Burlington Vermont Real Estate

trumped up reviews part 2

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:56:45 -0500

So I emailed homethinking.com support with a simple question: "How do you get your sales data?" I received this response:

Many thanks for your email Pike.

Basically, we try to notice a Realtor is representing a property by monitoring public data, and then we check the county records to see if the house ended up selling. But that method can be prone to errors in some parts of the nation where the county record data may not be updated in a timely manner.

Also, you can change anything on your profile via a free a tool that lets you manage your listings activity and change those that are selling to sold.

Claim your profile here (it's free):
http://www.homethinking.com/realtorcheckprofile.action?realtorId=931934&claimType=basic&routing=profile

And then you'll be taken to an area where you can change your activity.

If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know and my apologies once again.

Best.
Niki

Niki Scevak - Founder
Homethinking LLC
_________________________________________
phone: (646) 257-4099 | fax: (646) 224-6950
post: PO Box 4668 #9550, New York NY 10163

I find it interesting that Niki apologizes (again?), though I don't make a complaint. Do they receive complaints often enough that they assume any email from an agent is a complaint? Is she aware I am an agent? I did not send my question through my business email. Perhaps she found me on active rain...

Hold on...wait a minute....just a second....

Yes Niki Scevak is on Active Rain. Or was; it doesn't seem she has used the site since 2007. I don't think this is how she may have discovered I am an agent. A simple google search for "Pike Porter" would have put the question to rest. I did find that several agents ask buyers and sellers to read reivews of them on homethinking.com. Some agents find it useful. I also found this Active Rain blog post from September 7th, 2006:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/7316/what-the-heck-were-they-homethinking-com-with-this-turkey-

trumped up reviews

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:58:50 -0500

So, in the process of getting my new agency updated in the bing.com local listings, I come across two reviews of my two largest competitors in Chittenden County, Lang and Hickok Boardman. "Interesting," think to myself suspiciously, "who reviews real estate agencies on yelp.com or judysbook.com?" Judysbook.com, who even heard of judysbook.com?

Well, Greg S. had and made it a point to review Lang Associates, now Lang Mclaurghy Spera, on August 20th, 2006.

It was the only review he ever wrote--ever--no restaurant reviews, book reviews, movie reviews--none of the reviews people ordinarily post for the world to see. But he went out of his way to write a review of his real estate agency. Huh.

I'm no less suspicious of the Coldwell Banker Hickok Boardman's review found on yelp.com Sybil C.'s review even included an upload of the company logo. Now that is one dedicated patron.

But who knows, perhaps the companies had nothing whatsoever to do with the posting of these reviews. There was a website out there at one point in time that tried to rate agents. The site accumulated some, very little, sales data and ranked agents by some formula. It so happened that most of the data was sales from Century 21, my former agency. I was it's top ranked agent. While I was pleased to see positive rating, I was a bit miffed that a website would rate anyone or anything, the same system could give an agent an equally poor rating for a similar random set of data.

Wait...Hold on...I wanna check something...Yes, the site is still online: homethinking.com. Unfortunatly, I'm no longer the top ranked agent...but I am still ranked as a Century 21 agent based on my performance 2 years ago. Good to see they are reviewing their data set frequently.

You can't believe everything you read online.

Grand Opening of Castle Porter Real Estate!

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:24:49 -0500

I'm very pleased to announce the establishment of Castle Porter Real Estate, a socially consious real estate company that strives to reduce costs to sellers, provide financial incentives to buyers, offer superior commissions to its agents, and provide charitable gifts to local not-for-profit organizations by embracing technological efficiency and by avoiding outdated marketing methods and unnecessary overhead. Castle Porter Real Estate will be the real estate agency Vermonters turn to when looking for the single most professional, cost effective, and socially responsible real estate agency in Vermont.

We are located at 52 Elmwood Avenue right in downtown Burlington. Stop in and say hi--or leave a note--its been a busy Spring. Of course you can also find us at Burlington's most awesomest, down-right kick-ass real estate web site this side of the great divide.

In coming weeks we should even have business cards to give away.

BloodhoundRealty.com and Hypocrisy

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:27:15 -0600

So I could be wrong, it's happened before. Or I could be impatient, or paranoid, or the casualty of a internet glitch. But I don't think so.

I think I've been black-listed from making comments on BloodhoundBlog.com.

