Real Estate - Bettina Network's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Real Estate’

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. announces the addition of a project which is sorely needed in this world!

Sunday, February 13th, 2022

                                                        Much has been made of the push to pass the Voting Rights Bill.  We think a larger push needs to be made over real estate and over how venture capitalists have used their money and other resources to infect this society with extreme racism.

The issue in voting rights centers around redistricting.  This is the work which many take on to make sure their group has the edge over another group in voting before anyone shows up to vote.         

If we work to remove the core – the root – the life of White Nationalism, maybe we can take away the sustenance of the extreme bigotry we are facing which is today and has always infected the right of many Americans to vote. 

We need to look at this in two parts: Real Estate and Venture Capitalists. Those are the two parts which make up this project:

Real Estate – Part One of the Project.

We are asking real estate companies to sign a pledge that they will make their listings known to all. Today, listings are known in particular stratified segregated communities consisting of whites or blacks or browns, or etc.

When one looks at this society let us look at white neighborhoods . They was created as the structure in which we all live because such areas lead to white schools – white churches white friendship groups – white social clubs, substantial futures and opportunities for white children living in these neighborhoods.  

They are the living arrangements in these United States where an investment in real estate – even your private home – would today be worth 100 to 500% more than what you invested.  Those are, of course, white-Americanized -Northern-European neighborhoods where everything is kept under tight control. Banks have redlined; racism prevails; neighbors make it difficult to impossible for non-whites to live in those neighborhoods and so much more. Real estate brokers help to institutionalize this living arrangement as they pay attention to some, ignore others, choose which leads to follow and which to ignore.

In other neighborhoods we may see some appreciation in value, but not of the magnitude described above.  A modest increase.  

And then there are the African American neighborhoods where your home may only be worth a fraction of what you paid even when other homes, sometimes within a few blocks of your home or other real estate, are sky rocketing.    Mostly, however, in the minority neighborhoods the value of homes goes down from when you first purchased.

Going along with that,  schools are guaranteed, in the white northern european neighborhoods, to provide the children of those living in those neighborhoods with a very good education in beautiful buildings equipped with as much as can be put into those buildings.  Even in 2022 you will not receive mortgages to purchase homes in these Americanized-Northern-European neighborhoods. If you do slip through there are ways this society uses to make sure such people are moved out of those neighborhoods and generally in some very crude ways.

As a society, we have spent blood, sweat, tears and tons of money to maintain this structure and it is way past the time to dismantle it.  

We passed a voting rights bill decades ago, which today has been almost completely dismantled needing another such effort.  If your effort is spent working at the core of the problem  your time and resources will result in positive results beneficial to the entire society – including those trying to make sure it remains white and your results will be much longer lasting.

There are neighborhoods in these United States where an investment in real estate – even your private home – would today be worth 100 to 500% more than what you invested.  Those are, of course, white-Northern-European neighborhoods which patrol their neighborhoods making sure only those like them are allowed to purchase homes.

In other neighborhoods we may see some appreciation in value, but not of the magnitude described above.  A modest increase.  And then there are the African American neighborhoods where your home may only be worth a fraction of what you paid even when other homes, sometimes within a few blocks of your home or other real estate, are sky rocketing.   

As a society, we have spent blood, sweat, tears and tons of money to maintain this structure and it is way past the time to dismantle it.   One reason we have spent so much of ourselves maintaining this structure, one important reason, is power and control. When where a person lives is institutionalized to bring about political control and to dictate part of their ability to earn a substantial living and denigrate others living in lesser neighborhoods – that is the ultimate.

We passed a voting rights bill decades ago, which today has been almost completely dismantled needing another such effort.  If your effort is spent at the core of the problem  your time and resources will result in positive results more beneficial to the entire society – including those trying to make sure it remains white and your results will be much longer lasting.

 We are further asking real estate companies to advertise more broadly. Media is ghettoized so their outlets will have to step out and step up to the challenge of making sure their real estate listings are seen across the entire spectrum of race, creed, color, culture, religious, sexual preference and so much more.

This will put realtors on the front line of change. That is as it should be since their ancestors – those who went before – were on that front line making sure neighborhoods were strictly segregated. The advantage the realtors will have will come from their businesses appreciating dramatically and they benefitting personally and through their businesses.

We are asking the media to step up and step out. Different media outlets cater to very different groups of people.  We are asking the media to become adept at making their real estate listings known across the board.  Initially, that might be a problem.  Lack of know-how will make the first steps fraught with distress, upheaval and more.  Why continue?  Over time that will be an advantage to bring in more commissions to the realtors as their results will be judged by new criteria. And to bring in more income across the board to the media.

We are asking civil rights groups to add a real estate component to what they do.

Once upon a time civil rights groups worked in real estate areas. They brought suit against particular real estate owners for not selling nor renting to minorities. That has either disappeared or taken a back seat to other priorities and we can see the results as equality in voting has taken a dive and redistricting is coming up with no thought except that it will create and maintain separatism to produce the political power and control needed.

