Frankly Speaking

By supplying Zillow with our data, and buying back our leads, we are propagating a scenario where the REALTOR component is removed from the equation. Our greatest value to our clients is the ability to explain the process, the forms, and assist in the achievement of the consumers goals. Going virtual, marginalizing the value of human interaction, is a dangerous and slippery slope. The Future of Real Estate Professionals? | Zillow Acquisition of DotLoop

For most of my career Real Estate Professionals have been locked out of certain market areas. My first experience with this was when a neighboring association left our local MLS to join another MLS provider. Agents in our association no longer had access to the data from the community on our Eastern Borders. Likewise, their agents could not access ours. To be perfectly blunt it was a catastrophe. And, it had nothing to do with the technology. It simply was a matter of politics. It soon became apparent that for the good of the membership we had to change MLS providers and do so quickly. Today we are at a similar crossroad. Many local MLS providers have elected to prevent access to their data to anyone who is not a subscriber to their services. Set aside for a moment that this might just walk, talk and smell like a violation of our Code of Ethics ("Cooperate With Other Brokers"). This also does a disservice to the general public. Let me explain. Say that I am a seller in th...

Today there is only one home for sale in Rockpointe. Typically there would be between 4 to 8 units offered for sale this time of year. What we are experiencing in Rockpointe is what most of Southern California is experiencing. And that is a definitive lack of inventory. On the plus side this is certain to continue to drive prices upwards. But the caveat for this is that there are a couple of wildcards that could set our price point on a path of reduction. The first is that to day we have interest rates somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5% for a 30 year fixed mortgage. Historically that number is about 8.5%. And for every point that that interest rates rise (and they certainly will) our potential buyers lose about $40K of buying power. This coupled with our relatively high HOA cost could make these homes unaffordable to our first time buyers, investors, and our move down buyers which are a major part of our primary target market. The other wildcard that could impact us is inventory. Ri...

Today's buyer is in a tough spot. Just a few short months ago, he had his pick of any and all available properties in his price range. He could dictate the terms under which he would purchase the home, and the concessions he expected from the seller. Back then it was a buyers market. Funny thing is, buyers were not buying. Despite the fact that a home sold during this time could be purchased for less then it could be built for. And, that interest rates were (and still are) outrageously low. Today's buyer has a different reality. Not only does he not get to dictate terms, he does not even get to say "yes I will pay your price" and be assured that the home will sell. In today's market many neighborhoods are seeing homes sell for ten percent or more over list price (which in many cases is over appraised value already) and they are being asked to waive their right to an appraisal contingency which when in place gives the buyer the right to cancel the transaction i...

It should be obvious to you by now that sometimes coming up with original content week after week can be a challenge. In fact one that from time to time I suffer to achieve. However, from time to time my articles write themselves (actually the topic hits me between the eyes and says here I am dummy run with it). This week is one of those weeks. Twice in the past two days I had agents come to me and ask for advice. Both of them represent well qualified buyers and they are having a difficult time getting offers accepted. Now forgive me please as I am about to share an I told you so moment. For the past year, I have spent a preponderance of this column encouraging buyers to get off the fence and buy while we were still in a buyer’s market. I predicted over and over again that we would soon be in a seller’s market. And that a golden opportunity might soon be lost. Buyers (as I have often said) never buy in a buyer’s market. Instead they wait for the shift to a seller’s market t...