26 בס״ד
THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
NOVEMBER 4, 2021
NOVEMBER 2021
The Bad Real Estate Deal is Saved Time is a critical factor in the real estate industry. If you deliberate too long, you can miss a golden opportunity. Being in the field, I knew this and thus, when I noticed a property for sale in a central residential area, perfect for building an apartment complex, I grabbed it. I signed the contract, confident that I would be able to convince one of my regular investors to partner on the deal. Only then did I discover that the property was only slated for commercial use only. It could not be rented out to individuals to live in. To my bitter luck, justifiably so, none of my investors were interested to partner with me in this undertaking. I tried to change the zoning of the property, but it wouldn’t go. I was left with the property, and no ideas on what I could possibly do with it. I didn’t have the money entailed to be able to invest in it alone, and only a few weeks remained until the closing. I feared a big loss. Who would want to use such a commercial structure in a residential area? Leafing through the local paper, searching for some solution, I noticed a story written about a similar situation that ended well. How? Tehillim Kollel membership. I had nothing to lose, so I decided to sign up and see if it would really help. Unbelievably, several days later, I had an interested buyer!
B A LT I M O R E J E W I S H H O M E . C O M
For whatever reason, this particular person had an interest in using this property as storage, specifically because it was in this residential neighborhood. Amazingly, he was ready to pay even more than I had paid for it. Not only did I not lose money over the deal, in the end I even earned a profit! I was shocked by the quick and unexpected solution to my problem. Just days before, I had seen no way out and suddenly, once I garnered the strength of tefillah, the yeshuah – in the form of a person – walked through the doors of my office, shook my hand, and left me with a much-needed, handsome check.
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The Week In News phasized. The letter was sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
$24.3M License Plate
Cars, like many other products, are becoming exorbitantly expensive. In California, it’s not just automobiles that have people clutching their wallets. An extremely rare license plate is now for sale in the Golden State for a whopping $24.3 million. The license plate debuts two letters: MM. There are over 35,000,000 registered vehicles in the state of California, each of which has its own unique license plate with anywhere from two to seven characters. Of these, two-character plates are the rarest, especially two-character repeating plates like “MM.” There are only 35 two-letter plates, making this license plate literally one in a million. Looking to purchase this out-ofcontrol plaque for your car? Don’t worry. You’ll be able to use it on the road. A recent change in the state’s Special Interest License Plate Application includes the option to “release interest to a new owner.” Before that change, the plate could only be transferred to another of the original owner’s vehicles – now, license plates can be sold, and the buyer can use and register it on their own vehicle. The “MM” license plate is currently available for purchase on OpenSea, a popular digital art auction space, for 5,888 ether, which is the equivalent of $24.3 million. That’s because you’re not just buying the plate and the right to transfer it to your own vehicle,
you’re buying its matching non-fungible token, NFT. Why an NFT? Because both the plate and digital artwork are both completely unique. The token also acts as a proof of authenticity and ownership, with its QR code ID number both inscribed on the back of the plate. “Just like NFTs, license plates are exclusive by nature, always 1 of 1,” the OpenSea listing says. “The pairing of these two rarities was inevitable. This minting has established provenance and hopes to inspire an entire community around an aftermarket buying/selling desirable license plate configurations.” For now, it’s unclear if someone is willing to shell out tens of millions on a license plate, but if they do, they will be able to claim ownership of the world’s most expensive license plate. Until then, that honor belongs to an Abu Dhabi license plate with the number “1” which sold for $14.3 million in 2009. The most expensive one in the U.S. is a Delaware plate with the number “11” that sold for $675,000 the year before. Let’s get this show on the road.
Spot the Fake
It’s a veritable art Where’s Waldo? conundrum. A New York art collective recently announced that it will be selling 1,000 Andy Warhol sketches for $250 each. Sounds like a steal, right? Except that 999 of the sketches are elaborate copies of the original. The Brooklyn-based MSCHF collective said that its “Museum of Forgeries” project involves a single Andy Warhol sketch titled Fairies and 999 copies made by a machine with artificially aged paper to match the original. The real artwork was randomly mixed in with the forgeries, so one buyer of a $250 sketch will receive the real deal, while 999 others will receive
