Category Archives: General

Like a Virgin

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Ever since I started my own blog, I feel like a virgin. It’s like I’m blogging for the first time. I feel so shiny and new. Although, there’s one thing I haven’t quite figured out. Perhaps the multi-bloggers out there can chime in. You see, I’m not quite sure where my blog begins and Rain City Guide ends. Right now, I try to keep the geekier stuff on my blog and the more general interest stuff here. Of course since Rain City Guide has such a large audience, there’s always the temptation to post everything here (even if it doesn’t belong here).

For example, I’m getting ready to start work on the next version of Zearch (codenamed: NIMITZ). I’m thinking about putting my design ideas & implementation notes on my blog. Does it belong there? Well, I think I’ll cross-post things that pass the floor wax and a desert topping test. If it’s geeky and real estate-y or blog-y (BTW – are those real words? It’s so much easier to add a -y than spell out real estate related or blog related) I probably should post on both, but keep the meat on my blog (kinda like what I did with my blogging with Word 2007 post).

I’m sure many folks who participate on ActiveRain face similar dilemmas. The Queen of RE blogging has given me her advice, but I figured more advice is better than less advice. Besides, I don’t have as much dirty laundry to air as she does. I guess I’ll just do what Madonna would’ve done. I’ll just get into a groove and post where it feels so good inside. Ooh baby… Yeah!

Riding the OC Wave…

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I took a drive last night to meet up with the fine folks at Sellsius and more than a few others at the Rooftop Bar of La Casa del Camino in Laguna Beach. What an awesome spot with an amazing view (unfortunately, I arrived at the bar a little late for getting good photos from the deck and instead you’ll have to suffice with this photo taken directly below the bar to get an idea:

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I captured some of the people who showed up in this photo:
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(Back row: Laurie Manny of Long Beach, Kaye Thomas of Beach City, Heather, Rory Siems of Laguna Niguel, Joe Ferrara of Sellsius, and myself. Front row: Brian Brady of Amarica’s Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker and Rudy Bachraty of Sellsius)

Some others who showed up (but didn’t make the above photo) included Sarah Washburn of ActiveRain, Tisza Major-Posner of Route66, Loren Nason of Real Estate Technology, Kelly Kilpatricks of Rancho Santa Margarita and Morgan Brown of Blown Mortgage.

I’m a bit late to the game in that most everyone else has covered the event… Suffice to say, I had a blast and heard a ton of great stories! So many of the people in attendance have been living in breathing the RE.net for a while now that they were able to get me back up to speed with all kinds of juicy stories.

Thanks again to the Sellsius boys for organizing the event.

BTW, I’ve added a few more photos from this event on Flickr . 🙂

Blogging in luxury & style with Word 2007

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Well, I’ve had my own blog for a couple weeks now. So far, I am loving Subtext. Comparing Subtext to WordPress is like comparing a Cadillac CTS-V to a BMW M3. The standard is the still the one to beat, although the race is much closer than you might think it should be. Although it doesn’t have the refinement of the BMW, it does have a close working relationship with the Corvette parts bin and has the potential to be a world beater.

However, during that time, I’ve discovered something even cooler than a V-series Cadillac sitting in my blogging garage and that’s the new Microsoft Word 2007. Think of it as the Lexus LS-460 of blogging sedans.

Anyway creating a blog post with pictures is as easy as using Word (and it creates clean HTML markup too). If you don’t believe me, the View Source command is just a mouse click away. That’s OK, I’ll wait…

Now that I have your attention, here’s a guided tour of how I created this blog post with Word 2007. First, you need put your keys in the ignition and start your engines (or just start winword.exe using your favorite command shell). After your hard drive is done doing its 0 – 60 MB sprint, you’ll see an empty document window.

Now you need to click on the “pearl” (aka the Office button), and select Publish – Blog from the menu. Now that you’ve created an empty blog post document, you need to configure Word 2007, so it’ll be able to post to your blog. If it’s your first time, Word 2007 will prompt you for a Blog Account, otherwise you’ll to click on the manage accounts button in the ribbon (aka where the toolbar used to be) to add your blog. For my demo, I’ll add my Rain City Guide account settings.

