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June 15, 2007

Questions answer why real estate license laws should be repealed

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link). This is familiar turf to readers here, but I’m wondering if consumers might invest more effort in contemplating the issue.

 
Questions answer why real estate license laws should be repealed

The idea of repealing real estate licensing laws continues to percolate in my email, and I’ve written more on the subject at BloodhoundBlog.com.

I think I can make understanding this issue easier. Give a look to these questions. If you answer them honestly, you will understand why the real estate licensing laws should be repealed — even though they won’t be.

In the absence of real estate licensing laws, are consumers more likely or less likely to investigate the education, qualifications and experience of prospective agents?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are new licensees more likely or less likely to equate their status as licensed real estate agents with better-educated, more-qualified, more-experienced agents?

Taking account that they make profits when they perform their functions well and suffer liabilities when they fail, do free-market oversight entities seem more likely or less likely to assure consumer protection than government bureaucracies?

The same question on a more practical level: When buying electrical equipment, if you could have either government regulation or oversight by the Underwriters Laboratories, but not both, which would you choose?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are free-market oversight entities focusing on real estate transactions more likely or less likely to come into existence?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are alternative business models — radically different from traditional real estate brokerages but offering consumers more choice and possibly substantial cash savings — more likely or less likely to come into existence?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are traditional real estate brokers more likely or less likely to try to outlaw alternative business models offering real estate brokerage services to consumers for reduced or even no compensation?

Is there any consumer interest that would not be better served by repealing the real estate licensing laws? Even if you wish to assert that the laws offer some benefits to consumers, can you argue that Read more

June 15, 2007

If You Don’t Have Something Nice To Say…

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

RealtorWives.com Microphone ImageAs a reminder, I write from the point of view of a consumer/RE enthusiast (I’m a Realtor Wife). That being said, I’m noticing a little movement in the blogosphere that will be short-lived if I can help it.

Backstory: The Tomato addressed the fact that there are a vast number of terrible RE.net sites and blogs online and they ask “Where’s Simon Cowell When You Need Him?” My primary response was “yeah, where is Simon? These sites are terrible!”

Shaun McLane and I began an offline conversation about hosting a “Blogger Idol” site with a panel judging and commenting on the junky blogs in the RE.net sphere. Shaun started Posh’d and seemed like a good fit for two reasons (1) he and I were thinking in the same direction about a startup site and (2) he’d done a great job putting together the good blogs/sites online. At the time, Shaun was busy with his real job and said he wanted to involve me but wasn’t ready to launch. Then last week, in an effort to contact Shaun, I found the Idol site he’d launched- oh well, I wasn’t persistent enough, I suppose.

The great news is that I actually found his new site because I wanted to let him know that I thought it was a bad idea and I didn’t want to be involved. My belief that it’s a bad idea is confirmed today by the harsh RSS Pieces article that tears a blog a new one.

I think it’s fine that others are out there trolling for the worst of the worst, but here’s why I’m steering clear:

  • I would be infuriated if someone called my site out and used the word “sucks” and “crappy.”
  • Am I the Ultimate Blogger? So much that I find the need to go out and presume that I have the authority to denigrate others’ blogs? No, I’m not, so I’ll stay quiet.
  • Bad press isn’t always good press. Sure, I’ll visit the site once to see how bad it is, but I will have the impression that it’s bad (since it was dubbed as such) and I’ll never Read more
June 15, 2007

What makes a group blog work? It ain’t duct tape and baling wire

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Drew Meyers at the Carnival of Real Estate blog has a post this morning on what makes multi-author weblogs work. He interviewed me, Dustin Luther of Rain City Guide and Jessica Swesey of Inman News Blog.

Like this: “What are the top three things that lead to a successful multi-author blog?”

My answer:

I’m tempted to answer talent, talent and talent. There’s more to it than that, though. BloodhoundBlog is blessed to have very talented writers, but we’re twice blessed that they’re such thoughtful, thoroughgoing people. Add to that they are so easy to get along with, and we have a killer line-up.

Lots more where that came from. Give it a look…

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June 14, 2007

PlaceBloggers? No…They’re Social Networkers!

by

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

Author website

They’re too classy to promote a potentially commercial site here so I’ll call your attention to it.

