Why Winos Shouldn't List Houses

Hi Friends - Recently I have had a number of requests for my "Wino Post." (Thank you, dear readers!) This one was the official launch of my MLS BLOOPERS BLOG. Look for a new one on Friday, but in the meantime, here is the original, back by popular demand:

The MLS and the L.A. Times Real Estate pages should be on Oprah's Reading List. Seriously. There are so many typos and outrageous remarks in the MLS that it makes for great leisure reading. The newspaper ads certainly add to the merriment. I love houses with features such as a "slimming pool" or a "crook's kitchen," especially if those features are in a "Post and Bean" house. And what could be more entertaining than a "barge yard" (for your barges of course) or a "wall of widows?" Thus, I have compiled some of my favorite typos. So take a moment to smile, fiends. (Uh, I meant "friends.")

Would You Buy This House???

Large slitting room (Is this Tony Soprano's house?)

House on Beautiful wok street (But what if I don't cook?)

"Libary" with built in shivs (In all fairness, perhaps this is in a prison.)

Disclosure: Crack on back side (Relax, we all have one.)

Call lasting agent (It's true, there aren't many of us left!)

Oven flew in from Italy (Paid for with frequent flyer miles, no doubt.)

Built in wino bar (Is there a stool with my name on it?)

Lunch severed (One misplaced r and you're dead.)

Snacks and drunks okay... (My sentiments exactly.)

Bang hard (Let's just not go there).

Let's Sell This Sucker

Seller moved but furniture strayed (In most states that's grounds for divorce.)

Brick Drivaway (Mama Mia - Those bricks must have flown in from Italy with the oven.)

Seller in NY - Coming out soon (Okay, this was in West Hollywood...think about it.)

Plumbing needs motivation (Way too much information.)

Seller says Gas is a problem (His plumbing must "need motivation" also.)

Terrorist yard (Another head-scratcher.)

Pouter room (A place to go when the first payment is due)

Call Frist (Will the Senator filibuster for me?)

Beautiful terpentine tiles in shower (Note to self: Do Not Smoke in the Shower.)

Rear entry blocked off (Eat prunes already.)

Pieceful feeling (Especially when in the shiv room)

Seller can't say no (Neither could my ex...hence the "ex.")

Weird and Random

Rooster somewhere in the neighborhood, but not for long. (Need I say more?)

Screams reported at twilight open house were coyotes we think. (Or a rooster perhaps?)

The foundation bolted (But the house stayed???)

Grass fireplace starter (For a home on the tundra...)

Owner says dog likes the taste of people. (What are his thoughts on fresh rooster?)

Built-in smoker (Grandpa won't leave.)

Strange glass windows (I'm too dumb to make this stuff up.)

Cemetery nearby (This guy really knows how to close the deal.)

Ass is (Seriously? ...I mean SERIOUSLY?)

Agents to be split down the middle. (One screw up with a Tudor and suddenly you're on the rack!)

No smaking please (But you deserve one upside your thick head.)

Close to Therapy, Rehab and Shopping (One of those choices is bound to work.)

Designer Don. (A decorating offer you can't refuse!)

And in Case You Need Your Own Motivation:

Call then go. But call again if you can't get in. Then try again. (Fool me once...fool me twice...)

Call for show times. No kids. Seller may be there and can't handle anything less than four feet tall. (Hey Bozo - half the kids in Hollywood can probably afford to buy your dump!)

Seller says he'll give dog to buyer. Check with city for past complaints. Cute dog. (Uh-huh.)

Does anyone want a noisy bird? (To feed to a "cute dog" maybe...)

Hysterical Home (Is it in the Hysterectomy Books?)

Recently bombed for fleas. (That may have been overkill.)

Marina Del Ray houseboat w/ great living style. Ask about leaks and other issues. (Uh-huh...)

Biggest Sellers, So take Note:

No earthquake insurance. But this is a few miles from the San Andreas Fault so you'll be fine. (Good to know...IF YOU'RE SUICIDAL!)

Voted Safest Neighborhood until last year. (So I take it the chalk outline has some significance?)

Driveway is shared, but other party doesn't share too good. (That explains why the chalk outline is in the driveway.)

Neighbor on N. side is nasty. You've been warned. (Yes - I saw the driveway...)

And My Faves

Seller leaving state, Going to State of Denial. Kidding. It's just a bad market.

Okay, so I know what you all are thinking: Los Angeles is not a state of mind...it's a mindless state. But at least we are colorful and constipated. I mean consistent. Until next week, go in piece.

