Author Archives: ARDELL

About ARDELL

ARDELL is a Managing Broker with Better Properties METRO King County. ARDELL was named one of the Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers in the U.S. by Inman News and has 34+ years experience in Real Estate up and down both Coasts, representing both buyers and sellers of homes in Seattle and on The Eastside. email: ardelld@gmail.com cell: 206-910-1000

New Version of "Musical Chairs"

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Sometimes a comment on one of RCG’s posts is SO interesting that you just have to turn it into its own post, so people don’t miss it. Like this one from Dave in Sacramento:

“In my neighborhood in Sacramento, California, I am seeing a chain of people buying a foreclosed upon or short sale home while they still have good credit, then allowing their former home (which is in the same neighborhood with the same floor plan) to go into foreclosure or otherwise disposed of. Then a second person with good credit buys that newly foreclosed upon home and – guess what – let’s their old house go to the bank! With no down payment and (often) no tax consequences, one is effectively reducing his debt from $300K to $200K for the same home. They feel they have won the lottery!

The only disadvantage is a bad credit rating, which doesn’t seem like such a big deal (they may regret this later). Still, $100K makes up for a lot of pain from poor credit.. I actually have my own home up for sale and I have had four offers, mostly from our own neighbors that want to have the same house for less money. Maybe the banks should just write off some of the principal and save themselves the trouble..

But not me – I am going to be a renter. I bought in 2006 for $300K ($15K down) and can only get $210K for the house now. As a military member, I’ll have to move in summer 2009, prices won’t go up, and rents won’t cover the mortgage – too many people renting right now. I already have one upside-down rental in West Virginia from my last move draining my time and money. Anyway, I have to sell. I’ll lose my $15K and the bank will lose about almost $100K. I thought I’d get a modest 2%-3% increase each year 2006-2009 and be able to sell for what I owed plus closing costs, but there’s no way. I wasn’t greedy; I just wanted a decent place to live with a yard and peace/quiet. I don’t worry about the $15K – that’s the past – but I hate having my good credit get trashed and being unable to buy a new home, but what can I do? Cash out my entire 401K? Maybe I should buy another house now?

My bank refuses to consider four good offers or talk with me at all until I miss three payments, so I am now saving up all of those monthly payments and will move into an apartment whenever the bank wants me to go. Apartments here seem willing to rent to me even when I tell them I am in a short sale; I am just one of many people with bad credit filling a lot of unwanted apartment vacancies.

But, for now, I am staying put and at least the yard gets watered and the trash gets picked-up while the bank comes to grips with the fact they are getting their house back. I feel that my trying to preserve the home’s value until I go is the very least I could do to be “ethical

Should you lose your Earnest Money?

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It’s not a good time to look at this issue from a hindsight perspective. In this changing market, we need to revisit this topic and talk about how a changing market may influence your decisions and actions in 2008.

In a hot market, the instances of the seller wanting to keep your Earnest Money are fewer. When there’s another buyer standing in line behind you, sellers will often simply say NEXT!

But when buyers making offers are fewer and further between, you will see more sellers wanting to keep that Earnest Money. Time to address this topic from a forward thinking perspective in “better safe than sorry” fashion.

Step 1) The amount of the Earnest Money. When a buyer makes an offer they “put up” Earnest Money. Most buyers will ask, “How much does it NEED to be?” That is really not the way to look at it. Instead ask yourself, “How much am I willing to LOSE?” The purpose of Earnest Money is to get some skin into the game. It’s how you show the seller that you are making the offer “in earnest” and willing to proceed “in good faith” to closing. So DO NOT write that Earnest Money check expecting to get it back if you change your mind! You never should have of course. But it may become more likely in 2008 that sellers will want to keep that money, than they did in the last 4 years or more.

NEW RULE! Don’t write that check for an amount more than you are willing to lose, if you simply change your mind about buying that house. The seller and seller’s agent may counter and ask for more, as they should if it is low. But don’t agree to an increased amount until you again ask yourself, “am I REALLY willing to LOSE this much if I change my mind?”

Step 2) Choosing Your Closing Agent (Escrow) In a Seller’s Market you will often see instructions from the seller’s agent regarding which Title and Escrow Company you are to use when writing an offer. In a hot market you likely won’t want to lose the house arguing over this point. But when you are the only offer in the room on a house that has been on market long enough to feel comfortable that you can bargain in a reasonable manner, choose your escrow company wisely.

