About 90% of my clients are referrals, and I need them for the bulk of my business. I only get them from satisfied customers. The thing I don’t understand is why people don’t bother to interview a couple of agents and decide on one they like, or that a close friend has had a positive experience with. Instead, they believe seeing info on the internet is 100% of the story, and they need no help. Then they call on a sign, and deal with someone who is trying to sell their listing and has no interest in what is best for them. People usually don’t sign buyers agreements with agents, so why not work with one who can actually help you? Instead they end up dealing with a random from an ad or open house, who has no accountability to the person after the transaction. Would you listen to somebody giving you advice on a 400,000 purchase if they were a complete stranger who you never would hear from again? Then the answer is to paint the whole industry as snakes. There are bad people in every profession, and real estate is no exception.

Every agent brings different value, and some very little. When somebody wins a multiple offer for their dream house, that is value. When you can provide advice on inspection issue and direction to reputable tradespeople to get these problems solved and keep the deal together, that is value. When an agent may contact another they are close with who does a lot of work in a particular subdivision to give them a heads up the minute they have a new listing on, and as a result the client sees this unit first, that is value. Negotiating the best price and the most favorable terms has value. If you show this value to your clients and help them get their dream house, they will be fanatics and send you may referrals.

The thing that gets me is the idea that it works like on the TV shows. Realtor shows client 3 places, points out hardwood floors, client picks 2nd unit, realtor writes contract for 400K, realtor collects 10,000 dollars for 4 hours of work.

Where is the show where you meet and give a 3 hour explanation and the people tell you how grateful they are, then you show them 25 properties where you have to meet the listing agent at, answer 2 or 3 emails and phone calls explaining things a day, write a lowball offer when a decent offer would have been accepted, and then the client calls and tells the agent in a guilty voice that they have to work with the wives aunt who they dont really know but is in real estate or the wives mom will be furious. Not many shows where the client wastes 30 hours of the agents time and they have nothing to show for it. This is a two way street. I will be the first to admit that not all commissions are earned, and that is why I do occasionally rebate, and discount the listing fee from people who are buying from me.

Redfin is a great idea for the go getter who is looking in an area with many similar units, and an abundant supply. Many actually want the service because they have kids, jobs, etc, or having every advantage means the world to them. This is why the country is great, everyone has a choice.

The internet has allowed some brokerages and agents to dramatically reduce their costs. I take great advantage of this, and take it a step further. I can be myself to a greater degree, and don’t have to buy into the trappings in order to effectively serve clients. I don’t need a Mercedes, or a fancy office, or an expensive suit.

Because of this, I choose not to generate a lot of clients. I can spend more time on research and sharing information, and have more time serving the clients I do have. It also allows me to rebate some of the commission.

Yes, I still spend time showing houses, and yes, I still get startled looks when I suggest to some potential clients that , although they might get approved for a loan, they ‘d be cutting it way too close financially by buying right now, and would be wiser to continue renting for a while.

I think that prior to the internet someone like me would not have been able to exist in the real estate world.

I am 100% sure of how traditional agents are paid… and that has nothing to do with my satisfaction. (although the good agents know that a happy customer is a customer for life and the value of that could be 5-10X of what they get from closing a deal once.) But, its hard to know if Joe Blow from JLS has happy customers or if they are a right fit for you. Best case, people are typically getting referred by their friends … how many times have you heard “oh, I know a GREAT agent… give Joe a call”.

The first sentence is refuted by the rest of what you wrote. So thank you for saving me some time! ;-)

There are agents that get most their business through advertising (including Internet), and there are agents who get most their business through referrals and contacts. The latter rely very heavily on customer satisfaction (and probably on average sell a much higher percentage of their listings).

Rather than compensation affecting this, I’d think it would be more dependent on broker oversight, and Redfin probably does have the advantage there. There are some brokerages where you could be an agent for years, insult every potential client you come in contact with, and never close a transaction. That’s not going to happen at Redfin (or a lot of other brokerages).

