CIA purchased my grandparents' home...

Boy, I'm just encountering skunk works weirdness lately.

My family has just sold my grandparents' home here in Atlanta. And the buying parties both work for the CIA.

The couple is paying all cash, and they are keeping their existing home as well. I joked with the realtor and said something along the lines of, "I guess they needed to house Osama somewhere."

He laughed and stated, "You never know."



Anyway, the sale is a little enigmatic to me simply because of who the couple works for. At the same time, they are making a great investment, especially in this housing market.

I'm more than a little surprised anyone would even disclose that information. Do you think it is accurate? I suppose as a resident of the greater Atlanta area I'm wondering if its business or personal. I'm going to assume personal or they would never have disclosed where they work.

But just out of curiousity - Did they give any indication to your grandparents what interested them about the house or the area? Was it inside the perimeter or outside the perimeter? Close to the base? The airport? The CDC? Close to anything of concern or note? Was their last name Smith? LOL!

The thing that seems most suspicious, to me, is that they paid it all in CASH!! Does anyone else find that odd?

Very Interesting. Honestly the payment in cash is not the norm. However, given the amount an average CIA agent makes a year it does seem plausible. My ex-wifes brother works for the Pentagon, his wife doesn't work, and he was able to purchase a home in cash, his first year on the job. Given the fact that CIA operatives make even more from what I've heard I think this is entirely normal for people with these high paying jobs. The days of 50k/yr CIA jobs are long gone. On the other hand, I am actually interested in the dynamics you saw between the couple. Did they seem as if they were truley married in a realistic sense. If this was some sort of front, I believe the already stiff-like pedigree often stereotyped with CIA agents could be sublte, but evident. Not that I am an expert on highly paid federal agents, but I guess I'm asking if they actually seemed married to you. A lot of times you have to go with your gut, and I am feeling there must have been some red flags to make you believe this was an abnormal transaction or situation. Any odd details? Or hunches?

[edit on 24-8-2007 by theutahbigfoothunter]

Originally posted by kosmicjack
I'm more than a little surprised anyone would even disclose that information. Do you think it is accurate? I suppose as a resident of the greater Atlanta area I'm wondering if its business or personal. I'm going to assume personal or they would never have disclosed where they work.

But just out of curiousity - Did they give any indication to your grandparents what interested them about the house or the area? Was it inside the perimeter or outside the perimeter? Close to the base? The airport? The CDC? Close to anything of concern or note? Was their last name Smith? LOL!

I don't want to over-disclose everything about this purchase to protect the buyers. I'm assuming this was a personal purchase/investment on their part. And since they are using zero debt, they certainly didn't have to disclose who is their employer. That came up from our realtor, who was theirs as well.

For some background, both my grandparents have passed away, my grandfather just a few months ago. Despite my insistence that my mom and my aunt keep the house and rent it out for a dependable source of cash flow -- particularly since I suspect we may be heading for a second great depression, but that's another story -- they wanted to sell it and take the gains.

The house is small (ranch with a finished basement), but it's in a highly desirable area. For those familiar with Atlanta, it's located in Peachtree Corners in Norcross. I'm probably giving away too much as it is.

While the house geographically is of inconsequence to any areas of strategic or intelligence interest, Peachtree Corners is an upper-middle income bedroom community. By paying all cash, I'm assuming they're going to do exactly what I wanted to do, which is rent it and make cash flow until the market improves again and they can sell it. Althought those are assumptions on my part; they never stated their intention. Since they will continue to live in their current home (located in the same area in Norcross), I'm assuming they'll rent this one out.

But if you live in Atlanta, you know that no one lives close to their work. That's why we have the worst commuting times in all of the U.S.

Originally posted by theutahbigfoothunter
VVery Interesting. Honestly the payment in cash is not the norm. However, given the amount an average CIA agent makes a year it does seem plausible. My ex-wifes brother works for the Pentagon, his wife doesn't work, and he was able to purchase a home in cash, his first year on the job. Given the fact that CIA operatives make even more from what I've heard I think this is entirely normal for people with these high paying jobs. The days of 50k/yr CIA jobs are long gone. On the other hand, I am actually interested in the dynamics you saw between the couple. Did they seem as if they were truley married in a realistic sense. If this was some sort of front, I believe the already stiff-like pedigree often stereotyped with CIA agents could be sublte, but evident. Not that I am an expert on highly paid federal agents, but I guess I'm asking if they actually seemed married to you. A lot of times you have to go with your gut, and I am feeling there must have been some red flags to make you believe this was an abnormal transaction or situation. Any odd details? Or hunches?

No, they seemed very happily married. They have a son going to a local university.

That being said, anything odd? Other than their employer and paying all cash? The fact that they're keeping their existing home and staying in it rasied my eyebrows (hence my assumption that they're going to use my grandparents' house as a rental). But then again, it certainly would make a great safehouse.....isolated, wooded, just on the border of the Chattahoochee River. There are already a good number of foreign nationals living in the area, due to the many technology and financial firms in the area.

But the neighbors are very aware; they really watched after my grandparents before they died and are all friends still with my family. This home wouldn't be inconspicuous...

Are you sure that they don't work for the Culinary Institute of America?