I caught a cool post about the Tale of My Two Cities by the Lady and The Top Dawg plays traffic reporter.

They incorporate a Zillow-y idea into a budding neighborhood social network where residents can register and contribute.

I’ll be able to say I was there when…

June 14, 2007

Zillow.com news: Broker listing feeds “coming soon,” a lender opportunity and no news is not good news in Arizona

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From Jeff Somers at Zillow Blog:

Soon, we will be launching the capability for brokers to automatically upload their active listings for free to Zillow, reaching the more than 4 million people who come to the site every month — more than half of whom are in the market to buy or sell.

Even when we first launched the ability for listing agents and brokers to add their listings for free to Zillow last December, we knew we wanted to find ways to make the process even easier. We have talked with numerous agents and brokers around the country — and we have heard over and over that you want to send us listings through a direct broker feed. As I type, our developers are wrapping up work on a very simple tool that will allow brokers to automatically upload listings to the site and keep those listings up to date.

There is a form you can fill out to be notified when the feature becomes available.

Two days ago Zillow announced a similar sort of sign-up form for lenders. What might this mean? At the time, I held my tongue, since what I have to say is pure speculation. But with today’s news as hook, here are a couple of wild-eyed conjectures:

My guess is that they’re going to provide some kind of EZ lender hook-up for buyers and re-fi candidates. Perhaps LOs would have to assert interest in up to five zip codes or something like that. Zillow likes person-to-person contact, rather than engaging a nationwide vendor like Countrywide. If the presumption is that they’re looking for a comprehensively satisfying experience like Wikipedia or Ebay — and this is the presumption I work from when thinking about Zillow — then they’re going to want to facilitate relationships to be carried out on Zillow through time, rather than just throw off leads.

It is possible, using tax records and loan rates, to calculate profitable re-fi candidates: Homes that can be refinanced at a net savings, month-to-month, to the owner. Zillow has everything it needs to do this, and 70 million candidate homes to work from. This Read more

June 14, 2007

On the Sorry State of LOs and Equine Resurrection

by

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Now, having been an infrequent contributor, and feeling a bit like a schmuck for such, I am resolved to start writing again. So, I have applied what little magic I have left to resurrect a dead horse. With my passions aflame, I will ride this undead creature until such a time as I have said my peace.

Old topic, new bitch session. I recently had another home fall out of escrow due to a lying, conniving loan officer, whose ineptitude (at best) has caused untold misery. What was purported to be (verbally, and in writing) a stellar home buyer with exemplary credit and 20% down, has miraculously transformed into a miserable wretch with a 586 mid score, who’s attempting 100% financing on stated income for a $750,000 loan. My how people change!

Who can stop this nonsense? Sweet Jesus! I always tell my clients that they’ll know the deal is done when the money is in their bank account. Well, that’s no help, but it’s the truth. And in spite of my cautious demeanor, they insisted on putting 20k (non-refundable) on a new home. Ah, the sweet smell of optimism.

So, I am firmly resolved that no buyer shall have an accepted offer on one of my homes without either a fully disclosed and documented credit report, or being thoroughly scrutinized by a lender of mine or the seller’s choosing. Don’t like it? Don’t buy the home. If my clients decide to accept an unverified offer, I take responsibility only those items that fall within my purview.

For the love and Jesus and God, and the Holy Spirit, somebody hold these people accountable for a modicum of veracity, please!

Allen

June 14, 2007

Active Rain- Happy First Birthday

by

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

Author website

Many of the contributors on Bloodhound are also members of the Active Rain Real Estate Network. Active Rain is a social networking site comprised of some 20,000 members in the real estate and related industries.

The ActiveRain Real Estate Network is a free online community for real estate professionals designed to help them promote and grow their business.

We celebrated Active Rain’s first year in business in Southern California last week at Parker’s Lighthouse in Long Beach, CA . Close to 100 people came to join Jon Washburn and Matt Heaton celebrate. It was a great opportunity to network with budding and established real estate webloggers.

Jeff Turner does a nice summary for us of the event. Happy Birthday Active Rain.

June 14, 2007

Blogging for Dollars – It’s time to make money.

