Thank you to the well-wishers… I really am still here, albeit not in top shape.

On Thanksgiving Day, I fell ill to a high fever. By Friday, I was having a hard time breathing. By Friday night, I needed a bronchial inhaler to keep from succumbing to asphyxiation. This is what acute bronchitis is all about. Perhaps I over-did it on my Thanksgiving Rant.

I am on the road to recovery - I have been able to eat, and my temperature has stabilized. I am getting a lot of rest.

And I’ll be back in the next couple of days with the November Atlanta Area Listing Trends.

Blog Buzz, Personal Journal | 7 Comments »

I know this isn’t real estate related. It doesn’t matter. Sometimes you have to say what needs to be said.

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Atlanta Area News, Personal Journal, Rants | 6 Comments »

I knew this day would come. The day when an injustice would force me to take my virtual pen in hand and thrust it towards those who dare to test my patience and sanity.

Let me start this story by stating my bias against the mortgage behemoth Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. I come by this bias quite honestly, as my previous dealings with them - as infrequent as they may have been - have always been less than desirable. So much so, that instead of preparing for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast - or partaking in an alcoholic beverage or two - I am focused like a laser beam to deliver this tale of woe.

I had a closing today. Perhaps I should say - today was spent at a closing. At least that would be a more accurate description. To Wells Fargo’s credit… it took place on just one day - instead of two or three days, as some of my previous experiences.

It was a miserable end to a saga that started nearly three years ago. In early 2004, I took a listing in a not-so-desirable part of town. I worked hard to get it sold… and eventually did. Well, sort of. For the most part, anyway.

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Personal Journal, Rants | 6 Comments »

Have you ever heard the saying, “you can’t see the forest for the trees”? That’s what happens when you are so buried in the minutia of something - you fail to see the big picture.

This is a story where I failed to see that big picture. For many years, no less.

I have offered online MLS searches for years. Nearly seven of them, to be exact. I have always provided as much information as the Georgia Real Estate Commission and our local listing services would allow.

I have seen publishers remove my advertisements for this service from their publications at the heated request of other Realtors in my community.

I have listened to angry agents call me up (with their caller ID blocked) to tell me what a scumbag I was for offering the MLS data online.

I have seen agents tell their clients to use my service to search for a home - even tell them to use me to gather information for them… just so these agents wouldn’t have to spend the money to set up their own MLS search service.

I have even seen other agents - who only belonged to one of our two local MLS’s - use my service to search for homes for their clients… and call ME for the seller’s phone number to arrange a showing.

In other words… I thought I had seen it all. From my standpoint:

I thought I could see the whole forest.

But a few weeks ago, I got a rude awakening.

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Blog Buzz, Personal Journal, Technology | 4 Comments »

Big kudos to blogger Teresa Boardman over at the St. Paul Real Estate blog for her latest article on “Did you know the credit bureaus are selling your information?”

Read her article and be sure to take her advice on “opting out” of this despicable practice.

More and more firms are indulging in this “selling personal info” racket… and with some diligence, you can protect yourself to a great degree.

 

Blog Buzz, Consumer Alerts, Real Estate News | No Comments »

Kevin Boer over at Three Oceans Real Estate topped the Carnival of Real Estate at True Gotham with his post “Why the Internet will never disintermediate Realtors”.

While the Internet has empowered consumers - both sellers and buyers alike - it can not replace the human factor in the real estate industry.

In my previous post “Can Discount Agents Save You Money?” I showed how - in spite of the Internet - a seller could be penalized for their ignorance. Note I wrote “ignorance” and not stupidity. The sellers in my vignette were anything but stupid. They had bought and sold many homes in their lifetimes, including investment properties.

While doing a little research regarding this subject, I found an online broker that serves four states, including Georgia. They list properties in the MLS for a fee of $349 ($275 if you pay by PayPal).

In their listing agreement, they place the entire legal burden of the listing on the seller. Although they do have tips and advice online regarding Fair Housing Laws, you would almost need to complete a course in real estate licensure to wade through the details with any degree of understanding.

Add to that the other factors such as pricing, marketing, and negotiation expertise - and you can see why these sellers are more likely to fail - than succeed - using this approach. Of the listings that did sell, most involved another Realtor - someone who guided both parties through the transaction.

Unfortunately, our profession as Realtors has been tarnished by the sheer numbers of new licensees that are churned out of the real estate schools each day. It’s no wonder that many people believe they can do as well without the assistance of Realtors - but that number is still in the minority.

