Sixty Second Psychoanalysis

So I finally listened to the first half of last night's fraudcast. In an effort to cleanse your minds of the image below, we'll take a quick look at Nigel's call. Much like his Blog Empire, Nigel really says a lot of nothing, even in RL apparently.

The Is-It-All-Good-Off was a bit funny, but Nigel is that one guy at every party you go to who spends most time in the kitchen nursing his Smirnoff Ice, keeping his pleather coat on regardless that it's ninety degrees, that you hope you can pretty much avoid talking to all night. Right? He's the guy who's a friend-of-a-friend who has to get into party debates with everyone to prove his smarts. You inevitably end up just walking away mid-conversation asking "Who is that guy"... which is usally followed up with an apology from the dude who brought him "sorry, he just showed up" is the typical response.

We Win.

Nigel's Cold Shoulder

Pinz isn't gone, he's just ignoring us. Peeking in at the SLC blog we see Nigel's back and with a vengenance! In an abbreviated (312 words) post he now tells us CONDOS might be the thing we're all looking for. After all, Salt Lake City is running out of land!

First time home buyers often fear the repair and maintenance obligations a home brings. There are constant chores like cleaning out the gutters, raking leaves, mowing the lawn and shovelling snow. A condo or townhouse offers the financial benefits of ownership, plus the pride of ownership without many of these maintenance chores.

Plus those great condo fees! It's like owning a home and renting at the same time!

Owning your first home can be intimidating and exciting. By choosing condo living for the first home you can get a chance to see what it's like without the hassles of routine maintenance.

Hmmm... the maintenance theme once again... I never realized how much mowing the lawn really does get in the way of my life. He might be on to something here.

For first time home buyers, condos present tremendous opportunities to find out what home ownership is about without having to make the same financial or upkeep commitments a small house would have.

You're right! While technically my condo fees are a financial commitment, they are different than a house with actual property. Now these upkeep commitments, i'm guessing they are the same as those dreadful routine maintenance tasks. I'm still listening...

Sure, the condo owner is responsible for picking up inside the unit and the minor plumbing and electrical problems that are bound to occur, but those tend to be one time shots and can often be repaired cheaply by the budding do-it-yourselfer or a quick call to the local handy-person.

What the fuck? You just told me i'd be free of routine and life-ruining maintenance here. When I rent and my tub clogs my landlord takes care of that and keeps the grounds nice. What gives?!

Way to go Nigel, in a failing housing market push the worst type of property you can...the one that depreciates the fastest and has additional monthly fees subject to change, to assure that you "never own" the place.

Nigel Swaby, Super Spy

Trying to either insert himself into, or try to get ahead of the upcoming embarrassment of the Duane LeWaterGate scandal, super spy Nigel Swaby posts a plethora of comments lifted from Exurban Nation.

Whats funniest about this post is the fact that Nigel uses proxyindex.com to try and "cover his tracks."

"I can't let those rascal Haterz know that I'm addicted to them, so i'll use a free proxy service! DAMN! I'M THE MOTHER FUCKIN' SEO KING AND PROXY PRIME MINISTER"

Might want to work on those cut & paste skillz. Don't worry Nigel, we all know you can't avoid the mention of your name. You're kind of like Candyman in that regard.

Tip O' the Hat, Wag O' the Finger

Tip O' the Hat:

Serinity Now! Excellent post on Serintology to be read at -Insert Clever Title Here-



Wag Of The Finger:

Nigel Swaby, while he's apparently testing content for the Foreclosure Avoiders site, posted a verbose post on how not to make Mortgage Mistakes, which is here.

Using the excellent new Nigel Swaby Word-O-Meter found at Foreclosure Avoiders Ruined My Life, we find that Nigel uses an astounding 913 words (not including title) to basically say very little.

It was one of Nigel's most boring reads ever without any real substance (I was shocked too). Apparently Nigel has been spanked so much on his lack of Economic knowledge that he's going to try to just through random "math-like" content in his posts in the hopes that someone will think there's substance there.



After reading the post that Nigel cited, I can sum it up I think in 2 bullet points:

• You're an idiot if you don't read/research what you're about to sign
  
• Don't trust mortgage brokers

See, now you have the rest of the day to enjoy.

Economic Dart Theory 101

As presented by Nigel Swaby, soon to be ex-broker.

