::::::::
Homebuilders begin offering discounts? Not in Northern Illinois where they smoke a rare Brand of Dope (iness) Homebuilders begin offering discounts? Not in Northern Illinois where they smoke a rare Brand of Dope (iness) The LA Times shows what happens when people boycott or strike, prices drop. With one builder of $900,000 homes after offering materialistic perks like big screen TV, video games and more, finally got the message. His $900,000 homes are now $750,000 and he is allegedly still making a strong profit. Most builders are in denial however, keeping their prices as high as ever and some even raising them. They may well be among those headed for bankruptcy. Moreover, in the homes I have seen in Northern Illinois at prices anywhere from $500,000-$5,500,000, when one concentrates only on value versus cost, including ridiculous lot prices (Lots costing the builders $40,000-$50,000 have been jacked up now anywhere from $190,000-$500,000, the rip-off is plainly evident to anyone with an architectural background or with any degree of research ability. The mind educated even in doghouse construction, easily sees that the mark-ups are similar to drug mark-ups. Why? Because the Bushites have figured out that many people are vain, they will pay excessively to impress their peers, and many others are ignorant of the nature and value of materials and labor. Of these will pay their way right into either bankruptcy or foreclosure. Forget the No Principle Loans (Interest Only), which one has to be a few cards short of a full deck to sign, or the adjustable loans which are almost as bad, there is more going on here. When last I readjusted my mortgage to a no cost-4.25%, ten-year mortgage, I carefully read the paperwork. The Broker who qualified me received a fee for his research and paperwork. It was a fat check from the mortgage company for $5,000. My $150,000 mortgage was worth $5,000 to the loan company for having me prequalified a matter of a couple of hours of work on the telephone. Keep that in mind if you go to a bank for your mortgage, if they can pay someone else 3% of the mortgage amount, they can pay you instead. "BUILDERS" Versus Architects Twenty years ago most custom builders were satisfied with 12%-16% mark-up mover material and labor costs, thus a house retailing at $200,000 would net out for the builder about $20,000-$32,000. Not today, builders want 40%-60% profit and more counting both land and building. So now, homes worth in real value of $250,000 are carrying with them at least a 16% profit on the first $250,000 and a whopping 50%-70% on the second $250,000. The sucker price of homes priced at $500,000 and more is aimed at people foolish enough to accept higher real estate taxes forever, and by far overpaying for a house made of inferior materials often by inferior workers and avaristic builders. In the quack-builder-and loan-shark-soaked new home market, materials are cut to the bone and houses are cosmetically prettied up for clueless, buyers. Vinyl exteriors? Did you ever believe you would live in a Tupperware container? Americans will apparently buy any kind of garbage and why not, higher education has gone to clueless professors and more clueless students who know-it-all before they even enter college compete with each other to outbid up the price beyond its asking price display the idiocy of "Winning" bids on the internet for junk toys and anything else they can get their sweaty palms upon. Have you ever wondered what is under the Vinyl, or aluminum or wood or masonry in your new home? Complete house sheathing nowadays, is instead of the sturdier, one-half inch to five-eighths to three-quarter inch Plywood, which will last virtually several lifetimes, and still be as solid as when first nailed and screwed into place, most greedy builders now use nail-popping, moisture absorbing, crumbly, OSB or particleboard... and then they glue it into place, like a kid in 2nd grade making a paper house. Yes, builders have substituted garbage-wood, oatmeal board, for solid wood sheets bound together as a sheathing to cover the exterior beneath brick, aluminum, stone, or concrete, in lieu of the more dependable and, of course, a bit more costly, Plywood. I know you will say; well, Peter, plywood contains some glue, as well. Yes, a thin slather spread between boards of pine, but some OSB contains particles of wood, virtually swimming in glue and sawdust filler, more than 300 times as than does Plywood. They say it is more efficient than plywood, and it is certainly more efficient in producing phenol Formaldehyde, a carcinogenic toxin. Some OSB board does not emit phenol Formaldehyde, but is no less inferior to plywood for utilitarian and structural long range, nail holding, purposes. What I call Oatmeal Board, which is most often that phenol formaldehyde emitting nightmare, which cannot hold nails, is made primarily of waste materials, shavings, sawdust, "wafers', strands, of wood and oceans of glue/adhesive. OSB Means, in fact, "Oriented" Strand Board. "Oriented?" How does non-thinking debris become Permanently, "Oriented?" Use it and the outgassing may make you DisOriented, permanently. Builders, who are smart enough to know the difference between OSB and Plywood, (and many, truly, are) know that the main difference