Real Estate - page 4

Unfortunately, I am a Bank Of America customer.  In fact, they are my mortgage company.  The good news is that I am not a checking or savings account customer.  First I am not sure why anyone would want to bank here and pay a monthly fee (or have to keep a large minimum) when there are so many FREE options available.  I simply refuse to look at any option that isn’t free.  It’s a free system why pay for it?  That is just silly.

There are many reasons why customers hate Bank Of America but it’s mostly because the company is greedy.  Not only are they greedy they are extremely sneaky about it.  First Bank Of America is one of the largest banks in America.  They are one of the worst managed companies around and continue the “cry” when they are just barely making it.  Just a while ago Bank Of America changed their branch policies to not provide any support for their customers.  They said a fee would be imposed they you needed to actually speak to someone.  To help with this effort they updated their ATMS to make deposits etc easier.  In short, they are going to to charge you the same price but not provide any real person help if you need it (well… they will help but may charge you extra for the help lol).  I couldn’t believe it when they announced this new change.  I figured customers would get disturbed and make the change but many stayed with this messed up business.

Recently, Bank Of America announced that they were going to charge customers $5 just to use their ATM per month.  Wow I said, rolling in laughter on the floor.  That is a big move and a stupid one if you ask me.  This bank just continues to gouge it’s customers with sneaky and greedy fees.

I believe this really hit a nerve with a lot of customers and a Bank Transfer Day was created.  The day was last Saturday actually and I heard it was a tremendous success.  The credit unions who all pretty much offer free banking and higher checking interest rates were overwhelmed with new customers.  After the $5 ATM monthly fee was announced by Bank Of America, they started to feel the heat.  Customers were fed up and starting to move elsewhere.  Bank Of America now is saying that they are not going to charge customers the $5 ATM fee.  They say it was just a test program to see how customers would react and be ok with it.  UMMM… no!!

This morning a Seattle Bank Of America caught on file.  The fire is suspicious and we all wonder why? Really?  I say let it burn.

Last Tuesday, the Seattle Housing Authority Board of Commissioners approved the project of redevelopment and the makeover of the Yesler Terrace.  Why the city even owns property, land, real estate and have a Seattle Housing Authortiy Board of Commissioners is another topic but it appears to be another Board that makes decisions for the Seattle residents and is quick to blow money on projects without proper discussions.  The construction is expected to cost 300 million (so they say) and will take 10 to 20 years.

The last step is getting the City of Seattle Council Members to approve it and since money is no object in Seattle Washington I would expect it to easily pass with little to no discussions or debates by the Seattle Council Members.  They probably won’t even have a public meeting.

I want to invite you to take a nice walk thru Georgetown. Look at the houses on Corson and Carlton. I am not sure about Flora and Ellis. Notice all the houses are different. There are some beauties. Some are small and plain. Everyone is assessed at $1,000 ( one thousand dollars). Zillow prices varies but are between $200,000 and $350,000), Fire insurance appraisers set the price close to the Zillow price.
The assessor that did this was Scott Noble. After he got himself into some serious trouble and arrested, we had four assessors in 5 months. Appeals were nightmares and totally useless. The Department of Assessments actually wiped out single family homes. They call all of our homes tear downs. They want us to build 8 unit condos. I appealed but the only defense you can present is evidence the assessor has erred in doing the appraisal. My argument was you would have to be drunk or crazy to say every house along at these two streets are only worth a thousand dollars. They said I had to bring proof of sales around me. No house beside me, behind me, in front of me had been sold. Every house in this entire neighborhood had been declared identical and worthless. I lost my appeal.  The reason was “It is the assessors job to tax on the highest and best use”.  Single family dwellings are not the best use. The best use is tear our house down and put up an 8 unit condo. The state of course owns vacant land, pays no tax and doesn’t build condo’s on theirs. I also argued that you cant buy a Tuff Shed for $1,000. Just a total time waster to appeal. The value of the land went from $60,000 to $320,000. In other words we are being taxed right out of our $1,000 home.

This presents another boondoggle. Fire Insurance appraisers actually come and go thru the houses. They talk you into taking replacement value. This means if my house burns down they will replace it, not give me money or replace the house on a lot I can afford to pay taxes on. I would never build a new little house on a $320,000 lot here in Georgetown. So Fire Insurance is actually worthless. I am not sure the city would issue a permit to build a single family dwelling. If you go down to try to talk to them you are more or less shown the way back out of the building and told to file certain forms. From then on you are lost in Electronic Dead Ends. Something is very wrong here but none of us residents can find a way to fix it. It appears the appraiser took on the role of a Land Use Change without having to hold a hearing.

Today in the mail I get a letter from King County Sound Insulation Program. They want to come and insulate my house free to block out the noise of airplanes. If the state is broke, why would they spend thousands to insulate my THOUSAND DOLLAR HOUSE that I have lived in for 65 years and the appraiser wants me to tear down? Not real urgent. Wait until the state is not in debt.

I also got a notice from WSDOT that they will be repaving my street soon. My goodness if the state is broke why would you repave a street that doesn’t even need it. Please do not send the men in little white coats. This stupid stuff is true. State is not broke, they just cant figure out how to spend all the money.

Zillow, the local Seattle startup company, that has been predicting home values for over 5 years now is getting into the rental business.  Zillow currently manages the estimated values to over 120 million real estate listings.  Just like the home estimates they currently provide, today they announced  “Rent Zestimates” which gives you a properties monthly rental value. 

I have to say the figures are quite impressive.  Good job Zillow!

You can try it here for free.  Just enter your property address and your monthly rental figures will be displayed.  http://www.zillow.com.

 Is there such a thing as common sense anymore? I never was for giving protected class status to woman (I am one), minorities, gays or lesbians in jobs or housing. I think it should be entirely up to the landlord or boss as to who he wants to hire or rent to. Now they want to add convicted felons to the protected class. If I hadn’t read it in this mornings paper I would never have believed it. The paper describes a woman with a 20 year old rap sheet, theft, dealing meth, violating a restraining order. Just two years ago she pleaded guilty to multiple counts of identity theft and forgery. She now complains of having difficulty finding a place to live and a job, so she can take care of her daughter(must be entitled to a welfare check for that).

Why would the Office of Civil Rights(we taxpayers pay for that) try to push a law that actually wipes out the Rental Research business of checking renters past history of evictions, paying rent on time, or criminal history.