Jon's Blog

meme... ME?!?!?! awwww crud

Spotlight Realty — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:26:46 -0600

&*%$!!! All right, I'll play along here. Before I do though, I'd like to point out that I've read mutliple blogs that have written a things NOT to do with your blog list. Every time, on that list is don't talk about yourself or your life, no one cares. So if you're reading this for Real Estate related info... pass on this one, you won't find any here.

Those of you unaware of what's going on, I got meme'ed. It's like a game of blog tag, and meme sounds a whole lot better than "blag," and only a moron would use the term blag. Well, once you get blagged, you have to tell 5 things about yourself that most people didn't already know. Then tag 5 more people. Sooooo...

#1) I HATE talking about myself. If someone asks me how everything is, I usually will just say "same old," then proceed to change the subject, or ask them something about themself. I secretly wished this wouldn't actually make it around to me, and contemplated just ignoring it if it did happen. Well, Merry Freaking Christmas Jon.

#2) Speaking of merry x-mas, yeah, I celebrate it, AND hannukah. I'm completely American in the sense that I am a mutt in body and spirit. I'm German, Hungarian, Swedish, English, and one that I forgot. My mom's a jew, my dad's a presbertyrian. I have a jewish friend that accuses me of being JWC (jewish when convenient). The fact of the matter is, I tell everyone the same thing when the topic comes up "my moms jewish." So all jews say "oh, then YOU'RE jewish" and the goy (non-jew for the goy out there) say "so you're half jewish" I just smile, and let people jump to their own conclusions.

#3) I have a severe fear of needles, you will NEVER find any tatoos or piercings on my body. When I was younger, I would constantly break out into tears when I had blood drawn. Even at the age of 16, my doctor would have to come out to calm me down. The most recent time that I had my blood drawn (2005).... I fainted. That's right ladies, I'm a real manly man.

#4) Not that it matters ladies, I'm taken. I have a beautiful girlfriend that I've been dating longer than most celebrity marriages last. We've been together since September 2 1999.

#5) Whenever I'm doing anything business related, and I tell people my age, everyone tells me I'm still a baby. It half annoys me, half makes me appreciate what I've done so far with myself. I was born November 9th 1979, I just turned 27.

That's it. You officially know more about me than most people do. Happy??? Great. Thanks a whole bunch Andrew, and those who brought it to him:

Pam at Walking my own walk

Phil Gerbyshak at make it great

Liz Strauss at Successfull Blog

Drew of Drew’s Marketing Minute

Starbucker

Trevor Gay of Simplicity

Phil of Make it Great

Kammie of Passion Meet’s Purpose

Success from the Nest

Dave of Rothacker Reviews

Andrea Learned of Learned on Women

Ann Handley of the Marketing Profs Daily Fix (MP Daily Fix is one of my very favorite blogs)

Nedra Weinreich, Spare Change

Toby Bloomberg, the Diva Marketer

Paul Chaney, Strategic Blogging

Mary McKnight, RSSPieces

Drew Meyers, drewmeyersinsights

Douglass Hedding of True Gotham

Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans Real Estate

Mike Simonsen of Altos Research

Andrew Maury at Maury Properties

Now comes the time where it's my turn to pass the buck to the next bloggers, should they choose to accept the challenge.

The first one's a no brainer for me, we all know I love reading the Bloodhound, and as of recently he's added a few "frequent contributors" however for one of them, it appears that frequent means not yet. So the first call out is to a man in my town, who appears to be quite the clever marketing guru (from what I've seen on his site), who I have yet to hear from. Ronan Doyle... blag, you're it. Followed by Broker Bryant, BigP, John Keith, and Allan.

Who doesn't love a yankee swap?

Spotlight Realty — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:43:15 -0600

I am fortunate enough to be taking part in the first annual Yankee Blog Swap. Tomorrow this blog will be graced with the presence of Jeff Corbett from the X Broker (and after previewing his article, I actually mean that in the most sincere way possible), while I in turn will destroy every amount of credibility he has worked so hard to acheive, by posting on his blog. Unfortunately, not everyone always gets what they want in a yankee swap.

