Real Estate News You Don't See on the News - from The Cutting Edge   August 4, 2009

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

 03 AUG 09
Is Social Media a Threat To Your Personal Safety? | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius - "A friend of mine recently tweeted about a killer new computer system they purchased. Later, they went on to tweet how they were traveling to Disneyland for vacation."

Matrix » [NIMBY] Peter Schiff's Predictions Met With Disdain, Yet Were Accurate  - "Here's a few Peter Schiff clips that many of you may have seen, but its worth refreshing your memory. What is particularly interesting in this clip is the lack of content within any responses given by all those who disagreed with Schiff. Just disbelief, distrespect and misinterpretation of historical trends."

02 AUG 09
Man who utilize magic bullet often shoot self in foot | Joe Spake's Weblog We are a people much more concerned with Result, rather than Process. And that is how social media is changing our values. It's all about the process. Here is a 9 word magic bullet for business success with social media. [Actually 3, 3 word phrases] And it's absolutely free:

200 Units And Just One Tenant - Housing Doom "The New Jersey family of five purchased their unit four years ago, when Fort Myers was in the midst of a housing boom and any hints of an impending financial crisis were buried in lofty dreams of expansion and development. They made a $10,000 down payment and eagerly watched as builders transformed an empty lot into an opulent high rise, one that now symbolizes the foreclosure crisis." For some reason, the Horizon, in downtown Memphis comes to mind.-js

 01 AUG 09
Realtors in the Coffee Shop and Everywhere | BloodhoundBlog.com | National real estate marketing and technology blog "...One is saying, ou should get your real estate license. It's easy. Well the online course is no fun, and the test is a drag, but you can make easy money if someone writes an offer through you. I don't have to work if I don't want to, but when my husband and I want to do something, I start trying to sell a house or find a buyer. If I'm lucky, I pop a few thousand or even more. You could do this. It's easy."

Real-Estate Advertising: Forget Houses, Go With Head Shots - Adages - Advertising Age "They round-up four bucks from every agent in the office, pool their money together, hire a high-end designer and secure the biggest ad Metro Richmond has ever seen."

Busted! First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Fraud - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy "You make up addresses, you flat out lie and tell your clients you can qualify for the tax credit by working two jobs, and you skim a thousand bucks off your clients refund and you don't think you are in the wrong?"

 31 JUL 09
Survey: Real estate recovery in '09 unlikely - Memphis Business Journal:  "Only 10 percent of respondents to a recent survey by LoopNet Pulse Poll, an online survey of commercial real estate and investment professionals, said they expect to see a recovery of transactions this year...That's down from 33 percent in a previous poll conducted in May, said a news release."

 31 JUL 09
The Billy Mays 5-Step Guide to Easy Selling | Copyblogger  "Madison Avenue style brand marketers who believe asking for an order even once, unless it's in small grey type, is undignified, contemptible and just plain bad manners, absolutely loathed him." - I think we can all learn something from Billy Mays-js

Chicago Real Estate Company Sues Woman Over Twitter Tweet

Big Brokerages - how do they really work, and what's changing? | Seattle Real Estate | Rain City Guide Is the business really changing? And do the different generations - Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y have different preferences that would favor one business model over another?"

So Many Heads in the Sand-Why Foreclosures Happen | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius  How can you expect the problem to go away?

 30 JUL 09
Thanking them ... Old School | Real Estate Opinion MAG - AgentGenius "The other day I had a discussion with someone that wants to build her referral base for her loan business. I asked "what gesture do you make to thank your clients?" In short, the answer was nothing."

 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....."

Real Estate Blog - 5 Reasons for Firing A Client "Purely and simply, even the best client relationships can turn bad...and when they do, it's time to end them by firing the client."

 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."

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