Whether it is the Closing Agent or the Real Estate Broker holding your Earnest Money, you want to make sure that they honor unilateral rights to cancel BEFORE you agree to make out that Earnest Money check payable TO them.

So what does that mean? It means sometimes the buyer has a unilateral right to cancel, but the escrow holder has an “internal policy” of requiring the signatures of both parties to release the Earnest Money. Many, if not most, very large escrow companies do not want to take the risk of releasing the Earnest Money to the buyer unless the seller agrees. Sometimes you need the seller to agree and sometimes you don’t. If the escrow holder won’t give you the money because of their internal policy vs. the Purchase and Sale Agreement, you may find yourself talking to a wall instead of getting your money back.

NEW RULE! Pick not only your escrow company, but also speak with your closing agent BEFORE writing that Earnest Money check. Ask your agent writing the contract for your “legal out” addendums in advance. For example, if you are buying a condo, ask for a copy of the blank form you would use to cancel based on the resale certificate. Ask for the form you would use to cancel based on the Form 17 (and do not waive your right to do so in advance). If you have an Inspection Contingency, ask for the form that you would use to cancel based on the Inspection Congingency. Whatever your legal outs, know that most will expire early in the contract. So mark down the drop dead dates of your rights within these legal outs.

Notice whether or not the form requires only your signature to release the Earnest Money, or the signatures of both the buyer and the seller. Let’s assume that these forms only require the signature of the buyer, and the buyer has the unilateral right to cancel. NOW call the proposed Earnest Money holder and verify that they WILL in fact return your Earnest Money with only your signature, in the event you cancel based on one of these uniteral addendums.

If and when you ask someone to agree, they think they have the right to not agree. So if you have say 5 days to cancel, you don’t want the seller to have to agree with your decision in order for you to get your money back. If the escrow company won’t give you your money based solely on the Purchase and Sale Agreement and it’s addendums…well let’s just say you don’t want to be in that position, so know that up front and before you give them your money.

It is not a good time to “go gentle into that good night” and simply not care who the escrow company will be. While you should be prepared to lose your Earnest Money in some cases, one of those cases is not because of an internal escrow company policy.

Do not rely on your Finance Contingency as a means to change your mind. Return of Earnest Money based on the Finance Contingency is rarely, if ever, covered under a unilateral rescission right, as are some other areas of the contract. Often if not always, the seller needs to agree to the release of Earnest Money if you are cancelling based on the Finance Contingency. It’s a good idea to be pretty darned sure you CAN get a mortgage before making an offer. The protection of earnest money often does not go all the way to closing, and so if the loan doesn’t fund at the end on a day that is not covered by the Finance Contingency, or if you didn’t to EVERYTHING in a timely manner…you need to consult an attorney. Sellers will be less likely to say “oh well” in a Buyer’s Market than in a Seller’s Market.

3) When you SHOULD lose your Earnest Money. If you change your mind about buying the house because you have now decided you don’t want it, the seller should keep your Earnest Money. That is the purpose of requiring Earnest Money. You promise to buy the seller’s house, and if you change your mind he gets to keep the Earnest Money. You say, “Here’s $5,000. This is proof that I do ‘sincerely and in earnest’ want to buy your house. If I change my mind, you get to keep that $5,000.” That is what Earnest Money is all about.

Some will say the seller wasn’t damaged, so why should he keep a dime of my money? You have two elections in the contract. “Forfeiture of Earnest Money” or “Seller’s Election of Remedies”. Most times the contract calls for “Forfeiture of Earnest Money”. That means the seller gets your money…period, if you “default”. The seller doesn’t have to prove he was damaged, nor does he even have to be damaged. To talk about damages, you have to have been willing to risk MORE than the Earnest Money at the time you made the offer, and most people don’t do that.

Most people don’t want to pay the seller’s full damages, nor do the want to forfeit their earnest money. So really they want an election that says, “None of the above! I just want my money back!” Doesn’t work that way.

You will see more and more sellers wanting to keep that money than in the past. Why? Because another buyer is not as easy to come by as it was in the last few years. Before you go to an attorney to get your Earnest Money back, maybe you should first look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if the seller should get to keep it. If you just changed your mind, “without legal excuse”, remember that is why you put that money up in the first place.

