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I’ve made this offer in the past, and it’s still on the table... If you have a NEW listing worth talking about, let me know and I’ll find the time to post it... I prefer if they’re not on the market yet...
Here’s a listing that makes my point...
2 bedrooms, 2 baths and one heck of a yard...
$960,000 .... What makes it special? A single family home in Sausalito with a yard under a million dollars...
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, if things aren’t going your way there’s always the press to blame.
You’ve read it here, and you’ve certainly heard it around the office, “The only thing you read in the papers anymore are negative stories about real estate.”
So when I came I across a negative story about real estate this morning I couldn’t figure out if the folks at the Chronicle missed this one, which is probably the case or they’ve decided enough with the negative stories...
The remarks in the story come from 13th annual Fisher Center real estate conference taking place here in the City.
"We are about two-thirds through the price decline," Rosen said. "There is more to come."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A broad housing rescue package aimed at preventing foreclosures would have the government step in to insure up to $300 billion in new mortgages for struggling homeowners.
The plan, designed to stabilize a key sector of the shaky economy, is set for a House vote Wednesday. It would let the Federal Housing Administration insure more affordable fixed-rate loans for borrowers currently too financially strapped to qualify.
The White House says President Bush would veto the measure, calling it a burdensome bailout that would open taxpayers to too much risk. That's despite Democrats' attempts to attract Republican support by including a grab-bag of measures Bush has called for.
They include legislation to overhaul the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era mortgage insurer, and to more tightly regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that finance home loans. Also part of the plan is a measure, which Bush has repeatedly requested, allowing state and local housing finance agencies to use tax-exempt bonds to refinance distressed subprime mortgages.
Today, Trulia and the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors (SILVAR)will begin encouraging members to submit their listings to Trulia at no cost. While I might argue their use of the word “encourage” seems a bit out of place in the business world, I’m sure it’s the result of hours of negations and the best use of politically correct wording as not to upset the members of SILVAR.
So without the constraints of political correctness, let me make this suggestion: TURN OVER YOUR LISTING INFORMATION AS SOON AS YOU CAN!
You can’t get your listings enough exposure these days.
There is no reason on earth you can give for not doing it. It will cost you nothing, you can offer it to current and future clients because more than 90 percent of all home buyers start their home search online, and Trulia reports 4.5 million visitors to a month.
Ahhh Zillow... I can remember the good old days when folks would regularly visits Zillow to make themselves feel better and smarter. The site was great for reassuring your spouse the $100,000 you just paid over asking during the market’s peak would be returned to you tenfold down the road. If you weren’t using the site to remind yourself of your investing savvy, you used it to check up on the neighbor’s or your boss’ net worth.
Today, Zillow will announce a new feature of the site. It’s called bad news.
Zillow’s quarterly home value reports now come with a supplemental section (see below) that takes an in-depth look at the top 30 markets.
The best section in the new report is called, “fall from the peak.”
If you’re looking for some serious insight into how the mortgage business works, the NY Times does a nice job of exploring the roles of the quasi government agencies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The stories points out that there’s a lot of concern about the strength of the two largest mortgage buyers around. Currently the two agencies handle more than 80 percent of all mortgages bought by investors in Q1.
Though the national real estate market remains bleak--in some neighborhoods vacant homes outnumber those that are occupied and sellers are being forced to lower asking prices in a bid to lure bargain hunters--it's assumed that when housing dips to a point where buyers think it represents a bargain, they'll buy back in.
The problem is many of the markets that experienced steep 2007 price drops are still a long way from recovery.
I think it’s safe to say we’ve all had our fill of the “F” word. I can’t listen to another “foreclosure” story or read about a short sale gone bad because of the banks issues. So today I’m going to turn the blog over to Paul Johns. He is an agent in the city and he’s writing a guest blog for us today on the challenges of selling a rent controlled building:.
By Paul Johns
One rent control building.
An example of a typical rent control situation is a building on 8th Avenue in San Francisco that is is a well maintained building owned by the same family for years. All of the current owners are over 70 years old.