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

As the tester at my second failed attempt to get my driver’s license said many years ago, I am easily “attracted and distracted”. That, and the fact that I at one point drove on the sidewalk, no doubt contributed to my poor marks.

On any given day, my To Do list would crush a Hummer. I have more lofty goals than I have time, but at least I am trying. I’m admittedly not a pioneer, but I am an aggregator. I read, listen, learn, and then assimilate the information and ideas in an ongoing attempt to build a better mousetrap.

This week, I owe my inspiration (okay, distraction) to Project Blogger and to Phil Hoover. Like a lot of you, I have been watching the Project Blogger apprentices at work, and have filed away a hundred good ideas. In particular, Greg’s insanely great idea fell under my “Why didn’t I think of that?” category. The hyperlocal or neighborhood blog is a concept which I have since been toying with, but I hadn’t quite mentally worked through the process. The problem for me was two-fold.

Time – There is never enough of it. I try to contribute here, and I have my own blog to feed. I also have to manage a static website (not to mention a real estate business). Duplication – I am currently knee deep in cross-contamination. I link from here to there to here and back to the other. Too much synergy, to use a word from the corporate muckity-muck dictionary, risks confusion, lack of focus, and ultimately a lost audience.

Enter Phil Hoover. In a series of emails, Phil has been keeping me posted on his efforts to expand his blogging efforts into the hyperlocal arena. We know him from his Boise Blog, more recently from his Eagle Real Estate Blog, and now, at the subdivision level, from the Brookwood Subdivision Blog. And I think he may have built, at least in concept, a better mousetrap.

Static websites and the dodo bird: One is endangered and the other extinct. I suspect I won’t get much argument from this audience of bloggers and Read more

June 14, 2007

An RE.net taxonomy: Identifying types of real estate weblogs

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a first strike at a taxonomy of real estate weblogs. Taxonomy is the science of categorizing things. Of course, not everything can be neatly categorized, but the elucidation of categories can focus the mind, helping us to understand where certain weblogs might fit, which are hybrids of two or more categories, and which can only be described by the creation of new categories.

Again: This is a first strike. I may not have created enough categories, or I may have created some in error. I may have certain weblogs — offered here as examples — miscatalogued. If you think I’ve got something wrong, say so. If we can whip this into a decent shape, I may built it as a separate page, something we can lay by for an enterprising newspaper reporter — or the nonesuch, whichever comes along first.

In any case, here’s my first swing at the ball:

June 13, 2007

Ask the Broker: What’s up with my APR, and why is it so different from my interest rate?!?

by

Mortgage Banker

Author website

Hot out of the broker oven mailbox today is this question:

I am in the process of refinancing. Can you please tell me what the APR should be for a $295,800 loan? The broker is charging 2% origination fee and 1.5 loan discount. The interest rate at 6.64. I’m not sure if it makes a difference but its a adjustable rate and balloon loan. After 2 years mortgage will go up.

The total settlement charges are $14,590.77. The truth-in-lending disclosure has an annual percentage rate of 10.634%. This doesn’t look right.

I questioned the broker and he said that rate is all the fees and payments that are in the loan. This is not my first time refinancing and I never saw it that high. Why is the difference so much?

Disclaimer: I am not privy to the reasons or motivations for this transaction; nor the particulars above and beyond the above question. Below are simply some general thoughts that stand out from the above inquiry. I could be completely off-base in any one of my assumptions.
I had to step away from the computer and take a lap before responding to this mailbag question. Before we get to the APR/rate discussion there is another point I want to highlight first:

(1) Paying discount points to achieve a lower rate when taking a short-term ARM is always a money-losing proposition. Because this is a short-term 2-year ARM loan you will never recoup the money you paid in points to get the lower interest rate (1.5 points or $4,437 in this instance). In order to simply break even on the money spent for the loan discount in the two years before your rate adjusts your monthly mortgage payment would need to be $185 less than it would be otherwise with out the discount points.