We will support those who take on living in neighborhoods which just might be hostile to them so the people making that move are supported.  We will support whites, blacks, latinx, asians, whoever needs that support.

Our research has shown some unbelievably imaginative and evil structures in place to maintain the racial, cultural, religious, etc. separation of people in these United States. We have uncovered several people who have been fired when they moved into the wrong neighborhood. It took a bit to discover that because no one thinks their firing has come from their choice of housing. We have seen people whose jobs were capped and downward pressure put on them so they have to move into ‘lesser’ neighborhoods.

We will develop programs to get this going to make sure we are able to break down the tall thick walls created from our need to be better than which separates us and makes us see the faults in others without seeing the part we played in creating those fault lines.

We do not want to make us one people, but to make sure we are well represented in many communities which  have been closed for generations.

We will be in touch with banks and other lending institutions to make sure they get the message and the “redlining”  and other forms of discrimination stops.  Financial Institutions have been very imaginative in how they attempt to tear down someone to force them out of a particular neighborhood. Our president, Marceline Donaldson, experienced heavy racism from her bank when one of the many things they did was to refuse to send her monthly statements of her account for over two years, in spite of many phone calls to the bank. The answer was always – “when you send us a new address we will restart your statements.” Her statements were not restarted until she went to the Banking Commission and then it still took time. These kinds of institutional racist activities are today alive and well, living in most American cities growing fat on the support such receives.  Which bank? Chase Bank in Boston, MA.

Those working within banks and other institutions are quite imaginative about how they go about such bigoted behavior. It is what they bring into the bank when they are hired from how they were raised, schooled, learned at their particular religious institutions and so much more. It becomes lethal when the bank accepts and defends such behavior. That is when it becomes institutional racism.

We will support the institutions which want to see all of this change and we will publicize and in many other ways make sure the institutions which continue to support the separation of people into pens based on color, race, religions etc. feel the ire of those trying to bring our lives together in more positive ways.

To make clear – We are not trying to bring about a society in which we are all the same.  We are trying to highlight and bring together actual “diversity” in our living locations, our living styles, our different cultures and religions so we can live better lives than we have been able to in the past.  

We and our ancestors – no matter who – have paid high prices to maintain this exclusivity based on color, race, religion, sexual orientation, culture and so much more.

It is time to acknowledge the roots of such and to pull up those roots replacing them with much better. Not only do we do this where we live, but we also do it where we eat, what we eat, where we worship, the names and trappings of the God we worship or the fact that we don’t believe in any God. Ever stood at the door of an elegant restaurant with a reservation watching others come in and be seated without reservations while you still stood? In elegant, northern, supposedly none bigoted locations?

The second part of this will be dealing with the bigotry in the billionaire/millionaire classes. We will especially look at those who are funding the bigotry we are seeing grow hugely. We will be looking at the Venture Capitalists and such groups who have used their assets to change this society into one which is becoming a more fascist – racist – sexist society, which they control and in some instances where they are attempting to create new facets to this society where their control-over is substantial .

We will be especially looking at this group to attempt to help rectify and return to others what they have stolen as these Venture Capitalists elbowed each other to steal the ideas and hard work of entrepreneurs developing great ideas into the billionaire business categories. These entrepreneurs were stopped because the Venture Capitalist groups wanted to fund the businesses, but not the people who developed them so the VC group resorted to theft. This kind of theft has been going on in these United States – with no stopping them – for decades. The numbers of people negatively affected are in the thousands. We have been researching and have discovered the beginnings of many such stolen businesses which today are into the top financial categories and which had their beginnings in the minority/female communities.

Join us.  You can join the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. by indicating your interest in board membership; involvement in different projects set up to bring about our goals; other committee grouping; and/or you can subscribe to Bettina Network Journal to keep up with what we are doing, thinking, achieving to keep this channel open for another day.

You can contribute money which is tax deductible – we are a 501(c)3 organization – you can give of your time to help others as we find those who ‘but for…’   Or let us know what other ways you feel your talents can be used.

Don’t let your geographical location stop you. We meet and work in different locations and we communicate and meet often by Zoom. (and/or a similar communication facilitator.)

Call us if you have suggestions, questions, or want to explore joining/working with us.

AND – please note the other projects we started which are moving ahead very successfully. They will still be a part of our work load. If you are more interested in working with one of these, please let us know.

Hopeful for the future

Marceline Donaldson, president Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett, vice president

Bettina Network Foundation, inc.

P. O. Box 380585

Cambridge, MA. 02238

bettinanetwork@comcast.net

617 497 9166

Keep in touch with a great community of people through Bettina’s Blog < www.bettinanetworkblog.com>/

Real Estate Tax Article Response

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019

Thank you for the article on elder abuse and real estate taxes. I am not one to start movements or even protests. Instead, I sit home, cry and try to remember what was.

My father lost his home because of the games played with him around his house. It was our family homes. I was not old enough nor employed to be able to help. I am now both, but he is gone and so is our family home. He spent the last years of his life in a Senior Home and he was miserable. How I hate those who caused this. It is all about greed.