Street of Dreams is on Fire

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It’s very, very sad to watch. The news is showing pictures of the Street of Dreams homes in or near Woodinville up in flames. It’s a massive fire.

Apparently none were occupied homes, so no one was hurt as far as I can tell so far.

Unbelievably it appears that the group taking credit for the arson activity is an “Eco-Terrorist” group of some kind. Not Built Green enough apparently, and the penalty is they have been destroyed.

I find this very, very hard to believe, but Kim tells me that it is not the first time he has seen this kind of activity in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently there are stories of this type of arson going back for decades and as recent as 2004 in Snohomish County.

Talk about giving “tree-huggers” a bad name…astounding.

Absorption Rates

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As of last night there were 9,176 Residential Properties for sale in King County and 3,261 condos. I personally feel that calculating absorption rate is better done in smaller segments and not the entire County. But since many are trying to calculate the number of months of inventory for all of King County, I’ll throw my hat into the ring with my opinion on that.

Based on sales for the months of March through June of 2007, it would take 3.79 months to sell off the current inventory.

If single family home sales are down this year by about 30% compared to last year, and I think they are and will continue to be so, then that 3.79 months turns into 5.6 months.

So it would appear in my opinion that we currently have a full season’s worth of inventory on market. Another way to say that is: I predict that between March 1 of 2008 and August 20th or so, 9,176 homes will sell in King County, that being equal to the inventory as of March 2nd.

Now let’s do the condos.

3,261 on market. For the months of March, April and May of 2007 the avg. number of sales per month was 919. For the months of June, July and August of 2007, the avg. number of sales per month was 965. The average then for the six month period is 942. 3,261 divided by 942 sales would be 3.46 months if sales were not down. But if condo sales are going to be say 35% fewer, and I think that’s generous for a couple of reasons, then avg. monthly sales would drop from 942 to 612 per month increasing the absorption rate of current supply from 3.46 months to 5.3 months.

So let’s say it will take until mid-August to sell off 3,261 condos, which is equal to the current supply. That’s pretty much the same as my single famile home prediction.

One of the factors to consider if you are using absorption rates to determine how long it may take for you to sell your home is age. Any area that is competing with new construction may find a higher number of sales being new homes. If you have a home built in 2004 and your primary competition is a builder of new homes, the absorption rates may not help you if 60% or more of the purchases in your immediate vicinity represent people buying new construction vs. resale.

If all of the properties in your immediate vicinity are homes built between 1960 and 1980, and there is little or no new construction or newer homes, then the absorption statistics will be more helpful.

Identifying who your competition is, cannot be done on a County-wide basis. If you have a home near Microsoft, for example, better to use absorption rates calculated specifically for that area. If you have a lake view home, then it is a bit more difficult. Lake view buyers are more likely to look at other view homes and be more open to where. So looking too close to your home to calculate rate of absorption would not be as accurate.

In any event, it looks like we are starting the year in King County for both single family homes and condos at a full season’s worth of inventory. Remember that townhomes on the Eastside are likely to be included in the condo stats and townhomes in Seattle, particularly North Seattle, will most likely show in the Residential/SFH statistics. That is a function of how the land is and is not subdivided.

Sunday Night Stats & YOY Results

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I’m actually on the edge of my seat awaiting the results of the end of month King County stats for February. I love posting in real-time as I see the data for the first time as I am posting it here.

Remember, not all agents post their closings in a timely manner, so there will be some updating in the next few days. In fact I will be showing January YOY as well to pick up any late entries there also.

I’ll do January first for 2006, 2007 and 2008 in graph form. I’m off to get the numbers and post them in the graph data field.

Median Home Prices King County 1

The median home price for January of 2008 for single family residences is up 9% comparing 2008 with 2006 and up 1% from January of 2007.

of homes sold king county

Total Number of Sales is down 35.6% compared to January of 2006 and down 31.8% compared to January of 2007.

Days on market increased from 33 days in 2006 to 53 days in 2007 to 61 days in 2008. So those reduced number of homes sold are taking longer to sell for slightly better prices.

Now let’s look at the condo sales for January YOY.

