Think

Passing Up on Short Sale Work? Broker Bryant is Here to Help.

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:50:48 -0700

I don't know how many of you saw this, but Broker Bryant and Wendy Rulnick are putting on a series of classes for real estate pros around the short sale. Closing a short sale can be a rough procedure, and whether you're working on they buyer's side it pays to know your way around. Given todays market short sale skills will be valued by your clients.

BB has presented a lot of good information on his blog which is what makes me believe that this class is going to be very helpful.

Space is limited so please check it out here ASAP.

Up Your Sales In A Down Economy (Free MP3)

Caleb Mardini — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:50:45 -0700

Sent to me via JustSell.com

Ziglar Inc. is offering a free sales MP3 with Bryan Flanagan. "Get a checkup fom the neckup!"

Our American Challenge

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:55:17 -0800

Today we witnessed the inauguration of President Obama our nation's 44th president and yesterday we honored someone who helped make that possible.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. against powerful forces to expand liberty, justice and equality. When my grandfather fought in the second world war, and when this nation's founders fought the British in The American Revolution, it was those same ideals that stood at the forefront of our national consciousness.

We enjoy the hard fought gifts of liberty,and justice, for all as a result of the sacrifices of many. With that freedom comes our own individual burden of responsibility for the condition of our democracy.

And while we vote in an exercise of our democratic ideals, that act alone does not satisfy our democratic obligations.

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our nation was asked to open up our wallets and spend for the sake of the economy. Consumerism became synonymous with patriotism.

It is a popular idea, that the economic decisions we make, can be a force for good in this world. Undoubtedly the tactic of "voting with your dollar" can effect change, but it still cannot satisfy our obligations as citizens.

Today this country faces tremendous challenges. In the face of these challenges we must bring individuals to account for their actions, however we must not be victims.

Consumerism cannot be allowed to replace citizenship. Our responsibility to does not end once our representatives are in office. And we must not simply surrender our freedom to victimhood. As citizens of this democracy we are responsible for our own fates and the fate of this nation. Our biggest challenges are not terrorism, or economic calamity, rather they are apathy and dogmatism.

Yesterdays celebration of Dr. King and today's presidential inauguration serve as inspiration, as we each take up action defending against the apathetic and dogmatic tendencies within ourselves.

It is on each of us to take up a cause. It is on each of us to improve our communities. It is on each of us to listen with humility and empathy to those with whom we disagree. It is on each of us to be critical and to petition our media and our elected representatives on a frequent basis. It is on each of us to accept the responsibility of our freedom and to take on the task of making this nation better.

Paulson's Plan

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:37:19 -0700

Here's an interesting bailout story for those that are interested. Follow the link.

'Paulson's new 'Global Banking Corp.'

Federal ethics laws let him sell $484 million in Goldman stock tax-free when he left. Net worth, about $700 million...

First Goldman pays Paulson megabucks, then "lends" him to Bush, a virtual Trojan Horse. Now Paulson's preparing the way for his grand march back into private life by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars to his old buddies. So Goldman gets billions, and taxpayers get a pile of illiquid junk. Scam? Yes, and a classic case of moral hazard: Freed of risky liabilities, Wall Street dances off into the sunset, laughing at the stupidity of the American taxpayer. If Paulson did return to Goldman, his future bonuses would likely more than double his net worth. In short, his 30 months in government will undoubtedly make him a billionaire while costing taxpayers a trillion in new debt as a result of his inaction and incompetence.

Letter to Congress, NO Bailout

Caleb Mardini — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:42:03 -0700

Congress,

I'm writing you today on an issue that I feel is a part of a defining moment in this country's history.

There are massive shifts occurring in credit markets right now and those shifts are going to have a significant impact on our ways of life.

The Administration via Secretary Paulson has submitted a ridiculous bailout legislation plan that it appears many in congress are taking seriously. Senator Dodd has even crafted legislation that, while significantly cleaning up Paulson's proposal, still follows in lock step.

I've heard members of congress in hearings talking about how it's up to the administration to explain why this bailout is necessary, as if the throngs of angry constituents don't understand.

I want you to know, that I do understand. I understand and I am angry. I am angry as I was when we were lied to about the Iraq war, when we rushed into the patriot act, and when I saw that FEMA had been stripped of any competence to handle the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I understand that our economy is in deep trouble. That a massive deleveraging event is taking place. I understand that this means we will be facing a lot of hardship in the years to come.

But I also can see that there is nothing that can, or should be done about his deleveraging, other than to take measures to make it orderly and to work to support our fellow citizens when the time comes.

Paulson's plan is flawed in so many despicable and obvious ways. But in one core way it is flawed that should stand out.

The plan is guilty of trying to keep "the debt party" going, when there is no reasonable cause to assume that it should.

The debt bubble has eroded much of our economy. While we enjoyed the temporary benefits of massive leverage much of our industry was displaced through movements to other labor markets. We've been lax in exploring new technologies in energy production, and energy efficiency. But it is that very sort of productivity that we find ourselves desperately in need of now to replace lost industry.

