All posts by jd

Real estate broker, civil engineer and general contractor.
Real Estate

Donald Trump’s Ex-Partner Indicted

donald-trump- hair

Donald Trump has interesting ways of valuing his holdings, including his own net worth.   Mr. Trump, with his apparent combed over hair, seems to have an ego greater than the City of New York.

So when Trump sued his Hong Kong real estate partners four years ago for not getting a good price on a major Manhattan development and evading taxes, it seemed like sour grapes, as the New York Times puts it.

Today, we find out Trump had good reason to quibble with the $1.76 billion valuation: the Manhattan District Attorney is going after a former partner for grand larceny and tax evasion

The defendant, BARRY D. GROSS, 45, has been indicted on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing, filing a false personal tax return, and failure to file unincorporated business taxes. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between February 2006 and September 2008.

Back in 2005, it was the biggest residential land deal in the history of the city—Hudson Waterfront Associates, the Hong Kong-based consortium that worked with Donald Trump to develop and market the massive Trump Place development on the West Side, sold a 77 acre parcel of land to Extell for $1.76 billion. Now the Manhattan DA’s office revealed it just arrested the project director for tax evasion and are looking into whether Hudson Waterfront evaded taxes on a $17 million portion of deal.

According to the Post, “Prosecutors say [Barry] Gross hid $1 million that he earned on the deal by shifting the money to a shell company the next year, then filing amended tax returns to hide his fraud.” Gross’s lawyer—Benjamin Brafman—”downplayed the DA’s grand-larceny and fraud case against his client as an overblown tax dispute that should have been settled in civil court.”

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But, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau says that Hudson Water paid a $17 million “finder’s fee” to a British Virgin Island company, Fineview, which is believed to be just a shell company. The NY Times Reports, “Mr. Morgenthau said investigators were able to track the flow of the money, which was transferred to from the Channel Islands and to London, before ending up in Hong Kong in the hands of someone associated with the investors. By routing the $17 million through Fineview, Mr. Morgenthau said, the investors were able to avoid paying income taxes on it as part of the purchase.”

Morgenthau said more arrests are coming. And now it looks like Donald Trump, who had complained Hudson Waterfront could have gotten more than $1.76 billion, is a victim in this, too, since some of that $17 million should have gone to him! The Donald told the Times, “I greatly commend the district attorney for his work and feel certain it will continue.”

Source New York Times.

Real Estate

Madoff’s Beach Home Sells for More Than $8.75 Millon

madoffs beach home

Bernard Madoff’s Montauk, New York, beach house sold for more than the asking price of $8.75 million, two weeks after it was listed for sale.

Corcoran Group broker Joan Hegner confirmed the sale and didn’t disclose the buyer or the purchase price.

The home is the first of three once owned by Madoff that the government is selling to pay restitution to victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the largest in history. The 3,000 square- foot home on Old Montauk Highway, on the east end of New York’s Long Island, was seized July 1 by U.S. Marshals.

The Montauk property Madoff shared with his wife, Ruth, has a panoramic view of the Atlantic from every room, said Roland Ubaldo, a deputy U.S. Marshal in New York. It was built in 1982 and the Madoffs were the first and only occupants, Hegner said.

The house, with 182 feet of beachfront, is 50 feet from a sand dune, so close that environmental regulations would no longer permit building there, Hegner said.

Minkoff said there have been 15 showings of the property, which is priced at $8.49 million. An open house for brokers on Sept. 15 brought 120 agents, he said in an interview. The Palm Beach house still has most of the furniture and artwork, which are being sold separately

Source Bloomberg

nevada county fair

Amazing World Class Lumberjacks to Perform at the Nevada County Fair

lumberjacks

Lumberjack Shows, Clogging Jamboree, Western Music Fest, a rt at the Classic are all part of Draft Horse Classic and Harvest Fair

Visitors to next weekend’s Draft Horse Classic and Harvest Fair can get up close and personal with world class wood-chopping lumberjacks, axe throwers, tree climbers, and wielders of mighty chain saws – free of charge.

