Diamond Real Estate & Investments

By: Andrew B. Vaughey, Nicholas B. Vaughey, and Drew Barrett

Gold Prices Soar Report As Investors Flee to Safe Haven Assets, an in depth report by Andrew B Vaughey

As investors flock to tangible assets, Gold prices exploded this past Wednesday, posting the largest 1-day price gain in dollar terms, as the fears of more credit market turmoil continued.  “People are heading for high ground, to precious metals, and ’safe-haven’ type assets,” reports Drew Barrett.

Gold Prices rose by $90.40 or 11.60%, to $870.90 an ounce in after-hours trading on the NYSE.  The Huge Rally came on the news of the Federal Reserve $85 Million bailout of insurer giant AIG.  AIG, Washington Mutual (WAMU), & Lehman Brothers are all on “life support” thanks to the losses tied to the sub-prime crises. 

The psychology right now is fear and concern, when you have the fourth largest investment bank in the World, with a 158 Year history, people wonder how this can possibly be good for jobs, income, housing.  Forget the economy, everyone who has a pulse knows its just plain bad.  “Forget the economy is bad routine right now.  People are seriously concerned about where there next paycheck is coming from, as Corporate Giants are Falling by the wayside”, said Andrew Vaughey.

In this backdrop, assets like Gold are King.  Experts like CPM Group in New York have expressed predictions that Gold Prices Could Climb back to $1,000 per ounce by this Year’s end.  And its not just Gold, SIlver and Copper also soared in this Global Financial Meltdown. 

Posted By: Andrew Barrett, Nick B Vaughey, & Drew Barrett of Diamond Investments, a Private Equity Firm

From: Drew Barrett

Fed pumps $70 Billion into our nation’s fragile financial system to try and ease the stress over the market imploding, as many fear this is the worst crisis since The Great Depression of the 1930’s.  “While this move might help in the short-term, amid concerns of Wall Street, one’s got to wonder how we can work are way out of the over-leveraging of banks,” commented Andrew Vaughey.  Lehman Brothers case in point.  The World’s fourth largest bank filed for bankruptcy protection.  Washington Mutual downgraded to Junk, and now is considered by many to look like its on the shopping block for a JP Morgan, or Bank of America. 

The federal reserve aide came in two functions, first the $50 billion immediate cash infusion, and then another $20 billion regularly scheduled injection in temporary reserves.  The maneuver by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his central bank colleagues prepare to decide on which direction to take on interest rates.  Some are critical of Alan Greenspan say is the one to pick who killed our economy.  Why?  The deregulation of the banking industry, which means in layman terms, it made it too easy for banks to extend credit & leverage there portfolios.  Now we’re paying the price.

Merrill Lynch, another powerhouse in the brokerage industry, decided to not go it alone, and be purchased by Bank of America.  Now, insurance giant, AIG is dangerously close to toppling.  Against this backdrop, Wall Street plunged 500 points, the most since the September 2001 terror attacks.

The cash infusion Tuesday is designed to help ease the higher costs in lending rate between banks.  A sharp rise in such borrowing costs, which has happened, makes banks reluctant to lend each other cash, worsening an already tight credit conditions.  And, just as we know that consumers have been a mist a credit crunch, your starting to see this spill over to the business sector, a factor further slowing the economy. 

Hold on to your seat, because this is going to undoubtedly be a Wild Ride.

Posted By: Andrew B Vaughey, Nicholas B Vaughey, and Drew Barrett (updated September 20, 2008)

By: Andrew Barrett

Jacobs Energy’s (JE) slogan is “knowledge of the past, vision of the future”.  Jeremy Jacobs is clearly driving the revolution for Shale-Gas exploration & development.  Mr. Jacobs was recently appointed to the a list of the Top 100 Consultants for the PTTC, and the Department of Energy.  JE is a diverse energy development company involved in the production of natural resources, specifically Shale-Gas drilling in Appalachian Basin, Tennessee, Kentucky, & West Virginia.  “At the core, is knowledge and data that drives the decision making process of where to drill, what land to tie up in leases, and ultimately what fields to acquire”, stated Andrew Vaughey of Diamond Investments, a private equity consulting firm.  

As a nation, we are overly reliant on foreign oil & gas to fuel our country and economy.  We import approximately 70% of what our energy needs are annually, and thus export roughly $700 billion dollars or more, to foreign oil companies.  Shale-gas plays have recently been touted as the savior for the US Consumer, as it is estimated between 500-600 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) exist in the US.  In fact, Shale-Gas could even the field, and lead to less reliance of foreign oil.  Jim Cramer of CNBC has spoken about this revolution in oil and gas on his talk show.

Diamond Investments is providing Business Consulting with KP Capital Group, to privately raise $90 million in financing capital through a joint partnership effort with Jacobs Energy.  There are more than 35,000 shale-gas wells in the U.S., with cumulative production of roughly 600 Bcf, according to College Oak Investments LLC.  “Many of the wells in the Appalachian Basin were drilled 20, 30, or even 50 years ago, and  are still producing gas & oil, but haven’t been retrofitted with new technology known as ‘Fracturing or Frac(ing) the hole’, so to speak” said Nick B. Vaughey of the Diamond group.  “This is where the hole is drilled deeper and/or injected with CO2, to explode the rock and thus releasing even more gas potential from the “gas rich” Appalachian Basin.  There’s huge upside, because we are betting on the shale-gas, not even factoring any natural gas or double traps, or even oil” Andrew Barrett.  Many of the fields & wells of Jacobs Energy are capable of producing 10, 100, even 1,000 barrels of oil a day, in addition to the Shale-Gas.

