Author: Chuck Marunde (page 1 of 1)

by Chuck Marunde

Realtor, Attorney

Author website

Time for a little fun, and time to laugh a little at my own profession and at myself. Okay, I’m in a coffee shop. I’m doing some work on my laptop, checking and answering emails, and writing some articles. So imagine the humor in the following scenario. I’m a Sequim Real Estate agent writing on my real estate blog when a customer walks into the coffee shop. Now I rarely pay attention to what other people say, but if they speak loudly and the words catch my ear, I can’t help it.

I hear one of the employees serving coffee say to a customer, “Oh, you’re a Realtor?” The reply was from an older woman whose health did not look good, and carried little enthusiasm, “Yes, I work for [so and so broker],” to which the young female employee loudly and enthusiastically replied, “I’m a real estate agent too!”

I laugh to myself, because one of my observations is that every Tom, Jane, and Mary got a real estate license because it seemed like an easy way to make money. Does anyone not have a license?

I look around the coffee shop. There’s an old man with thick spectacles sitting two tables away, apparently reading the classifieds. He doesn’t move at all for minutes. Has he died? No, he turns to the next page. I wonder. Is he a Realtor?

A woman and a girl about 13 years old are sitting across the room at a little round table. Is the little girl a Realtor? No, I remember you have to be an adult to get a license. I think.

Two bicycle riders stagger into the shop, all sweaty and obviously hot and tired. Are they Realtors? Could be, but I hear no dialogue on real estate issues emanating from their mouths. But I do pick up some phrases, like “It’s hell out there,” and “a person could die in stuff like this,” and “I don’t know if I can make it.” Wait a Read more

by Chuck Marunde

Realtor, Attorney

Author website

We’re in a slow real estate market, I get that.  The peak where I practice was 2005 when any Tom, Dick, or Jane could list and some dorky agent in the MLS would sell it.  The rule was “List as many homes as you can, cold call, advertise, mail, whatever, but list and it will sell.”  Badda bing, badda bang!

But let’s admit it, this market has dramatically changed how we play the game.  We had about a dozen total closed transactions in my entire county last month, so there is almost no volume to speak of, and certainly not enough volume to keep 327 agents alive.  Okay, 70% of those agents are practically dead, but that still leaves 98 agents clawing each other over the scraps.

Here’s the dilemma as I see it.  Clients tend to be high maintenance these days.  They are frustrated.  They want to know what’s going on, why their neighbor sold their house in 10 minutes at full price, and explanations for 100 other mythological rumors.  Listing maintenance is extremely time consuming, more so now than in many years.  I applaud Chris’ 1.0 argument for going back to basics, and Jeff’s diplomatic affirmation, but my argument is that lots of listings may actually be a great way to go broke right now.

Okay, I admit I don’t have Jeff Brown’s IQ, Chris Johnson’s stamina, or Greg Swann’s common sense, but I am a genuine bald buy who spent some time in Arizona, and so I feel some affinity with these guys.  Let’s just see how sharp these guys are.  Yes, I’m looking for wisdom, and I’m dumb enough to admit that.  But I think this is an issue that Realtors around the country are grappling with, and the answer has major implications for our clients.

Here we go:  When it would take about 100 listings here (and many other places around the U.S.) to sell one house every other month, at least statistically, and when an agent cannot manage more than about 20 listings with such high maintenance clients right now, it seems to me an agent can easily go Read more

by Chuck Marunde

Realtor, Attorney

Author website

I love the word Irony.  Maybe its because Ironman has been my favorite song forever.  Or maybe it’s because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Ironman.  Oh, wait.  That just takes us back to the song Ironman, which is the theme song of the movie.  No, I know why I love irony.  It’s because all around us life is full of irony if only we will pause to notice it.  Want some examples?

Take the three original learned professions, the priesthood, the law, and medicine.

Priests keep our most private confidences, and priests today are known as violating our most sacred honor.  Lawyers, who were originally called to be ambassadors of justice are today known as the greatest of liars and truth is no longer admissible in a courtroom.  Doctors, called to save lives and preserve health, practice in hospitals where the American Medical Association claims 300,000 people die every year, the result of doctor negligence.

How about something closer to home, like real estate?

The mortgage industry helped people achieve the American dream, the dream of home ownership.  Today because of astonishing levels of greed in the mortgage industry (and lack of adult supervision), the same people who were helped by the mortgage industry are now in foreclosure and losing their dream.

And then there are real estate agents.  First you have the word “real.”  If agents are real, they why do so many have a reputation for being phony?  And you have the word “agent.”  An agent represents a client, protecting that client exclusively in every way, including financially. Just like a lawyer who can only represent a plaintiff or a defendant, but not both, an agent represents his client and not the opponent.  The next step of irony is to create a system called “dual agency.”  Voila!  We can represent both.  I suggest lawyers create dual representation, too. That way lawyers could practice lying to themselves as they promoted the plaintiff’s version of the facts on one side of the courtroom, and then the defendant’s version on the other side of the courtroom.

I love irony.  How about a political and judicial system that ignores Read more