Last year I was closely involved with a hotel project on Crete which proved ultimately profitable even though the Greek economy tends to stifle profits. Located at a seaside fishing village turned favored tourist spot is where an entrepreneur named Dimitris Markakis spent sleepless nights to bring a stunning hospitality venture to life. SeaScape Luxury Residences are expanding this year because of a combination of impeccable design, efficient marketing and sales, and an age-old equation that involves geographical fate.
“In Tune” Development
Not so many years ago Agia Pelagia was a tiny fishing harbor where goats and sheep were as likely to be seen on the stunning beach as sunburned tourists are today. Once a majestic port for the Bronze Age Minoan civilization, today the town offers delectable Cretan cuisine straight in front of one of Crete’s most stunning swimming, snorkeling, and watersports spots. But when Dimitris Markakis described for me how the good fortune played a role in Crete development, I was reminded how timing is everything. As it turns out, property on the seaside in places like Agia Pelagia was once deemed worthless by the patriarchs of agrarian families.
When these properties were passed down, the favored sons and daughters were given farmlands, olive groves, and orchards – the youngest or those in disfavor, they got beachfront. Talk about a “twist” of fate. As luck so often has it, those less favored siblings mostly sold their property for pennies rather than drachmas. Smart entrepreneurs and those seeking lots by the seaside were the beneficiaries. Today, however, the problem for property developers and entrepreneurs is the economy, taxes, and plummeting prices, not to mention the dire need to build sustainably. With the touristic corporations bearing down on Crete, local entrepreneurs are under increased pressure to conform. SeaScape is a truly non-conformist idea when compared to the big seaside developments.
Bucking the trend to build, Markakis’ and his brothers’ not only had the challenge of creating a luxury self-catered vacation abode, they were also building a brand new development into an already crowded village geography. Agia Pelagia, like other Cretan seaside villages, is struggling to preserve its Cretan traditions and identity, so the SeaScape development came with myriad difficulties above and beyond potential profit and loss. Ultimately, the property designed by the gifted architect, Lefteris Tsikandilakis got built despite a couple of hundred logistical and bureaucratic hurdles.
Last year I interviewed Lefteris Tsikandilakis, the gifted architect who designed SeaScape Phase One to find out more about the overall vision of this amazing self-catering boutique resort. I got from the designer the developmental philisophy behind this new development:
“It is obvious that every residence is unique, but that wasn’t necessarily the principal design purpose. In this particular project, we had to deal with 2 challenging plots with sharp slopes, their integration in an already developed building, and the need for these plots to be configured in the best possible way. The sea view, the orientation and the scope for the internality of the plot, were principal elements that defined the spatial design.”
The Recipe
SeaScape Luxury Residences became a success in its first year of operation, despite all the hurdles, because of the cohesive efforts for design, efficiency, sensitivity to the local environment, marketing, sales, and creating the perfect guest experience. On the latter, Dimitris Markakis offered this:
”Seascape Luxury Residences” redefines the meaning of “Cretan hospitality” with the addition of 15 new residences with differentiated comfort and innovative design. Every guest here will experience luxury and truly relaxing vacations in the heart of the cosmopolitan village of “Agia Pelagia”. The additional residences feature a unique architectural design that combines simplicity with stylish luxury. The modern decoration aesthetics accentuate out themes of ultimate tranquility and relaxation that every guest needs and expects during summer vacations.”
SeaScape is a stunning property, in the perfect location, and the development actually adds to the aesthetic of Agia Pelagia, rather than detracting from it. This brings me to location, and how complex the job was for Markakis and his team. Choosing to put a hotel in the wide open spaces is one thing, but designing with a vision smack in the middle of a thriving small village is another. The developers of SeaScape had to take into consideration the streets, thoroughfares, zoning, touristic and service traffic, neighboring houses, stores, villas, and so forth. Knowing the value of being in Agia Pelagia may have been a given, but displaying everything in the town for a spell brought looks of concern from the community. I know Dimitris spent many sleepless nights worried over civic outrage over huge cement trucks and etc. I’m sure he wondered many times whether or not he’d selected the right location – ultimately he was proven right. The beautiful people lounging (as in the Instagram share below) at SeaScape last summer must have been a rewarding experience for the owner.
Building a brand new vacation residence is hard enough. No matter how compelling any development is on paper, the team that designs, builds, organizes, and promotes must work as harmoniously as possible with the same goals in mind. And once the luxury residences were up, the twin swimming pools filled, the chic pool bar stocked and pillows fluffed, then came the branding and the rush to bookings. I was on the site two weeks before the first guests were slated to arrive, and I can tell you SeaScape looked about half complete. Miraculously, the team opened on schedule and the world of the sales and marketing team came into play. I spoke briefly about SeaScape Phase One, and the new expansion with Giorgos Ergazakis, who’s the Director of Sales at Plarino – Hotel Management Services, the company that handles SeaScape sales strategy. Here’s what he had to say about SeaScape’s initial success:
“The SeaScape Luxury Residences case is interesting for several reasons. Given the end product and the clearly demonstrated vacationer value at the end, most sales execs would consider the property and easy sell. But SeaScape sits in the middle of the amazing competition. We are very prou ofd our marketing and pricing competitiveness helped make the property profitable in such a short time.”
Vision, location, a clear strategy, creating an effective team, and presenting the destination and the accommodation value to the public effectively, all this and more led to SeaScape’s initial successes. And now SeaScape Phase Two is slated to open in the Spring at Agia Pelagia.
Expanding On Success
SeaScape Phase One was built upon vacant lots alongside an existing apartment complex at Agia Pelagia. Markakis’ vision had always been to expand the new property to integrate with these existing apartments. Design wise, the trick is to shape the facades and the surrounding environment so that Phase One and Two are combined aesthetically and functionally. My texts from Lefteris Tsikandilakis’ offices speak of key materials usage to make this integration perfect, but the architect’s job is not only about congruent materials. Tsikandilakis will have to create the same sense of casual luxury in this second phase, that guest experienced and talked about from SeaScape Phase One. As the architect told me, SeaScape exists as a perfect balance of interiors and exteriors which create an overall sense.
The second part of the SeaScape story will be completed when more visitors to Agia Pelagia go home to express the special experience of place that many believe can only be achieved here on Crete. Marketing and sales for SeaScape Luxury Residences will be challenged to meet or exceed last year’s successes. The staff will certainly be expanded, guests will expect their luxury holiday, and if my guess is right, many more holiday seekers will become purist fans of one of the world’s most fabulous island getaways, in no small part due to the efforts of Dimitris Markakis, a smart Crete businessman bold enough to be different.
Phil Butler is a former engineer, contractor, and telecommunications professional who is editor of several influential online media outlets including part owner of Pamil Visions with wife Mihaela. Phil began his digital ramblings via several of the world’s most noted tech blogs, at the advent of blogging as a form of journalistic license. Phil is currently top interviewer, and journalist at Realty Biz News.
The Jefferson Avenue commercial district in Buffalo, New York, is anchored by a supermarket.
There are dozens of other businesses and services along the 12-block corridor — a couple of bank branches, a library, a coffee shop, gas stations, a small plaza with a dollar store and a primary care clinic and a business incubator for entrepreneurs of color.
But Tops Friendly Markets, the only grocery store on Buffalo’s vast East Side, is the center of activity. More than just a place to buy food, pick up medications and use an ATM, the store is a communal gathering space in a predominantly Black neighborhood that, for generations, has been segregated, isolated and disenfranchised from the wealthier — and whiter — parts of the city.
Which explains how it came to be the site of a mass shooting on a spring day in May of last year. On that Saturday, a gunman, who lived 200 miles away in another part of the state, drove to Jefferson Avenue and went into Tops, and in just a few minutes killed 10 people, injured three and inflicted mass trauma across the community.
It is a scenario that has sadly, and repeatedly, played out in other parts of the country that have experienced mass shootings. But this one came with a twist: The gunman’s intention was to kill as many Black people as possible.
To achieve that, he specifically targeted a ZIP code with one of the highest percentages of Black residents in New York state. All 10 who died that day were Black.
“The mere fact that someone can research, ‘Where will the greatest number of Black people be … on a Saturday morning,’ that’s not by chance,” said Franchelle Parker, a community organizer and executive director of Open Buffalo, a nonprofit focused on racial, economic and ecological justice. “That’s not a mistake. It’s a community that’s been deeply segregated for decades.”