 Posted By:  Andrew B Vaughey, Nicholas B Vaughey, & Andrew (Drew) Barrett of Diamond Investments, a Private Equity Firm in Seattle Washington.

David DeLay, creator & writer of “Webcast” the movie, is in the process of working with Drew Barrett and his partner Nicholas B Vaughey of Diamond Investments, a private equity concern, to raise capital for financing a new film “Viagra Falls”.  Drew Barrett has committed to option the script within 30-days, with the Writers Guild of America.  The film is a romantic comedy, and a key hollywood A-List Talent has expressed interest in this endeavor.  “I am extremely confident in David’s ability to create block buster movies, and this is going to be a great project,” commented Drew Barrett.

Posted By: Andrew B Vaughey, Nicholas B Vaughey, and Drew Barrett of Diamond Investments a Private Equity Firm in Seattle Washington.

David DeLay and Drew Barrett have received verbal interest from talent regarding the two leading roles in “Webcast”, a psychological thriller movie that is in the works.    This will be a first of its kind movie, where viewers will have the opportunity to be directly involved from casting to post production, including deciding on some of the cast by voting ala “American Idol” without being privy to the ending until they see it in theaters.
“This is a very exciting concept as entertainment TV Shows have made the shift to interactive, movies really haven’t tackled this concept yet.  It’s the first real movie that I know of with this concept,” commented Drew Barrett, presently in the process of raising the financing for the film.

Posted By:  Andrew B Vaughey, Nicholas B Vaughey, Drew Barrett of Diamond Investments, a Private Equity Firm.

By Andrew B Vaughey

As of today, August 5, 2008 stocks are down more than 60% since February, destroying more than $80 billion in shareholder value.  Top Execs ignored alerts that might have softened the blow in the housing & banking crisis.  “Both firms are guilty of greed, plain and simple,” stated Nick B Vaughey of Diamond Consulting & Investments.  “The firms were financing more and more questionable loans that threatened its financial health.  And, as the nations largest home lenders and buyer of mortgages, this caused a tremendous backlash,” Andrew Barrett, President of Diamond Consulting & Investments.

In a recent interview, Freddie Mac’s former chief risk officer, David Andrukonis, stated telling Syron in mid-2004 that the company was buying to many bad loans that “would likely pose an enormous financial & reputational risk to the company and the country.”  By ignoring this, it added fuel to the fire, and helped add to the “worst housing crisis in US history,” commented Nick B Vaughey.    What’s the cost of this debacle, “well, the bailout could cost US Taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Andrew B Vaughey.

Because of this, many companies and business owners are having to go to the private markets for debt and equity financing, because the big banks are still reeling from this problem.  And, the hang-over isn’t likely to abate anytime soon.  For this reason, we continue to shift our business toward consulting businesses to find the best possible options and structure for financing growth in the private markets.

Posted By:  Andrew B Vaughey, Nicholas B Vaughey, and Drew Barrett of Diamond Investments.  Diamond Investments & its blog, is a privately held Consulting Group, based in Seattle Washington.

By Andrew Vaughey

Real Estate Investing can be tricky, especially in the current market trend, of high inventory, and uncertain mortgage and bank lending debacle.  Many homeowners, and investors, in the past few years have been rushing into the market with the promise of riches.  Golden Opportunities and promises of making it rich, have caused a lot of investors to not focus on the basics of real estate investing.  Patience, due diligence, changes in the market, all these factors can influence the outcomes.  The bubble in real estate and banking have begun to to hurt a lot of people that got into the market in the past 2 years.  Mortgage Shemes Can Trap Uninformed Buyers and Investors.  “Be wary of deals that are too good to be true, they usually are”, stresses Andrew Vaughey.

I have personally purchased and sold about 20 properties in the 3 years, worth more than $10 Million Dollars.  And, it can be frustrating to deal with adjustable interest rates, tenants, and a market of buyers that has seemed to dry up in the past 12 Months.

A lot of people wanted “in on a good thing”.  Now that times have changed, many people are left with the baggage of higher debt payments than they can service, especially as adjustable mortgage rates have reset.  And, the buyers that were in the market 2 years ago, aren’t there today because they just cant get the financing.  Hundreds of Lenders across Washington State, and nationally, have gone out of business.  Now, there is more supply of houses and investment property on the market, than the demand.  This has compelled a self-fulfilling prophesy, which has created a vacum in the housing market.

I was a mortgage broker previously.  I am currently a licensed real estate agent and assocaite broker in Seattle with America’s Choice Real Estate.  I am a great salesman, but have learned that there is more to the managing expectations, than just selling, or buying.  You need to manage expectations.  I pride myself on helping others make good, informed decisions, over the long-term picture.

When people look back to the recession in the late 1970’s, it was hard to see things getting better.  In fact the famous quote of “last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights”, as Boeing was in the midst of a major pullback rings true today for the Seattle real estate investors.  The days of flipping houses for a quick buck are gone. 

The market has changed.  Real Estate and Easy Mortgage Lending practices are just plain different.  be ware of deals that are simply too good to be true.  Think of the worst case scenario, and plan for that.  But, always keep positive, for a turn around.  Because that is what our nation was build on, the hope and right for prosperity, and homeownership.

Posted by Andrew Vaughey, Andrew B Vaughey, Andrew Barrett Vaughey of Vaughey Consulting Group Inc.