We are in trouble, and there is a way to deal with the trouble that helps us begin growing new and better institutions that can help us rise out of this decline. But the bailout proposal is not only thievery and economic terrorism on the Administration's part, it is also a denial on the part of others who would like to keep us in the dysfunctional state we've been in.

Congress, I don't think I'm the only constituent who understands.

Please filibuster any bailout proposal.

Thank you,

Caleb Mardini

contact your senator now.

contact your representative now.

Why I am so Livid About the Bailout

Caleb Mardini — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:16:08 -0700

Thank you Matt for posting this.

Via Matt Heaton:

Anybody who's read my blog in the last week can probably tell what side of the fence I sit on as far as the bailout bill currently before Congress and the Senate. I'm not just flatly against it, I'm angry and pissed off. Angry, enough that I've probably made at least 100 phone calls, and faxes to various Congressmen, Senators, and other government officials in the past several days. Come to think of it, that's about the same number I made in the weeks following the Bear Stearns bailout.

Now here is why

I'm one of the many people that saw this disaster coming, not three months ago, not a year ago, but I first started to put the pieces together way back in 2003. The more I learned about not just mortgages but derivatives and the leverage occurring in our financial system for more it bothered me, but at the same time I said to myself, "it can't really be that bad". The people on Wall Street are smart, they wouldn't create something this utterly idiotic. Of course later I realized this monster was not accidental either, just as Enron wasn't an "accident", it was a scam on a gigantic proportion.

Then when the first ripples of the sub-prime crisis hit in early 2007 with the failures of companies like New Century, I popped my head up again and said, this is really happening. At this point I began spending A LOT of time following the credit markets very closely, watching as one domino after another fell exactly as predicted.

As totally terrifying as it sounds the events leading up to this are almost identical to the events that lead to many of the worlds great financial crisis, The Great Depression being the most notable, but also Japan's "lost decade" as another example. As these events have played out government officials and regulators have practically followed the exact same playbook on how to make the crisis 10x worse. Instead of forcing leverage out system and rapidly putting the firewall regulations in place to prevent a systematic event, they've instead allowed the system to further leverage up, and reduced regulation. This has been happening at a frightening pace over the last year, in a desperate attempt to paper over the problems facing us, and hope that they go away. Can we not learn from history?

You can not solve a problem by applying more of the cause. It's akin to giving a continuing to give a heroin addict another hit to make him feel better, when in reality he needs to go into detox or will eventually die of his addiction. It's as simple as that. Yet on more than a dozen occasions in the past year the Treasury and Federal Reserve have attempted to solve the crisis du jour by administering this extra hit of heroin, and proclaimed the problem was on it's way to being fixed.

The bailout in front of us is just another hit of heroin, a massive one. It will do NOTHING to solve the underlying problem. While it may provide a short term high, it won't help the long term situation. We need to go into detox now, before the ticking bombs in our financial system blow up. This detox will be really, really painful, many more Wall Street firms will go under, our economy will go through a deep recession, huge amounts wealth will evaporate. But you know what, the bailout won't prevent this either, it will just add on yet another layer of misery to main street.

What this bailout will do?

Face it the financial train is off the tracks, and no matter how hard we want it to we can't simply throw money at it and put it back on. What we can do is focus our effort on moving things out of the way and minimize the collateral damage. Instead this bill is a method by the pig men of Wall Street to throw as many taxpayers in front of the train as possible, hoping to slow it down before it hits them. It is a looting operation by the banks of the US taxpayer plain and simple. It is being sold by fear and frankly the finance industry is trying to hold the American people hostage. Sorry I'm angry, I see through the smokescreen and I'm not going to sit by and take it.

Not a Dime! Stop the bailout

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:09:47 -0700

There is currently a horrifying proposal being fast tracked through congress by the President and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many members of congress have openly admitted they don't understand the situation and they aren't sure what to do.

I've called my senators offices and I was asked to organize people in a calling campaign. They want to hear what we have to say.

What's happening right now in our financial markets is a major event, regardless of what the government does, I feel it's going to have a major impact on us all. However I believe the proposal being fast tracked threatens to make things much, much worse.

I ask that you read the proposal yourself. It is very short. You can also read the analysis I've posted here.

The chances of preventing this are very limited . But after reading the proposal, please call and email your senator, NOT JUST ONCE, BUT A COUPLE OF TIMES A DAY, for all of this week.

Ask them to block or filibuster any bailout legislation. Ask them to vote no. Tell them you don't want to pay for a bailout.

Here's a link to the text of the plan. Click here for contact information for the Senate.

The Foxes are in the henhouse. Prior to becoming the treasury secretary in 2006 Henry Paulson ran Goldman Sacks bringing the company to the position it is in now. Goldman Sacks stands to benefit a great deal from this bailout. Furthermore there is a tremendous conflict of interest as Paulson seeks to hire those who helped create this mess to help decide how to use the public's money.
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts; (3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
The budget is unlimited.

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases. The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time.

