Category Archives: Public Perception
Lawrence Yun is Right (My take on the NAR’s Revisions)
“From a consumer’s perspective, only the local market information matters and there are no changes to local multiple listing service (MLS) data or local supply-and-demand balance, or to local home prices,” Yun explained. (business insider)
True. Ignore the NAR. Read local real estate analysis.
If you’re looking for insight into and analysis about the Charlottesville area real estate market, start here.
It’s Not about the NAR’s Numbers, It’s about the NAR’s Credibility
I’ve tried to write this story about the National Association of Realtors’ revisions and I can’t seem to write anything new that I or others haven’t said before.
@mortgagereports How will they help? More accurate data is good, but who trusts the NAR? My take is: national is irrelevant,local is crucial
There’s a bit more after the break, but the above sums it up.
And … question everything. Always. I do. Continue reading
One Way that Real Estate Agents are Like Lawyers
The New York Times notes this regarding law schools:
“The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being counselors,” says Jeffrey W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, a Houston company that makes oil drilling equipment. “They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.”
The same holds true in the real estate profession – except in Virginia, it takes a bit less than three years (try less than 100 hours of “education”) to get your real estate license. And the state-mandated real estate exam (and Broker’s exam, too) is so mind-numbingly easy and irrelevant as to be farcical.
Expertise comes with practice, time, production and learning from mistakes. More from the NYTimes:
Four Positive Signs about the Charlottesville Real Estate Market
1 – Stabilizing real estate assessments – some are legitimately up, some are legitimately down; while they are irrelevant to market value – they do affect consumer sentiment & perspective . 2 – Unemployment has declined to a two year low . ( more ) 3 – I am hearing this more and more from buyers with whom I am working: “She is in no immediate rush but she is aware that this is probably the bottom of the market so would like to capitalize on that.” … I just returned from FiberLight’s ribbon cutting ceremony at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville, and I am very excited about what they are doing, what they plan to do and what this may mean for the Charlottesville region. More to come on how this will affect businesses, consumers and most importantly (to me at least), the Charlottesville real estate market. Continue reading
HB 1907 – Talking About Single Agent Dual Agency in Virginia
Transcript to come … Continue reading
How Much is the Buyer Broker Fee?
That question is one of the many reasons that I choose to use Buyer Broker agreements with my buyer clients . (and why ending cooperative compensation would be a boon to the real estate world ). 1 – The Seller and the Sellers’ Realtor are going to do whatever they can (legally and ethically) to induce a buyer to look at the house … and hopefully buy it.
…(this argument becomes much harder when the seller has no or negative equity) – “It’s none of the Buyer’s business how much I’m being paid!” (as argued by the Buyer’s Agent who ostensibly is seeking to “represent” said buyer) Look, I’m not begrudging Realtors earning livings what I do encourage is for buyers to be aware of what may be going on behind the scenes. Continue reading
Fun with the Code of Ethics – Is it unethical to Overprice a listing?
Someone asked me this question last week, and after a bit of deliberation and thought, I think that the argument could be made that a Realtor “buying a listing” – telling a Seller what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear – could be considered a breach of the Realtor Code of Ethics .
…The services which REALTORS® provide to their clients and customers shall conform to the standards of practice and competence which are reasonably expected in the specific real estate disciplines in which they engage; specifically, residential real estate brokerage, real property management, commercial and industrial real estate brokerage, land brokerage, real estate appraisal, real estate counseling, real estate syndication, real estate auction, and international real estate.
…The challenges to a viable Code of Ethics are (at least) two-fold: 1 – The system is self-enforcing (and I could make the argument that if I were to file a violation against another agent, I could be violating my fiduciary duty to a future client) 2 – Few members of the public know that they can file a violation and don’t care enough to do so. … This is one of the many reasons that I share all market data with my buyer and seller clients – I want them to be educated, informed and competent as to the decision that they are making based on my professional advice. Continue reading