Now the beneficiaries must sell and things aren't going very well. Part of the problem is bad luck, such as one owner (by being a beneficiary of the trust that owns the building) being recently evicted. He was renting from what he thought was a friend who's property was foreclosed upon. As banks cannot rent their foreclosed properties, he is being evicted even though he always paid his rent.
One of the owners wants to move from where she lives but can't afford to with just her Social Security and the small amount that comes from this building. I find it ironic that people in their 80's who own property are burdened by younger people who just want a break in the rent.
One tenant has been there since the late 1980's and pays far below the market rate. He appears to be in his 30's and the rent roll shows him in a studio apartment. However there is a bedroom that was fashioned out of some of the building's storage area. He doesn't pay anything extra for this and rent control won't allow an automatic increase in his rent.
First, the owner may carry back a note with adequate down payment. The asking price is $2,500,000. A problem with the price is that it is too high for a standard down payment on this type of building, usually around 30%, because the income won't support the loan. If the building was vacant or getting market rent, it would be worth considerably more. If a buyer wanted a place for an extended family the building would be a good candidate for the Ellis Act. That's when a landlord goes out of the rental business. One problem is that ALL tenants have to be evicted and the building has restriction on re-renting the units.
You can reach:
Paul D. Johns
Your Favorite Realtor
PropertyPaul@gmail.com
415-255-136
I figured this just makes for good office conversation...
Former Oakland A's baseball star Jose Canseco has drawn perhaps the most unusual walk of his colorful and infamous career: Faced with sinking property prices and heavy legal fines, he has abandoned a multimillion-dollar home in suburban Los Angeles and let it lapse into foreclosure.
Mr. Canseco, a one-time American League most valuable player who ignited controversy by later admitting he used steroids and accusing fellow players of doing the same, becomes perhaps one of the highest-profile homeowners to walk away from a mortgage.
If you're heading out to the San Francisco Film Festival
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The completely remodeledkitchen features, granite counter tops, all top of the line stainless
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There is a one car private garage with room for storage, private BBQ
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WASHINGTON - The House Financial Services Committee, seeking to respond to the housing crunch, has approved a $300 billion rescue package.
The vote was 46-21 to advance the bill, which would permit the government to insure new, cheaper mortgages for hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners now facing foreclosure.
Ten Republicans joined all the Democrats on the committee to support the bill, which the Bush administration opposes. Most of them are from areas hit hard by the mortgage meltdown.
Democratic leaders plan a vote in the full House next week on a broad housing package that also includes $15 billion for states to buy and fix up foreclosed properties and an array of tax breaks.
For those of you who enjoy a really dumb a real estate website, look no further... Today I was introduced to agentrank.com
Now I can’t decide if the people behind this are either pure genius because they found investors, or if they found the world’s dumbest investors.
The site intends to rank real estate agents based on reviews by past clients.
Who has time or desire to rank real estate agents?... Oh yeah, clients that don’t like you, or your friends.
I’m sure the service will provide a top notch one stop shop for agent information...
How about asking someone you know for a referral, like a friend. Someone’s opinion you actually trust.
One paper described the new site this way...
“AgentRank.com bases its rankings on agents' experience, recent home-sale transactions and endorsements from past clients, among other variables. Consumers searching at the site can choose to search by location and can also specify whether to search agents by sales volume or number of endorsements.”
So in honor of my new website, www.DumbRealEstateSites.com, I’m opening the floor to nominations. Will anyone second my vote for Agentrank.com?
A brilliant article that answers the question, why haven’t jumbo rates dropped as promised....
In early February, Congress gave beleaguered mortgage borrowers a rare cause for celebration. As part of the economic stimulus package, it passed rules intended to make it easier and less expensive for people to take out hefty loans in the nation’s costliest housing markets.
Economists and legislators said that helping tens of thousands of borrowers take out billions of dollars in new loans could stanch the bleeding in the housing market, spur spending and reduce the pain of a likely recession.
