Category Archives: Industry Talk

WaaahMu: My Take on Washington Mutual’s Testimony

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Yesterday I tuned in to CSPAN to watch Washington Mutual execs answer to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee about the failure of Washington Mutual.    There are several things I found interesting…former CEO Killinger’s whining about WaMU’s unfair treatment of the banks dissolve and lack of taking any accountability as the leader of the bank for the past 18 years is not one of them.   The testimony is very timely as our Congress is looking at financial reform, I hope they pay attention to what is being revealed.

Here are some points I find interesting:

From the Associated Press:

WaMu’s pay system rewarded loan officers for the volume of loans they closed on. Extra bonuses even went to loan officers who overcharged borrowers on their loans or levied stiff penalties for prepayment, according to the report of the Senate panel’s investigation.

“Washington Mutual engaged in lending practices that created a mortgage time bomb,” Levin said. “Because volume and speed were king, loan quality fell by the wayside.” …

In some cases, sales associates in WaMu offices in California fabricated loan documents, cutting and pasting false names on borrowers’ bank statements, the panel found. The company’s own probe in 2005, three years before the bank collapsed, found that two top producing offices – in Downey and Montebello, Calif. – had levels of fraud exceeding 58 percent and 83 percent of the loans. Employees violated the bank’s policies on verifying borrowers’ qualifications and reviewing loans…”

Currently the Federal Reserve is looking at changing how mortgage originators are compensated.   They do not want compensation to be based in any part of the terms of the loan (such as the loan amount).    This has caused some banks to change to a reward system based on volume (as Washington Mutual did) instead of the merits of each individual loan.  

From Senator Levin’s opening statement:

“Washington Mutual and Long Beach compensated their loan officers and processors for loan volume and speed over loan quality. Loan officers were also paid more for overcharging borrowers – obtaining higher interest rates or more points than called for in the loan pricing set out in the bank’s rate sheets – and were paid more for including stiff prepayment penalties…”

The difference between mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers compensation is that mortgage brokers are the only one’s who are required to disclose how they’re compensated on the “back end” (yield spread premium).  

James Vanasek, former Chief Credit Officer and Chief Risk Officer seemed relieved to have a chance to tell the subcommittee how his attempts to right Washington Mutual were ignored from management.   From his submitted testimony, he feels that Washington Mutuals tagline sent the wrong message to their mortgage originators: the “Power of Yes” absolutely needed to be balanced with “The Wisdom of No.”

“Because of the compensation systems rewarding volume vs quality and the independent structure of the loan originators, I am confident that at times borrowers were coached to fill out applications with overstated incomes or net worth adjusted to meet the minimum underwriting policy requirements. Catching this kind of fraud was difficult at best and required the support of line management. Not surprisingly, Loan originators constantly threatened to quit and go to Countrywide or elsewhere if their loan applications were not approved.”

Washington Mutual was one of the pioneers of the option ARM, offering this product as far back as the 80s (per Killinger’s submitted testimony)   I remember back in the 90’s participating with a Washington Mutual loan originator who was presenting the product to a group of investors.   This use of this product made more sense than how they (and many others) wound up pushing it.   

Our company actually banned this product and I know we lost business by not providing option ARMs if we could not convince the borrower to use a more fixed loan.  Account executives from every bank who had an option ARM would be sure to let us mortgage originators know just how much income we were losing.   I was (and am) okay with that.

From Senator Levin’s opening statement:

“WaMu was eager to steer borrowers to Option ARMs. Because of the gain from their sale, the loans were profitable for the bank, and because of the compensation incentives, they were profitable for mortgage brokers and loan officers. In 2003, WaMu held focus groups with borrowers, loan officers, and mortgage brokers to determine how to push the product. A 2003 report summarizing the focus group research stated: “Few participants fully understood the Option ARM. … Participants generally chose an Option ARM because it was recommended to them by their Loan Consultant….

