Tag Archives: Realtor

A NY Wall Between The High Class And The Low Class

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Builders of a ritzy high rise co-op in the big apple are raising eyebrows for figuring out how to lower their taxes from 22 million to just a half million dollars a year. Extell is building the fancy Upper West Side luxury tower where rich folks can buy a unit facing the Hudson River for 1.3 to 15.9 million dollars.

But New York has a tax loophole which gives millions and millions of dollars to developers who include a little bit of ‘affordable housing’ in their high rises. In exchange, developers get to jam more units into the development and offer those extra ones to the po’ folk. Extell will provide 55 low income units on the lower floors of the backside of the building, which face an alley.

The catch is, the rich folk and the po’ folk are never supposed to mix in this building. The building’s millionaire residents will have a grande entrance on the front of the building, and a prestige address at 40 Riverside Boulevard. Low income families have a separate entrance in the alley.

Some New York politicians say it smacks of feudalism and classicism.

The developer thinks the only thing it smacks of is millions of extra dollars in profits.

(click here for NY Post story)

 

What If Helen Keller Lived In An HOA?

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Where do these pompous, perfect, self-centered, and heartless people come from?  Can we take up a donation and buy all of them a one-way ticket to Uranus?

Here comes Florida with more of their stupidity!  But this time, Broward County has stepped up and sued the HOA on behalf of Dorothy Davis because she is frail, blind, hard of hearing, and a ninety-year-old condo resident.  
 
Nittany is the German Shepard seeing eye dog that will be working for her.  Her nasty neighbors in the Southpoint Condominium Association claim the dog is a pet and yelled at it so much during the critical training period it is now afraid of people!
 
At her age, Dorothy didn’t need the harassment of these insensitive morons so she moved to Delray Beach. SMART LADY!  Leaving in her wake Southpoint owners who should be preparing to transfer their retirement savings over to her when the jury at the federal courthouse hands down their decision!  
 
Way to go, Dorothy!  Hats off to you, Broward County!
 
 

MaryJane! Coming to an HOA House Near You!

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Whew, the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).

Now that marijuana for medicinal AND personal use has been legalized in several states, grow operations are bound to be taking place very near you.  A next door grow-op will certainly affect your property values, right? And a Homeowners Association will make sure that never happens to you, right?

Wrong, Bunky. One of the biggest lies in American life is that your Homeowners Association protects your property values. There’s not a scientific study in the nation that shows HOAs protect property values. And there are lots of studies that show HOAs  crash property values (think Trayvon Martin’s neighborhood!).

But the growers of grass, weed, Hawaiian black, Indian hemp, jolly green, wacky weed, are looking for a safe place to grow theirs. The safest place in the world is a private home right smack dab in the middle of a Homeowners Association. They’re usually pretty safe. And if they’re not growing ‘skunk’, you’d probably never even notice.

Surely your HOA will protect you against such things as illegal next- door grow-ops. But…if they don’t? How are your property values will do once the police raid gets publicized?

http://tinyurl.com/lxxzd6e

Velly Intelesting! Watch This Defamation Suit!

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The president of the Seascape Homeowners Association in Galveston, Texas, is suing a homeowner for ten million bucks after the homeowner circulated an email to fellow homeowners called the president “arrogant, incompetent, dishonest, and harassing.”

President Ron Benotti is suing homeowner Richard Alan Collier. Collier alleged that Benotti mishandled a project to restore beaches in the area. 

The really surprising thing here is that the court didn’t throw this case out long ago based on the ‘public figure’ rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Once a person goes public by running for office or otherwise inserting himself into public discussions it’s nearly impossible to successfully sue for libel and/or slander. It’s the one thing that protects news agencies from lawsuits when they inspect the private behavior of public officials.

Benotti’s lawyers had to have told him that his lawsuit will never survive against the public figure argument. His defamation suit is nothing more than a SLAPP lawsuit designed to cost the defendant his life savings and shut him up.

For shame, Benotti and your phalanx of HOA paid-for lawyers! For shame!

(click here for article in the Southeast Texas Record)

 

Doggie DNA! How Crazy Have We Gotten?

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It had to come sooner or later, swab your doggie’s cheeks and turn it over to the HOA. They’re going to trace each ‘doggie lawn ornament’ through the DNA lab and then fine the doggie’s owner for what wasn’t picked up.

Life gets so strange. We have on record an HOA president who ordered all homeowners to have their dogs take a dump on one specific homeowner’s yard. (Vengeance?)

But now, HOAs across the land are forcing dog owners to swab their doggies’ cheeks and send the Q-Tips off to the DNA lab. Then any dog who makes a ‘donation’ will have his ‘donation’ inspected for a DNA match. And the dog owner will then face a huge fine, attorney’s fees collection costs, interest, possible lien, foreclosure, and a sale of the home at auction.

“What hath God wrought?”  (Numbers 23:23)

http://tinyurl.com/l9wmd7x