Hello from the Big Tomato

[William Alston]

My name is William Alston.
People mostly call me Mr. Bill.
Why is too long for this post.

I'm in Sacramento, CA just watching the melt down... er ummm recession... I mean depression.... or riots maybe..

I am just an old school real estate guy getting accustomed to the new world of the internet and feeling pretty amazed by the whole thing. Its really a baby ain't it?
What a wide open thing it is though..incredible power to do good ...or stupid things.

I have been in the real estate and mortgage business for longer than I care to remember.
Bought seven houses and a grocery store when I was in my early twenties with no down payments and without a clue.

Just did it because nobody thought I could (and Jimmy Carter was watching his world collapse around him what with foiled rescue attempts and crashed helicopters in the news.. damn waste of good men..)

Gave all them houses up getting rid of the ex wife but I got better and got the right wife this time and she saves my money instead of spending it so now we have stuff.

A lot of good has happened since then and I learned about development, investment and building along the way.

Warned all of my real estate clients about the impending recess..er depresssio...I mean melt down a good year or two before it was full upon us. Most listened, timed their withdrawals and got out in good order.
Then they came back grateful in 2008.

The rest of the clients that didn't listen made me learn about short sales and now I am busier than I have ever been in my life.

I am teaching people new things, learning new things myself, referring business out in multiple states and creating new ways to make the banks pay us back for all the sex they had with us (without kissing us or buying us dinner first).

Anybody interested in making houses energy efficient or completely energy independent at the expense of the short sale and REO lenders just give a holler. Can you say SB 1137?

If your bold and not afraid of taking some flack I would like to meet you just on general principles.

I haven't been able to get this site to accept my company info yet but I will keep trying. Probably ought to wear my glasses more often so I can be sure I'm pushing the right buttons.

Well that might have been a bit more then I was supposed to say in telling you a little bit about me but I will close by saying something positive. That's my rule for 2009.....Be positive cuz nobody else is...and we have to start somewhere.

Positive thing-
I used to fear my government but now I just laugh at it.
Silly bastards all need to go home and get real jobs.
What say we all get together and vote em out. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Just write in "none of the above" on all ballots.

God Bless America, God Bless the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and especially bless those bad asses in the ski masks that aren't supposed to exist but I am sure glad they are on our side and good damn night...

I have been doing research all night and now I am going to take the rest of this Sunday off. It is Sunday right? Time zones ...don't mean nothing anymore

I almost forgot.. I think I cracked the algorithm for a real live automated appraisal like Zillow and those other monkeys have been trying to do.. got the LSI idea from Google to handle the text fields, and copied a weather map output to delineate the geographical boundaries that make it all work but no way to test it without more code writing skills and computing power than I can muster at present so anybody know a good code writer cause I think I can get to a set up with enough juice to grind it and see if it works.
I'd like to beat Zillow and them other wonks to the punch.
Just for fun.

Peace