To increase Option ARM sales, WaMu increased the compensation paid to employees and outside mortgage brokers for the loans, and allowed borrowers to qualify for the loan [based on a minimum payment]…”

From the LA Times:

Adding to the problems, WaMu and Long Beach Mortgage frequently steered borrowers who qualified for prime loans into subprime loans, the subcommittee found.

This post is all ready too long to discuss Long Beach Mortgage…but I can’t help but share this point I’ve tried making several times about what happened time and time again with Account Executives from banks (not just WaMu) who called on mortgage brokers to push the bank product (from Huffington Post):

“Within Long Beach Mortgage, former employees described how some sales people taught brokers how to break the rules, including using fake and forged documents.”

I’m glad to say I never sent a loan to Long Beach Mortgage and somehow I managed to only send one loan to Washington Mutual (which was an interesting story in its own).

And I would like to say that consumers can feel better about selecting a mortgage originator today, thanks to the SAFE Act, however mortgage originators who work for a depository bank (such as Washington Mutual) are not required to be licensed, they’re only required to be registered (you can thank Congress for that).

We’ve Come a Long Way Baby

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VirginiaSlimsThe other day, I received an email from someone who wanted to verify some surprising things he had heard about the “old days” of mortgage underwriting.   Before I go on any further about the details of the discussion, I feel the need to to give a “Surgeon Generals” type warning:  in no way do I nor Mortgage Master condone the outdated underwriting guidelines used in the “old days”.   It is interesting to see how much lending practices have changed over the years…for the better.

From Curious George:

“Heard some interesting historical information from a long time veteran of the real estate industry today.  I seems that at one time, for a woman’s income to be considered when she and her husband were purchasing a home, she needed a note from her doctor stating that she either had a hysterectomy or was going through menopause.  Apparently the fear was that if she became pregnant and couldn’t work for some time, they would not be able to pay their mortgage.  Then with the development and legalization of the birth control pill, the banks reconsidered and allowed 50% of her income to be used.   Eventually banks agreed to 100% of a womans income to be used.

Seriously though, I thought this was interesting.   Maybe you can confirm this.   It would be interesting to see how all of that affected home prices.  I’ll bet with people being to qualify for larger loans, prices got driven up.”

I’ve been trying to find information about this on-line and although I can find plenty about racial discrimination, I’m having a challenging time digging up on how women’s incomes were considered “back in the day”.   HUD and FHA’s websites glorify how their part in rescuring the American Dream during the Great Depression…I’m hard pressed to find early underwriting guidelines.

I decided to use my walking encyclopedia of all things mortgage to check the facts of this “almost unbelievable” depiction of lending history:  my 85 year old father-in-law who spent sixty years in local real estate, Bob Porter.   The first six years (fresh out of the Navy in 1945) selling real estate in North Seattle for Mutual Realty, Broadmor Realty and McPhersons while attending Seattle College (now named Seattle University).  The next twenty-two years were spent as a broker/owner of Southend Brokers with several branches in King County.  His resume continued as President of Pacific West Mortgage headquartered out of Burien and most recently as Chairman of Mortgage Master in Kent until his retirement in 2005.  Now that you know some of Bob’s background, here’s his response to “Curious George”:

“That’s right.  The industry led by FHA and VA would consider a wife’s income for short term debt such as car payments.  Professional women, teachers, lawyers, doctors and business owners income could qualify for mortgage payments on a case by case basis without a letter from their doctor.  Taking loan applications took a lot of diplomacy.  We would be sued for discrimination if we asked a woman for a doctors letter today.”

It’s hard to believe that underwriting guidelines were impacted by various forms of birth control and the progression of women’s rights.

CD Release Party tonight for local Seattle band – Kris Orlowski

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Local song artists, Kris Orlowski and his band, are having a CD Release party tonight at The Hard Rock Cafe. Doors open at 8 and the show is at 9.

Seattle has long been known for supporting the “up and coming” people in their local areas. So if you have no plans tonight…try to head on out to The Hard Rock Cafe at 116 Pike Street to give some hard working and talented local young people your support.