"BOOBIES PROVIDED"? For more Laughter, Please Check Out: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1667865/-boobies-provided-the-mls-comedy-tour

Contact Gwen by clicking here

Have a Cup of Shut Up

Recently a Mortgage Broker told me he could "request a specific appraiser and make sure the appraisal comes in at contract price." First of all, pal, I hear that HVCC Jail is a lot like Joliet Prison, but the male inmates aren't as pretty. And secondly, what the h_ll were you thinking when you said that??? Okay, I agree there are certain phrases and questions we have all heard or used in real estate that no longer apply. Or if they do, they have a new meaning. Thus, we need to think before we rattle off the old phrases that used to slip so easily off our forked tongues. This is my take on "Don't Say It Just Because You Thunk It":

Don't Say It Just Because You Thunk It

"You can always turn it for a profit!" (Thank you, Heidi Fleiss.)

"Maybe the lender will pay the buyers closing costs." (And maybe I'll find George Clooney in my Christmas pantyhose. Uh, I mean stocking.)

"Don't worry - the bank doesn't want your house." (Are you high??? Can you say "TARP bailout incentives?")

"Anybody can make money in real estate." (...Said the CEO of Bear Stearns while strapping on his Golden Parachute.)

"We'll have complete loan approval in 17 days." (...Provided your mortgage broker can make bail.)

Don't Press Your Luck, Pal

"The house isn't bolted, but it's still standing." (So is David Hasselhoff, but I wouldn't give him my car keys...)

"You can't build too many." (Yes, Mr. Ford. ...Uh, you say that's called an "Edsel"?)

"I'd like some of your commission as an incentive." (And I'd like one of your kidneys so I can drink more.)

"Are they offering any buyer incentives?" (Let's see - low rates, low prices...or are we talking about my kidneys again?)

"Speak with the guy next door. I doubt if he'll mind a dog run on the easement." (Of course not - he'll have a better shot from there.)

"Does the buyer expect me to give the damn thing away?" (I believe that's what "Father of the Bride" means, Mr. Clinton.)

"Maybe the neighbor will let you remove the old fence. " (He may let you remove his old lady, too, but I wouldn't recommend it.)

"I do not want a house unless it offers lots of privacy." (I love your sense of humor, Mrs. Obama.)

Need I Say the Word "OBVIOUS"?

"Are there any fixers in Malibu?" (Sure - Charlie Sheen, Mel, the toothless singer-lady, the guy with the aluminum foil hat....)

"Everything in the house is state-of-the-art" (WHOSE art? Since when is a monkey beating on a pan an effective alarm system?)

FOR MORE "THUNKERS," PLEASE CLICK HERE

How To Lose Your Pants With a Smile

Ah, yes, folks - it was a great 4th with sunshine, bar-be-ques, brewskies, and enough grammar and spelling pandemonium on the MLS to set off fireworks. These are the best of the bunch - a metaphorical fireworks grand finale, full of shock and awe!

Hold Onto Your Shorts!

"Include Shorts in clean Package" (Hey pervert sniffer-boy, get your own skivvies!)

"Shunny new kichen with barr" ( Shomeone's shnockered on schnapps...)

"Pool with sin deck - very nice!" (Uh, methinks a pool with sin deck is considered VICE.)

"Will look at offers from non-prophets first" (Oh, honey, you must sell real estate in Malibu...)

"Near park with many haking trails" (Calling Lizzie Borden...your hatchet is ready.)

"New restraining wall" (Believe me...I'm restraining myself now!)

It Always Leads Back to Jersey...

"Cooler comes with house" (Uh, if this is the Jersey hitman kind of cooler, then we've finally located uncle Vito.)

"New Homeowners Assascionation" (Hey Uncle Vito, business must be booming!)

"Leaded gass in lawyer's library stays" (Yeah, that smell does tend to linger...)

"State o f art alarm" (Is it hooked up in the Lawyer's Library?)

"Murial on wall in dining area" (Murial's husband in San Quentin doing One Hundred to Life...with Uncle Vito's driver.)

"Nice new gym with custom pain" (No pain, no gain, right Vito?)

"Building has good HO" (Gre-a-a-t...everyone loves a hooker with a heart.)

FOR THE GRAND FINALE, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

"Bonus to Fix Seller" - More MLS Chucklers

Usually I have to skip a week to gather enough material for my MLS blooper review, but this past week was especially rife with colorful errors and head-scratching misspellings.