The brainchild of Mary McKnight from RSSPieces is being held on December 19th and includes an impressive list of some of the most widely read real estate bloggers in the industry, and me. We'll be pairing up and trading spaces for the day. The groups and participants include (thanks to Mary at RSS Pieces for the list, and all the hard work):

Transparent Real Estate's Pat Kitano vs. Zillow's Drew Meyers

RSS Pieces' Mary McKnight vs. Future of Real Estate Marketing's Joel Burslem

St Paul Real Estate Blog's Teresa Boardman vs. Phoenix Real Estate Guy's Jay Thompson

3 Ocean Real Estate's Kevin Boer vs. SLC Real Estate's Nigel Swaby

Issaquah Undressed's Larry Cragun vs. Maury Properties' Andrew Maury

Chicago Home Weblog's Geno Petroche vs. NY Houses 4 Sales' Christine Forgione

Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog's Jonathan Dalton vs. Real Estate Snippets Bonnie Erickson

The boys of Sellsius vs. Real Estate Tomato's Jim Cronin

ML Podcast's Michael Price vs. FamousAgents.com's Elise Wright

My Tech Opinion's Reggie Nicolay vs. Ubertor's Steve Jagger

Redfin's Glenn Kelman vs Rain City's Ardell DellaLoggia

CondoDomain's Anthony Longo vs. miOaklandCounty's Maureen Francis

The San Diego Home Blog's Kris Berg vs. Urban Dig's Noah Rosenblatt

Realty Blogging's Richard Nacht vs. The Mortgage Reports' Dan Green

zillow zillow zillow

Spotlight Realty — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:51:00 -0600

You'd think that being on the East coast you'd have an advantage on being informed of late released hot topics. I recently learned that west coast bloggers don't actually get any sleep.

Well Zillow actually got something right, finally, and in hindsight they've been getting it right all along. I'm not talking about their Make Me Move, wiki, listings for sale, or the fact that it all sums up to a move for market domination.

How can you not be blown away by what is staring you right in the face as we speak. The amount of publicity they've managed to receive is staggering. And they did it by embracing bloggers, keeping them informed, and rolling with the many punches they have received.

Simply marketing genious

The Hangover

Spotlight Realty — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:05:05 -0600

Ahhh the hangover. The time when you remember how much you love advil, your couch, your blanket, and your water closet. And a great time to think about / try to remember just what the hell happened, and what you're going to do about it.

As promised, I wanted to present the other 11 great entries that just didn't make the top 10 cut. These are in a particular order, just not the order you're thinking of.

And without further ~~adeux~~ ~~adeiu~~ ... here we go:

Dr. Rudolph D. Bachraty III at Sellsius questions if newspaper advertising has gone the way of CD's (that's like, sooo 2002) with Old School Real Estate Search: Real Estate Newspaper Classifieds Ads

Russell Shaw, the first recent addition to the Bloodhound gang, writes from his experience that the market has a lot less to do with what you earn, than you think.

Nigel Swaby at Salt Lake Real Estate Blog predicts a soft landing for the economy.

Jonathan Dalton at Jonathan's Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog writes about real estate technology with the little dutch boy

Joel Burslem at Future of Real Estate Marketing shows us 5 Great Ways to Improve Your Designs

Kristal Kraft at Denver Real Estate and Relocation wants to give the title back to Ohio as she points out some of the difficulties of determining the amount of forclosures in Colorado

Drew Meyers at zillowblog is shaking in his shoes about 'quakes, and provides a "how to protect your investment." A great article, that didn't make the top ten, because I though it was such a specific topic that doesn't affect me. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not Drews ... fault. HIOOOOO I got a pun in!!!

Colleen Kulikowski takes a look at the current housing market through her crystal ball.

Rory Siems takes a look at some recent blogging teamups

Brian Brady presents a long overdue idea with, well... a long overdue idea

And last and certaintly least ( I say that because I was actually going to trash it, as it was written on October 18th, and that is clearly in violation of the rules of the carnival). But:

A) I liked the entry
B) I like the idea of the whole blog
3) bugger off, it's my Carnival this week

Bringing up the rear is "2million" writing at 2million blog about the real return on his (her?) rental property

To finish, Drew asked me for my input regarding improvements, as there has been some discussion this week on the subject. So my two cents is this:

Sometimes when you start adding to many complex rules, you make something too complex. The idea of the Carnival of Real Estate should be something very basic. A bunch of Real Estate bloggers that submit their posts each week to a different host. In my opinion, the rules should be entirely up to the host. Different hosts should use their own discretion as to what will fly, I mean, it IS their blog this is going on. I think the more that hosts stray from the norm, the more interesting their carnival is. The more rules you add, the more uniform (aka boring) the carnival will become.