From the Blog Accounts dialog, click New and you’ll then see the New Blog Account dialog. Word 2007 has support for Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, SharePoint, Community Server, TypePad, WordPress, and other blogs that support the Atom or MetaWebLog APIs. Since RCG proudly uses WordPress, I selected that and proceeded to the next dialog. (FYI – Subtext uses MetaWebLog)

Then on the new WordPress Account dialog, you enter the blog post url and your account info, click OK and your ready to burn some rubber. Since I’m behind on my quota for my blog, I plan on writing a comprehensive review of what Word 2007 can do for your blog on my Caffeinated Blog this weekend.

Anyway, if you’re a blogging enthusiast, I highly recommend you take Word 2007 out for a test drive. I usually don’t impress easily, but Ecto and Blogjet has some formidable competition now.

Two offers to refi in one day…just how lucky can a gal be?

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In our mail today, we received two very attractive offers to refinance our current mortgage.   Wow, how [photopress:MPj03876060000_1_.jpg,thumb,alignright]exciting!  Here are the details:

Offer One–This is your “Final Notice”

Reducing our current mortgage rate to 1.75% for 5 years.   A Senior Rate Reduction Consultant is waiting to assist you.   The APR on this offer is 6.308%.

This offer will expire on May 14, 2007.  Here’s my favorite part:  No other notices will be issued and no representatives will call you.    (Darn…the clock is ticking!)

Offer Two…Takes the Cake! (It’s even printed on pink paper)

“Your Mortgage Master loan in the amount of $375,000 can be restructured to a (you better sit down for this one) a 10 year payment at only $79.  This is not a typographacial error.   Your payment rate is only 1/4% and is fixed for 10 years….

Call us today and have no house payments until June 2008“.

Of course I had to call them!  The gentleman was very friendly (much nicer than the chaps I dealt with trying to help Jillayne uncover the Vacation Mortgage).    First you must meet their guidelines.   “Slick” tells me that one of their biggest “catches” to get around is loan to value…lucky for me,  we meet the 70% or less LTV requirement.   You also must have credit scores of 680 or better and not plan on moving for 3 years or you’ll have the opportunity to pay a prepayment penalty.

Me:  What is the rate based on?

Slick:  0.25% interest only

Me:  I mean, what is the base rate?  How much is the deferred interest?

Slick:  Wow, you seem to know a lot!  6.750%

Me: At what point does the mortgage recast?

Slick: 150% (yep…that’s what he said….150%).   I can’t believe it either!

This means that every month you make the 0.25% interest only payment of $79; the difference between that and the fully amortized payment is tacked on to the back of your loan.   This difference is $2,322.17.

This would be allowed to continue until my original mortgage balance of $375,000 reaches $562,500!   I estimate this would take 80 months (or just shy of 7 years).  Although the rate is fixed for 10 years, the loan will recast into a fully amortized mortgage when it reaches the 150% cap.

If we assume that my house is worth $550,000 today and has a mortgage balance of $375,000.   In 7 years, we know that if I did this refinance with Slick, my mortgage balance would be $562,500.   We really have no guarantees on what my $550,000 home will be worth in 7 years.    Not to mention what would happen to my credit scores having a mortgage balance that was increasing over the original loan balance.

Last but not least…we’ve finally uncovered the “vacation mortgage” mystery!  With this program, they also offer to give you 12 months off of your mortgage payment as a “credit”.  It’s very easy for this type of lender to do.   At $79 a month, 12 months of mortgage payments would be $948.   It’s simply priced into the loan by rebate, margins or the prepayment penalty.  

Pretty slick….huh?

The (legal) importance of a home inspection

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(This post is not legal advice.  For legal advice, consult a lawyer about your particular situation.)

First, my apologies to the RCG community.  I recently took a lengthy vacation and have been quite busy since my return.  Moreover, I now need to hire additional staff and thus move to a larger office space.  So, please forgive my less-than-frequent contributions until things return to “normal.”

