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Paying bloggers to say nice things 2007-11-27 06:22:24 I got a call today from a salesperson at ePERKS. He wanted me to sign up for a program to receive leads off their website. If I bought one zip code, the fee would be $129.95 a month, plus an 18% referral fee back to them for every closed transaction. Here’s the pitch from ePERKS: ePERKS is a combination of search directory and search engine for major services. As a result there are directory membership fees as well as referral fees for when a deal is closed. Pricing is uniform across the United States and there are 3 simple programs that encompass the service. This program provides complete exclusivity to the real estate professional, as members of this program are made the sole representatives for their selected areas of coverage. No other program listings are displayed, as the Exclusive Ownership Listing supersedes and eliminates all other listings. 100% Ownership of Selected Zip Codes (no other listings) Supersedes and Eliminates All Other Listings $129.95 a Zi ...

The Existential Questions in Real Estate Search: What Do People Want? 2007-11-27 05:33:50 Just before Thanksgiving, ace Redfin product manager & superblogger Matt Goyer asked for your advice on how we could make it easier for our search site visitors to add filters on stuff like price, bedrooms and bathrooms to their queries. We offered a $250 prize for the best suggestion. One intrepid designer suggested displaying the filter on bedrooms and bathrooms alongside the search box; a second design was modeled after Craigslist, and a third simply showed a “More Options” link alongside the search box. One person called to ask, “Where’s my $250?” Many people suggested focusing on the most popular filters. Which begged the question, what are the most popular filters? Enter Michael Smedberg, our tower of analytical power, who parsed our logs on November 15, 2007 to find out what people were asking for in hundreds of thousands of queries: Sex, drugs and money were not filter options and so were excluded from this analysis. 36% of queries exclude con ...

ROCK & ROLL: “Where It’s At” for the Home Staging Industry 2007-11-27 05:09:00 During a cold winter’s drive over this past holiday weekend I had a chance to reflect on all that I see going on (or NOT going on) in the home staging industry. As I look at WHO we are and WHERE we are… the more I am sure the home staging industry is not quite YET ready to handle the BIGGER vision of unity so many in this industry say they want. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a BAD thing; this is just an “IS” thing. I recently commented in another stager’s blog that I thought home stagers could learn from the Realtor community who benefit from working together and learning together as a unified group in the association known as the National Association of Realtors. Having as an END GOAL within industry to have own NAR like organization/association is an AWESOME goal… which I embrace 100%. But, with the “results”� and lack of response we are getting to the idea so far, I wonder if maybe we are trying to hard to make this end goal ... Amp

Toronto Commercial Brokerage Sold 2007-11-27 04:36:55 Even the big fish respect the tide. Joseph J. Barnicke ruled Canada’s commercial real estate market for nearly 50 years, and knew it was time to sell. Mr. Barnicke has kept his share of secrets in the nearly 50 years he has helped orchestrate commercial real estate transactions across Canada. When a company wanted to pick up stakes and move to new quarters, sometimes across the country, the firm’s president would often first pick up the phone and talk to Mr. Barnicke, swearing him to secrecy to work out the plan long before employees and shareholders found out. Or, when the old Eatons department store chain wanted to expand to what was then a novel retail centre - a mall - it was Mr. Barnicke who cut through the red tape by quietly meeting with the political boss of the day. Now that he’s sold his company to British interests, there’s no secret about what Mr. Barnicke wants to do - at 84, he would like to maintain a role with the company he founded in 1959 and ...

HSBC Provides $35 billion in SIV Funding 2007-11-26 05:16:15 We talked about it before with Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism - banks putting structured investment vehicles (SIVs) back on their balance sheets as funding in commercial paper markets dried up - and now HSBC has made it a reality.  HSBC announced today that it will put two SIVs back on its balance sheet and provide up to $35 billion in funding to keep the SIVs from being forcefully liquidated reports Market Watch: HSBC said it’s moving Cullinan Finance and Asscher Finance, the two SIVs, onto its balance sheet to prevent a forced liquidation of what it called “high-quality assets.” If HSBC did not make the move, the vehicles were at risk of triggering market value or net asset value restrictions that would’ve prompted sales of the debt portfolios. As the article notes this is in direct opposition to the super-fund currently being conjured by other large banking players and may trigger other banks to do the same thing. HSBC’s pla ...

