Not Ready For Prime Time I just spent 20 minutes or so checking out foreclosures on Google Maps. My conclusion? It’s hard to escape the feeling you are an unwitting beta tester (guinea pig) — plus, it’s apparent that Google’s real aim is use limited free data to goose subscriptions (translation: Google’s business model is...Read More
Green Gold? Interesting article in the Sunday NYT about the spiraling cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The article profiles one Phoenix-area Realtor in particular, who sold homes at the peak, and now sells them for Fannie and Freddie after they’ve repossessed them (albeit at dramatically lower prices). But here’s the line...Read More
On Tap for 2010: Social Media, and (More) Foreclosures and Short SalesNo, I don’t predict the direction of home prices. But housing trends are another matter. Fortunately, if you’re an Edina Realty agent, corporate does that for you (or at least helps). Each year, senior management highlights at the annual meeting — and reinforces during...Read More
. . . Foot-Dragging Ostriches?Just a heard a very thorough — and harrowing — overview of the foreclosure picture nationally from Rick Sharga, a senior executive at RealtyTrac. His company compiles one of the most complete databases tracking foreclosures, so he’s speaking from authority. What does he see? –The housing mess is going to persist...Read More
The “Highest-and-Best, I-Really-Mean-it-This-Time” Offer I’ve previously blogged about the practice of “highest and best” offers (“Highest and Best, Explained.“) Typically used by banks selling foreclosures, “highest and best” is a way to efficiently sort out multiple offers and identify a winning bidder. Implicit in “highest and best” is a quid pro quo between the bank...Read More
Bank Foreclosure Sales Recall ’90’s IPO’s We’ve seen this movie before. Specifically, many of the practices embraced today by banks selling foreclosures, or Real Estate Owned (“REO”), echo tactics used by Wall Street more than a decade ago to sell “hot” tech IPO’s (“initial public offerings”). Consider these 3 parallels: One. Artificially low prices. At...Read More