If we make a rough assumption that each point paid in discount reduces your interest rate by .5% (a reasonable assumption on a subprime 2-year ARM, might be a bit generous) then your interest rate with out paying the 1.5 loan discount points should be around 7.39. This makes Read more

June 13, 2007

Department of redundancy department: How to get those living subjects to hold still for photographs

by

Realtor, Staging Consultant

Author website

Today our ever more irrelevant Arizona Republic demonstrated again that it is clueless about what over 1,100 daily readers of BloodhoundBlog.com know, which is… here on BHB you will find some of the finest weblog writing by real estate professionals available anywhere in the English speaking world. With the addition of so many fine writers with awesome credentials, since Greg and I started this site almost a year ago, I’ll admit that I feel outclassed. There’s really not much for me to deliver that teaches and informs and entertains like what our other illustrious contributors give us. But — Tom Johnson from Houston has given me an opportunity to show off my expertise…

In a comment on Teri’s post, “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window,” Tom talks about his dogs, Sophie and Duke, and asks

If I could figure out how to photograph them together, we could go for the all sizes, all families type thing. Suggestions?

Oooh, oooh, I can answer that! Take lots and lots of pictures! I know what I’m talking about! For our December 2000 holiday card I wanted to include our entire family, even those with fur or feathers, in the family photo. So I recruited my sister Terry, and she managed to shoot a perfect portrait. Took her only 40 shots to get it. Here are 16 of those pictures:

Fortinbras the Cockatiel and Gwen the Gerbil, alas, met the fate of animals who decide to escape the cages that protected them from their bigger sisters and brothers. And Charley, the regal Akita mix who Greg’s sitting on, and Peritas, the black Lab puppy with the bubblegum tongue who’s sitting next to me, were the ill-fated dogs Greg talks about in his comment on Teri’s post, whose loss led us to Odysseus. My heart still aches over that loss. In fact, you’ll notice, the sadness has been so profound, that it turned me blonde!

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June 13, 2007

We finally made the paper! Oh, wait, we didn’t . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have a pretty much boundless contempt for the Arizona Republic. The paper’s real estate coverage is eclipsed in its stupidity only by its insipidity. There is no conceivable issue upon which ASU’s Jay Butler is not the absolute authority, and there is never an occasion when the news, no matter how good, could not be worse. I’m utterly amazed that they let me write for them — albeit, not very much — and I await that “Goodbye Look” phone call in my every waking minute. In fact, I think I deserve 1,500 words on the front page of the business section every Sunday, but that would require a different Republic — or perhaps an alternate universe.

But today comes vindication, yes?

No.

Glen Creno wrote a report on “Valley realty bloggers” and managed to omit any mention of Phoenix-area real estate webloggers. No Jay. No Jonathan. No Greg. No Russell. Here’s the really fun part: Of the “Valley realty bloggers” he does mention, only two are actually in the Phoenix area.

Who’s in the article?

  • The Housing Doom bubble blog in Gilbert, AZ
  • Shannon Hubbard’s Phoenix blog
  • Housing Panic — in London, England
  • I Am Facing Foreclosure — in Sacramento, CA
  • The Real Estate Bloggers — in Atlanta, GA

Who’s not in the article? Their names are legion.

Is that link clear? Webloggers are constantly derided and diminished by mainstream media reporters who can’t do the simplest research.

The fact is, I don’t care. We’re talking to people who are paying attention. If the hometown paper were to discover what is going on under its nose in the epicenter of real estate weblogging, I would lay awake nights wondering what we had done wrong…

More: Jonathan Dalton, Jay Thompson.

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June 13, 2007

Subprime “Bookies” May End Up Like The Ending of The Last Sopranos’ Episode

by

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

Author website

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about the subprime loans’ collapse about three months ago. I wanted to show the history of securitization of home loans and explain that many of these defaults may actually be “buried” in mortgage pools. I pontificated that the expected debacle from the collapse may not be as bad as we think. Hmmm…maybe I’m wrong?

Bloomberg.com reports today that hedge funds are petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission to be vigilant of mortgage pool manipulation. Simply put, mortgage pool manipulation is “burying the bad loans in the back of the breadbox”. Issuers of mortgage bonds have a responsibility to comb through the mortgage pool and extract the loans that were in default, especially those that are in default do to fraud or botched underwriting. It is a requirement because mortgage investors hedge their credit risk in the derivatives market.

