There’s always something to howl about.
Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker
There is a better way to list – and I have the stats to prove it.
I happily tell the world what I do – and no one does any of it. Fine with me. I work for my clients, not yours.
Consumers: I work in the West Valley in Metro Phoenix, but if you live somewhere else, find a listing agent with stats like mine.
“If you want to see how a leash really works, tag along with me when I spot a rabbit.”
Housing Wire: As home prices increase, sellers have the upper hand. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
CNBC: JPMorgan Chase makes $30 billion commitment to help close America’s racial wealth gap. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Forbes: How Your ‘Free’ Buyer’s Agent Increases The Cost Of Homeownership (And What Homebuyers Can Do).
City Journal: A Failed Experiment: The lockdowns must end.
The Washington Examiner: Labor Department warns firms bragging of hiring only black people that it’s ‘discriminatory’. Labor law will eat corporate America from the inside-out and the outside-in at the same time. Liars get what liars ask for.
Jeff Jacoby: On California’s ballot, an invitation to legalize discrimination. “Will voters let government revert to making judgments based on skin color?”
The Tablet: Is Warren Buffett the Wallet Behind Black Lives Matter?
PowerLine: A Pulitzer Prize that should be revoked.
The Independent Institute: What We Really Need Is a 490 B.C. Project.
“Snarling dogs don’t get treats? Who knew?”
Yesterday on BloodhoundBlog: Brian Brady: The Real Estate Correction of 2021. Crystal Ball salesmen: Please phone today!
Redfin: 22% of Homebuyers and Sellers Say the Presidential Election Is Impacting Their Plans. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. FWIW, getting things buttoned up before the election is wise – because of the riots.
Housing Wire: 400,000 mortgage borrowers are “needlessly delinquent.”
CNBC: Mortgage rates set another record low, sparking new strength in refinances.
Housing Wire: Mortgage applications rise 4.6%. “Purchase applications hit 20 straight weeks of year-over-year gains.”
Housing Wire: Opendoor discloses that it’s under federal investigation.
Fox News: McCloskeys indicted on gun charges stemming from standoff at St Louis mansion.
Aeon: The desire to fit in is the root of almost all wrongdoing.
Real Clear Politics: Who Wants to Blow Up Our Constitution? (It’s Not Trump.)
The American Mind: The Mount Rushmore Election.
American Greatness: Trump, Atlas: Time to Face Down Coronavirus Fear.
City Journal: In Defense of “Me-First Capitalism”. “Worse than the CEO who tends only to his company’s profits is the one who tends to your innermost thoughts.”
“‘Run in circles, scream and shout?’ That’s just my game.”
Redfin: Home Prices Up 14%, But Price Growth May Wane Soon. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
CNBC: Denver suddenly has one of the most competitive housing markets in America.
Housing Wire: Biden’s first-time homebuyer tax credit in the age of COVID-19.
Housing Wire: Mortgage delinquencies expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels until 2022.
PJ Media: Life on the Streets: A Cop Confesses What Policing Is Like in the Age of BLM/Antifa.
FEE.org: The Pope Just Called Private Property a ‘Secondary Right.’ He Couldn’t Be More Wrong.
City Journal: Against Fear: President Trump’s handling of his coronavirus diagnosis models positive masculinity — rational and unbowed.
“Go ahead. Fool around with my food. Find out what happens.”
Meanwhile, the only actual real estate news I have to offer this morning is my own scoop: Zillow and OpenDoor are chiseling Buyer’s Agents in their Phoenix listings. Totally not bleeding themselves out.
The Verge: Bond was the last straw: Regal and Cineworld will reportedly close all theaters in US and UK next week. The contractions we are seeing in commercial real estate categories were happening already, anyway. This year is simply accelerating in-motion efficiencies, with the result that 2020 could end up serving up the benefits of a full-on recession – in Trump time.
Science Alert: 35 Years of Research Into Coronavirus Infections Show Long-Term Immunity Is Unlikely.
The Post Millennial: Mathematics association declares math is racist. Not racist, anti-Grasshopper. Everything that makes Grasshoppers feel inadequate is trayf. Totally not a cult.
The City Journal: The Crypto State? How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other technologies could point the way to new systems of governance.
“I was going to pay you this whole pizza, but instead I’m keeping a quarter of it for myself. Why? Because you can’t spell sociopath without Ci, that’s why.”
Because I have a listing right now, I am aware of the competition. Interestingly, I ran across listings from both Zillow and OpenDoor that significantly underpay Buyer’s Agents.
Note well: Brokers are advised to avoid discussing commission rates amongst each other, since free speech and free assembly don’t count if you’re in business. Whatever. I certainly have the right to talk about commissions all alone.
