We’ll let the first line of this bit of news speak for itself:

Prices paid for single-family homes fell 7.7 percent in the first quarter from the level of a year earlier, the steepest decline ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors, which has been tracking sales for 26 years.

I misplaced my razor once and snagged my wife’s — and loved it. It’s a Gillette Venus, and it gave a great shave. (To my face, thankyouverymuch.)

Still, it came in a pretty, girly package and I couldn’t have that. So I went looking for the men’s version. (Alternatively, I was prepared to spray paint it black.)

I found what I was looking for; the men’s model is the Fusion. And yes, it’s black a manly dark blue.

It also has five blades.

"Oh, sheesh," I said. The idea of paying Gillette for a five-blade razor felt too much like buying into the marketing nonsense. Let’s be real: Two blades is more than enough. Beyond that is like having 21 speeds on a blender.

In fact, the head of the Fusion is so large that Gillette has to add a sixth blade for trimming your sideburns and under your nose because the main razor is too big. That should tell them something.

Sometimes — really, honest, and for true — less is more.

You’ve probably seen VAR’s publication, "10 things you should know about today’s Virginia real estate market." (You can download a printable version here.)

Well, VAR marketing wunderkind Jovan Hackley obviously gets the less is more concept. He’s created a smaller, more nimble, more streamlined piece called "Five facts you should know about Virginia’s home sales market."

The best part: It’s not just a smaller version of "10 things…" — it’s updated with home-sales numbers from the first quarter of 2008. So now you can impress your clients with the latest and greatest news.

Some of you will be getting it in the mail, and you can also download a ready-for-print PDF here, or through VAR’s Print-on-Demand service.

Printed properly, it may even be able to trim those pesky hairs under your nose.

I’m a longtime fan of This American Life, a weekly, hour-long Public Radio International radio show that covers a variety of eclectic topics. I subscribe to their free podcats and listen when I can. This morning at the gym, I clicked on my iPod to listen to their latest program, entitled THE GIANT POOL OF MONEY.  Turns out it’s a wonderfully cogent, entertaining (and infuriating, when you think about it) explanation of exactly how we got into the mortgage mess we’re in.
Here’s how they bill it:

A special program about the housing crisis. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

For REALTORS® and the folks who love them (and work for them, like I do), I’d say it’s a must-listen-to. Here’s the direct link to download it for your iPod or other mp3-playing gadget:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355

You can also subscribe to This American Life on iTunes. It’s a free weekly podcast. Just search “This American Life.”

Just a brief post to inform all VAR members that the Hampton Roads REALTORS® Association is collecting donations for those affected by the recent tornado in Suffolk. No matter what part of the Commonwealth you live in, please show your support for fellow Virginians in need by making a contribution through PayPal or by check.

To donate by PayPal, simply click on the orange “Donate” button near the center of the HRRA website.

File under "It’s worse than I thought": There’s an article in Sunday’s New York Times, "Losing a Home, Then Losing All Out of Storage," about how folks about to lose their homes put their stuff in storage… but then lose that, too.

But some people cannot keep up with their storage bills any better than they could handle their mortgage payments, and storage companies are auctioning off their property for a pittance.

A cottage industry has developed to profit from these lost and abandoned items. The other day in this Chicago suburb, Stephanie Donahou and her son Marcus had only a moment to decide whether to bid on a unit in default. They could see a couch, a sewing machine, a fish tank, a washer and dryer, lots of Christmas wrapping paper, a television and other trappings of daily life.

"This is someone’s house,” Mrs. Donahou said.

I have writer’s block. The deadline for my column in VAR’s Commonwealth Magazine passed earlier this week, and I’ve yet to type a word of anything coherent (no wry comments, please).

So here’s the deal: YOU can help me write the column. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult. All it requires is a sense of humor and the recollection of a song or two.

ANNOUNCING: Scott’s “Songs for an Economic Slump” Contest….

Here’s the premise: In the great soundtrack of life, even an economic slump needs its own theme song.

Below are several categories. Your job is to suggest a song title or snippet of lyrics – from actual, reasonably mainstream music – that in your opinion summarizes the particular category. Just leave your suggestion in the comments on this post. I’ll take the best suggestions…determined solely by me and my own subjective and somewhat warped sense of humor…and publish them in my June Commonwealth column. (And no, this contest is NOT just limited to Virginia REALTORS®.)

So be creative. Be clever. Just be helpful. I really do need to finish this @#!% column. Deadline for submissions is Monday at 5 p.m. EDT, and you can make recommendations in any or all categories.

