Category: Realty Reality (page 11 of 16)
I have to agree with the FTC ‘s initial action but for all the wrong reasons. And I don’t agree with them now pursuing the case further. A few days ago a Judge 
dismissed the complaint filed by the FTC against a Detroit area Multiple Listing Service. The position of the FTC was that it was “hurting consumers” for Realcomp to deny brokers using an “exclusive agency listing” the right to be on Realtor.com and other public websites. The brokers who were up against the FTC decided it would be easier to just stop doing it so the judge dismissed the complaint. The FTC officials plan to pursue the case further (making a “Federal case out of it).
From Inman on December 13th:
This policy, which was adopted following the FTC’s complaint against Realcomp and other MLSs, provides an exception that allows MLSs to ban the transmission of listing information if the listed property’s street address or a graphic display of a property’s location is publicly displayed and the seller displays a for-sale-by-owner sign on the property or another sign or notice that indicates that the seller is seeking direct contact from buyers.
Meanwhile, Albert Hepp, a flat-fee broker who serves as president of the American Real Estate Broker Alliance, a national alliance of flat-fee brokers, said he is disappointed with the judge’s decision and NAR’s stance on the issue.
“We are disappointed in the ruling and urge the FTC to appeal,” he said. “Anyone who truly understands the MLS knows that this is a clear-cut case of an MLS hiding the listings of discounters to harm consumer choice. Once again, the NAR has unfortunately chosen to fight competition while claiming to promote it.”
For example, an attachment to the judge’s decision details an agreement by Realcomp and the FTC over a contested “search function policy” adopted in 2003 that defaulted to a search of exclusive-right-to-sell listings and required MLS users to specifically search for exclusive-agency listings to view those properties. That policy was changed in April 2007, and the agreement provides that Realcomp “shall … cease and desist from adopting or enforcing any policy, rule, Read more
Saturday afternoon, about 2:30 I stopped by the Quiznos at Tatum & Thunderbird, it is in a little strip center right by my house. For those who like details, I had a Diet Pepsi and the regular size prime rib cheesesteak sandwich. Right next door to the Quiznos I saw this sign on the door:
I zoomed in so you could read it. Zooming back and stepping back just a bit it looks like this:
I suppose the advantage and the disadvantage of being in shopping center is foot traffic.
Want to buy some predictions for $4,000.00. Actually, $3,995 to be exact. And the predictions are too. The ones I’ve examined are also unfounded, stupid and won’t be true. But as you can see here, you get two copies for your 4k. Then for only $500 more per copy you can get up to ten (10) additional copies. That’s really reasonable. It makes your average cost per copy a low low $749.58 (10 X 500 + 3995 = 8995). Who can’t afford that?
Of course the data is pretty much useless but that won’t stop it from being spewed all across the planet.
Most print and electronic media are just determined to endlessly establish that they have no real knowledge of anything they are writing or talking about – they just print and rebroadcast “news releases” that are really little more than poorly disguised PR to sell some book or seminar.
Here is a sample forecast for Phoenix:
In September 2007, in spite of all the problems in our real estate market listed above, Moody’s predicts the Phoenix real estate market will bottom out in 2Q/2008 and react like a “V” with a quick increase of 7.7% in the first year because 1.) we have so many people moving into Arizona and 2.) Phoenix leads the nation in job growth. Other areas of the country are not as fortunate as we and they will see a protracted “U” shaped real estate market recovery because those areas have a net outflow of residents and lots of job losses.
Good news. Prices will be actually going up next year. Isn’t that great? I’m excited. Now I can tell all my customers to just wait until the 3rd quarter and sell then. Yea!!
