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Category: Real Estate (page 200 of 266)

April 3, 2007

Podcast with David Gibbons, Zillow.com’s Director of Community Relations: “We are throwing the gates wide open to the entire community”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Appended below is an audio podcast with David Gibbons, Director of Community Relations for Zillow.com. In this recording, David talks with me, reflecting upon the details and implications of tonight’s new software release.

RE.net readers know David as the voice of Zillow on real estate weblogs, effecting the small miracle detailed in The Cluetrain Manifesto: Engaging in the conversation of the marketplace in a way that shows that Zillow will do what it can to ameliorate difficulties. I happen to know that he’s good at that job, because I have a talent for cultivating difficulties.

Until tonight, David’s title was Director of Customer Service. In addition to tending to the concerns of the RE.net, he was charged with dealing with the email and phone calls a site as busy as Zillow.com incites. He talks a little about that on the podcast.

David is originally from South Africa, which accounts for his accent. Before working for Zillow.com, he worked for Amazon.com.

BloodhoundBlog features extensive coverage of tonight’s announcement from Zillow.com:

BloodhoundBlog contributor Brian Brady will also be covering the story at these sites:

BloodhoundBlog has published more about Zillow.com than any other weblog or publication.

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April 3, 2007

Ask the Broker asks the audience: How best to invest an unexpected windfall

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Another question requiring expertise far beyond a broker’s license. Fortunately we have two great investment writers, three off-the-charts lenders and a readership of very prosperous people. Here’s the problem:

I have come into a situation, and was wondering if you could give me your opinion. I have recently come into an inheritance of about $200-$250,000 from a family member who has passed away. I decided that the best use of this money is to invest in real estate. I have narrowed down my choices to four options.

  1. A foreclosed house which needs repairing, however it can be bought for past due mortgage payments and past due real estate taxes, legal fees, etc. for $200,000. The fair market value is about $300,000.
  2. A housing project which has HUD financing of $1,750,000 and a fair market value of $2,000,000. Rental is locked in for $150,000 per annum, plus certain adjustments. Expenses are the mortgage with interest at 8% and operating expenses of $25,000.
  3. A shopping center with tenant rentals on an escalating year-by-year basis. The center is currently 80% rented and receives $200,000 cash flow and operating expenses are $50,000. The seller wants $2,000,000 and he is willing to take back a second mortgage of $250,000. I feel like I can get a $1,500,000 mortgage from the bank at the current rate on a 20 year basis. The second mortgage will probabably be a 2% higher interest rate.
  4. A shopping center with tenants who are all NYSE companies. All the leases are triple net with rental income of $500,000 last year. Sales price is about $6,000,000 and I feel I can get a favorable mortgage from an insurance company at a good rate. If I would proceed with this option I would probably cooperate with friends to get around $1,000,000 and get a $5,000,000 bank loan. I feel the property will appreciate at 8-10% per year.

Who has a good answer for this?

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April 3, 2007

Making A Case For National Mortgage Lending Standards

by

Mortgage Planner

Author website

I live in Illinois and hang my mortgage license in Illinois. The licensing process was not simple.

I have family in Ohio and want to be actively licensed to lend in Ohio. The licensing process is even harder.

I have spent more than 100 hours (yes, I’ve clocked it) trying to prepare my application for the state of Ohio. To be fair, though, the 100 hours includes 24 hours of introductory training that I was required to take within the Ohio state lines on the basics of mortgages and mortgage lending.

I like the training aspect of licensing, but by “professor” had 20+ years of experience and — aside from using a slide rule to calculate payments — was flat-out incorrect on most mortgage facts. For example, Jumbo Loans are not more expensive because they’re more risky; they’re more expensive because the cost of securitization is spread across a smaller pool of loans. The brand-new loan officers in the room had no idea they were being fed misinformation.