I first found Kris Orlowski via the YouTube video below (the link was posted on twitter). If you want to get a feel for Seattle, watch this video featuring The Fremont Troll :). There’s a line in Kris’ song “Sweet Little Girl” that was SO very Seattle it cracked me up. “We’re dreaming of a future where the summer always stays.” How “Seattle Culture” is that!

The scenes in this video say more about Seattle than most any written post ever could…so if you are thinking of moving to Seattle, watch this video. It shows many of the best things Seattle has to offer…its people, our troll, people of all ages interacting with one another at Green Lake, and a young man celebrating…”Lou, Lou, Lou” an awesome, everyday, Seattle kind of girl.

Good luck, Kris! Taking a line from your song…”Hope is in my heart that you’ll be great!!!”

Three months into the 2010 Good Faith Estimate…and We Still Have Issues

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We’ve had three months to work with the “new” good faith estimate designed by HUD.   We had an even longer period of time to review this document, however in a mortgage originators defense, I will say that until you can use this GFE “in real practice”, you don’t truly know the nuances.   With all the updates to the RESPA FAQs, I’ll argue that HUD’s in the same boat! 

On March 18, 2010, HUD posted a new presentation “RESPA 2010 – Implementation Consistency”.  I recommend watching the video with access to the slides.  Vicki Bott, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing with HUD, covers the information more indepth than if you were to watch the slides alone.   During this presentation, it sounds like we should have a newly revised set of FAQs for HUD soon.  I’ve actually lost count on how many times it’s been updated…and a part looks forward to the revisions since I have hopes that some of the glaring issues will be addressed and remedied.

Here’s an email I recently received from a mortgage originator:

I have a question that I have been searching the internet for and was wondering if you might know the answer? … I have a rural development loan that I took an application for last week.  I didn’t realize before I disclosed to the borrowers that the 2% up front mortgage insurance fee did not populate into my good faith estimate.  The borrowers are aware that there is a 2% up front funding fee but since it wasn’t on my originally disclosed good faith, is there anyway to correct that?  I mean, it isn’t like I am adding a fee that goes in my pocket or anything, it is a fee that is associated with the loan itself, for anyone who gets a government loan with a funding fee or upfront mortgage insurance.

First of all, I am in no way an expert on the Good Faith Estimate and I’m not a replacement of a mortgage originators compliance department or managers.   This LO needs to immediately contact her manager and compliance officers at this point.   Emailing a mortgage blogger isn’t going to resolve her issue.

HUD does have what is called a “restrained enforcement” period which is the first four months of this year, which is touched on during this slide show.    I have no idea if this mortgage originators mistake would qualify her to call a “mullagan” or if she is obligated to pay the difference between the 2% loan fee factored into the 10% accumulative tolerence bucket.  If so, she’s paying to have this loan close…it’s a very expensive mistake that most mortgage origintors cannot afford to make.  On a $300,000 mortgage, the 2% fee is $6,000.   According to HUD’s powerpoint (slide 5):

“Restrained enforcement…is intended to provide lenders and HUD time to understand the implementation gaps and interpretation inconsistencies and resolve them while providing RESPA benefits to the consumer…. Guidance will be rolled out to the industry regarding specific areas of restrained enforcement.” 

I’m hearing  that most lenders will not allow re-issue of a good faith estimate once they’ve received it.  Mortgage originators are having to pay for upfront FHA mortgage insurance premiums (soon to be 2.25% of the loan amount) even though it was not a case of bait and switch–the borrowers knew about it and it was simply a human error.   Good faith estimates can only be modified if there is a qualified “changed circumstance” which must be documented.

Our company is currently using Encompass 360 for our loan operating system and I can tell you that it’s been a lot of effort to make sure that loan fees not only populate, but actually show up in the section they need to be.   The 2010 good faith estimate basically puts fees into 3 sets of buckets with different tolerances on how much those fees can change.   The funding fee referenced in the email above is subject to a 10 accumulative tolerence.   Assuming the rest of that mortgage originators estimate is perfect, she may be responsible for $5,400 ($6000 less 10%) assuming this is a bona fide transaction.