The day of the shooting, Parker, who grew up in nearby Niagara Falls, was driving to Tops, where she planned to buy a donut and an unsweetened iced tea before heading into the Open Buffalo office, which is located a block away from Tops. The mother of two had intended to complete the mundane task of cleaning up her desk — “old coffee cups and stuff” — after a busy week.
She saw the news on Twitter and didn’t know if she should keep driving to Jefferson Avenue or turn around and go back home. She eventually picked the latter.
When she showed up the next day, there were thousands of people grieving in the streets. “The only way that I could explain my feeling, it was almost like watching an old war movie when a bomb had gone off and someone’s in, like, shell shock. That’s how it felt,” said Parker, vividly recounting the community’s collective trauma in a meeting room tucked inside of Open Buffalo’s second-story office on Jefferson Avenue.
Almost immediately following the May 14, 2022, massacre, which was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States last year, conversations locally and nationally turned to the harsh realities of the East Side and how long-standing factors that affect the daily life of residents — racism, poverty and inequity — made the community an ideal target for a white supremacist.
Now, more than a year after the tragedy, there is growing concern that not enough is being done fast enough to begin to dismantle those factors. And amid those conversations, there are mounting calls for the banking industry — whose historical policies and practices helped cement the racial segregation and disinvestment that ultimately shaped the East Side — to leverage its collective power and influence to band together in an effort to create systemic change.
The ideas about how banks should support the East Side and better embed themselves in the neighborhood vary by people and organizations. But the basic argument is the same: Banks, in their role as financiers and because of the industry’s history of lending discrimination, are obligated to bring forth economic prosperity in disinvested communities like the East Side.
I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.
Chiwuike Owunwanne, corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank
“Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that,” said The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, a four-year-old enterprise focused on racial, geographic and economic health disparities. “But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.”
To be sure, banks’ ability to reverse the course of the community isn’t guaranteed — and there is no formula to determine how much accountability they should hold to fix deeply entrenched problems like racism. Several Buffalo-area bankers said that while the Tops shooting heightened the urgency to help the East Side, the industry itself cannot be the sole driver of change.
“There are a lot of institutions … that can certainly play a part in reversing the challenges that we see today,” said Chiwuike “Chi-Chi” Owunwanne, a corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank, the second-largest bank by deposits in Buffalo. “I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.”
A long history of segregation
How the East Side — and the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue — became the destination for a racially motivated mass murderer is a story about racism, segregation and disinvestment.
Even as it bears the nickname “the city of good neighbors,” Buffalo has long been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. Of the 114,965 residents who live on the East Side, 59% are Black, according to data from the 2021 U.S. Census American Community Survey. The percentage is even higher in the 14208 ZIP code, where the Tops store is located. In that ZIP code, among 11,029 total residents, nearly 76% are Black, the census data shows.
The city’s path toward racial segregation started in the early 20th century when a small number of job-seeking Black Americans migrated north to Buffalo, a former steel and auto manufacturing hub at the far northwestern end of New York state. Initially, they moved into the same neighborhoods as many of the city’s poorer immigrants and lived just east of what is today the city’s downtown district. As the number of Blacks arriving in Buffalo swelled in the 1940s, they were increasingly confronted with various housing challenges, including racist zoning laws and restrictive deed covenants that kept them from buying homes in more affluent white areas.
Black Buffalonians also faced housing discrimination in the form of redlining, the practice of restricting the flow of capital into minority communities. In 1933, as the Great Depression roiled the economy, a temporary federal agency known as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used government bonds to buy out and refinance mortgages of properties that were facing or already in foreclosure. The point was to try to stabilize the nation’s real estate market.
As part of its program, HOLC created maps of American cities, including Buffalo, that used a color coding scheme — green, blue, yellow and red — to convey the perceived riskiness of making loans in certain neighborhoods. Green was considered minimally risky; other areas that were largely populated by immigrant, Black or Latino residents were labeled red and thus determined to be “hazardous.”
“The goal was to free up mortgage capital by going to cities and giving banks a way to unload mortgages, so they could turn around and make more mortgage loans,” said Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of more than 750 community-based organizations that advocates for fair lending. “It was kind of a radical concept and it has evolved over the decades into our modern mortgage finance system.”
The Federal Housing Administration, which was established as a permanent agency in 1934, used similar methods to map urban areas and labeled neighborhoods from “A” to “D,” with “A” considered to be the most financially stable and “D” considered the least. Neighborhoods that were largely Black, even relatively stable ones, were put in the “D” category.
The result was that banks, which wanted to be able to sell mortgage loans to the FHA, were largely dissuaded from making loans in “risky” areas. And Buffalo’s East Side, where the majority of Blacks were settling, was deemed risky. Unable to get loans, Blacks couldn’t buy homes, start businesses or build equity. At the same time, large industrial factories on the East Side were closing or moving away, limiting job opportunities and contributing to rising poverty levels.
“Today what we’re left with is the residue of this process where we’ve enshrined … a pattern of economic segregation that favors neighborhoods that had fewer Black people in them and generally ignores neighborhoods that had African Americans living in them,” Richardson said.
Case in point: Research by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition shows that three-quarters of neighborhoods that were once redlined are low- to moderate-income neighborhoods today, and two-thirds of them are majority minority communities.
Adding to the division between Blacks and whites in Buffalo was the construction of a highway called the Kensington Expressway. Built during the 1960s, the below-grade, limited-access highway proved to be a speedy way for suburban workers to get to their downtown jobs. But its construction cut off the already-segregated East Side even more from other parts of the city, displacing residents, devaluing houses and destroying neighborhoods and small businesses.
As a result of those factors and more, many Black residents have become “trapped” on the East Side, according to Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo. In 1987, Taylor founded the UB Center for Urban Studies, a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute that works on eliminating inequality in cities and metropolitan regions. In September 2021, eight months before the Tops shooting, the Center for Urban Studies published a report that compared the state of Black Buffalo in 1990 to present-day conditions. The conclusion: Nothing had changed for Blacks over 31 years.
As of 2019, the Black unemployment rate was 11%, the average household income was $42,000 and about 35% of Blacks had incomes that fell below the poverty line, the report said. It also noted that just 32% of Blacks own their homes and that most Blacks in the area live on the East Side.
“Those figures remain virtually unchanged while the actual, physical conditions that existed inside of the community worsened,” Taylor told American Banker in an interview in his sun-filled office at the center, located on the University at Buffalo’s city campus. “When we looked upstream to see what was causing it, it was clear: It was systemic, structural racism.”
Banks’ moral obligations
As the East Side struggled over the decades with rampant poverty, dilapidated housing, vacant lots and disintegrating infrastructure, banks kept a physical presence in the community, albeit a shrinking one. In mid-2000, there were at least 20 bank branches scattered across the East Side, but by mid-2022, the number had fallen to around 14, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit market share data. The 14 include four new branches that have opened since early 2019 — Northwest Bank, KeyBank, Evans Bank and BankOnBuffalo.
The first two branches, operated by Northwest in Columbus, Ohio, and KeyBank, the banking subsidiary of KeyCorp in Cleveland, were requirements of community benefits agreements negotiated between each bank and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In both cases, Northwest and KeyBank agreed to open an office in an underserved community.
Evans Bank opened its first East Side branch in the fall of 2021. The office is located in the basement of an $84 million affordable senior housing building that was financed by Evans, a $2.1 billion-asset community bank headquartered south of Buffalo in Angola, New York.
Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that. But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.
The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity
On the community and economic development front, banks have had varying levels of participation. Buffalo-based M&T Bank, which holds a whopping 64% of all deposits in the Buffalo market and is one of the largest private employers in the region, has made consistent investments in the East Side by supporting Westminster Community Charter School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, and the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to education in the city’s 14215 ZIP code.
Currently, Buffalo Promise Neighborhood operates four schools. In addition to Westminster, it runs Highgate Heights Elementary, also K-8, as well as two academies that serve children ages six weeks through pre-kindergarten. Twelve M&T employees are dedicated to the program, according to the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood website. The bank has invested $31.5 million into the program since its 2010 launch, a spokesperson said.
