Looks like Gates has announced his plans to retire from the Day to Day activity over at Microsoft, between now and 2008.
Will this have any impact on the Company? The stock? The area? Doesn’t sound like good timing for this announcement to me, right after the “no more towels” fiasco. Your thoughts/opinions?
For all you econ majors and those who are cringing as our new Fed Chairman adjust to his new role this is a great little paradogy from the Columbia School of Business.
Every Breath You Take
Dean Glenn Hubbard
Parody: Follies Student Comedy Revue
We are, for the most part, in a “normal market”, meaning that in some segments, it is a Seller’s Market, while in another segment, in the same city and price range, it is a balanced to Buyer’s Market. I used this sample to show how, in a small geographic area and price range, you can have two types of markets going on simultaneously.
What does that mean to you as a buyer? If you find one in the charted area that shows 0 available and 24 sold in six months, you need to act quickly and be less picky about condition and location. If you find one in the area that has 15 available and 149 sold in the last six months (same City and same Price Range, different Zip Code) then you can take your time, be more picky and even wait for a better one.
What does that mean to you as a seller? If you are putting your property on market in the first graph area and price, you can likely push the price based on supply and demand and still sell quickly at full price. If you are a seller in the second market segment noted by the second graph, you will have more competition and should price competitively and put the property in the best showing condition possible.
I have not highlighted the true “Buyer’s Market” segment, which is one where only 3-5 of every 10 homes for sale, will sell at all, meaning the ratio is 10 sellers for every 3-5 buyers. That is occuring in higher price ranges (over $1,500,000) and harder to define market segments, and not necessarily as relevant to the average RCG reader.
Perhaps other agents who work further out, like Sultan, Monroe, Des Moines, etc… can do some stats in those areas for us. Anyone seeing the ratio of buyers to sellers such that there are not enough buyers in the marketplace to absorb current inventory in a reasonable timeframe?
O’Reilly discusses research that suggests Seattle is fertile ground for startups, coming in behind San Francisco and Boston at number 3 based on a rough analysis of SimplyHired job postings. Downturn or not, the real estate market here is going to change if a couple more Amazons or Microsofts grow up in the Seattle area.
John Cook has more Seattle-centric observations and points to analysis by (New York-based) Fred Wilson, who claims that New York is number 3, based on an analysis of Conecticut-based indeed.com. Maybe Seattle would hit number 2 if the analysis used job listings from jobster.com, a Seattle based startup.
By the way, for those who travel a lot, I have invites to my favorite Seattle-based startup, Farecast. Let me know if you want one.
Anytime you see a house listed FSBO at over $200K below market you gotta wonder what’s going on. This particular one on Craig’s list was just down the street from my home so I decided to take a look.
$307000 – 4 bedroom fhouse or sale by owner
4 bed 2 bath completely remodeled inside in desireable redmond location for sale by owner.this lovely split level home is located within walking distance of lake sammamish ,parks,and schools in a secluded neighborhood!
Serious buyers only!
I will be holding an open house friday through sunday 7am-8pm if im not there my wife will be so feel free to stop by and have some cookies and a mocha 🙂
please do not email i rarely check it
These poor owners had people knocking on thier door all weekend thanks to someone’s idea of a practical joke. Open posting options like Craig’s List, Google and others are free and get great exposure, they are also prone to abuse. As the man said “If it sounds too good to be true…”
… just by bringing bagged lunch and brewing your own coffee. Ignore your raises to save the rest. Also, lots of calculators including a balloon calculator.
Seems to me that misinformation fuels many of the conversations regarding relationships between agents and consumers in today’s real estate marketplace. So let’s take a crack at one of Craig’s comments in #48 of Dustin’s post.
“If the mls were “open” – i.e. anyone could list – then agents will have an even harder time justifying the 3%/3% commission.”
