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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sun-tzu who wrote (138402)	12/12/2001 10:39:00 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

SO, there's this here article from the San Francisco Comical that suggests that many of the high-techies forced into exile have decided that real estate is where the real money is certain to be. I wonder if it would make sense to track all the dot-com refugees, and use them as some sort of contrary opportunistic proxy? Here are some remarkable passages: By September of this year, 7,109 people took the tests to be a salesperson or a broker, up from 2,398 three years ago this month. And despite the fact that November and December are consistently slower months than September, the past four weeks of exams have attracted a whopping 7,985 applicants. <snip> "There's a gigantic influx of people in the business," said Mark Chamberlin, owner of the Chamberlin Real Estate School in the San Jose suburb of Campbell. "I haven't seen anything like this since I can remember." <snip> Don Schwartz of the California School of Real Estate in Oakland, agreed that while business is indeed booming, he's not sure it's all because of local layoffs. "Since the market has been so good, people are now catching the end of a trend," he said. He compared the recent interest in real estate to people buying into Nasdaq when it was pushing 5,000. ["RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!"] "It takes time for the average person to hear about a trend, and by then, it's over." Both Chamberlin and Schwartz also observed that many of their new enrollees are applying for real estate licenses so that they can become mortgage lenders in order to capitalize on the hot refinancing business while interest rates are low. [They should probably talk to Naj and Xarn....] <snip> Like many of the new recruits I spoke to, Grandy emphasized that real estate appealed to her because it offers no limits on her income. She said she knows that the first year might be lean, but that after she builds her business, she is looking forward to an income of "at least $100,000 or $200,000." Timms' earning expectations were even grander. "The first year, you make about $90,000 in commissions, half of which go to the brokerage," she said. "That's the first year, though. A lot of agents around here make between $100,000 and $300,000 a year." sfgate.com BA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA <Wiping tear away> Oh man, that is some hysterical stuff: "at least $100,000 or $200,000." There is an entire generation of 20-somethings that doesn't have the slightest clue about the challenge of earning $100K -$200K per year. They knew people who previously "earned" (currently worthless) options with 8-digit values playing foosball in sandals and t-shirts. "Ain't 'merican capitalism beautiful, man?" What's the quip by Marx:, "History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as comedy." What farce.