BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: March 2011 (page 2 of 2)

March 3, 2011

Catching a glimpse of Don Reedy’s vision: So far, so good.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Email from Don Reedy regarding his post-op appointment yesterday:

Exhausted.

But the news is good.

The last operation was successful….so far. The scar tissue that was of such concern was eliminated. I have my next appointment one week from today, a milestone that should determine if we are “likely” to have scar tissue problems from this event. I must remain in the facedown position 12-14 hours a day, BUT THIS MEANS THAT I CAN NOW READ, WRITE AND BE PRODUCTIVE THE OTHER 10-12 HOURS!!! I am so very thankful. There is a good prognosis for vision to return, the quality of which is yet to be determined….and yet again, I am thankful and optimistic.

Nothing’s ever over in the world of medicine. The good news comes in the form of fewer and fewer appointments.

Don Reedy has a beautiful soul. He will never be robbed of the light of human goodness, regardless of how this turns out. And it takes nothing to note that our heroic battles against the relentless forces of entropy are but temporary, and, for now at least, are ultimately doomed to failure. But we are human, and to be human is to wish, to hope, to pray — and to press on regardless. In the end, what matters is not what you lose, but what you refuse to lose.

March 3, 2011

Rage and Rates… a Tin Foil Hat Production

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

I wrote the article below a couple of days ago for a blog on political and economic freedom.  I’m reprinting it here after enjoying some discussion on the matter with fellow Bloodhound and VA mortgage expert Brian Brady.  Besides it being a brilliant piece (of tin foil hat wearing rantings), the article does actually touch on an area that could be of great importance to our real estate buying clients:  mortgage rates.  You see (in an over-simplified explanation), when the world gets scared, money flows to safety.  Safety, at least for the time being, still resides in US bonds.  Though not always correlated, the interest rates on mortgages often travel in the same direction as those on bonds.  So if, for some crazy, unforseen reason, the world becomes a little apprehensive over the next 2 weeks, we might see mortgage rates drop.  The question is: when do you lock the rate for your client?  Well, if we knew the actual date this crazy, unforseen event may occur, we could watch closely and lock right up to the day before. Why the day before?  Because there are three possible outcomes to this disruptive event, and two of them are bad:

  1. It could turn out to be a tempest in a teapot, in which case money will quickly flow out of the bond market and interest rates will rise.  (Because of the inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates, when people sell bonds the price drops and the rate rises… I see people’s eyes rolling back in their heads… moving on then);
  2. Or, things could go as bad or even worse than expected and oil prices shoot up (geographical hint), causing inflationary fears. Because inflation erodes fixed rate returns, bonds sell off and interest rates rise in response;
  3. Or, things could go as bad or even worse than expected adding to the already existing fear – oil prices be damned; in which case even more money flows to the safety of bonds and interest rates continue to drop.

As you can see, of the three scenarios, two give rise to higher interest rates making us heroes for locking our client’s rate before the event.  If, on the other hand, we find ourselves knee deep in the third Read more

March 2, 2011

To say the truth, my plan was to say nothing about the iPad 2…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

…but that was before I saw the new Smart Covers…

Minor upgrade to the product. Major upgrade to the experience. The video samples Extraordinary Machine, and that’s just exactly right.

This is egoism in action: Steve Jobs is a spectacular genius at satisfying himself. Not everyone loves what he loves, but he never releases a product that is not perfect in his estimation. Bill Gates and all of the CEOs of the kleptocracy can say that about not one thing they do in their whole benighted lives…

March 1, 2011

I have a no-fee referral for a hard-working listing agent in Minneapolis.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Mom has moved to managed care in sunny Arizona. Daughter and son-in-law need to get the old family homestead sold. Zip code is 55418, and it looks fairly near into town. Zillow has it at $147,000, decent money if you’re willing to work.

But: You’ll need to be a hard-working dog. The sellers have sold and bought four homes with us, and they know what a good marketing effort looks like.

But if you’re the lister for this house, I’ll give you the referral no-strings-attached. I don’t want your money. I want you to take care of my clients.

Hit me by email if you want to talk to the sellers.

March 1, 2011

Shouldn’t Sellers Invoice Listing Agents?

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

I suppose it’s pretty rare that a seller actually hands their listing agent an invoice during the course of a listing, but it shouldn’t be. Based on what I see, the vast majority of listing agents should be billed by the seller, same as they would be by any other third party vendor. The fact that it doesn’t happen simply means most sellers don’t understand what is really going on during the course of a listing and, I’d wager, neither do most agents – or if they do they certainly haven’t informed their client.

Here’s a question every seller should ask their listing agent: “Why are you going to put up a For Sale sign in my front yard?” Standard answer: “A sign is just one part of my ‘Handy-Dandy, Super-Duper, 24 Point, 7 Step, Maximum Sales Price Marketing Plan’ or HDSD-24/7-MSM Plan… which I offer to all my clients completely free of charge.” (The standard answer is impressive, wouldn’t you agree? We agents are very creative indeed.). Of course, given the use of internet these days, I suggest to you, dear reader, that most For Sale signs are more directional than informational, but let’s not split hairs. Okay, so the sign is a part of the marketing plan. Next question by an informed home seller: “If that sign is part of your plan to market my house, why doesn’t it mention anything about my actual, you know… house?”

This is old Greg Swann stuff, but I’m rehashing because it needs to be taken further. There are actually two correct reasons for placing a sign in someone’s front yard:

  1. Sell the actual home. (The primary objective from a fiduciary standpoint.)
  2. Attract future home sellers from the neighborhood. (Secondary objective, but a legitimate expectation of work well done.)

So why is it then, that the vast majority of signs fail both of these objectives? Because they are designed with a different purpose altogether; they are designed to advertise the brokerage (hence the uniform colors, logos, big brokerage name and phone number). To a smaller degree, they are also designed to advertise a brokerage’s presence in a neighborhood Read more

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