There’s always something to howl about.
Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker
Kevin Boer of In The Trenches has put together a virtual prediction market (a play-money betting line) on the outcome of the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff. BloodhoundBlog is heavily favored just now, so there’s money to be made by backing Ardell. The action starts tonight at midnight, so lay down your bet before then…
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
…is up at Matrix. The Carny encamps at our fair fairgrounds in a scant two weeks, so polish up your prose and expostulate. By then I should be recovered from playing Evil Knievel games with the Bardette of the Puget Sound, so I’ll be raring to read.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Is The Sellsius° 101 Blogoff Zoolander or Cool Hand Luke? Tune in Tuesday to find out if Ardell or I have bitten off more than we can chew…
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First, Sellsius° gave us 50 new posts in one day. They threw down a gauntlet: Could anyone do 101 new weblog entries in a single day?
Ardell DellaLoggia took up the challenge and dared me to compete against her.
We agreed on Tuesday, September 26th, for the blogoff. We’ll start at midnight on Monday night and continue through to midnight Tuesday night — or until we collapse from exhaustion or dementia. New, original, creditable posts — and may the divil take the hindmost.
Sellsius° and The Property Monger promise post-by-post coverage. Tune in Tuesday at BloodhoundBlog and Ardell’s Searching Seattle Blog to see who wins.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
No hostile phone calls today, which is not usually the case. But here is another email from another testy real estate broker. For what it’s worth, I think these brokers deserve credit for standing up for their opinions, rather than hiding behind anonymous phone calls.
But: I think the argument quoted below is fatuous — if the buyer’s agent disclosed that he was getting paid 10% by the builder, there would be a “meeting of the minds” right then and there. But, of course, agents in Arizona don’t have to disclose commission payments to buyers.
Mr. Swann, It was with great amazement that I read your article in this morning’s edition of the Peoria Republic. The headline you chose is not only mis-leading but also is disrespectful to the Realtors that provide a very much needed and necessary service to new home buyers. They need representation in the transaction as much, if not more, than any Buyer. The statement by you as to the Realtors fees being paid by the Buyer is also extremely mis leading. In most real estate transactions, the commission dollars come to the Agent only through escrow where the Buyer’s funds, usually a combination of cash and loan proceeds, are transferred and become the Sellers. In this way the funds are the Sellers to distribute to the Agent and pay any other related transaction costs. As to your statement that 2% would be more than enough compensation, I stress to you that if proper representation is made on behalf of the Buyer, everything is negotiable and the other costs involved will still be reduced with a fair and reasonable fee paid to the Agent. For you to say that a certain fee should be enough compensation for any Agent is ludicrous. It appears that you have truly found the value of your particular services, but please don’t set the bar for the value of services supplied by other Realtor professionals. The last time I checked, we still lived in the United States of America and buyers and sellers needed a meeting of the minds to proceed with a transaction Read more
This is email I had from Joe Bourland, branch manager of a Century 21 office in Avondale, Arizona, objecting to my column in this morning’s Republic. His arguments are not wrong, they’re just beside the point. There is no possible doubt that a good buyer’s agent will do a lot more work on a resale home than on a new build. So the question his response studiously avoids is this one: Why should a buyer’s agent get paid as much as three times more for doing less work?
Mr. Swann,
Disappointment is probably not a strong enough word to describe my feeling after reading your article in the Southwest addition of the Arizona Republic. The simplistic approach to real estate you highlight in the article may be indicative of your approach to real estate but is certainly NOT the structure of a real estate professional.
New home builders may “only pay for the introduction” but the buyer is expecting representation. Some builder salespersons may not want a buyer’s agent involvement in the transaction. That is not their option. Real estate agents will continue to have a fiduciary responsibility to the buyer client. You neglect to comment on the role of a competent buyer agent to protect the client from the builder. Too many cases of padded lender fees, lack of proper inspections and ridiculous “necessary” upgrade charges show on the settlement statement of unsuspecting new home buyers. A buyer’s representative can help deter all of that.
