From Reuters:
Dropout Rate for Mortgage Aid Program Nearly 50%: Treasury
The percentage of homeowners dropping out of the Obama administration’s premier housing rescue program rose in July to nearly half of participants, as owners receiving aid continued to struggle with documenting their eligibility, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.
In its monthly report on the Home Affordable Modification Program, the Treasury said 48.1 percent of the 1.3 million homeowners who started a mortgage modification through July have dropped out. This compares to a 41.2 percent dropout rate through June.
…
But the modification trials offered in the program prior to June 1 did not require up-front documentation of income or eligibility, and many trials are now being canceled.As a result, Treasury said 100,114 participants dropped out of the program in July—more than four times the 24,577 new modification trials started.
“The number of new cancellations is expected to exceed the number of permanent modifications for the next few months as servicers clear their backlog of aged trials,” the Treasury said in a statement.
From the AP:
Nearly 50 percent leave Obama mortgage-aid program
Nearly half of homeowners seeking help from the Obama administration’s flagship effort to help those at risk of foreclosure have fallen out of the program.
A new report from the Treasury Department says approximately 630,000 people who had tried to get their mortgages modified through the program have been cut loose through July. That’s about 48 percent of the 1.3 million homeowners who had enrolled since March 2009.
…
The report suggests foreclosures could rise in the second half of the year and weaken the ailing housing market.
From the NY Times:
A Chill in High-End Alpine
HERE’S what a lagging market looks like in Alpine, N.J., the town perennially identified by Forbes Magazine as one of the “most expensive” ZIP codes in the country:
¶The average home price, which was $4.3 million last year, is hovering at $2 million so far this year, according to Multiple Listing Service data.
¶There are currently 61 homes multiply listed (and more being marketed privately). But only one house per month was sold in the first seven months of this year.
¶The most expensive house to sell this year was a five-bedroom four-bath dwelling on Charney Drive — the exact house number was kept private — which went for $3.525 million. Last year a house on Litchfield Way sold for more than three times that, $14.9 million.
“It’s a very difficult environment,” said Richard J. Kurtz, whose 30,000-square-foot stone mansion on the Henry Clay Frick estate in Alpine is on the market for $68 million. (The price is believed to be a record for New Jersey, and among the top asking prices right now anywhere in the United States, according to Forbes.)
…
Still, even though “there are a lot fewer transactions,” Mr. McCormack said, “one reason for that is that sellers here don’t need to rush to the exits during a down cycle in the market. They do not have to sell, and they just take their homes off the market for a year, two years, or whatever it takes for values to rise again.”
He has been marketing the home of the actor and comedian Eddie Murphy, at a “reduced” price of $12.5 million, for about two years. Before that, another broker had listed the property for $30 million.
From the Record:
Fund buys former Linens HQ
A real estate investment fund that has been snapping up distressed commercial properties at steep discounts has made another purchase: the former Clifton headquarters of bankrupt housewares company Linens ‘n Things.
The Paramus-based KABR Group paid about $6 million for the three-building complex on Brighton Road in an all-cash deal that closed Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the transaction.
The office property last sold for $18 million in 2001 but was appraised at $20.6 million around the real estate bubble’s peak in 2007, according to tax records and loan data provided by Bloomberg News.
Frist!
But I thought Bergen County was ok. It’s close to NYC,
That’s gonna leave a mark…
Getting lots of secured credit card offers, freedy?
Still, even though “there are a lot fewer transactions,” Mr. McCormack said, “one reason for that is that sellers here don’t need to rush to the exits during a down cycle in the market. They do not have to sell, and they just take their homes off the market for a year, two years, or whatever it takes for values to rise again.”
No, they don’t have to sell. The family just huddles together on the bare living room floor, wrapped in burlap blankets with empty cup-o-soup containers scattered about waiting for the Sheriff to knock on the front door.
grim, un-mod me!