Instead, the effort to make it easier to get jumbo mortgages — loans over $417,000 — has yielded frustration and disillusionment.
For me there’s nothing I like better than seeing how the rich and famous live... So when the opportunity presents itself I always like to take advantage of it....
Now I’m not sure Tom Arnold really qualifies as rich or famous, but he’ll do in a pinch.
The two things that stand out for me... He’s a lot neater that I thought, and it appears he plays the piano... And as a bonus the Times as include photos of a home Robert Duvall recently sold in Argentina.
I was sorting through a huge stack of real estate business cards today when
I realized again how many completely meaningless abbreviations agents put on
their cards.
I don't mean this in a mean way, but I conducted a quick survey in my office
and not a single agent who could identify all the abbreviations.
Do you really think most buyers or seller have any idea what they stand for
then?
One card on my desk had on the following abbreviations printed on the front:
CRB, CRS, PMN, SRES, e-Pro, International President's Premier (in a black
font and again stamped in gold), Performance Management Network, Realtor,
Preview Property Specialist (I figured that was given to anyone who could
spend the entire day driving clients around in their car) and the Women's
Council of Realtors.
I found this on the back of another business card: BY REFERRAL ONLY.
So what's the point of a business card you're if you're by referral only.
Potential clients would already have your information.
Lots of cards were marked with GRI, but none explained what that stands for.
Outside of obvious ones like MD, PhD and Dr. you'll need to explain
acronyms.
Many agents also seem to have the nods of approval from the "President of
Real Estate and the President of Minerals" or "Presidents Gold Award
Distinction," "Presidents Circle," "Diamond Society," "Sterling Society,"
"100 Percent Club," "Chairman's Circle of Excellence," and others.
The point is, if you are going to put information you deem beneficial on
your card, make sure you're not the only one who understands what it means.
WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - U.S. home prices continued to fall in February and the pace of decline continued to quicken, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes released on Tuesday.
The February 20-city price index was off 12.7 percent from the year before, in line with expectations of a decline in the 12.5 percent range, and down 2.6 percent from January.
The 10-city composite index, which contains more large 'bubble markets,' posted a new record-low annual decline of 13.6 percent and a monthly drop of 2.8 percent.
Sponsored by Whitney Davis of Zephyr Real Estate and Tina Leonardi of Guarantee Mortgage, 6-7:30 p.m., Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Ave., Suite P, San Francisco, free, reservation required, (415) 533-3990.
I know the business of real estate goes on, but I can’t even image what you’re going to tell a bunch of first time home buyers.
-why yes, things do seem to be on a bit of a downward slide, but that can’t go on forever.... Spring of 2010 is just around the corner
-Raise your hand if you plan to pay cash, otherwise sit quietly in the back because there’s nothing I can do for you
-How many of you plan to have your parents co-sign?
-We’ll begin today’s seminar with the history of the sub-prime mortgage crisis followed by a lecture on buying foreclosed homes and then a reality check
At least you know if buyers show up they’ve got to be pretty serious.
On March 23rd, five weeks ago I posted three homes that all came on the market the same day... It was a test to see how fast homes in the hot price range took to sell... Each of the homes is a stand out for one reason or another.
SOLD - yes, we have one in contract...
The other two homes, the Catalog House and the Sycamore Park Classic are still out there... Both have had plenty of showings and even a few disclosure packs go out the door, but no offers... No price drops yet.
All three of these homes are between $1.7 and $3 million... That’s the price range that is supposed to be hot because those buyers aren’t impacted by interest rates or the price of a gallon of milk.
And now, as promised, I’m including the top ten most searched for real estate terms in the past four weeks, according to Hitwise.
There aren’t a lot of surprises here, but this data should make it pretty clear that most folks really go into the home search process without a direction. They aren’t looking for specific agents, towns or types of property. They type in the names we all know or go generic with things like, “homes for sale” or “apartments for rent.”
Next week I'll talk about what to do next.
