Neighborhood Watch

New perk for same-sex marrieds in California

A realty company in California is capitalizing on the new Same Sex Marriage Law by offering a free wedding reception to same-sex marrieds who purchase a home in San Diego.

If a same-sex couple purchases a home through Wellsford Realty, the company says it will rebate "33 percent back on the commission, which can be used to celebrate their wedding day or plan that long-awaited honeymoon."

"Buy a $600,000 San Diego vacation home or condo" and "Wellsford Realty will rebate up to $6,000 cash back to plan a wonderful wedding reception."

Not sure how many receptions in California cost just $6,000. Buyers can ask Wellsford's wedding-planning partner, Romance Concierge Services, about that.

http://www.wellsfordrealty.com/wedding

Eliot Spitzer finds a job.

If you've been wondering what's happened to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer since his recent resignation over a prostitution-ring scandal, wonder no longer: He's gone into real estate. So says The Real Deal, an industry publication in New York City:

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has reportedly taken a position at Spitzer Enterprises, his father Bernie Spitzer's real estate empire. Some brokers say that Spitzer's biggest obstacle will be his tough-on-business politics that he employed as attorney general and governor. Spitzer is "going to have to do business with the people who he put in jail," one broker said. "Big real estate transactions need big money."

More from the New York Observer here.

Sometimes I feel a bit like an outsider, being the only one among my long-time friends who doesn't own a home. "You're throwing your money away," they say with a mix of alarm and self-satisfaction. In response I shove my hands in my pockets and kick the dirt a little bit, mumbling something about not having to pay for a new roof and being able to call the landlord when the toilet breaks.

Then I read a recent story in The New York Times by David Leonhardt, which seemed to give me hope—or at least something better to say when I felt the need to defend my status as a renter:

"The case for renting has been simple enough. House prices rose so high in the first half of this decade that you could often get more for your money by renting," he writes. "Renting involves one obvious, recurring cost that can never be recouped: the monthly rent check. Buying, on the other hand, involves multiple expenses, some of which aren’t so obvious. On top of closing costs, there are repairs, property taxes, mortgage principal and mortgage interest. (The mortgage-interest tax deduction reduces this last cost but doesn’t eliminate it.) When you own, you also lose the ability to invest your down payment elsewhere, like the stock market."

So there! I thought. Take that, you smug owner-people!

But then I read on. Turns out, after so many years as a rental evangelist, Leonhardt has changed his mind. He has gone to the buying side.

Read about his conversion here.

The Georgia Association of Realtors recently issued an alert, notifying female agents in the Dalton area of a suspicious male caller.

The man—using the names Terrance McCain, Shane Morgan and Rodney Brock—has, since early April, been calling and emailing female agents and requesting to be shown vacant homes without the owners present.

One Realtor reported a recent encounter with the man at a vacant, isolated property:

"When the agent arrived at the house, the car was backed up behind the house in a strange area," according to the association's alert notice. "The agent had her son with her, who also thought something was eerie about the man. The man stayed behind the agent and tried to lock the front door after they entered the house and did lock the kitchen door. The agent left as quickly as possible and the man told her maybe he would be seeing her soon. The man was tall, slender, had dirty black hair and very dirty clothes."

For more information and updates, click here.

Georgia Tech alums and local personalities will rappel off the 36-story Viewpoint in Midtown

Perhaps it's not enough for you to simply tour the inside of a new condominium development, or look at pictures online. Maybe what you really want is to see the condos from the outside. And not from the ground, mind you. From the actual outside of the building.

Then, perhaps, you may wish you were part of a group of young Georgia Tech alumni and local VIPs, who on June 13 and 14 will rappel off the 36-story residential tower as part of a fundraising effort for the school. The event also coincides with the summer opening of the condo building.

The alums raised at least $1,000 each for the chance to suspend from a cable 400 feet above Peachtree Street in what is the first event of its kind in the U.S., courtesy of Canadian company Over the Edge.

They'll make their way down the side of the building starting at 6:30 p.m. on June 13 and 10 a.m June 14.

Try not to rubberneck too much.

The building's developer, Novare, will likely open the event up to the media. I'm thinking of giving it a try. Mind you, I used to be the kind of person who couldn't do a trust fall. Literally, tipping back into the safety of a friend's arms scared the bejeezus out of me. But I'm trying to encourage myself to do lots of out-of-the-box stuff these days.

What do you think?

Hop on the foreclosure bus!

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you look to your right you’ll see a fantastic foreclosed property just waiting to be snapped up. And to your left, a homeowner kicked to the curb, his belongings strewn everywhere—that house will be on the next tour!”

OK. So that’s not real dialogue. It’s just what I imagine you might hear if you take the guided “Foreclosure Tour and Learn” in Atlanta on May 18. The six-hour bus tour will take you through intown neighborhoods and educate you “about the ins and outs of investing in the abundant stock of bank-owned foreclosures in the Atlanta real estate market,” according to a release from Harrison Perry Public Relations.

Your tour guide will be Butch Whitfield of Harry Norman Realtors. Only 25 people can attend, and the cost is $49 per person or $65 per couple. Lunch will be provided, along with an information packet that includes “a summary of the homes toured and insider tips for investing in bank-owned foreclosures.”

The tour starts at Harry Norman Realtors Intown on Piedmont Road. For more information and to reserve a seat, visit this link: foreclosuretourandlearn.com.

“There was a child there before and . . . it was just a big, big, big problem and they’re just, they just absolutely are not going to go through that again . . . They just don’t want to have to deal with it.”

That's something a broker allegedly said to deter a couple looking to rent a Brooklyn-area apartment. The couple, Jamie Katz and Lisa Nocera, filed suit last week against the brokerage for housing discrimination.

According to a story in the New York Times (login required).

Nocera was pregnant when the couple fell in love with a Park Slope apartment, and though they passed credit checks they were turned down as renters.

The brokerage asserts that it was protecting the couple—the property apparently had some lead-paint issues and lacked a child-safe rail on its deck—and not illegally discriminating.

Do you think the brokerage did anything wrong? Or is there an anti-kid bias in the renters' marketplace?