between then is that the former is inferior to Plywood in every way except one, it is cheaper-garbage always is and more toxic garbage is even cheaper. Those builders, laugh up their sleeves at those they convince to accept glued-gelled, sawdust scraps and wood splinters heavy on chemicals and complete with toxic, carcinogenic formaldehyde emissions, out gassing, which is used even on homes costing more than one million dollars. I also call it RBB "Reoriented Booger Board." Please recall some of that "Reoriented Booger Board," board virtually melted in a Florida hurricane some years back, destroying the thousands of houses made of it. In the end, when such ventures fail, as now, there is always a bailout, but not really a bailout of the clueless buyers, but of the banks and builders. When that happens, we all pay for the slimy practices of some overly hungry, profiteers and dumbed-down buyers, some of which should not be allowed to own even a chicken coupe. We now sport a completely dumbed down buying public, and that buying public is proud of their lack of heritage. As to the "Reoriented Booger Board," you might as well heat it, slather it in butter, brown sugar and salt and eat it for breakfast. It may not taste as yummy as oatmeal and may tear up your insides something awful, but if you are going to be dumb, eat it anyway, they are out of oatmeal, and sawdust grits is all that is left, think of it as adding a little extra fiber to your diet. "QUALITY" HAH! Nowadays, instead of nailing and screwing down floors, builders found cheaper, higher profit-making, more toxic ways to build, gluing like little kids, your home together. Rather than using heavyweight plywood, they are slurping more thick, globby and bubbly, toxic adhesives, everywhere, with even more formaldehyde emitting solvent, gases. Not surprisingly, the results are carcinogenic solvents, which attack the central nervous system, and foster long term suffering with mind warping diseases like asthma, emphysema Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and various cancers. Interesting how the FDA appears to be protecting people from Mad Cow Disease, but not from Maddening Building Chemical Out-Gassing Diseases. The rich are as, perhaps as, or more easily fooled than the not so rich. Even now, most builders are using air-leaky, R-13 to R-17 insulation in walls and R-25 in ceilings, where R-30 in walls and R-50 in ceilings is far more effective in insulating against both cold and heat. R-13 to R-17 insulation was not even adequate when fuel was selling at $8.00 a barrel a few years ago, let alone the $100+ plus a barrel it sells for now. Heating costs have risen from $30-50 per month to hundreds of dollars per month. Arrogant, ignorant, builders ignore or are clueless, and their buyers are even less knowledgeable to the lack of value and longevity of new, expensive homes. I recall speaking with one builder who attempted to evade my questions and lie. He said after a long Q & A session that I "...talked too much..." Needless to say, we did not have him build for us. In one Toney area of far northwestern Illinois, near the once glacier-ridden, Iowa border, where there are huge second homes of the wealthy built on acreage, avaristic builders combine their arrogance and ignorance with equally uniformed and wealthy clients to charge $215-$250 a square foot, for materials and labor costs of $30-$60 a square foot and the wealthy buyers pay it, proudly-proud of being ripped-off. (How then did they make their money? By duping, still less well informed clients?) Foolishness? At Least. Moreover, they shun masonry construction, because 50 years ago the developer said, that all-masonry structures look too much like the suburban homes. Therefore, they use wood and concrete board for a strong percentage of the exterior of their homes, unheeding that those homes, now 50 years later, look EXACTLY like those of the surrounding suburbs. God has a way of ironically smash-mouthing, arrogant snobs, whose pomposity is exceeded only by their lack of clue. Today, few builders are very imaginative, hiding inferior construction, low labor wages (often outside of Chicago primarily non-union-non-skilled workers and charging clients more into the bargain.) The vast majority of them use the extremely inefficient and allergy promoting, antiquated, Forced Air HVAC, when old-fashioned Hot Water Heat is far more efficient or a combination of Geo-thermal and solar shingles takes one from paying huge sums to heat/cool a house, to receiving a monthly check from the electric utilities companies for using a virtually costless system. Why the antiquated and allergy inducing Forced Air? Because that is, all most builders know. They are mostly tradesmen who expanded into the booming building market and merely copied what the builders for whom they worked were doing. Besides Forced Air HVAC is cheaper to supply and has a higher profit mark-up, and although far more expensive to run, once sold, is not the builder's problem. Architects are one of the parties to blame for a poor quality building fiasco in which new builders sprout up with no qualifications necessary to begin profiting from dumb clients and dumber communities which sell them the land on which to build their ecological disaster homes, of