1. realtor.com
2. remax
3. real estate
4. zilliow.com
5. apartments
6. zillow
7. homes for sale
8. century 21
9. coldwell banker
10.apartments for rent
Sweet condo in Alamo Square on Golden Gate Ave. Just listed
This beautiful flat has all of the wonderful attributes of the Victorian Era: soaring ceilings,softwood floors,crown moldings, ceiling medallions, wainscoting and grand rooms. Front parlor with fp, pocket doors leading to a 2nd parlor, 3 brs, lg full bth with marble floors, powder rm, formal din rm with fp, eat-in-kitchen with cherry cabinets and lovely deck. Terrific closet space throughout. Extra storage rm. 1 car deeded parking. Close to all shopping,park and Hayes/Fillmore.
I don’t know how they market homes in New York, but $75 million should get you more than six photos because that’s all there is. I’ve seen townhouses in San Francisco for $750,000 on the MLS with 45 photos.
photo credit:sotheby's
I’m not buying the tradition explanation that the house id full of rare art and putting pictures online would invite thieves. Because from looking at the front door, no one is getting by without a key....
Need proof the City is still hot. .. Nick Cooper of Vision Real Estate I just heard put into contract 2353 Greenwich in three days.
3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1500 square feet and a yard.... According to those in the know, the place went for well over asking on multiple offers... list price $1,395,000,
All this week I’ve been posting about the how search terms in real estate come into play in the real world.... Below is a real world example of search playing out...
The following was taken from the Hitwise blog:
Internet Searches Match Decline in Housing Prices
Legend has it that Bill Tancer (my boss) bought and sold his last house using Hitwise search data. After reading yesterday's Wall Street Journal article about the continued decline in home sales and the stabilizing of housing prices, I checked Hitwise data to see what our data says about demand for homes for sale.
The following chart compares the share of US Internet searches for "houses for sale" (the highest volume non-branded search term relating to real estate) compared with the median monthly house price by month for the past twelve months based on data published by the National Association of Realtors. (Note the search data is based on a rolling four week average of the share of US Internet searches for the final week of each month)
I ran a correlation analysis and found a very strong (.92) correlation between the median house price and the monthly share of US Internet searches. This is about as close to a perfect correlation as I've seen and it got me pretty excited. (Yes, I am a geek.) The correlation is unlikely to be as tight over a longer stretch and I would like to extend the analysis back 24 or 36 months. (If you know of a source for monthly median house price going back further than 12 months, let me know.)
Even if this is over only one year, it is interesting to see how closely online demand (as measured by searches for "homes for sale") and housing prices correlate in the past year.
This tells us that internet searches for "homes for sale" match the decrease in offline demand for homes for sale which has caused prices to decline. We've done some work in the past looking at how internet usage data can be used as an economic indicator. This is a one small piece of that pie.
So, how do things look for April? I looked at the weekly share of searches for "homes for sale" for March and so far in April. Things are flat. The downward slide in prices and demand may have ended but we are unlikely to see a recovery just yet.
Below are the next group of most searched real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
11. Coldwell banker
12. Apartments for rent
13. www.realtor.com
14. mls
15. Remax.com
16. realtor
17. For sale by owner
18. hud
19. houses for sale
20. hud homes
A landlord couple have been charged in San Francisco with waging a campaign of terror against their renters in a South of Market building, including cutting out the floor supports at one apartment after the tenant went to court to keep from being evicted, authorities said Wednesday.
Software engineer Kip Macy, 33, and real estate agent Nicole Macy, 32, who have addresses in Sausalito and Incline Village, Nev., were arrested Tuesday and charged with felony stalking, felony residential burglary, conspiracy and other counts in the bizarre case of apparent landlord rage. They posted bail after their arrest and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The charges stem from tactics the Macys allegedly used after they bought a six-unit, three-story apartment building on Clementina Street for $995,000 in 2005 and started eviction proceedings against the five tenants living there.
How do you want people to find your website? What keywords do you want them to enter in Google for a real estate search?
Chances are when home buyers start a home search online, they won’t be entering your name directly into Google. If they knew your name they’d call you be instead.