Other banks are making contributions in other ways. In addition to the Jefferson Avenue branch and as part of its community benefits plan, Northwest Bank, a $14.2 billion-asset bank, supports a financial education center through a partnership with Belmont Housing Resources of Western New York. Meanwhile, the $198 billion-asset KeyBank gave $30 million for bridge and construction financing for Northland Workforce Training Center, a $100 million redevelopment project at a former manufacturing complex on the East Side that was partially funded by the state.
BankOnBuffalo’s East Side branch is located inside the center, which offers KeyBank training in advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology careers. A subsidiary of $5.6 billion-asset CNB Financial in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, BankOnBuffalo’s office opened a month after the shooting. The timing was coincidental, but important, said Michael Noah, president of BankOnBuffalo.
“I think it just cemented the point that this is a place we need to be, to be able to be part of these communities and this community specifically, and be able to build this community up,” Noah said.
In terms of public-private collaboration, some banks have been involved in a deeper way. In 2019, New York state, which had already been pouring $1 billion into Buffalo to help revitalize the economy, announced a $65 million economic development fund for the East Side. The initiative is focused on stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing homeownership, redeveloping commercial corridors including Jefferson Avenue, improving historical assets, expanding workforce training and development and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
In conjunction with the funding, a public-private partnership called East Side Avenues was created to provide capital and organizational support to the projects happening along four East Side commercial corridors. Six banks — Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the nation with $2.5 trillion of assets; M&T, which has $203 billion of assets; KeyBank; Warsaw, New York-based Five Star Bank, which has about $6 billion of assets; Northwest and Evans — are among the 14 private and philanthropic organizations that pledged a combined $8.4 million to pay for five years’ worth of operational support, governance and finance, fundraising and technical assistance to support the nonprofits doing the work.
Laura Quebral, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, which is managing East Side Avenues, said the banks were the first corporations to step up to the request for help, and since then have provided loans and other products and education to keep the program moving.
Their participation “is a signal to the community that banks cared and were invested and were willing to collaborate around something,” Quebral said. “Being at the table was so meaningful.”
Richard Hamister is Northwest’s New York regional president and former co-chair of East Side Avenues. Hamister, who is based in Buffalo, said banks are a “community asset” that have a responsibility to lift up all communities, including those where conditions have arisen that allow it to be a target of racism like the East Side.
“We operate under federal charters, so we have an obligation to the community to not only provide products and services they need but also support when you go through a tragedy like that,” Hamister said. “We also have a moral obligation to try to help when things are broken … and to do what we can. We can’t fix everything, but we’ve got to fix our piece and try to help where we can.”
In the wake of a tragedy
After the massacre, there was a flurry of activity within banks and other organizations, local and out-of-town, to respond to the immediate needs of East Side residents. With the community’s only supermarket closed indefinitely, much of the response centered around food collection and distribution. Three of M&T’s five East Side branches, including the Jefferson Avenue branch across the street from Tops, became food distribution sites for weeks after the shooting. On two consecutive Fridays, Northwest provided around 200 free lunches to the community, using a neighborhood caterer who is also the bank’s customer. And BankOnBuffalo collected employee donations that amounted to more than 20 boxes of toiletries and other items that were distributed to a nonprofit.
At the same time, M&T, KeyBank and other banks began financial donations to organizations that could support the immediate needs of the community. KeyBank provided a van that delivered food and took people to nearby grocery stores. Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group, whose ATM inside Tops was inaccessible during the store’s temporary closure, installed a fee-free ATM near a community center located about a half-mile north of Tops, and later put a permanent ATM inside the center that remains there today. And M&T rolled out a short-term loan program to provide capital to East Side small-business owners.
One of the funds that benefited from banks’ support was the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which has raised $6.2 million to address the long-term needs of the East Side.
Bank of America and Evans Bank each donated $100,000 to the fund, whose list of major sponsors includes four other banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, M&T and KeyBank. Thomas Beauford Jr., a former banker who is co-chair of the response fund, said banks, by and large, directed their resources into organizations where the dollars would have an immediate impact.
“Banks said, ‘Hey, you know … it doesn’t make sense for us to try to build something right now. … We will fund you in the work you’re doing,'” said Beauford, who has been president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League since the fall of 2020. “I would say banks showed up in a big way.”
Fourteen months later, banks say they are committed to playing a positive role on the East Side. For the second year, KeyBank is sponsoring a farmers’ market on the East Side, an attempt to help fill the food desert in the community. Last fall, BankOnBuffalo launched a mobile “bank on wheels” truck that’s stationed on the East Side every Wednesday. The 34-foot-long truck, which is staffed by two people and includes an ATM and a printer to make debit cards, was in the works before the shooting, and will eventually make four stops per week around the Buffalo area.
Evans has partnered with the city of Buffalo to construct seven market-rate single family homes on vacant lots on the East Side. The relationship with the city is an example of how banks can pair up with other entities to create something meaningful and lasting, more than they might be able to do on their own, said Evans President and CEO David Nasca.
The bank has “picked areas” where it can use its resources to make a difference, Nasca said.
“I don’t think the root causes can be ameliorated” by banks alone, he said. “We can’t just grant money. It has to be within our construct of a financial institution that invests and supports the public-private partnership. … All the oars [need to be] pulling together or this doesn’t work.”
‘Little or no engagement with minorities’
All of these efforts are, of course, welcomed by the community, but there is still criticism that banks haven’t done enough to make up for their past contributions to segregating the city. And perhaps more importantly, some of that criticism centers on banks failing to do their most basic function in society — provide credit.
In 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a report about redlining in Buffalo. The regulator looked at banks and nonbank lenders and found that loans made to minorities in the Buffalo metro area made up 9.74% of total loans in Buffalo. Overall, Black residents comprise about 33% of Buffalo’s total population of more than 276,000, census data shows.
The department said its investigation showed the lower percentage was not due to “excessive denials of loan applications based on race or ethnicity,” but rather that “these companies had little or no engagement with minorities and generally made scant effort to do so.”
“The unsurprising result of this has been that few minority customers or individuals seeking homes in majority-minority neighborhoods have made loan applications … in the first instance.”
Furthermore, accusations of redlining persist today, even though the practice of discriminating in housing based on race was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
In 2014, Evans was accused of redlining by the New York State Attorney General, which said the community bank was specifically avoiding making mortgage loans on the East Side. The bank, which at the time had $874 million of assets, agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the case, but Nasca maintains that the charges were unfounded. He points to the fact that the bank never had a fair lending or fair housing violation, no specific incidents were ever claimed and that the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act exam never found evidence of discriminatory or illegal credit practices.
The bank has a greater presence on the East Side today, but that’s because it has grown in size, not because it is trying to make up for previous accusations of redlining, he said.
“Ten years ago, our involvement [on the East Side] certainly wasn’t what you’re seeing today,” Nasca said. “We were looking to participate more, but we were participating within our means and our reach. As we have grown, we have built more resources to be able to do more.”
Shortly after accusations were made against Evans, Five Star Bank, the banking arm of Financial Institutions in Warsaw, New York, was also accused of redlining by the state Attorney General. Five Star, which has been growing its presence in the Buffalo market for several years, wound up settling the charges for $900,000 and agreeing to open two branches in the city of Rochester.
KeyBank is currently being accused of redlining by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In a 2022 report, the group said that KeyBank is engaging in systemic redlining by making very few home purchase loans in certain neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black. Buffalo is one of several cities where the bank’s mortgage lending “effectively wall[ed] out Black neighborhoods,” especially parts of the East Side, the report said.
KeyBank denied the allegations. In March, the coalition asked regulators to investigate the bank’s mortgage lending practices.
Beyond providing more credit, some community members believe that banks should be playing a larger role in addressing other needs on the East Side. And the list of needs runs the gamut from more grocery stores to safe, affordable housing to infrastructure improvements such as street and sidewalk repairs.
Alexander Wright is founder of the African Heritage Food Co-op, an initiative launched in 2016 to address the dearth of grocery store options on the East Side, where he grew up. Wright said that while banks’ philanthropic efforts are important, banks in general “need to be in a place of remediation” to fix underlying issues that the industry, as a whole, helped create. (After publication of this story, Wright left his job as CEO of the African Heritage Food Co-Op.)
Aside from charitable donations, banks should be finding more ways to work directly with East Side business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them with capital-building support along the way, Wright said. One place to start would be technical assistance by way of bank volunteers.