Maybe its the physical separation or the inability of the Redfin agent to hypnotize you with their rascally eyes, but I feel more ‘in control’ when I talk on the phone and search using the internet. Kindof like walking into Video Only… the vultures there are trained to find ways to keep you from walking out the door without a 52″ LCD in you hand.

I agree that Redfin wants to sell houses (obviously)…. but their agents (in my understanding) are paid based on customer satisfaction ratings. I think that is why the posting of agent reviews is so powerful. I am 100% sure of how traditional agents are paid… and that has nothing to do with my satisfaction. (although the good agents know that a happy customer is a customer for life and the value of that could be 5-10X of what they get from closing a deal once.) But, its hard to know if Joe Blow from JLS has happy customers or if they are a right fit for you. Best case, people are typically getting referred by their friends … how many times have you heard “oh, I know a GREAT agent… give Joe a call”.

You can say that customers don’t know what’s best for them and those high ratings are from nicky new kids who don’t know the realestate game, but in the end, they are happy customers who perceived that they got good value from Redfin.

Chacun son gout as they say.

RE: David Losh @ 112 –

David, are you a licensed broker in WA state? Anyone know how much it costs a broker to to add a house to the MLS? We would like to start offering a MLS listing option for our FSBO site.

It doesn’t cost anything, but there are liability concerns.

By johnnybigspenda @ 108:

If you are shopping seriously today, the last thing you need is some guy convincing your wife that it IS worth it to offer another $20K to close the deal NOW.

Well said. That is one great reason to go with an advocate (Redfin) vs a salesperson (commissioned agent). The salaried guy doesn’t need to close the deal NOW to keep his beamer from getting repossessed..

Yes, I’m sure Redfin agents don’t need to watch their stats to keep their jobs. Keeping on the deadwood is exactly why Redfin turned a profit last month.

Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, but it isn’t just technology that makes Redfin’s search site better. Haven’t the major brokerages strategically held back information from their web searches, such as other companies open houses, new listings, nearby sales, ect, to try to get people into their open houses and sales offices? As an aside, I started searching with Lake & Co before I learned about Redfin just because they were the only website I could find that showed new listings and past sales.

My point, a company that believes profits will come from serving the customer better (as far as I can tell Redfin fits the bill) will do better by their customers than a company just trying to close deals, which tries to play games and withhold valuable information because they think they can get a few more easy marks in the door.

I guess I would just trust Redfin more than I would a traditional agent, for the above reasons. That doesn’t imply a lot of trust, but it is something.

Good domain name.

To be a broker in the State of Washington you need to take the Broker Education Classes and show you have Real Estate experience working under another broker’s direction for two years. Each state is different, but essentially the same. You can take the lessons on line.

You can offer a search option from a brokerage or have an agreement with a Brokerage to rent your site by domain name. You would or could link back to a brokerage that has a search and get paid by click.

What my main Real Estate site does is offer all searches from all companies by having a link back to them.

How do you get paid from your site?

David, are you a licensed broker in WA state? Anyone know how much it costs a broker to to add a house to the MLS? We would like to start offering a MLS listing option for our FSBO site.

I own a site that is disabled now called jetcityrealestate.com. It’s a beautiful thing with a plane flying behind the skyline of Seattle.

Anyway I spent about a year wanting an online brokerage site. I really thought that this was the wave of the future. I’m just saying that there were problems and issues. I experimented with it myself. It is just a long ways between virtual tour, inspection, and title report to a closed sale.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have any problems with Redfin. If people looking to buy a home are prepared to do much of the work themselves, Redfin or 500 Realty or Findwell or a number of others would be great choice.

But johnnybigspenda is right: The traditional real estate agent doesn’t have a good reputation. And I don’t think it’s a matter of the ease to which one can become an agent. I know several very highly educated real estate agents whom I wouldn’t trust in the least. I’ve even heard that there are dishonest attorneys out there.
But I’m not positive that simply because someone is representing Redfin they are therefore honest. I know that the lack of commission would tend to keep the pushiness level down, but the few Redfin agents I’ve met have that “perky, positive” spin that many other agents also have.

