I hope you find humor in this. If you are new to the area and wondering what season it is here, here’s a simple guide…
- Spring = 50 to 90 F degrees with perpetual sun
- Summer = 90 to 120 F degrees with perpetual sun
- Fall = 50 to 90 F degrees with perpetual sun
- Winter = <50 F degrees with periodic rain and interruptions of Spring/Fall-like days. Oh, and bouts of perpetual sun.
There you have it. This is all you need to know. The trees don’t generally turn their leaves yellow and then red. Snow doesn’t come. Rain is not that common. Even in the winter, we have many Spring-like days. And though the seasonal calendar may be called out, the calendar never addressed 100 F degree days in October!
The weather in the Phoenix area is more like temperature bands than any other visible changes across the Valley!
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Here’s a tip for Buyers on a type of home seller to avoid. If the Seller for the property you are interested in exhibits these characteristics, either take proactive steps to address issues or steer clear of the transaction altogether.
- The Seller is present at the initial showing of the home. If this is the case and you love the home, take the extra precaution to see the home one more time, requesting that the Seller not be there, before submitting an offer. Don’t talk to the Seller if you can avoid it. You are there to see the home, not talk to the Seller about it.
- The Seller seems to be present at the inspections. It isn’t always easy to have the Seller leave the property during the inspection process but make the attempt to get them to do so. Especially, if you plan on reviewing the inspection findings at the end of the inspection, make sure that you can spend quality time really going over the results of the inspection and also tour the home with a more careful eye. As well, as the inspectors if the Seller talked to them and what they talked about.
- Watch for the word ‘new’ and ‘newer.’ Make sure you clarify the timing for anything deemed ‘new’ or ‘newer.’ You may find that the Seller has a different definition of what i s new or newer than you do.
- There are inconsistencies on the disclosure statement. Clarify anything that doesn’t make sense until you are satisfied.
Overall, you want to be sure that the Seller is not trying to influence the process in any way here, especially as it relates to your ability as a buyer to see the home under closer scrutiny.
It’s not so much as the Seller very clearly trying to influence the process so much as the buyer not being distracted from really getting a solid feel for the property, any potential issues, and the overall value of the property. Buyers should stay focused and alert.
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A mortgage colleague I have worked with in the past and only have high marks for, Patty Immekus of PHX Mortgage, graciously gave me a copy of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers by Lawrence G. MacDonald recently and I have been reading it.
This is the link to my initial post on the book when I was about half way.
Here is the conclusion to my reading:
Overall, I found the remainder of the book very informative and telling. I say ‘telling’ because I don’t know that the author realized that he was shedding light on a world that is far different than mine or the general American population.
The author likes to call out how the leadership at the top of Lehman Brothers acted very much like a king commanding his loyal princes into highly risky investment decisions in the quest to create some false empire. This metaphor is used quite extensively throughout the book.
The problem is that if the former CEO and his close reports represent the King and Princes, then the author would represent the nobility. Unfortunately, while the monarchy and nobility went crazy with greed in working the markets, the serfs are the ones who truly lost their savings and futures. Of course, the serfs - the average American - didn’t work at Lehman Brothers - they would never have been hired.
It is clear that there is a huge mental disconnect between the people and lifestyle of the author and Lehman Brothers and the rest of the population. The author talks about losing his bonuses (in the millions of dollars) when Lehman Brothers collapsed.
My point is that through all the criticism of what the Lehman Brothers’ CEO was doing and the impact to the firm, there is relatively very little empathy expressed for all those people that would be sold risky mortgages by Aurora LLC and BNC, mortgage firms that Lehman Brothers actually owned. The fact is that Lehman Brothers was neck deep in creating the gigantic real estate bubble that would eventually impact every single American (through their real estate investments and ownership as well as their stock investments) in an adverse way.
It is crystal clear to me that many more people who didn’t work at Lehman Brothers lost far more than that.
The author calls out his and others’ attempts to counterbalance Lehman Brothers’ losses in the mortgage sector by ’shorting’ (making bets on the negative performance of a company’s stock) many of the very companies that were also involved in the debacle. From his perspective, he was trying to save the once great institution known as Lehman Brothers.
From my perspective, the author worked for the same company that helped to destroy thousands of Americans’ dreams. Who knows how many thousands or millions of people had to postpone or give up retirement because their investments went south?
In the end, I am reminded of a statement that the author made as to the average investor being at a disadvantage when it comes to competing against analysts and traders at firms the likes of Lehman Brothers. These people live and work the markets everyday. The average investor simply could never keep up with what is happening in the markets or the analysis of a particular company (of course, the average investor probably wouldn’t get the access to those companies such as firms like Lehman Brothers could).
Lehman Brothers deserved to fail. It didn’t deserve to survive. It operated on greed that went far beyond any sense of proportion. It created havoc in the markets and helped to ruin many American dreams.
I would recommend people read the book as there are definitely some great insights, but probably not for the same lessons the author may hope people to see and understand, but for the lessons and insights into seeing how Wall Street lives and breathes and acts.
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I came across this interesting article about how a Northern Arizona University research lab has been using the sound of beetles against them. Given how bark beatles have been a tremendous problem for trees throughout Arizona’s forest areas, not to mention across the United States, I thought I would share it.
“Bark Beetles Rocked by Sound“
Essentially, researches found that recording the noise the beetles make and modifying it and playing it back, the beetles’ behavior is altered. They are seeing a disruption in the beetles’ normal behavior patterns.
There is much more research to be done here but I thought it fascinating and hopeful given the extent of the problem. The bark beetles’ really are a national menace to the nation’s forest regions.
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