What a great word althought it probably means different things to different people, to me it means: You can do anything you want, just be prepared to take responsibility, Don't blame someone else for the way reacted, if you broke it fix it.

I had a moment in 1994 that let me know it was my duty as a person to leave things at least as I found them, do not be an inconvience in someone's life and if possible be a positive. Always keep your word.

I have made a few mistakes, I have taken care of them, fixed them if you will. I have "changed my mind" but paid for that right as well. Some at great cost to me financially, some at a great cost of time. But all worth it, I never have to look over my shoulder.

Society also has accountability, we as a group have made decisions. When we make good ones we prosper, when we make bad ones we suffer. Nessecity and human nature almost always force groups to make short term decisions, what is best today. This makes sense, we do not want to suffer short term to benefit long term. Quiet frankly most in society are not educated enough to measure long term gain, not their fault, whose is it, well I can promise one thing no one will take accountability!

There is great book I read a couple years ago talking about Accountability and Consequences. It was written by Jared Diamond and it is callediamond"> Collapse . This should be manatory reading for anyone making decisions affecting others.

I now own a home and have for 2 years that is the result of one of the counties most notable agents screwing someone, for $7800. They lied to the client, they know they lied, they scrambled to cover up the lie when they were caught and blamed everyone else. No accountability, one of my agents was invovled in the transaction ( on the wrong end of the lie), guess who stepped up? Guess who was accountable? Guess who has never put a nickle in front of doing the right thing?

Why? Education, planning, a consciense. I feel it a nessicity to do the right thing and make peoples lives better, others feel the need for new car, (or in most cases, new tires for an old one).

We as a society have the ability to put reward this efforts of accountable companies and individuals through commerce. We don't. It is sad.

I wathced a show last night about the 67 Detroit riots. It said the big three started building factories outside of Detroit immediately following. Coincidence? I think more action reaction. We all know the state of the Flint economy...did the original sit down strike stick in the craw of GM? As one senior General Motors Executive told me the other day, "we now spend more on Viagra than steel". Did the UAW take too much short term, and pilliage the long term?

We hear all the time that the automotive industry in America is dead from our state leaders. Tell that to the leaders of Alambama, Kentucky and other southern states. The number two automaker in the world now makes the number one selling car in America in Georgetown Kentucky. It is Toyota.

We have talked about the brain drain in Genesee County. Seemed like a good idea to tell kids to move on, there was nothing here. Now there is not. But some of my generations biggest contributions have come from Flint Natives. If this talent had colaborated here what could have happened? Could the infrastructure been utilized to it potential and jobs created? Jobs that could support nice restaurants and shops and neighborhoods?

I guess what I am asking is did a whole generation take from Flint? Did they rape and pilliage the automotive industry then bitterly tell the next generation to leave? Tuff Topic in our area....just a question. What will history say?

On a bigger scope, it is no secret that the real estate market was propelled by greet and rediculous lendging practices over the last 7 years. Again, everyone looking to make the buck today without any regard for tomorrow.

The dot.com boom, greed. There were companies worth more than Cambell Soup Co. that had never sold a product.

Who is taking responsibility for all these messes? No one! Money is not lost. That is my biggest pet pieve. Headlines say "billions lost in mortgage mess". Lost like we left it on the desk, came back and it was gone. No! This money was transferred, it is a zero sum gain. billions out-billions in, someone has it, it is not lost.

We are making big mistakes in every part of society because we are not looking long term, I don't have the answers, well some maybe. But they will not make anyone rich tomorrow so no one will listen.

The good news is "we can not be as stupid alone as we are as a group"

What about personal accountability?

We are hearing a lot about that right now out of Ann Arbor, new coach broke his word to old school. Old school wants $4,000,000. Who is right? In my eyes the old school. I agree with Coach going to Michigan, what an honor. But broken contracts and promises deserve restitution.
What message does it send to kids that they can sign a deal, make a promise, then break it with no ramifications?

Well I am cetainly accountable to this blog, so lets hear your opinions.

Accountability is good thing, it helps with decision making, it helps with planning.

My house sold! Not only did it sell but the buyer is fantastic.

Little disappointed in the price about $40,000 less than I would have expected in 2005, but what are you going to do, unless I can create 10,000 plus high paying jobs I am out of luck.

What a great house it was for my family. We did a ton to it, to the studs remodeled in the kitchen, dining, sunroom and main bath. New roof, extended eaves, picket fence, sky lights...but we did it all for us; and we enjoyed it all.

I really hope the new owner does.

We bought the house in 1998 planning to move in after our wedding, my wife to be an I traveled a great deal so this was basically going to be our "crash pad" when we were in town. We moved in December first, six weeks after we got married, and found out my new wife was pregnant the day we moved in, honeymoon baby! My first words: " I bought the wrong house". Not to romantic but that was how I felt.