“Banks are always looking to volunteer. ‘Hey, want to come out and paint a fence? Want to come out and do a garden?'” Wright said. “No. Come out here and help Keshia with bookkeeping. Come out here and do QuickBooks classes for folks. Bring out tax experts. Because these are things that befuddle a lot of small businesses. Who is your marketing person? Bring that person out here. Because those are the things that are going to build the business to self-sufficiency.
“Anything short of the capacity-building … that will allow folks to rise to the occasion and be self-sufficient I think is almost a waste,” Wright added. “We don’t need them to lead the plan. What we need them to do is be in the community and [be] hearing the plan and supporting it.”
Parker, of Open Buffalo, has similar thoughts about the role that banks should play. One day, soon after the massacre, an ATM appeared down the street from Tops, next to the library that sits across the street from Parker’s office. Soon after the ATM was installed, Parker began fielding questions from area residents who were skeptical of the machine and wanted to know if it was legitimate. But Parker didn’t have any information to share with them. “There was no outreach. There was no community engagement. So I’m like, ‘Let me investigate,'” she said. “I think that’s a symptom of how investment is done in Black communities, even though it may be well-intentioned.”
As it turns out, the temporary ATM belonged to JPMorgan Chase. The megabank has had a commercial banking presence in Buffalo for years, but it didn’t operate a retail branch in the region until last year. Today it has four branches in operation and plans to open another two by the end of the year, a spokesperson said.
After the Tops shooting, the governor’s office reached out to Chase asking if the bank could help in some way, the spokesperson said in response to the skepticism. The spokesperson said that while the Chase retail brand is new to the Buffalo region, the company has been active in the market for decades by way of commercial banking, private banking, credit card lending, home lending and other businesses.
In addition to the ATM, the bank provided funding to local organizations including FeedMore Western New York, which distributes food throughout the region.
“We are committed to continuing our support for Buffalo and helping the community increase access to opportunities that build wealth and economic empowerment,” the spokesperson said in an email.
In the year since the massacre, there has been some progress by banks in terms of their interest in listening to the East Side community and learning about its needs, said Nicholas. But he hasn’t felt an air of urgency from the banking community to tackle the issues right now.
“I do experience banks being a little more open to figuring out what their role is, but it’s slow. It’s slow,” said Nicholas. The senior pastor of the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, located about a mile north from Tops, Nicholas is part of a 13-member local advisory committee for the New York arm of Local Initiatives Support Coalition, or LISC. The group is focused on mobilizing resources, including banks, to address affordable housing in Western New York, specifically in the inner city, as well as training minority developers and connecting them to potential investors, Nicholas said.
Of the 13 members, seven are from banks — one each from M&T, Bank of America, BankOnBuffalo, Evans and KeyBank, and two members from Citizens Financial Group. One of the priorities of LISC NY is health equity, and the fact that banks are becoming more engaged in looking at health disparities is promising, Nicholas said. Still, they have more work to do, he said.
“I need them to think more on how to strengthen and build the economy on the East Side and provide leadership around that, not only to provide charitable things, but using sound business and banking and community development principles to say, ‘OK, if we’re going to invest in this community, these are the types of things that need to happen in this community,’ and then encourage their partners and other people they work with … to come fully in on the East Side.”
Some bankers agree with the community activists.
“Putting a branch in is great. Having a bank on wheels is great,” said Noah of BankOnBuffalo. “But if you’re not embedded in the community, listening to the community and trying to improve it, you’re not creating that wealth and creating a better lifestyle for everyone.”
What could make a substantial difference in terms of banks’ impact on the community is a combination of collaboration and leadership, said Taylor. He supports the idea of banks leading the charge on the creation of a comprehensive redevelopment and reinvestment plan for the East Side, and then investing accordingly and collaboratively through their charitable foundations.
“All of them have these foundations,” Taylor said. “You can either spend that money in a strategic and intentional way designed to develop a community for the existing population, or you can spend that money alone in piecemeal, siloed, sectorial fashion that will look good on an annual report, but won’t generate transformational and generational changes inside a community.”
Banks might be incentivized to work together because it could mean two things for them, according to Taylor: First, they’d have an opportunity to spend money in a way that would have maximum impact on the East Side, and second, if done right, the city and the banks could become a model of the way to create high levels of diversity, equity and inclusion in an urban area.
“If you prove how to do that, all that does is open up other markets of consumption all over the country because people want to figure out how to do that same thing,” Taylor said.
Some of that is already happening, at least on a bank-by-bank case, said KeyBank’s Owunwanne. Through the KeyBank Foundation, the company is able to leverage different relationships that connect nonprofits to other entities and corporations that can provide help.
“I see this as an opportunity for us to make not just incremental changes, but monumental changes … as part of a larger group,” Owunwanne said “Again, I say that not to absolve the bank of any responsibility, but just as a larger group.”
Downstairs from Parker’s office, Golden Cup Coffee, a roastery and cafe run by a husband and wife team, and some other Jefferson Avenue businesses are trying to build up a business association for existing and potential Jefferson-area businesses. Parker imagined what the group could accomplish if one of the banks could provide someone on a part-time basis to facilitate conversations, provide administrative support and coordinate marketing efforts.
“In the grand scheme of things, when we’re talking about a multimillion dollar [bank], a part-time employee specifically dedicated to relationship-building and building out coalitions, it sounds like a small thing,” Parker said. “But that’s transformational.”
The business of your dreams is just beyond your reach. Hear about the process that’s helped countless entrepreneurs achieve greatness on today’s podcast with Jennifer Hudye. You won’t just learn how to solidify your greatest goals; you’ll also get specific advice on how to achieve them in just a few short years. Jennifer and Aaron also offer tips on overcoming common problems in business and discuss dedicating your energy to the tasks that matter most.
Listen to today’s show and learn:
Working with Cameron Herald on Vivid Vision [2:44]
How far ahead to plan your vivid vision [3:50]
The hustle state versus the vision state [7:37]
Questions to ask when crafting your ideal future [13:33]
The vivid vision document: How to share your growth goals clearly [18:40]
Dedicating your energy to the things that matter most [26:48]
Turning problems into qualifiers instead of stop signs [34:18]
The power of the vivid vision [38:39]
How 2020 prepared entrepreneurs for different market seasons [43:48]
Jennifer Hudye’s upcoming event in Austin [47:37]
Where to find and follow Jennifer Hudye [52:53]
Jennifer Hudye
Jennifer Hudye is the founder of Vision Driven Ventures—a group of companies and collaborations focusing on helping entrepreneurs clarify and communicate the vision and message they’re here to bring to the world, inspiring people to take action. The brands include Conscious Copy & Co. (Founder), VividVision.com (Partner), and Vision Amplifier (Co-Founder).
She’s also a frequent guest speaker at top entrepreneurial events including Genius Network Annual Event, Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), Traffic & Conversion Summit, TEDx, and War Room. Past clients include household names like Tony Robbins, Strategic Coach, Joe Polish, Bulletproof Coffee, Brendon Burchard, and many other noteworthy experts. She guides top leaders through the same principles and tools that helped her quickly build Conscious Copy & Co, the top messaging/copywriting company in the online business space.
Jennifer and her team have helped over 400+ companies 1:1 through the Vivid Vision® process where she’s partnered with Cameron Herold to help founders and CEOs clarify and communicate their 3-year vision so they can attract top talent, align their team, create key partners and vendors, and stay focused and motivated. Many of their clients are 7, 8, and 9 figure companies, including brands like Clickbank, Organifi, Bookkeepers.com, Fulfillment.com, and Hapbee.
Jennifer grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, starting her first company at the age of 13 alongside her sister and two cousins… and sold two companies for 6 and 7 figures by the age of 19. You can say entrepreneurship is in her blood, and it’s why she’s so committed to helping entrepreneurs connect, communicate, and bring forth their vision into the world.
Related Links and Resources:
Thank You Rockstars!
It might go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: We really value listeners like you. We’re constantly working to improve the show, so why not leave us a review? If you love the content and can’t stand the thought of missing the nuggets our Rockstar guests share every week, please subscribe; it’ll get you instant access to our latest episodes and is the best way to support your favorite real estate podcast. Have questions? Suggestions? Want to say hi? Shoot me a message via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Email.
