Photo evidence. Giant poster. Public humiliation. Done.

Posted by: west1 at September 25, 2009 3:40 PM in response to Dog Pooping in Front of House

This is disturbing. Is there any way to have it removed?

Posted by: west1 at September 3, 2009 11:04 AM in response to Blockshopper

Sorry to hear. Try filing a complaint to BBB. Since you have supporting evidence that the broker misrepresented the facts, you can force them to act in response through the BBB. Good luck!

Posted by: west1 at June 30, 2009 6:13 PM in response to Real estate agent/misrep?

My fiance and I (first time home buyers) didn't use a realtor and went through the entire process ourselves along with the buyer's agent (who was absolutely helpful in helping us with the coop board paperwork and answering all our questions). We are about to close on a coop sometime in the next two weeks.

As for how we did it, we went to a lender and got pre-approved first (so we know how much we can afford). Then we just found open house listings in neighborhoods we liked, and checked it out ourselves. When we decided on "the one" we put in a purchase offer to the buyer's agent. (Buyer's agent will give you the form if you're interested in buying the place.)

From there, hire a real estate attorney to handle the contract. Contact the lender who pre-qualified you to apply for a mortgage.

On a side note: the reason we didn't go with a seller's agent was because we were contacted by one who left a really bad taste in our mouths. Then we asked around our friends and families and found out that no one we knew used a realtor to buy a place. We figured, hey, if they can do it themselves, so can we. Besides, not having to pay several thousands of dollars to someone to do something we learned to do ourselves means we now have more money to put towards furnishing the place!

Anyway, hope that helps. Happy home hunting!

Posted by: west1 at June 30, 2009 5:42 PM in response to How to Buy?

***speaking from my experience only***

The process takes a day or so to get pre-qualified, but with the laws changing so quickly, the only thing you really should be diligent about is your financial standing, (and saving more than you think you need for the closing costs).

That said, it is still good to find a lender who can tell you precisely how much home you can afford first. This way you don't waste your time looking at homes out of your price range. Don't worry about the credit checks for a home purchase. I'm not sure what the letter is called, but apparently the lender can give a letter of explanation as to why you're getting getting your credit pulled too many times. Can't recall where I read it from, but it's something like a 6 month time frame they give you for credit checks for home purchase. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I recall reading.)

As for the mortgage process, I don't know what is considered long, but it took me two months to go from loan app to approved to denied mortgage insurance (I put 10% down) to another loan app to approved mortgage and approved mortgage insurance. (I have very good credit and my financials are sound.) I'm hearing that the mortgage insurance companies are very skiddish with those who are putting less than 20% down. (Of course, if you're planning on a 20% deposit, you won't have the same problem I've had.)

Other than that, you can line up a real estate attorney for when you actually put a bid in.

Hope that helps. Happy hunting!

Posted by: west1 at June 30, 2009 5:21 PM in response to When to start mortgage pre-qual?

Finally, an MTA move that makes sense!

Posted by: west1 at June 30, 2009 5:04 PM in response to Closing Bell: Signs of the G Train Extension

Is that that newnew designer group? They're really interesting to see. Something different every week.

Posted by: west1 at June 3, 2009 3:42 PM in response to Today on the Brownstoner Backpages

If some dude ever decides to video tape me walking a dog, you bet your mutt hating ass he'll get HIS ass kicked by the bf. AND I'll call the cops on him for invasion of privacy. Screw this gotcha video bs.

Posted by: west1 at May 11, 2009 10:03 AM in response to Prospect Park Vigilante Wages Canine Campaign

You might have the same problem as I do. I am extremely sensitive to dust and dust mites. I also get that way if I touch cardboard or anything that has dust on it. My skin gets incredibly itchy and rashy. Then I found this: http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=80723&catid=33262

It seems to help control the mites instantly, and it's organic unlike a lot of other sprays, which smell incredibly bad. The good thing with this is that you can spray just about anything (clothing, sheets, fabric couches), and just let it dry. I even use it on my carpets and then vacuum. The relief I felt was instant. Hope this helps!

Posted by: west1 at February 13, 2009 9:41 AM in response to No-See-UMs

Best of luck to her!

Posted by: west1 at October 3, 2008 2:04 PM in response to Details on the Brooklyn Take-Out Taxi

Congratulations! Hope to be in your shoes sometime soon!

Posted by: west1 at September 23, 2008 5:07 PM in response to Congratulations to me?

Disagree with other posters--this is total BS. Definitely worth bringing it to the AG's attention. Also worth bringing it to the attention of your local legislator (Assembly and Senate), and your local council member. Would also mention this to any organization that works in domestic violence.