It is unfortunate that a real estate agent may put greed in front of what is best for the consumer. Indeed it has happened. But the majority of real estate professionals, more specifically REALTORS, overtly choose to put the client’s needs as the highest priority.
Maybe you should look into your established practices of real estate. There is an immense value in representation. Hopefully, the educated buyer you warn will realize the disservice you promote for clients.
Joe Bourland PC, CRS,ABR,QSC, REALTOR?
Branch Manager
Century 21 Metro Alliance-Palm Valley
Director-Glendale Board of REALTORS?
Bourland copies his email to nine other local real estate brokers, which I consider well-poisoning Read more
Sellsius° delivers 50 meaty posts in one marathon session.
Transparent Real Estate details a Realtor’s money-back guarantee.
Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, argues that we should raise the bar on real estate licensing. His post is thoughtful and comprehensive, very well documented. My own take is that we should get rid of real estate licensing laws altogether and let anyone who chooses to work in real estate brokerage compete on reputation — and on his or her ability to obtain Errors and Omissions insurance. The Leggy Blonde is Teacher’s Pet to three movers and shakers in the Arizona Association of Realtors, and they insist that Change Is Coming. What they want is what Jay is suggesting, an apprentice-level real estate license, with the apprentice having to hit certain targets to obtain a full salesperson’s license. What we’re likely to get is Designated Agency, which covers the broker’s behind while resolving absolutely nothing else.
Christine at NY Houses 4 Sale has a detailed run-down of her favorite real estate weblogs.
And if there is anything I’ve missed, Todd Tarson probably caught it before he lit out of town.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Two articles in today’s Arizona Republic on the state of the local economy as detailed by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, both largely good news. Catherine Reagor continues her slow apprehension of the idea that this year is not last year. And R.L. Brown advises us all to adapt to the housing slowdown — even though it might be ending.
For Market Basket resale homes so far this month, prices are up over August. Prices are up for the first 21 days of September, as compared with the first 21 days of August — a better comparison, since most home sales close near the end of the month. Sales volume for those 21 days is up significantly, but so is the average Days on Market. Builder’s spec-home inventory will be substantially reduced by the end of the month, so it is conceivable that we could be six months away from something like a normal market.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing
This is me from this morning’s Arizona Republic (permanent link).
Protect yourself from agent bonus fees by builders
Are you buying a home? How much is your agent getting paid?
If you’re buying resale, the answer is probably 3 percent, and possibly even less, although there may be buyer’s agent bonuses that your agent should have disclosed to you.
But what if you’re buying a new home? Right now, builders are paying agents 5 percent, 6 percent, 8 percent — even 10 percent of the base price of your home.
The builders are paying for the introduction. They don’t expect — or even want — your agent to represent your interests.
They’re paying so much right now for two reasons: They want to sell as much inventory as possible between now and the end of the fiscal quarter on September 30th. And they hope that by offering very high commissions, they can induce your agent to persuade you to buy at one subdivision over another.
Your agent may be faithfully representing your interests, but the objective of an exorbitant commission is to induce the agent to betray your interests in the builder’s behalf.
Here’s the kicker: Every cent of that commission will be paid by you. The buyer pays for everything in the sale of the home. If the builders were offering a 2 percent buyer’s agent’s commission instead of 10 percent they could charge you 8 percentage points less for the home, or give you 8 percentage points more in upgrades, or pay your down payment or closing costs, or buy down your interest rate.
How can you protect yourself?
First, stipulate in your employment agreement with your agent that all commissions and bonuses will be disclosed to you.
Secondly, agree in advance on the maximum compensation to be paid to your agent, with all the rest of any sales commission or bonuses going toward your down payment or other costs.
How much is enough?
New home builders make all the rules. No matter how much your agent might want to work on your behalf, there is a hard limit to how much the builder will permit.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, I think 2 Read more
Under the Zillow: The Tax-man cometh…
My two favorite bits, in two days of coverage:
Lenderama doesn’t need accuracy, he needs a Zillow-based tickler to stay in front of his clients.