So first: I hate it that the Listing Agent pays the Buyer’s Agent. We say the seller does, but the lenders would never allow that, just as they don’t allow buyers to pay for their own representation. Instead, the seller pays the Listing Agent a lot more than he will typically earn, with half or more of that commission income going to the Buyer’s Agent. You say the buyer is getting representation. I say I am paying a brokerage fee: The price of the introduction. If you don’t see the Agency problem here – I am buying your fiduciary’s loyalty, aligning his interests with mine and my seller’s and against yours – the NAR would love to have you testify on its side in the upcoming lawsuit over this idiotic compensation scheme.
But second: I Corinthians 9:7-10: “Do not bind the mouths of the grunts on the ground who are delivering your dinner!” Buyer’s Agents don’t work for their brokers, they work for Listing Agents. Freelance. On spec. They live on dreams and promises, too many of which don’t come true. They drive hundreds of miles a Read more
“Joe Biden is my kind of guy: Terrible at defending his corn chips.”
The worm is about to turn on the real estate news, too: Unsold listings aren’t news until they are canceled or expire. Buckle up.
Daily Mail: Manhattan apartment sales plummet 46%, leaving 10,000 homes on the market, as buyers look to the suburbs after the city’s spike in crime and strict lockdown. So there’s more to this than just months-ago sniffles?
Reason: California Is a Cautionary Tale for America.
Fox News: NYC shootings spiked 127% in October, murders up 76%: NYPD.
Reason: The Case Against Biden: Joe Biden’s Politics of Panic.
Joanne Jacobs: Schools reopen, no surge.
“Impatience is one of the things I’m best at.”
Redfin.com: Condo Prices Climb 5.4% in August, Lagging 11.9% Growth for Single-Family Homes. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Forbes: The Growing Importance Of The Home For Young Consumers. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Housing Wire: U.S. unemployment drops to six-month low of 7.9%.
City Journal: Triple America: A new book proposes that we rapidly expand the population in order to maintain our greatness.
Buzzfeed: Tiny Hand Will Be Your New Comic Sans. It’s a font that mimics Trump’s hand-writing. They think they are being clever, but this will end up benefitting the president more than it might hurt him – just like every other dumb stunt they try. You’d think they’d learn by now.
“Life is off the lead. Everything else is just drowsing.”
CNBC: Homes sold two weeks faster in September due to unusual surge in demand. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
CNBC: San Francisco rents plunge, showing strain from pandemic and wildfires. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Joel Kotkin: An “Ecotopian” Future: Can California’s Green Extremism Go National?
Reason: Lockdowns Intended To Preserve Our Health Are Making Us Poorer and Angrier.
Bloomberg: Inside a California Covid Revolt.
New York Times: The Truth About Today’s Anarchists.
Washington Examiner: Powder keg: 61% say United States ‘on verge of civil war,’ 52% already preparing.
HotAir.com: VP, Wife Test Negative For COVID-19; Update: Trump Physician Says President, FLOTUS “Both Well.”
Understanding wealthy people and their real estate needs.
Launching today, Pacaso – how many great names were passed over for this? – wants rich people to buy expensive second homes – and then share them with other owners.
VRBO meets time-shares, except that nobody actually likes staying in temporary spaces. It turns out there really is no place like home.
People hate sharing their most intimate spaces. They hate sharing driveways, for goodness sakes! I find it hugely implausible that any significant fraction of one-percenters will buy a second home to share with strangers.
PRNewswire: Pacaso Launches to Create New Category of Second Home Ownership; Secures $267 Million in Funding
The website: A better way to buy and own a second home.
Sorry, Spencer: My read is that this is the very worst iBuying idea I have heard so far. Prove me wrong.
“I wonder what made all those people on the Titanic suddenly want to take a swim…”
Housing Wire: Pending home sales at an all-time high! Now what? CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
CNBC: August pending home sales soar to a record high, fueled by rock-bottom mortgage rates. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Forbes: New York City Real Estate In Q3 2020: The Slow Beginnings Of Revival. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Housing Wire: No housing market slowdown as real estate agents report a busy fall. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. How obtuse, you ask? Subhead: “Homebuyers not following the school calendar this year in many markets.”
Forbes: 2020 Has Been A Terrible Year For Big City Life. Will Urban Real Estate Ever Recover? CTRL-F ‘riot’; 1 FOUND!
City Journal: Defending the Integrated Suburb.
Forbes: Wildfires Put Nearly 2 Million Homes At Extreme Risk Of Property Losses.
HotAir.com: A New Academic Paper Explains How Anarchists Use Social Media To Instigate Violence.
RedState.com: AP Stylebook: Please Don’t Call That Riot a Riot. How the sausage gets made.
Reason: The Media’s Nervous Breakdown Over Race.
Summit News: Calls For Joe Rogan to Moderate Next Debate Intensify After Chris Wallace’s Disastrous Performance.
Forbes: Some Business Leaders Should Face A Firing Squad, Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Suggests In Angry Tweet. The purpose of the riots, assuming you don’t know, is revolution. Summary execution is the next step. The Marxists have been gracious enough to show us the seething totalitarian within. Respond accordingly.