Typically people seek the help of a planner when they don’t have the time, know-how, or desire to do create their own financial plan. In its 13 February 2006 issue, Newsweek featured a great article by Jane Bryant Quinn called “Money Guide: How to Pick a Planner”.
Even if you do most of the work yourself, you may want to check with a planner to be sure your plan will work as you intended. Some planners will use sophisticated probability calculations to determine your likelihood of achieving your goals when you are invested in markets that fluctuate. Market ups-and-downs can have a significant effect on your chances of success if you are making monthly or yearly contributions to long-term investments. By monitoring your probability of success, you can reduce the likelihood of over- or under-planning. Under-planning results in the need to make sacrifices in the future, while over-planning leads to making unnecessary sacrifices now.
Planners can also make recommendations and give advice on how to implement your plan. It is important to be mindful of potential conflicts of interest when recommendations could also stand to benefit the planner. Some planners simply do the planning and leave the implementation up to you while others will take an active role in implementing your plan.
Before hiring a planner to help you, you should first determine how much help you want or need. The more financially literate you are, and the more you’re willing to do on your own, the less you should expect to pay a financial planner. Consider the value or benefit you are getting for the cost, and ask yourself if you are better off putting the money into your savings account than paying it to a planner. Planners typically charge for their service using one of the following methods:
By the hour (best if you need minimal help)
By the project (best if you need specific help in a single area)
On retainer (best if you want ongoing help)
As a percentage of assets the planner is managing (caution: this one has a built in conflict of interest)
Most planners will offer a free initial consultation. The purpose of these meetings is for you and the planner to learn about each other, not to solve specific problems. Use this opportunity to grill the planner. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has 10 questions you can use as a guide to interviewing any planner. It is good idea to interview at least three planners, and to check for any disciplinary history at the following sites:
It is important to be aware that the term “financial planner” is not regulated and anyone may call themselves a financial planner. However, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) practitioners are regulated, and must agree to abide by written standards of practice and a code of ethics set forth by The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
You can search for a CFP® professional by zip code and/or specialization using the Financial Planning Association’s PlannerSearch website. The Garrett Planning Network has a searchable directory of financial planners that charge by the hour. The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors will refer consumers to specific planners in their member network.
For a financial planner to give investment advice they must also be a registered investment adviser (RIA). RIAs are required to always place client interests ahead of the advisor’s own interests; whereas, stockbrokers (even the ones calling themselves advisors or that have “CFP” on their business cards) do not have that same obligation and are often required to place other interests first as a condition of their employment.
Unfortunately, consumer protections when it comes to investing and other financial maters leave a lot to be desired. Ask questions, read the fine print, assume nothing, and caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”).
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D) FEES. IN THE EVENT THAT YOU COMMENCE ARBITRATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THESE TERMS, NERDWALLET WILL, AT YOUR REQUEST, REIMBURSE YOU FOR YOUR PAYMENT OF THE ARBITRATION FILING FEE, UNLESS YOUR CLAIM IS FOR GREATER THAN $10,000, IN WHICH CASE THE PAYMENT OF ANY FEES SHALL BE DECIDED BY THE AAA RULES. ANY REQUEST FOR PAYMENT OF FEES BY NERDWALLET SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY MAIL TO THE AAA ALONG WITH YOUR DEMAND FOR ARBITRATION AND NERDWALLET WILL MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO PAY ALL NECESSARY FEES DIRECTLY TO THE AAA. IN THE EVENT THE ARBITRATOR DETERMINES THE CLAIM(S) YOU ASSERT IN THE ARBITRATION TO BE FRIVOLOUS OR BROUGHT FOR AN IMPROPER PURPOSE (AS MEASURED BY THE STANDARDS SET FORTH IN FEDERAL RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 11(B) OR ITS SUCCESSOR RULE), YOU AGREE TO REIMBURSE NERDWALLET FOR ALL FEES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ARBITRATION PAID BY NERDWALLET ON YOUR BEHALF THAT YOU OTHERWISE WOULD BE OBLIGATED TO PAY UNDER THE AAA’S RULES.
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YOU AND NERDWALLET AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
F) MASS, COLLECTIVE, OR BATCH ARBITRATION. YOU AND NERDWALLET AGREE THAT ADMINISTRATION OF ANY MASS, COLLECTIVE OR BATCH ARBITRATION SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE TERMS SET FORTH IN THIS SUBSECTION (F). You and NerdWallet agree that a “mass, collective, and/or batch arbitration” includes, but is not limited to, instances in which you and others are represented by a law firm or collection of law firms or legal counsel that has filed more than 150 arbitration demands of a substantially similar nature against NerdWallet, alleging similar or identical claims or causes of action, within 180 days of the arbitration demand filed on your or others behalf, and the law firm or collective of legal counsel/law firms seeks to simultaneously or collectively administer and/or arbitrate all the arbitration demands together. If more than 150 arbitration demands of a substantially similar nature, alleging the similar or identical claims or causes of action, are filed against NerdWallet by the same law firm or collection of legal counsel/law firms within 180 days of one another, each arbitration demand must be filed, administered, arbitrated, and resolved pursuant to this subsection (f).
Specifically, in order to increase the efficiency of resolution for any mass, collective, and/or batch arbitration, in the event 150 or more similar arbitration demands against NerdWallet are filed within a 180 day period pursuant to the above, the arbitration provider shall (i) group the arbitration demands into batches of no more than 150 demands per group; and (ii) provide for resolution of each group or batch as a single arbitration with one set of filing and administrative fees and a single arbitrator assigned per group or batch. You and NerdWallet agree to cooperate in good faith with the arbitration provider to implement the aforementioned protocol for mass, collective, and/or batch arbitrations with regard to resolution, fees and administration. If subsections (f)(i) or (f)(ii) are not enforced, or the arbitration provider refuses to follow these specific mass, collective, and/or batch arbitration protocols, then each arbitration demand must be filed, administered, arbitrated, and resolved individually, or the parties agree to seek out a different, mutually agreeable and widely-recognized arbitration organization agreeable to follow subsections (f)(i) or (f)(ii). If any other portion of this subparagraph (f) is found to be unenforceable, then the unenforceable portion of the provision shall be stricken, and the remainder of subparagraph (f) and this agreement shall be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law. Mass, collective, and/or batch arbitrations shall otherwise be subject to all other substantive and procedural terms contained within this agreement.
G) Discovery. Discovery and/or the exchange of non-privileged information relevant to the dispute will be governed by the AAA Rules.
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I) Modifications. If NerdWallet makes any future change to this Arbitration Agreement (other than a change to the Notice Address) after your enrollment in a service or program or your use of the Services, you may reject any such change and require NerdWallet to adhere to the language in this arbitration provision as written at the time of your enrollment or purchase if a dispute between us arises, by sending us written notice within 30 days of the change to the Notice Address provided above. You acknowledge and agree that, in the event you reject any future change, your account with NerdWallet shall be immediately terminated and you will arbitrate any dispute between us in accordance with the language of this provision as written at the time of your enrollment or purchase.
J) Severability and Enforceability. If an arbitrator or court decides that any part of this Section 12 is invalid or unenforceable, the other parts of this Section 12 shall still apply. If the entirety of this Section 12 is found to be unenforceable, then the parties agree that the exclusive jurisdiction and venue described in Section 11 shall govern any action arising out of or related to the Terms, and that the remainder of the Terms will continue to apply.
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14. General.
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Real estate agents and brokers, if you could choose where your next listing is coming from, wouldn’t you always answer, “repeat or referral business?”
Of course, you would.
Repeat and referral clients are easier to work with. They already know, love and trust you. You’re probably not going to compete for their business. And, they are less likely to throw objections at you! Also, they don’t ask you to cut your commission or shoot them a kickback.
So if you wish to boost your repeat and referral business ASAP, it’s time to embrace three specific steps:
Create a database
Have an organized database with names, numbers, email addresses, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and other contact information on each client. You don’t need a fancy CRM. Call each person to update the rest of their profile. It’s a great excuse to make that first — or next — contact. Use your F-O-R-D (family, occupation, recreation, dreams) conversation outline to make these calls fruitful. Refer to our podcasts and other articles about how to speak with your sphere of influence.
Speak with all of your contacts regularly.