1. SONGS YEARNING FOR THE HOUSING MARKETS OF 2004-2006

2. SONGS FOR SUBPRIME LENDERS

3. SONGS FOR ECONOMISTS WHO DIDN’T SEE THIS COMING

4. SAD SONGS FOR SHORT-SELLERS WHO THOUGHT THEIR NO-MONEY-DOWN A.R.M. WAS A SWEET DEAL

5. SONGS FOR UNREALISTIC SELLERS AND THE REALTORS® WHO OVERPRICE THEM

6. SONGS OF THOSE ADVOCATING A FEDERAL BAILOUT

7. SONGS DESCRIBING THE WHOLE, CURSED ECONOMIC MESS

Now go to it. I look forward to hearing your entries!

Scott Rogers, with Coldwell Banker Funkhouser in Harrisonburg, VA, I mean.

Amid all the hyperbole and sweeping generalization in the media about the state of real estate markets nationwide, Rogers had added a dose of reality to that most-essential of REALTOR® marketing branding tools: He’s added his market’s monthly home sales data to the back of his business card. Clever, huh? Good conversation starter, certainly. Business tool? Absolutely. And remarkably low-tech (though of course he does direct folks to his blog for “more analysis”).

And yes, he prints new cards every month.

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?

Lem Marshall, Special Counsel for the Virginia Association of Realtors gave a presentation this morning called “Advanced Short-Sales”. It proved to be an excellent presentation that probably should have been called “What Realtors REALLY need to know about short-sales to successfully deal with one”.

Some of the things in the presentation that Lem covered were:

• The history of economics and lending in America, how credit markets work and why we’re in this mess.
• Prices may not be at the bottom yet. It may take another 12 to 18 months to get there.
• Knowledge is the key. Make sure you get everything out on the table regarding the seller’s financial and personal situation. You can not properly help them without knowing all the facts and their overall situation - past, current and future.
• Make sure you get the borrower’s permission, in writing, in order to publicize the fact that it’s a short-sale. You must have the seller’s permission to disclose personal and financial information about them, which is what you’re doing by publishing that it’s a “short-sale” or stating “subject to third party/lender approval”.
• Make sure that you correctly word the “subject to third party approval”/bank contingency. How you word this will directly affect whether you face potential issues in the future or not.
• If the bank says that they want the commission lowered from what you’ve agreed upon with your client, don’t give in so easily. Many Realtors in attendance said that they said “no” to the bank’s request and that the bank was okay with it.
• If the bank insists on lowering your commission, try asking them to counter at a higher price that covers both your and the Selling Broker’s commission.
• Remind the Selling Agent (Buyer’s Agent) that the process of approval by the bank can take 60 to 90 days, if not longer. This will help alleviate an upset agent and buyer down the line.
• Short-sales can be messy. Be prepared to do much more work than a traditional resale or even a foreclosure.

There were many other great points that Lem made that Realtors can use on a daily basis when dealing with short-sales. I recommend watching the video of Lem’s presentation once it’s up on the Dulles Area Association of Realtors’ web site sometime next week. I’ll publish a quick post when it’s up to alert everyone so you can go check it out.

Several times in recent weeks I’ve read blog posts horn-tooting about how the blogger had now achieved a certain number of friends on Facebook or connections on LinkedIn, and thanking their adoring fans contacts for helping them achieve that significant milestone. “Stop the presses!” I think to myself (an unfortunately anachronistic exclamation, in this case), trying to figure out why such self-serving announcements are remotely newsworthy — particularly in light of the fact that I’m betting a goodly number of those LinkedIn folks are people you’ve never met (See my friend Cindy Butts’ rather astute take on that phenomenon here). While I subscribe to that blog for a reason (I generally get value from the blogger’s opinions and perspectives), helping him rejoice in his large number of “friends” (I use the term loosely) is not that reason. So why is he clogging my feedreader with such useless, conceited pap? Get over yourself, I want to say.

This, I think, is different from achieving a milestone in terms of number of subscribers to your blog; even magazines brag about such things. Having a large number of people read you says something about your credibility, and is worth telling (though not too often).

But friends on Facebook or connections on LinkIn? I’m sorry, but I don’t care. Unless I should care, and I’m missing the point.

Am I missing a potentially beneficial opportunity to brag about how many friends I have on LinkedIn? (148 as of this morning, including a few I don’t really know, but I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.)

So as my friend (and VAR past president) Kit Hale of Roanoke likes to say: “Help me understand…”