And as far as splitting the carnival in two... please don't. I love getting suggestions from people. I love even more when I get suggestions from people in my company, because they usually get the same response. Make it so... If it's something you're passionate about, then you're the best man for the job.

This weeks Carnival Of Real Estate

Spotlight Realty — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:49:14 -0600

Hold onto your hats people. The Carnival of Real Estate has finally made it around to little old me. I have to say I am completely honered to be hosting the Carnival on it's 21st birthday. So submit your best entries by Sunday the third. And hopefully we can celebrate the big #21 with style, as opposed to the other way around...

How Boston's getting its groove back

Spotlight Realty — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:23:17 -0600

Apparently I've been under a rock, I swear I wasn't playing Mansion Impossible. Regardless, Boston's skyline might be getting a facelift. Only one developer, Steve Belkin, actually bid on the project. He might have had a slight advantage, seeing as he owns an adjoining property.

As seen above, the new building designed by Renzo Piano, will be 75 stories, 15 stories higher than the current New England record holder, the John Hancock Tower. It will feature 1.3 million square feet of commercial space, and 40,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. It will also have an additional 55,000 square feet of public space including a one acre town green on the ground floor with public art, as well as a wind protected, richly landscaped, public observatory area on the top of the building.

The location will be bound by Franklin St. to the North, Summer St. to the South, Devonshire St. to the West, and Federal St. to the East.

Home prices in Boston Cambridge Quincy MA

Spotlight Realty — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:52:38 -0600

CNN reported on home prices across the country. Hold onto your hats people, the bubble has popped, the sky is falling, housing prices fell a whopping ...... 1.2% this quarter compared to a year ago. What does that mean? Not too much because real estate is local. Fortunately, the article is kind enough to break it down by city, and by single family homes and condos. These numbers were based on the median price of homes.

Cheers go to:

- Salem, Oregon where single family homes (median price $228k) saw a 24.7% increase from the third quarter last year.
- Knoxville, Tennessee where condos (median price $155.7k) saw a 29% increase over last year.
- other notable cheers go out to Seattle/Tacoma/Bellview WA (single family) and Honolulu HI (condos) that had both high median prices and good percentage increases over the last year.

And the Jeers:

- Detroit MI area single family homes ($154.1k median) lost 10.5% of their value from last year.
- and Sarasota FL area condos ($275.6k median) lost 11% (ouch) of their value.

So where does that put Boston? Unfortunately we're in the red. For single family homes Boston / Cambridge / Quincy ($412.3k median) lost 4.3% from last year. Strangely enough, Boston / Cambridge / Quincy condos (median $300.8k) are doing a little better, having lost only 1.9% of their value over last year.

Realtors Setting Commissions?

Spotlight Realty — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:32:44 -0600

I was just reading about the CFA ragging on the Real Estate Industry. One of their claims was that NAR and Real Estate boards (led mostly by Agents and Brokers) have been trying to keep barriers to entry low. The low barriers to entry causes there to be too many licensed agents, which leads to an inefficient marketplace, where commission rates are kept high. Essentially they are saying that NAR and the Real Estate industry has complete control over commission rates.

Apparently the CFA claimed that there were 2.5 million licensees, and only about 7 million sales annually. Therefore, by most brokers completing only a handfull of sales each year it helped "support a system that keeps comission rates high." And they claim that this is from an economists point of view.

I studied economics, and this couldn't sound more wrong to me. Competition creates efficiency, and the most efficient market, is one that has perfect competition. In general, conditions for perfect competition require:

- A large number of buyers and sellers (check)
- goods or services offered are functionally identical (pseudo-check....nothing's perfect)
- and freedom of entry and exit

The fact of the matter is, the more players that there are in a market, the more competative and efficient it becomes. One factor that could possibly effect comissions in an area, would be a market with a few large players that had a large majority of market share.

I think the better question comes if we take it to the extreme, and assume that the CFA is right, and the real estate industry and NAR do have a magical grasp of (negotiable by law) commission rates. What exactly would be their plan to deal with some of the new discount brokerages popping up, that are giving a percentage of the commission back to the buyers?

