Homeowners Associations and other clients, if he’s cheated the IRS you’d think he’d at least get a few decades behind bars.
But lawyer Barry Levinson, who knows the legal system inside and out, put on an amazing performance for U.S. District Judge James Mahan, who’s overseeing that massive organized crime HOA scandal in Las Vegas. Levinson knows the ropes. He cried. He sobbed. He apologized. He said, “I stole from clients. I embarrassed Las Vegas. I let everybody down. I accept responsibility. I’m paying for it.”
Well, no, he’s not paying for it. This guy took part in a scam that will ultimately amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to homeowners. He and his organized crime partners funneled millions of dollars away from Homeowners Associations in the Valley. But this scam has legs. Thousands of Nevada residents lost their homes which are still sitting unsold. Taxes aren’t being paid. Part of that was the housing bubble, but who in his right mind would want to buy a house in Las Vegas right now? Stupid people will, of course. But with the Nevada Supreme Court ruling that an idiotic one-dollar HOA lien against a house can extinguish a half million dollar mortgage, what sane mortgage company would lend money in Nevada? The ripples go on, and on, and on.
Barry Levinson cries a few tears. And the judge gives him six years in prison. He’ll probably get two or three of those years off for good behavior. Unless some angry imprisoned homeowner beats him to death.