That means face-to-face or voice-to-voice real contact. A contact is a conversation with a decision-making adult about real estate. For example, if you have 200 people in your database and you speak with 10 per day on work days, you can actually speak to 100% of your list every single month. What would that do to your repeat and referral business? If 10 is too many, start with five contacts per day and you will speak with 100% of your list every sixty days.
Expand your center of influence systematically.
10% of the people in your database will do business with you or refer business to you every year, assuming you communicate with them. If your database is 100 people strong, you’ll have 10 transactions from them yearly. 200 people could mean 20 transactions, and so forth. Smaller is better. Don’t dump random leads into your database. Past clients, friends, family, neighbors and people in your sphere of influence belong on this list. You can have a second list of your professional center of influence that includes lenders, title professionals, painters, insurance representatives etc.
To expand your center of influence contacts, try these three approaches:
a) Things you like to do anyway
This list could include your hobbies, sports teams, arts and culture events, fitness routine or going on organized hikes. You’ll be around like-minded people, talking about mutual interests. Use MeetUp.com to find things that interest you. Try out new clubs to expand your contacts.
b) Business networking
For the sake of networking. Business Network International, the Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters, entrepreneurs club, investors clubs, and more are all great ways to meet new professional contacts.
c) Charitable events.
Auctions, food drives, toy drives, fundraisers, school and church events are all great for a multitude of reasons. You’ll be around philanthropic-minded wealthy patrons of these events, expanding your sphere into neighborhoods you may not yet be working in, meeting interesting people and networking at a high level.
It’s also important to get into the habit of immediately adding new contacts to your smartphone contacts, then emailing their name to yourself so you can get them into your CRM. Add a note in your contacts to remind yourself how you met them. For example: ‘Sherry Seller. Met at Orange Theory. Married, three kids, and a fish. Moved to Austin from Chicago.’
Most importantly, remember that in order for these tips to become predictable, duplicatable sources of business, you add more contacts and touch base with them more frequently to achieve that flow of leads.
Tim and Julie Harris host a podcast for real estate professionals. Tim and Julie of Premier Coaching have been real estate coaches for more than two decades, coaching the top agents in the country through different types of markets.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” — Reinhold Niebuhr
Recent volatility in the financial markets and a weakening US economy have tested the resolve of even the most patient of investors, and cast a shadow of doubt upon the most resolute in personal finance. What if the stock market continues its decline? What if the economy slips into recession? What should I do, if anything, to protect my investments? Where can I find the answers?
While these questions are normal in the face of uncertainty, the problem with them is that they are reactionary and seek answers from external sources. Those kind of questions suggest we have not sought answers from internal sources and, perhaps, have failed to ask questions that may be a bit more difficult, such as “Who am I?” and “Where am I going?”
I believe that it’s important for us to limit our attention to those external sources we can not control, to instead allocate attention to things we can control, and, ultimately, to set forth on our own path rather than the path of others.
“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.” — Michel de Montaigne
From a financial perspective, there are significant events that are not within our control:
Financial markets. As legendary economist John Maynard Keynes famously said, “The markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”
The economy. As with financial markets, the economy moves in cycles. That’s about where our absolute knowledge ends. To paraphrase Mark Twain, history may “rhyme” but it does not repeat itself.
Government actions. Fiscal acts (i.e. tax rates), monetary acts (i.e. interest rates), and geo-political acts (i.e. foreign government) have an incredible impact on the Big Picture of our finances, but no individual has any meaningful control over them.
There are, however, many items that are within our control as investors:
Asset allocation. We have the power to select a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and cash. We also have the ability to control investment selection and investment types, such as mutual funds vs. individual securities, index funds vs. actively-managed funds, or even the use of “life-cycle” funds.
Holding period. While timing the market is a fool’s game, time in the market is prudent. Based on history, between 80% and 90% of the returns attributable to market performance come from just 2% to 7% of the time in the market. Miss the market’s greatest moves and you’re doomed to under-performance.
Savings rate. This is a “no-brainer”. All other things being equal, increasing the amount you are saving or investing will have a much larger impact on your long-term account value than market movements or economic activity. Of course, in order to have a positive savings rate, we must spend less than we make.
All of the above controllable determinants of investing depend on your goals, objectives, tolerance for risk, and time horizon. None of these can be accurately determined without asking those challenging questions I mentioned previously: “Who am I?” and “Where am I going?”
“If I have even just a little sense, I will walk on the main road and my only fear will be straying from it.” — Lao-tzu
Lao-tzu sought the Tao or The Way. Buddha called it Nirvana. Socrates promoted “the examined life”. And Maslow suggested it is self-actualization, which we all seek. Before success in finances or any other area in life, we must first know ourselves. Here are some suggestions for finding your own “path” and staying on it:
Find yourself. Who am I? Why do I think and feel differently than others? How can I leverage this knowledge to benefit myself, my relationships, my personal finances? First, you are a human, then you are an individual. For the understanding of yourself as a human, I suggest the book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman. For understanding yourself as an individual, I suggest the online version of the Jung Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These are only beginnings. Self-awareness is a life-long pursuit. Seek information that will enhance knowledge of yourself.
Define yourself. Our “path” may be easily diverted by social conventions and language. For example, what is your definition of “retirement”“? Where did your definition come from? Is your ultimate financial goal financial freedom? What is your definition of freedom? Define other words for yourself as well, such as rich, wealth, success, strength, weakness, and happiness. Otherwise, you are following the definition of others.
Allocate attention. Meaning, happiness, and control in our lives best derive from internal sources. So how do we limit external noise? A good start is with our informational media consumption (i.e. television, internet, paper media). If we are consumers of information, we must stop to think of what it is that information consumes — our attention. Were you seeking the information or was it seeking you? Be aware that information sources, especially those that are in the business of selling advertising, are trying to “capture” your attention. Capture your own attention first by creating a “portfolio” of information sources: For example: 40% Music, 30% books, 10% blogs and internet, 10% periodicals, and 10% television.
Think about “thinking”. Anyone can think. But to strengthen our reasoning capabilities we must learn to “think about thinking.” To provoke this level of thought, try studying philosophy. For some relatively easy reading, start with The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Philosophy, then gravitate to philosophies or philosophers that speak to your interests.
No matter which direction we are walking or what life brings us — whether it is personal finance or anything else — we cannot be wrong as long as we are following our own path. We will make mistakes, of course, but they will be our own. And, because of our self-awareness, they will help us to grow stronger and to continue in the right direction.
I think The Financial Philosopher’s advice is excellent. The main reason I struggled with money for so long is that I didn’t know myself, and I didn’t know what wealth meant to me. As I’ve come to understand myself and my aims in life, it’s been easier to set goals for my money. (And I’m an ENFP, by the way.) Photo by Mr. Hayata.
As the banking crisis stabilized last week, mortgage rates increased, reducing borrower demand for home loans. However, with limited for-sale housing inventory, these higher rates are primarily challenging for potential first-time homebuyers.
Overall, mortgage applications fell last week by 8.8% from one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
This was a reversal of the previous week’s trend, when homebuyers’ loan demand increased by 5.3%. The MBA survey, which has been conducted weekly since 1990, covers over 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.
“Last week’s increase in mortgage rates prompted a pullback in application activity. With more first-time homebuyers in the market, we continue to see increased sensitivity to rate changes,” Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.
The MBA survey shows the average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 6.43% from 6.3% last week. Rates on jumbo loans (greater than $726,200) rose to 6.28% from 6.26% on a weekly basis.
Regarding the jumbo space, the spread between the jumbo and conforming 30-year fixed rates widened slightly last week to 15 basis points, tighter when compared to the past year, according to the MBA data.
“As banks reduce their willingness to hold jumbo loans, we expect this narrowing trend to continue,” Kan said.
At HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center, the Optimal Blue data shows rates at 6.50% on Tuesday for conforming loans, up from 6.39% the previous Tuesday. Rates for jumbo loans increased to 6.62% from 6.48% in the same period.
“Banking stress in the markets have gone away, so the bond market just bounced higher from a key technical point,” Logan Mohtashami, HousingWire’s lead analyst, said. “As long as the economy stays firm, we will bounce back and forth on rates.”
Loan types
The MBA data shows that purchase apps declined by 10% from one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, and refinancings were down 5.8% in the same period. Refis comprised 27.6% of the total applications last week, up from 27% the previous week.