9 years later we had our son and twin girls in the house, I built an awesome sand box & garden for my kids, improved the house and vowed they would take me out of that house on my back.

The kids walked to St. Robert school (not only the best thing that ever happened to my kids and me, but I also loved driving by the sign everyday "St Robert Parrish" I always smiled and thought about the Chief! ).

Great Times, Great House!

Sales in Genesee County will end up around 4300 units for 2007. 4831 homes sold in Genesee County in 2006. A 13% drop, not really that bad considering what the newspapers, news magazines and Channel 12 are saying.

The average sales price for non foreclosures sales $8,800; from $139,160 to $130,328. The average sq ft was about two different so this is a fundamental change is price paid.

The average sales price for all homes sold dropped from $115,321 to $100,542; great news that this figure is back in the six digits after spending most of the year south of $100,000.

The number of foreclosure sales increased from 1327 to 1662. Meaning consumer sales dropped from 3504 to 2483! Almost 30% drop. Foreclosures made up almost 40% of all MLS listed homes sold in 2007. WOW.

Will the adjustable rate freeze help in 2008? It has to, there are millions of these loans that rates will jump in 2008, Flint has always been a pioner in "creative mortgaging" because of the huge number of outstanding loan officers in Flint! (Sorry, If you have read this blog before you know how I feel about ex-sprinkler repair men assisting someone with their financing).

If three families in Genesee County avoid foreclosure because of the freeze it is a victory. The number will actually be well north of three.

Interesting micro numbers as well.

When searching homes sold in Grand Blanc:

494 have sold so far in 2007 down from 575 in 2006 while foreclosure sales were up from 56 to 109 and average sales price fell from $195,655 to $170,177.

Homes Sales in Lake Fenton show a similar trend but much healthier on sales price:

125 sales down from 152, repos increased by 10 to 23 and sales price fell to $214,141 from $218,267.

Flushing Homes that sold:

246 down from 309, repos almost doubled to 57 and average price fell by $14,000 to $143,873.

Hopefully with interest rates down, prices down and a slew of vacant homes we will continue to see the surge we have noticed over the last 75 days. Web traffic on ChangingStreets.com has increase a great deal over the last 120 days indicating a market move.

The sales the last 60 days have been strong enough to raise the average sales price $6,000, this is a great sign. I don't want to say the worst is behind us, but signs indicate that a flat 2008 is very possible. Good News.

This is turning into a series, Buddy laughs at the dumbing of America (he can afford too) it drives me crazy.

Remember Geoffery Giraffe? The family image of Toys-R-Us?

Yeah, thats gone.

I was Christmas shopping in Toys-R-Us the other day with my wife, the experience was lousy to begin with, then while searching for Barbies for our daughters we ran accross this Gem:

The Brats Party Bus! Complete with Hooker looking dolls, a margarita maker, margarita glasses and what appear to be unemployed, 400 credit score having male side kicks! WOW, THATS THE LIFE I WANT MY DAUGHTER TO ASPIRE TOO!

It is a damn shame and sign that these perverse toys now out sell Barbie, but where does social responsibility come in? How can the home of Geoffrey Giraffe deal in teen delinquency? The answer is obviously in sales (see earlier blog "What Ever Happened to Integrity"), I am sure there are tons of Moms buying this crap (see openning sequence of Idiocracy). Why wouldn't Toys-R-Us want the sleeze market? It is more likely that the stupid people that buy this crap will out reproduce us that don't. Maybe they are smarter than me.

Click on the above Bratz link to see this wonderful childs toy! Also read the comments, notice who wrote them and where they are from...to me histerical.

Target.com does not carry the Bratz Party Bus, they do sell the Classy looking dolls, LOL. (Just looking at the dolls gave me a Speakeasy Tiki Bar Flashback.

I left my full cart in Toys-R-Us after the manager defended the right to sell smut, and went home bought all the toys online at target, some of which were $25 cheaper online than at Geoffrey's.

So at the end of the day I will never go back to Toys-R-Us, I saved a ton of money, got U-Promise points, free shipping and learned Mothers in Virgina and Texas think Brats dolls are cool. I am sure their daughters love playing with them while wearing their "Save Britney" T-Shirts.

I am off to have a Brawndo and do a little this and that.

I am stoked!

Nothing like a case of Brawndo for the holidays!

Oh Yeah it is on the way! With a T-Shirt!

It is funny, somebody sent the me the link today after I had a conversation with someone regarding the writers strike and its affect on the television line up.

So I was thinking, if I were a programming director what would I put on television now?

How about:

Worlds Worst Email Jokes.

Investigative Reports: Why would anyone buy creamy peanut butter?