Mortgage originators must be very careful when issuing a good faith estimate.  We cannot rely on our loan operating systems to spit out the correct information in the specific spot required.   Here’s what I’m doing when I’m working with a client and the good faith estimate:

  • I prepare a work sheet first — IF the consumer has not yet identified a property.   NOTE:  HUD says this is acceptable unless it’s a refinance and you know the property address…ya’ better issue that GFE.   (Check out the new HUD video).
  • I’m using on-line rate calculators from my preferred title company  (who also guarantees their rate quotes).  
  • Once I have the 6 points of information as deemed by HUD, I create a good faith estimate.   LO’s–the only other choice you have is to “deny” the “application” if you do not issue a GFE within 3 days of receiving the 6 points.
  • Review–review–review that GFE before you provide it to your client.   If you need to, buddy up at your office and help each other be a second set of eyes.  
  • Especially watch out for FHA Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premiums, VA and USDA Funding Fees (which go on Block 3 of the GFE) and the Owners Title Insurance Policies for purchases (Block 5).   Also watch for excise tax if you need to disclose that in  your area.  (HUD addresses excise tax and owners policies in the recent video). 

Most fees aren’t that huge…. I’m finding that I’m typically off very slightly between my good faith estimate and HUD-1 Settlement Statement.    A little precaution will really pay off, my fellow Mortgage Professionals.

Last but not least, if you’re not getting the training you need, seek it out for yourself.  Seek many–do not rely on your employer or their educators.   Are they going to cover your 2% funding fee mistake?   Learn from many different educators and formats…visit’s HUD’s RESPA webpage often!  …this is what I recommend if you’re committed to sticking around this industry as a mortgage originator.   

Good luck!

If a picture is worth a thousand words…

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Sign Pic
then what does this picture say? And who is the audience?

As professionals in this field, we understand the message. But I’m not so sure about the consuming public. What assumptions do they make about WaLaw, Windermere, and Chuck Houston? Do they know who represented the seller, and who represented the buyer? Do they know the relationship between WaLaw on the one hand, and Windermere and Mr. Houston on the other?

In sharp contrast, all of us (the authors of this blog, many of its readers, most of its commenters) know exactly the answers to these questions. WaLaw listed the property on the MLS, and Mr. Houston (licensed through Windermere) found a buyer. The seller paid WaLaw a sum of money. WaLaw then shared some (or, as in this case, most) of the money with Windermere, which then shared most of it with Mr. Houston. We get it. We perfectly understand the message sent by a “Sold by” sign hung on a yard sign.

So really, the audience must be us, at least in large part. Otherwise, the message would be re-worked to connect with the true audience and not just us. And this raises the question: What’s the point of providing us with this information? What do the “speakers” hope to gain from imparting this message?

Frankly, I’m not sure of the answer. I do know that, in the future, WaLaw will use its own “Sold” sign rather than the selling agent’s “Sold by” sign. That, in my mind, will simplify the message significantly and allow me to connect with the consuming public, the audience I want to reach. Hopefully, a layperson, when seeing the sign, will conclude only that WaLaw Realty helped this seller in selling her property. That’s the message I want to send, and as it stands now, I’m not sure that message is getting across.

Post Script: WaLaw will now be posting “SOLD

School Cancelled because of SUN!

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If you are relocating to the Seattle area, or have recently relocated here, a HUGE factor for you to “grasp” is about capturing those great days between October and May. Summer is great here, and you rarely get “snowed in”, but too many gray and rainy days in succession can really get to you.

When I first moved here I remember someone saying “no work today”. When I asked why they said “The Mountain is OUT!”. People jump up from their desks and run over to see Mount Rainier on a clear day. 🙂

School Cancels Classes for a “Sun Day” is a news story today along the same lines.

Seattle weather “progresses”. First you have one sunny day a week, then two sunny days in a week. By the time you hit 5 out of 6 sunny days in a week, you feel like God came down and brought you a huge gift of perpetual sunshine, just in time for the Fremont Summer Solstice Festival.