Redfin wants their agents to make sales, even if there is no commission involved, and especially because they are paying agent’s salaries. I don’t think Glen Kelman( Mr. Redfin) would tolerate it if he found out that one of his agents was talking his clients out of making offers.

It may be preferable to being trapped in the back of a Mercedes driven by a Windermere or JLS agent telling you how cute and reasonably priced that last house was, and that you should make an offer.

But make no mistake about it. Redfin is as much a part of the system as John L Scott. The agents may get paid a salary, but the brokerage itself still gets paid by commission, and it’s in their best interest for you to buy a house right now and for you to pay the most possible money they can get you to pay, but still feeling that they did good by you.

The article is on the Bloodhound blog with the link over on the side bar. I was going to go get it for the over supply post.

The premise is actually very good. If you just look at sales data it will never show the bigger picture of over supply. Sales figures show what is going on today or at best six months in the past. It will never show you building permits, projects in progress, planned projects, or finished projects that may have been rented out.

I’ll get the link and post it. It directly address opacity of the Real Estate market place to the transparency.

If you are shopping seriously today, the last thing you need is some guy convincing your wife that it IS worth it to offer another $20K to close the deal NOW.

Well said. That is one great reason to go with an advocate (Redfin) vs a salesperson (commissioned agent). The salaried guy doesn’t need to close the deal NOW to keep his beamer from getting repossessed.

I wonder how many comments this thread has generated from agents (and real estate attorneys) trying to bash the competition. I’m guessing 65 out of 109 thus far.

When I bought my first house, I felt like my agent was trying to sell me the house constantly (my interests were definitely not perfectly aligned with his).. Even today, my agent friends (people who I would think are being honest with me) are constantly telling me how great of a time it is to buy. If you are shopping seriously today, the last thing you need is some guy convincing your wife that it IS worth it to offer another $20K to close the deal NOW. I will say that Redfin leaves you alone unless you are working with them on a deal… no one guilting you about the fact you’ve been shopping for 6 months and that they have spent a lot of time working with you.

I have friends who are agents and as much as I like them, I’ll be darned if I’m going to give them an extra $5-8K of my money when I’m the one who makes the final call on the BIG questions anyways. Agents today need to adjust their value proposition. They can do this by truly exceeding the services offered by Redfin or by reducing their price to match.

Gone are the days where people ride around in the back of their agent’’s car, look at 6 houses and then choose from one of them. There is so much more information that is available to the consumer now. (although the NAR still keeps a good amount of it for them selves. I am hopeful that the bottle has been uncorked though).

David, lumping together a bad sight unseen story with virtual tours can make it sound bad, but buying anything without going there is probably a bad idea.

Looking at the pictures put into the MLS database, it is common for pictures to be left out that would be deal-breakers for 90% of people. If as much disclosure was possible beforehand, then it would cut down on the manual labor for buyer’s agents of driving people from house to house.

RE: David McManus @ 83 –

I read an article over the week end from last June that outlined the premise, which I agree with whole heartedly, that the Multiple Listing Services and National Association of Realtors hid the over supply of housing units from the public by just publishing recent sales data.

The same thing is true today. What a property sells for or the number of units currently available doesn’t give you a true picture of supply or demand.

What? How?

As far as I can see, the reports this month are exactly the same (INFO) as the reports were 10 years ago, with the only real difference being they stopped using Active STI and now use a pending catagory. We’re coming up on YOY reporting since that change and the change was transparent and has been hashed over endlessly.

Good grief. Conspiracies abound.

I bought a house in Centralia from a Virtual Tour, I knew the area and location was good. What I didn’t know was the floor sloped away from the center of the house. A local Real Estate agent told me about the problem.

A triplex I had an offer on in Aberdeen was a perfect fixer until closing. When the final lot line adjustment from subdividing one lot into two the seller’s property came up to within three inches of structure I had the offer on. The real deal kicker was that the seller had me sign a joint maintenance agreement for the drive way that ended up on his property, but I had no easement for.

i really tried to use the long distance internet thing when it first started but it was frustrating.

