Real Estate News You Don’t See on the News – from The Cutting Edge July 28, 2009

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The week’s real estate posts of interest from The Cutting Edge.

28 JUL 09

The Housing Bubble Blog » Mommy? What’s A Demographic Nightmare? "If we define boomers as those born between 1948 and 1964, and assume the average aged hippie freak gets hustled off into assisted living at age 81, barring a population explosion during a prolonged economic depression and a whole lot of unforeseen variables I don’t have the energy to come up with right now, it could well be 2045 before all those houses are absorbed." I want to short sell my home! The banks not being fair! — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy "Here’s the deal folks. When you signed your loan papers, you promised to pay a specific amount. You signed a legally binding contract saying you would make the payments. You also signed that you were aware the lender could take your home if you didn’t pay." How About a ‘Disappointment Index’ for Real Estate | Seattle Real Estate | Rain City Guide "At what point does the listing agent walk away and let the Seller find a more compliant agent to list the house at a visibly above-market price? Or does the agent take the listing and hope to work it down over a span of time, perhaps several months." Calculated Risk: Case-Shiller House Prices for May Trying to Sell? Clean Up Any Neighborhood Eyesores via Memphis Daily News "When Vicky Black's one-story home in Port Richey, Fla., was on the market, prospective buyers told her they liked it. Unfortunately, they made negative comments about her neighbor's home, which has a stone lawn and little curb appeal." Calculated Risk: "Precipitous" House Price Declines at the High End "Last week the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that distressed properties accounted 31 percent of sales in June. Distressed sales include REO sales (foreclosure resales) and short sales, and based on the 4.89 million existing home sales (SAAR) that puts distressed sales at about a 1.5 million annual rate in June." Calculated Risk: Distressing Gap: Ratio of Existing to New Home Sales "Last week the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that distressed properties accounted 31 percent of sales in June. Distressed sales include REO sales (foreclosure resales) and short sales, and based on the 4.89 million existing home sales (SAAR) that puts distressed sales at about a 1.5 million annual rate in June."

26 JUL 09

Hey You Get Off of My Cloud “Sandwiched neatly between the RealTime is God and RealTime Who Needs It crowds is a new group that embraces both positions while moving forward rapidly.” REALTOR Most Despised – An Open Letter | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius "Never mind that you roll up in a brand new Lexus next to your first time buyer’s 1987 honda civic hatchback, and are dressed to the hilt- I’m sure they’ll let that go easily when they look to you for advice on how to manage 10% down when they only have 5%." -- Funny, yet disturbingly true!-JS

25 JUL 09

BloodhoundBlog.com | Why should you enlist a buyer’s agent to help you buy a home? Because you’ll get a much better deal — even if you pay full price

Commercial mortgage delinquency up 585% - Memphis Business Journal: "Delinquencies on commercial mortgage backed securities soared $10 billion in June, hitting a 12-month high of almost $29 billion, according to Realpoint Research."

24 JUL 09

On Dual Agency — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy "I don’t care how much experience you have, I don’t care how fair you are, I don’t care if you can walk on water. One agent can not get the seller the most money and save the buyer the most money in the same transaction. Period." The Housing Market Is Getting Less Bad!: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance "No, house prices are not "bottoming." Prices likely won't bottom until late next year at the earliest. And they will then likely crawl along sideways for years."

Calculated Risk: More on Foreclosure Modification Scams

23 JUL 09

I wish my Realtor/Agent would … | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius "13 things Loan Officers wish the agents they work with would consider, understand, do or NOT do. Like marketing & sales, sometimes the relationships between agents and Loan Officers can be love & hate. From an ecosystem perspective, they are essential to one another, yet there can be tension." But, We’re ALL Ethical! | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius Read the Smart Money post (linked in this post) that started this, and the response from NAR president. - J Calculated Risk: Lawler on Sticky House Prices "Though Mr. Lawler was among the more bearish of housing economists when the market was still bubbling, he recently has been arguing that prices for low- and mid-range homes are stabilizing in many parts of the country ..."

22 JUL 09

Judge to lender- If you want the property back, you need to prove it’s yours - Housing Doom "In a stunning victory for borrowers, a New Jersey court has dismissed a foreclosure action filed against the borrowers by Deutsche Bank Trust Company America as alleged trustee for a securitized mortgage loan trust after Deutsche Bank willfully, and despite the entry of three (3) separate court orders, refused to produce documents demanded by the borrowers which included documents setting forth the identity of the true owner and holder of the Note and mortgage, the complete chain of title to ownership of the note and mortgage, payment application histories, and documents as to the securitized mortgage loan trust." 3 social media myths | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News "Now, these three myths are more or less arbitrary, and entirely my personal opinion, which means I welcome spirited debate and even some light name-calling in response."

21 JUL 09

Twitter for Beginners: 5 Steps for Better Tweeting "Twitter is immensely useful as a utility for joining in the global conversation and sharing thoughts, opinions, information, and media. But for new users, there’s also a fairly steep learning curve. For many people new to Twitter, the site doesn’t immediately “make sense” and it can be a bit daunting. But there are things those users can do to make the service more useful from the get go."

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