The 4Rs: Realty Reality Recommended Reading 02/10/2005

GLOBAL REAL ESTATE MARKETS FORUM
4Rs: Realty Reality Recommended Reading
with Editorial Comment

REALTY REALITY FSO ARCHIVES
February 10, 2005

See: Part 3: Appraisal Inflation: Real Estate's Dirty Little Secret --Two sides to appraisal technology debate
by Jessica Swesey, Inman News
Note: this will be taken to their subscriber area in a very short time! Be sure to print a copy of it and email it to your friends from their website!

See: Fannie Restatement May Take a Year
by Jenny Wiggins, FT.Com

See: The Big AVM Lie
by Steve Keohane, USN [Ret.], Appraiser Central.Com

See: The Nation's Housing
by Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post

Ole Bear, Editor, Commentary

It Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking!

The Inman News essay linked about is pretty good about how bad stuff can happen. I scanned Part 2 yesterday, and it was pretty good also. Part 1 I did not see. I do not subscribe to Inman News, for the simple reason that news services or websites related to the appraisal gig are generally all subscriber based -- why do I need to pay folks to learn how to follow the money trail? The only one that is free is Henry S. Harrison's www.revmag.com, and I read it religiously, because he's my ultimate guru. In my view this is part of the manipulation and control over the industry -- you not only have to pay through the nose for CEUs and professional dues, but you have to pay for good information about your own industry. For more on AVMs, see the additional link above. We also provided a link to recent editorials by Harney who writes The Nation's Housing column for the Washington Post. Harney is usually on top of things and writes about a multiplicity of real estate issues.

It is not hilariously funny, in our view, that it is going to take Fannie Mae a full year to restate the fact that the dog ate its homework in the financial fudge of the missing $9 Billion. In that amount of time, I suspect that Fannie Mae could lose significantly more than just $9 Billion.

I like to think of Fannie Mae as a Timex watch [You remember John Cameron Swaze, don't you all?] -- "it takes a licking and keeps on ticking" -- yeah! -- like a financial plutonium derivative fusion bomb!

Anyone remember the movie, Dr. Strangelove, or how I stopped worrying and love the bomb? Gee Whiz! Speaking of Peter Sellers.... I have visions of the Pink Panther tip toeing through Fanny Mae Corporate in McLean, Virginia searching for lost accounting footnotes and clowns doing balancing acts!

Ole Bear, Editor
Columbia, Missouri

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