Builder's don't like my articles

[Pat Butler]

I just started writing a weekly article for a newspaper in my community. My first first article dealt with special assessments and special area assessments. There are 3 subdivisions in my area that have these SA's/SSA's. The municipality that the subdivisions are located in paid for the initial infrastructure. They then levied a SA so that the homeowner could pay it off over 25 years as part of their property tax bill. That allowed the builders to sell houses at what appeared to be lower than market value prices.

Bamm- the SA was deferred for 5 years in most cases and is as high as $2,000 per year in one subdivision. The lenders/appraisers missed the SA in most instances and did not require the homeowners to pay part of it each month in escrow. Now we have foreclosures all over the place.

I wrote about this scenario for my first article and did not mention any names of subdivisions. It's not a big deal anyway as there have been many local articles about these foreclosures that went into a lot of detail.

Guess what? Two builders called the newspaper and told them they would no longer advertised unless my column was pulled from the newspaper! What's interesting is that I don't believe there are still any developing subdivisions with an SA. These builders must just not like hearing from an appraiser. My article was actually written in a non-controversial way.

The publisher 'needs the advertising money' from these advertisers which is a whole different story. Anyway, I can still write articles but my articles won't appear in the real estate section, but rather, somewhere else in the paper.

 

[JSmith43]

I'm waiting for someone to suggest legislation so that newspapers are required to pick from a fee panel of authors on a rotational basis

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Wow... that is just nasty. Very sad that the newspaper would react like that, but I do know that almost ALL do. I've dealt with the same reactions for a number of years now... reporters so excited about the frauds I gave them the proof of, only to be stopped from publishing their articles about it by the advertising department.

The local Realtors email forum often has members posting about threatening the local newspapers and other media about not publishing anything negative about real estate, and blaming the media's negative attitude as being the reason real estate is not selling.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

I'm waiting for someone to suggest legislation so that newspapers are required to pick from a fee panel of authors on a rotational basis

Kiss, kiss, Mentor!

Sad that so many newspapers don't have enough backbone to keep the NEWS separate from the advertising.

 

[Caligirl]

There is a real estate column in my local newspaper which I consider to be a useless laugh riot. 'Always a good time to buy and sell' kind of thing, totally exempt of any meaningful analysis or data.

 

[Pat Butler]

It used to be a golden rule that the advertising and editorial sections had this invisible wall between them. I found it very unusual that the publisher told me how he was being influenced. It is a start up newspaper that first started coming out about four months ago and need all the revenue they can get.

Before I knew what happened they just pulled my last article. They said they wanted to move it to another part of the newspaper but wanted my permission. So we'll how it goes, but I have to watch what I write for awhile if I still want to have a column. I told the publisher that my articles are much better than the typical 'how to choose vinyl windows' type of canned articles that generally are in the papers.

 

[Tom Barclay]

Just make sure that the newspaper is aware of your intention to continue to tell the truth. If they won't publish you in the real estate section, or elsewhere in the paper, that you will write regular letters to the editor, go to competing publications, web sites, etc.. And you will identify the newspaper by name as one that has suppressed the truth in lieu of advertising dollars.

 

[Suz-E]

Good grief Pat, amazing.

Because we do work the same area, yep...every time I ask about the SSAs, the homeowners never have the info because, "The LAST appraiser didn't care about it, why do you need it?"


Keep on writing, Pat. The more people that read end up reading the new paper, the more feedback the paper will get, and I'm sure there will be some letters appreciative of the information you're providing to the public.

 

[Smokey Bear]

Guess the guilty parties fessed up by complaining, right?

 

[Pat Butler]

Suz-- not only that, but many of the Oswego builders are offering concessions up to $100K! I had a buyer call me and he wanted me to appraise a house he was buying. I told him I needed the full cooperation of his builder. I called the builder and the salesman actually promised to cooperate.

The buyer called back the next day and cancelled the order. The builder talked him out of it. The buyer was knowledgable enough to realize the impact on value, but for some reason didn't want to follow through with it. Our market is a mess- so much for the fastest growing county in the country.