So when you see all the painted naked cyclists in Fremont in June, remember why and what they are celebrating. NO other area celebrates the simple pleasure of the sun being out…like Seattle.

A “new” bottom call…King County Home Prices 2010

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Earlier today I posted my thoughts on the King County Housing Market for 2010 and received this question on twitter:

@VAF_Investments asks @ARDELLd – This downward price expectation kind of goes against your view late last year… What’s changed?

graph (35)

Generally speaking, my clients are making a short term decision to buy a home to live in based on a compelling reason in their life, vs a long term market timed decision. Consequently, in my world, the question becomes “If I am going to buy a home in the near future, when is the best time to do that? What is the best strategy?

In February of 2009 there was no question in my mind that March closings would likely be the lowest point of 2009. When I “called that bottom” I was greatly surprised that it made front page news, because it seemed like a great big “duh” to me at the time. The graph above shows you how that prediction played out through to present day.

New Year…New Clients…New Bottom Call. Last year I had a few clients purchase homes who I told to wait in 2008 and late 2007. In 2009, I didn’t tell anyone to “wait” but I did tell a few people not to buy at all, and am still doing so. The minute someone says “I’m planning to sell it in 3 years” I do a big “Excuse Me?” One client wanted me to graph “appreciation” for each year over the next three years…I asked him to save me the time by sticking a big fat zero on that for me in each of the three columns on a net basis.

What’s different this year? LOTS! Many people bought in anticipation of the Homebuyer Credit ending. I was at the gym yesterday and a young agent on the next treadmill was telling his friend that buyers had to hurry up before the credit expires. If every agent is telling every buyer to buy before the credit expires, how can they possibly NOT think that the market will go down after it expires? Boggles my mind that the same people saying “you must buy before April 30” are the same people saying the market will not go down AFTER that point.

There are many other factors, of course. But the Homebuyer Credit is not a small one in the big picture. The title of the PI Article last year was “Agent Predicts Housing Slump’s Demise”. In 2010 the “training wheels” will come off. The oxygen supply will be removed, and we will see what the market will do when caused to “stand on its own two feet”.

I don’t think the market will fall dramatically without further government intervention, because I think if it DOES fall dramatically there WILL be continued government intervention. So yes, I do expect Homes Prices will be lower than the median price of $362,700 from March of 2009, at least at some point in the 4th Quarter of 2010, and possibly before. I don’t think we will see another 20% – 25% decline in prices, not because the fundamentals are stronger, but because I believe the government will come up with another plan if needed, to prevent that from happening.

Remember, most of the market decline transpired under the previous Administration. This new regime has proven its desire and ability to stabilize, if not grow, the market. I do think they will let this credit expire, and I do think they will decide what to do next…after they see how the market reacts to “pulling the plug”.

Before they decide what to do next…don’t be surprised to see a “new bottom” where median home prices in King County fall below $362,700. At this moment, without all of the March closings counted, the median for the first Quarter is $370,999 (maybe a little higher if I take out the houseboats) and at $372,475 for the month of March to date (this down from the $375,000 it was a few days ago). If I take out the houseboats and mobile homes…it is $375,000.

(The stats in this post are not compiled, posted or verified by The Northwest Multiple Listing Service)

Paying a fair price for the home you buy.

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One of the problems with today’s real estate inventory of homes for sale, is that it is difficult to determine if the asking price is a fair price. Today I received an email noting that the price of a home was reduced by $200,000. It is today $300,000 less than the day it went on market about three months ago.

Think about how scary that is to a would be home buyer! Someone could have paid $300,000 more for it than the asking price today, and who knows? That “new reduced price” could still be $300,000 more than someone will end up paying for it. This is particularly true of the home I am referring to in this post. (as an agent I cannot mention the address, and will have to delete it from the comments if someone else guesses it correctly. Let’s stick to the general point of the post and assume many homes fit this broad description.)

