Article by Sherre R. Curry Aol HousingWatch 

If your home is languishing on the market, there are many tips that promise to help bring about a sale. But there’s only one that requires a prayer and a spade. The solution to your selling woes? Bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down.

Joseph may have been a carpenter who couldn’t find a real roof to put over Baby Jesus’ head that fateful night in Bethlehem, but apparently he can help you move on to your new home if you just have a little faith — and you needn’t be Catholic!

Whether for superstition or faith, a growing number of people have turned to the “Patron Saint of Real Estate” in the hopes that he’ll deliver, reported the New York Times. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures. And could covering up a saint with a little dirt really hurt?

Dubbed the “Underground Real Estate Agent,” St. Joseph statues have been steadily flying off the shelves of retailers from Catholic Supply of St. Louis and StJosephStatue.com LLC, a company started on a whim by a mortgage broker. 

Legend has it that if you bury a St. Joseph statue in your yard, head down, facing the direction you want to move, your home will sell more quickly. When possible, place it near the for sale sign — mainly so that you can remember where you buried it and can dig it up after the sale. Then, it’s recommended that you put old Joe on a mantle or other prominent place in your new home, as a gesture of thanks. Or, just pass it on to a friend.

No yard? No worries. Bury a small statue in a potted plant, suggests the website LuckyMojo, which also offers a couple of prayers to recite on its site. 

The statues are typically sold for less than $10 in kits, complete with an instruction booklet with burial prayer and a cloth carrying bag, such as the one pictured from StJosephStatue.com, which also throws in a free real estate listing on its site with every purchase (It currently boasts more than $2.4 billion in current listings.) Some people also obtain their St. Joe’s from their Catholic church, as was the case with Joe D’Eramo, whose tale will give skeptics pause.

“We were selling a home in Taunton, MA. It was an older home with a dirt floor basement. Two buyers had come and gone, each finding something during inspection to pass on the deal,” D’Eramo told HousingWatch. “I went to a local Catholic Church and asked where I could find a statue of St. Joseph. The receptionist had never heard the legend and brought me in to see the priest. He handed me a fairly large statue of St. Joseph and wished me well. By the end of that weekend, we had another buyer and this one closed.”

Before moving, we gave the statue to my brother-in-law,” D’Eramo continued. “He, too, had been having difficulty selling his home, mainly because it had gone through some serious wear and tear. Lo’ and behold, they, too, received an offer and sold their home.”

So who exactly buys these statues? St. Joe’s popularity has shifted recently, Phil Cates, the owner of StJosephStatue.com, told HousingWatch. “Caifornia, Florida and Arizona have consistently held the number 1, 2, and 3 spots for the most sales since 2005,” Cates said. However, over the last 60 days Florida took over the top spot, followed by Texas and New York. California moved to the fifth place after North Carolina.

Cates, a mortgage broker by day, speculates that California may have dropped on the list because more homes are being sold by the banks that foreclosed on the homeowners. “I’m not sure bean counters and spirituality have much in common,” he jokes.

Trisha Haas, head blogger at MomDot, has so much faith, she had her St. Joseph statue blessed by her brother-in-law priest before she buried it last month and caught it all on video for her readers. It’s been about 30 days and we are still waiting to hear if she’s had any offers.

In another case, it took just one weekend for a vacation home to sell after a burial. After close to two years on the market and a 20 percent price reduction on his Boulder ski home, Bob Webster of Webster Investment Advisers recalls, “I had now become desperate, as it had been 18 months and not a single offer…not even an embarrassing low-ball salvo. So casting my pragmatism aside, but still holding onto a sense of skepticism … I ordered [a statue].” The St. Joseph statue was buried on a Friday and on that next Monday night, he says his Realtor called with a full-cash, 30-day offer. The sale closed Christmas Eve 2009. “To quote the classic band of the 70’s, The Monkeys, ‘Now I’m a Believer’,” says Webster, who grew up a Catholic kid in Brooklyn

Stories like these have helped build a diverse following for Joseph. “Maybe half of our clients are Catholic,” says Cates of StJosephStatue.com. “The rest are Jewish, Hindi, Atheist, Baptist. This cuts across all lines of thought. Some people look at it as ‘eh, what the heck do I have to lose.’ And others look at it as very holy.”

Cates started selling the statues 20 years ago after using them as a gimmick for marketing his mortgage business to real estate agents. He adds that some agents use statues to help gain their own business. About 40 percent of his sales are to real estate professionals.

Still, Cates doesn’t have his own head buried in the sand beneath the for sale sign. “While many people consider St. Joseph the silver bullet of real estate, I think we should leave the shiny ammo to ‘The Lone Ranger’ and magic to David Copperfield,” he concedes.

PhilHarmonic Economy, Real Estate, Recession, Spirituality, St. Joseph Real Estate, St. Joseph Statue

Sadly, while so many people are giving of their time and money to support efforts in Haiti through online contributions, opportunists play on the hearts of giving people through a variety of e-scams. Below is information from the FBI site.

HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FRAUD ALERT

01/13/10—The FBI today reminds Internet users who receive appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests. Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization and/or a good cause.