So, consider how you want prospective new clients to find you. Because that’s what search is all about. Getting your name in front of new buyers and sellers who don’t yet know your name or number.
Consider for a minute what they’ll probably enter into the search box. Ask your friends what they might enter in a search bar if they were searching for a home. This will give you a good idea of what the average person might do. So use those words and see if you site shows up.
If not, it might be time to consider what keywords your using.
A lot of agents are spending a lot of money on their web sites, but is anyone really finding finding their sites? You might think people are finding you, but you need to look under the hood and make sure your site has a proper tune-up. Because we often are misinformed about our own Web sites. As an example, an agent once asked me to review her sites statistics. She was under the impression that about 90 visitors were coming to her site a day.
But when we examined her Web analytics, it turned out to her site was drawing a measly one visitor every three days.
The good news is you can lure more visitors if you know and use the right keywords in your site. Tomorrow I’ll explain how to find a niche that works for you and your site.
Below are the 20-29 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
20. hud homes
21. mls listings
22. remax real estate
23. rent.com
24. apartment finder
25. century 21 real estate
26. foreclosures
27. houses for rent
28. remax realty
29. homes for rent
Findings include 50 percent of Americans believe the dream to own a home is attainable... Nice to hear, but sadly 50 percent of home sellers in the Bay Area have no interest in selling their homes at attainable prices.
Other findings include:
The internet is the end and be all for home buyers of all ages...
People are spending to much of their monthly income on housing...
31 percent believe their homes are worth more than it was a year ago...
If you’re looking for the complete listings of findings, click here
Today I want to show you how good web design uses keywords to help Google find and rank your site.
In the Google search box type, “san francisco real estate.”
Unless something changed overnight, here’s what should have come up number one.
San Francisco Real Estate & San Francisco Homes For Sale — Trulia.com
Find Homes For Sale in San Francisco. Search San Francisco, California real estate, recently sold properties, foreclosures, new homes, school information ...
www.trulia.com/CA/San_Francisco/ - 239k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
On your computer in the search results you should be seeing what I’ve pasted and copied above. Now, on your computer click on the word cached. I’ve highlighted cached here so you’ll what to look for on your computer.
If you click on “cached” in your results a new page opens with a technical-looking paragraph on the top of the page and a shorter sentence below that which reads, “these terms have been highlighted, San Francisco Real Estate.”
What you’re seeing now is what Google actually sees when it spiders, or checks your site for content and rankings.
The words in various colors are the keywords that were found by Google, meaning these are the key words that delivered Trulia the number one spot on Google for “San Francisco real estate.”
Trulia carefully choose the words you’re seeing on its site to help achieve that placement. Very little of Trulia’s top ranking is random. It comes from thoughtful search engine optimization of Trulia’s site.
And it’s hard to miss Trulia’s use of the words real estate and san francisco.
There are a lot of factors that go into Google’s decision-making process for searches, but our experiment should give you some insight into how keywords are used for search results.
On Wednesday we’ll look at how to apply this to your site.
Now you should start to see the importance of searched terms.
Below are the 39-30 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
30. ziprealty
31. century21
32. coldwell banker real estate
33. www.zillow.com
34. apartment guide
35. keller williams
36. www.remax.com
37. land for sale
38. realestate
39. apartments.com
Existing-home sales edged down in March, remaining within a narrow range of sales activity that has persisted since last September, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – were down 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (1) of 4.93 million units in March from a level of 5.03 million in February, and remain 19.3 percent below the 6.11 million-unit pace in March 2007. A rise in condo sales in March was offset by a drop in single-family sales. Regionally, sales rose in the Northeast and West but fell in the Midwest and South.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market is performing unevenly. “Though mortgage rates are at historically low levels, some borrowers are facing restrictive lending practices in declining markets,” he said. “At the same time, many buyers continue to bide their time with a large number of homes to choose from, while other potential buyers remain on the sidelines.”
The national median existing-home price (2) for all housing types was $200,700 in March, down 7.7 percent from a year ago when the median was $217,400. Because the slowdown in sales from a year ago is greater in high-cost areas, there is a downward pull to the national median with relatively higher sales activity in low-cost markets.
