First of all I would like to thank MRIS for warning agents about illegal MLS fudging. (more at the end)*Now I have reported to MRIS another violation.Lets see what they do about it.New Construction Fudging the Reporting of Seller Subsidy... how conveeee....enient.On the MLS, when a listing closes a Realtor must enter in the closed price. This can easily be verified by the tax records once it comes out. A Realtor is also required to post the seller subsidy amount. The "seller subsidy" is the "cash back to buyer" or "cash toward closing costs" and it is a marketing scheme to make a listing look more favorable, even though I tell my buyers to ignore them and just to net everything out. A $515k place with $15k back should be viewed as a $500k. Don't let that marketing confuse you.Damn side ... 02/04/2007

Ok, everyone here talks about how busy we are and how important time is.What about the time of our clients? Lets start with: What does your voicemail say? Is it long winded and polite? Maybe mentions a website or how you are honored by referrals. Maybe it is even in two languages? But does your voicemail give the person an option to skip all your sweetness and get to the damn beep? Every carrier has a different number. Verizon is * or #, Sprint is 1 etc. So call your phone from another phone and try pressing 1. If that doesn't get you the beep, hang up and try again, this time pressing star and then pound etc.  And then at the beginning of your voicemail say "Press 1 to skip this message..." That extra minute and a half that the client saves will tell them that you appreciate their time... 02/04/2007

I mention Switchboard.com in my posting about GPS with traffic but it deserve a separate shout out. This is the holy grail of route creation for BUYER AGENTS. This is a secret tip that I normally just give to my Realtors. Only one website will give you a "fastest route" search. Switchboard.com . Just last week most of the other mapping website launched "add location" options for mutli-stop routing (google, yahoo mapquest) but none will re-sort for fastest route. I know some software will do that, but who wants software. (please let me know if you know of other sites, I like being proven wrong and I probably am wrong)  So with Switchboard you start your location with your house and you end location with your house and you can map out up to 5 locations. If you need to do more, you have to... 02/03/2007

MRIS stands for Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. They are the company that provides the Washington DC area MLS system for all Realtors. They also provide data to consumers and the press to reveal how the market is doing. The only problem is that the data is limited and can easily be misinterpreted without giving proper clarification. When I first saw these numbers, I was shocked that the zip code 22204 was able to get 98.6% of the list price. Only a drop of 1.4%? How is that possible in such a slow market?So I set out to recreate the numbers and I finally think that I understand how they came up with their data. I don't question whether the data is correct, I just question how it is presented.I believe now that the "% of Asking Price" means the "% of the last and lowest asking... 01/10/2007

Recently NAR (National Association of Realtors) came out with this ad:Click for PDF of ad and read: NAR's site supporting the adThe ad talks about the benefits of buying today, yet it says "or sell"!Here are the benefit of "buying or selling" as explained in the ad:1) INTEREST RATES NEAR RECORD LOWSFrankly comment: While rates are low compared to the last 40 years, rates are higher than just a year or two ago. As a percentage as much as 50% higher with ARMs! So the buying power for a $600k house is now about $400k for a buyer using a 5 year ARM (note that the 5 year ARM is about the same price as a 30 year fix, so far fewer people are buying ARMs). On the flip side, will rates go up more? If they go from 6 to 7%, it isn't a 1% increase, it is a 16% DECREASE in buying power. So this poin... 01/10/2007