The easiest way to deal with that would be to snuff them out. These new discount business models are based on the going commission rates. Use the strength of numbers and the grasp of the market share and make the going comission rate lower. Lower the standard, and their model won't survive.

However we don't see that happening because the real estate industry and NAR cannot change commissions with the flick of a switch. The market sets the rates.

My First Property Management Experience

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:13:25 -0500

Well, the Tomato is hosting a Carnival of Scary Real Estate stories, and lord knows I can't deny everyone this one...

It was a dark and stormy...morning. My third day on the job managing a one bedroom condo, also my very first property management gig. The owners moved out to Japan, and came to me asking about Property Management. I told them I'd never done it before, but it's just a one bedroom condo, how hard could it be?

I got the contract, and we set up the appropriate accounts. They left for Japan, and I found a nice young recently married couple to rent the place. So a small condo, in a professionally managed association, the place was rented, and I was on easy street.

So before the tenants moved in, I wanted to have the place professionally cleaned for them. So I called a friend and asked if he knew a good cleaning lady. I call her up and set up a time, 9:00 Saturday morning.

I get there that morning to let her in at 8:45, 9:00 rolls around, 9:15, 9:30... I call her up to see where she is, and it goes to voice mail. 9:45, voicemail. Finally 10:00 rolls around, and I get in touch with her. She had to move around some appointments and wasn't going to be able to make it. Now it's short notice for me to find someone else, so I ask her if she can do it tomorrow morning, she says yes 9:00am would work.

I get there Sunday morning again at 8:45 to let her in. She shows up at 9:45. It's her and her daughter, they have all their supplies... Awesome. I let them in and tell them to call me if they need anything.

Sure enough, I get a call from the daughter at 11:00. "Jon, I need you to come here, my mom cut her finger." I ask her "Is it bad? Should I call 911?" She says no, but she wants me to come over. So figure it's not pretty but it's not bad, I stop by the store and buy some cotton balls and hydrogen peroxide.

I show up at the property and the mother is sitting on the ground with some paper towels around her finger, and the daughter is standing with her back turned to her mom (she couldn't stand to look). I look around the room real quick, there isn't any blood splattered around, the paper towel is not soaked, how bad could it be?

So they ask me to look at it because neither of them can. And I lean over, and thinking is a small cut, I give her the "let me see this little cut" So I remove the paper towel.

I saw blood and bone. This wasn't a deep cut, THE WINDOW HAD FALLEN ON HER FINGER!! Think more like a fat guy taking down a chicken wing in one bite. The window had removed her nail and skin from the bone just under her nail bed.

The smirk dropped from my face and I freaked "WE ARE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW!" I ask which window, and they point me over (well the daughter did). So I lift the window, and underneath is the cleaning rag, and the fingertip and nail. I grab both, hand them to the daughter and hightail it for the nearest hospital. I made it in 5 minutes. During the drive, the cleaning lady told me I looked pale.... Yes, the fingertipless lady told me I looked pale.

After I got them to the hospital, I went back to the property and had the new tenants moving in within hours, and upon closer inspection, there were spots of blood all around the window and wall. I had to spend the next 3 hours on my hands an knees cleaning up the blood, and finishing the 1/2 done cleaning job.

Now if you think that's bad. On top of all of that, the cleaning lady didn't have workers comp, and the landlords owned the property outright and didn't have homeowners insurance. My first communication with them after they arrived in Japan was telling them the story and advising them that they will be needing legal representation.

I figure, in my first 3 days I had an experience that Property Managers doing it for 20 years have never seen. Wonderful.

As far as the carnival, if that one doesn't get me in the top ten, I can't wait to read the ones that beat it.

Real Estate Blog Week in Review

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:09:12 -0500

So if you haven't noticed, I've been gone on a small vacation. So it's catch up time for me, time to get back in the groove and see what I've been missing. I figured I'd start it off with my week in review.

Sellsius, Bloodhound, and Future of Real Estate blogs follow the trials and tribulations of Zillow (wonderfull, the one week I go away is the one week of the year that I would have had the opportunity to bash on both REALTOR AND Zillow, good timing Jon)

The Matrix presents the top 10 Clipboard

Three Oceans Real Estate ponders When Realtors Lobby, Who Wins

The Real Estate Tomato announces the prizes and extends the date for its Scary Real Estate stories Halloween competition

Urban Trekker Blog put together a very good list of some recent articles that will be effecting the housing market both locally (DC area) and nationally.