At the 10pm time slot I would go with:

Enough About You, Lets Meet Buddy!

or

That Ship Has Sailed, One Mans Optimistic Outlook

Hanging With Peter, Inside the World of Con-Ed.

If it Bleeds it Leads, Hyperbolly with the Flint Journal.

Just a few of my ideas, do you have any?

I can't wait to read your comments while enjoying an ice cold Brawndo!

ChangingStreets.com is looking for four agents to add to our team.

We are seeking four individuals that want to succeed. They must have the integrity, honesty and a strong work ethic to join our team, and we are not flexible on this.

We offer the opportunity to contribute to the fourth largest buyer side company in Genesee County. We are 7th over all. ChangingStreets.com will average 25 transactions per agent this year, by far the highest in the area. We have a great deal of loyal clients and over 1500 visits a day to our website. The average visitor spends over 8 minutes and views 40 pages. The ulitmate exposure for your selling clients.

You will work in our brand new facility in Gateway Centre has I-75 visiability and great access to any location in and around Genesee County. A truly different environment for a real estate office.

Your co-workers will include: the #1 buyer side agent in Genesee County, two Board members of the Flint Area Association of Realtors, a five year member of the budget and finance committee, one of the areas best webmasters, and a Partner who is now Vice President of Stategy at the nations 7th largest real estate company. We consistantly have more agents in the top 100 producing agents in the area than any other company.

ChangingStreets.com contributed 9% of all RPAC contributions made through FAAR while making up on 1% of the membership.

We are involved.

If you are looking for a very professional Real Estate career working with a small team that accomplishes big things, we want to speak to you. If you are a decent agent now we can probably double your production. We have in the past.

Did I mention we only have 10 agents, doing over 250 transactions this year!

To see if this opportunity works for you contact Adam Abt, Vice President/Broker, ChangingStreets.com 810.733.3374. Or Fill out this form and Adam will contact you.

All of the information in this email can be verified through Flint Area Association of Realtors MLS & Webtrends Reports.

I just opened by truck lease payment. It is due in 18 days and it will be paid tomorrow, that is the habit, get the bill, pay the bill.

My statement shows a late charge, roughly $20. My bank account shows the money coming out of my account eight days before the due date last month. It took me 26 minutes on the phone, pushing one to be irritated, 2 to be irritated more and 4 to get infuriated before speaking to a body. The reason, said the recording was an unusually high call volume. Yeah, no kidding everyone was complaining about the mysterious late charge!

They were gracious enough to remove the charge after finding the error. They were not so eager to reimburse me for my time. You see my time is worth money, missed time with my kids is double time.

This is really an issue with me,I will tell you why in a minute, and it is becoming a standard operating procedure for many issuers of credit. Here is the proof Providian ; Ford Motor Credit ; Misc. you get the idea.

I grew up working in the Family Mortgage bank, not the loan broker of today; a real live mortgage bank, more like the Bailey Building & Loan in Its A Wonderful Life (one of my favorite movies). We had thousands of loans out worth over a half a billion dollars. We collected payments, processed payoffs and handled a disgusting amount of money. Payments were all due on the first of the month. Borrowers had until the 15th to make their payment with no penalty, on the 16th we collected 5% of the payment as a late charge, pure profit all of it. To put this into prospective I would take between $900,000 and $1,100,000 in payments to the bank on the 14th and usually well over $1,500,000 on the 15th. We would also stay open after the bank run, sometimes until seven o'clock to make sure we collected payment from everyone who wanted to pay (closing time was always 5pm). If we would have just not processed mail payments on the 14th and 15th we could have generated over $60,000 a month in additional profit. That is $720,000 a year in free money, not bad for a company with 14 employees and one location!

The sick thing is someone will read this and think I am an idiot for not doing it!

We would have never, ever thought of doing this. It was the total opposite; calling clients with reminders to pay, staying open late, basically whatever we could do help people. We lived in the community and knew we were helping people realize a dream, no need to penalize them. Oh yeah we also had the lowest foreclosure rate in the country in one of Americas highest states.

My point is not only did we not screw people we went out of our way to help them. That is the way I was raised, that is the way I still do business. Now I want the company that leased me my Suburban to pay me for my time, is that unreasonable?

If 1000 people had this happen, and I bet that is a very low number, and called that is 500 hours of wasted time, lets see what this did to the economy....500 hours at say $50 an hour $25,000 plus what ever it cost the finance company for toll free per 30,000 minutes plus staff. ok a measly $33,000 give or take total waste, tops $8000 for the loan sharks.

If 1000 people missed the the charge and paid it....$20,000 gain. Now lets look at the reality...this company probably has over 5,000,000 loans outstanding. If they do this once a year to every client and 30% slide through that is 1.5 million or north of $20,000,000 a year screwing people.

You think this is crazy....Providian paid out over $400,000,000 to settle two lawsuits in the year 2000 alone.