The 23rd annual Draft Horse Classic and Harvest Fair starts Thursday, September 24 and runs Sunday, September 27 at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley. While there is a charge for Draft Horse performance tickets, admission to the Fairgrounds is free for the Harvest Fair activities.

Lumberjack shows will start at 2:30 and 5 pm on Saturday and at 2:00 pm on Sunday on The Green, just as you enter the Fairgrounds at Gate 1. World champions will be performing in each category.ad3-beautiful-home

In 20 to 25 seconds a lumberjack will chop through a 13 inch thick log, while standing on the log. Double hand bucking contests will feature two loggers using a crosscut saw to rip through a 15 inch log in six seconds. The Jack and Jill hand bucking event features a man and woman team. Contestants will also compete in log rolling, on dry land not water, and speed tree climbers will also compete.

Live entertainment at the Pine Tree Stage, a world class art show, Treat Street goodies, vendors with western wear and items, a clogging jamboree, a live shoeing competition, community exhibits, and visits to the barns to see the magnificent Gentle Giant Draft Horses are all part of the Harvest Fair line-up.

In addition to the Harvest Fair activities, the Draft Horse Classic features six stunning performances of Draft Horses in the arena. Tickets to the performances are on sale now, as well as the day of the event, and may be purchased by calling the Fair office at 530-273-6217. Visit www.NevadaCountyFair.com for additional information.

Source: Windy Oaks,  Nevada County Fair

Entertainment

Dakota Sid Playing at Give Peace a Chance Festival

dakota-sid

This Sunday September 20th, the  “Give Peace a Chance” will be a celebration of music from 10 am to sundown.  To be held at the Nevada County Peace Center, 316 West Main Street, which is directly next to the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

A free family event, all the performers are donating their time and expertise. Some are even donating their CDs to be sold with proceeds to go to the Peace Center to pay for the “Give Peace a Chance” event.

One of the performers donating his time is Dakota Sid.  Read the following  reviews about Sid and you’ll definitely want to hear him play this coming Sunday at 11 am to 12 pm.

“Quietly Raging,” the title of the new CD by Dakota Sid and Travers Clifford, offers a quiet guitar and mandolin as bedrock to lyrics of protest, local history, religion and Americana adventures. Paul August Special to The Union

“It’s all in how the music touches the listener. “Killing Time Won’t Wound Eternity,” or in Dakota’s words, “It’s okay to go fishing,” might touch that man who likes to get away to smell the woods or ocean, and the next track is a sensitive song that caresses a woman’s heart.” Virginia MacIsaac, Rambles.NET

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“Dakota Sid comes on with a voice that was rode hard and put away wet. It ain’t pretty, that’s for sure. He sings like he has a corncob stuck in his throat. That’s all right though. This ain’t opera, it’s folk music, and in that context Dakota Sid, his voice, his material and his ethics all seem as genuine as Woody Guthrie sounding off at a labor rally.” Charlie Creekmore, Chico News and Review

“After twenty five years on the road, Dakota Sid could have been a burnout case. Instead, as the years passed, his songs took on a lyrical and emotional honesty that grabs an audience in the gut. His best songs reach across boundaries and draw people together.” Bill Varble, Medford Mail Tribune

For further information contact 530-273-4030 or ncpeace@sbcglobal.net

Quietley Raging is available at all Dakota Sid Live performances and from CD Baby.

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Community Events

Behind the Scenes at the Peace Center

peace

Contributed by Paul August, local singer and writer

I just happened to talk to one of the peace center folks at the Grass Valley Street Fair. This grew into a conversation of one of my ideas: a musical marathon: “Give Peace a Chance.” Sing for world peace.

Lily Marie liked the idea and connected it to a celebration of the International Day of Peace. She invited me to a brain storming session at the Nevada County Peace Center, 316 West Main Street, which is directly next to the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

They liked it. Peace Day fell on a Monday so we planned the event for the day before, Sunday Sept. 20th. At first, I thought we’d sing all day and into the night. I once organized reading marathons at Oakland High when I was in the Bay Area. My Advanced Placement English Literature kids began reading at 4 pm on a Friday afternoon and actually continued until 10 pm on a Saturday night. 30 hours.