This is the same Moody’s who was giving the sub-prime backed crap paper the equivalent of a “triple A” rating. Oh yea, that Moody’s. It is astounding that no economist (read that as NONE) predicted the run up in prices until after the run up was occurring. Then they could chat about it at great length. This would be sort of like the weatherman waiting until Read more
“My goal is to have a big team”. I actually had a Realtor say exactly that to me. Why? Is there some special reason someone, who wasn’t deranged, would have the goal of having a big overhead and loads of people to manage and be responsible for and to? Is it possible that a sane and rational person would ever have such a goal? The answer is, yes, if they are stupid enough. He was, too. One of the lowest responsibility, most intellectually lazy people I’ve ever known. He later, as part of his program to build a large team opened his own office and after being open for business about 90 days sent me an email asking the name of a good book on how to recruit agents. He discovered that agents weren’t lining up to come to work for his little shoestring operation and then thought he might want to learn a little about that. If it wasn’t too much trouble, of course. He never did. He then shut that down and went back to being an agent with someone to help him with buyers. He is still working on “having a big team”.
Please understand I am not against someone (say for example, me) having a large team. No no. It is just that isn’t the goal. No good reason for anyone to have that for a goal.
The goal is (or at least should be) something along the lines of I want more money after all expenses and I want more free time. Having a team (other personal) 
can help to make that possible. Most real estate “teams” are
not teams at all. More a group of people all sort of working together in the same building. They may have a helpful attitude towards each other and be quite happy when they see each other but that doesn’t make them a team. I get asked often by other agents who “have a team if my buyer agents are allowed to list property (no, never) or if my listers are allowed to work a buyer (almost never). They are usually surprised, Read more
First, for those of you now wondering what the heck the Medoza Line is, here’s the short version.
I come from the Mario Mendoza school, not Minnie Mendoza, as Mario was actually a major leaguer for nine years. Anyway, all it refers to is Mendoza’s consistently inept performance at the plate. His career batting average was a miniscule .215 — which included the year that produced The Mendoza Line — 1979 — in which he hit .198. Using sports hyperbole, Greg Swan could hit .198 — and I’m not positive he knows which end of the bat to hold. 🙂
Seth Godin wrote a piece Sunday morning letting the cat out of the bag.
Marketing people worship at the altar of The Mendoza Line.
Quoting Seth:
Marketers have lots of ‘bullets’ and they don’t notice the ones they miss (I usually miss 99.5% of the time online, and more than 99.999% of the time selling books). We just reload and blithely continue on.
Surely, he’s being overly modest — yet, even discounting his humility, he speaks basic truth.
Yep, that’s my experience with marketers. They aspire to the Mendoza Line.
My opinion of most marketing people is about the same as it is for most real estate agents or mortgage brokers — most of them couldn’t find their asses with both hands, a map, two helpers, and a GPS.
Yet, hypocritically, I’m using two of ’em to make my point. Guys like Seth and Richard Riccelli, stick out like sore thumbs because in my opinion, they actually produce results. Go figure.
Let’s pause here to be clear and forthright about my understanding of marketing.
My definition: It’s their job to generate more chances for their client to succeed. Put another way — if their ideas work, the agent/client finds himself in front of far more prospects. In baseball-ese, those are at-bats. The agent who gets 20 more opportunities a month, and hits at The Mendoza Line, makes a ton more money each year.
That’s how I define marketing.
Let’s quantify those additional 20 opportunities in today’s terms. If your market’s median home price is $200,000 and Read more
The 2008 Super Bowl is in Arizona this time. And this creates a unique opportunity for Realtors. I hadn’t realized it until I received this email from Terry Day.
__
From: Terry Day [mailto:perfecthome4u@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 9:01 PM
Subject: Please Help – 2008 Superbowl
To all my friends and those in the grasp of this email I NEED YOUR HELP!
I have a really fun, honest and exciting way for you to earn some GREAT MONEY, and make some great contacts during the SuperBowl this January and February. I, like many of you also hold my AZ real estate license and know that quick cash can be very beneficial for you and your families.
The opportunity is to earn a minimum of $1300 in one week driving a Lincoln Towncar or stretch limousine. My client needs 500 drivers, with a clean criminal background, clean driving record, and that can pass a drug test. The company will provide you with a car for the week, a credit card for gas, and a means of contact i.e. a cell.
Last year in 2006 the top driver earned $3300 and the average minimum was around $1300.
Of course folks these numbers do not include cash tips. The drivers that perform the best get more trips, and get much, much, more money.