And go through the stories on the website. Email the people in them. I'm sure they have no idea someone is doing this to them.

It's nonsense to suggest that laws which served to protect privacy in the non-computer age are sufficient for the information age. I mean, if stuff like this ends up the new standard of privacy, fine. But that should be something that we debate and have input on, and that people know about so they can try and take precautions. It shouldn't be something that just happens because we're working off laws that existed before google.

Posted by: bkrules at September 3, 2009 1:59 PM in response to Blockshopper

Years ago, you could go to the deeds office to get this stuff but no one probably bothered. Now everyone can know what I and my husband spent on our house last year. Fortunately, we don't have too much info about us on the tubes, or we weren't interesting enough to cobble together an article.

Nonetheless, I've wondered if folks that have not been able to contact me (and who I don't really want to deal with) might show up out of the woodwork someday.

Posted by: nk at September 3, 2009 2:19 PM in response to Blockshopper

I also think the law should be changed but the law now is pretty clear. Also making things not public just creates a way of charging people to get the same information. Government and the public operate best when things are open and above board. I do think it would be helpful if people knew what is going to be available from a public data base but making it non public isn't necessarily the best either. In any case the law now has very little protection on most information. Nothing wrong in trying to change it.

Posted by: smeyer418 at September 3, 2009 3:06 PM in response to Blockshopper

you wouldnt necessarily need to make the information non-public but you could restrict access, maybe make it only accesible with a username for which you'd need to provide your real name address etc. SOMEthing to lower the profile a bit, maybe also make it possible to trace who's accessed the documents, but still allow access to those that legitimately need it.

Also, I can see why some information is helpful to have online--like sale price etc--but why do we need the full mortgage document, amount borrowed, rate, etc? Like the unfortunate fellow that began this thread I think most people are unaware all this is online for any jerk to see (as is an image of signature on all documents, lovely that that's in the public domain).

Speaking of people contacting you out of the woodwork, I know we started getting all kinds of insurance offers (disability, life) right after we bought our place that referenced the fact that we were new homeowners...

Posted by: woodys at September 3, 2009 3:44 PM in response to Blockshopper

The information on acris can be extremely difficult to read and decipher particularly in instances where the existing owner has refinanced etc. Our information was lifted off ACRIS and debated on several different blogs (this one included) ad nauseum when we gained a little notoriety a couple of years ago and what I found funny (after initially feeling aghast that my financial privacy had been shattered) was that not one person was able to correctly identify our actual mortgage amount but consistently had it about $600k over what it is.

As NK said years ago you physically had to go to the clerks office to access this info but now it is on the web for all to see. BKRules I don't think the AG is really going to get involved - this information has always been in the public domain and all the internet has down is make it more accessible.

Posted by: 99luftballons at September 3, 2009 3:52 PM in response to Blockshopper

Ah yes! We have had the requisite rise in junk mail, and the scam that requests we pay them some amount for our own deed, but I'm more worried about the acquaintance who was "reborn" dropping by to try to convert us.

Posted by: nk at September 3, 2009 3:58 PM in response to Blockshopper

They did it to me as well. My company's pr agency picked it up in their media round-up and it got broadcasted to everybody in my office.

Really, really irritating.

Posted by: guywithahouse at September 3, 2009 9:30 PM in response to Blockshopper

I think finding information about given house is Ok (i.e. who is the owner, what was the sale prices, taxes, etc).

What disturbs me is the nyc.gov/etc access database free for taking with all this info. (I think it is called norpv_02152008brooklyn.xls). This one allows to search by person's name and see where this person has property and lives.

Posted by: bobjohn at September 4, 2009 1:51 AM in response to Blockshopper

Another scary .com is pipl.com. They collect every single public piece of information about you and group it into one handy dandy webpage, where basically people can find out where you have been living for the past decade or so, along with former telephone numbers, etc. Basically it's the same info that credit reports use to check that you are the true you. I contacted them to remove my page, and they also refused, on the basis that it's nothing more than already public information. They didn't care that I had a stalker in the past, and reasons for wanting to protect my privacy.

Posted by: townhouser at September 4, 2009 7:07 AM in response to Blockshopper

Hi. Thanks to all who gave me their advice and support. Blockshopper did remove the article after my employer wrote to them and I sent them my order of protection. I actually found the email address of the founder of Blockshopper and wrote to him when his staff didn't reply. Now I'm just trying to get Google and Bing to act faster to remove the link which has my address posted for all to see.

Posted by: vesnaspring at September 6, 2009 7:04 PM in response to Blockshopper