A Very Special BFF:
“After a lengthy attempt to bail out his pet bank, ShoreBank Chicago, Illinois, which included several alleged armtwisting episodes by the administration, the president has finally let the bank die (with its assets valued at about 50% of face). Yet instead of going to hell, it was immediately resurrected with a bevy of new owners, among them Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and BofA, all of whom received nearly $400 million in taxpayer money for their “generosity” to keep the bank zombified even in the afterlife.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/failure-obamas-pet-shorebank-costs-taxpayers-368-million-which-immediately-goes-goldman-sach
Aren’t banks supposed to be shut down when they breach capital reserve requirements?
Isn’t ShoreBank tied up with Tony Rezko and a bunch of other Chicago machine hijinks?
One thing for sure: MSM will never dig under this rock.
Who says ShoreBank is dead? Wash, Rinse, Repeat! If Clairol can do it, why can’t we?
From the WSJ:
ShoreBank Managers Ready if Seized
The management team of ShoreBank Corp., the troubled Chicago community lender with ties to the Obama administration, now has enough backing to buy certain assets if the institution is seized by regulators as early as Friday, said people familiar with the situation.
A consortium of the biggest U.S. banks has agreed to support the bid with $125 million to $150 million, these people said. If ShoreBank is closed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would strip out the bad loans and sell the clean assets to the bank-backed management team. While not final, the deal is “close to fruition” and could be set as early as Friday, one of these people said.
How great is that. Management keeps their jobs, the bank gets to reopen, and taxpayers get saddled with all the bad debt!
Win win!
From the Sue Adler site:
“The difference we have here in the towns of Millburn, Short Hills, Maplewood, Summit, and Chatham is that we are still in that precious bubble of 20-50 minutes to NYC with top notch free schools. Each of us on the Sue Adler Team have motivated buyers who have been waiting for their dream home to come on the market here (some for years).”
Picture Sue Adler going to work everyday like Jim Carrey in the movie The Truman Show.
I’m going long bank sign makers and letterhead printers. There are legs behind this renaming trend.
Doom [10],
The MSM is a bunch of kids with runny noses who believe the earth was created by Barney the Purple Dinosaur. If the subject matter doesn’t revolve around Lindsay Lohan, Justin Beiber, muffin tops, tatoos or iShit, they are dumb-founded.
WASHINGTON – The deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico costs at least 23,000 jobs, according to a federal document that weighed the economic impact and alternatives to the drilling ban.
Oblammy said if we didn’t pass the $878,000,000,000 suckulous bill, 3 million jobs would be lost. The number of jobs lost since the pork stuffulous bill was issued? 3 million.
grim (12)-
The only remaining wish I have is to see all these crooks get the Ceaucescu at Christmas treatment on live network TV.
gary (13)-
Could you direct me to the “free schools” in those towns?
Once can only hope that when civil unrest begins in earnest, the marauding gangs target Sue Adler first.
Great. Iran flips the “on” switch to their nuke plant today.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791804575439871207245044.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_markets
Real-Estate Investing: The Best and Worst Markets
There is a map and everything…
Gary 13 – 20 min on the Midtown Direct line? I guess Sue must have expanded her market to include the prestigious train towns of Newark and East Orange. No way you get to NY from any suburban Essex town in 20 min. I think even the one Maplewood express clocks in at closer to 30;
Sue is just a pathological liar.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38722211/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/
“The 10 Most Tattooed Cities in America”
Gary @ 15
Do you see any connections here? MSM, foreclosures, unemployment, tattoos……
Numbers one and two – kind of eerie, really.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/21/2973258/calpers-loan-sought-by-schwarzenegger.html
Arnold wants a $2 billion loan from CalPERS to help close the budget gap – Nice.
FinalDoom, thanks for my chuckle of the day, re “Can you direct me to the free schools in those towns?” Yeah, they’re free with your $20K+/year property taxes.
Look a house in Alpine for under$1,000.000 only $900,000.00! http://www.weichert.com/30559059/?cityid=836&mls=53&pg=4&view=gallery With state of the art mint green bathroom tile and Knotty Pine kitchen cabinets ooh now I can hobnob with Eddie Somebody Stop Me!