At the heart of the housing crash debate is whether jobs will remain readily available. Housing bears argue much of America relies on construction and housing related jobs that when that industry goes crashing down, the rest of the economy will follow.

Ummm, I stumbled into the world of Serin starting at the sites that really matter to me in the housing bubble scenario, sites like The Housing Bubble Blog, patrick.net, Immobilienblasen and others.

Now, on those sites there are some extreme bears, predicting another depression, etc. But there are also some very smart, insightful folks who clearly know a lot more about Economics than I do. Unless the drugs of my youth did a lot more damage than I thought, I don't recall the arguments of jobs as the linchpin for Real Estate. I think they are more often referred to as an indicator (lagging?) of the overall health of the economy. I believe some have referred to jobs in construction as an indicator of what's to come in housing.

Nigel seems to be once again inventing his own theories of economics? Maybe i'm wrong, but most of the posts/comments I see on the bearish sites revolve around the lack of affordability in housing in relation to average wages. Most people tend to cite things like historical norms of prices to income rations and all that stuff that requires charts with points and stuff.

In the face of a cooling housing market, the fact wages are rising and jobs are plentiful doesn't make me worry about a housing crash. In fact, temporarily lower housing prices will create a positive mindset for families who want to own a home more than ever.

Hate to tell you Swabby, you should be worried, unless you're really already out of the Broker business. The past few years consisted of fliptards like Casey artificially running up home prices to unsustainable prices. Something like 25-40% of sales were to investors/speculators in that time period... that is unless tons of people all of the sudden bought vacation homes. The buyers weren't even real, now many people who got caught in the hysteria are facing steep ARM resets over the next couple years.

Before that, the Fed stopped house prices from starting to correct with all the interest rate drops.

I know you really don't believe that "temporary drop" mess, it was a bubble and maybe in a year or two it will be time to start looking, but can the glut of mortgage brokers and realtors survive that long? I doubt it.

Link First, Ask Questions Later

Someone at the Milk This Bubble As Long As We Can must have finally sent Nigel the latest Talking Points memo. In this latest post, Nigel dumbtificates about FHA loans and their "problems."

A couple of paraphrased gems from the Master of the Obvious. First we must wade through the typical Nigel fluff pulled directly from Boringapedia. So after the first few paragraphs where Nigel changes a few words of a generic description he goes into the "problems."

However, these liberal guidelines come with a price and with FHA, it's called mortgage insurance. MI protects the lender to 20% should a borrower default on their loan.

Yeah, heaven forbid there are things in place if a borrower isn't responsible enough to save a large downpayment or might be a credit risk.

The second problem with FHA loans involves the approval process and documentation. One qualifies for FHA mortgages much like a conventional loan which requires two years on the job (or in the same field), tax returns and financial reserves. There are no stated income FHA loans and no interest only either.

Yes, ALL THESE THINGS SOUND HORRIBLE. The last thing we need is more qualified borrowers in the housing market, these people might actually want to negotiate and junk like that. This statement reinforces my belief on the quality of mortgages the Swabtard might have been involved with.

FHA mortgage products are a welcome part of the home financing opportunity and should be looked at closely before entertaining other types of non-conventional financing.

Hmmmm... it almost sounds like we're now dismissing these FHA loans and still thinking about, you know, possibly pushing more junk 100% loans. All in all, it's a pretty typical bland post from Nigel... but I did recall a previous Nigel mention about FHA loans...

Was it this one? That bottle sure makes it look good...

This is great news for first time home buyers...

I'm not sure, let me Google this... HOLY CRAP! Nigel sure was busy linkwhoring CNN.com, Business Week about the FHA. Blah.

Fortunately, the FHA has an awesome ARM which goes both ways and it can only adjust once a year and has a reasonable cap rate.

I do get the sense that Nigel, in his own way, is trying to finally detach himself from the Casey drama, but in my mind he and Casey are still representative samples of what went wrong in Real Estate in the past 5 or so years.

Any bets on when Nigel's done with Real Estate and starts working on this winner he's been keeping in his back pocket?

Be counted....

Steph J from EN is apparently refusing to share the glorious images of her cleavage with us, but is taking a census if you are a Casey Hater.

I don't hate him, I just think he's a want to be con artist who deserves to be prosecuted. If the law won't do it, we can at least humiliate him.

Take a moment to sign up here for Steph J.