700 billion is greater than the Pentagon’s budget for 2009 which was record breaking. And that’s just the amount of purchases that can be held on the balance sheet at any moment.
It doesn’t represent the tax payers. This deal is, in many respects, open ended with no safeguards for taxpayers. While the bill gives lip service to the idea of protecting tax payers it specifically avoids accountability and transparency.

Sec. 3. Considerations. In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for– (1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and (2) protecting the taxpayer.
Completely dubious. While it grants extreme powers, there is no review. (this one is really incredible)
Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
There are no stipulations for punitive actions. Instead for institutions able to move their bad debt to taxpayers, or able to buy debt at discounted rates this will be quite rewarding.
The arbitrary nature of the bailout creates greater uncertainty in the markets. Furthermore some market watchers speculate that this could result in a greater devaluation of U.S. credit as there is fear we’ll nearly bankrupt ourselves trying to take on the debts of these failed institutions. The measure calls for raising the national debt for example.
Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt. Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.
We already have an excellent solution in place Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
In Chapter 11, companies with a solid underlying business generally swap debt for equity: the old equity holders are wiped out and the old debt claims are transformed into equity claims in the new entity which continues operating with a new capital structure. Alternatively, the debt holders can agree to cut down the face value of debt, in exchange for some warrants.
Luigi Zingales and Robert C. Mc Cormack the authors of the above quote maintain the process would have to be faster than chapter 11 normally takes. But passing a law, especially one of the magnitude normally requires much more investigation and vetting. If we can entertain passing a law of this magnitude this quickly, isn’t there a possibility that an expedited Chapter 11 program could be created.
The Mother of All Bailouts. A measure of this level is unprecedented. You may have heard that this isn’t dissimilar to the Resolution Trust Corporation founded in 1989 to help us out of the S&L Crisis. But
In 1989, there was no choice. The federal government insured the thrifts, so when they failed, the feds were left holding their loans; the RTC's job was simply to get rid of them. But in buying bad loans before banks fail, the Bush administration would be signing up for a financial war of choice. It would spend billions of dollars on the theory that preemption will avert the mass destruction of banks. There are cheaper ways to stabilize the system. (Sebastion Mallaby of the Washington Post)
And they want to bailout whatever they decide. This will likely include bailouts for foreign businesses as well.
The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a ... Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type. (Bloomberg)
It goes counter to the spirit of the American free system that maintains those that reap the rewards should bear the losses.

The basic premise of a free economy is one governed by laws and not men, where property rights are respected, where individuals are free to make contracts with each other, and where honesty and transparency exist in the marketplace.(Mish)

Please contact your senator now and ask them to prevent, block, filibuster, and vote no for any bailout.

I’d also encourage you to drop me an email or a comment if you make the call.

Thank you.

Caleb

Smells Like Enron

Caleb Mardini — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:30:16 -0700

This is a repost of something I wrote in another blog, but I thought it apt to share here in that it involves one of the investment banks involved very heavily in sub-prime lending and selling mortgage backed securities. How does this affect you? Credit (read: mortgage) markets are tight, there are many factors contributing to credit contraction, but one big one is lack of confidence in mortgage backed investment vehicles. Actions like these taken by Lehman Brothers further erode market confidence, prolonging a downturn.

Lehman Brothers, a sort of Wall Street cousin to Bear Stearns (read: should have collapsed a long time ago), is showing that it finds Enron style solutions to financial inconveniences a usefull way to stave off pending disaster. The company spun off a hedge fund staffed by "former" Lehman executives.

R3 Capital Partners is a group that was essentially established to "buy" Lehman's risky investments, taking them off of Lehman's balance sheets. Lehman is going out of its way to say that R3 is not a related company and deny that it has any "ability to exercise significant influence'' (Lehman Spokewoman Keri Cohen) over R3. But the evdidence shows otherwise:

1. R3's employees maintain their restriced Lehman stock as if they were still Lehman employees.

From Naked Capitalism
"the former employee charged, based on information provided by several people at Lehman, that the R3 employees' restricted stock was still vesting on its original schedule, as if they were still on the firms' payroll. If true, this is both highly unusual and costly."

2. Lehman assets could account for nearly half of the fund's investment base. According to Lehman's own advisor Felix G Rohatyn in an interview with Andrew Sorkin of The New York Times, money like that does buy influence:

“The big difference is the political element,” he said. Mr. Buffett is seeking the best return when he invests; that’s his only goal, Mr. Rohatyn said. For Dubai and China, whether the investment returns 10 percent or 20 percent — or perhaps much less — is almost beside the point, he suggests. What they really want is influence on the world stage, despite their insistence otherwise."

Yes the article and the quote are discussing a different idea, but Rohatyn's point is that money buys influence. With a 48% holding in R3 could Rohatyn deny that Lehman has influence in R3?

3. Lehman is R3's Landlord.

The Empire Strikes Again

R3 allows Lehman to hide the truth from investors, creating and funding it's own buyer for potentially failing assets. This is very much like Enron's Chewco, created to hide debt off balance sheet and inflate profits. Chewco was named after Chewbacca, a Star Wars character, I have to say "R3" sounds similarly named considering the star droids R2D2 and C3PO.

