Category: Real Estate (page 72 of 266)

June 19, 2009

Freeing The Real Estate Market From The Real Estate Industry

by Brian Brady

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

AREBOT.com, which stands for the American Real Estate Board of Trade, is the name of the company that intends to open up the demand-side statistics, by voluntary submission of properties, to an online NASDAQ-like market.

DISCLOSURE: From this point forward, my opinion may be considered biased. I have a verbal agreement to receive site advertising in exchange for publicity.

The intention of my post about the “big idea” was to “smoke AREBOT out”. I knew they were getting ready for a site launch and wanted to have it revealed to the Bloodhound Blog community first. C. Aaron Bruce, the founder, was happy to explain the site and encouraged me to explain it to you ahead of the official press releases. This “exclusive”, if you will, is available to all, Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 1PM (PDT), on a conference call. If you’re interested in the call, raise your hand below and I’ll email you the details.

AREBOT.com is not intended to be an “auction”. It is an open, transparent, real-time market. Each zip code will have a live “ticker” moving across the screen, displaying actual offers on homes. Each listed property will display a time-dated offer history. Entries are voluntary and cost nothing to the sellers of the home. The “price”, if you will, is that they offer the property on this transparent market.

Buyers offer on the properties by entering the terms . The bid is then considered to be “unverified”, signified by it’s yellow color, until verified and submitted by a licensed real estate agent. Licensed real estate agents may offer their buyer brokerage services, at no cost, on the site. Listing agents are protected by their listing agreements and may voluntarily display listings on the site, at no cost to them or the seller. Verified offers turn green and stay that way for 24 hours (or longer if both agents are negotiating); offers are still accepted until the property is withdrawn from the system. Rejected offers turn red and are displayed with the property, in perpetuity. Final terms are not disclosed as most states publicly disclose sales information. I have no idea Read more

June 18, 2009

Data Discrimination, A Class Action Lawsuit in the Making

by Thomas Hall

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Anyone a member of the Texas Bar Association looking for Pro Bono work? I think you may be able to rassle up a class action lawsuit in big “D”, little “a”, double “L” a, s (Dallas folks 😉 )

Texas is one of five states that do not require disclosure of sale prices, however, I believe the local MLS board in Dallas may be violating their fiduciary responsibility to their buyers and sellers. I strongly suggest you read the following article.

Actual home sale prices are not being entered into the MLS.

Does this not blatantly fly in the face of transparency. Moreover, how can the local board stand for this? Without accurate data shared at least to local members, the guidance and counsel for properly pricing a property places sellers, but more clearly buyers, in a very bad position. The article suggests that lower priced properties which have sold may be intentional left out in order to provide a perception that property values are higher.

Not only is this a direct violation of an agent’s fiduciary responsibility to his/her client, it is borderline fraud.

Real estate is local, consult a local REALTOR and find out how much your home is worth – or NOT.

Is it any reason why data aggregators are winning?

June 14, 2009

Getting a $15,000 tax credit when you purchase your next home could be as easy as stealing candy from a baby…

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column (permanent link):

So we started with a $7,500 tax deduction for first-time home-buyers.

But that didn’t juice the real estate market enough, so we bumped the number up to $8,000 and made it a full-blown tax credit. If you owe $8,000 in taxes next April, your slate is wiped clean.

But even that didn’t juice the the real estate market enough, so this week Republicans — the alleged party of fiscal responsibility — proposed bumping the tax credit up to $15,000 and making it available to everyone — including billionaires.

How cool is that? You buy a $150,000 house, you get 10% back when you file your taxes. And you can file an early return to get the money now. And you can even finance the tax credit now and pay it back when you file your return.

You can’t — quite — use the tax credit as your down payment, but that “reform” can’t be more than inches and hours away. And a $15,000 down payment on an FHA loan buys you a $428,500 house.

Unfortunately, that’s more than the FHA limit for metropolitan Phoenix, so that limit will need to be “reformed” as well.

