Category: General (page 5 of 23)

September 10, 2009

Have RE BarCamps lost their way?

by Scott Cowan

Realtor, Newlywed

I attended the recent Seattle version 2.0 of RE BarCamp earlier this week. Also attending was fellow BHB contributor Al Lorenz. Held at the Armory on Lake Union, it would be hard to find a location that was more beautiful to hold an event. And yet, I did not come to the event looking for beauty. I came to the event to learn more about techniques that we discuss all the time about marketing and salesmanship. What I discovered was a trade show masquerading as a grass roots event. The main hall of the Armory was lined with various vendor booths fully stocked with the obligatory vendor salespeople. Guys wearing crisp white button-down shirts standing in front of a large tradeshow booth. Bored looking salespeople just hoping that someone with a pulse would stop by their table and inquire about what shiny silver bullet they were selling. To entice agents to stop by and visit, there were all manner of free pens, flashlights, discount coupons, and much, much more…. I don’t know how much business any vendor did. I did pick up one flyer which has already found the way into the recycling after I looked that the product in greater detail online.

The attendance of the event was outstanding. There were over 600 RSVP’s for the event. The Armory easily held the crowd. The challenge of noise was something that everyone struggled with throughout the event. The PA system was difficult to understand simply because the hall was a gymnasium in previous years. The Keynote was by Ian Watt from Vancouver BC. It would have been a very entertaining and enjoyable speech had we been able to see the slides that he brought. The sheet hanging from the balcony was not really the best way to show off all that is glorious about PowerPoint. Ian is a very entertaining person and his presentation was the highlight of the event for me (even with the technical challenges).

The number of real estate professionals that had glazed over looks was disconcerting to me. I overhead a number of people mention that they did not Read more

September 5, 2009

The Government takeover of Real Estate is well underway

by Al Lorenz

Realtor, Media Mogul

Earlier, there was a discussion of the possibility of a government takeover of real estate brokerages. We had a bit of a lively discussion about the possibility of a governmental takeover of real estate brokerages. But I’m here to tell you, it will never happen because in the end, the government will have no need for brokerages.

The government takeover of all real estate is already pretty far along. Growth management, shorelines management, local municipalities, county, state and federal regulations have all taken unprecedented freedoms from landowners and redistributed them to government in the name of the “public.” Many cities’ zoning codes are in the process of not only defining what uses to allow for land in their jurisdictions but they are implementing design standards that strictly control how such structures must look. In the county that I live, government already owns 88% of all the land and that percentage is increasing.

Oppressive property taxes in many areas are themselves rent on the land from the government who believes itself to be the true owner. Don’t pay those taxes and you quickly find out who really owns the land. Generally based on assessed valuation, property taxes in periods of increasing value are a tax on an unrealized gain to the property title holder who is then taxed on the gain, as both a capital gain and an excise tax, when it is realized.

You may remember a Supreme Court ruling in Kelo vs. City of New London in 2005 that greatly expanded eminent domain to include seizure of privately owned property for redevelopment and resale to other, more politically favored, private owners or developers! Since that ruling governments can, and have, taken private lands for any reason, including simply selling them to preferred private owners.

The drumbeat continues. The new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is using Fair Housing laws as justification for new requirements he is placing on cities and developments to provide diversity of housing to obtain a “fully integrated society.” “New Urbanism” and “Smart Growth” are simply terms for the latest planning fads of social engineering under the guise of “public” Read more

September 3, 2009

Speaking of Liberty

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Realtor, Renaissance Man

For months now I have watched the political field of action, players, on-lookers, naysayers and pundits. Is there no clarity?

My highest regard for that clarity sometimes springs from this very site, its authors, contributors and readers. So today, I introduce again a contributing voice to the clarity that originates from reason, Ayn Rand.

Watch her eyes throughout this. She understands what is to come in the form and substance of the questions, and when given the opportunity, she is clear, resonant and reasoned. Oh, and she’s right by the way.

August 4, 2009

Should Realtors “Interview” Lenders?

by Tom Vanderwell

Mortgage Officer

I got what I thought was a very interesting and thoughtful e-mail last week from Jessica Horton, a Realtor down in Georgia, who I’ve gotten to know. She and I have chatted a bit both online and over the phone about the markets, the dynamics of today’s lending rules and the ins and outs of structuring deals. Oh, and we are both authors on the Bloodhound Blog.

I’ve taken Jessica’s e-mail and my response and turned them into a post. I’ve eliminated a few minor conversational tidbits but I’ve left the majority of our e-mail conversation intact.

Why am I reposting this?

For three main reasons:

I’ve been in the mortgage business for 21 years now and I have never seen as challenging of an environment as we have now. Yeah, we’ve had ups and downs and economic slow times, but a combination of falling property values, rising unemployment and tightening underwriting guidelines have made this the most challenging market I’ve ever been in.
The days of assuming that any lender can get a loan done and that anyone can get a mortgage are over and they aren’t coming back any time soon.
I found it very refreshing that a Realtor is taking a good hard look at who they want to recommend to their clients and not looking at it only from the standpoint of “who’s going to buy me lunch.”

I found it very refreshing that Jessica was talking to a number (I don’t know how many) lenders and was attempting to understand better how they work and what their processes and procedures are for making sure that things go smoothly. With the HVCC and the new MDIA and the pending changes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the rate a lender offers will always be important, but their ability to get things done is more important than it has ever been.

Take a few minutes and read through the exchange. Jessica’s questions are in “normal” print and my answers are in bold and italics.

Tom

Jessica,

See below. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.

Tom Vanderwell

From: Jessica Wynn Horton [mailto:jessicahorton30292@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Tom Vanderwell at Straight Read more

July 31, 2009

What Lessons Have We Learned From Past Hard Times?

by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Most of us can remember a time, sometimes even a specific moment when our spirit was so beat up it seemingly had to look up to see down. I’ve had those times. They come and go for all of us, and come in so many different forms. It can be financial, health, family, or a combination of all the above. Although in my head I’m still roughly 22, and even though I’m healthy as a horse, very fit, blah blah blah, I can remember bad times like they were last week.

I was first licensed in a recession — went full time after school was done in a recession — saw my first child born in a recession — see a trend there do ya? I’d be the last guy to claim having lived a hard life, though I’ve had my fair share of, um, challenges. In our minds we tend not to step back and extract the lessons life so generously offers to teach us. But we do learn from our times in the barrel, don’t we?

You’ll not meet many folks more private than I, on that you can bank. I tend to keep to myself, though paradoxically I’m gregarious and outgoing by nature. Today I had one of those moments when it seems everything goes into super slow motion, and you begin to ‘see’ things you musta been missing. I’ll keep the subject matter to myself as it wasn’t directly about me, but suffice to say I was both emotionally and intellectually moved a great deal.

It reminded me of the lessons I’ve not only learned about life and living, but about myself — many of which were learned in the pressure cooker of desperate straits. I’d love to hear what some of you have learned when things in your life went to hell in a hand basket, but fair is fair so I’ll tell you some of what I learned in some of the darkest hours from my past.

I learned no matter how much family support there is, no matter how many friends there are, in Read more

July 31, 2009