But all of that aside…

In order to be licensed as a mortgage broker in Ohio, I need to do the following:

  • Register Mobium Mortgage as a business in Ohio
  • Register Mobium Mortgage’s main office in Chicago with the state of Ohio
  • Lease physical space for and then register that as the Mobium Mortgage branch office that will be located in Ohio
  • Register myself as a loan officer

On the surface, not so bad. But, looking deeper at the requirements, you see these steps:

  • State police background check for all officers, the operations manager, and loan officers wishing to be licensed
  • FBI fingerprinting for all officers, the operations manager, and loan officers wishing to be licensed
  • 24-hour in-state training for the operation manager and all loan officers wishing to be licensed
  • Provide W-2 statements dating back 10 years for the operation manager
  • Open and maintain a checking account in the state of Ohio for paying third-party costs (i.e. appraisal) that does not earn interest
  • Maintain all financial records on-site in the Ohio branch office

You read the list and it looks fine, but then you contrast it to New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas and other states and you wonder: Read more

April 2, 2007

Ask the Broker asks the audience: What do you use for a listing system?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Another wide-open Ask the Broker question came in over the transom:

Very rewarding and refreshing to listen to Russell Shaw. Wow, I wish I lived nearby. I’d love to see Russ live in April. Having said that, I heard Russell say listing homes is my future. It really sank in.

I would like to know if anyone has a great listing generation system that works, day in and day out. My goal is to gross $600,000 over the next 12 months.

I know this is a big topic. I am keen to to see what you respond with.

I have no good answer to this — for now. What we are learning from Russell is that what we thought was a listing system is, in fact, a halfasstrophic mess. We’re rebuilding everything from the ground up, and we may have some good, market-tested answers to these questions in a few months. For today, what about you? Do you have any good advice to proffer to our financially ambitious questioner?

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April 2, 2007

Redfin.com’s Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights: A wolf in sheepskin clothing . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I am a hardliner on the subject of reform in the real estate industry. Over the last nine months, I have written at great length about, among other things, the skill-set required to survive in the future of full-service real estate, empowering buyers, dual agency, how the NAR makes war on the free enterprise system, divorcing the buyer’s agent’s compensation from the listing agent’s fee, rebuilding the MLS without the co-brokerage fee, eliminating the IRS safe-harbor for real estate brokers to induce them to take responsibility for managing head-count, and getting rid of real estate licensing laws — or at least the broker’s level of licensing — to promote better competition among agents and better due diligence among consumers in hiring agents. There’s all that, plus much, much more.

Why am I going through my bona fides as a reformer? Because I am about to denounce a failed, flawed, fractured, false reform that is to be proposed today by Redfin.com. At first blush, this “Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights” sounds like a good thing — and it easily could have been a good thing. Instead, it uses a treacly moral suasion and calls for new legislation to ram the corrupt Redfin style of doing business down everyone’s throats.

Start at the beginning. Yesterday, Kris Berg, Ardell DellaLoggia, Kevin Boer and I had this email from Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman:

Hope you’re having a good weekend. We wanted to let you know, under embargo until tomorrow at 9 a.m. (or whenever Inman goes live with the news), that we’re launching a program on Monday called the consumer bill of rights.

It doesn’t argue the issue of commission rates; we don’t consider it our business what others charge. It mostly focuses on simple reforms that would ensure that consumers get complete and open access to information about properties and the process of buying or selling properties.

The reason we’re asking you guys about it is that we want other brokers to support these rights. This is something constructive and positive, not antagonizing and negative — which itself is a result of coaching you’ve given us.
Read more

April 2, 2007

Wow! You Saved 4&162; A Gallon? What’re You Doing With The 60&162;?

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Now I’m not talking about the student or the guy with four kids, a mortgage and $98 in savings. I’m talking about the majority of people. It’s a phenomena that translates into real estate investment on a huge scale. But first, let’s look at what I call the 4&162; savings logic.

15 gallons results in a savings of 60&162;. If the average person fills up their tank every 10 days or so, that’s a whole buck-eighty a month as Grandpa used to say. In a year that’s a savings of less than $22. And that’s why they would waste time looking for that 4&162; savings?

gas station

Think about how people do this in so many areas of their lives. They’re like the blind man who only touches the elephant’s trunk and concludes it’s snake-like. Situational awareness combined with rational thinking and the long view, will almost always produce better results than behaving as if you’re blind.

Yet that’s how a surprising number of people consistently make their decisions when finances are involved. It never ceases to amaze me. Real estate investors often think this way, costing themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars — sometimes millions.

Here’s an example.

Cher and John are clients of mine, and are very successful investors. They were very quick learners. As a matter of fact Cher is sought by investors all over for her new found expertise in property management principles.

About three years ago I told them it was time to not only exchange out of four of their San Diego properties, but that they should take their net proceeds to the Phoenix area. They were fine with that. I also gave them the same speech I gave them before we embarked on their last exchange.

