Another Global Warming Scam

See Tim Blair for this post about a so-called environmentalist broker and her alleged fear of Global Warming and its impact on her home.

Then there's this from 2005. Zwigard is a licensed real estate broker in NYC. Anytime someone buys or sells with Zwigard, she gets green. But it has nothing to do with the environment, she's probably just looking to fuel some churn.

Other brokers say they’ve actually overpriced a property at the sellers’ request and let the property listing get stale in the hopes that the market will catch up. Paddington Zwigard, a Downtown resident who became a broker and successfully urged Brown Harris Stevens to open its Tribeca office, has prospered with this strategy.

“Some people are really fixated on a number, and I do encourage them to put it as low as possible, because it will attract more attention,” Zwigard said. “But if that’s their thing, that they have to get this number, then we sit on it ‘til we get the number. And the market, if you’re patient enough, will catch up to your price.”

Zwigard worked with clients who wanted to list their property at 335 Greenwich St. in Tribeca at $3.25 million though many other brokers they’d approached said it was worth $2.5 million at the most. By letting the listing sit for more than four months, Zwigard was able to get $3.1 million for the clients.

That client referred her to another couple at 366 Broadway who originally wanted $2.795 million for their un-renovated apartment, which eventually dropped to $2.495 million. The apartment has been on the market for a year, but recently, it’s gotten a lot of interest and even an offer, Zwigard said.

“This apartment could be turned into a four-bedroom, and there are no three- or four-bedrooms at $2.495 million anymore with low monthly fees,” she said. “There’s very little inventory, and the prices keep increasing, and time is working with us.”

The complexity of these pricing strategies may be enough for some residential brokers, but others choose to absorb a bit more risk and enter the development end of the business, where lots are found for development, and buildings are sought for conversion to residences. This may work particularly well Downtown, where buyers are younger and more apt to buy something sight-unseen.

Comments

[TomB]

Looks like being an AGW sceptic is becoming dangerous:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/11/ngreen211.xml

Scientists threatened for 'climate denial'
By Tom Harper, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:24am GMT 11/03/2007

Scientists who questioned mankind's impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community.

They say the debate on global warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions.

Timothy Ball, a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, has received five deaths threats by email since raising concerns about the degree to which man was affecting climate change.

[Peggy McGilligan]

AS THE PLANET HEATS UP, YOU DON’T HAVE TO!

AP – Al Gore has for a long time been full of hot air. He has a vivid imagination about the world. His mistrust of the seasons seems to stem from an episode of the Twilight Zone, in which the Earth gets too close to the Sun. Al is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures needed to create a more effective global antiperspirant.

If college roommate Tommy Lee Jones, could save the City of Los Angeles from errant magma (Volcano), and the world entire from an extraterrestrial cockroach (Men In Black), then Al Gore deserves a prize for his initiative to combat global wetness. The same trusted formula that kept our leaders dry during the Cold War. Clinton tested: guaranteed to leave no trace.

The committee that awarded Al Gore the Nobel Prize included a university president, a theologian, and a consultant. Moe, Larry, and Curly could not be reached for comment. And, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with whom Gore shares the prize, does not carry out research, nor does it monitor climate or related phenomena. Given the newfound legitimacy for Global Warming, a “private group” out of Monterey, California, vies to seed the North Atlantic with iron oxide to help plankton absorb carbon dioxide (greenhouse gasses). Strategy: “cleanup the planet and make a buck on the side.”

So, to whom did Al Gore donate the $1.8 million dollar Nobel purse? Who is the Alliance for Climate Protection? Perhaps not coincidentally, Al Gore is the founder and chairman of the § 501(c)(3) alliance. Three guesses who the IPCC are. But why should science be immune from grasping politicians? Aren’t they doing “good” for the collective? Aren’t their distortions justified, because they’re better than? Isn’t this the psychology of the left? After all, when it came to pirating the “Peace Dividend” to create that new cultural paradigm, didn’t the ends justify the means: http://theseedsof9-11.com