Which is kind of funny, cuz if I am correct (and please correct me if I'm wrong) I've black-listed because of a comment I made on a posting of Greg Swan's about the censorship of a blogger.

I don't think it was my correcting him about the definition of the term "censorship,"--though he does seem confused on that point--that got me banned, not do I think it was pointing out that what he would call satire and irony most adults would call juvenile and asinine.

No, it was simply my response to another poster who asked if anything was happening with a suit against ePerks. "Nah, the ugly duckling got his feathers ruffled," I responded. I thought nothing of it until yesterday, when I went back to Greg's blog post. My comment was gone, missing, as if it never was written.

"Huh. Strange," I thought, and proceeded to attempt a few more posts on his blog, and a few other blogs. I also attempted to add my blog to the bloodhoundblog.com list of real estate blogs.

No luck.

Apparently, and again I may be wrong, Greg Swan can dish the smack, but can't take it himself. Who wudda thought him a softy? or a bad sport? or a hypocrite, or just really insecure?

Burlington Realtor Back to Work

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:15:29 -0600

I took a sabbatical for much of 2008 to pursue some art hobbies. The time was relaxing. As much as I love my job, it was a bit tough getting back into the swing of things. Since January 1st, I have one new listing and one pending contract, and three serious buyers, one who has put an offer on a home and still negotiating, another who is ready to make an offer today, and a third who just met with me and her loan officer to review the best way to make an offer on a condo. I'm glad to get back into active work mode so quickly but forgot how much time out of the day, showings, offers, inspections, etc can take out of a day.

During my sabbatical I did get my broker's lisence. I have also redone my website Burlington Vermont Homes and Condos and have another new site in the works that should be unvieled at the end of the month. We still deciding what the new site name will be.

I've reviewed the stats for Chittenden County and Burlington for 2008 and home prices were up about 3% over 2007. Home sales were down, but it is good to know that homes are keeping their value.

Happy new year. Make it a prosperouse one.

Pike

open houses in Chittenden County

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:23:05 -0500

All set! www.vtopenhouse.com is on its way to its new home with nvbr/vrein. I wonder if nvbr will provide data feeds for the open houses so that other sites can display them. It would help buyers and would help real estate agents. In the mean time, I'll continue to season. www.openhousevermont.com.

I googled open houses in Chittenden County in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and the results were interesting, and different. In Firefox point2 takes first place and my site takes 2nd. In IE Hickok Boardman is first, Point2 is second, and I take fourth after www.HomesandLand.com. Yesterday when searching google on IE, my www.openhousevermont.com was second after CBHB. Oh the fickle fate of google rank.

I'm glad that the sale has been resolved.

buyer psychology--counter intuitive research

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:51:11 -0500

These last few months I've read some interesting research summaries regarding buyer psychology. One little tidbit: In a market like we now have with an abundance of inventory and thus choices for the buyer--a buyer's market--buyers are actually more likely to be dissatisfied with their purchase then buyers buying in a seller's market. Why? Because the wealth of options in a buyer's market creates a paralysis of choices. With so many options, it is harder to chose just one. The choice they make, when they finally do pick one, allows buyers to reflect on their purchase and say "we should have gone with..." "if only we had purchased...." A seller's market offer buyer's far fewer choices and thus far fewer reasons to second-guess thier decisions. Consequently, they are more content with thier decision. A second interesting tidbit of buyer discontent: While the common reasoning says buy the smallest, least expensive house in the most desirable neighborhood which will allow buyers to build more equity than purchasing the largest home, buyers are usually more satisfied later by buying the nicest home in less desirable neighborhoods. Why? Because a home is more than a business decision. Though we don't admit it, and may not consciously believe it, we do compare ourselves with our neighbors--Veblen's keeping up with the Jones theory. We are less content being the small fish than being the big fish. Huh.

expired listings and photo transfer

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:34:53 -0500

An expired listing was recently relisted by another agency. The agent asked to use the photos I had taken while the listing was mine. Have others either asked or been asked to use photos by another agent? How have you handled the situation?