Paying people to buy houses would be insane if we actually had the money to back up our promises. But, since we don’t, these “reforms” are the mark of true statesmanship.

I’m helping an ambitious young couple buy their first home right now. We’re late to close, a common enough situation.

They just had their second child, an event mere bureaucracy cannot delay. Their baby boy — his name is James — is sweet and beautiful, healthy and smart, a perfect specimen of incipient humanity.

They’re taking the $8,000 tax credit, of course, as they should. The government doesn’t become less insane if you shoot yourself in the foot.

But it is sweet little Baby James who will pay for that tax credit, and for millions of others, and possibly for millions more at $15,000 a pop. Our economy runs on theft — and we’re running out of people to steal from.

June 10, 2009

What If The Real Estate INDUSTRY Didn’t Control The Real Estate Market?

by Brian Brady

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

I have the heart of a trader. If you read Mortgage Rates Report, you know that I’m fascinated with the forces that make markets move up, down or not at all. One of the things I’ve noticed, since I started writing on Bloodhound Blog, is that the real estate industry is:

very much protective of its sellers (often to the detriment of the buyers)
unwilling to operate in a transparent marketplace.

That lopsided opacity was the real reason for the eventual implosion of the real estate market. We hid market information from the buyers while the Baby Boomers moved through the home ownership life cycle. A huge generation, yearning for “The American Dream of Homeownership”, assured strong demand for houses in the post-World War Two housing boom. Banks were all too happy to hand out money, even when forced to lend by the Government. Lew Ranieri saw a 25-year boom ahead and found a way to create a shadow banking system that could “bury bad loans”. Any agent dealing with a short sale understands the problem of buried loans because she’s heard:

“Well, we aren’t quite sure WHO owns this loan”

Kind of sounds like the forensic audit of Bernie Madoff’s books, doesn’t it? That’s what you hear when the jig is up on a Ponzi scheme: confusion, wagon-circling, and practiced deflection. It eventually catches up with the schemers. I’m firmly in the camp that no matter how many incentives we offer to stave off the inevitable forced sales, or to provide a middle-class tax cut, or to bribe the next generation of buyers, the simple fact remains that we have more houses than we need in this country…and the people just ain’t buying like they used to.

It’s partly the National Association of REALTORs fault. They’ve hoarded supply data and intentionally suppressed demand data since inception. Suppressing the demand data resulted in a valuation system that relied on false positives (comparable sales) as a standard that contributed to the Ponzi-like atmosphere in the real estate market. Think about it. When we ask agents about rising demand, they point to dwindling supply as a measure of it. Read more

June 9, 2009

Those Who Can Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

Add This 1934 Cartoon To The “There’s Nothing New Under The Sun” List:

Click image for larger version

If you think the housing market is bad now – just wait until these economic policies drive interest rates up… and don’t kid yourself – they’re heading up NOW.

George Santayana knew what he was talking about.

It’s a good time to buy real estate – while you can afford it.

June 7, 2009

Is Rice A Roni Really a San Francisco Treat?

by Thomas Hall

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Just think about my disappointment when I entered a prominent San Francisco eatery seeking the most coveted food stuff, only to find it was neither a specialty nor an item on the menu!

Yet again, I was bamboozled.

What ever happened to truth in advertising?

Perhaps my San Francisco mishap taught me to be perhaps a bit less gullible. When I see a claim, even a statement of fact, I figure it might be important to do some more digging.

Let’s take NAR’s recent press release regarding Pending Home sales, up 6.7% from a year ago last year. Sounds encouraging – and let’s face it, we all could use encouraging news. But what does the increase really mean?

Let’s take a look at the data behind the aggregated index of 6.7% that NAR published:

NAR Pending Home Sales Index

While 6.7% sounded encouraging, I am not necessarily convinced that it means we are anywhere near out of the woods. Why? Because if you look at the seasonally adjusted for the West and South, areas that have the highest concentrations of inventory and loss of value, the numbers don’t seem to be telling the same encouraging news.

