Seattle Bubble

• Poll: Is it ethical for a home debtor to “walk away” from a mortgage?
• Poll: Which has the most bias in real estate reporting?
• Poll: What other local real estate blogs do you read?
• Poll: The real estate business needs more…
• Poll: What’s your favorite site for real estate searches?

Jump to the bottom to add your comment. ↓

23 responses so far ↓

• 1 Ira Sacharoff // Dec 2, 2007 at 11:24 am

  I voted for the P-I, and only partly because Aubrey Cohen quoted me in an article or two.
  Elzabeth Rhodes of the Times appears to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Assn of Realtors. I don’t read the TNT or Everett Herald enough to know one way or the other, but Steve Tytler, whose words grace both the Everett Herald and the Seattle Bubble is clearly worthy of respect.

• 2 Jillayne Schlicke // Dec 2, 2007 at 12:06 pm

  Is there a choice for “none of the above?”

  Ira, I think Steve OWNS a mortgage company. That’s not very un-biased in my opinion.

  I was on vacation in August when Countrywide started to make their descent. I was at a ranch in northeast Oregon with no television, cable, radio, newspapers, nothing. But I did have my laptop. It was at that time when I shifted from traditional media to the blogs. I feel like I can get more of a balance from some of the bloggers out there that deconstruct the media’s stories.

  If I were to vote, I’d vote for the Wall St Journal. But maybe someone could rip that media source apart for me.

• 3 Jillayne Schlicke // Dec 2, 2007 at 12:08 pm

  Oh, by the way, a friend emailed me this link to an announcement by the Seattle Times of an upcoming investigation this week into predatory lending practices by, it looks like, Ameriquest (a consumer loan lender), who apparently targeted senior citizens.

  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/insidethetimes/2004047415_fancher02.html?syndication=rss

• 4 Jillayne Schlicke // Dec 2, 2007 at 12:47 pm

  The story is on the front page of seattletimes.com this morning:

  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004047709_frances02m.html

• 5 Plissken // Dec 2, 2007 at 2:47 pm

  As far as I can tell, for the people on this blog, any media that doesn’t share their view of imminent apocalypse is guilty of bias.

  Guess what? I’d love to scoop up a nice little 2 or 3 bedroom condo close to downtown for under 100K, but I’m not delusional enough to actually believe it will ever happen.

• 6 S-Crow // Dec 2, 2007 at 3:28 pm

  Jillayne,
  The TImes article is very sad on a few fronts. The mortgage stuff going on like that is pretty outrageous.

  Plissken,
  I’ve got zero interest in the market going bad or apocalyptic due to my involvement in the market, but I can attest that there were some pretty significant imbalances going on in the media up until recently. I saw some compelling shifting going on in the market in very late 2006 into the 1st quarter of 2007 in our neck of the woods.

  What a lot of folks in the business nationwide (regardless of profession in the real estate food chain) probably didn’t see on their radar, was the very loans they were closing (our office included) were the very instruments that caused them to lose jobs via layoffs or forcing them to get out of the business a short time later. IMO that is one of the larger ironies I see.

• 7 bitterowner // Dec 2, 2007 at 5:03 pm

  Plissken,
  1. Many people who read this blog regularly would not benefit from a real-estate bust. Count me among them.
  2. There is a difference between reporting that does not share your bias vs. reporting that is patently misleading.

  Also, I continue to be amazed at those who consider a return to, let’s say 2004 prices as delusional. I have yet to see a compelling reason why it couldn’t happen or why such an occurrence would be so spectacularly unlikely.

• 8 wreckingbull // Dec 2, 2007 at 5:19 pm

  Plissken:

  I think the straw man arguments have gotten a little old. How about a complelling one for a change? I am all ears.

  Thanks.

• 9 uptown // Dec 2, 2007 at 5:26 pm

  I bet Plissken wouldn’t buy if the price of a downtown condo was that low. The risk would be to great for the average person, which is why prices drop so much in a bust.

• 10 Jonny // Dec 2, 2007 at 9:45 pm

  Yep. Everyone wants to buy until nobody does.

• 11 M Long // Dec 2, 2007 at 11:31 pm

  NPR. I wish I remembered the show. They has an interview with a former employee of New Century Financial one of the nations largest morgage companies (until it went defunct). He asserted that New Century falsified many mortgages by simply changing the income on the load to whatever they needed it to be. They placed fake mortgages on top of real ones knowing that individuals would only read the top papers. They even signed documents when the individual wouldn’t. The best part was how on the first day of work they used the movie “Boiler Room” to train their representatives. If anyone can find the show please post the link.

• 12 Jillayne // Dec 2, 2007 at 11:42 pm

  Where’s the street-level reporting?

  Where are the stories about homeowners who are facing foreclosure? We did have one today from the Seattle Times. If the stats show that we have a higher ratio of subprime loans in South King and Pierce, I’d like to read a story or two about a homeowner who fell for a subprime toxic arm and is now trying to sell short. Hey, what the heck, if it brings the press, it might just get their home sold. It might even work better than burying a statue in the front yard.

  Where are the stories from site agents working condos and single family plats about sales activity?

  Where are the interviews of local title insurance companies about how many people they’ve been laying off over the past few months and again last week and how many branch offices they’ve been closing?

  Where are the interviews with Realtors who haven’t closed a home sale for many, many months and who now have a second job?

  Yes, sure it’s important to balance all that out with some realistic good news from top producing agents whose income level is the same as it was in 2006….if they can find one.

  The Realtor students who come into my classroom tell me that homebuyers, home sellers, and their homeowner clients want to know the truth about what’s really going on out there.