Median Prices King County Condo Sales

Prices up around 21% compared to 2006 and holding steady compared to 2007. Remember, these are the numbers for the month of January compared Year over Year (YOY)

of condos sold King County 1

34% fewer condos sold in January of 2008 compared to January of 2006. 37% fewer condos sold in January of 2008 compared to January of 2007. This repeats what I have been saying, that last year some people who didn’t buy single family homes, bought condos instead. But this year sales are down even further for condos than for single family homes, greatly due to financing issues introduced in the latter part of 2007.

Days on market for condos increased from 27 days in 2006 to 38 days in 2007 to 61 days in 2008. That’s a pretty dramatic increase in days on market and coincidentally identical in 2008 to the days on market for single family homes.

OK…let’s all hold our breath for the February reports. It’s only March 2nd, so there WILL be some late additions which I will post next Sunday night. But we also had an extra day, it being a leap year.

Median Home Prices King County 1 2 3

February Prices were up 11.5% from 2006 to 2007 and are holding to a hair under for 2008 compared to 2007.

Days on market have increased from 24 to 43 to 57 56. Again taking much longer to sell at these prices.

King County Home Sales 1

I’m going to guess that with late arrivals posting in the next week that the volume continues to be down at least the 32% or so that we saw last month, and not the 38% or so showing in that graph. But still, not seeing an improvement for sure. We’ll catch up on late postings next week, but the trend appears to be continuing as to volume.

**UPDATE** Late postings as of March 6 coming in better than expected for residential sales at 29% drop compared to February of 2007. Graph has been modified to reflect most recent stats.

I did the number of sales first on the condos, so I’m going to post it that way. All I can say is I sure hope there are a LOT of late postings out there, because volume appears to be down as much as 47% as of right now. Let’s guess that to be not more than 40% just so we can all sleep tonight, and hope for the best. I’ll repost this next week in a corrected version after picking up late postings.

**UPDATE** as of March 6 with late postings, # of condo sales down 39% compared with Feb 2007. Graph has been edited to reflect late postings. Median days on market 43, no change in median sale price.

King County Condo Sales 1

I had to go back and double check that one.

Median Prices King County Condo Sales 1 2

The slight downward affect on prices would suggest that the volume, while likely off for late postings is going to end up significantly down, and that is beginning to have a negative impact on prices.

On to the weekly Sunday Night Stats.

King County Residential Sales

Active/For Sale – 9,176 – UP 49 – median price $524,500 – UP $4,507

In Escrow – 2,584 – UP 27 – median price $449,950 – UP $50 (these are asking prices)

Closed YTD – 1,942 – UP 391 – median price $434,538 – DOWN $4,462

King Conty Condo Sales

Active/For Sale – 3,261 – UP 5 – median price $328,900 – UP $3,900

In Escrow – 868 – DOWN 14 – median price $308,500 – DOWN $6,500 (asking prices)

Closed YTD – 658 – UP 125 – median price $278,950 – DOWN $1,049

I feel like the 11 o’clock news tonight. Prices starting to trend downward and volume off significantly.

These stats are compiled and posted by ARDELL and NOT the NWMLS. This is a required disclaimer under current rules of membership.

During the week people should be posting more closings as of February month end and I will adjust the stats via strikeouts and corrections throughout the week.

“Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS.

Tam O'Shanter in Bellevue

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tam o shanterBesides being a Golf and Country Club, Tam O’Shanter is also a neighborhood. “The purchase of a home in the TOS Neighborhood is all it takes for newcomers to join in the fun.”

I recently sold a home there to buyer clients and hope that gets me an invite as a guest to hang out at the pool this summer 🙂 I don’t play golf, so I’m going to do some market stats.

In 2005, or as much of it as I can get which is beginning around this time but back in 2005, the median home price in Tam O’Shanter was $498,500 which was over the median list price and the median days on market was 15 days.

In 2006, the median price jumped up by about $100,000 to $600,500, still over list price, but with the median days on market increasing to 21 days.

In 2007, the median price went up another $100,000 to $699,950 which was equal to the median asking price and the median days on market was 20 days.

So no evidences of weakness here in the Tam O’Shanter neighborhood, and given the increase was about the same $100,000 in each year, that would be a 20.5% increase from 2005 to 2006 and a 16.6% increase for 2007.

One home that has closed in Tam O’Shanter sold for over $800,000 in 2008 and sold at 98% of asking price. It took about 9 weeks to go into escrow from the time it was listed. The only other property that sold/closed so far in 2008 is the one that I sold, as in I had the buyer client. It sold for about 89% of the original listing price and had one price reduction prior to it being sold. But that was a short sale property.