If you could help I really need you to forward this to your contact list. I need to hire 500 drivers in the next 35 days. Please help me….
This Superbowl here in Glendale is going to be phenomenal. Now lets get our friends and make some money for everyone. The actual driving assignments will be between Wednesday, January 30 2008 and Wednesday February 6th 2008.
Sincerely,
Terry L. Day
Cell – 602-526-0334
Phoenix AZ 85034
Ofc 602-252-3442
Please help, apply and send to your friends.
Thanks
Terry
–
DPR Realty
Terry L Day
Direct: 602-526-0334
EFAX 480-287-9613
__
I had this link at the top with his name but I liked it so much, I wanted to include it again. Here is the only website I could find for Terry. He doesn’t say (so I have to assume it is alright) that you have to live here in the Phoenix area to apply. As he Read more
I am way behind on getting out the videos I promised some months ago. I think most of the kinks are now out of how to do them, now it is just a matter of setting aside the time to do them. In the meantime, here is another installment booster – for agents who want to succeed – that I have intended all along.
Wayne Long writes:
I am a big fan of the Millionaire Real Estate book and all the products they have. All that said, as I watched the video I had some questions.
The book was written now several years ago based on people who became successful prior to the book being published.
My question is: Has the paradigm shifted? If we are interviewing agents 5 or 10 years from now who are mega successful agents – will they say that SOI and direct mail is how I got here or will they say a great website and blogging is how I got here?
There are obviously certain principles that never change and great service, systems, leverage, and lead generation will always be the way to success.
The question is: Has the most effective way to generate leads changed?
These questions were in response to the video you can see here. Short answer; no. Long answer; no, and I doubt it is ever going to change. There will of course
be
people who will rise up and disagree with that statement. They are simply wrong. But before anyone even bothers to disagree (watch the video first), let us be very very clear about what I am even talking about here. Is there something in the MREA book that is wrong? No. Is is “outdated”? No. Could it be more updated? Yes, and, in fact, a revision is in progress – but it still isn’t “outdated”. Our business hasn’t changed. The most important parts of long term stable success in residential sales is getting and getting rid of listings. That was true 40 – 50 years ago and I believe it will still be true 40 – 50 years from now. The things that make is seem Read more
I received the following email from: real estate agent [gayagent@gayrealestatedirectory.com]. I think of myself as a pretty friendly guy and have sold homes to and for many gay people over the years. I’ve always behaved as though what was really wanted and needed was someone who would get the job done. This is yet another of the remarkably endless ways to charge Realtors money for something they “now need”.
__
Market to the gay friendly community-One of the fastest growing markets today.
One of today’s fastest growing home owner market segments is our gay family communities. They are highly successful and very influential members of our American society. They have the means and the need to secure loans and purchase homes in some of the wealthiest communities. They are searching for like minded as well as opened minded business professionals to help them achieve their life goals.
If you are a gay or gay friendly real estate agent or broker we would like to invite you to become a part of our community. We need representation in major cities to service our gay community. Our future gay homeowners would like to view your website listings and possibly find their special dream home. To share your professional services with our visitors all you need to do is to go to this address www.gayrealestatedirectory.com and choose the agent and broker signup choice at the bottom of the page. This will take you to our submit page where you will receive instructions on becoming part of our marketing community.
Our gay community website has already moved up to the first page and top positions of the major search engines. We are one of the Top Gay Real Estate Directories on Yahoo. http://search.yahoo.com/search gay real estate directory .
We are also on the first page of Yahoo for Gay Real Estate Listings as well.
http://search.yahoo.com/search gay real estate listings As you can see, we work very hard to provide the Gay Community with a unique gateway access to some of the Top Real Estate Professionals and Brokers in the country. We want them to feel comfortable that our real estate professionals understand Read more
It’s been an interesting year, in the sense of the old Chinese proverb about interesting times. Interesting in this context meaning hard times. Mortgage brokers are scrambling, trying to give great service while simultaneously discerning between serious borrowers and serious time wasters. Real estate agents, many of them in he business since 2000 or later, never having experienced even a normal market, are being harshly introduced to reality. I’ve recently learned some of the agents with whom I’ve become friendly during the great times, have taken 8-5 jobs. Many of them are wondering how long they can hang.
