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real estate: Banks or the Crooks That Represent Them. - 09/23/09 07:42 PM
It's not unusual for me to field complaint calls from members - apparently they are labouring under the assumption that I 1) care and 2) can do something about it. (For the record I do and I try)
Most complaints have to do with one of two things - banks or the crooks that represent them. Sound familiar?
One of the most prevalent complaints - and the subject of three calls today, have to do with the pre-quals/pre-approvals required by the banks before they'll look at an offer. With many of your Buyers submitting multiple offers in hopes of landing one, this … (56 comments)

real estate: Fixin' To Get Cooked In The Squat - 02/28/09 05:58 PM
I was inspired by Lenn  Harley's recent post "Get Out Of Bed And Go To Work In The Morning, Even If It's Just Down The Hall" . In it, Lenn gives us ten ways for Realtors to get back in touch with the basics of our business and how to weather the current housing market. But of the 10 excellent suggestions Lenn makes, they all fall apart if we don't do the first one - get out of bed and go to work in the morning even if it's just down the hall. Real estate isn't the right job for a lot … (61 comments)

real estate: The Greatest Story Ever Told - Real Estate Branding. - 10/09/08 06:03 PM
10/9 brand dead Marc Davison of 1000WattConsulting has posted an article over at Inman News that's a must-read. Entitled 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', Davison provides great advice to Realtors on successful brand building using lessons taught by none other than The Grateful Dead. Yep, that's right. Using song titles for paragraph headings, Davison steps through a series of valuable lessons on Brand Dead meant to illustrate that every decision the band made was driven by an attention to the customer that is increasingly rare in this, or any other industry. Years ago, in another life, I worked for a Fortune … (12 comments)

real estate: Inman Panel Focuses on Localism for Recovery - 07/26/08 03:18 PM
7-26 Inman Panel #2 A couple days ago I posted a blog from Inman Connect on their panel 'Housing Debate: Bull vs Bear' in which the bears were goring each other to see who could out-bear the others. It was a bloodletting of epic proportion and I disagreed with much of the content as not being relevant or, in some cases, even accurate. Yesterday (Friday) the last panel discussion was devoted to 'What's Next: When Will The Housing Market Turn?' It was, in my opinion, a much improved presentation and even though the speakers were not universally optimistic, they were all … (3 comments)

real estate: The Value of NEXT. - 02/26/08 01:33 PM
I just read a great post about how sellers want to be lied to - you should check it out. But it reminded me of something I learned years ago that really helped me when I was getting started in this business and might help some of you too.
There are lots of things to P & M about in this business.
Your work your butt off for a listing only to lose it to somebody who 'buys' the listing by inflating the price to what the seller thinks it was worth on it's best day 2 years ago.The seller asks you … (7 comments)

real estate: The beginning of the end. - 02/18/08 12:59 PM
In case you haven't seen it yet, this weeks issue of Time Magazine has an excellent article entitled - "Ignore the Headlines" about how the current real estate downturn is indeed bottoming out and savvy Buyers are stepping up NOW. Quoting John D. Rockefeller - "The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets"...and the streets are stained crimson right now.
The article goes on to post a case study on the weigh-off of buying now when prices are down and interest rates are down vs waiting 12 months and hoping prices will tumble another … (12 comments)

real estate: Wait to buy real estate. - 02/12/08 07:44 PM
Due to the overwhelming negativity of the media and other prognosticators these days, we are facing a dilemma in working with our buyers. As Realtors we know this is a cyclical event that will disappear in the rear view mirror just as it did in the mid-90's, late 80's, early 70's etc. etc. In spite of the fact that many of our markets (esp here in SoCal, Fla, NV and a few others) are seriously awash in foreclosures right now, the turnaround is coming whether the federal government helps us out or not.
Last time around it took us two years … (2 comments)

real estate: Countrywide charged with mortgage fraud? What's next? - 02/07/08 11:01 PM
A reporter friend just called me about a lawsuit recently filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court against home builder KB Homes and lender Countrywide KB Home Loans involving, what else, fraud. I've attached the press release below for your information.
Builders are in a tough spot right now and have been for the past couple years. They have standing inventory that they need to sell but the market has dropped by 30% - 40% (at least in our part of California). If they drop the price of their new homes to a salable level, they've just pissed off everybody who bought … (12 comments)

real estate: Dr. Greenspanstein's Monster & Gambler Mae - 01/17/08 11:47 PM
Well, here's hoping you're safely through the holidays, and that Santa, in his munificence, deposited more than the richly deserved lumps of coal in your moth eaten stockings. With that cheery greeting,  let's start the year with a slap in the yap from the housing market. I know I told you about the light at the end of the tunnel last month but we're not out of the tunnel yet - so keep slogging.
I keep getting asked about the various ‘bail-out' packages being proposed by every sop from Sacramento to DC. So I'll just ask you - do you think … (15 comments)

real estate: Location, location, location - and TIMING. - 01/10/08 04:27 PM
We just finished a board retreat trying to plan around our changing real estate market in Southern California. In addition to trying to guide our Association, we are all Realtors and investors ourselves trying to get a handle on where the business is going, how to advise our clients and time our own plans. One member had an interesting analogy which I'll pass along to you.
A guy goes in to a clothing store one day - needs a shirt (well, we know that's the only time guys shop - when they really need something, right?) He see's this great looking shirt that … (10 comments)

