Realty Makeover

Need someone to blame?

2008-12-02T10:07:00.001-08:00

With all of the different news articles about the current financial crisis, we all wonder (especially the home owners who are victims) just who to blame for the current meltdown. We've all heard about the proposed solution put out by the White House administration on how they can still attempt to give their cronies money from the Treasury. We've also heard from the different members of Congress on their different solutions and actions that need to be taken. We hear all of this but when we start asking "Who is to blame" all we hear is that we need to fix the problem and not point fingers.

This is all well and fine, and I agree that we need to fix the problem. We need to do something to help the home owners, the true victims and not the financial executives, to save their homes. Also, we need to put permenant fixes in place so that this problem doesn't arise again. Wasn't that why the banking and financial regulations were put in place during the Great Depression? And aren't these the same regulations that the Republicans during the Reagan Administration either eliminated or watered down. But in reality, we've never heard as to who was to blame. Who started all of this sub-prime and mortgage-backed securities fiasco?

I think I found a name. Lewis Ranieri. According to REALTOR Magazine, Ranieri is the "architect behind mortgage-backed securities". Hmmm. Does he accept any blame for the current melt-down? Hell, no! He made his money. He will want for absolutley nothing in his lifetime. But everyone else? Not his problem. The only time, it seems, that he will take it on as "his problem" is when he can make a buck off of it. Ranieri is Prime Originator and Founder, Hyperion Private Equity Funds; Chairman, CEO and President, Ranieri & Co Inc. He also the former chairman of the DEFUNCT Salomon Brothers. He has never paid any dire consequences for his actions or decisions. He has ALWAYS came out on top. Everyone else lost, but not him.

So, who does Ranieri feel is to blame? He blamed the collapse of mortgage-backed securities on a breakdown of checks and balances and scoffed at the way the government is approaching the problem now. He blames the same governemnt that he NEEDED to act the way it did so that he and his colleagues could pilfer and pillage the uninformed victims.

Now, if anyone asks who should be the first one to be investigated into the origins of the financial melt-down you now have a name....Lew Ranieri.

Too Many Networks?

2008-08-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Why is everyone and their brother putting a social networking site on the Net for real estate agents? Is that what they think real estate agents do all day? Sit on the computer on all of those social netowrking sites? I hope they're not doing it becuase they're looking to make money. Because if they are...then I hope they go broke! This whole situation is getting ridiculous and totally out of hand. A day doesn't go by that I don't get an e-mail from some agent that I don't know telling me about this social networking site on the Net that I HAVE TO JOIN because if I don't...my business will collapse. Get off of it already. My business is NOT collapsing because I don't spend all of my waking moments on the computer trying to find that one elusive client that all real estate agents think is out there. My business is NOT collapsing because I DON'T belong to all of those social networking sites and I'm out in the REAL world meeting all of those people that you are attempting to connect to without changing out of your jamies. Geeez! Let's see what we have here.

We have:

Facebook

My Space

RealSeekr

MyAgentBook

360 Yahoo

Orkut

Activerain (this one's my favorite)

And so many more then I could mention here. If you are REALLY interested in finding more and have nothing better to do, then check out this social networking news site.

But I already know the secret to being successful in real estate because I've done it and I'm willing to give you the secret at absolutely no cost to you.

OK. Ready? Got a pen and paper to write it down? Make sure you write it down exactly as I have it here and following the steps to the letter -

Turn OFF the computer. This is the crtitial step. Majority of the people reading this will NOT follow this step.

Push yourself away from the computer desk/table/cart/crate.

Go put some clothes on. Get dressed.

Step out of your house and ... GO MEET PEOPLE!

There. Did you get it?

Now, you may be asking me why Activerain is my favorite social networking site. Well, it's really not, I was being sarcastic. All that you have on Activerain are a bunch of loser real estate agents who are either whining and crying how bad the real estate market is, posting fairy tales about how great and successful they are (if they were, they wouldn't have time to be on Activerain EVERY DAY), or trying to convince other agents to join some affiliate program they belong to. The other group on Activerain are people who are trying to sell some product or service to the stupid agents on there that either don't need it, can't afford it, or wouldn't know how to effectively use it. But these providers don't care. All they want is the real estate agent's money. They know they've tapped into untold wealth of stupidity and greed. All they have to tell these real estate agents is that they will make tons of money using their product or service and these agents will happily give them their money. The agents never ask for proof of anything these Con Artist Providers tell them...they're stupid and just believe whatever is told them. The Providers use the classic 3 prong attack on their victims- 1. Fear of loss (If you don't use this product or service, your competition will and you'll lose out on untold money!), 2) Ego (This offer is being made exclusively to you! <<Now, don't you feel special?>>), and 3) Greed (If you use this product or service your income will only be limited by your effort). And where do you find these scammers? Yep, you got it! On all of those social network sites.