Count me in on anything you do around these issues. I know how painful it was for him as he tried to save a home on which he owed very little. Our mortgage had been paid in full since our family lived in that house and owned it for many decades. He took out a small mortgage to make needed repairs and got caught in the real estate taxes game.

The same things happened to him that you described. He thought he could defer the taxes as a lien on the house, but the city pushed him off. They didn’t say no – they couldn’t because he qualified. What they did was everything they could to not accept his application. The bank let it be known that they would not allow the deferral and would not sign off on one if the city decided to accept his application. Caught in a bind he didn’t know what to do. He wrote to everyone and every institution he could think of looking for help. No one responded. He thought and expected people to do the right thing, but they never do when money is involved. I believe the person who bought the house out of foreclosure for a fraction of its value was somehow connected to the bank and/or the city or both. The house was fixed up and then resold and the people who did this made well over $200,000 that I could count.

Please put my name on a list of people you send out notices whenever you do something about all of this. I don’t have much, but I have myself and a little money left over from my job each week. I want to do what I can to make sure others don’t suffer the way my father did at the end of his life.

He lived less than two years in that Senior Citizen place. All of his papers, furnishings, clothes and memorabilia were gone. There was no place for it in his tiny room and even if there was space the bank made sure nothing survived. A sheriff showed up with a truck and hauled away all that was dear to him while he watched, cried and begged them to stop. It was one of the worse moments of my life. I shall take those memories to my grave.

God bless you and may your work succeed. Much pain can be alleviated if only people acted out of a sense of goodness. We are all human – we err – we try and sometimes succeed and sometimes don’t – but when we put aside our humanity for that corporate suit we become something else. I saw that something else through what happened to my father.

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net





Zillow, Realtors, Racism

Monday, May 6th, 2019

We have known for generations that the segregated neighborhoods that refuse to show any signs of integration, which cause segregated schools, which are enabled by redlining (although today there are more sophisticated names than redlining), are caused by the collusion between realtors, those serving the professional real estate community, banks and other financial institutions.

We am having an experience of what that is like in 2019 because one of our own is selling her house and is mind blown by what she is experiencing.

Her neighborhood is one of the “upper class” neighborhoods in Cambridge, MA. It is about 99% white and for the last 37 years that she has lived and owned a house in that neighborhood there has been no change. One black man lives in the neighborhood and has lived there longer by a fluke of government contracts. Architects built an apartment building using HUD money. Those HUD contracts were to bring “affordable housing” into the neighborhood and to help insure people with very little could afford to buy condominiums and live and raise their families in a really fantastic place.

Unfortunately, the HUD contracts were only for one generation of buyers, so once the condominiums were sold if the people who bought them were foreclosed on or met some other kind of tragedy which mandated they move then the builders were free to take back the condo’s and resell them at market rate to whoever, no matter their wealth or financial status.

Since the terms to buy were way beyond what most in the economic/financial situation to which those contracts were pointed and the terms under which the condo’s were being sold were generous to encourage such buyers – people bought who could not afford the condo’s they were put into and in short order the buildings units were being foreclosed or people were forced out by turning over their deeds or whatever arrangements they made to get out of what they bought as a dream, which was actually a nightmare. There were no safety measures in place under that HUD contract which could have helped many retain their homes.

One lone African American man remains in the neighborhood because somehow he managed to keep his condo and is still there today. Otherwise, it is like looking for hens teeth to find any other African American homeowners, unless they are temporary residents under the wing of Harvard University.

So now the stage is set. Along comes one of our leaders – an African American woman who buys into the neighborhood. That was horrific on its own. But that settled down and she lived a mostly peaceful, rewarding life making many friends of her neighbors.

She decides to sell. Looks up Zillow and find her house has a Zillow Estimate of about $4.9 million. And then the fun starts.

That Estimate stays for several months after the house is listed on Zillow and is close to professional appraisals of the house. Until, apparently, Zillow discovers the African American residents and the house tumbles in value on Zillow by almost $1 million dollars within two to three days.

How did Zillow do that? And what are they counting on to erase their attack? The way they set up their Estimate. In one to two months that history will be history and things will look normal – well, sort of.

To reach that Estimate, Zillow compared her property not to other houses in the Brattle Street, Gold Crown Historical District, but made a comparison of her house to homes in Brighton/Alston, Central Square, etc. and the size of the homes to which her home was compared were 1,000 to 2,000 square feet smaller. A comparative value, found from such circumstances would be much lower than one if the house was compared to those actually similar.

When Zillow was called and emailed to say – why? They did not respond.

What happened to the house that after a few months with the house on Zillow at $4.9 million approximately, the Zillow Estimate drops to $3.5 million – which is actually substantially below the value of the house in todays market and that drop happened within about 24 to 48 hours..

After more investigation, we discovered the answer. It has to do with race.

What is that called? Why are they allowed to do such? What are the alternatives?

That made us look around to ask – Zillow can’t be alone with these practices and are there official places which make this possible and Zillow comfortable in what it is doing?

Let’s investigate!!!!! Stay tuned for more. We have started some investigative work to look closer and deeper.

____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co










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