[Naked Capitalism and Bloomberg News]

Privatized Gains, Socialized Losses

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:44:33 -0700

It's not secret that H.R. 3221 is about to move on to the president for signing. What's less understood is that a section entitled "Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008" was written by Bank of America. The effect of the bill is to offload from lenders some $300,000,000,000 of some of the worst performing loans to taxpayers.

Senator Dodd (D CT) introduced the bill stating there would be no investor bailout, but a reading of the bill shows clearly that's what it is.

Dodd has been in the limelight more recently for improprieties related to preferential treatment he received from one of the main beneficiaries of this bill Countrywide Financial. Furthermore the bill, was written by the other main beneficiary, Bank of America Corp.

This bill threatens to extend a housing crisis and the economic recession in that it harms prudent investors and prevents those less prudent from bearing the full consequences of their actions.

The section of the bill that provides for the bailout, and Bank of America internal documents can be found here.

http://sites.google.com/site/bankbailout/

Senators Kit Bond (R MO)and Jim DeMint (R S.C.) seem to be the only ones raising any concern about the bailout portion of the bill.

Update: From an Associated Press Article

Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the House minority leader, called on Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to hold a hearing investigating allegations that Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., got preferential mortgages at the behest of Countrywide Financial Corp. CEO Angelo Mozilo. Countrywide, a leading subprime lender that has been blamed for helping to cause the mortgage meltdown, is among those that could benefit from the housing rescue.

"Democrats who receive sweetheart deals from their campaign contributors shouldn't be pushing legislation forcing taxpayers to bankroll a $300 billion bailout of scam artists and speculators, and the American people have every right to demand answers if they do," Boehner said in a statement.

Again I don't think this is partisan, it's a problem on both sides, but I'm glad to see someone making a fuss about this.

New real estate comes online. Stake your claim.

Caleb Mardini — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:33:28 -0700

Virtual real estate gets bigger and better?

As probably one of the biggest changes to come to the the Internet in a long time, ICANN, the body that that gives us .org, .edu, etc., is opening things up to a whole new range of names.

Looking toward 2009 ICANN plans to make it possible for the characters after the "." like the com in ActiveRain.com to become any number of other names (.caleb .rainmaker etc.).

"Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info." ICANN Chariman, Peter Dengate Thrush

It's a big change from 21 to ???, that's a lot of real estate opening up folks, I'm not sure if it's better, but it'll be interesting.

Donate to the Charles Richey Fund

Friend, husband and fellow REALTOR® was unexpectedly hospitalized read more

Very "Active" Rainer, Charles Richey Needs Your Help

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:25:19 -0700

Please help Charles and Jacqulyn Richey.

I received an email today from Max Chirkov over at IBSTeam.net (you've seen his links at the bottom of AR's Directory pages) asking for help on behalf of Charles and Jacqulyn. Charles has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare disorder that attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. Over a period of days or sometimes weeks GBS causes muscle weakness and eventually complete paralysis.

The good news is Charles is currently in the ICU undergoing treatment, and while "GBS" can be life threatening, Charles was diagnosed early and patients most of the time recover with few ongoing issues. While his recovery might take a while, it's my impression that he's going to be OK.

Now an ICU is an extremely expensive place to undergo treatment. He's also going to need ongoing physical therapy. Without medical insurance the need for support is going to be high. Max over at IBSTeam.net is taking up a Paypal collection, to help Charles and his wife Jacqulyn cover some of the costs of treatment.

I've known Charles for some time, he's a major impact on this community. He went out of his way to help me work through things when ActiveRain was growing. I know I'm not the only one he's helped directly or indirectly. Given that he has touched so many of us, even a small contribution from the many people that know him will add up to a lot, and go a long way toward helping. So if you can make a contribution even a small one please visit Max's page to do so. Max also has more information about what's going on if you'd like more information.

___

And please help yourself too.

For many of us that are self employed, I realize medical insurance is most often a low priority concern. It seems if we're healthy now, there's no need for it. In my own case, I grew up with entrepreneurial parents, and went into entrepreneurial work myself, medical insurance was never a priority. I've spent most of my life without insurance.

Through many medical incidents involving people I know, I've come to see that medical issues can suddenly hit any of us. I now have my own "catostrophic" insurance plan. I'm in good health and rarely need to see a doctor, when I do I can pay out of pocket. I have this plan for the unanticipated concerns.

I would encourage each of you without coverage, to take a look at what options might be available to you. Even if you don't expect to need medical attention having a coverage plan in place is in my opinion a good idea.

Donate to the Charles Richey Fund

Friend, husband and fellow REALTOR® was unexpectedly hospitalized read more

Printer Angst

Caleb Mardini — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:02:28 -0700

Have you ever fumed, wondering why the replacement cartridges cost more than the printer itself? If you have then this video might be satisfying.

Via Gizmodo

A Slippery Slope; Fraud and Lending

Caleb Mardini — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:51:16 -0700

There are many factors that have contributed in creating a crisis in the credit markets. We haven't seen the end yet, we're still learning about what created the problems we're facing now.

