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Fresno Real Estate Market.

DESPERATE TIMES REQUIRE DESPERATE MEASURES.

On Thursday (Nov 15, 2007) I received letter from my former broker, Guarantee Real Estate, where I hung my license from Nov of 2002 to May of 2006. The letter was signed (and I assume written) by one Brian K Cuttone, Vice President and General Counsel. As far as I know it is the only correspondence they have ever sent me since I left the company in May of last year.

I left on good, no I would up that to, excellent terms with the company, in particular with my managing broker at the time: “Skin” Mead. I never paid much attention to the “fees” the company charged me, and I always paid whatever they said I owed without dispute, having the “fees” they charged deducted from my commission checks. Prior to leaving the company I paid the $180.61 and to my knowledge went out with a clean slate.

NOT SO SAYS BRIAN CUTTONE, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL for Guarantee Real Estate. According to him Guarantee Real Estate has sent me “several statements” and my account has become “seriously delinquent” AND according to him, I have never disputed the amount (so obviously I must owe it). Enclosed with his letter was an itemized bill stating that I had a balance owing of $14.73. So in bold letters he states:

“This is to notify you that unless we have received payment in full or satisfactory arrangements are made for payment of the Fees, within ten (10) days from the date of this letter, we will turn your account over to a collection agency or initiate legal proceedings to collect the Fees.”

I suppose if my scrotum was half full and I had the brains of a fifth grader this would sound intimidating. What really irritates me is stating that they have sent me several statements, which I view as merely a legal ploy since previous statement(s) are required BEFORE you can send a demand letter threatening legal action or collections.

So what happened here? My best guess is that the company that declares itself to be Number 1 in the California’s Central Valley is so slow that they are seeking revenue from anywhere they can get it and have brought out the big guns: AN ATTORNEY to help them get it.

Their statement shows desk fees of $85.00 (X2) and to my knowledge I have a signed agreement that states they are $75.00 per month - so at some point they raised this fee, but to my knowledge, I wasn’t informed in writing (other than in my bill), nor do I recall signing anything to that effect. There is also a business license charge of $19.00 which I don’t recall ever being charged before. I will have to look on my signed agreement with the company, but it honestly looks like something new to me they added on since I started, or i wouldn’t be mentioning it.

I don’t have a problem paying what I owe. I do have a problem with:

• Saying several statements have been sent to me ( I say that is a lie)
• Saying that I have never disputed the charges ( that assumes I knew of them per above)
• Threatening legal action or collection agency in bold print.
• Having an attorney write the letter - attempt to intimidate ???

Once again, I thought when I left, A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, everything was even-Steven. Now it will take me more time than its worth to review the charges and determine if I actually owe them, not to mention the time I’ve taken to write this blog - but hey like Guarantee Real Estate I’m slow, WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?

NEED TO BUY A HOME ?
NEED TO SELL A HOME?
NEED A LOAN?

CALL ME!

© Randy “Lazarus” McAtee
Owner / Broker Lazarus Realty
559-301-1647
lazarusrealty@gmail.com

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The other day my wife and i were out looking at some Gary McDonald Homes and there was one in particular we really liked that was already sold ( for 2.1 million ). These are the homes that are being built right along the golf course. I think the name of the subdivision is Country Club At The Fort.

NO, we aren’t thinking of moving there: couldn’t if we wanted to; wouldn’t if we could. I wouldn’t be able to afford the taxes and utilities bills on a 2.1 million dollar home, let alone the mortgage.

Today I had some business downtown and happened to have my camera with me so I took a drive down G Street into another Fresno neighborhood that I rarely visit and got an eyeful of how life is at the other end of the food chain. This subdivision has no name. The homes are Forts of Different Sort.

It’s a different world, which for the majority of us is out of sight, out of mind. I spent a little time speaking with the gal below. Her name is Charlene and she’s been living on the streets, off and on, for 4 years. She was truly a pleasant person to speak with. She had soothing effect on my nerves which were a bit on edge due to being in foreign territory. She made me feel safe. Odd perhaps, but true.

