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Listen to the residents on downtown noise

To the editor:

I feel I must respond to your Sunday editorial, “Feel the noise”:

You obviously do not live in the downtown area. Your referring to this proposal as a “party-killing noise ordinance” shows you do not know what we long-term residents have been subjected to in recent years.

The open-air music venues are just the latest problem.

This downtown area may not be primarily a residential district, but there are several hundred people who call this area home. Just because someone has invested money in renovating a building does not give him a license to disturb the peace.

The downtown entertainment venues should not be given more consideration than the residents. We residents live here. The partiers don’t.

THOMAS N. TRINAYSTICH

LAS VEGAS

Pulled over

To the editor:

With the new law prohibiting cellphone use by drivers taking effect, it seems we have a new problem: People pulling over on busy roadways to take and return calls (Tuesday Review-Journal).

C’mon people. What did we do before cellphones? Can’t we simply wait until we get where we are going and then return those all-important calls? Or does the world, as we know it, have that much authority over how we live our lives?

John Bauman

Las Vegas

Real estate

To the editor:

David Ross’ general statement that the Las Vegas Valley real estate market is controlled by deceitful, profit-mongering Realtors is laughable (Sunday letter to the editor). If we did control the market, I’m sure the homes would be priced much higher, and escrow periods would become much shorter.

From what I have experienced in working with selling banks and home buyers in this market, when a bank puts a foreclosure on the market, the list price is the least amount that it wants for the property. The price is based partially on research performed by the listing Realtor and one or two other independent sources, who provide comparables and market information. In the end, pricing decisions are based on bank formulas and guidelines.

I have been involved in more than 200 sales of foreclosed homes in Nevada and California. Those guidelines are still moving targets because of other factors that drive the banks’ behavior, such as foreclosure inventory ratios and/or cash on hand, federal involvement, current costs to borrow and more.

Requests for “best and final” offers may be required by selling banks in all or just some cases based on their guidelines. Why do you think they like to ask for the “best and final”? They’re banks. They want more money.

But why would I want to aggravate a buyer to earn another $30 or $60 on my commission? I would rather focus my attention on selling and listing more homes.

If a loan is required on the property, Realtors aren’t allowed to talk to the bank appraisers to influence pricing. The lender schedules them in. Realtors in Nevada don’t sell loans, so we can’t influence the loan type, interest or the terms. We are allowed to recommend lenders to clients and, like most Realtors, we refer clients to lenders who can get the loans closed for us with the least amount of resistance at a fair cost to the buyer.

Are there some bad apples out there breaking the rules? I’m sure there are, but in the end the banks, with involvement from the feds and their appraisers, are determining the market prices in Las Vegas and around the country. Thanks for the credit, but it’s not the Realtors.

What’s more, our compensation is performance-based, and we build our businesses on positive testimonials from current and past clients. Why would we want to jeopardize that relationship? It doesn’t make sense.

I suggest that Mr. Ross, through a smart friend who has had a good experience, find a Realtor he can trust and listen to him. He would end up owning more homes that way.

Mary Kennedy

Las Vegas

Government jobs

To the editor:

On Friday’s commentary page, John Stossel discusses whether governments can create jobs and prosperity. This issue has gotten a lot of play in the political campaigns.

It is amazing that we even have to have this conversation at all. The only way government gets revenue is to tax its citizens.

Take two workers, one in the private sector and one government worker. Let’s say they both make $100,000 per year with a tax rate of 30 percent. The private worker pays the government $30,000 in taxes, which is a net gain to the Treasury. The government worker pays $30,000 in taxes also, but the $100,000 salary came from the government in the first place, so this is a net loss of $70,000 to the Treasury.

This isn’t real complicated stuff.

Every government job is a net loss to the Treasury, whereas every private-sector job is a net gain to the Treasury.

So consider this: What if everyone worked for the government?

Do the math.

B. DARLING

HENDERSON

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