RECENT BLOG POSTS
I am a little concerned about the lack of foresight shown by our legislative body here in Washington state.  They are currently discussing a service tax (read "sales tax") on real estate commissions.  This tax will be in addition to the Real Estate Excise Tax currently charged sellers (currently...
02/22/2010
Buyers have always been fickle and sellers have always tested the market.  But in this market it seems even worse.  An agent begins to work with a buyer or seller, gets an offer written and then it falls apart at closing - a closing that has often taken four to six months or more.  Approximately ...
02/01/2010
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Do We Have Too Many Agents? Do we have too many agents in real estate?  Yes, we probably do!  A broker recently shared a list of sales in our county over a 10 year period.  In 1999 there were only 1800 agents who closed a total of 10,914 sales - approximately 6 transactions per agent.  In 2009 th...
01/18/2010
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A Look Ahead  The new CORE class required in Washington State is approved for 010-2011 and we are waiting for the approval of the Transitions course which all current licensees in Washington will have to take in the next renewal period.  This last 18 months has seen an incredible number of challe...
12/31/2009
Bank of America  1    American Taxpayer  0 Bank of America struck again!  We had a motivated buyer and a motivated short sale seller.  We all sat and waited 10 weeks for Bank of America to figure out what they were doing.  And figure out is the best way to describe it!  I have 17 phone log entrie...
12/21/2009
What Price Education? As someone who has been teaching continuing education in Washington state to real estate agents for a good many years, and now to mortgage loan originators, we see a marked difference between the agent who started 20 years ago and the agent who started since distance educati...
12/14/2009
As the year winds down we start looking forward to next year.  What can we improve on, what do we need to change to move forward.  So why do real estate agents find it so hard to make changes?  I don't have an answer.  But from personal experience I know it is a painful process to make changes. A...
11/30/2009
Designated Brokers are Cleaning House!  I was at an MLS meeting with some 80 other Designated Brokers a few days ago.  The two program topics were the change in the license law coming next July here in Washington State and the new upgrade in the MLS software coming next spring.  Both are exciting...
11/16/2009
LO's (loan originators) in Washington state who work for a Mortgage Broker must have 8 hours of yearly continuing education.   This year most of them have to take Mortgage Ethics, a class our school is offering on Nov 10 in Puyallup.  It is encouraging to see the way the LO's have embraced the "s...
11/06/2009
In the past, homeowners who lost their homes through foreclosure were receiving 1099's showing the forgiven debt as ordinary income.  That was a kick in the teeth to a lot of folks who were already down.  The tax was referred to as a "phantom tax" - after all, it was "phantom income" for most fol...
10/29/2009
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