The Real Estate Special Interest Payouts To Congress

Most Americans view with disdain the daily "greasing of the skids" by special interest groups to gain favorable influence for policy votes in Congress. And who can blame them? One could argue that the bribe-like activities of special interest groups, PACs (political action commitees) in Washington D.C. are amoral and corruptive. It's that special, not-so-perfect aspect of the American political system.

Indeed there are thousands of special interest groups executing their plans every week in Washington D.C.. Now it is possible to track whether your own representative in Congress is being influenced monetarily, by whom and by how much. Just visit the website: Maplight.org.

In our main area of interest, real estate, there are some interesting surprises.
So who in Washington is getting the most slap-back cash from real estate industry special interest groups including realtors, subdividers, ?

Well, according to Maplight. org - and this may be just the tip of the iceberg of total funds paid, here you go, my fellow Americans:

Top 10 Recipients Funded by Real Estate Industry (all groups)
Recipient Amount
Joseph Lieberman: $966,665
Hillary Clinton: $632,830
Jon Kyl: $352,994
John Isakson: $325,810
Bob Corker: $290,403
Richard Santorum: $279,423
Bill Nelson: $227,330
Harold Ford: $219,633
Charles Schumer: $219,514 (Mr. SubPrime-Bailout-Program)
Michael DeWine: $183,630

Top 10 Recipients Funded by Real Estate Agents & Managers
Recipient Amount
Hillary Clinton: $530,058
Joseph Lieberman: $356,660
John Isakson: $199,200
Charles Schumer: $193,812
Jon Kyl: $170,932
Richard Santorum: $162,825
Bob Corker: $157,465
Robert Menendez: $154,930
Bill Nelson: $151,280
Mel Martinez: $143,900

Gee, with some of these nice payouts, these Congressional problem solvers might - just might mind you - be able to afford a down payment on an Orange County single family home!

REIC still looking for "Glenngarry leads"

If you haven't seen the film Glenngarry Glenn Ross by David Mamet, then rent it.

You will discover the origins of famous American sales mantras like "coffee is for closers only" and "A.B.C. - Always Be Closing".

The film is a graphic metaphor of how high-stakes sales, high-pressure management styles, intimidation, deceptive sales tactics, verbal abuse and baseball bats can all come together to form something distinctly American.

Glenngarry Glenn Ross.

"These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you, they're
gold. And you don't get them. Because to give them to you is just throwing them
away. They're for closers."

Redfin CEO Kelman: REIC "Marketing Itself Off A Cliff"

The manifestation of online real estate search engines, sales and buying tools with links to all that the MLS previously afforded real estate consumers - and much more is scaring the shit out of certain individuals who have chosen the profession of home realtor.

Realtors mistakenly view themselves as the most motivated party to sell your home or help you buy a home.

This assumption is incorrect.

They are NOT the most motivated to do either. They are motivated to make sales commissions which are directly proportional to the sale price of a home.

The truth is that home sellers and home buyers are more motivated. And they no longer need realtors in the same way they did before to intermediate on their behalf. If 80% of prospective homeowners are no longer looking at newspaper ads, no longer phoning up Joannie Loves Chachi Realty Group, and prefer to research home information, sales history, prices and neighborhood data online, including crime and school district statistics, then the realtors job and importance suddenly becomes less significant.

Realtors might be tempted to assert that only they "understand your needs" when it comes to buying or selling a home. But those days are over. A computer really can perform the light lifting regarding the research.

So why are realtors necessary? What tasks or duties of the home selling and home buying process make them so indispensable?

Perhaps there are certain duties and legal paperwork items to which realtors have traditionally attended.

Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin offers the following in the Ad Age article:

"The most motivated advertiser is the seller and millions of homeowners are proactive now. If people can see a home without an agent, where does that leave the industry? It's kind of marketing itself off a cliff."

Right off a cliff, indeed. Sometimes CEOs like to use the damnedest of metaphors to get their point across.

Sub-Prime Bailout: Where will the money come from?

New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has the answer. He wants $300 million in Federal money to help subprime borrowers keep their homes.

So the answer to the question is: you.

You will pay for it.

Unfortunately 70% of Americans believe that the "Federal Government" is some giant building with arms and legs that walks around and "does shit".

Wrong. The government is us! We fund it. Federal money is the people's fucking money!

Will someone in New York please explain that 7th grade Civics fact-of-life to their idiot senior senator?!

$300 billion dollars. Why?

Where will this "federal money" come from?

Why now interfere on the side of arrogance, stupidity and financial ineptitude in a market economy?

Why now interfere to help people keep their homes, who lied on their stated income loans and who, for all practical purposes, have no business whatsoever owning a home in the first place?

What economic and legal precedence are we trying to establish?

How will market's react?

What message does this federal government interference send to renter and homedebtors who pay taxes, who controlled their greed, who ignored the overexhuberance of the corrupt real estate industry, who chose to live within their financial means and who chose not to carelessly mortgage away their futures?

In case you have forgotten, Mr. Schumer, the above described individuals are your constituents as well.

The correct answer is to allow the market to correct itself. Indeed such a serious correction is economically painful and catastrophic for many American families, some of whom had only the best intentions - wanting to own an abode to live and raise a family. But the correction serves other import functions. It shakes out the investment crooks, flippers, liars, illegal opportunists and - to be frank - the financially inept. Good people and financially inept people are, in America, not mutually exclusive.

This comes across as cold and perhaps Darwinesque to say. I don't mean that subprime borrowers get no help at all. But I don't like the idea of allowing loan do-overs that, under normal market lending standards, would make no business sense at all.

Most of us support and believe in the merits of a laissez faire capitalist economy. Hard times like these remind us how imperfect that system can be.

Taking money away from people who didn't gamble to bail out other people who did, is irresponsible and unrepresentative of Senator Schumer and any of his supporters.

Of all industries in the United States, the real estate market is the one in most need of a market correction. Only the American oil industry makes as serious challenge from second place.

The real estate industry also requires a healthy dose of cartel-smashing government regulation.

That, alongside grand jury hearings of the N.A.R. for fraud, are the only government interference worthy of discussion right now.