There are two properties in escrow waiting to close and past the inspection phase. So far so good in 2008. There are 5 properties on market. An interesting note that could account for longer days on market generally in 2008 is that one of the pending sales was initially contingent on the sale of another house. With buyers being less likely to buy outright before they sell their current home, we will see sales taking longer to get from list date to closed due to home sale contingencies. But the good news is that this one appears to reflect that the buyers WERE able to sell their other home and proceed with their purchase. So pretty good news all around on that one.

This is a good neighborhood to watch for signs of market changes as it had good appreciation in both 2006 and 2007 and is a neighborhood I would suspect to see fairing well in 2008 relative to King County as a whole. Of course the sale I participated in as the Buyer’s Agent is not going to help it’s stats this year. But as more houses come on market and sell, we should see this neighborhood outperforming King County as a whole.

I posted this as I was calculating the stats, so I did not pick this as a “good news neighborhood” to be a cheerleader 🙂 It just turned out that way while I was writing the post. I’ll try to do many of these mini snapshots of the market in areas where I work, to keep the Sunday Night Stats posts more focused on the neighborhoods affected, and those not affected, throughout 2008.

Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World

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I am studying the results of my own Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World blog posts to determine which of my blogs to focus on in 2008.

Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World blog post written here is at the top, no surprise, so writing on RainCityGuide.com is obviously my most productive place to blog in 2008, as usual.

The second post I wrote on RainCityGuide however doesn’t rank well at all. In fact I can’t even find it. So older posts must matter most. That brings into question the contest setup, as the first to know about it has the advantage and is ranking as #1, likely for that reason. Perhaps setting a start date that is not the same date as the announcement would be in order for future contests. I saw it the first day too, but maybe that is why Eric and I rank so well. Someone who saw it a few days later might have a harder time based on this Google aging factor.

I have to admit that I am surprised that Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World on my own blog at RealTown is ranking higher than the one I posted on ActiveRain.com. Since I post there more than on my own blog recently, that gives me food for thought. Google isn’t even picking the ActiveRain one up as far as I can tell. So spending so much time there may not be as productive as writing on my own blog.

I do Google well for Greatest Real Estate Agent in Seattle, even though I didn’t use those key words. I’m #2 behind Stan Mackey using those keywords.

It’s funny that Kevin’s Active Rain post Googles higher, but just two higher, than mine on a blog I never use. I only see those two when I add Ardell at the end as in Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World ARDELL.

True I’m having difficulty speaking with other participants in the contest, particularly those who are not real estate agents at all. But I am learning things that I need to know to adjust my time among my own blogging efforts. Sometimes we talk to ourselves and get the answers we need for ourselves in the process 🙂

Good advices are an imperative in a changing market

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I am having a very difficult time training some agents who still want to believe that “a house is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.” That is just SO not true. That runs more along the lines of “A sucker is born every minute.”

On the other hand I once fired an agent for saying, “I won’t let you pay a dime more than the property is worth!” If you are pretending that you can value a property “to the dime” you are just blowing hot air.

I spend two to three hours a week, outside of my normal real estate activities, training agents on a variety of topics. Many who have had their licenses for 2-3 years have never had to fine tune their home valuation skills, and find themselves feeling like they are rookies again. It’s a difficult change to embrace, but necessary. When there were five offers, buyer agent skills involved “how to win the bid” more than what is this house “worth”. When garnering an offer for a seller client, how to handle multiple offers was more important than how to price the property in the first place. That is no longer the case, and agents must spend time learning how to value property, with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

One of my mantras is “Agents are not allowed to use the word like”, unless they are referring to what a majority of buyers may like. “I like” coming from an agent, is like a stock broker recommending that you buy Target stock because he enjoys his shopping experience at that store better than at Fred Meyers. I often tell agents that they are not allowed to personally like or dislike properties. Whether or not you personally like a property is often a sign that you have not yet honed your valuation skills to the level of a true professional. When an agent stops saying “I like”, that is the day they begin to cross over from apprentice to professional.

This changing market leaves much less margin for error. Every week we go out and look at six to eight properties (Broker’s Opens) and come back and value them. To many this seems like a foreign exercise. Some still say “but I think my buyer would like…” or “I didn’t like”.