Don’t focus on how much you get for your properties as long as it’s in the reasonable range of value. Whether in fact you could have held out for another $10K on that triplex is a good conversation to have at Starbucks with your $5 cup of Venti Whatever and a cookie. Otherwise, as I tell my clients, “You won’t be able to find that 10 grand Read more

April 1, 2007

A Farewell to ARMs: One Less Option

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Are Option ARMs the next casualty in the non prime mortgage meltdown war? Wall Street fired the shot heard ’round the world in the mortgage default war by demanding repurchases from subprime lenders. Lenders either closed their doors or waved the white flag and allowed the conquering army to annex them.

The next battle in the mortgage default war may have already been fought and decided long before the soldiers have time to lace up their boots. That battle is the “dirty bomb” that we call the Option ARM. I think Friday afternoon was the equivalent of Paul Revere’s midnight ride.

I received an e-mail from IndyMac Bank, a respectable non-prime and prime lender and leader in the negative amortization loan products, that said:

1- IndyMac Bank is retiring all 12 MAT products over the next few weeks. This is the traditional low start rate, negative amortization loan.

2- They are increasing the minimum payments and reducing the max price. No more four point rebates for mortgage brokers on an intentionally vague product.

3- They cite the popularity of the FlexPay 5/1 ARM for the 12 MAT demise. The Flex Pay 5/1 ARM has a fixed rate for five years with an option to pay less than the interest due which does defer interest. The advantage to the Flex Pay 5/1 ARM is that the potential negative amortization is completely predictable and not subject to the whims of interest rate fluctuations.

Now, three initial thoughts cross my mind:

1- Option ARMs are dead. That’s hard to believe. Jeff Brown states a great case for alternative loan products last week when he says that builders build and lenders lend. He’s been around long enough to know that opportunists capitalize amid fear and vacuums. Lenders with high exposure and nebulous underwriting guidelines will be decimated when the piper comes calling in the form of higher defaults. Lenders with cogent underwriters will survive and cherry pick the good borrowers with this useful loan product.

2- Wall Street is not at war with lenders but is betting on Read more

April 1, 2007

Free Real Estate Leads

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I am a regular contributor to the Active Rain Real Estate Network. I was perusing the posts on Active Rain the other day when one jumped out at me with the title

FREE REAL ESTATE LEADS

This is an advertisement, but important that you read:

Real Estate Agent Directory
The most beneficial feature of this directory is that all leads generated in your area will be forwarded to you in real-time at no cost -ever. You can add a link to your website in the directory (more search engine exposure) and receive the leads that way as well.

*A FREE directory listing for 3 months (and only $9.00 per month thereafter-you may cancel at anytime)
*FREE LEADS from buyers and sellers (This will never change/completely free leads)
*No further commitments listed by county

This drew some fire from the good people at Active Rain. The real estate agents didn’t like the idea of a lead aggregator advertising their wares on the network. A few of us pointed out that advertising was permitted by the network and that many of the critical comments were coming from serial advertisers on Active Rain. Nonetheless, the lead aggregator was criticized for deceptive advertising and everyone poked holes in her business model.

Everyone knows that lead aggregators are the scourge of the industry; why do I defend them?

I thought back to my Principles of Promotion class from business school and I remembered the importance of having a mix in your promotional efforts. The appeal to a mortgage originator is that he might capture potential homebuyers before they contact a real estate agent; it allows him to control his destiny. There are many ways for a mortgage originator to promote his business: direct mail, telemarketing, hosting a web log, search engine optimization, seminars, co-hosting open houses, and even the old method of buying donuts for the real estate office and handing out rate sheets.

I started thinking that I might be falling victim to the old “ivory tower syndrome” that success sometimes breeds. I’ve had good results with writing articles for Active Rain. Myspace, and Bloodhound. It has generated 20-30 loan inquiries each month which Read more

April 1, 2007

Ask the Broker asks the audience: What should a brand new agent do to get traction?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is another Ask the Broker question best thrown out to everyone:

It looks like I did Project Blogger one better. I actually hired on a new agent yesterday. As in brand new. The guy is an attorney, formerly in-house counsel for a non-profit, he just got his real estate license and wanted to hang it with us.

So what things would you say to a brand new agent in this market? What are the “New Basics”? I plan to tell him BloodhoundBlog is must reading. But whither from there?