I read an article over the week end from last June that outlined the premise, which I agree with whole heartedly, that the Multiple Listing Services and National Association of Realtors hid the over supply of housing units from the public by just publishing recent sales data.

The same thing is true today. What a property sells for or the number of units currently available doesn’t give you a true picture of supply or demand.

An attorney is an excellent source for law and contracts. But what will they know about economic and functional obsolescence, common consumer issues, relative value, value trends, and how the process works?

One day over coffee, you would enjoy the story of the time the real estate attorney, who wrote the real estate handbook, and represented his son (buyer) in a transaction I had years ago. He knew the law, but was like a fish out of water on the process, and made some mistakes on the contract! He kept looking to me for guidance.

Attorneys are very necessary in the world of real estate and are held to a higher standard of education and competence. There are great attorneys and crappy attorneys.

Many real estate agents ARE attorneys and many agents have as much education and/or relevant work experience as an attorney, even though the entry bar to actually becoming an agent is lower. There are great agents and crappy agents.

RE: Tyler @ 93 – You mention recent comps, which thanks to Zillow and Redfin are another important piece of the puzzle that until a few years ago were virtually inaccessible to the non-realtor (lowercase ‘r’ on purpose).

Perhaps many of the “regulars” here might have some kind of understanding of “comps” and absorption ratios and other technical data. 95%+ don’t . A large segment of the buying population does not want to, or won’t devote their productive and leisure time to learn what the data means. I have no problem with the data being out there.

But I’d agree not all agents are competent. That doesn’t mean what they deal with isn’t that complex or that their clients wouldn’t be better off using someone more competent.

I only use past purchase price, together with likely equity, to determine how flexible the owner might possibly be. In King County it’s more difficult for non-agents to determine equity than in some other counties (Pierce and Snohomish).

RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 89 -Kary, I think you flatter your profession.

What exaclty are the qualifications of an average real estate agent?

�be 18 years of age or older.
�complete a 60 clock-hour course in real estate fundamentals. Clock hours must be completed within 5 years prior to application for examination. A list of approved real estate courses are available in the real estate course catalog.
�obtain a Candidate Handbook, which contains the examination application, from the course provider. Have your school stamp and complete the required information on the Examination Application. To schedule an exam, contact the provider of our Real Estate examinations, Promissor, at the toll-free number provided in the handbook.
�pass the examination. Those who pass the exam will receive information on how to apply for a license. Results are valid for one year from the date of passing the examination.
�complete and submit the Real Estate Salesperson, Associate Broker, or Branch Manager Application with the appropriate fee

versus a series 7 test?

pwned

What exaclty are the qualifications of an average real estate agent?

•be 18 years of age or older.
•complete a 60 clock-hour course in real estate fundamentals. Clock hours must be completed within 5 years prior to application for examination. A list of approved real estate courses are available in the real estate course catalog.
•obtain a Candidate Handbook, which contains the examination application, from the course provider. Have your school stamp and complete the required information on the Examination Application. To schedule an exam, contact the provider of our Real Estate examinations, Promissor, at the toll-free number provided in the handbook.
•pass the examination. Those who pass the exam will receive information on how to apply for a license. Results are valid for one year from the date of passing the examination.
•complete and submit the Real Estate Salesperson, Associate Broker, or Branch Manager Application with the appropriate fee

versus a series 7 test?

RE: Greg Perry @ 86 –

I guess there was some flame bait in my remarks.

I didn’t mean to imply that real estate can be reduced to a simple process. But, I do mean that Realtors will have a harder and harder time justifying taking the same % cut as when information wasn’t readily available. On the seller’s side, probably less has changed, but on the buyer’s side a lot has. Many people will rule properties out based on the pictures (condition/floorplan/use of space) available online.

I am curious to hear from Realtors how the internet has affected how they spend their time now with respect to generating clients, and how they spend time with their clients?

