Real Estate for Robber Barons....

As some of you know - I make my so-called living in the wild and crazy world of Westchester NY real estate.   Being 20 miles north of Manhattan - about a 35-minute train ride to Grand Central Station in mid-town Manhattan.  of course, our market was heavily impacted by the crash of 2008 - but nothing like many other parts of the country.  Prices are down about 30% - we have some short sales, some foreclosures, but the market has been spared more than many other parts of the country...



The surprising result is...DISAPPOINTMENT!!! At least among buyers. Some expected to buy the Taj Mahal for a song and were bitterly disappointed when that didn't happen. Careful what you wish - you just might get it.  Further declines in housing help no one - certainly not the economy. But I have never seen such rampant greed run amok among some (certainly not all) buyers.  Affordability with interest rates that are really low hasn't been this good in decades.  Frankly, if you can afford to buy a home because you are gainfully employed in a well-paying job - Congratulations!!!  You have won the economic and the real estate lottery all in on shot...So what's with the greed???  The area is expensive but this has always been so.  My parents lived in an apartment for years before they could afford a house - and that was in the late 60s when affording a home was "easy."   This compulsive need to "steal" a home that is already discounted massively is enough to drive most agents to drink...So I propose the outline of a new show on HGTV...The title i...

"Real Estate for Robber Barons"

The premise - Greed is Good and being a con artist is even better...This entire effort was inspired by Tni LeBlanc who wrote about her clients being obsessed with getting a "steal" rather than a deal.  Worth the read - she is a great writer.

Basic Premise:

Let's create a show entitled "Real Estate For Robber Barons Challenge"   By turning it into a competition we can create criteria for the best Robber Baron.  Think competition like Design Star with the ruthless cut-throat edge of The Apprentice.

Format:

Each week contestants need to find a distressed seller who is willing to sell their home for a fraction of its actual value. The ability to achieve this is based on the contestant's capacity to con the seller to ignoring the basic principles of mathematics,  common sense and their own best interests.  The contestant then creates almost instant profits via the slum Lord route or by flipping for an obscene profit. This is all done with minimal seed money that the contestants saved in a cookie jar over a period of six months.

Bonus points would be awarded for the following:

Throwing a real estate agent under a bus.
Throwing a seller under a bus.
Throwing a buyer under a bus.
Throwing another contestant under a bus gives contestants immunity from elimination in the next episode.


The Host:

The contestants need a suitable mentor figure…so I have chosen the Fabulous Fab himself - Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs fame to host the show each week.  He gained notoriety during the financial crisis of 2008 when he claimed to be selling financial products to "widows an orphans that he met at the airport"  that were "pure intellectual masturbation…which nobody knows how to price."

The Take-Home Message:

Greed is good. Poor people are losers. Making a fortune is easy,  fun and anyone who just wants to get rich.   And of course, just like the 3 AM infomercial we all have the capacity to do this in our spare time with nothing but our loose change.

© 2011 - Ruthmarie G. Hicks - http://www.therobberbaroneconomy.com  - All rights reserved.