Seriously though, I don't see anything funny about their paying in cash, with the way thinks are going with the financial industry these days. Cashing out some stocks and immediately buying an investment property can be a nice way to dodge Capital Gains taxes. Do you know if they recieved a discount for the cash payment?

Originally posted by JIMC5499
Are you sure that they don't work for the Culinary Institute of America?

Seriously though, I don't see anything funny about their paying in cash, with the way thinks are going with the financial industry these days. Cashing out some stocks and immediately buying an investment property can be a nice way to dodge Capital Gains taxes. Do you know if they recieved a discount for the cash payment?

Whoa! I'm not here to get anyone in trouble. I just wanted to share an interesting story. Did they buy the home at less than the asking price? Yeah, but not by much.

Was it because they paid cash? No, whether they leveraged with a mortgage or not made no difference to us. The purchase price was negotiated, based on the age of the home, repairs that will need their financial attention and ultimately, the market conditions.

[edit on 8/24/2007 by behindthescenes]

Bet you any money as soon as they were left alone they went down to the basement, unzipped their human skins and are now in cocoons hanging from the ceiling. They will only appear in human form to look for food, watch out for cats / dogs / news paper delivery boys / postal workers going missing.

Same thing happened down the road round here few years back, only they claimed to be 'traffic wardens', we had to gather the villagers and have a good old fashioned warden burning - good times.

Originally posted by behindthescenes
Whoa! I'm not here to get anyone in trouble. I just wanted to share an interesting story. Did they buy the home at less than the asking price? Yeah, but not by much.

Was it because they paid cash? No, whether they leveraged with a mortgage or not made no difference to us. The purchase price was negotiated, based on the age of the home, repairs that will need their financial attention and ultimately, the market conditions.

There was no intent to get anyone in trouble. Some realators will reduce their comissions for a cash transaction. Say your Grandmother was asking $100,000 and the realator's commission was 8%. The realator might only charge 5% commission for a cash sale. Your Grandmother gets her $92,000, but the buyer only pays $97,000 and the realator gets $5,000. The tax dodge I spoke of is perfectly legal as well. You have so many days after removing money from a brokerage account to reinvest it with out penalty. Nothing sinister here, there are just advantages to paying in cash if you can do it.

Ummm, thats not how realty works. The BUYER pays the 100k for a property and thats that. The seller usually always pays the commission for the realty company.If the realtor has a contract for a certain percent, that is deducted from the remainder of the funds..if it is 5%, then the realtor gets 5k and the owners get 95k. There is no deduction to the buyer because he pays cash, and realtors do not care how it is paid..cash is the same as a check to a realtor, why should he care how the closing is settled? It is true that occasionally a realtor will agree to a lesser fee if he has not done a lot of work on the sale and wants to maintain good relations with the clients, but if there is a signed purchase agreement and it lists a percentage to the realtor, that is what is legally coming to him.

But the buyer never gets a lesser amount due to financing; if he goes to a bank and gets a loan and comes to closing with a certified check, thats the same as cash to anyone involved. Why should it matter how and where the buyer comes up with the funds? that is between them and their banks, etc.

As a matter of fact, how do you know it was paid for in CASH? I am sure that a check was drawn from somewhere and only the attorneys would know if the check was from a mortgage agreement or was from a private account. And that would make no difference to anyone either, as long as the check settles the closing, where it came from is a metter for the buyers alone.

This is probably just a case of two CIA employees buying a home for investment purposes and if it was an ' underground ' purchase no one would have even heard the words ' CIA ' at all and the matter would have been done under a phony corporate account.

Originally posted by eyewitness86
As a matter of fact, how do you know it was paid for in CASH? I am sure that a check was drawn from somewhere and only the attorneys would know if the check was from a mortgage agreement or was from a private account. And that would make no difference to anyone either, as long as the check settles the closing, where it came from is a metter for the buyers alone.

This is probably just a case of two CIA employees buying a home for investment purposes and if it was an ' underground ' purchase no one would have even heard the words ' CIA ' at all and the matter would have been done under a phony corporate account.

I agree with you completely. I see nothing covert in this. The disclosure that the couple were employed by the CIA (Under what capacity is unknown to me) came from our realtor, who also is their realtor. In fact, he was amazed that this transaction happened because the couple has been extremely picky in the past, backing out of purchases at the 11th hour. I guess it's a testament to how well my grandparents' home was kept.

If this truly were a CIA asset, then we would have probably never have known of employment, or if so, it would be a front company. Granted, they paid by check, but it was considered all cash, no outside financing.

I have to say, this is questionable, all CIA employees and even contractors, are told not to disclose their agency job. Going to the extent to even keep it from family including spouce. For example a "Clandestine Service Operations Officer" would claim to be a "Core Collector", or in "Collection Management".

They would never admit to being an intelligence agent in foreign humint, and such.

So for the real estate sales person to be in the know, and mentioning such is highly suspect. Especially these days none the less. Could be that they are of a different association that has the same abbreviation. It is not uncommon, and happens more than one would imagine.

And maybe Misses CIA needed a tax shelter to offset her big income and maybe let sonny boy live in the newly acquired residence. Nothing to see here, move along now.