Therefore, before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:

• Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
• Verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site.
• Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
• Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
• Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.

Anyone who has received an e-mail referencing the above information or anyone who may have been a victim of this or a similar incident should notify the IC3 via www.ic3.gov.

PhilHarmonic Economy, Politics, Recession, Spirituality haiti, scam, Spirituality

At a pre-Christmas dinner party an idea was hatched by Arianna Huffington and a few friends which has lead to an interesting movement called, ‘move your money’. They are feed up with the mega banks’ behavior; taking billions in taxpayers money, then turning around an cut lending to business by $100 billion, while enjoying a record profits. The video below was created in hopes of encouraging people to give the big banks a taste of their own medicine. As a show of solidarity, they are asking regular folks to pull their money out of JP Morgan/Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America and instead, open accounts with local community banks and credit unions; organizations appreciative of your business.

Please watch the four minute, it’s well done. Then read my ranting below as to why this might not be should good idea!!

Honestly, I thought ‘move your money’ was an interesting concept and forwarded the info to many others, but after a little more consideration maybe not so much. Yes it’s a show of solidarity, a symbol of our collective disgust, however, pulling billions out of these big guy’s vaults could also create a catastrophic event.

97%, or more of the money deposited in banks is not in the vault, it’s invested, or loaned out. So if we walked in and said please give me my money, thank you very much, and enough people did the same, the result would basically be what happened during the Great Depression. The only difference is those folks withdrew their money because they were afraid they would lose it when the bank failed, while we want to teach banking institution’s a lesson. Both ways, it’s a ‘run on the bank’, and that’s not what we really want or need.

The Federal Reserve/banking system is a very delicate, well oiled money machine, operating within defined procedures and very close tolerances. So close that by day’s end, banks borrow from one another overnight if money is needed to cover checks draw on their bank.

As great as the idea is, move your money could have unintended consequences…if enough people pull out their dough, like several billion…well, the big 4-5 big banks could become insolvent…this would send financial shockwaves around the world…or worse, collapse our banking system.

I believe Arianna’s heart is in the right place, something has to happen in order to right the system. I suggest we all take a wider view, and consider the possible fallout as we rush to prove a point. For the compete story go to Huffington Post 

PhilHarmonic Banking, Economy, Politics, Recession bailouts, big banks, huffington post

For me, reflecting on this clever bit of wisdom offers the opportunity to assess myself, and better understand others. Please comment with what this means to you.

One time, the animals had a school. The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, flying, and swimming, and all the animals took all the subjects.

The Duck was good in swimming, better in fact than his instructor, and he made passing grades in flying, but he was practically hopeless in running. Because he was low in this subject, he was made to stay in after school and drop his swimming class in order to practice running. He kept this up until he was only average in swimming. But average is acceptable, so nobody worried about that except the Duck.

The Eagle was considered a problem pupil and was disciplined severely. He beat all the others to the top of the tree in the climbing class, but he had used his own way of getting there.

The Rabbit started out at the top of the class in running, but he had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of school on account of so much make-up work in swimming.

The Squirrel led the climbing class, but his flying teacher made him start his flying lessons from the ground instead of the top of the tree down and he developed charley horses from overexertion at the take-off and began getting C’s in climbing and D’s in running.

The practical Prairie Dogs apprenticed their offspring to a Badger when the school authorities refused to add digging to the curriculum.

At the end of the year, an abnormal Eel, that could swim well, run, climb, and fly a little, was made valedictorian.

PhilHarmonic Spirituality wisdom

Home buyers, tired of your offers not being accepted? Here’s your chance to move to the front of the line!

Attend a Free Fannie Mae Webinar
on “First Look”

Learn How to Use Public Funds to Purchase Fannie Mae
Real Estate Owned (REO) Properties

About “First Look”
On August 10, 2009, Fannie Mae introduced an initiative designed to help individuals and organizations using public funds to purchase Fannie Mae Real Estate Owned (REO) properties.

Under the “First Look” initiative, during the first 15 days a property is listed for sale, only offers from prospective owner-occupants or individuals/organizations using public funds will be considered. Offers from investors can be submitted, but they won’t be considered until after the initial 15 days.

Examples of public funds include:

• Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP)
• Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs)
• HOME Investment Partnerships Program
• Local housing trusts
• Charitable foundations

When: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (3:00 - 4:00 PM PST)

What You’ll Learn
This one-hour webinar will provide:

• An overview of the program.
• Information on how to get started.

Please Note: Enrollment will be limited to the first 200 people who RSVP.

To Participate: Please RSVP by e-mail: FMevents_mailbox@fanniemae.com, and include:

• Your Name
• Your Organization
• Your Job Title
• Your E-mail Address
• Your Phone Number

Sign Up for Property Alerts!
Even if you cannot attend the Webinar, be sure to sign up to receive Property Alerts (in any zip code) on the HomePath website!

Please feel free to post this information on your website or share it with your contacts!

PhilHarmonic Economy, Real Estate, Recession affordable housing, Fannie Mae REO, foreclosures, Real Estate, Recession