Bonzai Real Estate Blog

Went for a little stroll today for excercise, meditation and people-watching.

There were lions in the trees.

Then I saw this beautiful home I've been intending to take a picture of -- pictures don't do it justice. The flowers are incredible.

So I took several.

It was too overcast. Not good pictures at all.

But I kept trying, and walking and meditating.

It looked like rain, so I headed on back.

Then caught this rare creature -- Shingle style.

Sometimes I believe that the best way to write a blog is to be neutral and never state an opinion, then I say - Nah, that just leads to boredom and nothing of much significance. On a blog like this which isn't a business blog, I think tackling tough subjects is helpful to start conversations that have some meaning.

Will some people be turned off? Yes, no doubt, but then I will take that risk to state my opinions and write about what I believe. I respect authors who take a chance and state their beliefs and opinions, even if I disagree with them. One of the powerful aspects of blogging is getting conversations going across the net to hopefully re-evaluate old ideas and learn new ways of thinking about different topics, or just to clarify our own ideas. I respect everyone's beliefs and I am open to being convinced of them.

Not everything is about business, that's why I started this blog -- to have a place to spout off and to record some my ideas about the industry and everything that touches it. I hope what I write is never seen as proselytizing -- it's just thoughts, ideas and opinions I've developed through studying different topics and forming a view of life.

I didn't mean to imply that all people on the left are against private property -- I said there are leftist intellectuals who are against private property -- I have read them.

I forget sometimes that people have a hard time thinking objectively, so I have been called a right-wing fanatic, a fascist, a racist and all other mean names when I discuss what i think is objective and criticize some of the ideas on the left. I also get people on the right questioning why I am for a woman's right to choose on the abortion issue, or why I think we should stay out of the middle as an ongoing strategy -- it's because they mistake some of my ideas as being Republican in a partisan way. I am not partisan in any way, I try to be objective.

I started out on the left and I am not "right", now. I am for freedom, small government, reason and capitalism/free market. Whatever that makes me, that is what I am. I tend to think of myself as objectivist. That explains my viewpoint more than anything else. I am against much of what McCain stands for, but I believe he will do less harm to our country than Obama.

I'm always careful when I hear the mainstream media report on real estate. I no longer trust the old media to be objective - there is too much evidence of marketing agendas and political motives. We all know about the housing and lending situation, but deconstruction started when they took property out of life, liberty and property, even though the stated reason had to do with slavery. Glenn Beck, the capitalist clown, was talking about this on his show this morning. I would like to expound and relate it to real estate.

Then there was the initiation of the income tax, then eminent domain and environmental regulations, wetlands and such. But underneath a lot of real estate bashing and politcal meddling is a socialist leaning de-construction. However, in a way, new-age agents online, wired and irreverent, are deconstructing real estate as we have known it -- this decontruction is an act of innovation, though, not destruction disquised as critical reporting or "consumer-protecting" regulation.

Real estate has been taken apart and that's where most deconstructionist leave things, in pieces as they smugly smile at their anti-creation. There are leftist intellectuals who would be satisfied with all property being under the control of the state. However, "property" is a big part of what defines us as free people -- that's why it was originally drafted life, liberty and property.

To own property is an act of freedom, although many people are trying to undermine property ownership through reductionist ideology -- some even say we can't own it, that it belongs to the natives of this country. It's futile to argue this because progress has created societies that go by rule of law, not spiritual associations with land.

As time goes on goverment controls more and more land, and more and more regulations are created that control how we can use property. Ownership means nothing if you aren't free to use property as you see fit. It's like in fascist regimes where private companies own their companies but the state controls what they do with their companies -- that's not ownership and it's certainly not freedom. Our country is not that far gone, but we are on a slippery slope as we accept more and more regulation and control.

In this year's election, if I had to choose a candidate that I felt understands freedom and property ownership it ould be McCain, because I believe Obama is as far left as American politicians get, yet donations from real estate professionals are favoring Obama. At times I feel as if we are a country slowly going to sleep intellectually-- we no longer have the ability to understand, discuss or even tolerate big ideas, nor do most Americans have any notion how these big ideas can affect our daily lives.

We are still in a phase of short-term thinking, still trapped in the cult of personality and subjectivism -- what feels good is more important than what IS good. I'm not a The-World-Is-Ending fanatic, but I'm troubled by the lack of understanding of what property means to us. As real estate agents we should at least understand the big idea of property ownership.

If we listen to the old media and leftist intellectuals they will convince us that we should rent, that ownership is passe and not important, just a capitalist ploy to enrich the greedy, or a means for the rich to control the nation. They will control the conversation so that if you stand up and defend ownership and real estate and suggest someone buy, you are a brainless, NAR-controlled cheerleader who wants to soak someone for 6%. Their tactics are subtle and gradual. We are inundated with how screwed up the real estate profession is and we hear over and over how the rich are evil and how government needs to protect us -- this is a form of indoctrination and many are falling under the spell. Big ideas, we are told, are the contruction of dead white European males -- what is important is now and the little guy, redistribution, regulating the rich to create a level field -- owership and possession are signs of greed and selfishness.

This is hardly ever stated explicitly but it's underneath all the attempts to bring "big" business to its kness and to undermine ownership, and it's underneath a lot of the environmental fanaticism. The small real estate entrepreneur gets caught in the trap, dealing with regulations, now paying $4.50 for a gallon of gas, open to frivolous lawsuits brought on by irrational laws made by legislators who don't have a clue how the real world or the free economy works. Yet, more donations from real estate pros are going to Obama.

It blows my mind.