San Diego Home Blog hits its 6 month anniversary (Congrats) and is featured in the Carnival of Real Estate hosted by HotPads.

The x broker presents its top 10 x rated REsources

Turning a profit off your Real Estate Blog

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:05:35 -0500

I was perusing some blogs playing catchup this week, and I came across The San Fransisco Real Estate Blog, it had a bunch of great entries, but what caught my eye the most, were the links with the double bars, and the bubbles that came from them.

It's recognizable right away to be a pay per click of some sort, but with a slight twist. It intrigued me enough to inspect a little further, and it brought me to Kontera. I read through their propaganda, and came to realize that I'm a real sucker for a good pitch.

So, the short version is that they offer "In Text Advertising." They have created an algorithm that goes through your text, and maximizes the appropriate ad to the appropriate keyword.
I'm not a huge fan of the PPC, we gave it a shot, and it cost us an arm and a leg. It brought in some business, but I feel like we were an earlier adopter of it. As it grew in popularity, the better placement just got bidded higher and higher until the return just wasn't worth it anymore. On top of that, other sites began to adopt PPC advertising as well. Whether it was their own version, or google adsense, all the sudden it was everywhere you looked and almost always on the right hand side. I think this phenomonon certaintly helped create the golden triangle.

So I like some of the twists that they have put on pay per click advertising. On the site owners side, the ads don't really interrupt the user unless they are interested in the topic. And for the advertiser, they claim the ads are more targeted.

I personally don't think you'll be seeing it on my site any time soon. But it's definitely an innovative spin on the PPC that you'll be seeing more and more, as it is a good format for blogvertising.

Finished basements with a view... and what a view!!

Spotlight Realty — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:19:51 -0500

About a month ago I wrote about the floating condos on the Freedom Ship. Well ResidenSea eat your heart out. Here's three extreemly creative housing ideas I stumbled across, all on the same website.

The Trilobis65 is a floating habitat designed to house 6 people on 4 levels, connected by a spiral staircase. It measures 65 feet from bow to stern, and 42 feet from port to starboard, the top deck is 11.5 feet above sea level, and the underwater observation bulb is 10 feet below sea level. It has a speed of 7 knots, and has fuel cells for solar, wind, or diesel power.

Where would you dock your new 5 million dollar beautiful monstrosity?

At the Neptus 60 cliff habitat of course.

The cliff Habitat consists of 4 sections connected by stairs and elevator

- The 820 square foot living area with 3 bedrooms, and a living room with terrace
- the observation deck 60 feet above sea level
- the docking area
- and the underwater observation globe

And if that's not enough, and you just needed more (and who wouldn't?). There's the Jellyfish 45

Awesome!! A veritable floating single family home with room for 6 - 8 beds, this version boasts an internal electric system with 2 generators, a 1000 liter water capacity, and air conditioning. And of course, the underwater observation globe, perfect for aquarium lovers, or those looking for somewhere from which they can create and run their evil empire. Bwahahaha!!!

Cool Real Estate Sites

Spotlight Realty — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 14:21:47 -0500

Ok, so my motivation for this was based on two sites I recently came across:

Rentometer (what appears to be a Rental Zillow of sorts, Joshua Dorkin over at Biggerpockets blog brought this one to my attention) and GooTube (a mashup of google maps and real estate videos).

I know that's not even close to what else is out there. Off the top of my head, I would also include:

- RentVine and their new Mapvine
- Housingmaps
- Neighborhoodscout
- Propsmart
- Trulia
- Zillow
- Real Estate Voices
- ActiveRain

Help me out Active Rainers, what other cool real estate sites am I missing?

* (added) Too funny, so I decided to go to some other blogs, to try and get some ideas for other cool websites, and I come across a recent post by Mike Price (an AR'er) , so it looks like he's focusing on best sites specifically for the consumer. Help him out and post your input before Friday, if you have any, that is..

As far as for this list, I'd like to be more general (just cool RE sites) yet slightly more specific (websites just focusing on Real Estate, not websites that have one of many real estate applications. i.e. No to Craigslist )

Free Wireless Internet makes it to Brookline, MA

Spotlight Realty — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:36:45 -0500

The Brookline tab announced yesterday that Brookline, MA is moving ahead with wireless internet. It's not like it's smashing new news, as there are other towns with wireless internet popping up around the US.