I didn’t think you flamed. Many feel the process is somehow “clinical” Rest assured the process is more emotional than logical.

Good questions.

90 percent plus of my business continues to come by referrals. I do attract clients who follow me on line. I have more past clients who are active in Seattle Bubble than any other source! :) Social networking has enhanced my referral business, so the internet has really helped here.

Most buyers have always put too much emphasis on “finding” the home. BI (before internet), a lot of previews by me and “drive bys” by the client. Now, I use the heck out of google street views. I generally check it before visiting a property. These images sometimes fool me, however. Finding the home is just ONE PART OF THE PROCESS. As to finding the home, my buyers and I are a “team” and I am the “quarterback”. (and it has always been that way). Buyers with money in their pocket become obsessed with looking up properties online. They will check 10+ times a day. I generally check for new properties 2 or 3 times /day for them. They often find new inventory on the market before I do! However, as we look at it, I can determine relative value and the consumer issues around the house.

RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 91 –

Knowing what is last sold for only gives you 1 data point that may be meaningless. In real estate, recent comps are more important that what the house last sold for, assuming the days of easy flips are behind us. BUT, what they last sold for is very important in knowing if the current owner has equity, and therefore leeway on what they may be willing to accept.

On top of that I can see how long they have been sitting on the market and how many price reductions there have been, information that one didn’t have without a Realtor(TM) a few years ago.

Knowing what is last sold for only gives you 1 data point that may be meaningless. In real estate, recent comps are more important that what the house last sold for, assuming the days of easy flips are behind us. BUT, what they last sold for is very important in knowing if the current owner has equity, and therefore leeway on what they may be willing to accept.

Kary, I am not talking about a “Virtual Tour” where it is a slideshow set to really cheesy music of the same static pictures from the MLS database! I guess I should have set a timeline prediction with it as well. Real virtual tours are in their infancy now. Microsoft’s PhotoSynth is on the cutting edge for the recreation of scenes from static pictures, but that is still a long ways off.

I think something like http://www.360cities.net/image/aria-condos-model-2003-living-room-san-diego-california-usa but being able to seamlessly walk from 1 scene to the next without a jump would go a long ways to reduce the workload of buyer’s agents.

I love my wife. She’s a smart cookie too, she graduated from the UW 2 years ago. That being said, she still doesn’t understand how I can find out what houses are for sale for, what they last sold for, how many days they’ve been sitting on the market, just by going to Redfin. .

David and Tyler (and anyone else), just out of curiosity, what do you think knowing what it last sold for tells you?

I am curious to hear from Realtors how the internet has affected how they spend their time now with respect to generating clients, and how they spend time with their clients?

About the biggest change is Google Streetview. You don’t have to drive out to a place to discover the neighbor is a pig.

I don’t even look at virtual tours. Complete waste of time. Still pictures are good enough for house porn.

BTo me this is kind of like the move from full-service brokerages to Charles Schwab. People said that wouldn’t work either. Too complex. Need advice, Etc.

I’d view buying stock as more akin to the travel agency analogy. If you want a good analogy, try filing your own bankruptcy. Yes you can get the forms yourself, or you can go to a form preparer. But with both you’re likely to make huge mistakes and not even know about it.

Years ago an elderly gentleman (whose middle name with the secretaries at my office became “he’s so cute”) used one of the form companies to file a bankruptcy and the Chapter 7 trustee didn’t like what he’d have to do to the old guy, so he referred him to me. I had to dismiss the entire bankruptcy to fix the problem, which could have been problematic because if the trustee has the right to object. But for the trustee giving him a break, he would have been in trouble. You cannot typically just dismiss a Chapter 7 case because you made a mistake.

A bankruptcy is a bit more complicated than a real estate purchase transaction, so the analogy isn’t perfect. But on the level of complexity, buying real estate is far closer to filing Chapter 7 than buying stock or buying a ticket to Disneyland.

I guess there was some flame bait in my remarks.

