September 2007
The current real estate bust may last a bit longer than people hope…
An article I read recently from the International Herald Tribune. It was titled “Soft landing unlikely for the housing slump” by David Leonhardt of the New York Times. It made so much sense that I’m wondering when the next “opportunity” to buy. Despite all the efforts of the Federal Reserve in the United States, there’s one unescapable fact and it’s something I’ve been preaching to my students: prices of real estate have outpaced incomes. Let’s be frank, but if you don’t have the money to pay for the housing you buy, you simply will have to give it up to foreclosure or sell it to some Joe or Joanna quick enough that they don’t realize they’re going to have the same problem soon. It just took a matter of time before the current Ratio of Median House Price to Median Household Income got too high. It’s at… (more…)
It’s funny what time does in the search engine marketing world…
So, doing a search on “bellevue wa real estate”, I come up as #20 on a recent search. It fluctuates and so you may have to look on the 3rd page at times (results 21 through 30) and sometimes it climbs higher. When searching for “buyer’s agent condo bellevue”, I show up on the first page. On the most recent search, I’m #7 on the first page. The funny thing is that I’m not even practicing in the Real Estate world anymore minus helping out some Realtors who contact me occasionally. Which by the way, unfortunately due to time constraints, I can’t just help out anyone for free. However, if I do help you, you will see results better than I even imagined in my first year of real estate, I believe. The question is “if” I can help you though. (more…)
You thought Real Estate agents were crooks? There’s a reason why mortgage brokers are getting raided by the FBI instead…
So, I saw a headline recently reading “confessions of a mortgage broker” and how they do business. Reproducing the story from Yahoo here was difficult to find. So, instead I searched on YouTube.com to see if there were any good clips. The #1 clip for the search on the phrase “mortgage broker” was a news story about a broker I believe in California getting raided for doing shady business. He and his company were falsifying documents to secure loans for people. (more…)
5 Real Estate websites changing the real estate industry
- Zillow.com
- HousingMaps.com
- iiproperty.com
- Propsmart.com (more…)
advice for the new real estate agent: chapter 1
So, a sister of a great past client of mine just recently asked for some advice getting into the business. While I didn’t copy the whole email here to her (for her benefit & mine ;), I did want to share one of the things that I would advise in looking at when interviewing brokerages. Actually, the first bit of advice is interview your brokers or new places of employment. Don’t spend just one week or just sign up with the first one you get a good feel. Make sure they give you the time of the day…the manner in which they treat you the day you come in for an interview is probably representative of how they’ll treat you moving forward as an agent. The other tip is that “they WANT you” instead of you wanting them. They should treat you like royalty, but you have no idea when walking in the door. Every sale you make for them moving forward with them is more money in their pockets and the day you sign with them, they’ll most likely accrue fees from you…so, they want more agents…even if they are bad agents. However, of course, a more savvy broker will look for agents that will improve their brand name, not taint it….
Anyway, here’s the list of criteria I would use when looking at a new brokerage… (more…)
10 interview questions to ask a real estate agent or realtor before working with them
1) Can you give me the contact information at least 3 satisfied clients (buyers, if you’re buying and sellers, if you’re selling)
2) Describe the 3 most recent sales you helped clients — you can tell a lot from their recent assistance of other clients
3) What area do you know the best? An honest agent will tell you what they know the best…a less honest or one that’s a little unrealistic will tell you they can help you with anything. Unfortunately, unless they have a large team doing all the real estate data mining & constantly being fed about all the local markets, they are probably out of touch with many of the different areas in the local real estate market.
(more…)Sep 03 2007 10:56 am | Advice Real Estate and For Real Estate Consumers and Real Estate Agents | 1 Comment »Century 21’s CEO takes a “$200,000 hit” against his own real estate property (his home)
…well, actually not really a loss, but the CEO Tom Kunz had a $1.3 million dollar cash offer for his home in Tuscan Ranch, California in 2004, but turned it down. A home in the same subdivision sold for $1.1 million dollars and is supposedly identical to his home. He says “I could sit here and say, ‘Oh I lost $200,000.’ But I’ve still made about a $700,000 profit,” he said in the interview late last week about the problems facing the housing market.”
Sep 03 2007 10:16 am | Real Estate Downturn and Real Estate Industry Players and Real Estate Speculation | 2 Comments »