There was a good editorial in the Bakersfield Californian on August 18th. It was cleverly titled It Costs Just Two Bucks to Chuck Real Estate Fraud.

It tells of a high profile real estate agent who has been convitcted of fraud, Tony Daniloo serving 7 years.

The Real Estate Fraud Unit was funded by a 2 dollar fee attached to real estate transactions, that could potentially provide $150,000 to $175,000 annually to fund such a unit.

The Bakersfield District Attorney's office has shown little interest, claiming they already are doing just fine. But, C'mon....

Here is a link to a website about mortgage fraud with a profile of Tony Daniloo, his crimes and punishment.

Guess it wasn't just Watchstone and Touchson that were merging lately. 

That is all I will say about it.

I have posted before about a tantalizing rumor that has been circulating. If it hasn't been posted here, it was in one of my other blogs.

Now it is in the paper, so I just want to say that I said it before, when even people who worked at the respective companies swore that it couldn't be true, because no one told them about it.

Watson Realty and Touchstone have merged. Ken Carter is the President and Jeffrey Sanders is the Vice President. JR Lewis is the Sales Manager, and Judy Camp is General Manager. Not sure if this is happening, but I heard that the Truxtun office will close, and everyone is moving to the Touchstone office. There is another floor available there, and one of Touchstone's new construction divisions will be moved out to make room for the Watson Truxtun people. Watson Marketplace is close to the Touchstone offices already.

I said in my previous blog post that now would be a good time to revisit the Rise and Fall of the BLS, as this latest development will provide a good ending, illustrating the Law of Unintended Consequences.

My only question is, will it be called Watch Stone, or Touch Son?

Today I went to the Bakersfield Country Music Museum show. They had a very touching ceremony where they gave a guitar to Johnny Burnette Jr. It was a custom built 3/4 size model that Johnny Burnette built for his son. It was made by Moserite in Bakersfield. It was owned by various people through the years: Johnny Harrell, Rockwell from Trout's, and Artie from Front Porch Music. Artie felt it should be returned to Johnny Burnette, Jr. and so it was. They found that due to it being so unique, and the history behind it, it was now worth $15,000.

The show was very entertaining, with a main act and other people sitting in. I was invited to sing by the MC, Jerry Bowen. I told him for sure next time. Theresa Spanky was one of the guest singers who did a really great job. I am pretty sure that she also sang at the Dale Watson show at Fishlips a few Sundays ago. Because she likes to sing Your Cheating Heart in G, but Hank originally recorded that song in C. She knew what key was good for her voice though, and she called G the key of George, and C was Charlie. She also did an Emmy Lou Harris number,  2 more bottles of wine.

The Bakersfield Country Music Museum has a website, so check it out.

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I really wanted to see Dwight Yoakam and Raul Malo at Buck's Birthday Bash, but it is sold out. I went by The Crystal Palace 3 times to ask if any extra tickets would go on sale, but nada.

Now I see that you are supposed to be able to listen to it on the computer. I tried to log in but am getting Page Not Available. Maybe because it hasn't started yet. Or too many people are already logged on?

Speaking of music, we have a new agent at our office, Melody Duncan. She had her own office, then she was going to get out of the business, and closed it. But we are glad to have her, and also Mark Barrientos.

Speaking of Blogs, one of our agents has a great blog. Jared Cope has a lot of good observations about Real Estate in Bakersfield, and he is a former Marine, so he isn't shy about expressing himself. Here is his latest post:

I guess that Buck's Birthday was on August 13th, but no gigs on Mondays, so it will be tonight. Today is my brother Tim Craddock's birthday, and also my nephew, Griffin Harper's birthday. Tim is out in Maryland, while Griffin is summering on Morro Bay.