I don’t expect everyone to buy into the concept that an agent really can know what a property is worth. But I do think it’s odd that they all seem to know what it’s worth when a seller won’t list it at “the right price”, but then play dumb when the buyer wants to know what it’s worth. The conversation all too often turns to what it will take to “get it” vs. what it’s worth, when there is a buyer client in the room vs. a seller client.

Maybe this is just part of the 15 year old problem of a double standard for buyer clients vs. seller clients. Maybe it’s the conflict of interest involved in the agent needing the price to be fairly accuate in order to sell it for a seller, but not wanting to value it properly for a buyer client, because then they might have to say DON’T buy it.

We’re definitely “back to basics” with regard to real estate agent training classes. Those who refuse to accept any valuation technique beyond “it’s worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay for it”, will be left in the dust . If agents continue to refuse to accept the fact that property valuation is one of their duties as an agent, I may have to switch to holding these classes for people who are buying property vs. those charged with guiding them well through the process.

Licensing criteria does not involve training agents in an ongoing way in the art of home valuation. All to often, Brokers want to say “go out and SELL!”. Maybe it’s time for the buyers themselves to be able to access classes on home valuation techniques that go well beyond “price per square foot” and “the comps”. For now, suffice it to say that “comps” are not relevant to your valuation, unless you have at least driven by that “comp” to see if it had obvious differences beyond the photos available in the mls. “comps” are not properties “for sale”. “Comps” are properties that have SOLD.

And in this changing market, if it sold before August of 2007…it ain’t a comp, unless you make appropriate adjustments for what happened in the latter part of 2007.

Days On Market and a few other things

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In a comment to my Sunday Night Stats post, I was asked to report the days on market in addition to the regular Sunday night data being posted. The system won’t let me run stats for data that exceeds 10,000 homes, so I can’t do a full year at once. That is why it is broken down into quarters. I also can’t go back before February of 2005 in non-archive format. So we’ll end with 2nd quarter of 2005 for comparison purposes. The numbers are for median days on market.

I’m posting these in real time with two windows up as I gather the information, so I have no commentary regarding the data at this time.

YTD Residential King County – 62 days
YTD Condos King County – 58 days

1st quarter 2007 Residential – 40 days
1st quarter 2007 Condos – 28 days

2nd quarter 2007 Residential – 27 days
2nd quarter 2007 Condos – 22 days

3rd quarter 2007 Residential – 33 days
3rd quarter 2007 condos – 27 days

4th quarter 2007 Residential – 47 days
4th quarter 2007 Condos – 43 days

1st quarter 2006 Residential – 26 days
1st quarter 2006 condos – 20 days

2nd quarter 2006 Residential – 20 days
2nd quarter 2006 Condos – 17 days

3rd quarter 2006 Residential – 24 days
3rd quarter 2006 Condos – 19 days

4th quarter 2006 Residential – 33 days
4th quarter 2006 Condos – 27 days

I have to go backwards on 2005 as the beginning of the 1st quarter is archived, and the 2nd quarter residential sales exceed the 10,000 limit. So 2nd quarter 2005 residential sales volume exceeds any quarter reported above. While this post is not about #of sales, that seemed important to note.

4th quarter 2005 Residential – 24 days
4th quarter 2005 Condos – 19 days

3rd quarter 2005 Residential – volume exceeds 10,000 homes

3rd quarter 2005 Condos – 19 days

2nd quarter 2005 Residential – volume exceeds 10,000 homes
2nd quarter 2005 Condos – 24 days

Inadvertently we learned that the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2005 were higher in volume of Residential says than any quarter since that time.

As to days on market, looking at the 4th quarter comparisons between 2005, 2006 and 2007 likely gives you the best information regarding the lengthening of days on market. It would appear from what we have seen so far YTD in 2008, that this trend will continue.

Stats not compiled or published by NWMLS. (Required disclosure) 

Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World

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Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest is getting a bit testy. Apparently my comments regarding “credibility” were personalized by the contest sponsor. I love his comments “you think you can walk into someone else’s house and tell them to start moving the furniture around because YOU aren’t close enough to the TV”

Hey pal, I didn’t walk into your house, you invited us to be in this contest to “learn something from one another”. Did you mean learn something from you? Sorry…I thought it was a come as you are party.