A mix of market conditions continues around the country, but areas showing healthy price gains include Des Moines, Iowa; Austin, Texas; and Durham, N.C.
Some folks celebrate their last home mortgage payment by setting fire to their loan agreement. Lately, some people behind on their mortgages are simply setting fire to their homes.
In what appears to be the latest symptom of the nation's mortgage meltdown and credit crisis, insurers, law enforcement officials and state agencies nationwide report a jump in home and automobile fires in the last year believed to have been set by owners unable to pay their debts. The numbers are small, but they're leading the insurance industry to scrutinize more closely what seem to be accidental blazes.
To succeed in online marketing as a real estate agent, you need to know the most
searched-for real estate terms. Understanding search is key to making it in
the online business of real estate.
Real estate has moved online. And the nice thing about the Internet is that
by its nature it is a pretty fair playing field. The real challenge, though
is getting found.
Here's how I can help you with that quest this week. I am going to devote a portion of this week's blog to understanding search. I will base each day's entry on
data I have received from research firm Hitwise on real estate search terms.
Why is search so important? Because nearly every potential buyer or seller
going to turn to a search engine at some point during their home search. And
if you know which words they are plugging into search engines to find homes,
you'll be better positioned. We'll get to what those words are in a minute,
but let me explain why they are so important.
A good web site is built on key words, typically three to five
words that form the foundation of your site's theme. By theme I
mean the words you want potential buyers and sellers to find you by, but
also the words you want Google to use when it ranks the sites in its
results.
The way you get found on search is by optimizing your site. The first thing
Google looks for is what's in your title bar. The title bar is the area on
the top of your browser that displays the keywords your website hopes to be
found by. On this blog you'll notice the key words are, "San Francisco Real
Estate Blog"
In all browsers the words should display on the very top of the browser. Go
ahead and check your own site and see what it says.
All week long I'll post the top 50 most searched for real estate terms,
revealing 10 new ones each day. Tomorrow, I'll start to explain how to use
these terms to your advantage.
Below are the 40-50 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book Click.
40. Weichert
41. Zip realty
42. Foreclosed homes
43. Prudential real estate
44. Realtors.com
45. Har.com
46. Long and foster
47. realtors
48. keller williams realty
49 homes.com
50. John I scott
One of the services my company Real Estate Convergence provides is in
helping realtors optimize their Web sites for better search.
Any real estate agent in the business now and every real
estate agent who hopes to still be in the business a year from now,
must understand internet search to be successful.
Understanding search means you get the big picture. You know what
buyers and sellers are looking for when they get online. And you know what
you should be doing to find them and have them find you.
So on Monday I'll post exclusively to this blog the top real estate search
terms of the past month. My goal in sharing that information is to help
everyone understand their impact on your Google AdWord buys, how the
keywords on your website are impacted and what adjustments you should be
considering to your website to attach more business.
The folks at Hitwise compiled the list for us. Hitwise is an online audience
measurement firm that provides insights on how 10 million US Internet
users interact with more than 1 million websites, across 165+
industries.
I'll have part one of the series Monday morning so come on back.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bay Area's teeter-totter relationship between the rental and sale housing markets extended into the first quarter, with apartment prices rising as the real estate slump continued to thwart would-be buyers.
Average asking rents climbed 8.8 percent over the first quarter of last year to $1,578, as the occupancy rate nudged up 0.6 percent to 95.8 percent, according to a report by RealFacts of Novato, which analyzes data from apartment buildings with at least 50 units. Since 2004, regional rent has risen 23.7 percent.
for the complete story click here
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (Reuters) - The mortgage credit crunch drove March home sales in the San Francisco Bay area down to a 20-year low while the region's median sales price sank 16.1 percent last month from a year earlier amid weak demand, a report said on Thursday.
Since September, home sales in the San Francisco region have hit record monthly lows amid tight credit for prospective home buyers, a response to turmoil in mortgage markets arising from the