Not just the knotty pine, but look at that absurd kitchen layout. I can just see somebody trying to put a tuna casserole in the oven when somebody else decides to open the back door.
Cindy (25)-
The equivalent of one skid row bum borrowing money for T-Bird from another bum.
Lemme guess…Arn’s offering a handwritten IOU note on a napkin?
20 Great. Iran flips the “on” switch to their nuke plant today.
We can all the thankful for the Era of Smart Diplomacy, including reset with Russia (which provided the fuel to nuke plant) and love letters to Iranian government. As our Dear Leader stated wisely, “Nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable”.
This reminds me of the triumpf of letting N-Korea to go nuclear after the previous Era of Smart Diplomacy.
This will turn out fine /sarc
Nom, you have mail.
We’re checking out A Toute Heure in Cranford tonight. Any suggestions on better entrees would be appreciated. Bringing two upper shelf wines for the occasion. May have to sleep in the car.
Jamil (31) –
With any luck, Russia helped with the design and based it on Chernobyl. Of course, then, our “Dear Leader” would announce the US is committed to assist in the cleanup, which would certainly make us all proud Americans.
Gary/Doom – There is ONE Maplewood train – the 7:03AM – that clocks into NYP in the morning at 29 minutes. The rest are scheduled for 36 minutes or more. South Orange is also scheduled for 30 minutes+. And keep in mind that these times are NJ Transit’s version of fiction. It’s not uncommon to regularly be 5-10 minutes late into Penn. I’d say our line is at least twice per week.
Can someone please ask Sue from which prestigious train town one can get to NY Penn in 20 minutes?
NJGator,
Maybe Sue meant Newark Penn Station :-)
Game Over!,
So what should we do – invade Iran?
There aren’t a lot of options here.
Good leadership requires putting ourselves in a position where we have better options in the future. It was already too late to stop this plan years ago because we opened the pandora’s box when we invaded Iraq. Hopefully, this “smart diplomacy” will bear fruit 5-10 years from now … when the next President (probably a Republican) can harvest it.
30 – Clot
“Lemme guess…Arn’s offering a handwritten IOU note on a napkin?” LOL
I’m pretty sure you are right about that. These yahoos are so used to not coming in on time with a budget, they probably have the whole IOU thing already worked out for this year.
Disciple (35) –
No, invading Iran would just cause larger issues. You’re right, the situation is a cluster with no real solution. However, “Iran and Diplomacy” is a pipe dream – history tells us so. No hope and change here.
[32] libtard
Or you may wind up camping at Chez Deplume. There will be plenty of grape flowing, that’s for sure.
Grim,
Great headline today. I love Aussie bands, and especially the Oils.
Stu and Gator,
You’ve got mail
I feel more people have to read this, incredibly good info.
37 “No, invading Iran would just cause larger is”
Who the heck has suggested invading Iran? There is exactly one solution for Iranian nuke problem:
Targeted air strikes (along with sabotage, which has been going on for years).
If somebody believes that Smart Diplomacy is letting genocide-advocating, terrorist-supporting country to acquire nukes, then I have to agree with one thing: Liberalism is a mental disease. No cure exist.
Jamil (42) –
That would be Disciple @ 35.
Now… pay attention… I agree with you.
Food for thought…
As the manufactured controversy surrounding the Cordoba House continues to rage, special attention should be paid to the words spoken by Imam Rauf, the cleric leading the effort, at the memorial service for Daniel Pearl, the journalist brutally murdered in Pakistan by terrorist Islamists:
We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our Abrahamic faiths. If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.
If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.
And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different.
It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values.
———–
Of course, what these faiths think of someone worshiping multiple gods, or those tha worship no god, is not clear!
#44 Radical Islam wants me dead. I would rather they die first.