plastic/vinyl and "Reoriented Booger Board" exteriors. New builders spring up with little to no experience at contracting or materials beyond what the builders they worked for have used and that may be the tip of a several generational mode of builder birthing. Each layer of that non-evolving string may show no, to very little, technical innovation. Generations of builders then spend entire careers copying what was done in the past, with nary a pang of conscience or innovation. In the home building markets, Architects, wishing to live in ivory towers have kept their hands clean of contracting, have virtually sold-out to the inferior builders out of a laziness born of elitism. Now they find they have little to no voice in the residential marketplace, although one said, that was exactly what he wanted. The problem is they have surrendered to the Philistines and that is surrendering to evil. To give you an example of how ignorant some builders are, I suggested to a dozen or more of them pre-finished flooring would eliminate the toxins of slow drying Petroleum-stained, Polyurethane sealant, with water based finishes, using bamboo, wood or cork flooring, they said it was too expensive. When I pointed out that they were not taking into account their hand staining and varnishing, they gave me, to a man, vacant looks. In that Philistinean marketplace, cosmetics are far more important to ignorant homebuyers than structural integrity, or functionality. Long ago Louis Sullivan the Mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, said, form follows function, but to builders for the last 25-30 years, that is so much religious, philosophical drivel...they are driven by ignorance and profits. Where 30 years ago a builder paid union wages to get top skilled workers, now, in order to invest less in their product, many hire inexperienced, unorganized and careless workers, and use sleazy, often toxic and flimsy materials even in the most expensive homes. Despite these slimy tactics, there is nary a whimper from unknowledgeable buyers. This combines for garbage and waste material, structured homes, sold at maximum profits. HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM A non-physician cannot be a partner or owner, of a medical partnership or corporation. Similarly, the law must reflect that only architects may build private residential homes and multifamily structures. The emphasis should mandated by law that insulation be no less than R-30-walls, R-50 ceilings, and that gas Forced Air, HVAC, should be anathema. States need to make lists of toxic dangerous building materials and refuse to allow use of such materials, which emit toxins. The penalty for board's of trustees who are influenced by "Builders" should be jail time and labeling in each community as are sex-offenders, or if the trustee prefer, capital Punishment, or at the very least, exposure to four hours a day of listening to Simon ripping singers or looking at stills of the New American Bob Ford, the dirty little coward that shot John Howard shot Jesse James in the back, the "Democratic" congress of the United States of America. Communities can stop the pay-offs from large developers and builders by keeping tight watches on their trustees and by hiring consulting top architects to a board of directors in charge of buildings and materials. They could ban certain builders and developers and refuse to sell more than fifty acres at a time to any builder or developer. Moreover, They could also promote strong construction and ban they should and could make mandatory the use of solid building construction of stone, brick and other masonry and ban the use of sleazy building materials like. The use of vinyl, fake stucco, Oatmeal Board, Fiberboard, particleboard and any other glued, formaldehyde-emitting material and promote geothermal HVAC and solar shingles. Last, but certainly not least; those who sell at unethical profits are horrid enough, with their Usury land and home profit margins running to as much as 50%-75% (Oh, yes it is usury, and not only because most of it is carried in a mortgage!) but more guilty are those who pay the price-the price of inflating their own egos, especially on things they cannot afford. I have said it often before here and elsewhere, BUY NOTHING! Or, buy as little as possible and savor the pleasure of bringing to their knees, the greedy land owners, auto sales, appliances and homes which cost a tiny fraction of the selling price. How else can builders now cut 30%-50% off housing prices and still make a profit, as they are now doing? Wait, wait, and wait, by fall they will be begging for you to buy land below cost. There is only one weapon the Middle and Lower classes have, and that weapon is BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, and BOYCOTT! Land, homes, autos and large appliances, clothing all big ticket items, they are VASTLY over priced. You will feel so good about BOYCOTTING, that you will bless yourself for it and me for suggesting it. Dump materialism, once and for all and hold on tight and buckle up your safety belts, because it is going to be a long and bumpy ride, until fall through spring of 2009, and then buy your land or house in fall of 2008 0r winter/spring in 2009 and you will be some SOB-Builder's whip cracker, for sure.