  Instead of interviewing Lennox Scott or just re-hashing pre-approved press releases from the MLS, I’d like to just simply see more investigative reporting and street-level news.

  The Seattle Times could follow up this story by interviewing Lennox Scott, the owner of Response Loans, about the loan originator profiled in the story, and what Lennox thinks about having that person represent his company, what kind of training his loan originators receive, what their ethical framework is for making loans to vulnerable adults, what their policies are for an LO who violates their ethical framework……I could go on, but I would prefer that the journalists do this work instead of me. Could it be that difficult?

  Is the absence of more investigative journalism a bias in itself?

• 13 AndySeattle // Dec 3, 2007 at 9:10 am

  “…
  Is the absence of more investigative journalism a bias in itself?”

  Hear hear. Nicely stated. I know I would read/watch/listen to MSM a little more if there was this type of reporting.

• 14 Olaf // Dec 3, 2007 at 9:54 am

  Hi M Long… NPR’s had a lot about sub-prime lending. Just go to http://www.npr.org and type “sub-prime” or “mortgage” into their search window.

  Locally, KUOW has been doing some stories, too. Here’s one about the class-action lawsuit against WaMu for its alleged kick-back system with appraisers:

  http://kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=13895 … so the coverage is out there. You just have to look for it.

  (And let’s not forget that issue of The Economist with the cover illustration of a plummeting house — a full year ago.)

• 15 jdog // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:21 am

  Steve Tytler is looking out only for his business and sfel promotion. I prefer Aubrey Cohen, but he doesn’t really dig that much. The Cosmo article today is a good example, did he try to interview Miller Condominium Marketing about what they told the buyers?

• 16 Shawn // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:41 am

  For truth in media, read Mrs. Silence Dogood at the “New England Courant.”

• 17 Ira Sacharoff // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:46 am

  Great post, Jillayne.
  The fact of the matter is that John L Scott, and Windermere, et al have full page ads in every Sunday Times-PI.
  I don’t have any sypathy at all for Elizabeth Rhodes, it’s almost as if she’s a spokesperson for the NAR, but ya gotta feel for Aubrey Cohen. I think he truly wants to present a balanced picture, yet at the same time doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds him.
  I know, I know, he doesn’t have to hold a position where his integrity is compromised, but a many of us have had jobs where compromises had to be made.
  I was recently offered the opportunity to list a house in a bad neighborhood, a house that comes with a rat problem and mold. If i decide to take this listing, I know I won’t say things like ” Cozy nest” (meaning rat’s nest) or ” great for growing things” (like mold) but how much integrity will I have compromised if i simply say “Fixer” ( boy is it!)?
  Actually, what I’ve done is put the owners in touch with a reputable mold remediation guy, just because of how potentially harmful the mold is and it’d be better for everyone, including the current owners, if they could deal with the problem.

• 18 TJ_98370 // Dec 3, 2007 at 10:49 am

  Today is a perfect day for real estate sales. Hey all you equity-rich Californians, now is the time to consider moving to the beautiful Pacific Northwest!
  .
  You too can enjoy the refreshing breezes off the ocean (gusts up 100 mph) and the wonderful air-cleansing showers (6 inches in Kitsap in 8 hours). As you drive thru the standing water on the roadways you can witness the miracle of mother nature’s mudslides, right under the big new condo on the hilltop. Watch the 100 foot Doug Firs fall across power lines, sometimes with spectacular fireworks. Be sure to bring your electric generator for the power outages!

• 19 The Bruce // Dec 3, 2007 at 11:29 am

  Weather like this, you wonder how many Californian transplants are just biding time until CA real estate gets closer in line with Seattle so they can bolt?

• 20 Bellevue Ave // Dec 3, 2007 at 11:43 am

  @Ira it’s also funny to consider that some homebuilders are thinking they should pull adverts from local newspapers because they aren’t reporting to their liking.

  http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/ViewPost.aspx?bpid=23462&t=01009289685146064849

• 21 softwarengineer // Dec 3, 2007 at 11:57 am

  IRA, MAYBE ALL THE SEATTLE RAIN AND WIND WILL DRIVE ALL THE RATS AWAY

  On the other hand, the mold will get worse.

  Speaking of mold, I know its greenhouse gas anarchy to keep the thermostat high, but I checked my thermostat temperature setting with independent thermometers in the house and guess what…..when I set it at 72 degrees, it actually gets about 67-68 degrees in the house. No wonder I was always cold. If you want to prevent mildew in your home’s north wall, crank up your thermostat to keep any north room above 67 degrees.

  If you bought a McMansion and just heat the bedrooms at night to keep from going bankrupt, sell it in a few years, Ira will help you find a good mold specialist to tear all your home’s sheetrock out and rebuild it to get rid of the stench.

  Look up that plastic panelling mold amplification they try to get you to nail up. Look it up on Google. The plastic/aluminum panels seal your wood panel house with [keeps it from breathing] and you’ll be horrified too. In my neighborhood its slamdunk, as soon as they put sealant pannelling up, the home is up for sale within months. You figure.

  Another good way to get mildew smell in your house….steam clean your glueboard wood panels just before you seal paint…..lol [I'd advise just paint over the dirt].

• 22 george // Dec 4, 2007 at 7:55 am

  Someone voted for the Seattle Times?

• 23 The Tim // Dec 4, 2007 at 8:01 am

  My working theory is that there are 3 people reading Seattle Bubble that work at the Seattle Times.

  :^)

Jump to the top of the comments. ↑

Leave a Comment