Sas3
I am all for spirituality and more people should explore their personl perspective there of. The problem is organized religion, the original corporation. The problem is not 1 or 1 billion people praying to any given deity. The problem is when a falable human begins issuing orders, particularly violent ones in the name of of supposidly omnipotent being.
I have just as much distate for an organized religion hooked on ped0philia as I do for one obsessed with exterminating any non-believer
I think I live next door to a Move compound in Montclair.
Some serious communal living going on there.
Hey lostinny!
I’m looking for you – call/email if you see this.
sl
sastry (44)-
Kill the scurvy lot of them before they kill us.
Humans are pack animals and packs battle, just like any animals.
I want my pack to kill the other pack.
back to the pit…
wish me luck.
sl
doom.. .i owe you a knob creek…. soon
sl
we should do this in Central Park, or in Hackensack during mexican volleyball season.
“New benches are a pain in the ****”
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/New_benches_are_a_pain_in_the
SAS
dear god.
please grant me the ability to change the things I can,
accept the things I can’t,
and the fu.cking wisdom to know the difference.
sl
Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio, [I mean quant hedge funds], a nation turns a lonely eye to you.
Going to the candidate’s debate, every way you look at it you lose.
What’s that you say Mr Bergabe, quant funds have left us and gone away.
Any thoughts on how much worse things will be next year at this time?
My general thinking is that same time next year, we’ll still be where we are, more or or less still stuck in the current economic purgatory.
Most of the unemployed will stay in the more-new-workers-added-than-new-jobs-created-this-year ring of hell they’re in now.
Of course, people’s savings will be reduced and their credit cards balances will increase; while we all may swear 2010 is a repeat of 2009 and expect 2011 will mirror 2010, the bills keep coming due, month in and month out. Who has the luxury to worry about getting ahead these days, when it’s so hard just to stand still and keep what you already have?
2. We need a term for all this. The last long-term period of economic misery in the early 1980s was nicely summed up with the word “stagflation.”
Any nominations on what to call the current situation?
Any thoughts on how much worse things will be next year at this time?
My general thinking is that same time next year, we’ll still be where we are, more or or less still stuck in the current economic purgatory.
Most of the unemployed will stay in the more-new-workers-added-than-new-jobs-created-this-year ring of h*** they’re in now.
Of course, people’s savings will be reduced and their credit cards balances will increase; while we all may think 2010 is a repeat of 2009 and expect 2011 will mirror 2010, the bills keep coming due, month in and month out. Who has the luxury to worry about getting ahead these days, when it’s so hard just to stand still and keep what you already have?
2. We need a term for all this. The last long-term period of economic misery in the early 1980s was nicely summed up with the word “stagflation.”
Any nominations on what to call the current situation?
Change 56
welcome to Argentina circa 2000/2001.
A recent quote from an argetinian describing the social environment
You have 50% poor and 20% of the population below the poverty line. Of the remaining 30%, 25% is a redefined middle class that closely resembles pre-2001 poor. That leaves 5% of the population that has managed to adapt, survive and maintain their old middle class or high class life standards. The disparity is huge, and the political stance is that poor=good, guy with money=bad. There’s always someone that has to take the blame, and its a rare occasion when those that are truly guilty are held responsible for what they’ve done
I believe the upcoming election is making things worst for the Democrats and the economy.Republican businesses and their top 5% income earners don’t want to open their wallet to create demand.Companies are hoarding over a trillion dollars and savings rate is at all time high of 5%.When working hours goes up,we know there is demand and employment will be picking up.Until working hours goes up and election is not over,we are stuck in this pendulum.
58
40% are classified as poor last year,did not pay federal taxes.Top 5% earners saw their income doubled in last 10 years and the 95% income stayed the same.How many will not pay federal taxes this year?45-50%,while the top 5% have recoup their losses already and are complaining they pay to much taxes.
