Man admits to killing his realtor

[Mari333]

I know the background on this. The guy was about to lose his house and blamed the realtor. I dont know what the details are, specifically, but what is sad is that people are lashing out like this at anyone they feel they need to blame.




http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/muskegon_county/Trial_begins_in_realtors_office_murder

[louis-t]

1. That's scary. I'm a Realtor.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Everybody who gets killed is a *something*.

[EOTE]

7. But only Realtors are members of the National Association of Realtors. NT

[BlooInBloo]

9. You got me there.

:P

[louis-t]

8. How profound.

:eyes:

[Mari333]

4. They shoot their loved ones, whole families, or scapegoat

other people , too. Its anger built up over the economy, and than, they look for an outlet. If they have a gun, its unfortunate.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. The "psychology" of a murder, esp. in a heat of passion situation is that in

the murder's mind at the time, the victim "needed to be killed".

[geek tragedy]

5. This wasn't a 'heat of passion' killing--it was a premeditated

act.

[NashVegas]

6. Unfortunate

It's the realtor, the guy at the bottom of the ladder, who has the most contact with the ordinary people getting screwed left and right by Wall St.'s foray into the housing industry.

[JVS]

10. Meh.

I don't know enough about the circumstances to criticize this action.

[geek tragedy]

13. Under what circumstances is premeditated murder unworthy

of criticism?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. There are many sad and tragic stories involving real estate.

Lots of people find themselves "upside down" in house they can no afford and cannot sell with taking a big loss. They are essentially "trapped". If someone bought in 2005 at a prime time in the bubble and felt that they had a "can't lose" situation, then they were in for a bad surprise down the road. Plus, this happened in Michigan, one of the most depressed real estate markets in the country. No one wants to blame themselves, so they look for a villain in their personal tragedy.

Real estate is an industry that is fraught with emotion. A great percentage of transactions are the result of some kind of stress that can make people literally crazy - job loss, divorce, death of a spouse or parent, etc.

[MineralMan]

12. Way back in 1974, my wife at the time and I had an

opportunity to buy a house, thanks to a very kind offer from her parents to loan us $20K if we bought a house. So, we went to a realtor, explained the situation, and said that we wanted to buy a house that cost no more than that.

She said, "Well, I can get you INTO a home (not house) with that as a down payment, but you're joking if you think you can buy a home for $20K."

We had looked at the current market and there were several houses for around that price in the local paper. I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't show them to us.

So, we set out on our own, found a nice little cottage we liked that was for sale by the owner, an elderly woman. The price: $20K. She said she didn't want any realtors involved, so we went to a title insurance company and they handled all the paperwork, including the mortgage documents with the in-laws.

From the time we agreed to buy the house until we moved in was just two weeks. The cost was about $500 for the paper-handling.

That experience taught me a great deal. 30 years later, when my current wife and I sold that house for $337K, we did the same thing, selling it to a nice young couple, going through a local title insurance company, and leaving all the loan crap up to the couple. No sweat, no strain, and we arranged to rent back the house for a month after the closing so we could pack up to move. The total for all the paperwork preparation was about $1000. No commission to anyone. The new owners are happy as clams in the house.

If a transaction is simple, you have no need for a realtor. It can save you many, many thousands of dollars.

That said, we did buy our house here in the Twin Cities through a realtor, who was the seller's realtor. We paid cash for it, and I bargained our closing costs down to zero.

[timeforpeace]

14. My brother was going to be a realtor but he decided to stay in school.