Thanks,

Pike

Diaries of an Intern

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:28:00 -0500

This week was an interesting week to say the least. I was forced outside my comfort zone in the tasks i was asked to perform. First i was asked to get the Grand Lists from the town of Shelburne, South Burlington and the state. I was kind of going in blind to this task because i had no idea what a grand list was. What Pike was looking for primarly with those grand lists was the sales data for specific regions. The second task i was asked to perform was to call local agents to see if they had any sellers that would be willing to lease a condo for 3-6 months. What i had to do was first run a search for vacant condos, and then contact the listing agents. I had been primarily doing e-marketing work before this week, but i really enjoyed interacting with actual agents this week. I'm still learning and still kind of naive about the industry as a whole, but i look forward to oncoming weeks to expand my knowledge of the real estate industry

Diaries of an Intern

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:53:44 -0600

Since my last entry i have been primarily been focusing on the marketing aspect of real estate through the internet. I had no idea how much marketing came into play when trying to sell a house. Recentley me and Pike constructed a farming campaign to promote his new listing on 27 lupine st. What the famring campaign hoped to accomplish was to create awareness and exposure to the new listing. I was told it was a rare chance someone would call because of the flyer, but the flyers couldn't hurt. It is small things like this that i had no idea about. To be honest i thought i had a small idea of what the real estate market was all about, but after a couple weeks i realized i truly had no idea. I look forward to the weeks ahead i have with Pike to learn more about the real estate industry. The most enjoyable part for me is working with different people on a daily basis, and having to keep a keen eye on current events within the industry. Until next time, i'll talk to ya soon

Women's Rape Crisis Center Pledge

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:10:31 -0600

Last year was a great year for me: over 4.6 million in production, 19 homes closed, #8 agent in our company, number #4 in Chittenden County, a top Century 21 agent in Northern New England. Last year I also donated to about 1/2 dozen organizations, not including underwriting VPR which I think of as advertizing. The Women's Rape Crisis Center got $500 in 2007 and it was my most satisfying donation. Burlington Community Health Center, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, a few others I can't remember at the moment also received $500 or an in-kind donation of $500.

Burlington had a horrible rape and murder 2 years ago: a UVM student. It was discovered she was missing when she didn't show up for a dinner with her parents who were visiting for parent's weekend. I imagine what those hours and days were like for her parents who, before they found her body, knew to expect the worst but sneeded to hope for the best; I image what those last few hours and minutes were like for the student; they are all haunting imaginings.

So this year I'm focusing my donations on the WRCC and bumping them up a bit. I'm donating $500 for every transacation in 2008 to the WRCC. If I keep even with last year, that'll be $10,000. I'm hoping to donate $20,000. I've only got $19,500 to go. I'll let you know how it goes.

Its never dull for long

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:41:24 -0600

So this came through our company email today. I pity Pam:

From: Mellen Mirisola [mailto:mellen@c21jack.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 3:11 PM
To: barmstrong@c21jack.com; lorawilson@c21jack.com
Subject: Nut Case on the loose

Hi, I had a 1 o'clock today at the office, his name is Chris Heath, No show! He also, stood up Lyn Cooper and Bruce Cote in the last few weeks. I called the hotel, that he said he was staying and they had no record of him, so then I called his cell and got a woman named Pam. She married this guy 2 months ago, and he's wiped her out financially.So, she put him on a bus to N.Y. and is getting an annulment!

Lesson learned, we need to screen our buyers better. This guy is a real con, told all 3 of us that he is a widower, looking up to 450K, and had a job with the Grand Isle fire dept. Well all the firemen up there are volunteers! And she said, he's been doing it in other states as well. This would make a great topic at an office meeting. Not only qualifying issue, but a safety issue as well!

Thanks, Mellen

Diaries of an Intern

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:23:13 -0600

First i would like to introduce myself, my name is Andrew Deloria and i am a senior at St. Michael's College. I chose to intern at Century 21 Jack Associates because i have always been intrigued by the real estate industry, but most importantly the people i came in contact with during the interview process were very welcoming. I would like to say i am very excited to be working with Pike and he already has me working on mini adventures regarding the everyday life of a real estate agent. So far i have primarily focused on the technical side of being an agent and also the promotion side of it as well. I have really enjoyed watching Pike deal with customers because it's giving me a first hand look on how the market works, but also on how to treat clients. Throughout the semester i will be submitting my everyday experiences with Pike in this blog. I'm very excited to see the ins and outs of the real estate industry and i think i found the right guy to show me the ropes.