MyZillow allows you to make “estimates” of what a property is worth. The estimate takes Zillow’s data and adjusts for specific information you know about the home. Then they generate a monthly email letting you know what those values are doing, while adjusting for your estimate.
Mortgage Brokers are in a unique position to make these estimates in a way that real estate agents cannot. Every time a broker does a refi, they can use the appraisal to work up the estimate to match the real value. Then you can save that estimate in MyZillow. You get a monthly report on that homes value. Now you know about how much the home has appreciated, and how much of the mortgage is likely paid off. With this data, you have a pretty good idea of your existing client base’s equity, and can market to them accordingly.
Based on this information, you could send out reminders that they may have reached 80% LTV, and should look into getting their MI dropped. Or, you could send out offers on HELOC’s, or Cash Outs. You could give them a heads up that properties are dropping in their neighborhood. Whatever you do, it’s just another way to help keep in touch with past (and hopefully future) clients.
Sheer brilliance.
And Sellsius&176; points out that Zillow.com has drawn a bright red circle around its own Achilles’ Heel:
If an owner gets to change the zestimate, guess what? It sits there right next to Zillow’s. Now what? Now we really need a professional more than ever to untangle these worms.
Overnight Zillow has gone from a veil of pseudo-scientific infallibility to a side-by-side pissing contest that can only be settled by a professional referee.
Nice going…
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
This question came at an appropriate time. My column in tomorrow’s Arizona Republic deals with this topic:
Last year it was so hard to buy a new home. We would have had to camp out in some builders’ parking lots just to have a chance to be in a lottery to see if we could qualify to buy their house! But now it seems the builders are are giving really good deals. And I don’t need a realtor to find new houses that the builders are selling. So, is there any reason why I should use a realtor when I find a house that I think I want to buy?
I love this picture:
Those people are waiting on a line to take a raffle ticket that will afford one or two lucky winners the opportunity to put a deposit down on a house that will not have been built for ten months or so. The photo was taken last June, in the midst of the buying frenzy that was going on in the Phoenix area at that time.
I was at another subdivision at about the same time where a couple was living outside the sales office in their mobile home. One or the other was continuously waiting on line on the off chance that the builder might release a lot for sale.
All of these folks were owner-occupants. Investors were banned from new home subdivisions at that time, and no investor would wait day-upon-day for a chance at a lot, anyway. The investors were buying resale homes, where all you needed was cash and fast information.
Those days are done. Resale inventory hovers at around 47,000 homes right now, where normal is somewhere between 25,000 and 35,000, and new-home builders have their own excess inventory to work through. For one thing, their demand projections were wrong, so they planned more lot releases than they had buyers for. Add to this the slow sales in resale — which means that many would-be move-up buyers have had to cancel their contracts.
For now, builders have a surplus of ‘spec’ homes — houses that have been specified, planned, permitted Read more
Technorati Tags: blogging, dual agency, real estate, real estate marketing
Three Phoenix-area webloggers, Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, John Wake of Arizona Real Estate Notebook, and Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog, helped turn a radio show into a five-media event: The radio broadcast itself, listener call-in questions, live weblogging with listener call-in and write-in questions, an on-line podcast and static weblogging after-the-fact. KJZZ-FM radio host Steve Goldstein and producer Paul Atkinson pulled the whole event together. Economist Alan McGuire participated as well, along with call-in guests and pre-taped segments.
The topic was the Phoenix real estate market: Is it a bubble or simply a market correction? For the most part, the bubble contingency wasn’t represented, but there was a great deal of very detailed economic information coming in from all sources.
KJZZ has made its own web page available, along with a podcast of the radio broadcast. Paul Atkinson told me that the live weblogging was very active. The folks at the radio station were very excited about the vibrancy of the multi-media experience. I can’t speak for the other webloggers — I know they’ll speak for themselves — but I had a blast.
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Kris Berg at The San Diego Home Blog:
I have met with sellers who were quick to point out that they have an ocean view. From the guest bath. While balancing precariously on a stack of books. In high heels. With a telescope. Do you think they just might add the “water view” description to their property?
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