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… you know, those annoying Head On commercials that have managed to be HUGE success. Check it out. Pretty funny if you ask me

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I just got an email informing me that the DR Horton is offering a $40,000 in builder incentive discount and up to $20,000 in closing costs and lender incentives for Buyers for 4 homes in Bella Lago, a private gated community adjacent to the Pheasant Run Golf Course in Chowchilla. They’re also offering the co-operating brokers (who brings the Buyers) a %4.25 commission.

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Sometimes when you need to show a home tenants just don’t cooperate. Of course, if they just let you SHOW the home, I consider that cooperation, since some won’t even do that. Don’t get me wrong, some tenants are angels; just know that some are devils too

In the video below an agent is doing a showing, and as you can see the tenants could care less.

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10/02/2007 - A plan to add dozens of sheds to house the homeless in downtown Fresno failed at city hall Tuesday. While the majority of council members were for the project, there weren’t enough votes to bring 44 more sheds like these to downtown Fresno, because some felt they did not want another temporary solution. Read full story here.

Well the homeless just got the shaft from city hall; more specifically from Perea, Sterling and Dages. WTF are those knuckleheads thinking?

Well, let’s see, Dages says: “A shed like I have on the side of my house for people to live in. I wouldn’t ask my relatives to live in it, and I have a really hard time asking the homeless to live in it.”

How dumb is that!

Don’t ask your middle class, never-been-hungry or homeless relatives if they would be willing to live in a shed — ask the homeless man or woman living out a shopping cart if THEY would be willing to live it. Look, if someone is starving and they come to you for a meal to sustain them and all you have is stale bread and turnips, you don’t need to get all hung up about taking care of their “long-term” problem; give them what you have and then worry about the next meal. You don’t say - well gee all I have is this stale bread and turnips and I wouldn’t feed this to my relatives… wait until the end of the month when I get my paycheck and I’ll buy you a proper meal!

Fresno. Sometimes I love it here; sometimes I hate it!

Another article on today’s meeting here.

Has Mike Dages ever gone a day without food or shelter?

Cynthia Sterling looks well fed:

Henry Perea gives a link to his blog on the Fresno.gov website: check it out here
I guess he doesnt have anything to say or is too timid to say it. This from his website:

Disclaimer
All contributions to this bog will be reviewed before posting. We reserve the right to exclude any items that may be offensive, threating, inaprotiate or unrelated to the current discussion.

Well, he certainly did a poor job of reviewing HIS OWN POST before posting. He didn’t spell blog, threatening, or inappropriate correctly. The guy obviously lacks basic writing skills. He’s smart NOT to be blogging. I would think the bloggers would eat him alive. But LOOK — when he started the blog last year he issued a news release. Looks like he came in like a lion; I think the content of his blog describes how he left. Remarkable how that forth grade grammar has remained on his site for a year and half without anyone mentioning it to the poor guy. Now that I have pointed it out I bet its corrected or gone within the month. We’ll see.

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If your wanting to look at the new homes that are going up in Fresno you can access this map on Fresno Bee’s website. As you can see all the development is on the periphery. We live in a county island near the center of that map just about equal distance from all of them. The numbers on the map correspond to the various builders and I dont see an online legend, but you can find one in the Sunday edition of the Bee.

Many of the developers are offering some great incentives to move inventory and most of them are willing to offer broker participation so if your thinking NEW dont hesitate to call me and I’ll help you negotiate a deal that gets you optimum bang for your buck.

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Wow! Here’s and article I just read in the Fresno Bee about a meeting tonight to discuss potential plans to develop land in s.e. Fresno. No small development, that’s for sure, they’re talking about 9,000 acres! Now just to put this into perspective that’s just over 14 square miles of land, or 5 times the size of San Anselmo, the city I grew up in. Ok, so that doesn’t really help you get the picture, so try this: 14 square miles is roughly the equivelent to the area between Blackstone and Temperance (east/west) and Shaw and Herndon (north/south). That’s a lot of land.

Peter Calthorpe, the author of

The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl

The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream

New Urbanism: Peter Calthorpe Vs. Lars Lerup

and the Principle of Calthorpe and Associates has been hired by the city to help oversee the project. He looks like he has the credentials. He will be at the meeting tonight.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Sunnyside High School’s cafeteria at 1019 S. Peach Ave.

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