I can't say I'm necessarily a fan of the fact that it turns the internet into a public good, and possibly opens the door to further government intervention of the internet... But on the other hand FREE INTERNET!!! Sweet!

With the increasing public adaptation of PDA's and cell phones that are capable of accessing wireless internet. This is yet another step towards the modernization of many industries...Real Estate included.

Real Estate Agents bear witness... The rise of video is upon us

Spotlight Realty — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:21:39 -0500

It's official. Google has just purchased YouTube for $1.65 BILLION in shares. Apparently, it was not so much that they wanted the name, but more importantly that none of their competitors acquired it.

What does this have anything to do with Real Estate? Absolutely everything!

The concept of The User-Generated Content Wave was recently brought up on the Inman News Blogs special report. And explained how sites like YouTube, Google video, Yahoo! Video, and Soapbox (MSN), have been making it easier to upload and watch videos online. Most importantly, they showed how it's "making real estate cooler."

Now that Google has purchased YouTube, expect the leader in search engines, to begin incorporating video into the general publics daily internet life. I would speculate that you can expect Google to give higher placement to websites that have videos.

This is it, the video age is officially here, and it's an exciting time to be in Real Estate. I have my video camera, do you have yours?

Looking for your opinion on the Zindex

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:01:21 -0500

So, I recently wrote an entry about Zillow. I suggested that their Zindex was flawed because it fails to take land value, price per square foot, and type of housing into account. I received this comment from David at Zillow:

"Hi Jon, it's David from Zillow,

You're right - the Zindex is no measure of value for money. We do show Zestimate $ / sq. ft. on each house's details page as well as our live heatmaps on the site, which are based on Zestmate $ / sq. ft. Click the checkbox above the large map to activate the heat maps (above "city" level).

I think the Zindex is interesting though, for the same reason that the Zestimate is - it's a simple measure of "affordability" of the median house in the neighborhood - as such, it's a good starting point - zindex's help identify a collection of affordable neighbourhoods, and the live heat maps will show you which offer the most bang for the buck. Some people value other attributes, like accesibility, over $/sq.ft., so I'd argue that the Zindex is a better general starting point than Zestimate $/sq.ft. Both are important.

Caveat: I don't know Boston & have only visited your city once."

I basically responded, "Oh yeah? Well you're wrong." Because I'm mature like that.

What's your take?

Zillowblog sends Boston Real Estate some love

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:13:54 -0500

Well, at least they did their best. It's not for everyone, but ZillowBlog takes a quick focus on the Boston Real Estate market, with its new heatmap. I'm a little upset that my stomping grounds are left out (Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville kind of stick out when you look at it this way), but they're not Boston Proper.

Anyway, yeah we can sit here and pick away at the minor innaccuracies of what's wrong with the blog, like grouping together Back Bay and Beacon Hill, or calling it Central boston as opposed to the individual neighborhood names (North End, Ladder District, etc..). But there was something a little bigger that stood out to me. And my problem was with this:

If you don't know Boston, this means squat to you. BUt these numbers are based on their Zindex value. And Kenmore Square is at the bottom of the list. Now that just doesn't make any sense to me. I will tell you right now that Kenmore Square is a much much much more desirable location than Roxbury (no offense Roxbury, but you know you want to live in Kenmore Square too).

A lot of these neighborhoods are out of whack, order wise. At least this is an easier to spot problem, than the issues with Zestimates. The main problem is that they are just looking at prices. Period. What they are failing to take into account is the type of housing in these neighborhoods, land value, and price per square foot.

Kenmore is down on the list because it's such a desirable neighborhood, with such limited space, that a majority of what's selling there are studios, one beds, and 700 square foot two beds. Not the type of area that I would put at the bottom of any list.

Prime example:

In the Fenway $500K will get you Pre-Construction Pricing. Garage Parking. Elevator. Private terraces. Zen roof deck with kitchen & artist workspace. Dennis Duffy designed common areas, kitchens, and baths. HW floor upgrades. Sleek and flexible living spaces due for occupancy Summer 2007. Approx. Living Area: 863 sq. ft. ($578.22/sq. ft.) 1 bed 1 bath.

In Roxbury $449,000 will get you a 5 bed 1.5 bath 2120 sq ft ($211.79 / sq ft) on .08 acres turn of the century charming mansard colonial, many updates, first floor laundry, handy to major routes downtown.

