MCS Letters

If you hadn't posted this, I would have missed it.  Yes, I agree it's good to see others are paying attention to what's becoming a ridiculous situation, and he is 100% right in my opinion.  I don't post or comment often, but I do read.  Thanks again.

Fred Catchpole Office 904-771-6852 Cell 904-708-5541

Mike, I found the letter to the editor very interesting.  I am not sure if he was referring to me as the Realtor Running for District 5.

I am a pure appraiser, I am not a realtor as the definition goes.  When Appraiser Licensing became required, the Realtors many of whom were appraising and still do, withheld MLS information from the pure appraisers.  There was a Court battle and the National Association of Realtors (NAR), relented and gave the appraisers the opportunity to join the MLS systems.  To appease those realtors who were withholding the data from appraisers, NAR also required the appraiser to join the local boards of real estate.  When the pure appraisers did this and I was one of the first, we appraisers became designated realtors, we can not sell, list or broker properties. We are independent and can only access information that can be used in appraising.

There is also a move being contemplated of merging the Appraisal Institute which I have been a member for years, with the National Association of Realtors.  Personnally I am against the merger, since in my mind it could possibly be perceived by the public to be a conflict of Interest.

Anyway if it was me he was referring too I hope the above satisfies his concern at least about my status as a realtor.

Thank you.

Fred Catchpole 

Dan Weisenberger (sp?) is a realtor running in Dist. 5

Very astute observations on Mr. Schuster's part in my personal opinion.

The problem I see is that if the state doesn't 'officially' recognize the conflict then you can bet there won't be any recusing going on in Clay County. I'm not convinced that the state would recognize a conflict of interest unless it hit them between the eyes with a brick.

Mike Heemer

I followed your directions to click on "NEWS," then "Letters to Editor."  However, when I clicked on "NEWS" it did not give me any option entitiled "Letters to Editor.:  it only give "news archives, Recruitment database, restaurant violations, School grades, school violence and sex offenders" Any clarifications you might offer would be appreciated, Kemo Sabe!

It went to history. Here are the new directions"

From the NEWS button select NEWS ARCHIVE

Then select Articles Posted July 2008

You should see July 03, 2008

Then select Letters to the Editor

It should show up as the first one

Glad to see you back. Thought maybe we had ran you off.

Mike Heemer

Yes, It's me.

I am a REALTOR.  All REALTORS are self employed and independant contractors. My present contract is with Vanguard Realty however, I hold a Broker License and could start my own Brokerage business if I so desired. My specialty in real estate is working with investors, not the short term investors that "flip" houses.  My investors are LONG TERM with good houses.  I am the Property Manager for these folks and with good houses I find good people to fill them.

When I was an engineer I was awarded a customer service award. Big deal you may say.  I won the award 4 times in the 10 years it was available.  The company had over 10,000 employees and I won it 4 times!   I was not in customer service but rather I was an engineer yet I realized the importance of the customer to the well being of the business.  The company stopped the program when it was determined that the same people kept winning!  Gee imagine that.

I brought my spirit of high level of customer service to the real estate business as did my wife.  We have each been awarded the highest recognition, individually that is available in the industry for customer service from a nationwide customer service survey done by a 3rd party.

While other real estate professionals may think that growth at any cost is a good thing, I do not share that view.   I believe that growth has to be managed and if necessary controlled to maintain and improve the quality of life.   The present trend in growth has done a lot to damage our quality of life.

I do other things beside real estate including keeping my hands in the engineering field as a contractor to the NFL for Game Day Coordination during the football season.  I also do computer consulting.

Yes I may be a REALTOR but in a recent consumer survey REALTORS scored much higher than used car salesmen.

JD "Dan" Weisenburger Candidate for BCC 5

Dan - you stated you were/are an engineer.  I trust it isn't the choo choo kind, so what field were you in?  Since you also state you are a computer consultant, it could be assumed that you are a computer engineer, but you know what can happen when people assume!  Just curious. 

Thanks,
Judy B.

Yes I may be a REALTOR but in a recent consumer survey REALTORS scored much higher than used car salesmen.

Is that anything like smashing your thumb with a hammer is better than a sharp stick in the eye?  

One other curiosity. What do you think of the impact fees? I think I heard you speak to this before but I'm having a senior moment.

Mike Heemer

Hi Judy thanks for the question.

Electrical Engineer.  As an aside of that I also had to learn the ins and outs of computers.   I went back to school for computer science but found that the instructors no longer cared about efficiency in programing since memory is so cheap now.   When I first learned about computers they were big, huge, gigantic! Memory was limited so you had to be efficient.  Also the fastest speed attainable was extreamly slow, yet they were faster than a human

Mike,

A smart person finds someone else to hold the nail while hammering.