But I especially love #1 (Fear of Loss); when one of these people calls me and pulls that one on me, telling me that if I don't get the service that my competitors will (this is usually the case once they fail to answer some key questions I ask about their product or service) I reply that I will be more then happy to give them my competitors' names and contact information. That they should call them and waste THEIR time and get them to waste THEIR money. :-)

But if you want to still spend all of your waking hours logged onto all of those social networks looking for that elusive client, please by all means do that. While you're doing that, I'm out there actaully meeting them, shaking their hands, talking to them face-to-face. :-)

Interesting things happening!!

2008-07-20T22:00:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been laying low and keeping my ear to ground because I've been hearing some rumblings about customers being completely disgusted and angered by the so-called foreclosure "experts". I've waited to see if I hear similar comments from different sources. That way I don't have to worry about being responsible for supporting someone else's agenda.

So, back to the rumblings. Seems that there is one agent out there that touts himself as the absolute expert in stopping foreclosures. Now, this agent either stated or let a couple of his customers to believe (I'm still not too clear on this) that the offers they had gotten from buyers were done deals, even though banl approval was never received. Also, according to the whisperings, no one folllowed up with any of the banks to push or prod these deals through or to find out what the status was. Needless to say, the agent's cusomters thought everything was under control by this agent and that things were progressing well. The customers were wrong. The deals never went anywhere and their homes were foreclosed on. Last thing I heard was that there were going to be at least 1 lawsuit...possibly.

Another things heard was that another top-notch agent, one of those that are legends in their own minds, signed another customer to a listing to help her sell her home after her husband passed away. This single Mom contacted him because she knew that without her husband's paycheck she couldn't make the home payments on her own for very long. The agent assured her that he would be able to sell her home. After a year on the market, never hearing from her agent again, even after leaving him countless voicemail messages, her home is now just weeks away from going to sheriff's sale (she even said she sent him a copy of the letter from her mortgage lender when they gave her notice of being delinquent in her payments). She'd love to sue this agent, but being a single mother of 3, she needs whatever money she can accumulate to find a place to move to and other things.

This last one is really interesting. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that has any additional details. I've heard that there is an agent that is advertising that he will guarantee a FAST short sale. I may not be a short sale guru, but don't all short sales require approval of the offer by the mortgage lender? And the mortgage lenders are NOT required to approve all offers, correct? I've heard that a couple of customers signed up with this agent and are quite pissed off because they have offers that seem to have stalled and there hasn't been any "movement" on the mortgage lender's part. I don't know anything for sure, but I've seen this agents ads posted everywhere that does say that he guarantees a fast short sale.

If you have any additional information about any of the situations, leave a comment on there.

