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Month: January 2007 (page 7 of 9)

January 9, 2007

Apple TV will present on-line videos in big chunks . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The Unofficial Apple Weblog, live-blogging from Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote address:

Apple TV Price $299. I want one. Ships February. Taking orders today. “Enjoy your media on your big-screen TV.”

Okay…

This is Carmen Sandoval from today’s episode of Flipper Nation — blown up to display on the 70-inch Sony Bravia LCD HDTV announced yesterday at CES. Yes, this will look better at living room distances — but how much better? Somehow, I don’t think this the last word in convergence technology.

On the other hand… Jobs is demoing the iPhone — with OSX on-board. More about this later…

Further notice: Tabbed browsing — on a phone!

Further, further notice: This is a rockin’ phone. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GSM, EDGE, SMS, email, video voicemail (selectable, like email!), tabbed Safari web browser, iPod, OS X with syncing to everythng via iPod sync, 5 hours phone, 16 hours audio, 2MP camera, touchscreen keyboard (one hardware button), widescreen iPod movies, iPhoto support. How much? $499 for a 4GB unit, $599 for 8GB. Both require a 2 year contract with Cingular (exclusively). My take has been that the next generation of mobile phones would eliminate the laptop from the real estate world. This might be the one…

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January 8, 2007

Dual Agency Smack-Down: Arizona Association of Realtors General Counsel Michelle Lind on Dual Agency . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The Arizona Association of Realtors has just published Arizona Real Estate: A Professional’s Guide to Law and Practice by Arizona Association of Realtors General Counsel Michelle Lind. I don’t know what is planned for this book, but it is comprehensive enough to be used as one of the texts in a pre-licensing or broker’s licensing class.

I got my copy today, and I thought I’d highlight the material on Dual Agency. This rendering is not hugely different from the material Lind has had on the AAR website, but I think the statute law makes it plain that, in Arizona, the parties to a Dual Agency can consent in writing to terms less stringent than those specified in the current “AAR Consent to Limited Dual Representation” disclosure. I haven’t gotten around to writing a disclosure that describes Dual Agency transactions as they actually occur — in part because I’ve been waiting for this book to be published — but I’ll put a form together and take to Lind to see how it flies.

Nota bene: This is interesting reading, but if you are not licensed in Arizona, it does not apply to you. Your local laws may be radically different.

 
DUAL REPRESENTATION (DUAL AGENCY)

Dual representation (dual agency) occurs when one broker individually, or two salespeople within the same brokerage firm, represent both the buyer and the seller in a real estate transaction. Dual representation is lawful with prior written consent. The ADRE Commissioner’s Rules provide that: “A licensee shall not . . . represent both parties to a transaction without the prior written consent of both parties.” See, R4-28-11O1(F). Consequently, the ADRE may sanction a licensee if the licensee has “[a]cted for more than one party in a transaction without the knowledge or consent of all parties to the transaction.” A.R.S. 32-2153(A)(2).

Dual representation involves inherent conflicts. Therefore, in most residential resale transactions in which a broker acts as a dual agent, the broker obtains the consent of the parties on the AAR Consent to Limited Representation (12/02) form. This form is not mandated by statute, but is helpful in explaining dual agency and its consequences Read more

January 8, 2007

Metro Brokers’ new map site: First we take Colorado, then — the world!

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Colorado real estate brokerage Metro Brokers announced it’s new map-based search engine at Inman Connect. From the Denver Post:

Starting today, consumers will be able to go online to find all homes on the market in Colorado.

Denver-based Metro Brokers Inc. is launching ColoradoHomeStop.com at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in New York.

The company spent two years and more than $2 million to develop the site, which ultimately will incorporate the state’s 22 multiple listing services into one site, said Mark Eibner, chairman of Metro Brokers’ information technology committee. The initiative was paid for by the organization’s 2,000 members.

The advertising-free site takes the map-based real estate search to a new level of interactivity, building proprietary AJAX technology onto the Google Maps mapping platform.

Metro Brokers partnered with WhereToLive.com to integrate the company’s real-time SmartMap search technology into the website.

Among the features it offers are:

Street-level, aerial satellite and hybrid views of the property;

A photo tour of each property;

Neighborhood and school information specific to a property;

A map of each property and driving directions.

Users also can print property brochures, request additional information, schedule showings via the web and compare up to four properties side-by-side.

Metro Brokers has purchased the ColoradoHomeStop domain name in all 50 states in anticipation of launching the site – and the real estate company – nationally.

My take? Highly detailed. Kinda slow. The initial view if you don’t specify a search is every listed home in Colorado, so that’s gotta grind some gears. But zooming in takes a while per double-click, with more waiting for the map to re-render. The site makes very intelligent use of Ajax tabs to cram a lot of detail into one browser window.

