Monthly Archives: March 2006

Are real estate agents an endangered species? — upcoming article

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Heard an interesting interview with economist Steven Levitt on NPR this morning. He co-wrote an article that will be coming out in the New York Times Magazine titled Endangered Species – The future of real estate agents. He dicusses all of the innovations going on right now in real estate and how like travel agents we will become obsolete as “all we do is connect buyers and sellers on the MLS system“. Oh how easy my life would be if my work ended at the point I put a listing on the MLS.

A second point he makes in his radio interview is that in spite of the “high commission” most agents don’t make that much money. The reason is there are so many agents chasing the available deals that they have to spend so much time finding new clients. Look at California where 1 in 75 people has a real estate licences. This touches on my pet peeve. If the real estate industry really wants to be viewed as the profession it should be, than they should raise the standards of what it takes to become an agent. I’ve just looked at too many incomplete contracts, had an agent try to force his way (without prior notice) into a rented unit at a duplex I was selling and other instinces that demonstrate an individual with the intellect to fog a mirror but not much else.

It should be an interesting article. So what do you think? Is the real estate agent going the way of the Dodo? Do people really want to buy a house from an “Amazon.com for homes” or an agent that can guide them through the whole process? How about the idea of fee-per-service or hour basis instead of percentage of sale?

– Robert

Cancel Your Plans And Join us for a Trulia Chat Tonight!

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I just spoke with Sami Inkinen and Kelly Roark of Trulia. They are currently making the rounds in Seattle, and we all agreed that it would be fun to spend some time talking “real estate technology” while they are in town! (Why aren’t they in Seattle yet???)

However, knowing that I’m not the only person interested in learning a little more about Trulia, I’ve cajoled them into attending a “Trulia Chat” tonight at a local coffee shop.

So, here’s the plan… Sami and Kelly are going to be at Fremont Coffee (459 N. 36th St.) at 7pm for an hour of informal chat. Anyone interested in welcome to attend and there is no need to RSVP (although a comment if you plan to attend is welcome!).

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If you’re a real estate professional interested in learning about one (very interesting) team’s view of the future of real estate, then I recommend that you cancel your current plans for tonight and attend this free event.

Without a doubt these guys have one of the nicest home search interfaces around and when they finally do decide to launch in Seattle, they will be sure to drive a lot of traffic to the websites of a few local (and lucky) brokers.

Actively Searching for Another Zillow to Announce in March

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And following John’s lead, here were the five most popular posts on Rain City Guide (in terms of total hits) in February:

The five most popular posts (in terms of comments) for February:

Something’s Afoot in the Real Estate Business – but what does it mean and where is it going?

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(Editor’s Note: I few weeks ago, I sat down with Chuck Reiling to discuss an MIT Enterprise Forum he is helping to organize that will feature leaders from some of the top real estate technology firms. His excitement at the idea of bring people from Zillow, Redfin and HouseValues together to discuss the future of real estate was obvious and contagious. Hence, I asked him if he would be willing to give some background on the project, which led directly to this post. Interestingly he’s not the only one who is excited about this forum as he the story was already picked up by both Robert Gray Smith and John Cook. Chuck and his wife are local RE/MAX agents.)

There’s been lots of local and national press lately about new online real estate offerings like Zillow and Redfin. With lots of investor money moving into the arena, we know there is change afoot. The question is, how much change, and for whom? Change for the consumer? Agents? Both?

As Ardell described recently in her “History of Real Estate” articles (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), the residential real estate business is always in a state of change. Ten years ago the online MLS systems caused a lot of change. The listing books got thrown away, and a few agents who couldn’t adapt went with them. Then the MLS derivative sites started appearing, with MLS download data becoming available to the public. People could start doing their own online searches without having to call an agent, or cruise the streets on Sunday afternoon looking for open houses. So change is ongoing, and maybe there are only a few real (no pun intended) points of stability.

My daddy and my uncle were both brokers years ago. The only points we still have in common with their businesses seem to be clients, agency law, and the For Sale sign in the yard; almost everything else has changed. For a long time, ‘public’ records in boxes in warehouses were not very publicly accessible for most of us, but government agencies (state, local and federal) are rapidly putting their public records information online to support their operations, and incidentally help us too. And new services like Redfin, Zillow and House Values make that data even easier to use in support of their own business models. As we see locally, the big four real estate companies, Windermere, Coldwell Banker, John L. Scott and RE/MAX are also exploiting that data in conjunction with MLS data on their sites. None of this has changed the basic business model of professionally assisted transactions with buyer and seller agent commissions. While the traditional model has been a subject of debate for a long time, and a lot of creative alternative business models and offerings have been tried, the industry is still seems to be running on business as usual.

However, there is also a lot of technology-driven change right now. Someone with a background in the high-tech industry might observe that real estate looks like just one more industry about to be disrupted by the Internet – changes caused by dramatically improved information availability, rapid communications and online business models. But residential real estate is still dominated by local interests, its product is both expensive (understatement) and unique, and there are a lot of local and national consumer protection laws on the books – some good, some bad, and more coming. So who is right, and what will happen next?

To try to pull together a picture of the impact of these changes, and where they might lead, a local organization called MIT Enterprise Forum is focusing one of its dinner programs on the topic of Online Real Estate (clever title). The Forum focuses on highlighting business issues and opportunities for tech-driven companies and entrepreneurs. The Online Real Estate program will be on Wednesday, March 15, at the Bellevue Hyatt Hotel. See www.mitwa.org for program details and reservations.

These MIT Forum events typically draw 200 to 400 attendees, and this one will probably be on the larger side. For better or worse, it seems like everyone is interested in real estate these days. The program will be panel-based, with a traditional real estate broker, a top online agent and execs from Redfin, Zillow and House Values, with an open Q&A session at the end. I’m on the program team that is pulling the program together, and I’d have to say I expect a very lively conversation on the stage that evening. 🙂

Is Your Earnest Money Protected By The Finance Contingency?

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While the purpose of the Finance Contingency is to protect the buyer in the event they are not able to obtain a mortgage, more and more the buyer is not covered all the way to the day of closing.

In a perfect world, the buyer submits an offer with a Finance Contingency that runs through the day of closing.  If the buyer’s loan is rejected, the sale becomes null and void and the Earnest Money is returned to the buyer.  The seller puts his property back on the market and finds a different buyer.

Finance Contingency addendums are two pages long and much more complicated than the simple explanation above, and much more dangerous to the buyer than they often expect.  I have not met a buyer in 15 years who did not expect to get their Earnest Money returned if their loan is not approved.  I also have not had a buyer client in 15 years whose loan was not approved 🙂  

It is becoming common practice in the last few years for the seller to counter the offer by shortening the timeframe on the Finance Contingency.  Often this is deemed a minor date change, when in fact it is a major change for the buyer.  I have even seen buyer’s agents write offers with a 30 day escrow and a 15 day finance contingency because that is “common practice” :0 

If you have a 30 day escrow and a finance contingency that expires in 15 days, you are not likely covered if the loan is rejected on the 23rd day.  You are also not covered if you did not apply for your loan on time or if you did not submit the documents to the lender in a timely manner.

VERY IMPORTANT, you are also not covered if you do not have enough cash to close. 

I am hoping the attorneys here will have something to add, or will have something on their blog explaining this further.  In the meantime, suffice it to say that just because you have a Finance Contingency, that does not mean that you will automatically get your Earnest Money returned, if you can not close due to financing issues.