I’ll lob a softball to get things started: I don’t want to seem to endorse Tom Hopkins, because too much of his real estate sales advice turns on what I consider to be deceptive tricks. But something he said has stuck with me forever:

Am I making the most productive possible use of my time right now?

That may not be an exact quote. The point is to make sure that, when you’re working, you’re working on things that will improve your present or future income potential, not spinning your wheels. The other end of the argument is, when you’re not working, make the most productive possible use of that time, giving your spouse, family and friends your undivided attention.

There’s much more than this, of course. What say you? Should a new agent go hi-tech — or go door-to-door. Farm and pray for rain or pay for leads? Go it alone or fill a hole on somebody’s team?

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March 31, 2007

My short list of real estate carnival candidates

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I am continually amazed at the people who write for BloodhoundBlog. Day after day they knock me out, but it’s always late Saturday or early Sunday when I am most impressed. Why? That’s when I have to make my short-list of candidate posts for the week’s real estate carnivals. Cathleen normally makes the final choices, thank goodness, but all of the contributors have a chance to nominate their favorites. Here are my picks for the week:

That’s nine, and there are more I might have included. If you missed some of these, give them a look. Only one will be entered in each carnival, and there’s no telling if we’ll win. But win, lose or draw, we are good and ever better. Go see for yourself…

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March 31, 2007

Ask the Broker says: Ask the audience: Is now the time to jump into the housing market?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came in as an “Ask the Broker” question, but it’s really a wide open pitch for any informed observer. (That would be you.)

So should second-home buyers buy now, or wait? Will lending rates go lower soon? Or is this the time to strike?

Have at it, if you like, but back it up with a reasoned argument. I have no idea where our interlocutor is located, so respond for your own market.

My own take: If you’re willing to buy aggressively and hold for at least three years — five would be better — this might be the ideal time to buy a turn-key home in the Phoenix area. Values could continue to slip over the short-run, but interest rates are unlikely to stay this low in the long-run. Waiting out the bottom on price could result in a worse buy overall, where hammering hard now on price while rates are still very low could put you in an excellent position to prosper when values start to rise again. Nota bene: Never invest money you can’t afford to lose.

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March 30, 2007

Soundtrack for my Project Bloodhound life

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

This isn’t real estate related, but since I’m only here as a blogging experiment anyway…

A stunninngly gorgeous and pretty damn smart teenager has found a soundtrack for my Project Bloodhound life. It might be old to the technogeeks here, but it’s new to me, and as there is no accounting for taste, I think it’s fun. Just the thing for tapping your toes during blogsomnia (just close your eyes and listen, the video sucks).

Happy Friday!

March 30, 2007

Success is contagious: Russell Shaw and the StarPower experience

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Mega-producing Realtor and BloodhoundBlog contributor Russell Shaw insists that “success is contagious.” He backed up that argument at yesterday’s StarPower seminar in Phoenix. Russell spent much of his day surrounded by Realtors eager to infect themselves with his 400-transaction-a-year mojo. As we have good cause to know, Russell is boundlessly generous with good advice, so it could be a few dozen new millionaires came down with an incurable case of success yesterday.

Russell was one of the seminar speakers, and he did a killer 25 minute presentation on how to price listings — or how to price listings that will sell — or how not to take listings that will never sell. His overarching thesis is that successful people think differently, and his presentation stood as good evidence of that argument: He told the audience nothing they did not already know, but he forced them to look at it from such a different frame of reference that he had the rolling in the aisles.

StarPower CEO and Ringmaster Howard Brinton has agreed to share the audio recording of Russell’s talk with us, so we’ll make it available as a podcast when we get the file.

Cathy and I were both hugely impressed with the intellectual content of the event. Despite my first name, I am not a terribly gregarious specimen, so I am much more likely to catch success from a book. But every one of the eight presenters was bursting with good ideas. Cathy was particularly impressed with Tami Spaulding from The Group in Denver. So many good ideas seem to come out of The Group that I may want to devote some concentrated attention to what they’re doing.

Cathy fell in love with Spaulding’s ideas for a pre-listing package, and I immediately saw how such a thing could be done on-line as well as in print. There were a lot of other ideas like that, things that we think we can adapt to our way of going at things.

This year’s StarPower Annual Conference is in Phoenix. If you come to town, we’ll buy you a beer. And there’s an excellent chance you’ll catch Read more

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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