Turns out real estate, lending, blogging, marketing, and all the other jobs, require expertise and hard work. Go figure.
Another surprising development has been how experience has also quickly risen to the top as a quality attribute the last couple years. (Think my tongue almost penetrated my cheek on that one.)
Because there is not nearly as much business going on these days, the small things are creating big problems. I don’t mean by themselves though. It’s because, in my opinion, people are reacting poorly under pressure. A small problem, a 2 on the 1-10 scale, will arise. They respond though, as if it’s a 10. They do this because even a small threat to their acutely reduced income, scares them silly. Over time, their credibility suffers, as nobody around them takes them seriously. No matter how it’s framed, a problem worthy of only a 2 rating, doesn’t become a 10 just because it’s treated that way. People aren’t stupid — they notice — sometimes. In an alternate scenario, others become infected by this overreaction virus. Now all around are behaving as if the 2 is in reality a 10. I’ve seen easily solvable problems become deal killers — they died from the dreaded, ‘2 into 10’ fever.
It can get ugly when that happens. Egos get involved, emotions take over, and before anyone realizes it, the elevator has crashed thunderingly into the basement.
My first really tough market when everything went to hell in a hand basket, began in the last quarter of ’79. Read more
The real news from the mortgage and residential real estate business just keeps getting better.
First the 30% of investor or 2nd home sales went away. Then the 20% of the market that was the sub-prime business went away. Then the 10% of the market that was the alt-A business went away. Those numbers may not be exact but those are about the right percentages nationally. In the Phoenix area the number of true “investor sales” was even higher. Particularly in the edge communities where foreclosures have now skyrocketed. Yes, those very same edge communities where numerous builders sold 10 – 15 homes to each “investor” who wanted to buy them. Some of those subdivisions sales were primarily to “investors”. It is interesting to note that the amazing percentage run up in foreclosures in the Phoenix area is due to us having almost none a few years ago – back then everything could sell quickly. Drive through some of those neighborhoods on trash pick up day. Notice how few trash cans are out at the curb. (hint: a trash can at the curb = an occupied house)
In my opinion, the drop in sales from about 10,000 resales a month to about 3,000 sales a month in our area isn’t going to be a “temporary thing”. Most of those extra sales were fueled by low cost, no real need to qualify, money that never should have been available in the first place. Here I am referring to the alt-A, the sub-prime and the stated income (liar loans). It never ceases to amaze me how people with money can find (or is it the other way around) really really stupid things to “invest” in. If they had all of the facts available, I don’t know anyone who could have loaned money (their money) on 1st & 2nd liens, who would have made any of the 100% LTV sub-prime loans. No one who wanted to keep their money for later, anyway. Yet billions and billions of dollars were flooded into such “investments”. Now, after the horse is WAY out of the barn, they are really Read more
Remember Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? Well, Broker Greg’s theory is Men are Sellers, Women are Buyers. His observation is that prominent in a selling couple is the man — dickering over commission then exacting justification for those commissions; and when offers come in it will be he who will haggle over the details. On the other hand, when shopping for the new house, he doesn’t want to shop: “Garage for my stuff? Fridge for my beer? Sold!”.
So Thursday night, Husband Greg was perplexed. First, he surprised himself by doing physical labor. This is against his credo — the human mind is supposed to engineer methods to circumvent physical toil. But it was time for me to unstage Oregon. It closed yesterday and I had to get all my stuff out. When I buy staging inventory, I’m always careful to limit the heft of each item to something I can move in and out of the house without (Greg’s) help. However, I’m just recently recovered from pneumonia — a solid month of complete bed-rest. So there was Greg, huffing and puffing with the grunt work as I daintily packed my pashminas and platters.
But what really floored Greg happened after he had packed up our last load, while we were sitting in the drive-through line at Wendy’s, waiting to celebrate with Frostys. And I broke down crying. Through my sobs I hiccuped that I would probably never be inside of 718 West Oregon again. This brought my dear articulate Greg to speechless amazement.