Recently, Russ authored a post discussing the recent Supreme Court case of Alejandre v. Bull (beating me to the punch, in the process).  This is indeed an important case for several reasons, one of which Russ and the subsequent comments touch upon: the importance of a thorough home inspection.

Initially, the home inspection (if performed competently) provides the buyer with information regarding the condition of the house.  Obviously, the buyer is best served having full knowledge of any existing defects and able to make an informed decision about whether to complete the purchase. 

In light of the Bull case, however, the inspection also has legal significance.  In that case, the Court (in paragraphs 32 and 33) noted that a buyer of real property may still have a claim of fraudulent concealment and/or fraud where the seller fails to disclose a known defect (notwithstanding the fact that the buyer does not have a claim for negligent misrepresentation due to the economic loss rule, as discussed by Russ).  To prevail on a claim of fraudulent concealment, the buyer must show that the defect at issue “would not be disclosed by a careful, reasonable inspection by the purchaser.”  To prevail on a fraud claim, the buyer must show that he had a right to rely on the alleged misrepresentation of the defect at issue.  This “right to rely” is “intrinsically linked” (using the Court’s words) to a buyer’s duty to exercise diligence with regard to the representations at issue.  

Accordingly, an inspection is critical to retaining the ability to make a claim of fraud or fraudulent concealment against a seller.  If a buyer skips the inspection, the buyer will have great difficulty showing that the defect would not have been revealed by an inspection.  The reverse is true as well: by getting an inspection that fails to uncover the defect, the buyer will have a very good argument that the defect would not be (and indeed was not) revealed by an inspection.  Similarly, absent an inspection, the buyer will almost certainly have failed to exercise the necessary diligence to identify the defect, regardless of seller’s representation.

An inspection has an immediate, practical benefit.  However, it also has a legal benefit.  If you forego the inspection, you essentially waive any claim against the seller for failing to disclose a known defect.

What I admire about real estate

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I was thinking about what my technology & business development plan is going to be for the next version of Zearch, and it reminded me what I really admire about real estate professionals.

You see, it’s occurred to me that people in this industry are self-employed entrepreneurs, free agents, and independent consultants. It doesn’t matter if they own a RE/MAX franchise, an independent brokerage, or is just an agent starting out. They don’t have a safety net of a 9-to-5 job. They also don’t have to deal with the inane responsibilities that life in a cube farm curses you with. But most importantly, they bare all the responsibilities and they reap the ultimate rewards of their eventual success or failure. For the most part, they only answer to themselves and their clients.

As somebody who shares the dream of becoming self-employed, I certainly admire the difficulties of obtaining that objective. Which brings me to asking the following questions of my entrepreneurial mentors?

  1. How did you get involved in real estate? Was it your first career choice or your second (or third, etc.)? Did you have any mentors or role models when you started?
  2. Why did you get involved? Was it the freedom that working for yourself brings? Was it the possibility of having a larger income (with a lot of effort, of course – there is no easy way)? Did you enter the industry because you enjoy helping people attain the American dream of home ownership?
  3. How long did it take you to “make it”? When did you know that you’ve “made it”? Did you try to work a day job when you got started or did you jump in with both feet with no safety net?
  4. If you haven’t made it yet or didn’t make it, what have you learned from experience?
  5. Knowing what you know now, what would’ve done differently when you started out?
  6. Any other insights you’ve gained on the road to being your own CEO? Has the journey been all that you hoped it would be?

Are Real Estate Agents Facing Extinction?

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[I’m very happy to introduce the newest addition to the Rain City Guide team. Joe Beitey is a real estate lawyer out of the South King & Pierce County areas who runs the EZLawCoach blog and is also the Corporate Counsel for the MLS4Owners website. Joe has been quite active in the RCG community lately and I look forward to reading his legal perspective as a contributor!]

(This article is NOT legal advice. Consult an attorney for any specific legal issues you may have.)

Oh my goodness, what’s with these trends!! Global warming, sub-prime lending putting banks at risk, a slow down in the national housing market (bursting bubble???), and Sweet Mother Mary & Joseph, what’s with this “Zillow thing