The numbers are in:

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:42:00 -0600

2007: 19 units and over $4.6 million in production.

#8 Century 21 Jack agent in the state.

99% list-to-sell ratio when representing sellers

Avg. $9,759.00 savings when representing buyers.

2008: $500 for each transaction in 2008 will go to the Women's Rape Crisis Center. Help me sell 40 units and raise $20,000 to the WRCC in 2008.

The only number you need to remember: (802) 233-2600

Thanks to all of my clients for making 2007 a record-breaking year.

They say its a slow market...fortunately for my clients, I'm not listening.

Pike Porter, multi-million dollar agent with Century 21 Jack Associates.

vermont real estate legislative update

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:25:11 -0600

Vermont's part time legislature descended upon Montpelier this week to start what looks to be an eventful session. Several REALTOR® issues took center stage in this first week of the session.

Housing Incentives

Greg Brown executive director of the Chittenden County Regional Planners Commission gave testimony about the new neighborhoods workgroup findings to a joint session of the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs and House General, Housing, and Military Affairs Committees. His testimony provided an overview to the legislators on what some of the points of consensus were, and what the points of contention were among those participating in the workgroup. The legislature applauded the efforts made by Greg and the workgroup, which gives the committees a good starting point to move foreword from in order to craft this worthwhile and much needed legislation. Further testimonies regarding this issue were postponed to a later date.

Buffer Zones for Wetlands

The house fish and wildlife and water resources committee took up An Act Relating to Establishing Buffer Zones Along Waterways of the State (H. 549). Not all wetlands and waterways in Vermont have a designated buffer around them. The proposed legislation (H.549) calls for a minimum buffer of 50ft around all wetlands or, "waterways of the state." The concern for several stakeholders is that many wetlands are small and a mandatory 50ft buffer could take a small wetland and expand it considerably. Also many farms and properties have small streams or ponds contained within their bounds and carving out 50ft on either side of them could render lager portions of the property useless. Overall this legislation could constitute a significant loss of private property use throughout the state.

Rebate, Prebate

The House ways and means committee held a late night hearing on Wednesday with discussion on act 185 and issues surrounding the prebate program. Testimony was given by stakeholders within the lending industry pertaining to specific problems with the program, particularly property tax escrow accounts and how they are administered. According to testimony, some banks are escrowing on the gross tax bill, assuming no prebate regardless of prior rebates, and other banks are escrowing on the net projected bill, or the "likely" prebate. This has caused concerns about banks not operating consistently. In short, the legislature was informed they would have to reopen the bill and write some guidance language for banks to follow when escrowing property tax monies. Numerous issues REALTORS® are facing were also mentioned. Among them, were issues like buyers and sellers not agreeing on whose monies these are. Also it was made clear that for many the home buying process is already a long, confusing, and stressful process and this was just adding to it.

State of the State

Governor Douglas delivered his first State of the State address of the New Year on Thursday. He highlighted several key areas his administration would be focusing on - including healthcare, housing, economic development, tax relief, and overall cost containment.

The Governor restated the high cost of home ownership was a huge problem affecting every Vermonter, in addition to workforce development. Many companies are finding housing costs to be a large barrier to moving operations to Vermont. The Governor touted his New Neighborhoods proposal as desperately need regulatory relief coupled with some economic incentives to spur on new housing development. He also added that he would not support any legislation that contains measures that would increase the tax burden on Vermonters. Let's hope that the Legislature will heed the governor's call and keep his message in the forefront of their minds as the sessions progresses.

vermont real estate legislative update

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:25:07 -0600

Vermont's part time legislature descended upon Montpelier this week to start what looks to be an eventful session. Several REALTOR® issues took center stage in this first week of the session.

Housing Incentives

Buffer Zones for Wetlands

Rebate, Prebate

State of the State

Vermont Market update

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:16:43 -0600

Despite the market nationally, Vermont's real estate sales activity is actually in pretty good shape. Here are some figures:

For the sales period July through October 2007 volume was up 8.5% compared with the same period in 2006.

For the same period, median home prices were up 3.8%.

Nationally things look a bit different. The National Association of Realtors reports that sales volume in September 2007 was down 19.8% and median price was down 4.9% from the previous year.

Median prices for single family primary homes in Vermont the last three years for the months of July-October: 2005: $201,000, 2006: $210,000, 2007: $217,900.