Go look and pay attention to your bills!

Remember good old fashion mugging, at least you knew you were being robbed.

How about four days in Orlando Florida after Christmas? Michigan State vs Boston College on the 28th in the Champs Sports Bowl with four days to shake off the victory celebration before Michigan vs Florida on the 1st!

Sounds like a great trip!

Both Michigan teams get to face quarterbacks mentioned in the Heisman Trophy race, Matt Ryan of Boston College and Tim Tebow of Florida. The Spartans and Wolverines will both be big underdogs.

I love the symetry.

How about Les Miles (still) at LSU getting a quick taste of the Buckeyes & Tressle; you have to love the irony of that. He is assured a great January 8th, he will either wake up National Champion or relieved he passed on Michigan and will not have to see the Buckeyes for awhile.

What a great time of year, Christmas, New Years, my birthday, and College Bowl Season!

You can now search Foreclosures and Repos exclusively on ChangingStreets.com! Bank owned foreclosures and Repos are still integrated into the old property search, this is just a quick new link to assist shoppers and REO departments.

This will help shoppers looking for a specific property or investment opportunities, but does not replace the comprehensive list that the "all properties search" gives you.

Please use this search and make sure to use a ChangingStreets.com agent, not only do they sell more homes on average than agents from any other company per MLS statistics they also give you this tool.

You can search for Grand Blanc foreclosures, Lake Fenton Foreclosures, all Genesee County Repos at this link: ChangingStreets.com Foreclosure Search.

They are all there complete with property history, see price reductions and more. Mark out did himself this is really a great tool. Use it & don't forget to call the most experienced agents in Genesee County!

Hello Y'all,

It has been a while. I am now settled in Cary North Carolina. Cary is just west of Raleigh and where people like me are forced to live when we get here, Cary is an ancronym for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees, true story. I was kind of shocked to find ChangingStreet.com client from Flushing living around the corner from me.

The cultural differences are vast; Flint has A&W and Angelos, down here Biscutville and Bojangles (Yes Bojangles menu also revolves around biscuits). Flint has an very high number of professional athletes per capitia, Raleigh leads the country in the number of PHD's under 45. The Flint area has lakes, the Raleigh area has 81 days of water left! You couldn't put a boat on what developers call lakes here. You get the idea, very different in every way; not better or worse just different.

One thing is for sure, if I could bottle the "problems" people have down here and sell them, I could easily make enough profit to turn Flints economy into one of the best in the country. The economy in Raleigh is almost bullet proof, an extremely diverse group of companies in many different industries. Almost all with in International focus. Three top universities pumping out well qualified employees and recruits to these companies, land to build on, freeways and roads being built to accomidate the growth. Like I said different.

We just spent seven days in Flint, it was great, not different, great! It was so good to be home, sitting in the new ChangingStreets.com office seeing the gang and how well they are proforming even considering market conditions. Eating 3lbs of Kogels & going to Skips, the midnight Birch Run trip on Thanksgiving. My favorite things and people are still in Flint.

Someone once told me "where ever you go, there you are". I use to think that was pretty smart, ment you couldn't run from your problems. When we moved to Raleigh it was for a once in a million lifetimes opportunity, not to escape problems. Maybe thats why I am in Raleigh; but I am not here, I feel 757 miles south of where I AM.

You know you can't get Russian or red French salad dressing down here, at least I haven't found any. See if you could sell problems like that one....

See y'all soon, if you are ever in Raleigh look me up Real Living Partners Triangle . Don't forget to bring the red French and Kogels!

Good News out of Lansing. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority has come up with Save The Dream.

This program can help families in foreclosue save their home. There are income requirements but they are very liberal. Great program for Michigan Families. If you want more information click on the link above or call:

MSHDA 1-866-946-7432.

Not only will this help Michigan families, it should cost the taxpayers very little if anything as these loans will be backed by bonds purchased by investors. I don't agree with much that happens in Lansing, but this is great.

Someone actually searched google for "house flipping mission statement"!

Form your own opinion.

Flipping is not for amatuers anymore, you can't read it in a book, you can't learn it on TV.

Cowboys FLIP, smart people invest, don't throw darts at a board, call Adam if you are serious about this. If not good luck.

We are in the first inning of this mortgage thing, flipping is responsible for 65%. I can prove it. Flipping is speculation, speculation gone bad causes people to make bad decisions, greed and arrogance make people just plain dumb. I have seen over 80 homes in Flint go through foreclosure that were Flips bought for $10,000 and mortgaged for $90,000 banks after carring costs lost over 100% of the initial loan amount. Same buyers, Same agents, Same mortgage guys.

Think those guys had a mission statement?

There is a lot of profit to made and an opportunity to help rebuild communities, if you are intersted in that speak to Adam he is a professional.