Gerald Celente explains what America used to be about.I will not go as far as his predictions
The crux of the problem, Celente argues, is that the middle class has been wiped out. America used to be a land of opportunity for all, where hard-working people could build their own small businesses in their own communities and live prosperous and fulfilling lives. But now a collusion of state and corporate interests that Celente describes as “fascism” have conspired to help only the biggest companies and the richest Americans. This has put a shocking amount of the country’s wealth in the hands of a privileged few and left the rest of the country to subsist on chicken-feed wages and low job satisfaction as Wal-Mart “associates” — or worse.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gerald-celente-greatest-depression#ixzz0xKqttwBG
15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-wealth-inequality-2010-7#the-gap-between-the-top-001-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1#ixzz0xKtI1yqM
changer (56)-
The Greatest Depression
Change
unless you charge and execute a few politicians fir treason nothing changed
hyde (64)-
I’m coming around to the idea that it’s economists we need to execute en masse:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/watch-former-fed-governor-fred-napoleon-dynamite-mishkin-dire-need-diaper-change
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/us/22house.html?ref=us
“In Georgia, a Megamansion Is Finally Sold”
17 years on the market….
Dear Sellers,
Tick…. tick…. tick…. tick….
Quiz: A house in Woodcliff Lake goes on the market for $749,000. In one day, six offers are made on the house and it sells for $790,000 that week. What year was the house sold?
57 “Any nominations on what to call the current situation?”
unexpected barackflation?
# 68 …2037 ?
Nice digs..outlandish price: http://www.sothebysrealty.com/en/PropertyDetails.aspx?R=100113311
New wallpaper!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/hildebrand/GTL%203.GIF
“Any thoughts on how much worse things will be next year at this time?”
Debt remains at record levls and the underpinning asset continues to get decimated. The bull market in food stamps, foreclosures and underwater homeowners continues.
“Any nominations on what to call the current situation?”
Double dip recession BS is replaced by reality; single scoop depression. [Kudos to Rosenberg]
Got a Post Card yesterday from Weichert telling me they were Short Sale experts and what alternatives are good in todays market. Then I watched a Home Improvement show that changed it’s format to show Short Sales in Florida, Michigan & Massachusetts. Must be something going on. One Short Sale house in Florida priced at $250K, which was built in 2006 for $750K, looked to be a fair deal at current price. The real estate dealer made a special point of showing the former owners had left it in good shape, including appliances.
You can wallpaper the dining room of that house in this delightful pattern:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/hildebrand/GTL%208.GIF
Hudson City Checking Interest has dropped below 1% to .85%. Still better then BOA though, at .1%. Bernanke is pulling out all the stops to force money into Ponzi and must be frustrated that some people are still remiss in joining the Wall Street Casino.
Debt remains at record levels and the underpinning asset continues to get decimated.
What a fascinating concept. Sort of like compounding interest in reverse. Einstein would’ve loved to dissect this one.
Last night, Tony Bennett at the Paramount Theatre AP where the acoustics are so great he went off mike, I forgot for one shining moment about our coming Greatest Depression as he crooned The Best is Yet to Come. The guy is a real class act on the stage and backstage.
The correct answer to #68 above is the year 2010 which makes the losing bidders very lucky people. If the year was 2006, then the buyer would’ve been classified as naive fools who got suckered and hoodwinked by ex nail technicians and bored housewives looking for a career in real estate. Since the house was sold this year, however, the buyers are now classified as complete and utter f*cking mor0ns who need to be dragged behind a shed and beaten with a patio umbrella stand.
“Since the house was sold this year, however, the buyers are now classified as complete and utter f*cking mor0ns who need to be dragged behind a shed and beaten with a patio umbrella stand.”
Why? Their money (or the bank’s money; their loan), their wish. There may be more to the story than a dumb buy, especially with six offers in one day.
Sas3
really???? The taxes and guarenteed tax inteases over the next several years are a boat anchor that can’t be dodged. Assuming the buyers put down something more then 3%, they are now out a significant chunk of change as they will never be able to recoup it
The market will be good when we see cash investors crowding out buyers who need financing.
Which means that selling prices of all homes in all price ranges will allow investors to generate positive cash flow from day 1.
