REAL ESTATE WORTH US $40 BILLION -- AT THE TOUCH OF A KEY 

The CD-ROM (compact disc, read-only memory) can hold 600,000 megabytes of data. The U.S. Government is using this technology to hopefully save American taxpayers from a potential US$500 billion loss at Savings & Loan (S&L) Associations. This Cd-Rom lists US$40 billion worth of on-the-block real estate assets. You can now see it all at a (very long) glance.

Something serious happened during the latter part of the 1980s. The land and oil boom in Texas and elsewhere petered out fast. American S&L associations had loaned vast amounts of money to owners, speculators and operators to build. To build, apparently, anything. When the bubble burst, it looked serious. Maybe US$50 billion in losses. Now they are talking about losses 20 times that figure. A TRILLION DOLLARS! Americans always do things big. One fall-out is more clients for American lawyers -- 7,000 criminal legal cases related to the crash are now underway. Seems as though some of the land on which these "banks" loaned money didn't even exist -- and the bankers knew it! Senator John Heinz has introduced legislation to legalize "bounty hunters" who would collect a portion of the savings brought back to the U.S. Treasury. "Hell knows no fury like a lawyer on a contingency fee," he says.

But back to the technology that can assemble and retrieve a list of this massive amount of real estate on a home computer. The accompanying box shows an example of the data available on a small, single-family brick construction, 20-year-old home, with electric heat, air conditioning and three bedrooms in downtown Irving, Texas which you may run to buy for just $30,000. And, they are open to deals. Even 100 percent mortgages, apparently. Because of the enormity of this disaster, the U.S. Government has set up a special company, the Resolution Trust Corporation, to handle the disposal of these assets. "Resolution" as in "resolve this and get it off our back".

The Real Estate Asset Inventory on this CD-ROM disc was set up by Computer Management Services Inc. of Maryland and is the full collection of properties held by the conservatorships or receiverships, as of May, 1990 (produced on CD-ROM, June 1990). More than 30,000 properties for sale throughout the United States are included in the collection. This database contains residential, commercial and land properties, with those that qualify for affordable housing eligibility status marked accordingly. The data on each property is broken down into about 60 fields, including location, broker, contact information, list price, condition and real Bestate type.

The CD-ROM renders it all instantly readable and any interesting portions can be printed out. If you spend just one minute reading about each piece of property, it would take over 12 forty-hour weeks (three months) to review them all.

If all this information (more than in some libraries) on one disc overwhelms you, don't relax. Coming next: SERODS (Surface Enhanced Ramon Optical Data Service) one million 300-page books on one 5 1/4 inch disc! It is a whole library, and a big one. Is your community still building new, old-style libraries that will be obsolete by the time they are constructed? More information: To order Resolution Trust Corp., "Real Estate Asset Inventory", CD-ROM (Cost US$100) Phone: (via Camnet) 800/RTC-0502 or 800/833-4553

Write: Computer Management Service Inc., 3905 National Drive, Suite 290, Burtonsville, MD 20866.

Main office of Resolution Trust Corporation, Washington, D.C. 20429. Phone: 202/416-6900. SAMPLE RECORD

Type Code : 101 - Real Estate - Single Family Residence Mfh Name : Not available Address : 1805 E. Grawler Unit 121 City, State, Zip : Irving, TX 75061 List Price : $30,000 Broker Name : Douglas Crump/Coldwell Broker Phone : 214/659-1525 Contact Name : Robert Talman Year Built : 1967 Bedrooms : Three Bathrooms : 2.5 Val - Natural : TBD Val - Cultural : None Val - Scientific : None Val - Recreational: None Air Conditioning : Electric Amenities : Asset Number : 15600000590 Average Rent : Not Applicable Building Count : Car Ports : Census Track : Condition : Good Construction : Brick County : 113 Eligibility : Y Description : Elevator : No Fireplaces : 0 Floors : Garages : 0 Type of Heat : Electric Institution : 6955 Land Size : Size Units : Location : 738 Net Square Feet : Ownership : Institution Foreclosed REO Parking Spaces : Participation : Lead Participation % : 100 Property Manager : Not applicable Prop. Mgr. Phone : REO Status : REO Status % : Style : Two Storey Local Title : Total Rooms : 6 Total Sq. Feet : 1,590 Total Units : 1 Bedroom Units : 1 Bedroom Sq.Ft. : 2 Bedroom Units : 2 Bedroom Sq.Ft. : 3 Bedroom Units : 3 Bedroom Sq.Ft. : 4 Bedroom Units : 4 Bedroom Sq.Ft. : Studio Units : Studio Sq. Ft. : Zoning : Region : South Central

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