Represent the 43215 on Big Brother 2007-11-26 05:15:20 It’s been a while since my last post here (20 days to be exact), but as you may have heard, the Hollywood writer’s strike is in full gear and lots of families in the business have been directly and indirectly affected by the ongoing saga. I am not one of those people though, just been too busy to write lately! What better way to get back into the swing of things than to post the all-out casting call for everyone in the 43215 to come and try-out for the latest edition of “Big Brother” on CBS. Not only can you get some serious TV face-time and half a million dollars, but you can also go out and show why Columbus is a great city with the best people this side of the Mississippi! Check it out:  CBS Casting Reality Series “BIG BROTHER”� REQUEST FOR MEDIA COVERAGE CBS and Kassting Inc. kindly requests your participation in the casting of CBS’s Big Brother, gearing up for another season of fun! Are you an outgoing, intriguing, competitive per ...

Why 2011 might not even be the end. 2007-11-26 01:00:05 Why the market still doesn’t get it. After a year of contraction, the market still doesn’t understand risk. Now, in late November of 2007 (a year after the meltdown started) we are still closing and funding loans that we have no business closing and funding. And the industry still has a misunderstanding of what a “good risk”� is. The below numbers are used with permission of my client. He is a great risk. Best Available pricing. I got a file from a fairly young (24) borrower that had a 731 credit score. A perfect payment history for the four years he’s had credit. He’s had a decent job for a year and a half”?was a student prior–and he earns about $37,000 per year. Right now, he lives with his parents, has no expenses. He’s got a car payment of $176.00, and his student loans are currently in deferment”?he’s got up to 2 years. In his checking account, he’s got less than $500, and roughly $1800 in an em ...

Iggy’s House and B.S. Realty 2007-11-25 12:45:51 In an effort to entice customers to become investors, Iggys House and BuySide Realty sent out an unsolicited email blast to 30,000 individuals this week, who had registered on their sites to either look at homes or sign up for their free listing service. Dear Future Investor, As you may know, Iggys House, Inc. is in the process of going public. Iggys House is the parent company of BuySide Realty. Some of our customers have expressed an interest in investing in our initial public offering. We started our “road show” for the offering, and expect to continue it over the next few weeks. We have created an online version of the road show presentation. Here is the link: Retail Road Show The following is a summary of our proposed public offering. You should carefully read and consider the information contained in our preliminary prospectus for the offering before making an investment decision. Click here to view our prospectus. We have filed a registration statement with the Sec ...

Singer’s condo hits a high note 2007-11-25 02:03:35 Nine years ago, singer Alannah Myles was living in L.A., discontent with her business and personal circumstances. Then one weekend she packed up her belongings and moved back to Toronto. “I moved around for about six months; one of the places offered to me by my real estate agent was this high-security building, so I jumped at it,” she says. See Kathryn Kates story from the Toronto Star » ...

Is Your ARM Resetting? 2007-11-24 15:35:17 That’s the $25,000 question as we roll in to 2008, and the highlight of today’s Wall Street Journal report on the ramifications of adjusting adjustable rate mortgages on the housing market. The stunning figure is the total number of mortgages resetting each and every month. The White House pegs the number at over 150,000. That breaks down to: 5,000 loans resetting every day 208.3 loans resetting every hour 3.5 loans resetting every minute This torrid pace is only expected to continue through the first half of 2008, with devastating consequences to the housing market. Banc of America Securities, a unit of [Bank of America], estimates that $85 billion in subprime mortgages are resetting during the current quarter, and the same amount will reset in the first quarter of 2008. That will rise to a peak of $101 billion in the second quarter. The estimates include loans packaged into securities and held in bank portfolios. Larry Litton Jr., chief executive of Litton Loan Servi ...

