Gas, Electric, Water And Sewer

To live in your home, you may have to have all of them. In some instances you can do without gas service.

QUESTION 

So what is preventing low-income people and small families from using one of these low cost solutions? 

ANSWER

• • City Bureaucrats with a whole list of city rules, fees, fines, licenses and service charges, hands outstretched, asking for money.
• • County Bureaucrats with their county rules, fees, fines, licenses and service charges and hands outstretched asking for money.
• • State Bureaucrats asking for money.
• • Lawyers who single-handedly have raised the costs of home ownership by promoting and then fighting frivolous lawsuits for petty claims.
• • Inspectors who stand in line with their hands out to receive licensing fees, permit fees, inspection fees, environment impact fees and a host of other fees, fines, penalties and service charges. There may even be inspectors whose job it is to inspect what other inspectors have previously inspected.
• • The Good Old Real Estate Establishment who are eager to make money off anyone who dares to secure a home where they can live. Recently, lawyers ruined the real estate business—turning real estate agents and brokers into pirates—by requiring the elimination of real estate agent commissions. Now, before a buyer’s agent will “show” a seller’s home, they first call to ask will the seller pay the “compensation” to the buyer’s agent. (Agents are no longer “allowed” to call this money “a commission.”) If the seller says no, the buyer’s agent will not show the home! That turns the buyer’s agent into a pirate! The buyer’s agent now does the exact OPPOSITE of what they’re supposed to do. 

Costs

• • Land purchase costs: If you’re buying the land for your new construction home, you’ll need to factor in the cost of 
• • the land itself
• • title search fees
• • survey fees and 
• • recording fees.
• • Construction loan fees: If you’re converting a shipping container into a home for yourself, you’ll need a construction loan. There will likely be fees associated with this type of loan, such as 
• • origination fees
• • administration fees and 
• • processing fees.
• • Inspection fees
• • Appraisal fees Before you can occupy your new home, it will need to undergo inspections and appraisals to ensure it meets local building codes and regulations. These inspections and appraisals come with big fees.
• • Title and attorney fees You will have to ensure your property is free of any liens or encumbrances. Taxes and insurance Lastly, you’ll need to pay for 
• • property taxes and 
• • homeowner’s insurance These costs will depend on the value of your new construction home and the location of the property.

Fees and Licenses

• • County Fees
  These are fees that don’t do anything for you at all. Nothing is done to help the homeowner, but that doesn’t prevent the county from getting all their fees. What are these fees?
• • The “it’s ok that you want to live in our county” fee.
• • The impact fee. This fee does NOT solve or change any impact. It doesn’t do anything! Still, they don’t want to miss the opportunity to charge you a hefty fee. The bureaucracy just makes these things up as they “go along.”
• • Electricity
  Electrical utilities already have the power meters and the people who travel around installing them. They don’t want to miss out on a goldmine of fees and licenses, though. So they impose:
• • Account Setup Fee
  To type your name and address into a computer they charge a hefty fee.
  Firstname Lastname
  1234 Yourstreet
  Yourcity  Yourstate  Yourzipcode
• • An Inspection Fee
  When they charge you money to pay a second power company employee to check on the work of the first employee.
• • The Connection Fee
  A utility employee connects three wires to the power meter. For this there is a fee.
• • A Billing Fee. The utility office prints one more piece of paper each month (your bill). For this, they charge a fee.
• • Hot Water
  Would you like to enjoy a hot shower? Well then you’ll need a hot water heater. Two pipes to hook up and one 220 VAC wire. 
• • There’s the “we allow you to have hot water” fee.
• • There’s the inspection fee.

The King Of All Absurdity

I’ve saved the worst for last. Get this:

• 1. You find a dreadful single-wide mobile home on a desirable, inexpensive lot
• 2. You buy a quality used single-wide—one you can afford. Because it’s a single-wide no bank will provide financing. This banking behavior HARMS LOW INCOME INDIVIDUALS.
• 3. In the dead of night you have your crew roll the awful single-wide away and roll your replacement single-wide into position. This breaks lots of rules which generates fees, fines, licenses and service charges.
• 4. When the city, county and state bureaucrats find out what you’ve done. They “come down” on you like a ton of bricks.
  
  “You can’t do that. When a dreadful single-wide is removed it can ONLY BE REPLACED WITH A VERY EXPENSIVE STICK-BUILT NEW HOME!” (This rule harms low income individuals.)
  
  So they 
• 4.1. threaten you with jail for breaking their
  THOU SHALT NOT HAVE AN AFFORDABLE HOME
  rule
• 4.2. SEIZE your just-purchased newer home
• 4.3. move it to an IMPOUND JUNK YARD so you can’t get your quality single-wide back.
  
  Then, on their way out the door 
• 4.4. they provide you with an ENORMOUS FINE that you can’t possibly ever pay.

Housing shortage? Housing shortage? What could possibly cause a huge, pandemic, harmful housing shortage?

Summary

None of these rules, fees, fines, licenses and service charges HELP to put you in a home of your own. What they do is PREVENT you from being able to AFFORD a place to call home.

If it seems like there is an army of bureaucrats lined up with their hands out for money, that’s not far from the truth.

There IS a severe housing crisis. What sre the causes?

• 1. Overpopulation (https://sadderdaytimes.com/overpopulation.html)
  It took 200,000 years for the world population to reach 1 billion.
  It took only 200 years for the world population to reach 7 billion.
• 2. Way too much bureaucracy. 

In The Good Ol’ Days

You decide to purchase a ranch. You settle on a price with the rancher. You drive up with the purchase price (in gold) in your wagon. The rancher checks and accepts the payment, signs the deed and hands it to you.

Done deal.

Those days are gone forever.

I have contacted The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation and AARP to ask for help with a pet project of mine that I call the Own A Home Fast Lane. This project would be a sort of blanket pro bono (do your job for no charge) “pass” that actually lets a low income American acquire a home by eliminating all (or most of the rules, fees, fines, licenses and service charges.

Right now this means that the only way this project might work is to:

• 1. rent a space in a mobile home park that already has all the “hook-ups” you need: gas, electric, water and sewer.
  
  Since they already admit MOBILE homes (homes on wheels) they should admit a modular home (no wheels). If they do not “permit” modular homes, it might require the services of a lawyer to take the mobile home park to court to FORCE the mobile home park to do the right thing. 
• 2. get a modular home from Amazon and have it delivered to your “space.”
  This would require the use of a crane truck to hoist the modular home off the flat-bed transport truck and lower it into its space.
• 3. open the floors, walls and raise the two roof segments as demonstrated here
  https://tucsonbornrealtor.com/modular.html
• 4. hook up the utilities
• 5. move in and furnish the interior
• 6. hold onto your employment and start to enjoy your own home
• 7. live happily ever after