Sorry Zillow, back to the old drawing board.

Zillow asks bloggers...

Spotlight Realty — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 09:03:20 -0500

Why do you blog? What business benefits have you gained?

But "most read bloggers"...

Now Jay Thompson, Douglass Doss, Greg Swann, Robert Melton (thanks for the mention in the 500 btw), Ardell DellaLoggia, and Jim Cronin. That I'll buy...

But they obviously haven't seen MY traffic #'s from all my "hard work"

Cambridge Condo Conversion - The Closing

Spotlight Realty — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:07:33 -0500

Finally, we've officially closed on the triple decker, but of course not without the necessary roller coaster prior to closing. So the closing package (and certified check) had to make it out of Chicago and be overnighted to my attorney. Seeing as how god has it out for me, serious storms delayed all flights out of Chicago, and while I should have been signing closing documents, they were waiting for me in Louisville.

It gets better...

So it turns out the sellers niece is an attorney for the treasury department, keep in mind, not a real estate attorney. She wasn't too happy that her Aunt was already driving up to go to the closing. I don't know if she actually threatened it, but I heard the words "default" and "deposit" from my attorney. I flipped...

"Force majeure!!" I cried. "The downstairs tenant left some belongings!! It wasn't delivered in broom clean condition (the whole time I was telling them don't worry about cleaning, we're gutting the place)!! I wrote the offer 'including all fixtures and appliances', and the tenant took the fridge!!"

Fortunately for all, cooler heads prevailed. The seller didn't waste her trip, package eventually came, and the closing has occured. I finally got the architect into the property gave him the scope of work and my horrible drawings (he didn't laugh at them). He seemed pretty excited about it, I am too...

Negotiations and home inspections

Spotlight Realty — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:01:27 -0500

So, again I find myself reading Active Rain Blogs. And I come across this one. So the agent thinks that home inspections are not meant to be a second round of negotiations.

I couldn't disagree more. Home inspections are a GREAT time for a second round of negotiations. I don't know how it is in other states, but here in Massachusetts, when you fill out the contingency addendum, there is a line that states:

"If it is the opinion of such inspector that the property contains serious structural, mechanical, or other defects and if the repair of such defects would cost the BUYER in aggregate more than $____________, then the BUYER shall have the option of revoking the agreement by written notice..."

Sorry Glenn, but it's clauses like this that will be keeping Real Estate agents in the game for a long time to come. This is part of the negotiations, this is the fun part of the game, this is where strategy comes into play.

As the listing agent, it's your job to expect this from a good buyers agent, and it's your job to curtail this maneuver. And it's easy to curtail:

1) Disclose any known issues beforehand

2) Sell it "as is"

3) Tell the sellers to expect this, and to fix the smallest problem ahead of time (especially if it's an easy fix, it's cheaper for them to do it themselves than have the buyers have to hire a professional to do it).

4) Look for it in the inspection contingency. If you have an offer, and the amount in the inspection contingency is $1000, and the property is not a new construction, NEGOTIATE IT UP! Yeah, it's going to cost you a lower agreed upon price in negotiations. But if you wait to do it after the home inspection, you will be renegotiating with less leverage, and it might cost your sellers more.

5) Don't take the property off the market before the home inspection. Keep it active, and when the buyers agent asks why it's still on the market, just tell them that you're working in your sellers best interests, and you want to make sure that you still have leverage just in case the buyer decides to renegotiate at the home inspection (sometimes the truth is the best threat of all).

6) If what the buyers are asking for is sooooo unreasonable, call their bluff, give them (or threaten to give them) back their deposit and say thank you very much. If they come back, you have your opportunity to get your sellers more money on the buyers mistake.

As the buyers agent, in my opinion, if you don't let your buyer know that this is a possibility, and you tell your buyer only to look for the big things, you're not doing your job, and you're not doing everything to work in your buyers best interests.

Brookline MA condo market snapshot

Spotlight Realty — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:47:35 -0500

Ok, so I've strayed with some of my posts for a little bit, and wanted to come back home and take a look at the local condo market in Brookline, MA.