I want to talk to you today about a totally out of the box approach to buying real estate. It isn’t necessarily a new concept, it is simply the same strategy used in the hot market. In the hot market when there were 3 offers “in” when you wrote your offer, you automatically attached an “escalation clause” saying “I will pay X$ more than the highest offer up to X$ cap price”.

There are two homes on market, one each for two of my clients that my clients like, but we are agreeing that the asking price is too high for that home, and higher than any buyer will be willing to pay. In the meantime the seller is not ready to take an offer at what we consider to be a “fair” price for the homes in our “saved homes” watch list. We, the buyers and I, have attached a price to the homes that the buyer would pay, that is substantially less than the current asking price.

The way the market works generally, is buyers save these homes and wait for the price to come down. On the one hand they are afraid someone else will buy it at the price they are willing to pay. On the other hand they don’t want to get into a negotiation stance that might draw them above what they are willing to pay.

Let’s use a hypothetical. Let’s say the asking price is $999,950 and your price is $875,000. It would be fairly simple to put in an offer of $850,000 or X$ more than any other offer received with a cap of $875,000 in the next 30 days. Offer may be withdrawn anytime prior to acceptance or extended at the end of this 30 day period.

Many years ago during the last market like the one we are in now, I did something like this for a client. Slightly different. It was an abandoned very nice home. The owner did not have it on market as a short sale, they simply moved out when they stopped making their payments and moved out of State. The Bank had not foreclosed, and so the Bank could not sell the home or even consider offers to purchase. There were many people who wanted to buy the house. In fact one of the agents whose clients wanted the home, sent that client to me (which is how I got the client in the first place) as they could not determine how the buyer could get the house, it not being for sale. In fact half my business that year came from local agents who sent me situations they could not figure out in the weak market. Odd, but true 🙂

I wrote an offer at a ridiculously low price, which was also the highest price my client could afford to pay. The buyer was willing to give it his best shot, realizing that his best shot might not be good enough. I wrote the offer and sent it to the bank, who did not own it. I wrote a response time of 30 days. Every 30 days I had the buyer and his wife come into my office and rethink whether or not they still wanted that house at that price. If they said yes, I had them sign a short 30 day extension to the offer. This went on for nine months.

One day the Bank was within the time range when they could foreclose on the house. That’s one thing people don’t understand about short sales. The bank can’t always foreclose when they want to foreclose, and the person who put the offers into that file is not the person who opened the file to start the foreclosure proceedings. Banks can’t always answer your short sale offer when you want them to. The day the bank was ready to start the foreclosure process, they opened the file and found an offer inside with nine 30 day extensions. Rather than begin the foreclosure process, they called me and accepted my client’s offer.

There was never a for sale sign on the property as it was technically never for sale. My buyer client asked me to put a sold sign on the property so that would be buyers would stop going inside it while we were “in escrow”. I went over and put a sold sign up. Within two hours 21 people called screaming that they wanted to buy that house, but their agent or attorney told them they had to wait until after it was foreclosed on. One even told me he had already purchased new kitchen cabinets for it, and they were sitting in his basement.

I know there is an old saying that “the early bird gets the worm”, but in a market like this one we need to fall back on a completely different idiom. “patience makes perfect”. If you do the right things while being patient, you just might end up with a perfect result for you and your family.

Why do Real Estate Agents put their photo on…

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custom-real-estate-signs_splashEven though I do not have my photo on my business cards or signs at present, my clients have on occasion asked me this question when we enter a house where the agent’s picture is on the sign.
Even when the agent’s photo is not on the sign, some ask me why the agent’s picture is often on the business cards and other materials such as the home flyer.

This morning over at The Onion there is a funny post titled “I Wasn’t Going to Buy This House UNTIL I Saw The Realtor’s Headshot On the Sign”by Sam Cone.