real estate: Is That a Light at the end of this tunnel? - 01/03/08 03:45 PM
I  just got back from our National Association of Realtors conference in Las Vegas. Over 30,000 Realtors from around the world gathered to discuss legislative issues, mortgage fraud, marketing, the election and the economy. There's enough going on in each of those categories to write a whole column but since I promised you an update on the state of our market, that's what we'll focus on.
By far one of the highlights of our annual conference for me is the opportunity to talk with our Chief Economist. This year our new CE, Dr. Lawrence Yun, was joined by John Tucillo, our … (5 comments)

real estate: Short Sale Tax Foregiveness Bill signed - 12/21/07 12:38 PM
President Bush signed into law today a new measure giving tax breaks to homeowners who have mortgage debt forgiven. Under preexisting law, the debt forgiven by a lender, such as for short sales and refinances, was generally taxable to the borrower as debt discharge income. With the passage of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, a taxpayer does not have to pay federal income tax on debt forgiven for a loan secured by a qualified principal residence.This tax break applies to debts discharged from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009. Qualified principal residence indebtedness is debt incurred in … (6 comments)

real estate: That Holiday Spirit - 12/18/07 10:34 PM
Every year our city does a Santa food drive where Santa goes around to the neighborhoods in an old fire truck or sleigh, with carollers, and collects food & toys. Years go it started as just 1 Santa out 3 or 4 nights to cover the town. Now that our city has grown to 100,000, there are four Santa's per night making 10-12 stops for 10 days to cover all the stops. The city paints stars on the street for Santa stops and people come out by the hundreds. It is so much fun.
I have been doing the Santa thing for … (1 comments)

real estate: Owa Tagoo Siam - 12/18/07 01:38 PM
Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit - I'm feeling more cooked every day. Maybe it's just me - maybe my friends have been right all along. Maybe I really am a moron - certainly in a financial sense if not many others.
It seems I can't turn on the radio these days without hearing the come-on's. Amazingly enough in these times there are still companies advertising teaser rate mortgages. 2%, 3%. Refi out of your re-setting problem loan right now before it's too late. No credit, bad credit, no problemo. 100% loan? Howzabout 110%? Don't be stressed out.
Next … (3 comments)

real estate: Boom & Bust Cycles - A Real Estate Primer - 12/17/07 12:40 PM
If you read my rant at the media in this column a couple months back, you remember one of the things I told you was how the media tends to generalize. If you believe what you read and see in the mainstream media, network TV, syndicated columns, etc., you're laboring under the delusion that the entire housing market from one coast to the next is failing, prices plummeting, foreclosures skyrocketing - and it's just not true.
Areas like ours that grew the fastest during the past 5 year run-up, (Riverside County led the nation with 155% appreciation from 2001 - … (2 comments)

real estate: Let the Fingerpointing Begin - Real Estate Fraud - 12/15/07 02:34 PM
When the market heads south, as it has done spectacularly in the recent past, people are always looking for whom to blame. As long as the fingers are pointed comfortably in other directions, they are justified in assigning guilt to most any party who has been involved in even the most peripheral aspect of the housing market. And make no mistake, there's more than enough blame to go around. You've read my rants on greed - the greed of lenders, the greed of homeowners, the bias of the media, the gullibility/culpability of the public and the failings of government lending programs … (6 comments)

real estate: Observations on the Housing 'Crisis'. - 12/13/07 07:05 PM
In the past month or so, I've talked with economists from the California and National Association of Realtors, Dr. John Husing, the CEO's of Coldwell Banker, Prudential and Re/Max as well as a Deputy Director of the FED. They are all in agreement on the housing situation - they don't know what in hell is going on either. But I've panned a few nuggets from these conversations that might help you better understand where we are and allow you to make more informed decisions on your own housing questions.
#1 - All Housing Is Local. Every market is different with its own … (30 comments)

real estate: Greed, for lack of a better word. - 08/09/07 07:21 PM
Gordon Gekko, in the movie Wall Street, opines that "Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit." If word coming out of the banking industry these days is any indication, we've been evolving like rabbits lately. At meeting after meeting around the country, bankers and mortgage lenders are gathering to determine what caused the recent miasmal meltdown of the sub-prime loan market. At meeting after meeting they come to the same conclusion - ‘there was just sooo much money to be made.'
As the market for risky mortgages collapses, dragging home values and stock prices in a downward, swirling motion, one of … (2 comments)

real estate: Get into politics or get out of the business! - 08/09/07 10:38 AM
I've just returned from the excellent INMAN Connect in San Francisco. I haven't attended for the past 3 or 4 years and the meeting has definitely come a long way - especially for thos of you who remember back to the early ones that were a stretch to last more than a day but still provided great content and provocative subject matter.
While I know Brad's focus is on the technological aspects of the industry, he does branch out into tangential subjects, like this meetings seminar on Media and issues. I wish he could bring his unique approach to bear on the … (0 comments)