June 2023
This newsletter is a collection of things I have found in the last month that I enjoyed, found interesting, or simply wanted to share.
You can follow me more closely at my personal website or if you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home, you can point them to my real estate website.
Ghosted
Notes From Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter
At once, the meal turned into a raucous meeting of Ghostwriters Anonymous. Everyone had a hard-luck story about being disrespected, dismissed, shouted at, shoved aside, abused in a hilarious variety of ways by an astonishing array of celebrities, though I mostly remember the jocks. The legendary basketball player who wouldn’t come to the door for his first appointment with his ghost, then appeared for the second buck naked. The hockey great with the personality of a hockey stick, who had so few thoughts about his time on this planet, so little interest in his own book, that he gave his ghost an epic case of writer’s block. The notorious linebacker who, days before his memoir was due to the publisher, informed his ghost that the co-writing credit would go to his psychotherapist.
U-G-L-Y
The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”
HomeVestors, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the United States,” goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from the hedge funds and YouTube gurus that have taken over large swaths of the real estate investment market. The company says it helps homeowners out of jams — ugly houses and ugly situations — improving lives and communities by taking on properties no one else would buy. Part of that mission is a promise not to take advantage of anyone who doesn’t understand the true value of their home, even as franchisees pursue rock-bottom prices.
Treat every customer like they’re your 85-year-old grandma who’s never done a real estate deal, HomeVestors trainers tell franchise owners at annual conferences.
But a ProPublica investigation — based on court documents, property records, company training materials and interviews with 48 former franchise owners and dozens of homeowners who have sold to its franchises — found HomeVestors franchisees that used deception and targeted the elderly, infirm and those so close to poverty that they feared homelessness would be a consequence of selling.
Links
- The man who repossesses multimillion-dollar airplanes
- The Definitive Guide that You Never Wanted: Backpack Fabrics
- How Do the Light-Up Bracelets on Taylor Swift’s 1989 Tour Actually Work?
- Jony Ive spent the last 4 years perfecting his typeface
- Guitar Teacher Reacts: The Mars Volta “Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)"
- Why This Art Is In Every Hair Salon
- AI News Minimalist
- A tornado on top of a mountain
- Byte by byte
- Moderator Mayhem: A content moderation game
- The Best Close-Up ASMR Videos from OBJECT
- When Skateboarding Was Young
- How AR-15 rounds went through Noah (age 6) and Peter (age 15)
- Stevie Ray Vaughan - Voodoo Child
- Histography - Timeline of History
Sign Off
Do not hesitate to reply to this months email to share links, wisdom, or thoughts.
Thanks for reading. Have a great month,
Clay
How kind of you to make your way down here.
A bit about me: I can be interested in anything, for better or worse. I love photography, travel, golf, and baseball. My latest pursuit is learning the guitar. I write a rad newsletter that I publish monthly.