I didn’t mean to imply that real estate can be reduced to a simple process. But, I do mean that Realtors will have a harder and harder time justifying taking the same % cut as when information wasn’t readily available. On the seller’s side, probably less has changed, but on the buyer’s side a lot has. Many people will rule properties out based on the pictures (condition/floorplan/use of space) available online.

I am curious to hear from Realtors how the internet has affected how they spend their time now with respect to generating clients, and how they spend time with their clients?

By deejayoh @ 38:
My problem is only that you seem to think Redfin is much bigger than they are. They have one office in Seattle because that’s how little business they do. That’s all it justifies. There’s one Keller Williams agent I know that has 75% of the listing sales that Redfin had over the past six months. His business is Internet generated too, but he probably doesn’t have 10% of the cost into creating it and maintaining it. That’s one agent–not even an entire office. I think they do have the potential of getting bigger–primarily on the buyer side. That’s because of their website, and also because quite frankly if you’re a buyer and have found your property, a larger company that presumably has better controls and better malpractice insurance is probably a pretty good option.</

My point is that their scope is national, and your comparisons are for their business in seattle vs. regional agencies. If they have $15mm in revenue, then at 2% commissions they have $750mm in deal volume. So less than I estimated, but that is sttill quite a bit of business, and they are growing exponentially. They have plenty of headroom to grow as a business. If they never got over 10% share in Seattle they can still be huge.

that was my point about skimming the cream. They are basically taking the “easy” transactions out of the system. People who know what they want, are prequalified for financing, don’t want a short sale, etc. They can process these quickly. Right now these are factored into the cost structure for traditional realtors and if they move to Redfin in large numbers, average cost to handle what is left will rise.

To me this is kind of like the move from full-service brokerages to Charles Schwab. People said that wouldn’t work either. Too complex. Need advice, Etc.

RE: David McManus @ 83 –

David — the walled garden model of the Realtors is certainly starting to have some cracks in it. What Redfin is basically admitting is that on the buyer’s side, 50+% of the value of their service is access – both to the MLS data and the houses for tours.

Once technology advances to the point where a virtual tour is 80% as good as being there, then things will really start to change. At that point, you can bring in a Realtor or a real estate lawyer when you want to make an offer to do the negotiations and paperwork b/c all of the facts available will be just as accessible to the buyer as to the agent.

Fascinating.

Trying to make a house purchase into a “simple” transaction will NEVER happen. Virtual tours will NEVER replace visiting a property. Road noise? Views? Wear and tear? Feel of the floor plan? functional obsolescence? economic obsolescence?

I spent all day Thursday and Friday with relocating clients. I spent many hours assisting my clients pouring through listing detail to select the list of homes to be shown before they arrived. We spent up to 10 hour days in the car. The only way a person can get any kind of emotional sense and connection on a property is to visit it. The contenders are often visited 2 to 3 times before the decision is made. In fact the house my clients decided had a substantially smaller lot than they originally thought they would settle for. They had NO idea on siding issues and other consumer problems associated with NW homes.

Real estate continues to frustrate those who think the internet will somehow make it into a “simple transaction”. Not going to happen. In fact, across the country the technology base companies are falling by the side and full service companies are expanding market share.

Emotion plays a much bigger role than logic on the home a buyer chooses.

Once the house is selected, most buyers are very, very poor negotiators.

And, buy the way, as life gets faster and more complicated (technology actually complicates our lives, it does not simplify us) , the average person does not have the time (or wants to play ) to devote to be confident in a real estate decision. People moving in need major assistance. The majority of buyers will continue to look for expertise and someone to handle details……. and be willing to pay professional fees.

Discounters have always been around. Again, for all the notoriety, the free local and national press, the millions dropped into their web site and everything else that Redfin has done, their KC market share is about even with a low overhead, full service boutique company that rarely peeks its nose out of the Seattle market. If they make it good. If they don’t, someone else will try something. Full service companies will still be around.

The competition is good, the consumer benefits. Real estate will never evolve into a simple transaction.

