Mark Rienzie's Blog

We are the experts! We spend our professional lives working in Real Estate....with escrow officers, home inspectors, contractors, appraisers, lenders. Yet how can we explain the unexplainable? Every transaction is different, even if the theme is the same. One of the things I love about my job. I ...

In the past (late 1990's), door knocking on properties in default was a staple for any blue collar realtor working the pre-foreclosure sector.  We had a whole army assembled and equipt with data, scripts, knowledge of available options, compassion, and savvy.  You never know when you're going to...

Many time, over the last few years, in my experiences on Trulia and Zillow, someone will ask the question of we Realtors "What's the standard commission in your area?" Most of the time, good agents jump in and state: "There is no 'standard', real estate commissions are negotiable"... and go on to...

Today will driving through a couple of local neighborhoods the “PRICE REDUCED” sign riders caught my attention.  In an area where some houses seem to fly off the market and others languish it made me wonder what do buyers think when they pull up in front of a house with the “PRICE REDUCED” rider ...

In a recent thread found on Trulia, a local inspector responded to my assertion, that if you're looking for an inspector, your Realtor can be a good resource for finding good inspectors.  He replied with: "Asking your Realtor is NOT a great way to find an inspector. Your Realtor gets paid only if...

I just returned from the National Association of Realtors convention in San Diego. NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun spoke to a room packed with REALTORS® and projected that real estate prices would climb about 4% in 2010, while the number of home sales will increase 15%.  He also predicts that...

The market always heals from the bottom up" according to Paul Bishop, National Association of Realtors Vice President of Research. According to the recently released sales numbers 47% of buyers this past year were first time home buyers.  Surpassing the previous high record of first time purchase...

Housing will not fully recover until 2012.  That is when the glut of backlogged foreclosures is expected to be phased out of the market.    Housing will recover by the end of the year.  Now that inventory has contracted to average levels for what constitutes “normal” regional markets in major me...

Whenever my neighbor goes on vacation, she asks me to watch her house and pick up the mail from her front steps. This is such a quaint custom in Land Park -- throwing mail on the porch when there's too much or it's too big to stuff into the mail slot. Mail carriers in other parts of Sacramento of...

I'm really seeing something wierd going on here: Mortgage Compaines blowing up.  Mortgage companies thriving.  Clients are making the shift.  Big box lenders are so big that they're collapsing on top of their own clients.  I'm dealing with a top three lender rignt now... As an Attorney! I've been...