(Hat tip: Dave Barnes)

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January 8, 2007

What’s Yours is Mine?

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Ah, the personal versus real property dilemma. We all know what a fixture is, right? There is the real estate agent definition – If you can pick it up and haul it out, it’s yours. There is the dictionary definition – “An item of movable property so incorporated into real property that it may be regarded as legally a part of it”. Then, there is the definition we learn in our licensing courses, which is something along the lines of – An appurtenant item permanently attached to the structure in a manner that it can be considered an integral part thereof.

I had cause for exasperation this week when an agent for the buyer of one of our listings decided to challenge me on this issue. She was so full of conviction (full of something, anyway), that she suggested ended up giving me some helpful business advice. No doubt in the spirit of cooperation, she suggested I “consult my attorneys”.

On an almost daily basis, I am exasperated, so this is nothing new. And that frustration usually results from the absurd roles I invariable end up playing during the course of a transaction. I have swept garages, I have bartered furniture on my client’s behalf, and I have attended a client’s garage sale and not only bought their stuff but helped sell what I didn’t buy. ( I’m still smarting that I didn’t grab that gently used Mystery Date game while I had the chance), I’ve, of course, met the plumber, yet I have been the plumber; I have taken out trash, cleaned out refrigerators, and cleaned out toilets. While this latest frustration didn’t involve manual labor, it frustrated me no less.

So I ask you, just in case I am missing something, which of the following would you consider to be a fixture versus personal property in the transfer of real property?

fixture_ a

fixture_b

fixture_c

Option (a) was a gimme. The microwave oven is clearly built in, and the contract is very clear on this point. Option (b) was likely not much of a challenge for you either, although Read more

January 8, 2007

Hey, buddy . . . Wanna buy a Zip Code . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Eppraisal.com and Zillow.com today both announced Zip Code based advertising programs to allow agents to display ads to people searching in their particular farm areas.

Under the Eppraisal.com plan, agents will sponsor particular Zip Codes for a fee of $20 a month.

If you are a real estate professional, you can sponsor any zip code in America and begin connecting with the eppraisal.com users who are eager to understand how much their castle is worth. You’ll be exposed to consumers who are ready to take action on buying, selling or re-financing a home. By sponsoring a zip code, or multiple zip codes, you gain exclusive access to users within the area as well as premium advertising opportunities to those targeted zones for only $20 per month.

Zillow’s plans are not as definite at this point:

Today at Real Estate Connect NY, Zillow president Lloyd Frink talked about a new advertising product coming during the first quarter of this year, one that allows agents and other real individual estate professionals to buy inexpensive, targeted advertising on the site.

We’re calling it EZAds — and it’s pretty simple — an easy, online way for individual agents and other real estate professionals to buy and customize ads on Zillow.com, targeted to specific searched ZIP codes. The ads show up on ZIP code-specific areas throughout the site, including map pages and home detail pages.

No word on pricing, nor availability.

Curiously, neither site elected to follow the Realtor.com business model of selling outrageously large farming areas to multiple, competing agents…

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January 8, 2007

Carnival of carnivals . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

BloodhoundBlog is broadly represented in this week’s weblog carnivals:

Kris Berg‘s post Kibble and Bits can be found at the Carnival of Real Estate at @ House Values.

Jeff Brown‘s entry The S & P Is Up Over 16% In 2006! is among the winners at the Carnival of Real Estate Investing at Cash Flow Treasures.

Sadly, Dan Green‘s excellent article detailing What Isaac Newton Knew About Mortgage Lending did not make the list of finalists at the Carnival of Business at My Money Forest.

But: We thought Dan’s post simply killed, so it is this week’s Carnival of BloodhoundBlog Winner…

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January 8, 2007

Was BusinessWeek bamboozled? “Twist” doesn’t know what she doesn’t know . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a copy of email I just sent to Peter Coy of BusinessWeek with respect to false claims made last week about deception in the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service. Cliff’s Notes: False alarm resulting from “crackpot claims, the end product of a fervid imagination and a Rube Goldberg spreadsheet.”

From: GregSwann@BloodhoundRealty.com
Subject: Problem solved — “Twist” doesn’t know what she doesn’t know
Date: January 8, 2007 2:13:57 AM MST
To: Peter_Coy, Twist
Cc: Jay, Jonathan, John

The mystery unraveled.

1. Ms. Averett does not have access to the ARMLS system.

2. Her analysis is based on summary reports issued by the ARMLS staff, presumably for PR purposes.

3. Those reports omit many categories of residential listings, presumably to make the summary fit on a single page.

4. The three columns of Ms Averett’s analysis that buttress her claim — New Listings, Delisted, and Ratio Sales/Delisted are not obtained from these summary reports. There may be some other source, but they’re not in the ARMLS reports — at least not in those I looked at.