This system of loan origination is highly organized, and more recently some investment products were created that allowed financial institutions to more efficiently move mortgages into secondary markets and off their books. The result was that lenders became more interested in originations than they were in creating quality products. Fed Governor Frederick Mishkin calls it "the originate-to-distribute model."

"The originate-to-distribute model, unfortunately, created some severe incentive problems, which are referred to as principal-agent problems, or more simply as agency problems, in which the agent (the originator of the loans) did not have the incentives to act fully in the interest of the principal (the ultimate holder of the loan). Originators had every incentive to maintain origination volume, because that would allow them to earn substantial fees, but they had weak incentives to maintain loan quality. " Governor Mishkin 2/29/08

A memo circulating through JPMorgan Chase entitled "Zippy Cheats & Tricks" ended up in the hands of Oregonian reporter Jeff Manning. The memo explains how to push loans through the company's automated underwriting system, essentially encouraging fraud. Manning it's unclear how widely the memo was circulated, but it does provide a piece of evidence supporting an issue I've been talking about for some time, and exactly what Governor Mishkin was trying to explain.

While loan submissions do have to be put together to fit specific loan products, suggestions from the memo like "Remove any mention of gift funds" asks the reader to commit fraud. While a lender rep might instruct a broker on how to structure loan submissions to fit a particular loan program, I believe there was a fuzzy line between putting together a package that fit the program, and putting together a loan package that shouldn't have made it through they system in the game to bypass program guidelines enforced computerized (automated) underwriting systems and human underwriters.

Due to the interconnected nature of the loan industry, the effects from memos like these wouldn't have been restricted to JPMorgan Chase, these types of ideas would have been disseminated to all institutions from the top, and laterally. As bank employees and brokers picked up practices from one institution, they could communicate them to others and take them with them as the changed jobs (which occurred often as the jobs in the mortgage industry boomed). This is how I believe these and other "Cheats & Tricks" affected many institutions.

The resulting loans wouldn't meet the requirements for the packages they were bundled in. Subsequent ratings would be meaningless. This leaves us today with no idea what potential performance to expect from specific mortgage backed investment products.

This is not the only reason we are facing issues today. High rates of leverage, dissaggregation, rapid (miscalculated) inflation are among many factors contributing to this credit crisis. I suggest however, that this cheating contributed to increasing the volume of mortgages that currently are souring the performance of and investor confidence in credit markets.

Jeff Manning"Chase mortgage memo pushes 'Cheats & Tricks" The Oregonian 3/27/08 via Calculated Risk

Calculating "Advantage" Redfin study misleads

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:00:06 -0700

Hello all, I know it's been quite some time since I've posted. I saw some posts today I thought I'd pass on. Seattle based Redfin today came out with a study declaring a customer advantage in savings prices. Ultimately however as I looked at the numbers and how the study was conducted, I found the results to be less conclusive than they are portrayed.

I'd give the company kudos for their customer satisfaction ratings. If a company can create a consistent satisfactory experience in this business I think they are doing a good thing for the industry.

The main point that is being expressed however, is that the company can save customers money through the negotiated sales price. My first thought however after reading the claim was how would they account for the negotiated concessions I'm used to? The company claims a buyer's sales price advantage of .928% This is not saying much. It's not saying much because final sales price is not necessarily reflective of the ultimate results for the buyer and seller.

I've seen a lot of deals cross my desk as a sales person, a real estate broker, and a mortgage broker. The deals I've seen take many forms. In my experience The ultimate selling price, is NOT a reflection of how well either the buyer or the seller was served. Most every deal involved some kind of negotiation and concessions that were worked on between the parties that involved any number of things, including property improvements, closing costs and loan fee arrangements. The net sales price did not necessarily reflected net concessions to favoring either party.

I actually discussed this last March, in going over the impact the practice might have on comparable sales data. My example deal was one where I was the sales person. In addition to negotiating a final price it involved $20,000 to be refunded to the buyer to go toward "current and future updates" on the property. The seller preferred to do it this way as he was a builder and did not want the reduced price to impact his future sales. While there were other things negotiated into the deal, that $20,000 reduction would never have shown up under the analysis performed by the company.

Just a thought. Did I miss something?

Chicagoland...More Blogging Help, Meet Craig Schiller.

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:11:59 -0700

Chicago area Coldwell Banker Agents. This Wednesday October 3, the company is putting on an awesome expo. Craig Schiller will be there, and so will I, representing ActiveRain. From what I can see there's going to be a lot to learn there. The line-up looks great. If you don’t go to this I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. How many homes are you really going to show this Wednesday anyways? .

Registration is only 69$. If you take a look at the speakers and the break out sessions alone you’ll see there’s tremendous value in this. They say retail value 150$ and I’d say it’s more than that. This is a terrific opportunity to hone your e-marketing tools and to explore things that you might not have considered.