I even caught a few in the L.A. Times and Homes and Land Magazine. It appears that some agents were dozing at their keyboards…or doing tequila shooters – you decide.

Here are my Picks of the Week:

Where’s the Beef?

“Vintage cow foot tub with gold feet” (Old beef with gold leaf.)

“Mobile nome for sale (A leprechaun on a Harley?)

“Lots of great chops in area” (‘Great’ accordin’ to Lizzie Borden.)

“Lush landescaping” (Drunk land on the lam?)

“Nice area of mountain w/ village inn iit” (Offered by the Village Inn-i-it.”)

“Fixer – New reduced size!” (Seems the clunker’s been shrunkered.)

Too Good To Be True

“Bonus to fix seller” (We pay to spay.)

“New lo-flow John” (John must be on Flomax.)

“Nice Hollywood bunglaboo” (Agent bungle in the Hollywood jungle…)

“Work bintch thrown in for free” (The bintch should smack you upside your thick head.)

“Listen to the waves lapping in the arbor” (Run, you dud –there must be a flood!)


And Now I Have a Bridge to Sell You…

FOR MORE MLS CHUCKLES, VISIT:

"This House Will Smell Fast!"

This week's MLS was a whole bag ‘o crazy. Seriously, there should be a movie. I doubt if even Tina Fey could write anything funnier. Imagine it in 3D - with "fully stocked bras" and "large panty off kitchen." Special thanks to Greg Cooper and Patrick Martin and Fred Glick for their contributions:

Stinkin' and Drinkin'

"Garage and paddyo leans - needs support." (So does my Irish Uncle Paddyo after 4 pints of Guinness.

"This House will smell fast." (It seems the realtor stinks, also.)

"House has conservatorium" (A crematorium for Republicans, perhaps?)

"Hammered clobber tub" (I'll tell you who's hammered...)

"Everything on porch sways" (Tell Uncle Paddyo to get off the porch.)

And I Thought I had Heard It All...

"Converted church w/ original ball tower." (Geez - men need a monument for everything!)

"Extra Room in Attica" ( So much for prison overcrowding...)

"Laura Ashley pints in bedroom." (Uncle Paddyo passed out on bed.)

"Lazy Susan in kitch won't twist" (Put a dollar in her G String and see what happens)

"Antique fixtures made of bras." (Yes, old ones are hard to hold up.)

Gripes With the Pipes

"Chiten beans and rice served." (Someone will be chiten later for sure!)

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

The MLS "Turkey Awards"

I think it's time to start a new awards show in Hollywood - The Super-Dooper-Blooper awards. The competition will be stiff, and the categories will be plentiful. The statue awarded will be a giant brass turkey. Why?...Because it was another week of weird descriptions and head scratchers on the MLS. One home was "warm and cotzly" and another was "near a succer field"...but they are no competition for what follows!

Thanks to Matt Stigliano of Re/Max, Patrick Martin of Sotheby's International Realty, and Nashville Broker Grant Hammond for their contributions, and thanks to the MLS for such a great read!


Masters and Disasters

"Master will thrill you" (But his wife may shoot you...)

"Two hoses on a lot" (...And one hoser agent.)

"Grass tiles in shower" (Cows grazing in bathroom)

"Awe-expiring view" (House with killer views)

"Steal of a deal - House w/ flour rentals" (Take ‘n Bake)

Disease and Dis-ease

"Inflammation deemed reliable but not guaranteed." (Try Neosporin.)

"Plaster in goof condition" (Goofy agent in plastered condition.)

"Fresh pain and carpet" (In case the payment isn't painful enough)

"Good property for investigators" (Apparently the master thrilled the wrong person...)

"Good schools and really fiendly neighbors" (A house to die for.)

"Big lard - needs work" (Is "Big Lard" the seller?)

Sin...and More Sin

"Vue home - golfers paradice" (A strip club for Tiger?)

"Just of Benadick Canyon" (That sounds painful...)

"Charming stoned path leads to herb garden" (Charming herbs lead to stoned agent.)

FOR MORE BLOOPERS, CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

"Marble Floor - Great for Clogging" - MLS Laughs

Beware all agents: My loyal spies and I are watching everything you put in print. Why? Because real estate ads can be more fun than a whoopee cushion! We found another batch of blatant bloopers that will set February into full swing. Here we go again - jump onto the MLS Malapropism Merry-go-round and enjoy the ride:

The Demise of Webster and Roget

"House near Malibu Whinery" (Buy a bunk near the Drunk n Funk)

"Bambo floors" (Bimbo Agent)

"Paneling made of imported Europein wood" (If you're a peein,' Ima leavin'.')