David — the walled garden model of the Realtors is certainly starting to have some cracks in it. What Redfin is basically admitting is that on the buyer’s side, 50+% of the value of their service is access – both to the MLS data and the houses for tours.

Once technology advances to the point where a virtual tour is 80% as good as being there, then things will really start to change. At that point, you can bring in a Realtor or a real estate lawyer when you want to make an offer to do the negotiations and paperwork b/c all of the facts available will be just as accessible to the buyer as to the agent.

In my opinion on line brokerage helped create the group think that pushed Real Estate pricing higher. People worked themselves up to buy and felt empowered by special knowledge they were getting from the internet.

I’m hearing a lot about Zillow promoting mortgages. I think the most dollars were in online mortgages like ELoan. Hand in hand on line home searches led to an increase in on line mortgages.

The entire web 2.0 experience was predicated on . . …

hype.

The entire web 2.0 experience was predicated on transparency. Getting the Real Estate data into the public view was supposed to unlock the mystery of property values.

Property value is an elusive thing, especially in the high end market place. When you are socially mobile and you mention you live on the wrong street or have an address that is known to have issues it costs you prestige.

When you’re at the cocktail parties you want an address that makes you the center of attention rather than have some one politely backing away. You should have some one who knows the properties intimately when buying high end and that’s something the data just doesn’t show.

I do not see this model gaining enough market share to be a significant factor in the overall industry. This model does give people with a do-it-yourself mentality an outlet.

And also it is a good option for buyers of high end homes that have found their home. The other option of course would be an attorney, but I just don’t see an attorney being as valuable with inspection type issues.

I do not see this model gaining enough market share to be a significant factor in the overall industry. This model does give people with a do-it-yourself mentality an outlet.

Greg, are those stats listing side, buyers’ side, both?

both

You’re probably right again, I do get confused. I don’t drink though, or smoke, or take drugs, I’m just old.

It may be some one who said they paid $1.2 Million for an apartment building of unfinished units at $80K per unit.

You, along with a lot of agent I talk with, hope I don’t know what I’m talking about.

You just went into a random rant for two posts 73 and 74 about things that you have zero understanding of. I was referring to previous posters term. You went of on random price discussion. Geez. We call it random thoughts of Loshness or Lushness? LOL

I like Zillow. In the world of searches which I do rarely online I like JLS. I agree that people can learn to shop on line.

I object to redfin solely because Glenn went to Congress to change a law that I think actually protects consumers.

Glenn then went on a crusade as though he was striking a blow for the little guy. He bashed the Real Estate industry as a whole when in fact he is promoting a business model every large corporate Real Estate company has wanted.

If Coldwell Banker had gone to Congress to get the rebate laws changed every one would have been up in arms. In that way redfin was the perfect vehicle.

I’m just sayin that there is a use for the business model, it is available, it always has been available, but I think you’ll see in the future the rebate inducement is just wrong.

Let me address you once again because I find it fascinating that you are fixated on me.

Even though you have the term wrong you are right that Real Estate is a twenty four hour a day seven day a week business.

It’s unfortunate what has happened these past few years. I understand you are a big booster for today’s market place, but I disagree.

I think the price of property is high.

I also think that prices will revert back to the market place we have always had. Rental value will become the main focus as more and more people who have been burned by the Real Estate experience of the past ten years will simply sit out home ownership.

People who know me will tell you that I encourage them to sell now. If you own more than the home you live in you should prepare for rent and price reductions. As you can imagine that is contrary to what a lot of people want to hear.

My suspicion is you also want to believe that the market will plug along from this point forward and be OK, maybe even come back next year.

I have this discussion a lot, especially this year, when we had the bounce. It’s still very clear to me that this was a weak selling season. Prices were all over the place and the market had no direction.

We’ll see whose right. In the mean time my new project is my web site. I have wanted to have a DIY do it yourself, site for a lot of years. So. I’m learning how to blog. I like this site so that’s why I’m here. Why are you here?