https://activerain.com/blogs/cbrettshaw en-us https://activerain.com/blogsview/926339/is-it-zillow-s-fault- At a recent sales meeting, a mortgage company discussed some of the difficulties they had come across in lending.  (Names and companies are being changed.) This is what was said: A gentleman was applying for a mortgage for a home he intended to purchase.  The home, accurately priced, was around 265k.  This was based on comps in the neighborhood for the past 4 months.  This particular neighborhood was adjacent to a "smaller" neighborhood with homes selling in the 150-175k range.  Now for the qualifications of the buyer: -Debt ratio: 12% -50k in savings -Approximately 30% in downpayment -Large income -Credit score of about 800 This is every lender's dream.  Absolutely no reason not to get the loan, right?  Well, after sending this information to an underwriter at A VERY WELL KNOWN AND LARGE LENDER, a simple one page decline was returned.  Of course, inquiry happened immediately.  The explanation given was that when the underwriter looked at the property, it was over-valued.  Their comps (from the neighborhood adjacent) and THE ZESTIMATE FROM ZILLOW.COM showed that the home was only worth about 150k!  Did you catch that? So is it now procedure to use an estimate from an AVM that is grossly erred in many situations?  I thought that I would also include this statement from Zillow's web site (to be viewed here http://www.zillow.com/howto/Zestimate.htm): "The Zestimate is not an appraisal and you won't be able to use it in place of an appraisal, though you can certainly share it with real estate professionals. It is a computer-generated estimate of the worth of a house today, given the data we have available. Zillow.com does not offer the Zestimate as the basis of any specific real-estate-related financial transaction. Our data sources may be incomplete or incorrect; also, we have not physically inspected a specific home. Remember, the Zestimate is a starting point and does not consider all the market intricacies that can determine the actual price a house will sell for, such as entertaining offers, negotiating, closing costs, timing, etc." So my question is this.  Whose fault is it?  Is it Zillow's for having a zestimate 100k too low, or is it the underwriter for incompetently using this figure to deny a loan to a more than qualified buyer? Brett Shaw (Coldwell Banker Kaiser) Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:00:36 -0800 https://activerain.com/blogsview/926339/is-it-zillow-s-fault- https://activerain.com/blogsview/784734/ever-forget-----it-happened-to-me---again---and-again- I recently had the opportunity to attend a workshop in Chicago on memory training.  My original thought in going to this was to help me remember names of people I had met and worked with.  How many of you have met someone, gotten their name, and then as soon as the handshake was over... POOF!!  There goes anything that you had just learned about them?  That was me.  I made excuses to myself that this was just some obscure form of temporary ADD that wouldn't last. I didn't know what to expect at first.  As soon as we got started though, all these weird stories were thrown at us quickly.  I remember thinking "what have I gotten myself into?" Then, like a lightbulb I realized that I had remembered everything about the story!  I was shocked.  Then we went into the applications of memory training and how it can be translated, not only to the business of real estate, but to everyday life. Now, I won't get into the concepts and ideas apart from the fact that the human brain has a language.  That language is images.  Pictures!  There is no possible way for me to teach you this.  I will leave that to the incredible instructors of Freedom Personal Development.  All I can say is this: 1.  I have no problem remembering people's name and am confident that if I see them 6 months from now, I will still know it. 2.  I have set up mental filing cabinets that can be accessed quickly and easily (sometimes unconsciously). 3.  There is still so much to learn and I can't wait to see how it will reflect in my business. If you're a real estate agent, or anyone in the business world, I highly recommend taking this course.  It's 2 days, 7 hours total and it can change your life.  If you have any questions or have had the opportunity to take this course, let me know what you think and how it has helped you.  I'll let you know my stories as they come! Brett Shaw (Coldwell Banker Kaiser) Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:04:16 -0800 https://activerain.com/blogsview/784734/ever-forget-----it-happened-to-me---again---and-again- https://activerain.com/blogsview/743673/thank-you-cyberhomes- I'm sure that we have all been in a situation where we didn't know the answer to a question or just needed help.  Whether we are caught off guard or put into an awkward spot, it happens.  So what do you do?  There are generally two ways to deal with such a dilemma. 1.  Tell them that you will get back to them with the answer. (The generic, feel good way to say....I have no idea.) 2.  Make something up that generally doesn't answer the question. (This would be the politician side in all of us) Recent events, however, have made me totally disregard these two options altogether. Let me start off by giving you the scenario.  I received a floor call late one evening about a rental home in a remote town on the outskirts of a suburb.   In other words, way out there!  I then set up a showing for the next day when the person could make the trip.  After researching the listing on the MLS, I had a good grasp as to the features of the home. Dark and early the next morning I began my trip through the farmlands.  As I generally do, I arrived early to go into the home and familiarize myself with the floor plan.  When the couple arrived, we entered the house and they began their tour; making small notes as they went.  After a very thorough walk-through (I have to say I was impressed), I asked if there were any questions they might have.  Having all the information in my back pocket at this point (literally), I felt confident to answer anything they needed to know. Come to find out, they had already researched the home online and already knew about the house!  That, of course, didn't mean that they had no questions.  Almost like a train came they came. -What are the local schools like? -What is the average commute time into the city? -How diverse is the ethnicity? Keep in mind here that I had never been to this area........ -What is the crime like? -Are there a lot of children around? -What about income levels? -How educated are the people? etc., etc., etc. When I was finally able to take a breath, my mind began to swell.  Which one do I use, number 1 or 2 (see above).  I then realized that my computer was in the kitchen with the ever so irrelevant MLS page pulled up.  I ran in and quickly went to Cyberhomes.com and entered the address of the house.  I was worried that there wouldn't be any information because we were......let's face it, nowhere.  To my relief, up came the home.  A couple of clicks and I was in the local area information. We spent the next 30 minutes going over the questions they asked, with me giving them WAY more than they anticipated!  My point is this, I will never hesitate now to go number 3 on the "What do I do now" list when it comes to home information.  If you've never been to Cyberhomes.com, take a couple of minutes to just see what they have to offer and let me know what your experiences have been. Brett Shaw (Coldwell Banker Kaiser) Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:44:03 -0700 https://activerain.com/blogsview/743673/thank-you-cyberhomes-