Over, Under, At - SF Home Sales: November 17-November 23, 2007 2007-11-24 12:11:15 Welcome back to the “Over, Under, At”� weekly feature. It’s a simple breakdown taken from MLS data that shows the number of closed sales that sold Over Asking Price, Under Asking Price or At Asking Price. *Just a reminder that new construction sales are rarely included in this list since they don’t get posted on the MLS. As I predicted last week, sales number are slipping. Single family homes are still closing for over asking, while condos took a make hit in the “Under” category. This may be a sign that if you’re in the market for a San Francisco condo, you might be in luck, and just might be able to find yourself a deal. Of course, keep in mind we’re just looking at one week of activity in the crazy San Francisco Real Estate market, so next week’s “Over, Under, At” numbers might jump in a totally different direction… but if you’re a condo seller, you might want to take into consideration that the con ...

How much can I afford? 2007-11-23 02:51:04 Knowing what you can afford is the first rule of home buying, and that depends on how much income and how much debt you have. In general, lenders don’t want borrowers to spend more than 28 percent of their gross income per month on a mortgage payment or more than 36 percent on debts. It pays to check with several lenders before you start searching for a home. Most will be happy to roughly calculate what you can afford and prequalify you for a loan. The price you can afford to pay for a home will depend on six factors: 1. gross income 2. the amount of cash you have available for the down payment, closing costs and cash reserves required by the lender 3. your outstanding debts 4. your credit history 5. the type of mortgage you select 6. current interest rates Another number lenders use to evaluate how much you can afford is the housing expense-to-income ratio. It is determined by calculating your projected monthly housing expense, which consists of the principal and inter ...

Tips for preparing your home for winter 2007-11-22 10:05:41 As the winter season approaches and the air grows crisp, it’s time to start thinking about preparing your house for the season. Once winter blows in, housing have to get serious. It is important to consider the fact that the winter season means spending a lot more time indoors. Roofs must shed rain and snow, windows and doors must reject the cold, and the heating system must keep rooms comfortable. If any of these components don’t hold up, you might be faced with scrambling around in the wet, cold and dark to fix them. By handling these important yet reasonably easy tasks, you can avoid considerable grief later. 1) Inspect the roof. If possible, go up onto the roof to check its condition. Look for cracked or missing shingles, bald spots on shingles, missing or damaged flashing, and other conditions that might allow leaks. Replace any roof shingles that are missing or damaged. You can also seal minor cracks or tears with roofing cement or do the minor repairs yourself. 2) C ...

Happy Thanksgiving! 2007-11-22 06:33:07 Hi Everyone - Hopefully you’re catching a breather on this holiday.  I’m on 5 hours of sleep and can’t feel my back - peeling potatoes for 18 seems to do that to me.  Any way, while we’re celebrating with our family a year full of things to be thankful for I hope that you are somewhere doing the same; or spending some time reflecting on what you’re thankful for. Even with the mortgage mess and the tough market I am thankful that I have my health and my family (and of course all of you blown mortgage readers). Have a great day! Share This ...

Best Year Ever? 2007-11-22 05:46:00 With head lines indicating that the end is near, and that we’re in a buyers market so look out for falling prices how can 2007 be the best year ever? By the numbers it is. Volume of sales is up, the average sale price is up, and the economy is strong. This is what it looks like for 2007 in the city of Red Deer: 2006 YTD 2007 Average List Price $252,791 $313,378 Average Sale Price $250,051 $308,312 Day on Market (DOM) 25 31 Sales Volume (units) 2036 2107 Includes all properties types in City of Red Deer (single family, half duplex, townhouse, apartment, mobile etc…) We still have 6 weeks to the end of the year!! Sales are up, house prices are up, and more people are buying real estate. There is no doubt that the market has changed with the number of available home to buy at levels not seen since 2001. Yes we’ve seen this before not that long ago. We have tremendous economic prosperity that in my opinion paints a favourable forecast for home owners ...