Ask Dr. Christopher "Life After Money: Real Estate and Economics" (page 10 of 12) Part II

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Life after Money

Part II

Real Estate & Economics

The Therapist and Homeowner must survive!

A Psychiatrist friend of ours once remarked that the first rule of psychotherapy is that the therapist must survive. Charity begins at home the idea of the Roman Comic Terence, refined by John Wycliffe “Charity should begin at himself” and 500 years later Charles Dickens offered: “Charity begins at home”. [73] The message: If we lose everything we won’t be available for those that need us when they need us the most.

The same may be true of each of us and the families we care for as many people will need to adjust their standard of living some of us up but many down in the next few years.

So how far down is far enough. We were standing in the street chatting with our former neighbor Earnest who stated he felt that at 60 he was 17 all over again ready to vacate his home in Steeple Chase for his new accommodations residing with his in-laws in California. Homelessness is not the bottom, just ask any person suffering from chronic alcohol or drug relapses. A friend of ours in recovery shared once that although he wasn’t living on the street he considered himself homeless because he was sleeping on other peoples couches.

The point is we are not our stuff and we must learn to detach from things that are toxic to us. Living in a home we will never own free and clear and in essence are just renting from the bank is no way to achieve financial independence. We believe that it is almost never a good idea to declare bankruptcy even though the court dockets from sea to shining sea are more jammed than a must be seen in restaurant on a Saturday night.

As we close we would like to thank you our special friends for spending some of your day or night with us to please join us for our next installment of life after money Party III Theory of the Firm and part IV Credit and Debt where we will offer a path and ideology in dealing with the financial stressors of the day and expose legal fallacies.

The last time we checked pain is mandatory but suffering optional. In a time when 300,000 homes a month are entering the foreclosure process and the carnival barkers on television continue to hawk their favorite stocks we must prepare for the next turn and as one of the most relevant voices of financial reason we have ever heard Jack Wagner of the Vanguard Group was heard to say: “The crowd is always wrong”. We loved the Black Oak Arkansas album when Electricity came to Arkansas but it also provides a real test scenario. Are we prepared to live in our homes with no electricity for say 7-11 days? What if we can’t access our accounts during a suddenly declared and extended bank holiday? Do we have enough cash stored in the “hole in the wall” If not then let’s take on one task a week like refueling that propane tank underneath the grill outside or stocking up on booze and cigarettes even though we don’t smoke or drink as bartering chips to trade with others for essentials in lieu of cash transactions.

In the hot desert sun of Las Vegas with that nasty soil we planted, pruned and grew a grape trellis so large that we tied ropes to the back of the roof of our home promoting additional growth and shade. Since making wine for personal consumption is not regulated in almost any jurisdiction in the United States; bottling wine offered as “gifts” to family, friends and neighbors could be just the insurance we need for a rainy day; and how about squirreling away a few dollars each week in that secret hiding space. Candles are cheap and so are the instant lighters but they can make a huge difference in our quality of life and don’t forget those cases of water, canned soups and chili at Sam’s. We’re not Mormon’s but we have many Mormon friends and watched the ladies on the BYU Channel feed a house full of people with fillers and one can of chicken. We as Catholics have watched the Mormon faithful prepare for years for just such events and much worse a rumination that society will ultimately shun the cities for country living promoting a return to agrarian society.

While looking for our new home we toured an area just east of St. George Utah and met a beautiful husband and wife who were interested in selling their ranch style home. We chatted with them for almost an hour. A Swiss Mercedes Benz troop carrier was parked in the driveway. In the garage and hidden from view was an arsenal of many weapons and in the backyard were lamas which would serve as pack animals in the event our couple needed to fall back into and beyond the tree line. We thought of how diametrically opposed the two views of the world; the one from which he had just arrived from and newly promoted in glitzy television adds as Camp Las Vegas and the other as we stood under the canopy of a tree line, the river just a few hundred yards from the length of our shadow, chickens clucking and sheep bells ringing from within neatly staked out wire cages the perimeter and woodshed the main attraction where all the furniture inside the home was crafted with wood not purchased at Home Depot or Lowe’s but gifted or exchanged through a network and extended family of Mormon faithful. We wish to thank Angie Adams our agent for spending her entire day with us. If you’re ever interested in relocating from Las Vegas or anywhere else in the United States to the second fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States in or around beautiful self sufficient St. George, Utah you can reach Angie through her web site: www.angieadams.com

We appreciate that some among us believe the Mormon’s remain a cult and that they turn a blind eye to the excommunicated polygamists in their midst but we view them as true environmentalists who waste nothing and leave the world a better place. If we were all to evangelize on bicycles the way they do the current discussion regarding healthcare would be considered moot and unnecessary.

Theory of the Firm

Part III of this VII part series coming soon…..

Corporate real estate marriages have fallen on hard times too. The Ritz Carlton nestled within the oasis like community located seventeen miles from the Las Vegas Strip announced it will close in May [10]. Shortly thereafter the local player’s casino The Montelargo followed suit and apparently closed in March.

Hopefully the remaining homeowners will not have to endure a slow methodical loss of their local identity like the small Pennsylvania town of Centralia where a mine fire spread beneath the towns and businesses since 1962 and continues to burn. Most people accepted the buyout to be relocated and the population has dwindled from over 1,000 to just 11 holdouts today. Centralia appears to be entering its final days. [11]

Like a good marriage {GCR} Gaming and Station Casinos of Las Vegas, Nevada have been equal partners in Green Valley Ranch under an agreement since 2000 [12].