Here’s why. Take Las Vegas for example:

Single Family Home Inventory in Las Vegas per Altos Research

There are about 15,661 properties on the market in LAS VEGAS as of June 07, 2009.

How about Phoenix:

Single Family Home Inventory in Pheonix per Altos Research

There are about 7,816 properties on the market in PHOENIX as of June 07, 2009. Definitely making progress, but still a fairly long way to go.

What about Miami?

Single Family Home Inventory in Miami per Altos Research

There are about 8,450 properties on the Read more

June 7, 2009

Mr Inman, less advertorial content please!

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Ok…I have tried to stay off of this topic for a LONG time, but I keep seeing stuff that brings me back. Brad, errr..Mr. Inman? I have never met you. I know you have a lot of power in the real estate news sector, because InmanNews reaches many agents and brokers.

Here’s the deal. I see SO much advertorial content and self promotional crap in the real estate space that it is hard to keep up with it all. Then I see this little gem. Seriously…please go look at it before reading further.

Even in the comments people are chiding Joel a bit for it being an advertisement. So Joel does have a disclosure in there saying that TurnHere is owned by Inman.

Then I went to WHOIS and found out that this blog Future Of Real Estate Marketing is OWNED BY INMAN.

Anyone want to tell me that this blatant self promo was NOT an advertisement? I really am willing to listen if someone wants to make that case.

Joel, you said that how this came off was 100% your bad. Ummm, can you argue that you have 100% editorial control when it isn’t your site? Methinks not. Since the site is owned by Brad Inman, my request is to him. Please tone down the advertorial content. Also, a more complete disclosure as to who owns the site would be far more transparent. If this was totally Joel’s bad as he says in the comments, perhaps some editorial control (on a site you OWN) is in order, but I really don’t think that was the case here.

I hope I am wrong.

Responsibility for content lies with the owner of the domain.

Thoughts?

June 7, 2009

Unchained Melody at Heaven’s Gate

by Teri Lussier

Rust Belt Realtor

I’m spending time in a hospital as the mother of a patient, but this is not about transparency. You can send a good thought or well-wish in our direction, and I will truly appreciate it, but I’m not here to petition for sympathy or prayers, and I’m not here to share my personal life.

So much of my life includes a musical soundtrack of some sort or another and I’m always selfishly sharing them here mostly because I often struggle with words- music can say what I cannot, so I’m posting a remarkable clip from a movie that is about property rights, but also about independence and passion for life- it’s very appropriate for this real estate blog. Bloodhounds know about living life with passion: Purposeful life as defined only by our independent selves, and I find that life in a children’s hospital is very similar: Raw, painful, staggeringly beautiful, and always remarkable.

Today is Sunday, a day of the week that might have you contemplating higher thoughts, or the meaning of life, or might have you preparing to conduct serious business. Today, for four minutes, a break from real estate, a respite from the hard times in life, to give yourself over to an unbridled celebratory lust for life.

June 6, 2009

Are Our Customers EnTitle-ed To Better Fees?

by Brian Brady

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

Admit it. You’ve wondered if there was a lot of fat in title policies, didn’t you? I mean, how many claims does a title company REALLY get in this “nobody trusts anyone” market? We order a title commitment and the title company:

performs a detailed search of the property’s chain-of-title
mitigates most any risk
insures the title and earns an insurance premium.

One would think that this highly-regulated, extremely commoditized business would file premiums within cents of each other, right?

I received a direct mail piece from EnTitle Direct today. They are a national title insurance company (the old Guardian Title):

ENTITLE DIRECT is the only title insurance company that markets and sells directly to consumers at 35% savings. We combine 30 years of experience and stability with a consumer-friendly approach and provide you with significant savings on title insurance, the ability to control your own closing, and transparency throughout the closing process.