Derivatives are volatile financial instruments designed for hedging purposes. They are the “afterbirth” of the carving up of whole loans in a mortgage pool. Let me try to explain a bit further. Mortgage bond issuers sometimes extract different characteristics of a mortgage pool and sell them to different investors with varying opinion about interest rates. They can sell the interest portions of the loans to one investor and the principal payments to another. Why would they do that? Profit, of course. It is conceivable that a bond issuer can add as much as ten percent profit to the value of a mortgage pool by issuing derivative securities.

Investors who were expecting interest rates to rise might pay a premium for the steady income a 5.5% loan provides while the investor who believes rates may drop prefers to buy the principal portion of the loans at a discount. Mostly, these financial instruments are used by institutions to hedge large fixed income investment portfolios.

If you are an investor who is purchasing the principal repayment portions of the loans, and those loans will never be repaid…you’re screwed. And that is the risk you take…if you knew the risks Read more

June 13, 2007

Another Happy Customer For Robson?

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

I happened to stumble into finding out about the website, robsonunfair.com by receiving an email. The people who put up the site are more than a little unhappy with their attempts to resolve their grievances with their homebuilder. The link from their site I found most interesting was this one. I had no idea that information was even available. It lists the total number of complaints (1998-2001) for all of the big to small homebuilders and the number of complaints they get – and then shows how many complaints compared to how many houses they build. Del Webb/Coventry, for example got only one complaint filed for every 189 houses they build. If I am understanding this correctly, Jackson Properties had a remarkable ratio of one complaint filed for every sixteen homes they built.

I am always amazed when a large (seemingly reputable) company allows their reputation to become tarnished like this. It is doubtful it is possible to build a lot Kathy_Robsonof houses and never have a problem. And there are some people you can’t make happy – no matter what you do.

Many years ago there was a car dealer in Phoenix (the dealership name still exists) named Lou Grubb. About 15 years ago Mr. Grubb retired and sold the dealership. A few years after he sold it, I read in the paper (bottom of the front page) about a woman who bought a used car at the dealership and when she took it somewhere for service about 5 months after she bought it the mechanic informed her that the odometer had been rolled back and that her car did not have the mileage she thought it did – but an extra 30,000 miles or so. She takes the car back to the dealership wanting a refund. The idiots who then ran the place explain to her they can not give her her money back – she has been driving the car for those five months. Further, they had purchased the car from a wholesaler and she can rest assured that it wasn’t them who tampered with the odometer. They offer her Read more

June 12, 2007

Catching a sniff of the stench from Tennessee: Why being right about the real estate licensing laws matters

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Well.

It is beyond all doubt that readers here are thrilled to the core to cogitate on the implications of real estate licensing laws and their hypothetical repeal. So far the silence has been deafening, with nothing but a host of fallacious arguments, some charming insults and something new under the sun: green-baiting. (It’s like red-baiting, but for Capitalists.) What we have not had is a rational defense of the law.

That’s a real shame, because we are on the verge, potentially, of a revolution in real estate brokerage. Take note:

By means of its “Make Me Move” feature, Zillow.com is engaged in the essential act of real estate brokerage, the introduction of buyer to seller. Zillow’s efforts are not subject to state regulation because it is not performing brokerage for compensation.

IggysHouse.com is going to list homes for sale for free. The state may try to regulate IggysHouse, perhaps by arguing that the co-broke is compensation, even if IggysHouse keeps none of it.

Either way, the stench from Tennessee is too thick to ignore. What are traditional real estate brokers going to try to do with state laws when they come up against competition willing to work for free?

And: Does anyone want to argue that the proposals the traditional brokers come up with will be good for the consumer?

Why has no one been able to rebut the argument that real estate licensing laws are contrary to the consumer’s interests? How about because the argument is correct?

But: I’m here to help. The laws themselves are not going anywhere. Rotarian Socialism rules the country, and it will for quite a while. But you can know what is right and what is wrong, and you can apply your mind to figuring out who is to be benefitted and who penalized when new laws are proposed — as they will be.

Give a look to these questions. If you answer them honestly, you will understand why the real estate licensing laws should be repealed — even though they won’t be.

Like this:

In the absence of real estate licensing laws, are consumers more likely or less likely to investigate the education, qualifications Read more

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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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