Comments on: Inside story of the sale of Edith Macefield’s home

By: Pointhouse

Pointhouse — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:55:00 +0000

Oh I feel sorry for you. He owes lots of people money and apparently he thinks he does not have to pay it back. Shame on everyone expecting the guru to pay back money he has borrowed?????? Who does he think he is.

By: Name

Name — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:15:09 +0000

Greg Pinneo stole personal property from me.

By: uptown

uptown — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:10:13 +0000

And south facing.

Why didn't he just list the place for sale?

By: LBB

LBB — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:34:58 +0000

Uhm, Martin isn't the reach returns guy . . .

By: SPG

SPG — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:09:35 +0000

I think it goes into a complex financial instrument known in technical banking jargon as “the douchebag's pocket”.

By: David Quigg

David Quigg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:04:50 +0000

Sorry. Didn't see others had already posted the 1997 Times brief. The Times did a follow-up Wednesday.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...

By: David Quigg

David Quigg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:25:29 +0000

The only fact I can add is this 1997 brief in the Times about a Gregory Pinneo being sentenced to 13 months in prison for a real-estate loan scam …

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/arch...

Yesterday, before I knew about a prison sentence, before I knew anything beyond what I read here on myballard, this whole sale gave me a very bad feeling. It was the quote from Pinneo that pretty much made my skin crawl: “(Edith Macefield) made us all look right in the mirror and ask the hard questions. I’ve never met her, but I feel connected to her because she lived her credo, lived her philosophy. I felt compelled to let this deep thinking live on.”

Maybe it's all sincere, maybe my instincts are totally wrong. I'd actually like to be wrong. For now, I'm going to stop Googling about this. Because what I find is just making me feel more queasy. Stuff like this (for whatever it's worth) …

http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php?topic=1...

By: FremontSheila

FremontSheila — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:51:27 +0000

I can just see Greg Pinneo doing nothing with the house and then selling it at a huge profit to the Ballard Blocks.

By: heartballard

heartballard — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:48:34 +0000

Is there any information about where the money for the purchased tiles goes?

By: boardbrown

boardbrown — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:12:11 +0000

The structural and economical feasibility of lifting this rickety old house 50 feet into the air will kill this whole stupid idea anyway, so don't sweat it.

By: Ernie_98107

Ernie_98107 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:32:56 +0000

Maybe Pinneo's angle is to buy the house for $310K, sell some tiles and pocket the money, and then become such a PITA that the Ballard Blocks folks finally give in and buy him out for a 1/2 mil just to get rid of him.

Or maybe just wait until the market comes back around and the BB people start to really want the space.

IMHO the house in the sky thing will NEVER happen.

Oh yeah, and there is the marketing thing, how many people had ever heard of his company before yesterday?

By: SPG

SPG — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:20:11 +0000

SR, Don't celebrate any holidays if you're so concerned about accuracy.
I don't buy in to the story of Edith taking a stand against development story, but I do have to give her respect for not cashing out when it became inconvenient to do so. Most of us would have taken the money over some comfort.
What people make of the story and the inspiration they find is their business as long as they don't start selling it as some crusade, like oh, I don't know, some developer who abuses his position as landlord to wreak havoc on a whole bunch of people and then buys a home with a story to whitewash his own past…but that would be ridiculous and nobody would buy in to something like that.

By: snoopy

snoopy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:48:07 +0000

Scam. They sell thousands of tiles by playing the “preserve Edith's memory” game. Then, they walk away, forclose on the house, and pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do not buy a tile.

By: Taru

Taru — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:47:01 +0000

When you do the math, the tiles that Credo is selling go for $15 a square inch.

By: SweetRose

SweetRose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:37:53 +0000

Without a doubt. My guess is the excon who wants to buy it will never come up with a dime.

By: SweetRose

SweetRose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:37:01 +0000

No, the horse's patoots are those who fall for his scam.

By: your neighbor

your neighbor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:20:40 +0000

Martin is the guy who sold, your beef is with Greg Pinneo. The devil is in the details!

For the record, Pinneo sounds like a horse's patoot. I'm just sayin'.

By: Structural

Structural — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:52:46 +0000

I wanna train to be a bulls**t artist!

By: Ballard_Rocks_Now

Ballard_Rocks_Now — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:38:57 +0000

Is he really a nice man!? Maybe I should enroll in his one of his monthly coaching programs for $40/month. Or do you recommend the 5 year masters course for $770/year or $60/month?

I hope I'm at the level of a "Power Player". For only $3,200 I may give it a go!

http://www.reachreturns.com/powerplayers.html

By: Brian Benson

Brian Benson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:35:42 +0000

Recommended/Related reading:
http://seattlest.com/2009/07/08/beneath_some_mo...

By: sealemon

sealemon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:09:04 +0000

I drove by yesterday to see a slimey/smarmy man and family being interviewed by someone with a video camera in front of Edith's house and the banner. I had no idea who they were but the man in particular looked like trouble.

I didn't know Edith and I don't know what she would or woudn't have wanted. But I'm not too thrilled with this scam artist's plans.

By: SweetRose

SweetRose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:55:24 +0000

Yes, it has been verified that she planned to sell.

By: gurple

gurple — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:52:46 +0000

The meaning of any story is what you read into it. A Macefield House tattoo is no more or less ridiculous than a tattoo of a religious symbol — at least this is a story with verifiable roots, that occurred in this community in our lifetimes.

By: your neighbor

your neighbor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:51:14 +0000

Oh lay off. Martin is a nice man. But, too bad he didn't sell to the developers so this whole misguided affair would be over and the folks with the tattoos would feel all the righteous indignation they so clearly desired. But he didn't and now we get more fruitloops in the hood.

By: Ballard_Rocks_Now

Ballard_Rocks_Now — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:39:49 +0000

Way to go Martin! Your complete lack of rationale and due diligence enabled one of the worst decisions of your lifetime. You sold out to one of the worst cronies in the city.

I'm sure your kids education will be worth it though. I've been suspicious of how you obtained this house from the beginning, since nobody ever takes advantage of the elderly. Now that you've sold it to such a high class individual all my doubts are erased.

By: Ballard_Rocks_Now

Ballard_Rocks_Now — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:34:19 +0000

Shhhh don't remind people. It ruins the story about how she stood up to the “evil developers”.

By: SweetRose

SweetRose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:08:19 +0000

Again everyone forgets that this woman had actually decided to sell but them broke her hip and could not move. This plan is almost as idiotic as the whole story was to begin with.

I still chuckle when I think of the fools who tattooed their bodies over a story that was never real to begin with. I suppose they will be the ones to buy tiles also. LORD there really is a sucker born every minute.

By: Ballard_mayor

Ballard_mayor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:26:55 +0000

y'know – the decision was Edith's to make although I cannot say I would have made the same choice. at that time, I thought all the attention and the symbolism her refusal to sell received was a bit odd. she probably didn't view it as anything symbolic, just her decision that she made and which a bunch of other people latched onto as a means to vent their own concerns about development in Ballard.

now, this whole pinneo story had made it even odder. the building design looks silly. the apparent backstories about pinneo as a landlord are not attractive. and the property is now…being developed into something other than a residential use. so there you go, you anti-developers…looks like you got your wish, eh? Maybe the tattoos can be elevated as well to reflect the new design.

By: plumbe

plumbe — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:14:59 +0000

Anyone who believes that design is going up in that location is in for a major disappointment!

By: rufus455

rufus455 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:58:39 +0000

This is a scam,it does not add up.