Meanwhile, mortgage apps declined by 6.9% in the conventional market, but decreased by 14% in the government space.
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) share of total applications increased to 12.7% last week from 12.3% the week prior. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) share fell to 11.7% from 12.8% in the same period. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) share remained unchanged at 0.5%.
“Affordability challenges persist and there is limited for-sale inventory in many markets across the country, so buyers remain selective on when they act,” Kan said. “The 10% drop in FHA purchase applications, and the increase in the average purchase loan size to its highest level in a month, are other indications that first-time buyers have pulled back.”
Today we’re going to look at ten notorious “bad guys” in history who, as it turns out, may not have been all that bad. From misunderstood Greek gods to uncredited dentists, we’re diving into the stories behind some of history’s most vilified figures. Here are who folks from a popular online community volunteered as “not the bad guys.”
1. Robert the Bruce from Braveheart
Historical portrayals can always be contested for accuracy, and Braveheart’s case proves just that. For example, someone pointed out how Robert the Bruce was loyal to William Wallace, unlike what the movie showcases.
1. Robert the Bruce from Braveheart
While sometimes events are rewritten for entertainment value, one person argued that the original story was more exciting and could’ve been portrayed as is. Someone should have told Mel Gibson to do his research.
2. Niccolo Machiavelli
History is full of stories about unfortunate, misunderstood men, and Machiavelli is one of them. As many pointed out, his name is wrongly muddled with vices such as dishonesty, manipulation, and lies.
2. Niccolo Machiavelli
In reality, The Prince was more of an observation about how governments are rather than a suggestion regarding how they should be.
3. The First Persian Empire from 300
Okay, this is no longer about bad guys but bad empires. But hear me out. If you recall the film 300, you can remember how the First Persian Empire really got the short end of the stick. As someone mentioned, the movie was made from a Spartan point of view, making it a biased depiction.
3. The First Persian Empire from 300
Of course, no empire was perfect, but it is always important to point out if a negative characterization is unwarranted.
4. Captain Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez
Finding someone talking passionately about Captain Hazelwood in immense detail was amusing. However, to cut it short, the man is often considered a drunk captain who couldn’t manage his ship.
4. Captain Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez
In reality, Hazelwood was not even in command during the spill. The man just wanted a nap, and suddenly he’s a drunken pirate? Give him a break!
5. William McMaster Murdoch from Titanic
I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t seen the film Titanic. Inevitably, most of us thought of Murdoch as a horrible person.
5. William McMaster Murdoch from Titanic
It is often forgotten that he was a real guy who saved many lives during the incident.
6. Hades from Greek Mythology
Hades wasn’t a bad guy, or at least not as bad as other Greek Gods. As one person mentioned, he was loyal to his wife (for the most part, at least).
6. Hades from Greek Mythology
He’s not as bad as everyone thinks. I mean, he named his dog Spot. That’s just too cute!
7. Tom from Tom & Jerry
Let’s delve into the classic skirmish between Tom and Jerry. Controversial, I know! However, many folks think that Tom wasn’t all that bad. One person speculated that the duo was putting on a show to avoid getting kicked out by their owners.
7. Tom from Tom & Jerry
Of course, most episodes are disconnected from each other and portray vastly different versions of the relationship between Tom and Jerry.
8. William Thomas Green Morton
William Thomas was an unfortunate dentist who did not get enough attention to discovering anesthesia. This may be because doctors at the time didn’t take him seriously.
8. William Thomas Green Morton
Many folks commented that his discovery is the only reason modern-day surgery is possible. It’s a shame he didn’t get the credit he deserved, but dentists and doctors have always been at odds.
9. Herbert Hoover
Hoover won the 1929 elections and took office as the US President. Unfortunately, he was subject to too much criticism as the world faced a horrific economic depression shortly after his tenure began.
9. Herbert Hoover
In reality, as someone commented, Hoover had brilliant administrative skills, which led him to win in the first place. However, a series of unfortunate circumstances brought forth a lot of criticism.
10. Pharaoh Cleopatra
Contrary to popular belief, Cleopatra was not an exploitative ruler. She’s not just a pretty face, folks. She was intelligent and dedicated as a leader. So let’s give credit where credit is due!
10. Pharaoh Cleopatra
In truth, one person mentioned how she was incredibly focused on the development and welfare of her nation. “You get a pyramid, and you get a pyramid, and you get a pyramid!”
Source: Reddit.
Who is one actress you can never stand watching, no matter their role? After polling the internet, these were the top-voted actresses that people couldn’t stand watching.
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We’ve all heard the famous adage that “no publicity is bad publicity,” and while it tends to be accurate, there are certainly exceptions. But what about those few stars who stay out of the limelight and get along without a hint of trouble?
These 7 Celebrities are Genuinely Good People
Have you ever known someone and thought you liked them—until you learned about their hobbies? Then you get to know them and then you’re like, “Wow, red flag.” Well, you’re not alone.
These 10 Activities Are an Immediate Red Flag
Some celebrities definitely seem to enjoy the limelight and keep working to stay in the public eye. While others quickly move out of the spotlight. Many of these actors and actresses stepped out of the spotlight to live a more private life without constant media pressures.
10 Celebrities That Made the Big Times Then Disappeared Off The Face of the Earth
We’ve all been there – sitting through a movie that we can’t help but cringe at, but somehow it still manages to hold a special place in our hearts.
These 10 Terrible Movies Are Still People’s Favorites
As with many things in life these days, it all started with an episode of the Peter Attia podcast.
In this edition, our nation’s most Badass Doctor was interviewing a guest I initially dismissed as not overly applicable to my own lifestyle. A young,excessively handsome dude who happened to be a writer with a new book out. But the headline of the episode was just intriguing enough to get me to click.
“The Comfort Crisis”
Wow, what an amazing turn of phrase, and what a concise summary of the core of this whole Mustachianism thing I’ve been trying to express for the past dozen years.
While the news headlines cry constantly about our nationwide personal debt crisis or health crisis or any other number of things that suggest that life is so hard these days, I have always seen the opposite: on average, we Americans seem to have a problem of ridiculous overindulgence and easiness in our lives, and our main problem is not recognizing it, and the damage it does to us.
So of course I had to click, and then listen to the whole two hour episode, and then buy the book, and then spend the past month reading and digesting it in small, meaningful chunks like the modern-day chunk of scripture-like wisdom that it is. And wow, am I glad I did so.
The author is Michael Easter, a former writer for Men’s Health magazine was also once catastrophically addicted to alcohol – and descended from a long family line of ancestors with the same affliction.
He was lucky to catch himself from that fall in time to save his own life, and that story alone makes the book worth reading as someone who has stood by helplessly as loved ones battled with addiction. But I think his history with overindulgence in the hollow comforts of alcohol also gives him an edge on writing about the battle between comfort and hardship on the bigger stage of life in general.
So what is The Comfort Crisis about, and how can it make all of our lives better?
The best part about this book is just what a damned good writer this Easter guy is. Like many of the most fun popular science books*, it follows a split narrative which jumps back and forth to interweave the story of an insanely difficult caribou hunting trip he joined in a remote pocket of Alaska, with the appropriate bits of science, psychology and cultural commentary that help us explain and learn from each chapter of the epic shit he had just endured. This allows us to process and apply the lessons in our own lives.
For example, have you ever wondered why the type of bored, rich suburbanites who populate the board of your local Homeowner Association and whine about unacceptably tall weeds or unauthorized skateboarding on Nextdoor are so insufferable?
Why can’t they do something better with their time?
It turns out that there’s a scientific explanation for these unfortunate people, along with most of our other problems:
The tendency of humans to always scan our environment for problems, regardless of how safe and perfect that environment is.
The book cited a study in which researchers told people to look for danger, in an environment which gradually became safer and safer:
“When they ran out of stuff to find they would start looking for a wider range of stuff, even if this was not conscious or intentional, because their job was to look for threats.”
“With that in mind, Levari recently conducted a series of studies to find out if the human brain searches for problems even when problems become infrequent or don’t exist.“
“As we experience fewer problems, we don’t become more satisfied. We just lower our threshold for what we consider a problem.“
In other words, even when our lives are virtually problem free, instead of appreciating our good fortune we just start making up shit that we can complain about instead.
