Just finished up reading Maggie Dokic’s tale of a rental scam she experienced this past weekend.
I don’t deal with a lot of renters in my business, instead referring them solid property managers in the areas they’re looking, but I do on properties I own. Regardless of whether you work directly with renters or not, this is probably good information for ALL of us to have in our pockets.
Safety first …
Is Illinois over-reaching, or will we see this become a trend?
“Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said the lawsuit would be filed Wednesday in
Cook County Circuit Court. In the complaint, Madigan says that Countrywide offered
unfair loans with risky features, used misleading sales techniques and encouraged
employees and brokers through incentives to sell more high-risk loans.”
Risky features, misleading sales techniques and high-risk loans … sounds like payday loan centers. States aren’t pursuing those businesses, is this really a good idea?
How walkable is your community? Did you know you can find out the “walkability score” of your community?
Inman News posted a link today to the Walk Score site, and I know I spent a good 15 minutes playing with the site. My childhood home? Pretty friendly to walking to shops, restaurants and such. Bill Gates’ house? Not so much.
I know it seems a little cheeky and cute, but I think there’s a real value there as the premium continues to rise, both at the pump and in the consumer’s desire to live in and near the urban core.
On Tuesday, new VARBuzz author Heather Elias wrote a post entitled “Too Bad“, in which she recounted the story of hosting an open house and having buyers do everything they could to avoid conversation at all costs. It’s happened to all of us, I’m sure - and judging by the comments there are a lot of different thoughts on what’s the right approach.
As real-life as it is, there was something else in her post that struck me. She wrote:
I’d hate to think that those buyers are going to end up traveling from open house to open house until they hit upon one that works for them, only to possibly be preyed upon by an agent willing to take advantage of their lack of consumer education about agency and representation.
I’m sure Heather wasn’t inferring that agents who practice Dual Agency are preying upon clients. Candy Lynn made the argument FOR Dual Agency right here on VARBuzz recently, and I can see where she’s coming from given her niche specialty of selling farms. I know Candy, and maybe many of you do as well - I know she’s got her clients best interests at heart, and she makes a good argument in defense of Dual Agency.
Dual Agency has been argued for and against for years, by consumers AND REALTORS®; that’s certainly no secret. Most of those who are against it will say that it hurts the consumer - by having an agent who’s representing both sides, the the consumer is hurt by not having the value of full representation. I thought Heather did a good job of laying out some of the many hats an agent will wear in the transaction - the Market Expert, the Defender of their privacy, the Cheerleader, the Negotiator … the list can go on an on. Dual Agency prevents the consumer from benefiting from the value of full representation. Proponents of Dual Agency might say that by agreeing to Dual Agency, the consumer is waiving their rights to that level of representation, and that’s true. In my opinion though, we have a higher purpose to maintain full representation at all costs. Article 1 of the Code of Ethics reads “…REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interest of their client.” (emphasis mine). If that’s the case, then who is the client? Who does the agent serve? Matthew 6:24 tells us “”No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other.”
I’m not trying to bang on whether or not Dual Agency hurts the consumer or not - that’s been covered ad nauseum. No, there’s another group that gets hurt just as much by the practice, and that’s us. You and I. REALTORS®, real estate agents … our entire industry gets damaged by Dual Agency, in my opinion, because it prevents us from providing a fiduciary value to the consumer. If an agent can’t represent the client and provide a solid, tangible value, then all we’re doing is perpetuating the perception that all you need from an agent is someone to unlock front doors. As all of us know, we’ve got a lot of uphill ground to climb as we try to improve an eroding perception of our industry in the eye of the public, and “opening doors” isn’t going to go a long way toward improving that opinion. Ending the practice of Dual Agency and showing clients we’re going to listen, communicate, negotiate and celebrate with their goals in mind - not our own - will do more to repair the damage.
That’s my $.02. The real estate industry has taken a body shot through the practice of Dual Agency, in my opinion, and it’s no one’s fault but our own. If we’d be willing to eliminate the practice, or at least make the decision that on the agent and broker level the practice would not be practiced, it’d be a major step toward showing the public we’re serious about THEM, and not our own bottom line.