We Realtors know we bring value to the real estate transaction… each in our own particular way — our value proposition; but we all offer the consumer the value of our experience from sheer numbers of transactions we work with. In comparison, years and years typically pass between transactions in which any individual consumer is involved. What is so easy for us Realtors to lose sight of, specifically because we do handle so many transactions, is the emotion involved in the process. Those of us who work with buyers get to see the elation of clients preparing Read more
The latest Harris Poll has Firefighters, Scientists & Teachers at the top and Bankers, Actors & Real Estate Agents at the bottom of their “Most Prestigious Occupations” list. This poll has been referenced in many articles on the internet. Here you can see the actual results from Harris.
It is not surprising that teaching is such a coveted job. Just look at the picture and see if you can spot the teacher’s pet?
A few weeks ago I was part of a “Surviving In This Market” panel. I have been a part of this sort of thing many times, locally and nationally. A few minutes into 
the program I found myself irritated at the question being asked. I usually don’t even read the questions provided beforehand as I prefer my responses to be completely unscripted. I think I may have surprised everybody (even myself a little) with my answer to the question asked. There were four other panelists and I was seated at the end of the table, closest to the moderator. The other four panelists had answered the question and I said, “I’m not going to answer the question because I think the question is stupid.” The moderator was a bit shocked. Perhaps you can guess that I seldom concern myself with such concepts as, “If I say this will I be invited back?”. I’m a bit proud of the fact that no one will ever be able to accuse me of being hard to read.
I believe that asking the right question can lead to a correct and useful answer. I also believe that asking the wrong question can be destructive. Just asking a question can cause damage? Absolutely. For example, the question, “What is wrong with me” or any of it’s thousands of variations is never a good question. Never. That doesn’t stop millions of people from walking around and asking this of themselves on a daily basis. They may have varied the question but it is nevertheless that question in one of it’s many guises. How can I improve this situation? How can I make this area better? are not the same sort of question and I hope you can discern the difference. The problem of “What’s wrong with me?” (or any variation) is that one tends to start a list of possible items. Then they can indicate these various items to themselves. They may even “get help” from others who can also indicate their various wrongness to them. Just based on how much this “improvement technique” is practiced in the Read more
The Wall Street high finance folks who contrived a system to endlessly send money to lenders and reward them for making fraudulent loans got what they rewarded. Here are a few Letters to the Editor from Businessweek:
Maria Bartiromo’s interview of Angelo Mozilo (“The heat on Countrywide,” News & Insights, Sept. 10) was tough and insightful. Clearly, Mozilo worked hard for years to build Countrywide Financial. It is sad to see many of his customers suffering under pending or potential future home loss through foreclosure. It also is an unfortunate coincidence that Mozilo has received $100 million by exercising options while many shareholders and customers suffer.This presents Mozilo with a unique opportunity: He could use some of his new riches to set up a fund to help families of customers facing home loss. Think of the suffering he could alleviate for just one child who gets to stay in his or her home. Multiply that by the tens or hundreds of families he could help by setting aside 10% or 20% of his windfall. Hopefully he will seize this opportunity.
Ed Dziadzio
Lexington, Mass.
__
It was difficult to read Angelo Mozilo’s interview because of the blinding light of his halo. In his “mission to lower the barriers of entry for…homeownership” he developed “184 programs” designed, in essence, to circumvent the historically proven risk-evaluation standards and reap huge, though temporary, profits for the corporation. The permanent benefit has been the obscene salaries and bonuses for him. The only reason Countrywide is “modifying” loans is to keep a lid on the disasters, not out of altruism. His claims are beyond absurd. Does his company not advertise as well as promote itself within the industry? Mozilo points out that “it’s important to understand that everybody has experienced substantial losses.” Not quite, Mr. Mozilo.
David Horn
Oakland, Calif.
__
The problems in the subprime lending market are due to low underwriting standards and then overvaluation of these portfolios. A key question that needs to be asked is how these mortgage originators are compensated. Many times the originator is compensated based on production of loans, which includes the good, bad, Read more