Could we do the same? Well, no. Reality set in. Venues, talent, sound systems, a stage and volunteers became too complex with too little time. We scaled back to a sunrise to sunset event and finally settled on 10 am to sundown.

Lily added the acclaimed film: “The Singing Revolution” that shows how songs, not swords, saved a country from take-over. We added food, PeaceArt and the front porch for spontaneous talent.

As of now, we have a schedule of about a dozen entertainers between ten and twilight. We’ll have a stage in the backyard and a sound system from Foggy Mountain Music where the John Lennon bus showed up last Saturday afternoon. Melissa Seibold donated the poster art work.

Since this is a free family event, all the performers are donating their time and expertise. Some are even donating their CDs to be sold with proceeds to go to the Peace Center to pay for the “Give Peace a Chance” event.

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Here’s the lineup for Sunday Sept.20th.

10 am Ty Smith

11 am Dakota Sid

12 noon Molly Roth, Michael Gregory, Paul August

1:00 pm Cool Hand Uke (Dan Scanlon)

2:00 pm The World Brotherhood Choir from Ananda

2:20 pm The Legend of the  Sunburst Bandits

Afternoon MC: Mikhail Graham

3:00 Dave Hatch

4:00 Kelly Fleming

5:00 Peter Wilson

6:00 Hummingbird (Valerie Lowe)

6:30 The Peace Center Singers

The Front Room:

10:30 – 12:15 Fil m: The Singing Revolution

12:15 – 12:45 Sharon Joy Jahdoda

1:00 — 2:00 To be announced

2:00 – 3:45 Film: The Singing Revolution

4:00 – 4:30 James May

4:30 – 6:15 Film: Singing Revolution

While working on this schedule, I found that there are many talented performers willing to perform for a good cause. This is truly a unique area for artists and musicians.

For further information contact 273 4030 or ncpeace@sbcglobal.net

mindworker

Mindworker By Paul August Buy at cdbaby

This whimsical rock album blends uproarious tunes with a satirical social comment on school boards, bureaucracts, teachers and students.

Real Estate

A Large Down Payment On Your Home Might Give You a Higher Interest Rate on Your Mortgage

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You would think that putting more money down when buying a home would entitle you to a lower interest rate. Not so according to an article in the New York Times.

Take, for instance, borrowers who want to buy a $400,000 home, and who have a credit score of 720, which is considered very good.
In late August, such borrowers who had $80,000 saved for a 20 percent down payment would have qualified for a 4.875 percent rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, according to Regina Mincey-Garlin, an owner of RCG Mortgage in Montclair, N.J.

But that was also the rate offered to borrowers putting down only 5 percent, and therefore required to have private mortgage insurance.
Oddly, those who put down 25 percent, or $100,000, were saddled with a higher interest rate, 5.375 percent, Ms. Mincey-Garlin said.
The underwriting rules from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac consider borrowers in the 20 to 25 percent down payment category to be the riskiest, in part because they are not required to carry private mortgage insurance. At higher down payments, however, rates begin to fall.

Amy Bonitatibus, a spokeswoman for Fannie Mae, said that the policy wasn’t meant to encourage lower down payments, which some have seen as the main culprit in the home foreclosure crisis.     ad-2-short-sale

“It’s just a less risky loan from our point of view,” Ms. Bonitatibus said, because the lender’s exposure to foreclosure losses is largely eliminated by mortgage insurance.

While borrowers who take out mortgage insurance can indeed enjoy lower interest rates, their monthly payments will be larger than those who made the larger down payments, because the loan itself is bigger
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A borrower who put down 25 percent for a $400,000 home would make a monthly mortgage payment of $1,680, while the borrower who put 15 percent down would pay $1,906 — or $1,799 in principal and interest, plus another $107 monthly in mortgage insurance. (The mortgage insurance is tax deductible, however, so depending on a borrower’s financial circumstances, the net mortgage liability would probably be less.)

Ms. Mincey-Garlin of RCG Mortgage says she still advises borrowers to make a down payment as large as they can, because the increased equity will help them in the long term.