I was curious so I got a quote for a $400,000 refinance transaction:

$500.00 escrow fee (about $100 more than the local folks)
$357.50 for a title policy (endorsements not included)

I ran the CLTA Title Wizard to comparison shop. Local escrow fees are about $400.00 so the locals are winning, at this point. Let’s see what the locals offer for title policy premiums:

Commonwealth $1, 045
Ticor $1,045
Placer $675
Orange Coast $625
Stewart $675
Provident $800
Old Republic $800
Chicago $1045
FATCO at $605

What am I missing here, gang?

I think someone may have just figured this game out. Any comments or experiences with EnTitle Direct are appreciated.

PS: EnTitle Direct claims to be a member of the Read more

June 6, 2009

Why Real Estate Agents Should Stop Playing Loan Officer

by Mark Madsen

Las Vegas Mortgage Blogger

I wasted a few hours this week cleaning up the messes that real estate agents created for their first time home-buyers.

End result – loan officer still looks like a jerk, but now the borrowers are really confused about who to trust.

I’m going to combine about five separate scenarios and conversations that I had this week into one rant just to get my point across.

First of all, the mortgage industry is changing very rapidly.

True mortgage professionals are paying attention to things like: HVCC, concerns of HR1728, Mortgage Insurance companies changing their guidelines, Fannie’s new condo rules, FHA fico score requirements, Loan Level Price Adjustments, new FHA appraisal guidelines, adjusting interest rates in an unstable market, and a constant stream of mortgage Twitter chatter that only adds to the noise.

For those of us primarily working with FHA First-Time Home Buyers, we’re also keeping tabs on the $8000 Tax Credit being used as a down payment, as well as how long the Fed plans on purchasing Mortgage Backed Securities to keep rates lower.

Just as real estate agents are learning about short sales, bank owned properties, and transparency, mortgage originators have a full-time job keeping up with industry news so that we can lead our clients down the right path.

I don’t think that I need to throw another 9 links in this post to demonstrate that there are a lot of things real estate agents and loan officers need to understand before we can express with confidence to our clients that we truly have a handle on their unique scenario.

Imagine what the effect would be on a first-time home buyer if puked all of this overwhelming information on a them in the first 10 minutes of the initial phone call?

I had to do this all week just so that the agents and borrowers would understand why I wasn’t able to issue a quick pre-approval letter and GFE simply based on a 15 min phone call and credit score.

We’re in a tough market, and I totally empathize with the hard working agents who are competing for new business by giving the highest levels of service possible.

However, Read more

June 5, 2009

“Search Overload” = Toenail Fungus

by John Rowles

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Bing! I’ve decided that following big pharma’s TV marketing playbook to launch a search engine that is supposed to compete with Google is an idea so dumb, it could only have been approved by whoever thought that Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates walking around a mall would make people think Vista doesn’t suck.

Apparently, there is a condition called “search overload”. I didn’t know it existed until I saw the Bing commercial last night, but now I think I might have it.

According to the commercial, symptoms of “search overload” include feelings of being blind-sided by what’s happened to the economy, high gas prices, and anger that Google didn’t tell me that housing prices don’t always go up.

I feel compelled to ask my doctor about Bing.

You see, unlike regular search engines, Bing doesn’t just give you what you ask for, it helps you to make decisions – it’s a “decision engine” (uh-huh) and using it to make decisions for you makes your life better.

(Bing isn’t for everyone: People who know how to use a search engine may actually feel themselves getting dumber while using Bing.

If you thought the Bing ad was the funniest thing on Conan O’Brien’s Late Show last night, be sure to mention that to your Doctor when you ask about Bing.

If blaming Google for the economic collapse makes sense to you for more than 4 hours, proceed to the nearest Verizon store and purchase a Windows Mobile device.)

June 2, 2009

Open During Construction

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Had the opportunity to drive up from beautiful San Diego to Orange County today. One of the great things about Southern California is that driving 50 or 60 miles to do something or see someone (which would have driven my mom and dad nutso) is rather routine. I just cranked up some tunes, and this morning because it was misting a bit I chose Gordon Lightfoot and all that kind of folksy stuff, and away I went.