5. As has been demonstrated by four Phoenix-area Realtors working independently but directly in the ARMLS system, Ms. Averett’s contentions about the months of November and December of 2005 and January of 2006 are not only false, they bear no resemblance to reality at all. I have also demonstrated that her contentions with respect to the same months one year earlier are also false.

6. Given that the methodology she deploys is dubious at best, and probably completely devoid of meaning, it seems reasonable to surmise that all of the rest of her claims with respect to ARMLS are also false. This is not to imply that the ARMLS system is fault-free, but simply that the fault Ms. Averett claims to have identified does not exist. She does not understand the ARMLS system well enough to make any sort of informed statement about it.

7. The other weblogging Phoenix-area Realtors copied above may have more to add as they peruse Ms. Averett’s work product. John L. Wake surmised from the beginning that Ms. Averett was working from ARMLS-issued summaries rather than directly from the database.

8. My Read more

January 7, 2007

HARD MONEY: Life as a Legal Loan Shark

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Loan broking in the private mortgage marketplace can be the most rewarding sector of the lending. I have helped families who faced foreclosure due to unforeseen negative events. I’ve watched a businesswoman land a huge contract because she could access quick capital. I’ve beamed with pride as a property investor turned around a dilapidated multi-family complex and provided quality housing for 20 families.

None of these positive events came to fruition with out the loan shark. The “loan shark” is a pejorative term accorded to participants in this industry. The loan broker charges relatively high points or fees and the private investor (or lender) charges high rates. I offer you an explanation for the expensive terms these loans offer:

1- This market is diminutive when compared to the amount of capital available in the secondary mortgage markets. The loan broker has a finite amount of capital available to him because these loans are held for investment by the private lender and not securitized. The economic principle of scarcity of supply applies in this market. A loan broker who specializes in this market may only have five to ten million dollars available each year to lend. Origination fees of 3% to 6% are not uncommon because of the scarcity of capital.

2- The private mortgage lender has many other investment options available to her. Investing in a mortgage-backed securities pool, guaranteed by a government agency (like a Ginnie Mae pass-through security) is going to yield approximately 6% in today’s environment. There is no risk of default to that investor because an agency of the US Government guarantees those loans . If we start with 6% as a baseline (and zero default rate), it becomes apparent why yields of 10-14% are not uncommon for the risk the private lender takes (default rate for private mortgage loans can be as high as 8-10%). Default brings unwanted complications for the private mortgage investor: temporary loss of income, legal action, and eventual disposal of the collateral.

Responsibility in the underwriting of these loans becomes more important because a loan broker is dealing with an individual investor’s nest egg, not an Read more

January 7, 2007

From Rotating Careers To Gold Fish Johns

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Though always searching for cool real estate blogs, once you’ve been looking for awhile the nuggets are discovered much less often. Happily I ran into one I’m sure many of you already know about. For those of you on the late bus along with me, I recommend you click over to Sacramento Real Estate Blog. John Lockwood at times shows how to take transparency to new levels.

His post promoting his newsletter is inspired. I Take It All Back speaks for itself. His transparency in the post reviewing the past year was a story I’ve seen repeated over and over. Yet, John lets us inside his head as he roams back and forth, struggling to discover just what he really wants to do.

John is smarter than the average bear, and funnier than the average blogger. Take a look, you won’t regret it. The guy is worth your time, I promise. He’s also faster than I am. Imagine my surprise to find a post, in part about a simple comment I made on his site yesterday.

Seriously, take a look at this guy.

January 7, 2007

Trade or trade shows? The business of real estate is transacted face-to-face . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The RE.net is abuzz about this week’s Inman’s Real Estate Connect in New York, but the coming week owns an embarrassment of trade show riches.

Also on tap this week: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

And, best of all: The Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

These are all basically vendor shows, despite the hype — or, rather, in support of the hype. The big news will come from Apple, of course, and much of the ‘news’ coming out of the other two shows will be fun to make fun of. I get no end of mileage out of the goofy crap corporate weenies try to foist off on long-suffering Realtors.

We’ll be here, taking it all in, of course. But mainly we’ll be here working. This is the first selling weekend in the New Year. We’re showing. We’re listing. And we’re not wasting the precious time of a finite life. Fun is fun, and, of the three trade shows, I’d probably pick CES — just to be in Vegas. But I don’t go even a little bit North in the Winter, and, in any case, the business of real estate brokerage is not transacted at trade shows…

Further notice: A much-expanded version of this is posted at Inman Blog.

