There is something about having eaten a real bagel and good pizza that makes you think you are invincible. ⇒
Author: ti
Wired News Story on Cell Site Surveillance Panel
What kind of court order does the government need to get to be able to track the location of your cell phone? A probable cause search warrant? A relevance court order? A specific and articulable facts order? ⇒
The house that got away?
Life is moving pretty fast around here: Just over a week ago I was still in law school and didn’t know where I was going to live starting this June or where I was going to sit for the bar. Then, one week ago today L. got a job in Billings. A couple of days later I finished law school, and just a couple off days later we made an offer on a house!
Talk about stress. The seller was asking $105k, we offered $95k, and immediately wished we’d offered $90k as a starting point. The seller countered at $100k (not really surprising), but since we’d already offered basically what we wanted to pay, we had no room to move. After endless debate and mulling, during which we considered whether to counter the counter at $97.5k, we finally decided to stay w/our original offer. Of course, immediately after making that decision we wished we’d just gone for the $97.5 b/c then the house would be hours (we assume) and all of the stress and uncertainty would be over and we’d have ourselves a nice little home w/in an easy walk to work for both of us (if I get a job, that is). Second-guessing is great!
Now, as we wait for the seller to respond to our unchanged original offer, it seems certain he’s going to tell us to take a hike and we’ll be back to square one. Not cool.
One reason this deal has not gone so well is that we ended up working w/a “statutory broker†instead of a buyer’s real estate agent. We didn’t realize that until we were making the offer, at which point we were too interested to back out and find another agent. But once we learned that our agent has so little obligation to us and is not bound to keep any confidence w/us w/regard to finances, etc., it became pretty difficult to trust her advice as to pricing and what might be a fair offer. Was she telling the seller everything we said about how much we could afford or how high we might be willing to go? Maybe not, but that would probably be in her best interest. Does anyone know how a statutory broker gets paid? Would the broker’s fee depend on the sales price of the home? [tags]montana, homebuying, real estate, realtors[/tags]
Weekly Law School Roundup #18
the “Random quotes from ‘Real Genius’ because I happen to love that movie Edition” ⇒
I Wanna Be A Lawyer When I Grow Up
What motivated you to enter the legal profession? ⇒
A New Twist on Traffic Stops
How many cases are there that involve a traffic stop of a guy riding a bicycle that leads to a search of the bike and discovery of drugs inside the bike? [tags]crimlaw, drugs, biking[/tags] ⇒
your optimism
“I hate your optimism. It’s like overdosing on hard candy.” ⇒
Good News from SCOTUS
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously set aside a South Carolina murder conviction and death sentence, as Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in his first high court opinion said the man wasn’t given a fair chance to mount a defense. ⇒
theshow: 05-01-06
“When respect is demanded regardless of a person’s actions, it’s called tyranny! Can you spell tyranny? ⇒
Get a Mac
PC: “I have some very cool apps that are bundled with me … calculator … clock.†Mac: “Sounds like hours of fun.†⇒