"Delicious abbatizers served" (Cue the Abba music: "You are the dancing queen...")

"A real diamond in the rust." (...And a water intrusion problem, it seems.)

"New flushing installed in back for drainage." (I believe that's called an outhouse.)

How am I Doing Now?

"After stop at Sixes Tavern, turn left, then right, cross tracks and wind uphill." (This must be the sobriety test AFTER the stop at Sixes Tavern.)

"Chandeleer & other fizures stay" (Home for sale in prime San Andreas Estates)

"Ranch with beautiful hillslide view" (Welcome to Avalanche Ranch)

"Property line goes to last swill" (Agent apparently does also.)

"House on pile ons" (Must be near the ranch with the hillslide view.)

"Near Beverly Hills Hortel" (Enough said.)

Too Much Information, Bozo

"Please don't ask seller about the hole in the wall." (And shall I also ignore the arrow in his forehead?)

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE:

Real Estate Tales From The Streets of Hollywood

After a reader read my rant last week, "R U Networking or NOTworking," he challenged me to try a day of face-to-face marketing. (For those of you who cannot recall what that is, it involves getting out of your chair.) Moron that I am, I accepted his challenge and headed out onto the mean streets of Los Angeles to solicit clients. This is the bizarre story I barely lived to tell:

8:00 am: I pop out of bed. (That's early for us showbiz types.) After donning my fake designer duds I head out the door of my Hansel-and-Gretel-size overpriced house, jump into my leased Mercedes, wave to my stoned neighbor, try to back over a slow-moving kid (hey - this is L.A., not Iowa - speed or bleed!), and serpentine down Laurel Canyon with throngs of other Los Angelinos who feel that driving should never distract them from texting. Twenty minutes later, I finally arrive at Rite-Aid Drugs, which is practically walking distance to my house.

9:30 am: I run into Rite-Aid to grab a few of the props I will need for marketing: 1. Red Bull. (I do not drink caffeine because my synapses are already challenged, but I must have it visible in my car in order to look cool.) 2. Gourmet dog cookies and 3. Pepper Spray, which the somnolent salesclerk insists they don't sell. When I tell her I am about to embark on direct marketing and ask if the store sells firearms, she threatens to call the manager. I slip out the door before the manager/actor/bartender/waiter can find me and assault me with a head shot.
That's Not What I Had in Mind, Waldo!

9:45 am: Outside the store a group of people have congregated. With utmost confidence, I approach the group and hand out my business cards, offering to price their homes or answer any questions they may have, as though I am the Oracle of Re-fi. One guy asks me if I will marry him and have his demon spawn, and another turns his back on me and pees on a nearby newspaper stand.

TO CONTINUE WITH TALES OF HOLLYWOOD REAL ESTATE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

What'd You Say, Willis???

It's difficult being an internet moron. I should know. I am always amazed when tech geniuses speak freely in another language that involves pings, tracking, SEO's and a list of other words that baffle me. I am a fossil - a writer who was told I could write if I blog. Heck, I can barely type, so diving into Word Press and Flickr was about as easy for me as getting a sex change. Before my maiden voyage, I thought "blog" was a state of physical distress caused by too much salt on my margaritas. So here I am, in a world gone mad with technology and new phrases, with no translator.

There must be other morons like me out there. Hello? Are you there? Buck up and admit you are as dense as I am! On behalf of all of us internet-challenged relics, I am herein providing a vocabulary of words as we know them, so that maybe those Geniuses will understand that they must communicate to some of us through our own portal (whatever that is.) Here it is folks - straight off the Rosetta stone - Vocabulary of the Internet Clueless:

Website - Vision after 45 (Or after a Colt 45)

Tags - Fleshy outcroppings that should be lopped off

SEO - Serious Estrogen Overload (Not limited to Pamela Anderson...or Clay Aiken)

Upload - A high colonic

Download - The aftermath of too many burritos

Portal - Location of a Download

Search Engine - A drill performed by those idiots who lost that fire truck in Iowa

Twitter - PeeWee Herman on Red Bull

Flash Drive - Britney on Hollywood Blvd.

Tweet - "Sweet" - as pronounced in West Hollywood (and by Clay Aiken)

Active Rain - A serious incontinence problem

FOR MORE TRANSLATIONS FOR THE INTERNET CHALLENGED, PLEASE CLICK HERE: