Technically I should have TWO winners, since I am judging posts from both the week of August 28th and October 5th…and I do have two “winners”…but no”winning posts”.

“Winner” #1 is:

YG&B of “Foreclosed to Fabulous: A Journey Into Home Rehab”  I LOVE this writer, who is apparently a woman who possibly lives in Atlanta. Clearly not tooting her own horn, she says “I work for a non-profit that endeavors to take these houses from foreclosed to fabulous.” Her journey is well written, with fabulous details into the thought process on selecting which homes to buy and how to renovate them, and even some frustrations as to why no one may want them when they are finished in this post titled: “Crappy Old, Crap Crap Market. Crap” Her endless journey to find “a place to pee” in “4 Facts of Life of Low to No Margin Real Estate Work” is both funny and TRUE!

So Ms. YG&B, the post you entered did not win…but YOU clearly did.

Winner #2 is :

Bill Zoller, who submitted what appears to be his first and only post on US Inspect – Federal Pacific Panels and Are They a Danger?

Bill ends his post with: “I encourage each person reading this document to go to the links I’ve included and do further research. And, please communicate to your business community, as a realtor, home inspector, electrician, handyman, etc., the presence of these types of panels must be removed/replaced. No other remedy is satisfactory.”

I especially liked that Bill highlighted the point that an inspector FINDING a problem is not good enough! The remedy is hugely important! How many times do we as agents see the exact same problem when the  homebuyer later sells the house?  Does a roof leak need a patch or a new roof? Does a hazardous electric panel need a few tweaks or full replacement? A home inspector points out problems. But it takes all of the people in the room to take that red flag and provide the appropriate and “satisfactory” remedy to the problem at hand. “It was that way when I bought it” is NOT a satisfactory response by a seller to a home inspection problem. So make sure the remedy fits the problem…or you may end up paying for that oversight as a buyer, when it is time for you to sell.

Honorable Mention #1:

Patrick of cashmoneylife -  Entry: Are Money Merge Accounts a Great Way to Pay Your Mortgage Quickly, or Are They a Scam?

There are many interesting posts on cashmoneylife, and so I give this post “honorable mention” to highlight the blog itself (if anyone can find a last name for Patrick, please let me know). Be sure to read the comments on this post, as many are of equal value to the post itself.

Honorable Mention #2

Jay Thompson of The Phoenix Real Estate Guy – Entry Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension: Yet Another Bill Introduced

When I want to know what is happening with the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, I go to Jay Thompson’s blog. There is no answer to the question, but Jay has been keeping us up to date on what exactly is not happening since back in June. To find out what is and isn’t happening…you have to read Jay’s post. I was especially impressed that Jay called Senator Isakson’s office, further proving that if you want to know what’s happening with the Homebuyer Tax Credit…stay with Jay on this one.

A few words about the other entries and entrants:

Reminder: You are supposed to submit your BEST (one) post written within the last two weeks.

NOT a DOZEN posts, written by someone else, that you hope to take credit for…

Not 5 posts, all of which amazingly warrant the name of your town in the post title, and first sentence, and repeatedly throughout most every blog post you “write”! That may make the Search Engines notice you…or not…but it clearly is “bad” blog writing.

A good rant is often noteworthy. But whining, whining, whining about smelly houses, or buyers who are “too reluctant to pull the trigger”, or why people think they can buy a house without “consulting a REALTOR”…is just getting old.

I understand the need to monetize a blog. But when there are FIVE ads between EVERY sentence of the post…well, I just give up on trying to find the post amid the sea of advertisements.

The winner is a gem of a writer, with so many excellent posts and observations that I couldn’t possibly highlight all of them. If she ever writes a book I’ll be the first one in line to buy it, and the first one in line to meet her and have it autographed. Mucho Kudos to Ms. YG&B!

The post Carnival of Real Estate appeared first on Rain City Guide.

Below are links to conversations already happening regarding the new rule that will shortly go into effect.  No one has answered my one question yet in any of these conversations. Does the “new” rule pre-empt the old rule 190? In other words, if a seller clicks “yes” to allow his home to be blogged about, does that “yes” apply to ALL bloggers OR only the listing agent. If I see in the mls a “yes” as to blogging allowed by the seller…do I still need the listing agent’s permission per rule 190, in addition to the seller’s permission?

Seems to me the rule should have more options like “yes MY agent CAN, but no other agents cannot”.

None of these changes impact me or the way I currently blog, but given there is so much being said on the topic, a simple re-direct to these online discussions via the links below, should give you the complete picture. My guess is large brokerages will choose FOR their sellers by company policy, and the actual seller making the opt in and opt out decision will not really come to pass. So much ado about nothing.

• NWMLS looks to crack down on AVMs, real estate blogging as told by John Cook on Tech Flash with quotes from Redfin’s Glenn Kelman.
• Power to the Seller: The Unzillowing of Real Estate by Joseph Ferarra on Sellsius Real Estate Blog
• Revised rules may forbid real estate blogging by Marlow Harris on 360 degree digest

The post New Rule on Home Blogging & Zillow appeared first on Rain City Guide.

As is being widely announced in the news this morning, Zillow.com and the SeattlePI.com websites have partnered to offer co-branded website property searches. Ironically as of 8am you can find this story on Reuters, Inman News, and of course Twitter and Facebook. But Ironically it is still missing from the Homepage of SeattlePI.com.

The website will also offer Zillow’s other features such as home values, “just sold” data, local market data, etc.  As well as their custom real estate community content via Zillow Advice and mortgage rates from their Mortgage Marketplace function.

This raises some interesting issues for other companies, organizations, brokerages, and agents who  have property search functionality built into their blogs and websites in order to drive traffic to their sites, and ultimately derive business from it. Rain City Guide is a great example of a website that has recently added property search functionality through M Realty in hopes of garnering more viewers, and potentially a revenue stream as well. Many agents, including myself, have spent years developing websites that we use to attract potential buyers and sellers. Is Zillow now officially our competition?

Strategically this makes a lot of sense for both companies as the SeattlePI is struggling to re-create it’s business model after shutting down it’s printed newspaper version in March. And Zillow has recently been monetizing their searches through selling advertising to agent’s by zip codes.

I wonder what RCG’s readers and contributers think of this turn of events. It’s definately a “game changer”. The question is, what’s the new game going be like, and who’s going to get to play?

The post Zillow and the SeattlePI Partner-up for Property Searches appeared first on Rain City Guide.

Very interesting article on the Zillow Blog about Tim Geithner’s home shown above.

I disagree with Whitney’s comment: ”Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner claims to see signs of economic improvement for the nation, but the same does not appear to be true for his personal pocket book.”

Whitney, if Geithner thought the market was NOT currently improving and did NOT believe in the upward tend, he would be selling it now vs. renting it.  By taking it off the market and renting it, he is confirming his belief that he sees “signs of economic improvement”, not the other way around.

The post Zillow Blog:Tim Geithner says Rent vs. Sell appeared first on Rain City Guide.

Zillow’s color coded U.S. Map of % down per City begs the question, “Are you black and blue from the housing crisis?”

The post CNBC Video on Zillow’s 1st Quarter Report appeared first on Rain City Guide.

Even a four year old knows it is disappointing when there is “only one picture”. What a bright little cutie!

The post 4 year old demonstrates new Zillow iPhone App appeared first on Rain City Guide.

I guess using Zillow today, was like watching the NASDAQ 8 years ago.

The post Zillow widens gap on Trulia, traffic soars to 7.5 million visitors appeared first on Rain City Guide.

1) Short Sale vs. Zestimate – Was buying a short sale worth the extra hassle?

SS#1 – the Zestimate is identical to the 2008 assessed value. The Cyberhomes value is also almost exactly what the owner paid for it in March of 2006.  So neither was needed, as most buyers would look at assessed value and what the owner paid for it. This short sale is good for an “end user”, but not for an investor.  The discount of 5% under the Zillow Zestimeate and 10% under the Cyberhomes value equals the hassle, no more and no less for this buyer.  But there was a buyer before this buyer who waited around for 60 days for the bank to not approve the original offer price.  The first buyer flushed out what the bank would take.  The second buyer had the advantage of the first buyer’s hassle factor.

SS#2 – This is a good one.  The assessed value, Zillow Zestimate and the Cyberhomes values are all about the same.  This is down where current prices are about equal to 2008 assessed values in Auburn and Federal Way.  So this sold for 20% under fair market value and 30% under what the current owner paid for it. Hard to see the hassle factor, as it looks like they didn’t put this one as pending until they had bank approval, which was 10 days or so before it closed. This one is a stereotypical good Short Sale from the buyer’s standpoint and the Zestimate and Cyberhomes valuations and assessed value all confirm the discount.