The problem I have in Real Estate

2008-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Now, first of all, I need to make things perfectly clear. I love this industry. The possibilities are endless in terms of income and fullfillment. Where else can you work and make the potential money that you can here and not have anyone looking over your shoulder. No boss looking to see how long you've been at lunch or out of the office. With that said, I need to vent about how much I hate many of the people that you meet in this business. Being that this industry is a customer-oriented one, I'd have to exclude that group completely. Without them, there would be no business. But that's why I charge what I do. The more arrogant, ignorant, or self-centered you are as a customer the higher my fees are (even my buyers have to pay my administrative fees).
It's the other agents that I'm beginning to totally dislike. And the only thing that I can put my finger on as to why is that there is no consequences for any of their screw ups. They seem to have some type of guardian angel on their shoulder that protects them. If word ever gets out that you want to file a complaint against them with the local board, you end up getting "talked to" by your broker. And your broker explains how everyone has to work together. That some day I may need to depend on the other agent to sell a property I'm marketing. Personally, I'd rather not even deal with any offers coming from any of those morons. The vast majority of them (not all of them) are legends in their own minds. I can understand where we have to do "dog & pony" shows to self-promote ourselves; that's to be expected. But these guys go way beyond that. They intentionally give everyone the idea that if they ever left the business (one can only hope) that the real estate industry would collapse, it would cease to be a viable business. That the ONLY reason anything happens in real estate is because they're in it. OK, I may be exaggerating here, but only a smidgen.
Let me ask this question. What is the purpose of the Code of Ethics if it is never enforced? Unless, of course, one of the "favorites" of any of the board of governors' (and there are A LOT) feel that someone's presense in the industry is a threat to their business. Then they use the Code of Ethics to bring that person into line. Not to make waves. Not to successfully compete in the business. And if you toe the line, the powerful ones in the local board will allow you to succeed at some future point in time and at some level that THEY will decide.
I think that for the real estate business to be as ethical and honest as all the associations would like everyone to believe it is, there needs to be a completely separate organization that is NOT affiliated with the real estate industry (local boards are full of real estate agents and brokers) that anyone can go to in order to complain about the actions and behavior of any real estate agent. The Commission does not accept complaints from any agents, only consumers. And sometimes, the complaints are not due to the loss of any funds, just the manner in which the agent conducted their business and themselves.

But, this is just my 2 cents worth.

Shakeup in South Jersey Realty?

2008-06-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

For those of us in the business, we've noticed that there seems to be a some type of shakeup within the different real estate offices in the area. Specifically:

1. what seems to be going on at one of the larger offices of the "Outstanding Agents"? Rumour has it that the new broker there is in some type of felonious trouble. That he no longer possesses a broker's license nor a salesperson's license. I have also seen some agents from that office "jump ship"; that they had to because they had an extremely difficult time in getting their commission checks from just completed real estate transactions. So, does anyone know what is going on? I'd be interested to know and so would probably many other agents in the area.
2. And speaking of the "Outstanding Agents" offices; is it true that 2 of those offices have combined? And what would be the reason for that to take place, I wonder. Rumour has it that one of the brokers in questions can't handle it any more and is looking to pass off some of the duties onto the other. Or is it that one office wants to emulate the business model of the other but can't make such a drastic move on its own. Makes one wonder.
3. What about that Pru office? You know which one I'm talking about. The one where the infamous "Famous" real estate agent worked out of? I hear he's jumped over to a competitor's office that is totally out of the Pru family of offices. What happened there? Did Pru finally catch onto him or did he decide to leave before things came crashing around his ears? This leaves one to wonder. I also heard that a few others left that specific office and went over to the same competitor. It makes one wonder if Pru is happy that they left (which would be a detriment to the other office) or not.
4. And speaking of that office that "lost" the infamous agent, is it true that it MAY be closing? If that's true, its sister office isn't making any moves to salvage any of the top producers there. Are they writing them off?

Remember, most rumours have some amount of truth to them. The details may be a bit sketchy, but the basic premise that they are based on tend to be pretty sound, though slightly skewed. I'm sure that there were a few of us that heard some type of rumours pertaining to Foxton's before they abruptly filed bankruptcy.

Who are you searching for?