My mother used to tell me, “If you think education is expensive - just try ignorance.”

Blog Buzz, Disintermediation, Mythbusters | No Comments »

Sure, it’s possible. Perhaps even likely. But not always.

Yesterday, I was talking to an agent on my team about a listing we had a couple of years ago. I did the market analysis, and a member of the team went out to take the listing. She came back with the listing at a price that was somewhat higher than my analysis… but since she is an experienced listing agent, I went along with it. After all - she was there, and I was in the office… and it was a unique property.

We showed it… co-op agents showed it… and we could get offers… but we couldn’t get an offer that was acceptable to the sellers. When the listing expired, the sellers lowered the price a little - and went with a flat-fee $399 discount broker. The sellers had a net price in mind, and this was their way of trying to achieve that price.

A few months later, I was thinking about them… so I took a look in the MLS and noticed their listing had expired… again. Since it was not relisted, I called up to see what was going on.

“You wouldn’t believe what happened!” the wife exclaims. “It was horrible! We went under contract, and we assumed everything was going well. We did all the repairs that were requested. We packed everything up - brought in the movers - and moved over to our son’s home. On the day of closing, we were informed that there was not going to be a closing. Not then… not ever. The buyer’s loan had been declined. We spent $7000 on the movers, alone… not to mention the repairs and the hassle.”

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Mythbusters, Personal Journal | 4 Comments »

With a continually slowing market, sellers and their agents are using agent bonuses and other incentives to move their properties. But is this an ethical way to do business?

RealEstateJournal.com published an interesting article on Friday “Do Real Estate Agents Have a Secret Agenda?”

Here’s an excerpt:

Home buyers have a new reason to be wary in this weakening housing market: Real-estate agents increasingly have lucrative incentives to push one home over another.

Slow sales have prompted builders and some individual sellers to offer unusually generous incentives to agents whose clients buy a home. Sellers normally pay the buyer’s agent 2% to 3% of the home’s price. Now many are offering thousands of dollars or other rewards, such as travel vouchers, on top of the normal commission.

Such incentives have long been used to sell some homes. But they have proliferated and become more generous recently as a glut of properties on the market makes it harder to sell homes. “These guys are desperate,” Ivy Zelman, a Cleveland-based housing analyst at Credit Suisse Group, says of home builders.

While the concept is not new, the extent is quickly becoming legendary. Before sitting down to write this article, I pulled up our local MLS to take a look at commission anomalies. Much of what I saw was shocking and disturbing.

The biggest co-op commission I saw was an incredible 20%.

Let me repeat… I saw a co-broke commission of 20%. It was not an error - it even stated as such in the remarks section of the listing. In the public area, no less. The home is new construction with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, listed for $270,000.

I don’t know how a buyer’s agent could show up at closing and face his/her client when they see an unexpected $54,000 commission on the HUD statement.

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Atlanta Area News, Blog Buzz, Real Estate News | 13 Comments »

In today’s tight real estate market, sellers need to know how much their houses are really worth. To better understand this, you first need to know what the various methods are:

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

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Blog Buzz, Mythbusters, Technology | No Comments »

Sean Carroll over at ActiveRain posted an interesting topic regarding presenting offers in person:

When I first started in Real Estate with my first Broker, I was told to always try to present your buyer’s offers in person to the seller and the listing agent. So, that was the practice I followed. Very soon thereafter though, I found that most listing agents don’t want the buyers agent anywhere near their client during negotiations.

Although I seldom present offers in person, there are those times when it is both appropriate and effective.

Last year, I was working with a buyer who is an amateur chef. Now when I say amateur chef, I’m not talking about someone who likes to make gourmet chili… I’m talking about a dedicated follower of the highest and best in the culinary arts.

I found him a nice four-sided brick ranch not too far away from his job that was perfect for him. The sellers were both involved in the appliance business, and they had some very nice appliances in this home… in addition to other upgrades.

Well needless to say, he fell in love with the house.

It was at the upper end of what he could afford, and worth every penny of the asking price. When he asked me what kind of an offer we should submit, I told him to give me a few hours to go back to the office and think about it.

After doing a market analysis, I had an idea about how to ink this deal. I called him up and asked him if he would mind preparing dinner for the sellers and two of their guests. He agreed - so I asked him to put the menu together and call me back when he had it done.

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Blog Buzz, Personal Journal | 10 Comments »