Now that you know what a good and bad short sale looks like relative to a Zestimate, et al, you can see that SS#3 = not so good, SS#4 = Zillow’s way over on this one.  Assessed is $717,000 Cyberhomes is $794,000, the owner paid $803,000 for it in 2006, so not likely the Zestimate of $937,000 is correct. Compared to the Zestimate it looks like a screaming deal…but in reality it’s about the same as SS#1…OK for an end user but not for an investor.

For those who wanted to know Original Asking Price, I don’t know how it helps you to know that was $1.4 million on a property whose value is clearly just under $800,000?  Maybe I’m missing something, but asking price is never part of my valuation for  a buyer client.

Bottom line, looking at the Zestimate AND the Cyberhomes value AND what the owner paid for it and when AND the 2008 assessed value (not 2009) and the improvements or lack thereof, tells you a lot more than “the comps” these days.  Looking at comps is dangerous, as if you go back even 4-6 months, you are looking at prices that are higher than today’s current market value.  That may change into the second quarter…but the full area trend is MUCH more important right now than what the neighbors’ homes sold for back in June or July.

The post What do you do with a Zillow Zestimate? appeared first on Rain City Guide.

I think I saw David G. at Zillow and someone from Cyberhomes going at it recently, so let’s throw Cyberhomes in the mix too.  As usual, I am posting this as the results come in…so I have no idea how it is going to turn out.  Let the best “man” win

Also of particular interest are the number of sales that are Short Sales and Bank Owned or other “stressed” sales, many, and very few of those indicated so in the Public view vs. Agent fields.

Sold Price Zestimate                Cyberhomes

$262,000 SS*                 $275,000                  $292,552

$365,000                         $301,500                   $398,192

$287,000 BO*                $311,900                   no result

$530,000 CO*                $743,000                  $695,991

$140,000 BO*                $186,957                    $196,698

$210,000  SS*                 $269,500                   $274,417

$282,500                           $320.000                  $281,461

$285,000                          $276,000                   $276,134

$347,500                           $334,000                  $347,910

$480,000                          $422,500                   $483,891

$550,000 ES*                  $705,500                 $688,842

$565,000 NC                      none                              none

$652,500                              ” N/A”                       $661,320

$190,000 BO                     “no result”                 $234,017

$269,950 SS*                    $285,400                  $282,102

$279,900                           $413,000                  $272,349

$517,000 BO                     $682,500                “$0-Foreclosure”

$450,000                           $454,500                 $518,982

$176,000 BO                     $312,500                 ”0-Foreclosure”

$267,999 NC                           n/a                                     n/a

$740,000 SS*                   $937,000                $794,218

$325,000 CG                     $547,000               $567,171

$420,000                           $410,000                $402,384

$451,050 CR                     $637,000                $559,188

$850,000 NC                         n/a                               n/a

$835,000                           $802,500                $811,305

$915,000                            $831,500                $875,266

$850,000 NC                          n/a                              n/a

$370,000                           $367,000               $428,766

$636,500                            $702,000              $676,200

$650,000 SS *                   $707,500              $662,000

$360,000                            $347,500              $376,152

$475,000 BO*                   $584,157               $585,199

$292,500 NC                            n/a                              n/a

$305,000 NC                           n/a                              n/a

$309,950 NC                            n/a                              n/a

$373,000                            $342,000             $352,252

$386,000 NC                               n/a                         n/a

$389,950 NC                               n/a                          n/a

$400,000                            $391,000             $392,337

$577,000   TR                   $467,500             $405,413

$416,000                            $468,500              $484,506

*disclosed in Agent Remarks or owner field, but NOT in public remarks

SS = Short Sale. CO  = Corporate Owned, CR  = Corporate Relocation, BO  = Bank Owned, ES  = Estate Sale, NC = New Construction, CG  = Completely Gutted, TR = Totally Remodeled

Geographically, most of the short sales, all except one, are South.  The first sales are in Federal Way, Auburn, then Burien, Kent, South Seattle, over Mercer Island, Eastside, Bothell, North Seattle on the Green Lake/Greenwood side, then North Seattle up through Shoreline. That is how the mls code numbers run from 100 through 715.

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