I’ll be there in Chicago with Craig discussing blogging and social networking. Coldwell Banker is setting up a blogging lounge. I'll be there and so will Craig to talk more about emarketing, blogging, and social networking. If you're a Greater Chicago Area Coldwell Banker Agent, I would strongly suggest you attend.

Thank you.

Update Oct 3:
OK I’m here at the Coldwell Banker Emagine Expo and I’m impressed with how into blogging all of these agents are. Craig and I are almost out of business cards and flyers and it’s only 10:00 am!

Onward

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:18:41 -0700

I'm moving on to do other things. I've got a number of things to wrap up before I go, but from now on Jonathan, Bob, and Nicole will be around to help you with ActiveRain. I'll still be available to talk about blogging, networking, and sales.

A terrific journey.
We've come a long way from when Matt and Ben and I first set this community growing in Late May/Early June 2006. The goals I set are being fulfilled. We now have a community of almost 50,000 real estate professionals who are communicating with each other on almost a daily basis. Working as a community many members, are getting more out of their businesses than ever before. They are also offering their customers a better value proposition. Participants in this community are far better resources for customers because of the knowledge and connections developed here.

Being a part of this community has made us all better and I have no one to thank more than those members who have contributed to the foundations and growth of this community. This is your network. You've brought it here, and I thank you all for doing so.

Some thoughts:

Take advantage of The Network.
I very much appreciate all the members who have called emailed or written me regularly telling me about the wealth of knowledge they've acquired in their work here. This is a terrific resource and I encourage all of you to take advantage of it.

Technology has a tremendous impact on marketing. Right now blogging and social networking are two important aspects of that. Get your voice out there with blogging, and continue to develop connections with home shoppers, and your colleagues. Participate, and enjoy yourself, if you're not having fun then something's not right.

A reminder about competition.
ActiveRain thrives on the competitive spirit. Please enjoy the interactions with your competitors. For individual sales persons the largest obstacles to sales aren't other sales people, but rather the customer's desire not to make a change, and your own personal limitations. By learning with your fellow sales people you'll be able to improve in so many ways that it's worth embracing the opportunity.

Stay out of trouble.
As a a part of this industry you are also required to work within a legal framework that is industry specific. U.S. wide you will have fair housing and anti-trust among other things to be careful of. The web has a permanence to it, what you do will stick, so be sure to know your legal obligations and responsibilities.

Be nice to the new person.
Remember at this early stage there are going to be a lot of people who are trying to figure it out. We were all new once. It takes time to adjust so please treat the new comers with kindness. Ultimately how you treat others will reflect on you.

Thank You
I am looking at a number of opportunities, but I'll still be available to you to talk about the web, marketing, blogging, networking, and sales, you can reach me via my ActiveRain profile.

I feel very fortunate to of had this opportunity to service this community. Thank you for everything.

What Changed For Me.

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:32:59 -0700

I don’t want to get to far into it here because there is a lot that can be said. I do want to share a little bit of my own experience however. It's been six years, but I don't think I've really shared this since then.

On my mothers side my family has been a part of this country since before its founding. I am often asked what my ethnic background is. When I’m asked, I often jokingly reply that I’m Pilgrim. My mother’s family arrived here on the Mayflower.

On the other side I’m Arab. My step-father's family is from Lebanon. Growing up, Lebanon was in a civil war. I heard a lot about what was going on there. I heard nostalgic expressions of how great things used to be, and how bad they’d gotten. When I was 11 I spent about 8 months there during the tail-end of the war.

I knew that people lived their lives there, war or no war. I also experienced it, I went to school, picked up food for the family. I was just a kid like anywhere else. But it was still a different world.

From my experiences and what I heard I knew there was a world out there, that was very different than the one I grew up with here. I knew I was fortunate to be growing up in the United States as opposed to many other places. Here there is a much more stable civil society than in many other places. Corruption is much lower and we enjoy a significantly stronger rule of law.

When the Oklahoma City bombing occurred my world was rocked. I couldn’t believe that something as horrible as that could happen here. I thought of the lives destroyed, those that died, and all those that were affected by it. There was however some reassurance in a sense that the Oklahoma City bombing was an isolated experience. It was the act of a few people who were found and brought to justice.

What happened to us on September 11, 2001, changed things permanently for me. The loss of life was, again devastating. The stories of heroism, and people working together to take care of each other were inspiring. But in Seattle, I was far removed from that.

For me on that day, I saw my world view change. Those two worlds I had once separated were separate no longer. The day the planes went down the world that I had known only to exist elsewhere, came flooding in. The country changed for me. The oceans no longer mattered as they once had. Our borders now reached out beyond the oceans.

That is what changed for me.

An awesome customer service experience I wanted to share

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:36:39 -0700

I'm very impressed with this recent example of excellent customer service that I received recently. I wanted to share it with the community in hopes that it helps us look at what we do, and to highlight the company for what it did to serve me.

The Xbrand Company is a leading designer of laptop accessories. One of their more well known products is their line of laptop stands. These things look like something out of a Sci-fi, or a high tech gadjet from an action movie. When I see it I just think "Batman." The stands are beautiful, sleek, and ergonomic.

