More wonderful foreign culture for us to assimilate!

MEXICO - WHAT A COUNTRY! YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!

This is the real thing, folks. We have to battle our managers on top of everything else we do. Support your local CBP Officer/Border Patrol Agent!

Sheriff Joe is in the apologist’s faces. Go, Joe!

Posted: 20 May 2008 09:48 PM CDT

Javier Emilio Pérez Ortega had built his career on the law, but has lost faith in his country’s ability to enforce it. Ortega served four months as police chief in Puerto Palomas, Mexico, enduring death threats from drug smugglers and watching his entire police force resign en masse.

In March, Pérez arrived at the international border crossing with the United States, seeking political asylum. He is one of three Mexican municipal police chiefs to do so the past several months.

U.S. immigration law does make exceptions for persecution by non-state actors if asylum seekers can provide evidence that their government can’t or won’t intervene. But in Mexico, a new president has spent much of his first 18-months in office battling drug cartels. The narcotics traffickers have fought back, focusing on law enforcement officials.

Since January 2008, 25 officers have been killed in suspected drug-related violence nationwide. Edgar Millán Goméz, the head of the nation’s federal police force, was assassinated May 8 at his home in Mexico City. More than 300 officers died in 2007.

Pérez remains in the custody of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement while his case is under review. He hopes to move his family to the United States soon. Puerto Palomas has already hired a replacement police chief.
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It’s probably the same Raltor that doesn’t return other realtors calls and asks us to take their lockbox off the door and bring it by closing because “they are busy running errands”. You are right, there a bad eggs in every profession…

Sorry to hear about your experience. It’s a tarnish on our reputation (desevingly so)

Stereotypes run both ways. But, congratulations on being a hard working professional. Gosh knows we need more people like you around here.

Thanks for setting everyone straight about the life of a realtor. There seems to be the tendency here to lump everyone in to the same stereotype, regardless of what is being discussed. Your explanations have been very informative. I have real estate friends and over the years I believe the industry has gotten a lot rougher on those in the business.

Woo Hoo!! Keep it up. You have shed great light on what you deal with daily. I hope all are paying attention. I know you’ve gotten mine.

I love the comment about the biggest jerks and meanest people. I learned never to judge a book by it’s cover a long time ago. I remember working at the “big bad Manassas Mall” as teenager, and the people I had pegged to be PIA’s based on looks turned out to be the nicest.

At no point is our job a “slam duuk”. First of all, good luck getting a 3% commission, especially in the “hay day”. When the market is hot every seller out there wants to pay about half of that. If you think the work stops the second there is a contract you are sadly misinformed, it’s when the work begins. Who do you think coordinates everything with the lender, sits through the 2+ hour home inspection to make sure the house is sound, negotiates the repairs ( and let me tell you when it’s a sellers market good luck trying to convince a seller that the wood rot on their house is “not the buyers problem), coordinate the closing.Did I mention the 11 pm phone calls from the seller asking if I have checked the buyers credit once again to make sure they qualify. Or the call from the buyer right after that asking if the living room was sage green or tan. Do you allow your employer to call you randomly to ask where youleft the white out? It takes a lot of hard work and long hours to get a house to the closing table. Once the sale is closed do ou really think the entire commission goes to the agent. Think again, there is the split the agent has with the firm they work with (50% for a newer agent and 30% for an average experienced agent). They there are taxes to be paid. We are self employed so more than a 1/3 goes to taxes. Then we have the expense of selling the home. We buy our own signs an pay our own advertising. It doesn’t cost a seller any upfront money to sell and they don’t cover the cost of advertising, it’s all wrapped into the commission. THEN we get what is left. By the way, purchasers don’t pay us a thing. We use our gas and show them ALL of the houses they want to see, even if it’s 100 (on our gas tank). Sometimes they decide it “isnt the time to buy” and we don’t hand them a bill for our ga, it’s also the cost of doing business.

I can tell you I am a very experienced agent with a lot of sales under my belt and I don’t make more than the average beltway bandit. I am not complaining, I have a college degree and I chose Real Estate as my career but don’t think for one second it’s an easy lifestyle. I am on call 24/7. I work 7 days a week. I haven’t had a family vacation in 2 1/2 years so don’t tell me that we are all sitting around raking it in without paying our dues. I welcome you to spend a week with me. Just make sure you pack a lunch an a dinner. I start at 5:30-6am and usually end around 9:30pm with just enough time to see my family for dinner.

You suggest “bucking the system”. I have signed contracts with the bank to follow their rules. While you spend a week with me I will put you in charge of calling the banks and the service companies to deal with the grass. Then you can see how long one phone call takes only to have to make another one that afternoon with the same response. They are overwhelmed with calls and as much as I an not happy with the time it takes to get their job done, they too are working very long hours and doing the best they can. When those calls are finished you can spend the rest of your time on the phone with the utility companies. If there is nautral gas to the house bring your car, you will be required to drive into DC to show them your agreement with the bank and your ID just to have the gas turned on.

One more thing, to your comment about about selling to a descent person instead of a scumbag. Please clarify exactly how one distinguishes between the two. I have worked with blule collar families that look not so pleasant from the outside but have been the best clients and I have worked with and some professional people who have been the biggest jerks and meanest people. So you tell me, who is a scumbag to you. I surely can’t tell from appearances. That would be discrimination and I am not interested in going down that road.
By the way, lender requirements are very tight right now so when someone qualifies it isn’t just because they can wake up in the morning. We cannot discriminate based on race,sex,relgion,etc.

Lafayette—thanks for your comments!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html#cnnSTCText

These are middle class women who suddenly fell upon hard times and, when the emergency assistance was needed, there are long waiting lists and little available to help them and, although they are working, wages are so depressed (by an over-abundance of cheap labor, perhaps?) and jobs becoming scarce that they are forced to live in their cars:

“Harvey now works part time for $8 an hour, and she draws Social Security to help make ends meet. But she still cannot afford an apartment, and so every night she pulls into a gated parking lot to sleep in her car, along with other women who find themselves in a similar predicament.”

So much for the American Dream…it’s just not for Americans anymore.

anon,
Common sense difinately in short supply. Yes, report that tall grass to Zoning if in the county you call 703-792-7018 or online at..

http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=010013000250001825