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January 6, 2007

Think globally, blog locally: If you want local leads from your real estate weblog, pursue local interests . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

BloodhoundBlog tends very strongly to cover news and views of interest to real estate professionals nationwide. And — guess what? — our audience, by an overwhelming majority, consists of real estate professionals nationwide.

Here’s the bad news: If you have a real estate weblog, the chances are excellent that your objective is to attract interest from buyers and sellers in your local market. But — guess what? — your audience, by an overwhelming majority, very probably consists of real estate professionals nationwide.

Why should this be so?

There are three reasons:

First, the permanent audience for real estate weblogs consists of real estate professionals all over the country — all over the Anglosphere, really, those countries most strongly influenced by the English language, its customs and traditions.

Second, to the extent that consumers are finding your real estate weblog by long tail search terms, they are evanescent — fleeting. For one thing, their interest in buying or selling a home has a limited time window; when they’re done, most of them are done for a long while. And, for another, they’re flitting in and out from Google just as you do, when you’re searching for something on-line.

But third, and most importantly, you don’t have a local audience because you are not cultivating a local audience.

This year portends to be the Year of the Locality in real estate weblogs. Active Rain is starting a new site call Localism.com, which is to be devoted to engendering very high long tail organic search engine rankings for locality and neighborhood-level keywords. MyHouseKey.org, to debut this week, is pursuing the same strategy.

These are not awful ideas, but they’re not great, either. As with your current conundrum, a long tail searcher is apt to be ephemeral, landing on and lasting at your weblog only an instant.

The better plan, I think, is to get local consumers to come and stay, to come and come back, to favorite your weblog, to — O, holy of holies! — blogroll your real estate weblog.

I have two ideas on how to do this, one great and one insanely great. I’ll share the great one, but my Read more

January 6, 2007

Selling Out

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Larry Cragun posted yesterday on a Pittsburgh report that applying for a home loan could result in the sale of your personal information. What about listing your property in the MLS?

I got a call yesterday on my cell phone. Hello, this is Kris Berg. The surprised voice on the other end said, “Oh, you’re the agent. I was trying to reach the owners”. Why? “I am from (ABC Moving Company). I see that they sold their home, and we want to set up a time to give them a quote. I will just find their number somewhere else.” Click. Dial tone.

I could kick myself for not remembering the name of the company or saving the phone number. I want to report them. Now I know that last time I moved, I got a daily mailbox full of generous offers to sell me everything from moving services to mini-storage space to new living room furniture, but I didn’t stop to question how they might have been tipped off to my impending relocation. My address was not a secret, nor was the fact that my home was in escrow. What bothered me in this instance was that someone, who I can only presume was not a licensed agent, had access to the MLS printout for my client’s pending listing. Since this home was a “call listing agent to show” situation, they could have only gotten that information through MLS access.

We have “agent” printouts and “client” printouts of MLS listings, with the latter excluding the personal information of the sellers and the confidential remarks, for very good reason. Confidential remarks often include things such as gate codes, security system codes for disarming, and other personal information which is not considered appropriate for public consumption. While listing information can be found in many, many other places than through the local MLS, the personal information including client phone number can only be found there. In this case, the helpful service provider either was given the information by an agent (a big Board no-no), was licensed themself and was using this information to (illegally?) solicit business, or Read more

January 6, 2007

Lessons from the Epicenter

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I am biased towards Phoenix. I should be. I lived in the Valley of the Sun for twelve years. I was married in St. Mary’s Basilica, celebrated that conjugal union at Heritage Square, and watch my daughter come into this world at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I’ve lent money on mansions in Mesa and mobile homes in Marana. I’ve dined at Durant’s and drank beer at the Downside Risk.

I love living and working San Diego but have bias towards Phoenix. Bias nothwithstanding…
Phoenix is the epicenter of Real Estate 2.0. That’s fancy term for interaction between the consumer and real estate professionals. It gives the consumer a chance to get to know you (the principle of transparency) and get valuable information about communites (the principle of local content).

Phoenix is the epicenter of Real Estate 2.0. Bloodhound Blog is here. The Phoenix Real Estate Guy is here. Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog is here. Boatloads of Bubbleheads are here. Today, I was here with 20 other front-line evangelists discussing the Gospel according to Google. Here are the lessons we learned.

January 6, 2007

Avoiding a close shave with Occam’s Razor . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Dale Gribble: You see, what they do is, they send everyone from the MLS office home early on Christmas Eve.

Then they go in and edit thousands of records.

That makes things look good when they’re really bad, get it?

Then they call Twist and fool her with the false information.

Then they change all those thousands of records back, before anybody has a chance to notice.

It’s a sinister and diabolical plan, faultlessly executed every year!

It might sound like a lot of trouble, but it’s nothing compared to what they went through to fake the Zapruder film!

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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