When I purchased one somewhere around 3 years ago, it really was one of the best stands I'd ever seen. I eventually broke the stand by putting to much weight on a special catch it has so you can tilt your laptop up. The stand continued to work for me for years, but not with the full functionality that it had with the catch.

I saved the pieces, hoping to fix it someday. This unfortunately became one of those projects that constantly gets put off. The pieces are lost now, and I probably could not have fixed it anyways without new parts.

I finally picked up the project again last month. I checked it out and the company was still selling at least a similar looking model. I wrote to see if they might, by chance, have the parts I was looking for. I received a prompt reply requesting more specifics on the model and serial numbers to see if they had what I was looking for. As it turned out their current models were updated, and the parts I was looking for weren't available. At least that's what I understand.

In any case my very next email from Xbrand was a request for my shipping address. They were sending me a new stand!

They've got a pretty happy customer in me. I'm enjoying the stand very much it sits alongside my monitor so I can work on two screens. Years later this is still probably the best stand I could find. And now I'm wowed by this amazing customer service experience and I'll be recommending this product, and sharing my experience with the company for years to come.

Attending the Louisiana REALTORS® Meeting Sept 20th

Caleb Mardini — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:40:49 -0700

I'll be at the Baton Rouge LRA meeting I look forward to meeting any AR Members there.

Getting the Most out of Your Rain

Caleb Mardini — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:24:47 -0700

The ActiveRain Real Estate Network is here to help connect real estate professionals to each other, and also to real estate consumers. While connecting to consumers seems obvious to most, many people have a hard time understanding that why real estate professionals would need or want to connect to each other. I believe that it's more important than most people realize.

Today, through technology it's easier than ever to live in a disconnected world. With fax, internet, and email, we have many conveniences that help us get through transactions. We have more freedom to do things on our terms, on our time-line, things are just more convenient really. But there is a price to be paid for that convenience. The nature of these conveniences make it so that we miss out on the interpersonal connections that develop from being in regular contact with colleagues. By being disconnected real estate professionals are loosing out on the wealth of opportunities. We are missing out on a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience that comes from just simply interacting. This can be true for any industry.

One of the goals here on ActiveRain is to facilitate those once lost connections. On the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, members are reconnecting, coming together and collectively sharing their knowledge and experiences. Through doing so we can become individually and collectively stronger. Members report to me regularly about the tremendous positive impact being a part of this community has made for them. This makes an ActiveRain Real Estate Professional, a greater asset to their clients. Stagers, loan officers, real estate agents, etc., all offer a better value proposition to the people they serve and work with when they can go forward with the benefit of the collected knowledge they've gained from participation.

To go forward and begin developing these connections for yourself, I suggest starting out by reading. Go out and find posts and bloggers that interest you. Read the posts, rate them, comment on them, and develop connections with the authors. Watching learning from others will help you to define your own style. Use what you read in blogs to help inspire your writing.

When you want your posts to go out to your fellow members please keep in mind the topics that interest you in your reading.

The ActiveRain Real Estate Network is going through constant changes. While we'll work to improve the tools we provide now, going forward I see ActiveRain offering more ways and opportunities to strengthen this community of dedicated professionals. For now please connect and share your experiences to strengthen the bonds you develop both online and offline. It is through this collective sharing that we improve our value both to ourselves and to our consumers.

ActiveRain's Place

What's the Big Idea?

Engaging and offering value, responding to the market

Caleb Mardini — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:39:10 -0700

I've talked to and seen a lot from real estate people upset about the stories of doom and gloom for the housing market reported on the news. While looking at the media might be one resource. I feel sales people can do better. Looking at how to engage with clients is, I feel, far more effective than simply trying to deliver a blanket message.

I'm on record as stating that it's important to give your clients the truth, whether you loose the deal or not. One of the most common questions for a client to ask is often related to the conditions of the market.

“Is now a good time to buy/sell?” The question begs for a market explanation. But if you look at a second time you'll realize the the question really depends upon the asker. The answer is, “It depends.” And, “It really depends on you.”

The credit market is currently very volatile. Real estate market conditions are less certain than many are accustomed to. Yet in almost any market the decision to buy or sell and benefits therefrom are highly dependent upon the specific needs of the questioner.

It's the job of a real estate sales person and a mortgage officer to understand their clients situation It's the loan officer or agent's job to help them determine what's really in their best interest.

In my experience a sales person looses a lot of credibility at that moment that they stop taking the clients interests into account. An effective salesperson looking to make a sale, repeat business and referrals knows that to get the sale they've got to be forthright with the customer. Sales isn't about “duping” people.

It is, in fact, in the thoughtful and considered investigation of this question that a salesperson delivers a significant amount of their value to their client. Working within the bounds of their experience and limited area of expertise, it is imperative that a salesperson deliver to their client the benefits of that knowledge and experience.

In declining markets there are terrific opportunities, and in appreciating markets there are dogs. In most cases a good opportunity isn't going to depend upon the state of the market as much as it it will on the unique needs of the client.