Station, unable to meet its debt obligations after the recession cut into its revenue, and several subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection last July. The Green Valley Ranch resort partnership was not included in the July filing. [13]. In court documents related to a new bankruptcy filing by the Station subsidiary; {GCR} accuses Station of scheming to divert affluent clients to a competitor Red Rock Casino, terminated a highly successful marketing program and we quote: “instructing the food purveyor to deliver the 'prime' cuts of meat to Red Rock, while sending Green Valley Ranch the 'garbage.'"[14]. We visited Green Valley Ranch on Sunday afternoons enjoying their buffet, unique gaming parlor and touring almost the entire resort including the immaculate pool area with their large canopies and deep cushion recliners and crystal clear pools. We even toured the local night spot and bar just off the pool deck to reenact the scene where our friend Stefeni Warner after knocking a few back allegedly beat up another babe one late Saturday night. Stefani Warner you may not be inducted into the bar fight hall of fame but we’re with you all the way. We were eighty six-ed for life from the Cowboy Palace in Chatsworth, California. At least that’s what they told us. We don’t remember!

Credit, Debit and Judgment Day

Part IV of this VII Series coming soon….

If you own a home in Nevada free and clear you remain in imminent danger of losing everything. Theoretically the value of all homes in Las Vegas should approximate the judgment debtor exemption of $125,000.00 even if the appraisal of the home equals or exceeded that amount. Why? Because in these uncertain times desperate people are willing to engage in nefarious behavior and retain equally desperate attorneys willing to file “bogus” lawsuits against you for the equity in your home.

Nevada Judges almost never dismiss civil complaints as “frivolous” as they are beholden to the trial lawyers and it’s bad for their careers.

Instead if you’re a named defendant you get to hang around for three years or more, pay your attorney $50,000+ plus and after having your life ripped apart by opposing counsel in open court with both sides gorging your precious cash or credit lines and eventually the court may let you walk with what’s left of your asset portfolio.

If you don’t retain counsel and decide to represent yourself well then even though ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to provide ample leeway to defendant’s seeking to represent them selves “pro se” some Nevada Judges retain a heightened sense of obnoxiousness in their interactions with the common tax paying public and may treat you with implied bias in their opinions and decisions.

Remember in Nevada one can make an offering or a contribution to the very Judge presiding over your case as long as the dough is disclosed on some vaguely referenced web site.

In Nevada if you want to win you must be in. If you retain a modicum of personal dignity you will evacuate this state while there is still time as the regulations regarding businesses, fraud etc of the Nevada Revised Statutes of civil law reads like Marxists philosophy and when appropriate can and will destroy you and your life as applied through the courts on a whim by anyone with a resentment or simply because they covert your wife, house, car, cash and piano. Just ask Wayne Newton.

Cases like these will result in an avalanche of corporate defaults in Nevada by people unable or unwilling to retain counsel to defend their dead or dying corporations. The problem is that opportunistic attorneys like G. Luke Ciciliano name the officers in the suits and sue them personally negating the value of the corporate veil. G. Luke Ciciliano then seeks to transfer the liability of the corporation to the owners, managers and shareholders by a backdoor method called Alter Ego to his credit Luke Ciciliano as a crafty rascal located a flaw in the Nevada system dating back to 2002 when thousands of Nevada based corporations failed to renew their corporate charters or file their lists of officers through no fault of their own, the error committed by the Office of the Secretary of State of Nevada in their billing procedures, and statements regarding the annual renewal fee’s and/or submission of list of directors/officers negating the protection afforded by corporate filings in Nevada and legal piercing of the corporate veil rendering these Nevada corporations subject to the “Alter Ego” claim as recently applauded and validated by Nevada District Judge Kenneth Corey.

In Nevada upon receiving a judgment the defendant {you} will be served again with what is known as an asset search where {you} the defendant{s} are required to schedule a deposition type of hearing at the office of the Attorney and under oath convey for the court record a listing of all assets you own including bank accounts, investments, real estate, vehicles, musical instruments, the value of your wife’s fun bags etc.

The attorney will attempt to seize all assets up to the value of the judgment which in Nevada even as default judgments may approximate: $500,000.00+ as conferred by some District Judges.

Since liquidating your stuff especially in a deep recession will only yield pennies on the dollar you will be wiped out and the balance of the judgment will still stand. In Nevada your home is exempt up to $125,000.00 meaning any judgment or lien can attach to equity in excess of that amount only. However in Nevada the law is not codified in the constitution which is a nasty little surprise as the attorney simply serves you papers of the default judgment or in the case of G. Luke Ciciliano pretends to serve you utilizing A-1Process and Tom DeMarco Nevada License #981 who simply signs an affidavit stating you were personally served. That’s hot!

Upon real or imaginary document service you must show up to court and claim the exemptions otherwise they are lost and so is you home, your IRA, and all other exemptions you relied on to make it through these trying times.

A simple solution is to pay the state of Nevada a $100.00 filing fee for each of your Nevada based corporations, promptly dissolve your Nevada corporations assume any liability personally meaning you can represent yourself in court without retaining counsel thereby minimizing your out of pocket expense to filing fees and your time of research.

This strategy is very effective in extending the length of the case allowing you time to extract yourself and your stuff from this jurisdiction but employing these tactics is not for the feint of heart. A more proactive strategy is to vacate Nevada altogether which is precisely what forty 40% percent of your neighbors are contemplating in the near future. [50]

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