* numbers in parenthesis are same stats 1 year ago (10-02-05)

# of Condos For Sale- 295 (256)
# of Condos Under Agreement - 58
# of Condos Sold in last 1 month - 37 (39)
# of Condos Sold in last 2 months - 120 (113)
# of Condos Sold in last 3 months - 187 (203)
Months Supply - 7.972 (6.564)

Average list time for properties on the market - 122.36 (87) days
Average list price for properties on the market $633,870 ($752,291)
Median list price for condos on the market $474,900 ($549,000)

Average list time for condos sold in the last 3 months - 84.25 days
Average Original price for sold condos - $519,963
Average list price for Sold condos - $503,981
Average Sales price for sold condos - $493,329
Median Price for sold condos - $434,000

Ok, so not much new news right now. There's more on the market this year over last year. There's a higher average list time (which an increase in supply without an increase in demand would directly cause). And demand has dropped to 2/3rds of what it was during September. Which is also not a suprise as fall/winter around here is usually slower than the spring and summer.

Aching in Oakland County

Spotlight Realty — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 09:36:58 -0500

It's broken ...

If you don't know her, you are clearly new to reading blogs here. But it looks like Maureen Francis got an ouchy this weekend. So send some love when you have the time today. Hope you get well soon Maureen.

3 Easy Steps To Great Blog Posts

Spotlight Realty — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:21:43 -0500

So, I just wrote this for an agent new to blogging and AR. I figured I might as well get some blog points for it as well, and maybe there's some other newbies that could make use of it too. Obviously, I like to think of myself first.

3 easy steps to great posts:

Step #2 - for your spelling and grammar, either write it into microsoft word, or writely (or anything that has spell check), before you post.

Step #3 - add some pictures, spice up your posts (you can just copy and paste).

Step #4 - add some links. Use the power of the web to transfer more information to your readers, not enough agents do it here on AR, but it's really easy. Just highlight the word you want to show as a link, click the little chain icon up top . and fill in the right spaces (it's pretty self explanatory).

And voila... 3 easy steps to great blogs.

Step #1 is to think up something to write about. I would not categorize that as an easy step.

Smarter Agent introduces new technology for Real Estate Agents

Spotlight Realty — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:19:14 -0500

Will it really make you smarter? Unfortunately, no. But it will help you fake it a lot better by giving you easier access to information on the fly. As SmarterAgent , (who also has had a blog since 2003) releases its New GPS Real Estate Search.

Currently available with Sprint and Nextell, Smarter agent is now using the power of Location Based Services (LBS), to give agents and consumers property information directly to their phone. Want to know how much the house you just walked by sold for? It's gross living area? No problem.

The most exciting thing this means to me, is not that people can now get public records information of anyones home. But this more signals the adaptation of newer technology that will make it easier to move the real estate industry into the future. Once the technology is more widespread, I can see more of a "talking house" turned full video tour right to your phone / handheld device. And now, thanks to market innovators like SmarterAgent , we are one step closer to a technological paradigm shift in Real Estate.

I am not a REALTOR

Spotlight Realty — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 14:15:23 -0500

Well there you have it. I'm not a REALTOR, I have never been a REALTOR, I am a fully licensed and insured Real Estate Broker. When I was in the process of opening my office, REALTOR was all over the news for getting sued by Antitrust lawyers. I have to say, it certaintly didn't make it look pretty, but it didn't deterr me either. I looked into it, and here's what I perceived:

Basically there was a set annual fee, and for that fee, I would get:

- small discounts on classes they offer.

- a small discount on e-forms

- a small discount for MLS

- an emblem I could put on my website and business card

- people would know that I subscribed to a standard of ethics

- and I would be able to put some super important letters after my name if I took the appropriate classes.

And in exchange for all that, any agent I hired would be forced to become a REALTOR, and would also have to pay the same fees. I didn't get it.... I still don't get it. Obviously, I decided against it. Frankly, I didn't think it was worth it. I still don't.

Basically I was paying a fee, to get minimal discounts on things I could get anyway. And I was paying a fee so people could know that I act ethically. Well, the discounts didn't make up for the fees, and I don't feel like I need to pay someone to prove my ethics, my past client testimonials would do a good enough job of that. And I have been educating myself in the realm of anything and everything Real Estate, online and through books.

Considering a majority of the agents and brokers on this site are REALTORS. I figured this would be a great place for me to find my answer.

So tell me, WHAT AM I MISSING????

Why are you a REALTOR? Why should I be a REALTOR? Please convince me why being a REALTOR is sooooo worth it, that a majority of agents made the decision to do it. I just don't get it...