As far as impact fees are concerned I'm dead set against them.  I know that the typical voter thinks impact fees are a good idea if they already own their house.  What the voters forget is that an impact fee is really a tax.   It is a tax on people newly arriving here BUT the fees are also a tax on our children and granchildren!  The developers and builders will kick and cry that impact fees limit their ability to build affordable homes.  The truth is they pass the fee right on through to the buyer of the home so it's really no skin off their noses. If I thought the fees could do some good I would support them but I have a bigger concern.  We have seen where the Lottery was supposed to help fund education.  When this appeared on the ballot it looked like a windfall for education because we silly voters thought the lottery money would add to the funding already being applied to education.   WRONG funding levels from the state decreased, keeping our schools statewide on the brink of financial disaster.  I expect something similar with impact fees at the county level.

Here's something a lot of newer people may not realize.  When I bought my first house here in 1978 the homestead exemption was $25,000 and my first house cost $39,000.  Until this past January the exemption was still $25,000.   We have had tremendous growth during that time and prices have risen to 10 times the level they were 30 years ago.   What has government done with all that money???

JD "Dan" Weisenburger Candidate for BCC 5

You equate yourself with this.  My family is in the used car business.  I think you might have just lost a few votes.

It was probably my bad for quoating what I had been told in a class put on by the board of Realtors.  I just did some research myself and Realtors fluctuate between the very bottom of the list to approx 25% off the bottom.   At the same time lawyers do not fare well and neither do auto mechanics. 

At the top of the list of trusted professionals are doctors.   I am reminded that the person graduating from medical school with the lowest grade point average is still called Doctor...BTW: they only scored 50% in the lists I looked at.

Rather than look at an individuals present profession you should vote for the person that can do the job you want to hire him/her for.   If he/she is a Republican then it becomes important to determine if that person is a liberal or a conservative.   After being a Republican became popular during the Reagan years I shuddered every time I would hear of a long time Democrat joining us.

I have always been a Republican and I have always been conservative.  Even more importantly I have always been an American.

JD "Dan" Weisenburger Candidate for BCC 5

Dan;

Perhaps I do not understand impact fees as well as I thought I did. You imply that they are only paid by builders of new homes that are being sold to new people moving here. I thought they were imposed on all new homes. Am I wrong in that thought?  

I agree that impact fees are not the great panacea that is going to solve our road issues but if you are already short on funding why would you do away with a large part of the funding you do have? You keep that funding and try to find more elsewhere. You go back to square one and figure out where that funding went and why it was cut.

Oops, I forgot, we just got 'the biggest tax cut Clay County has ever seen'. Thanks, now we can spend that money and more in time lost in traffic, extra fuel burned while our engine idles, car repairs from driving on bad roads ... and the list goes on. But you can bet it was expedient to do so. It sounds great in a political sound bite.

You do make a good point about the pass through. I never have figured out why the builders are yelling so loud about the fees. They really aren't paying them, the new homeowner is.

Regardless, whether the leadership of this county cut the other funding or not, we still need the impact fees to help fund the needed improvements.

I don't think someone living in Keystone should have to pay an exorbitant amount of taxes to fund the improvements made to Lakeshore Dr and its intersection with 220 when East West Partners built the 'Enclave'.

a tax on our children and grandchildren Could you explain this one?

A smart person finds someone else to hold the nail while hammering. Pretty much my feeling about what some developers and builders are trying to do to the tax payers of Clay County. But I'm sure they'll still respect us in the morning won't they? They really did mean to kiss us first didn't they? They just forgot, right?

Mike Heemer

Mike,

Yes, the current impact fees are paid on NEW homes at the time the Certificate of Occupancy is issued (formerly when the permit was pulled).

The majority of new homes sold are sold to people relocating here from Duval, Florida, the USA and the rest of the world.  Add into this mix the 1st home buyer (our children and grandchildren) and that should account for most of the new homes sold.

Somewhere I heard of a concept to charge an impact fee on the sale of existing homes. That would be a great disservice the homeowners and create an overwhelming burden on already depressed real estate prices. (From the Land of Unintended Consequences: Term limited commissioners could be tempted to pass such an item in their second term - a very scary thought)

The 20% reduction in milage rate was almost nice but the school board stepped right up and so my taxes stayed about the same.  It would have been better had the county kept the money coming into the BCC so they could better address the issues of roads.  In our district the roads are disintegrating radpidly, take a drive down Henley (CR739) as a great example.  If other roads around the county are performing as badly as Henley then we have a significant problem.

JD "Dan" Weisenburger Candidate for BCC 5

Dan,

Just wanted to say that I appreciate your comments.  You seem to have a good grasp of the issues.  Its hard when you're not the incumbent to be completely up to speed on every fact, but you have a good understanding of how government works.

I agree, the 20% reduction was great (even if Tallahassee twisted some arms to get it), but the school board increased so we didn't realize the full cut.  Better than if both raised.

Best of luck.