2008-06-02T10:30:00.001-07:00

OK, people. Then time has come to get another B.S. line to use when speaking to a real estate agent whose site you have registered on.
Please don't tell me that you registered on my site and are searching for another family member. Why? Are they that incompetent that they can't do it themselves? Are they that busy that they don't have time to search on their own?
Now, you may have actually taken upon yourself to search for homes for your family member or friend. Great! What are you going to do with any information you get? Forward it to them? What happens if they are doing their own search? Aren't you going to end up duplicating the results? Unless, of course, you have some added talent for searching for homes that they don't. If they aren't doing their own search, then why are you? If they're not doing their own search it could be that they aren't that interested in finding a new home. Then why are YOU wasting other real estate agents' time? Real estate agents get paid to help people solve their real estate needs. If you don't have any real estate needs then why are you taking up valuable resources that are needed by people who have actual real estate needs. Why did you bother to register if you don't have any real estate needs? Did you think you had some special capabilities to extract information from real estate agents that the family member or friend was too stupid to do?
Let your family member or friend do their own search or work with a professional in finding their new home. All you're doing is confusing the issue. Are you that controlling that you feel they are not capable of doing it themselves? Or is it that they don't have time? If they don't have time to look for themselves, will they have time to go view the homes? Or are you planning on going in their place? Are YOU or THEY going to be making the offer to purchase the home? Are YOU or THEY going to be applying for a mortgage to pay for the home.
So, essentially, we real estate agents need to know who is accessing the information we are providing and why. We need to know if we have multiple parties from the same family or group who are working on the same goal. Imagine if you have 2 people asking for information about the same house and then you find out that they're husband and wife. You went from thinking you have 2 potential buyers to just one. And you've been actively working with both of them. Or you've been communicating with a parent that is searching their child. The parent is looking at homes priced at the $300,000 range because they need a house that size and the parent prefer that they live in that specific neighborhood. You've been answering the parent's questions and providing that extra information all the while trying to bring their child into the process. At last, you get to speak to the child whose parent is looking for a home for them only to find out that a) they can't qualify for any kind of mortgage to buy any home priced at $300,000, b) they are already actively working with another agent who they are very satisfied with, or c) they are not actively looking and have no intention of moving. Do you see how you can muck up everything? It's great that you love your sister so much that you want to go out of your way to help her find that dream home. But what you don't know is that she can't afford any type of dream home. Forwarding all of these great looking homes will just frustrate her more because she can't afford any of them and even if they motivate her to improve her financial situation, they won't be on the market by the time she is ready. Ask any real estate agent and they'll tell you that you don't want to show someone a home that is out of their financial reach because no other home will ever compare to the one they can't afford.
In conclusion, if you aren't the one that is either actively looking or making plans for purchase a new home, don't register as if you are. You're only confusing matters.

Are consumers as smart as the news media says they are?

2008-06-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I can answer this with one word. No.

The longer answer, based on my experience with countless number of home buyers, is that they aren't anywhere near as smart as the news media wants them to believe that they are. Are they better informed? Probably. With the advent of the Internet and the desperate IT personnel trying to justify their overpaid jobs, more and more information has been put up on the Net. All this information doesn't necessarily mean that the average consumer knows what to do with that data or what is really means. In the last few months I've been pressing my online visitors to tell me what they're looking for, what specific bit of information are they searching for. The vast majority that answered back stated that they were looking for a bargain. I've never received an answer from anyone I've written back as to how they would determine if a property was a bargain or not? Not surprising. How do you determine if an asking price is a good price or not, let alone if it is a bargain or not. What do you compare the asking price against? The prices in Zillow?? Ppllleeeeeaaasssseee!! No one at Zillow accesses the actual sold prices and inputs them into their site. Zillow relies on regular people to input those numbers. How good are those numbers? Let me illustrate how much credence I would put in any price numbers given by regular people.
I once went to a listing appointment to make a presentation to the owners of a home that wanted to sell and move into a bigger house. Everything went as planned and then, as I expected, we diverged at the price that their home should be listed at. To make a long story short here, I won't go into all of the stupid suppositions that the owners used nor the leverage that they thought they had. They came up with a price about $10,000 more then I was recommending. Even though I had the comparable market information for homes in their neighborhood, they felt that my price was "giving" their house away. Now, when I recommend a price I work in ranges of prices. How did they determine their asking price? The usual. Their neighbor down the street sold their house for that amount and their neighbor's house wasn't anywhere near as nice as theirs. Their price was the absolute minimum that they would take for their home. Well, it just so happened that their neighbor's house was part of the CMA that I did for their house. Yes, their neighbor did accept an offer at the price that they stated. But what their FORMER neighbor neglected to tell them was that their neighbor "gave back", to the buyer, $10,000 in the form seller concessions. This essentially takes the sold price down by that much.
What does this mean to the seller? Well, the seller is being reported/recorded that they received more then they actually pocketed because the buyer used some portion of the seller's profits to cover their closing/settlement costs. The seller actually put $10,000 less in his pocket. The buyer, on the other hand, still has to take out a mortgage for the full amount. So, how good do I think the price figures are from regular people? Not very. On a $200,000 sale with $10,000 in seller concessions, the seller will tell everyone he got $200,000 for his house while the buyer will tell everyone he paid $190,000.
So, as much as I hate to burst the consumer's bubble, they are not as smart as the news media says they are. However, they are better informed but still don't know what to do with the information they get.