The answer is fairly simple. There has been for some time now, a continuous struggle between Brokerages and Real Estate Agents as to whether you are going to call “The Office” or “The Agent”. For many years there was a rule called The Rule of Prominence, which is still a rule in some places in the Country. That rule required “…the broker’s name to be equal in size and more prominent than the agent’s name”. (but not necessarily the agents face or photo). As soon as it was determined that the agent’s photo was not part of the prominence rule, agent’s used the photo to help insure that the prospective client or home buyer would call them vs. the Brokerage, or at least ask for them by name if they did call the Brokerage.

Take a look at the sign I used in the thumbnail photo that says, “Buy Your Next Home With Us!” …and then ask yourself who “us” is? US is obviously Century Properties, and not Cindy, given the company has the header and footer control, and Cindy only gets to customize the insert on the white background. Also the slogan would say “call ME” vs. call “US” if that were Cindy’s slogan vs. the Brokerages slogan.

Cindy wants you to call her, and the company wants you to call them. This is more of an issue in some places than others. Historically Brokerages did not have to pay for a receptionist. Agents used to “sit floor duty” on the hope of getting a new client via a “sign call”. More and more, agents began trying to be “more prominent” on the sign than the broker, to insure that they personally got the call vs the Brokerage, or that you would at minimum be enticed to ask for the Cindies of the world by name when calling the Brokerage.

From the home seller’s standpoint, would the owner rather you talk to Cindy? Probably, because Cindy knows their home better than any old body who answers the phone at the real estate company.

So it would seem that whether you are the agent or the owner of the property, those two entities are best served if you take the extra time to reach “Cindy”, than whomever happened into the office to get a cup of coffee today.

Now let’s talk about the buyer. The buyer is often NOT best served by speaking with the agent for the seller from an Agency standpoint. They may be best served by talking to the agent for the seller when they want to know things about the property, or they want to possibly try to save some money on the real estate commission by not having a separate agent. Any way you slice it, the buyer being able to tell who is, and who is not, “the agent for the seller” is of value.

The big fat face on the sign is a HUGE reminder that the person in that picture represents the SELLER, and NOT you the BUYER.

Forewarned is forearmed…and the next time you see an agent photo on a sign you might ask yourself if you want that person who represents that seller…knowing a whole lot about you, the buyer. Do you want that person to know how much you LOVE the house!? Do you want that person to know that you are worried about whether or not you can get financing? Do you want that person to know that you are not sure if you want the house, you just want to tie it up for a few days while you think about it?

If nothing else, value the big fat photographic reminder, that the smiling face on that sign…does not represent you, if you are a potential buyer of that house.

March 18th & 19th PNW Housing Summit & REbarcampSea

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First and Foremost…HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHONDA PORTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Pacific Northwest Housing Summit will be held this Thursday, March 18th at the Seattle Center. The details of who will be speaking at that event are in the link, and Rhonda promised to stop by in the comments to describe it a bit further. The Washington Association of Mortgage Professionals is largely responsible for that event, along with several other sponsors, and there is a cost of entry. I think the cost is $80 or so $69 if you pay at the door. I’m pretty sure both Rhonda Porter and Jillayne Schlicke will be at the event.

On Friday, March 19th there is a free event that I believe is open to just about anyone, called REbarcampSEA. There is never an agenda for a barcamp, as it is an “un-conference” and the sessions are determined by those who come to the event.

When you arrive at REbarcampSea you are usually asked if there is a topic you would like to talk about, or have others talk about, sometime during the day. The times and sessions are then written on a board as people request the topic and others agree to speak on the topic. I recall seeing The Tim from Seattle Bubble there last year, so I’m 99% sure anyone can attend, though the room will largely be filled with 400 or so agents, lenders and real estate vendors.

Technically there is no subject that is taboo at the event, so a group of consumers could come and ask for a session on most any topic. Largely the event deals with Social Media and Blogging sessions, so if consumers would like to see blogs or social media handled differently than they are in the Seattle Area, they can come and discuss their list of “wants” in that regard. It would be nice if a large group of consumers came, so that the real estate industry could better serve their needs. So come out, bring a friend or two, and make your wishes known.

Hope to see you there!