Last I looked, every option known to man was available to sellers, with very few “having to pay” 3% to their listing agent, at least in the Seattle area. Many if not most agents do not charge 3% on the listing side, if the seller buys their next home from the same agent. There are many flat fee options available for limited service. High end often pays 1% for full service, especially on new construction homes. 2% is fast becoming the norm for the average Joe. 3% is more typical in the lowest of price ranges where 3% doesn’t amount to much and is a bargain for full service on a $120,000 condo. I have to wonder why people keep pretending that sellers by and large pay 3% to the listing agent? As this figure is not published, there must be some “hidden agenda” to the purveying of misinformation, I think.
As to why sellers offer 3% to convince more and many agents to come and show their home, I guess because it must make sense for them to do that, or they wouldn’t be doing it. That doesn’t mean the Buyer’s Agent GETS 3%, that only means that there is an allowance in the List Price, up to that amount, as far as the SELLER is concerned. Then it is up to the buyer and his agent to determine the actual fee, as they negotiate it within the target amount set by the seller.
Clearly all commissions are negotiable and always have been. Anyone who believes an agent, or attorney in this case, who pretends otherwise is mistaken. All commissions are and always have been negotiable. You just have to understand the structure, and the reasons for it, to maneuver within the system to your best advantage. If you don’t understand the system in place, you leave yourself open for someone to take advantage of your lack of knowledge, by exploiting that weakness. Know that you can, for sure, and in fact, negotiate any fee you want AND participate in the mls system in place while doing so. This is true for both buyers and for sellers, as long as the seller negotiates his side, and the buyer negotiates the other side. There is absolutely nothing in the system, as it exists, that prevents you from negotiating commissions, other than the misinformation which is keeping you from understanding the system.
As to using an attorney instead of an agent in a real estate transaction, it’s apples and oranges. No attorney purports to do, or even tries to do, what an agent does in a transaction. A great attorney is no replacement for a good agent in a real estate transaction. A monkey is a sufficient replacement to both, if they are not good, and monkeys may be more pleasant to deal with 🙂
For those who aren’t agents let me explain how many of the larger brokerages (eg., in this area – Windermere, John L. Scott, Coldwell Banker Bain, etc) operate. As an agent you are an independent sub-contractor usually paying a monthly desk fee to associate with a particular company, plus variations of splitting your commissions with the broker. For that you get office space, administrative support, access to training etc.
What you do NOT get is client leads from the company. (except for Relo clients if you last long enough). For that you do your own marketing and/or sink to using the sourcing companies like house values, home gain and others of those ilk whose business model Ardell summed up so well long ago.
So here’s the part that I just don’t get. As an agent, there is no way I can come up with the marketing dollars to compete against House Values online. But my brokerage (Coldwell Banker Bain) spends millions in advertising, development of their website and overall branding. Yet for all of that they have no pro-active lead capture system or method of distributing leads to field agents. Certainly any of the larger brokers could compete better for the internet business and yet they don’t. Plus, if there are agents willing to pay for lead sources why not capture that revenue back into their own company.
It seems to me that the logical thing to do would be develop a virtual brokerage office.
I’m going to propose this idea to my company but thought I’d run this by everyone for some feedback.
On the fourth Thursday of every month, I offer a free one-hour class at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, where I offer my attorney-perspective on the purchase and sale of real estate. The classes are interesting, and everyone always thanks me after the class for taking the time to do it. Of course, I’ve got a little self interest: I do it to promote my law practice, which is focused on the purchase and sale of residential real estate.  After my last post, I promised Dustin I’d post on some of the questions I have heard and answered. Unfortunately, a brief summary is not possible. Questions run the gamut, from ultra-basic to super-sophisticated, addressing every stage of the process from beginning to end.Â
For you real estate service providers out there — agents, attorneys, inspectors, mortgage brokers, title insurers, escrow providers, etc. etc. etc. — consider investing the two hours per month (and about 40 bucks) as a marketing endeavor. Attendance at my class runs about 5-7 people. So over the course of a year, I’m able to introduce myself to 60-80 potential clients (some of whom have become actual, paying clients), and all of them will hopefully mention my name to their friends, family, etc. Small, but then again Rome was build one marble block at a time…
Are any other real estate people going to be at Where2.0 in San Francisco Jose (whoops) next week?
And for those of you who want to go but found the price to be prohibitive, consider submitting a mash-up idea for a free pass.