From the category archives:

Shenanigans

Creative ways to Acquire a Down Payment

by Alex Stenback 06.02.2009

Here’s one for the Amazing Category: In the last ten days, two separate clients have one very large sums via the lottery.  One was a $500k scratch ticket, of all things.  The second won $200k more conventionally, by hitting 5 of 6 on the most recent powerball drawing. There is a marketing slogan in this somewhere, I [...]

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News From the Foreclosure front-lines: Something Smells

by Alex Stenback 05.06.2009

The foreclsoure mess is causing all sorts of market distortions – this we know. To that point, Ross Kaplan, real estate agent (and prolific blogger) over at City Lakes Real Estate Blog, gives a fascinating account of what it is like working in a market with many foreclosures, and how insane and frustrating the process can be [...]

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The Hippo is Full: Is US Bank Turning Away Customers?

by Alex Stenback 04.01.2009

Recall the term coined on these pages a few months ago: Hipponary: A critter, or organization, or industry, with the mouth of a Hippo and (ahem) “exit orifice” of a Canary.  Used to describe the effect on a system where a large volume of inputs overwhelms other elements of the system. Then read John Murphy’s [...]

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Let’s Score Some Cheap Rhetorical Points!

by Alex Stenback 03.04.2009

Regular readers know that I am always on the hunt for an irony angle in any story.  It does not get much thicker than the following. First, recall this passage from the WSJ on Standard and Poors questionable rating practices: …an S&P analytical staffer emailed another that a mortgage or structured-finance deal was “ridiculous” and that “we should [...]

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Fraudster Update: TJ Waconia Sentencing Imminent

by Alex Stenback 02.10.2009

From the tipline: Jon Helgason and Thomas Balko will be sentenced March 10th at 9:30 a.m.  US Court House Minneapolis. The probation office sent out letters to the victims. Yes, these guys. Don’t miss the sure-to-be-nutty comment stream over at the TJ Waconia victims blog.  Ex wives and other relatives of the principals wade in [...]

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Countrywide to (former) Homeowner: Here’s $3k, now please leave without trashing the place

by Alex Stenback 02.09.2009

The image above is a copy of a “Move Out Agreement” (from Countrywide to one of it’s foreclosed homeowners) offering a cash payment of $3000 when the former homeowner leaves the property in “good and safe condition.”  Bear in mind this former owner has no legal right to stay in the property- the redemption period has [...]

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House, on Ice, on the Move

by Alex Stenback 01.30.2009

For some weirdness that non-Minnesota readers might appreciate (nobody in MN has missed this story, believe me) behold the following story about a 19th Century home that was recently moved across the ice of a local lake. From the Strib: After workers placed dollies with 64 tires under the gray wood-frame house, used as a [...]

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MN Attorney General Goes After Foreclosure Assistance Con Artists

by Alex Stenback 01.30.2009

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has filed suit against two Florida based “Foreclosure Assistance” companies for taking consumers money and then not delivering anything at all. Strib’s Jim Buchta reports: “Swanson alleged that IMC Financial Services and American Financial Corp., which is doing business as National Foreclosure Counseling Services (NFC), violated Minnesota law by charging [...]

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Case-Schiller: Twin Cities Home Prices Down 13.8%

by Alex Stenback 10.28.2008

  Standard & Poors has released the August 08 print of the Case-Schiller Home Price Index.  We pulled the graphic above to highlight what's happening in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Click the graphic to make it bigger, or take our word that the average home price in the Twin Cities for August 2008 was 13.8% lower than August 2007.  Though [...]

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