Doom,
remeber the house i spoke to you about in lebanon? their Realtor has convinced them to try and sell it for 350K and that they may only have to come down 10-20K to sell it…. Oh, and they expect to sell it quickly next spring.
For obvious reasons i stepped out of that game
hyde (83)-
Too bad. They will have their heads handed to them.
Look at where markets have bottomed and volume is coming back (Miami, Vegas, etc.).
Cash investors are crowding out owner-occ’s, and the investors are dictating terms.
Until we see this here, the pain continues.
mark cuban rips apart the stock market
http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-the-stock-market-is-for-suckers-put-your-money-in-the-bank-2010-8
Mark Cuban is an astonishingly bad writer.
What will happen to markets if all the bogus HFT churn is stopped?
“It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of pirates. After a year-long campaign by Zero Hedge warning about the ongoing threat to market structure by the HFT plague, culminating in a the May 6 crash, whose incipient conditions exist to this day, the FT reports that the even more worthless regulator, FINRA, is beginning a clampdown on broker dealers who allowed high-frequency traders to have access to the markets without undertaking proper checks. As this means all of them, there is about to be a huge change in market structure as arguably more than half of the market “participants” are suddenly excluded from constant daily churning activity. What the outcome of this will be is anyone’s guess, but definitely expect strange things if this is truly a first step towards reverting to some form of normalcy.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/clampdown-market-abuse-high-frequency-churners-er-traders-begins
AUD getting crushed tomorrow AM. Political problems over there. Should be a fun market open here, since AUD carries have been funding zombie equity trading.
No doubt the PPT crew will handle it.
what a bad night that was, last night. I really need a vacation…
sl
is it too early to start knocking back scotch?
sl
From Monday’s WSJ:
Mortgage Fraud Is Rising, With a Twist
Adopting to Tighter Rules After Collapse, Scammers Turn to More Complex Plots
By ROBBIE WHELAN
New data suggests that mortgage fraud—which got tougher to pull off after the collapse of the U.S. real estate market—is returning in a big way.
Data prepared for The Wall Street Journal by research firm CoreLogic, examining about seven million home loans made by hundreds of lenders, show that losses from mortgage fraud—ranging from falsified credit reports to identity theft—rose 17% last year after declining 57% in the two years after its 2006 peak.
In 2009, $14 billion in loans, or about 0.7% of all mortgage loans made in the U.S., were originated with fraudulent application data.
The figures are a fraction of the mortgage market, but the increase is sharp.
CoreLogic, which tracks fraud only by mortgage value, examines about 7 million loans each year using a proprietary computer program that detects discrepancies in loan documents and predicts the likelihood of fraud. The real losses to banks won’t be known for several years when banks are forced to write off the value of the loans’ value.
More here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703824304575435383161436658.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_6
Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, Analysts Say
Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg.
The wealth generated by housing in those decades, particularly on the coasts, did more than assure the owners a comfortable retirement. It powered the economy, paying for the education of children and grandchildren, keeping the cruise ships and golf courses full and the restaurants humming.
More than likely, that era is gone for good.
“There is no iron law that real estate must appreciate,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for the real estate site Zillow. “All those theories advanced during the boom about why housing is special — that more people are choosing to spend more on housing, that more people are moving to the coasts, that we were running out of usable land — didn’t hold up.”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/business/economy/23decline.html?hp
scribe (92)-
All the dirtbags who did subprime originations all moved to FHA. These guys know every trick in the book. When the massive frauds in FHA are uncovered and written down, it will be the equivalent of a massive kill shot to housing.
The FHA fraud will not come to light for years, since the gubmint is the insurer of the loans. Like most marks who’ve been scammed, they will be embarrassed and reluctant to cop to having been duped. In fact, it’s highly likely FHA will have been liquidated by then.
I may be revising my 20-40 years for recovery call to 100.
The good thing about Property Magazines is that they show you the essence of being wise in investing in profitable properties.