“I don't know, it depends upon what you need.” Offers a much more compelling chance for discussion than simply "yes."

A quote to share.

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:53:13 -0700

I'd like to share with you a quote from a friend of mine....

"Life was so much easier when I stuck hard and fast to my can't do attitude."

Professional Pride

Caleb Mardini — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:07:31 -0700

At Inman's Real Estate Connect San Francisco this last week I was quite surprised during a discussion facilitated by Brad Inman between Redfin CEO Glen Kelman and Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate. I was upset that through the discussion I believe the concept of sales person was taken down a notch.

You can check out the "Duet" between Lennox and Glen. The part I am interested in is at about 11 minutes. You can click right there. It is at this part that the conversation goes into a discussion on sales.

Real Estate Connect Video by - InmanTV

In response to a question from Inman, Scott began describing a set of nuanced terms, which I felt, sounded more like excuses, than genuine support. I was a bit appalled that sales wasn't propped up more by Mr. Scott. I'll give him that this was an interview and being on the spot it's easy to make mistakes, but I still didn't like it. While Inman was in there talking about how he seeks out sales people to help him, Scott was offering nuanced terms. Terms that I felt were almost apologies. Others may see it differently but what I felt I saw was an attempt to sugar coat the term sales.

Sales people should be celebrated. There are bad sales people I know. But they don't represent what I did when selling. They shouldn't be able to ruin the profession for me, or any other honest hard working professional out there. There are a whole lot of sales people who are making a difference in this world. They are doing a lot to assist people making important and life impacting decisions. In my recent past I took great pride in telling people I was a sales person. Sales is terrific and it makes the world go around. I have to say that as a sales person I took great pride telling people that I was in sales.

When I brought up what I saw with some people I know, I had some immediate detractors who, presented to me the stereotype dishonest slime-ball who might often try to manipulate a client into something they don't want. Personally my pride extended from taking my skills and knowledge about real estate to truly help my clients through the process of buying or selling a new home. The image needs to be changed so that a negative stereo type doesn't dominate the profession.

I've had the opportunity to participate in the careers of some terrific sales people. I see that in those people the level of commitment and to learning about and understanding how to deliver on the best interests of the client is phenomenal.

In my opinion we don't need "heightened concepts" to describe sales people. What we need is an effort by each sales person, and sales companies everywhere to educate the general public on the value of their sales people. Work needs to be done to educate the consumer on how to select a sales person that is knowledgeable, clearly interested in keeping the best interest of the customer at the forefront of their work.

Sales people, please stand up and have some pride for your profession.

SEO and blogging, just write.

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:36:52 -0700

Every once in a while I come a across a post that has an incredibly large number of links in it. The links are excessive and seem to be a part of some deranged hyper-SEO strategy. The links don't help the reader but are more of a distraction. It's understandable that a member would be attempting to get attention from a search engine this way but linking like this produces long-term negative effects.

The fact is that this sort of linking is considered abusive. It's abusive to the search engines and searchers, to your readers, and to The ActiveRain Real Estate Community. Please remember that the engineers that work for search engines are also thinking 'search engine optimization.' That optimization is done in the name of delivering greater and greater relevant content to searchers. As search technologies are adjusted the direction toward greater performance in relevancy delivery means that attempts with abusive linking campaigns will become time wasted.

Furthermore search technologies include methods to penalize those that would abuse the system. Penalized sites can be de-listed all together, taking you out of the search results.

Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmasters recently posted on issues that can come up with linking. Excessive linking is often considered spam and in those cases that we see a member intentionally spamming the network we will take action. "Action" might mean point deductions, but it can lead to removal from the community.

It is natural to have a links when blogging, and links should be used where they can. However links must be relevant to the conversation. Writing should be for your readers more that for the search engines. We work to optimize your blogs, and profiles as much as possible. The extra step you need to take is writing relevant and interesting topics to so that potential customers looking for information will find you as a resource.

If you see excessive linking in a post, please flag it so we can help the blogger.

Back at the Keyboard

Caleb Mardini — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:26:29 -0700

I've been out for the last ten days, and I've got a large number of emails in my inbox. Lydia, Nicole, Ben, and James were working hard to answer your questions this week, while Bob, Matt, Jonathan, Sarah and I attended Inman's Real Estate Connect San Francisco. The event was great for this community we even won and innovator award at the technology conference. I saw a lot of Rainers there and I believe reached out to a lot of new ones. There was so much going on that it I'm still recovering.

At the conference we announced the winners of the Project Blogger Contest, Mary Pope-Handy and Frances Flynn Thoresen. The team chose to have the $5,000 prize go to Care, but more on that later.

Hugh Macleod of The Gaping Void was the keynote speaker and he gave an awesome speech on "Kula" and "Social Objects." The concept of social objects is an important part of understanding connections and the transfer of meaning.

Bloggers who attended Connect please be sure to tag your posts with "connectsf" so they can be picked up and viewed by other attendees.

I'm sorry for not getting back to a lot of you sooner, but I'll be working through to get back to you ASAP.

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