Read the entire article in the New York Times
This article was posted for educational purposes.

Business

SEC Family Members Loses $2 Million to Bernard Madoff

Bernard-Madoff

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — Family members of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official, whose unit got a tip in 2005 that Bernard Madoff may be running a Ponzi scheme, entrusted $2 million to the scam, the agency’s watchdog said.

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 The anonymous e-mailed tip to the Office of Internet Enforcement was among at least six “substantive complaints” the SEC didn’t fully investigate during 16 years, Inspector General H. David Kotz said Sept. 4 in a report released before he testifies before the Senate. Investments by two of the official’s relatives were disclosed as a footnote in the 457- page report, which doesn’t identify him or specify losses. He wasn’t part of any Madoff probe, Kotz noted.

Kotz’s eight-month inquiry offers the most exhaustive look yet at how the agency missed chances since 1992 to detect a $65 billion fraud that burned thousands of investors. The inspector faulted the agency for inadequately pursuing tips, assigning inexperienced staff to conduct reviews and failing to seek trading records that would have revealed the scam.

“It is a failure that we continue to regret, and one that has led us to reform in many ways how we regulate markets and protect investors,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement. “In the coming weeks we will continue to closely review the full report and learn every lesson we can.”

Read the entire story: bloomberg.com

Real Estate

Nevada, Florida, California Post top State Foreclosure Rates

forecloused-home

With one in every 62 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in August, Nevada continued to document the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate despite an 8 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

A total of 17,902 Nevada properties received a foreclosure filing during the month, still an increase of 53 percent from August 2008.

Florida documented the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 140 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and California documented the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 144 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

A 10 percent month-to-month decrease in foreclosure activity helped lower Arizona’s foreclosure rate from the nation’s third highest in July to fourth highest in August.

One in every 150 Arizona housing units received a foreclosure filing in August — still more than twice the national average.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were Michigan, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Georgia and Illinois.

Source Real Estate Channel

Are you facing foreclosure? Call me today for a free consultation on doing a short sale instead.  John O’Dell 530-263-1091

Real Estate

Police Consider Baiting Houses

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WGxpQx2L6k

After seeing some homes that have been foreclosed on, I think this is a great idea. Bait the homes so if thieves want to vandalize a home, they’ll get caught. The biggest problem seems to be that some owners of foreclosed homes are the guilty ones. They trash the place, taking dishwashers, stoves, microwaves, cabinets and even the plumbing fixtures and wiring.

So it’s nice that the police in St. Louis are contemplating what they are calling “bait” houses – gussying up empty homes with steal-able stuff like flat-screen TVs and new computers in order to woo crooks to the scene.

The bait will all be wired, so when the thieves make off with it, the cops will be right behind. Hidden cameras will confirm that they got the bad guys.

The police say the program has other advantages as well. “I hope that for every person that we arrest out of a bait house, there’s another 20 who don’t decide to break into a house because they think it might be a bait house,” police department spokesman Rick Eckhard says.

However, how do you punish the former owners of foreclosed homes that strip their homes before they leave? Any ideas?

Real Estate

More Sellers are Turning to Rentals

rent sign

More people are becoming landlords in an economy where selling a home can be challenging.

The nation’s second-largest home insurer, Allstate Corp., says the number of homeowners converting their homeowners insurance to landlord policies rose 27 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Jim Bass of Jim Bass Real Estate Group in Frederick, Md., says he has begun offering property-management services for absent owners, many of whom are convinced it will be easier to sell in a couple of years.

Holding on probably isn’t the best answer, says economist Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. Leamer suggests negotiating a short sale instead. “Better to take your losses and move on.”

Another factor to consider is whether renting will reduce or eliminate the value of the capital-gains tax exclusion. Federal tax law requires living in the home at least two of the previous five years to qualify for the full capital-gains tax exclusion when the house is sold. Of course, if there is no profit to be had, then this isn’t a problem.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, M.P. McQueen

We have also started offering property management services. If you have a home that you would like to rent, call us at 530-272-2613.