The questions keep coming …
“Are we in a recession?” “Aren’t we expected to make a lowball offer?” “Will we get our money back if we sell in two years?” “Won’t we make $100000 on this flip in just two months like they do on TV?”
Okay, so maybe I haven’t gotten that last question - at least not phrased like that - but everything else is verbatim. Plenty of mixed signals floating around about the real estate market, and it’s understandable that people have questions.
Making matters worse, Scott Rogers posted links to posts entitled “The Recession That Never Was Is Now Over“, and “Is Housing Slump At A Bottom?“. I point these out not because I think Scott shouldn’t have posted them, I just think that both posts make strong arguments to at least make you consider that perhaps times they are a changin’. For instance, the post “Is Housing Slump At A Bottom” makes the argument that new housing starts slumped below the one million mark in March. Historically, every time that’s happened in the last 50 years, it’s been at the bottom of a recession. It’s hard to argue with history - as a friend of mine says, “hindsight is 40/40″. Yea, she’s like me, she was never good with numbers.
I do think there are concerns that need to be addressed. Dependence on foreign oil, uncertainty overseas, among other things, compounded by a constant barrage of negativity and fear in the mainstream consciousness, have people scared. These things need to be addressed in order to begin an upswing in confidence, IMO.
One thing I DON’T understand is how we hear about massive layoffs in industries like auto and manufacturing, yet GDP is up. Wouldn’t conventional wisdom say that by laying off in massive quantities, and exporting goods and jobs out of the country, that GDP would go DOWN? In the last three years, Volvo has announced layoffs of 1000, 650 and 1100 personnel in their Dublin, VA factory, for instance - incidentally, it’s the largest truck manufacturing facility in the world. I’ve got to imagine that production in the plant slowed down accordingly, not increased … I didn’t do well in Economics, for sure, but what am I missing here?
I’m a stickler for customer service, and probably a little tougher than most on what I expect from customer service. So when I experience service that really goes above and beyond, I want to tell people about it. In this case, I’ve had two recent situations that really impressed me.
Hello … my name is Jeremy, and I’m a Twitter addict. It started innocently enough - a Tweet here, a Tweet there, but then suddenly I needed more.
This is my story, my story of how Twitter became a business tool with a very real Return on Investment.
What’s your story? Will I see you on Twitter?
I participated today in VAR’s second BloggerCon today at the Dulles Area Association of REALTORS(R), and man what an event. Besides the topics - which included subjects like choosing a blog platform, how to determine what features to include, and discussion about how to track where your online leads are coming from - just having the opportunity get together meet and work with such talented folks from around the state was inspiring.
I wrote a few months ago at the Legislative & Education Conference that I was impressed with what VAR was doing, and that I was a converted cynic. I mean that more than ever, and I hope you’ll find opportunities to get involved with VAR as well. And maybe we’ll see you at the next BloggerCon, scheduled for the state conference scheduled for September 24-28!
This is a repost of something I did on NRVLiving.Typepad.com earlier this afternoon … I thought it appropriate for VARBuzz.com, as maybe it’s a reminder of what our role really IS in the transaction?
Mariana Wagner posted the following video on her site yesterday and it gave me a chuckle, ’cause it reminded me of when this played regularly on TV and - without fail - I’d laugh every time then, as well! (I love the arson comment) The timing of her post is fitting, as well, as I’ve been thinking about a situation I ran up against in the last couple of weeks that I’ve wanted to share. First, the video:
Why doesn’t the real estate industry have a positive reputation in the public? I had a customer tell me - half jokingly - on the phone the other day, “you guys are just a step above used car salesman”. I kid not, she was not referring to anyone on my Team but the comment was pointed, all the same. How did we grow into that reputation? Here’s one reason:
I’m working with some folks who are buying a home for their college student son to live in while he’s here at VT. It’s a common practice here in the New River Valley, probably 20 percent of my business every year. We’ve been working through the winter to prepare them for buying their first investment property, and as we’ve headed into the spring the market’s heated up and they’ve gotten more serious. Last Tuesday, we finally wrote an offer. It was a townhouse in a neighborhood they really liked, and the house needed work - it’s actually the second set of clients I’ve had that have tried to buy this house. It’s been on and off the market for over a year as the owner has tried - unsuccessfully - to sell it, and the tenants he has in place have not helped. They’ve trashed it, to the point it needs $15,000 worth of repairs and cleaning once they’ve moved out. The last time I had clients who wrote an offer, we built in the cost of the repairs to our offer and made an offer nine percent off of list price. The owner countered within 24 hours at full list price, and the offer died there.