And then our politicians cock their greasy, finely-tuned ears in our direction and make up policies to appease our mostly-insubstantial concerns. And they invent their own trivial “wedge” issues to get us to all bicker about our different cultures and religions, suddenly caring about things that would not have even been problems if nobody told us they were.
And there’s America’s weakness in a nutshell, and meanwhile our strength comes entirely from the times we choose not to waste our time stooping to this level.
Meanwhile, the opposite effect holds true: people who survive in rougher environments than us end up more resilient and less prone to complaining.
In a series of recent interviews, Ukrainian people living in the war zones of their occupied country were asked “is it safe to live where you live?” and a strangely high percentage still said “Yes” – not all that different from the responses of US residents when asked the same question about their own cities.
This adaptation principle also explains why some first generation immigrants tend to build businesses and wealth while their own offspring in second and third generations are more likely to become complacent and spend it down. As an immigrant myself, I can see why this is: conditions were just slightly more harsh and less comfortable and wealthy where I grew up, so I adapted to those conditions as “normal” which made the United States seem posh and easy by comparison. Which made it easier to spend less money and accumulate more.
Tree Therapy
The trap of pointless worry is just one of the many revelations of The Comfort Crisis. It also gives insightful explanations for why spending time in Nature boosts our mental and physical health, while cubicles and car driving grind us down.
There’s something in our biological wiring that responds instantly and powerfully to everything natural, in ways that you can’t get anywhere else.
Even placing a single plant into a hospital room will measurably improve the recovery of almost all patients from almost all ailments. So can you imagine the power of the medicine you are inhaling if you step into a real, living forest? And what if you spent several hours there, or even several days?
Later, we get lessons on our human adaptation towards the ratio of effort to reward:
It’s proven the harder you work for something, the happier you’ll be about it,”
And our bizarre natural aversion to physical exertion:
A figure that shows just how predisposed humans are to default to comfort:
2 (two).
That’s the percent of people who take the stairs when they also have the option to take an escalator.
Which is remarkable, given the absolutely insane cost this tendency imposes upon us.
Moving your body, even a bit, has enormous benefits – again to almost all people towards reducing the probability and severity of almost all diseases. So can you imagine the benefit of moving your body for several hours per day in a natural environment, and including heavy load bearing and bits of extreme exertion?
These things are not speculative pieces of alternative medicine. They are known, easily and reproducibly tested, and proven to be the most effective things we can possibly do with our time.
So why, the actual fuck, are people still sitting inside, watching Netflix, driving to work, and then driving to the doctor’s office to get deeper and deeper analysis of a neverending series of exotic and mysterious and unsolvable problems with their physical and mental health?
We should at least start with the stuff we know is essential – maximum outdoor time every day, heavy exertion including with weights, minimal time spent sitting and driving, and minimum junk food, sugar, and alcohol. You definitely don’t have to be perfect, but just understand that these are the big levers for physical and mental health.
Only then, once you reach these minimum basic things for human survival, should you expect that more exotic and niche medicines and treatments are the only course of action.
By all means, follow your doctor’s orders and don’t just dump all of your medications down the sink because of this MMM rant. But at the same time, realize that the stuff that is hard and uncomfortable is very likely to be the stuff that improves your life the most.
It’s all the stuff that Mr. Money Mustache has been telling you since 2012, but with more detail and less distraction. This book is a concentrated packet of advice for solid living.
Real Life Inspiration from the Good Book
In a happy coincidence, I happened to be in the middle of some hard stuff** of my own as I worked my way through The Comfort Crisis and I found the perspective quite useful and transformative to apply hot off the press.
Normally somewhat of a homebody, I had embarked on a solo journey for some Carpentourism deep in the mountains of Southwestern Colorado. I had my whole life shrunk down into the new Model Y including food, bed, and the necessary tools and materials to tackle a pretty long laundry list of tasks on two different construction projects (fixing up a mini-resort property in Salida, and starting construction on a small cabin in Durango)
The trip immediately took a turn towards the dramatic as I climbed into the mountains and drove straight into the most torrential rainstorm I have ever seen, then accidentally broke a traffic law in a remote mountain town right in front of both of the local police officers ($115 fine and two points off my license), then five minutes after that had a small pebble hit my brand-new windshield which instantly spread into a crack that spans the whole thing, all before finally limping into Salida to unpack and get started on the work.
“Big deal”, I can already hear you saying, “Retired man experiences two minor incidents while taking a vacation in his luxury car.”
And you’re right, and that is exactly my point.
My life is so stable and comfortable that even these two miniature challenges threw me off balance, and I arrived in a slightly bummed and stressed-out state. But I still knew that in the bigger picture, they are good for me if I accept them as I accept them as the lessons they are rather than choosing to continue to worry about them.
As the trip went on, more things happened, almost as if The Comfort Crisis book were trying to prove a point. I drove three hours deeper into the mountains and up the steep dirt road to arrive at my second friend’s piece of land – a plot of forest in the mountains just outside of Durango.
My work days in that high desert environment in the peak of summer were hot and physically demanding. It was hard to keep my tools, and my food supply in the cooler, and myself protected from the scorching sun (and a strange neverending blizzard of tree pollen) while still getting the job done. There was no indoor plumbing and we had to be very careful with our limited water supply. And then at the end of each day I had to reshuffle everything and set my car back up as a bedroom and crawl in for the night. Alone and far from home.
But instead of feeling depressed as I experienced this constant hardship, the opposite thing was happening: I felt more alive and more badass with each passing day. I got better at being a feral forest man.
One day, my co-builder and I decided to take the afternoon off and head to the wild, remote Lemon Reservoir for some paddleboarding. We didn’t bring our phones or any other conveniences or amenities – just two boards and the minimal clothing required for swimming. And we headed out into a stiff headwind and little whitecap waves, laughing at the freedom of the experience.
It was hard, and slightly scary, as we got further and further from the shore. Progress was slow even with serious paddling, and we didn’t have any particular plan beyond the spirit of “let’s GO!”
But again Michael Easter was there whispering in my ear, saying,
“Is this difficult, Mustache? GOOOOoood! Then you’d better keep going!”
So we did. And we got way out into that lake, to a point where the water was shielded from the wind by the mountains on the other side. And it was awesome.
We cruised over to the shore to explore a particularly scenic meadow, coated with the softest green mossy grass and exuberantly colored wildflowers, and set at an impossibly steep angle. And damn I wished that I could have taken pictures, but in a strange way this forced me to burn that spot more thoroughly into my memories using my own senses instead.
Then we headed back out into the center of the lake, set down the paddles, and just laid down on our boards to let the wind and the waves take us back towards the far end of the lake where we had started. And what a strange, serene feeling it was, floating on just a tube of air over two hundred feet of cold blue water, feeling like a jungle man with no cares and no plans and no material possessions. It could have been scary, but instead it was one of the best and most relaxed moments of my life.
Eventually, this week of forest living and exertion had to come to an end so I could get back to my own town to be a Dad again. But it ended with a final reminder of the principles of the Comfort Crisis – after so many days relatively extreme work and a relatively sparse food supply, I had grown used to a healthy background hunger. Which is yet another thing that we are meant to experience as humans – being satisfied and free from hunger all the time is neither normal nor healthy.
But when my hosts took me out on the town for a final night thank you dinner at the Mexican restaurant, the immense Burrito platter I consumed turned out to be the most delicious meal of my life.
Purposeful Hardship vs. Purposeful Spending
There has been a lot of talk directed at the FIRE community recently about how bad we are at spending our money, and how we all need to loosen up. And there’s a small amount of truth to it, as my local friends Carl and Mindy recently admitted during a grilling on the Ramit Sethi podcast.
But we also need to keep this whole idea of excessive comfort in mind, and the damage it does to the natural human condition.
It’s great to spend money on adventures and improving yourself, being generous to others, and making the world a better place.
But it’s also way too easy to fool yourself into thinking you “want” things that just make your life easier and easier.
So your job is to catch yourself before this happens, and learn to keep things challenging, even as you upgrade the rest of your life experience.
In other words: buy yourself better tools, not softer chairs.
—-
* Another great book that follows this style is Wired for Love by neruroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo – highly recommended for reading in parallel with a lover, whether new or old.
** not actually hard by reasonable human standards, but it seemed hard by my comfort addicted first world standards