City Journal: No Need to Wait for Herd Immunity.
“Television is always boring until someone rings a doorbell.”
Housing Wire: Home-price index gains the most since 2018. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Forbes: The Housing Market Inventory Shrinks While Home Prices Climb. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
CNBC: Mortgage demand falls nearly 5%, even as interest rates set another record low.
Housing Wire: Consumer confidence posts biggest surge in 17 years.
PJMedia: Tulsi Gabbard Raises the Alarm: ‘Ballot Harvesting Has Allowed for Fraud and Abuse.’
FEE.org: The President Has an ‘Internet Kill Switch.’ A Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Wants to Change That.
HotAir.com: In Louisville, Blackmail Lives Matter.
City Journal: A Primal Struggle for Dominance.
The American Mind: No Coup For You.
City Journal: Bush v. Gore Redux?
The Federalist: This $1,500 Robot Will Talk To Kids So Parents Don’t Have To.
And: Future bleak humor in the making:
Vanity Fair: “This Does Feel Like A Different Moment”: As Public Support For Black Lives Matter Drops Off, Will Corporate America Stay The Course? American corporations are making themselves captives to their worst hiring decisions. None so deserving – but someone should tell the shareholders.
That sounds right to me. 😉 The waste is not their salaries but the financial havoc they wreak as the very-most-backseat of drivers. That is to say, iBuyers suck at real estate investment, and their hubris prevents any sort of improvement.
“Are YOU notorious? Have you ever BEEN notorious? Well, I have… Not necessarily wise – but compensated.”
But: It turns out Eric Blackwell knows where to poke the Pooh bear’s mincing minions.
My experiences with Rob Hahn have not been pleasant, and this and his other posts are tl;dr, even assuming he knows anything worth reading about, an assumption I do not make.
What’s funny is that Señor Notorious is right here, despite his snark: As soon as the market turns, all of those poindexter models collapse.
And note well: There is ALWAYS something to howl about at BloodhoundBlog.
“Totally not funny: How do city dogs go for walks on all the broken glass?”
CNBC: Home prices rose 4.8% in July, according to Case-Shiller index. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. But: Phoenix up 9.2%!
Forbes: Barclays: The End Of The City Is An Urban Myth. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Housing Wire: New home sales hot but not bubbly. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.
Forbes: Mortgage Interest Rates Barely Move Above Lowest Levels On Record.
CNBC: Companies will have to ‘seduce’ staff to go back to the office, real estate CEO says.
Forbes: Is Working For Home Here To Stay?
Joel Kotkin: Americans Won’t Live in the Pod.
American Greatness: The Third Worlding of America.
City Journal: The Substack Superstar System.
Monster Hater Nation: No, You Idiots. That’s Not How Taxes Work. – An Accountant’s Guide To Why You Are A Gullible Moron.
The Federalist: The Left Hates Amy Coney Barrett Because She Disproves All Their Lies About Women.
City Journal: Pouring on the Gasoline.
Sky News: The ‘Trump Doctrine’ earns President third Nobel Peace Prize nomination. What a shame foreign policy won’t be discussed in tonight’s debate.
“The simple fact is that you eat better if you work better, even if you are all alone.”
So says the preamble to the NAR Code of Ethics, and I love those five words of it, at an absolute minimum.
It’s existentially true, obviously. I love the term for real estate in español for that reason – bienes raices, rooted things. So many contract disputes resolved with better word choices!
But the real truth of that observation is economic: Underneath all of the fake wealth of Wall Street securities is the real wealth of real estate.
Silicon Valley billionaires may not own a lot of dirt, but their investors do. Undergirding most mere millionaires, other than their own businesses, is a portfolio of commercial and residential real estate – three or four suburban tract homes, a triple-net drug store or two, strip malls, office parks, apartment communities, skyscrapers. If they don’t own the dirt themselves, their own investors or their REITs do.
The literal foundation all wealth is the land.
Hence: Husbandry of all wealth begins with husbandry of the land we are destined to live on.
This is the idea of stewardship, and it is the essence of the profit-seeking ideal: Better profits come from better stewardship. That much is an economics of isolation: No need for buyers, sellers, trade, currencies or even the idea of profit itself. The simple fact is that you eat better if you work better, even if you are all alone.
So I have some questions for the putative, would-be, wannabe stewards of the American economy. You can pick your own favorite corporate gnomes, but I am specifically highlighting Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Rich Barton of Zillow and Glenn Kelman of Redfin – them because they seem to me to be the worst possible stewards for Seattle, the city they have inflicted themselves on.
So first we note that corporate weenies of every pinstripe have denounced the “systemic racism” committed by everyone around them but themselves.
And we take account that many of them have promised flagrant violations of fair-employment laws to undo all the “systemic racism” Read more