This time, we made an identical offer, now at 10 percent off of list price. I live in this neighborhood - I know these homes, and I know the value of this one as it is right now. We submitted the offer last Wednesday via email, and a follow-up phone call was made to the listing agent. Voicemail… I left a message. That night, nearly eight hours later, I called the listing agent to see if he had reviewed the offer, and he informed me he was out of town and would look at it when he got back that night. Okay - the next day came and went, no word from him. Friday morning, still no word, and despite repeated phone calls I heard nothing through the weekend. NOTHING, not even a confirmation that he had seen the offer. Sunday night, he finally picks up his phone and says that they are waiting to see if another offer comes in, and they don’t want to counter.
Now I’m upset. First, I’m upset that I didn’t advise my clients to put a time limit on the offer to ensure a swift response. Even more than that, I’m upset that neither the agent nor his client have taken the opportunity to provide a professional courtesy to my clients, informing them of their intentions. If they want to sit on the offer, fine - just tell us this. When I asked why they hadn’t even acknowledged receipt of the offer, the agent responded, “Okay, if you want a counter then we’re countering at full price.” He made that statement without consulting his client. Is he in a position to make that determination? Likely not, but it could be argued that a full price counter is in his client’s best interests.
The resolution of all of this? My clients pulled their offer and immediately - within minutes - and made an offer on a similar, more expensive home. The other home? Still on the market, and will continue to be there for a while, I’m sure.
So why do we as real estate agents feel it’s appropriate to neglect an offer, fail to deliver it in a timely fashion and then make decisions without consulting our client? What sense of power have we created in our minds that allows us to own our client’s decisions? When did the control shift out of the hands of the buyers and the sellers, and in to the hands of agents?
It hasn’t, and it never did. We took it. We’ve tried for so long to control the transaction, to pull the strings in the background. My clients were at the mercy of another agent’s actions, and decided they would take control. I’m glad they did, and I suspect you have plenty of clients who would do the same. My reminder in all of this? I work FOR my clients, they’re not working for me. My role should be one of consultation, of putting the pieces in place for them to make informed, quantitative decisions. That’s the changing face of real estate, not a puppeteer pulling the strings.
I look forward to helping these clients close on this new home …
Photo Credit: Dialaphone & Appraisal News
In all likelihood, most of us have used sites like Craigslist before, whether we were looking for a place for a customer or a sweet Members Only jacket - wait, is it just me that wants a Members Only jacket? My bad. The one in this picture sure looks nice, especially with the blue hoodie underneath.
A staff member in my office this morning sent out an email warning of a housing scam she had uncovered while searching for a place for her and her family to rent. She had uncovered a single-family house for rent here in Blacksburg, at a great monthly rate, but she also knew the house was for sale in our local MLS for $300,000+. When she contacted the email address listed on the posting, the person responded by asking questions that violated all sorts of Fair Housing rules, including asking her age and her religion, among others. The emailer claimed to be the owner of the house, and that they would be requiring two months rent with the application.
So what, right? Just a scam? Sure, just a scam, but the reason I bring it up here on VARbuzz is because the posting had MLS pictures of the house right there in the ad - both interior and exterior photos were used. The exact street address was used. And it’s likely that this staff member wasn’t the first person to contact about such a low rent for such a great house.
The point - be careful. The TRUE owners of this home were not aware their home was getting unwanted attention based on this scam ad. They had no idea someone was advertising their home and location for sale, or who might have been driving by. It’s no indictment against their listing agent, who immediately notified them so that they could have the ad removed from Craigslist. Instead, it’s a reminder to constantly be aware that the distribution of listing information is a benefit to all of us, but we also need to monitor our listings as well. You never know who’s watching.
Photo credit: Bradley J.