Teri Lussier always talks about her beloved Dayton, and it delights me that she takes the time to share something that suspends the day to day real estate chatter for some homespun fireside chatter. So while driving up past Camp Pendleton today I wondered aloud how many people have been so blessed to live in a place so steeped in natural beauty, just within miles reach of the whirling world of business.

Mountains to the east, Catalina silhouetted in the overcast Pacific to the west, (yeah, really 26 miles across the sea) lying low on the horizon, and no traffic to speak of. I was filled with actual joy. Now there’s a word you don’t read much of on a real estate posting these days. But there it was, palpable and real, and filling me up as I drifted up Interstate 5 at 70 miles an hour, singing along to the music. Broadview Mortgage

Scott Schang is a mortgage broker, and really a remarkable guy on top of that. I already mentioned to you in a previous posting that I was able and blessed to meet Scott at the Unchained conference a couple of months ago in Phoenix. We’ve continued our relationship, and today I was driving up to solidify some of the ideas he had for helping me market my database of potential homebuyers.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I pulled into the parking lot of his business to find it amuck with “Open During Construction” signs, jackhammers, compressors, painters, welders, yellow tape, plastic and sandbags all around the whole business complex. I took out my trusty video camera and Read more

June 1, 2009

Can a REALTOR Truly be a Consumer Advocate?

by Thomas Hall

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

My query is sincere. But first, I want to make a distinction between a REALTOR and a licensed real estate agent. NAR tells consumers to seek the counsel of REALTOR – in fact, make sure they are working with a REALTOR, leading consumers to believe that a licensed real estate agent and REALTOR are synonymous. They are not.

A REALTOR is a licensed real estate agent who is also a member of the National Association of REALTORs, who’s mission is:

The core purpose of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is to help its members become more profitable and successful.

Clearly absent from the mission is any reference to the consumer.

The vision of the National Association of REALTORS is equally insightful:

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® strives to be the collective force influencing and shaping the real estate industry. It seeks to be the leading advocate of the right to own, use, and transfer real property; the acknowledged leader in developing standards for efficient, effective, and ethical real estate business practices; and valued by highly skilled real estate professionals and viewed by them as crucial to their success.

Working on behalf of America’s property owners, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® provides a facility for professional development, research and exchange of information among its members and to the public and government for the purpose of preserving the free enterprise system, and the right to own, use, and transfer real property.

I find NARs Vision statement to be interesting. While the concept of advocacy is referenced – It seeks to be the leading advocate of the right to own, use, and transfer real property – NARs advocacy serves first and foremost its members. Again, distinctly absent from the vision statement is a direct reference to the consumer – ultimately the guy or gal who parts with their money to own, use, and transfer real property.

As licensed real estate agents, our behavior is bound and regulated by our state laws, written in the interest of protecting the public from unscrupulous professionals. Licensing is the state’s way to insure that a minimum standard of knowledge and behavior is achieved prior Read more

June 1, 2009

The FDIC is going broke…

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

The Business Insider:

Category: Real Estate (page 72 of 266)

Freeing The Real Estate Market From The Real Estate Industry

by Brian Brady

Data Discrimination, A Class Action Lawsuit in the Making

by Thomas Hall

Getting a $15,000 tax credit when you purchase your next home could be as easy as stealing candy from a baby…

by Greg Swann

What If The Real Estate INDUSTRY Didn’t Control The Real Estate Market?

by Brian Brady

Those Who Can Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It

by Doug Quance

Is Rice A Roni Really a San Francisco Treat?

by Thomas Hall

Mr Inman, less advertorial content please!

by Eric Blackwell

Unchained Melody at Heaven’s Gate

by Teri Lussier

Are Our Customers EnTitle-ed To Better Fees?

by Brian Brady

Why Real Estate Agents Should Stop Playing Loan Officer

by Mark Madsen

“Search Overload” = Toenail Fungus

by John Rowles

Open During Construction

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Can a REALTOR Truly be a Consumer Advocate?

by Thomas Hall

The FDIC is going broke…

by Greg Swann

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