Median prices for primary residence condominiums in Vermont these last three years for the same months. 2005: $179,900, 2006: $180,000, 2007: $188,040.

Email me at Pike@Century21.com to request a month by month break down by county of sales of homes, condos, land, and multi-units.

Also email me if you want to know the selling price for any home sold in Chittenden County.

another great web tool -- free off-site data back-up

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:20:27 -0600

I didn't find out about this site under the best of circumstances--someone stole my laptop--but I'm glad I know about it now.

Its called Mozy and offers 2 gigabyte or more of free data backup. Most of my files were backed up on an older computer but I did lose the last 2 weeks of emails and new client information.

You can check their site out at: https://mozy.com/?ref=AYGUA7

If you have other useful sites, let me know about them.

Vermont home buyers, I have some good news and I have some bad news.

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:40:37 -0600

It is a great time to buy; interest rates are low and there is plenty of inventory to choose from. Recent events as a result are changing the situation however. First the good news.

Interest rates have come down again and are now below 6%! Wow! This will make larger, more expensive homes affordable for Vermont home buyers without increasing their monthly mortgage payment. Now the bad news.

Major underwriters for private mortgage insurance are tightening their requirements as a result of the sub-prime melt down. Consequently, buyers with a credit scores below 620 will not be able to purchase home after January 30th when the new requirements take effect.

It gets bad for investors also. Multi-unit properties with more than 2 units will now need at least 25% down to purchase if it won't be owner occupied. Many small investors will be hurt, both those who have over extended themselves and need to sell--their pool of buyers is going to dry up, and buyers who will not be able to afford investment properties.

Iin short, if your credit score is below 620 or you're an investor looking to purchase a multi-unit property in Chittenden County you have until the end of January to purchase before the private mortgage insurance restrictions take effect.

Welch (and all other Dems) vote to tighten lending practices.

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:52:20 -0600

Last Thursday, by a vote of 291-127, the House of Representatives voted for H.R. 3915 to tighten lending practices. Among other things it will ban lenders from steering buyers into loans that they dont have the ability to repay, steering buyers in refi-loans that provide no benefits to the homeowner, create a licensing system for mortgage brokers, prohibit excessive payoff fees, late payments, and practices such as encouraging borrowers to default.

The Freep defies the laws of journalism

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:37:44 -0600

Ed Shamy titles his not-quite journalism piece in today's Burlington Free Press "Home values defy laws of gravity," perhaps to suggest that his statements are not grounded by actual fact.

"Those who sold," he writes, "made lots of money" while those who didn't sell watch helplessly as their property taxes increase even as their property values decrease. Hogwash. Most folks who sold at the height of the market also bought at the height of the market. Those who didn't sell have still built quite a bit of equity in their homes--ie have made a lot of money that they have not yet liquidated. He writes that homes purchased in 2004 will be worth half the purchase amount by next year! Hogwash.

I don't expect serious journalism from the Freep, but misinformation is going a bit too far. Unfortunatley, the subprime fiasco has made many buyers nervous despite low interest rates and plenty of inventory, despite that property values have continued to appreciate. Far from clarifying the issue, Shamy obscures the truth. Shamy, either because he doesn't understand himself or doesn't think his audience will, doesn't consider the costs of not buying a home-- no tax breaks, no equity building, no pride of ownership. Though he suggest folks wait before buying, he doesn't discuss the consequence should interest rates rise during the wait.

I'm all about clever prose, but not if it results in obfuscating the truth.

ala mode site setup / point2 site set up

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:41:53 -0500

I'm looking for someone experienced with ala mode sites to get mine up and running. I'm also looking for the same service for a point2 site.

Iress broker solution software?

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:15:58 -0500

Has anyone tried thier Broker's Choice product? Anyone had any experience with the company iress?

Thanks,

Pike

Pike@century21.com

Iress broker solution software?

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:47:24 -0500

Has anyone out there used IRESS Borker's Choice managment system? I'm interested in knowing if people have had good or bad experiences with it.

Thanks,

Pike Porter

pike@century21.com

Iress broker solution software?

Pike Porter (Castle Porter Real Estate) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:36:27 -0500

Has any had any experience with the company Iress and their Broker's Choice software? What are your thoughts on it?

Thanks,

Pike

Pike@century21.com