Real Estate Snippets

Our First New Year

Ahh, the New Year is tirelessly approaching, but I'm hoping to get thanks off to all my faithful readers and clients for their support this last year.  It dawned on me this evening that this is the first New Year for Real Estate Snippets.  We've come almost one full year as our one year anniversary will be January 13, 2007!  Real Estate Snippets actually started on a whim because of Maureen McCabe who continually harrangued me with "You should be a blogger".  I didn't blog.  Had never read a blog.  Had no clue, but she was relentless.  So, to Maureen goes my heartfelt gratitude for dragging me kicking and screaming into the blogosphere where I've met so many new friends and business acquaintances who are like minded, and a few who are not, but challenge me nonetheless!

The last year has been fraught with struggle in the real estate sphere.  Even the successful have tightened their belts and are waiting out the reluctant buyers and resistant to change sellers!  Regardless of the business side, the slower year has afforded me time to learn and expand my knowledge base which I've happily done.  There's been more time for my grandchildren and the flower garden, time for blogging and all its surprises, and time to rehab the old Victorian we live in and the investment properties we own.

There is a time to look forward, though, and that's my challenge tonight.  BiggerPockets blog is having a group writing project about New Year's resolutions.  I don't make New Year's resolutions, but BiggerPockets wanted to know about resolutions AKA business plans as related to real estate.  Business plans I can do.  For the year 2007, my plan is to:

• Narrow my marketing focus to a manageable farm or neighborhood where I can meet the people and become known personally.
• Focus my existing marketing to the narrowed sphere.
• Contact each person in my sphere of influence at least once a quarter.
• Contribute more to my networking group possibly through technology.
• Finalize a cold calling system and stick to it.
• Continue to contact expired and unrepresented listings.
• Restructure my blog to incorporate more consumer friendly resources.
• Re-examine my websites for consumer friendliness and SEO.
• Continue to "bird dog" for investment properties which will be purchased for rehab and sale, rehab and holding, or sale without rehab to other investors.
• Learn from losses in the business.
• Finish my quilt which I started 3 years ago.
• Spend quality time with my family.
• Spend quality time with my friends.
• Read business related books as well as fiction.
• Strip the stained glass window.
• Weed the garden bi-weekly in the growing season.
• Rub the dog's belly at least once a day (It's good for my "blog" pressure and the dog definitely likes it!).

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's a healthy dose of work to do with a bit of play and abandon sprinkled in to keep the sanity.  The hard work will be blocking out the time for each task and sticking to it!  I have no doubt that the dog's belly and the garden will get done, but beyond that, it will be down right tough!

Here's to hard work and a prosperous New Year for one and all!

MLS Searches

For those who haven't noticed the little house in the right side bar, that's the place to go to search for houses listed in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area of Minnesota.  The link connects the consumer (you) with an IDX (information data exchange) link from the Multiple Listing Service.  That link contains all the listings from brokerages in the Twin Cities metro area that have given permission for their listings to show on the IDX.  Only a very few brokerages do not participate in this exchange of information.

A big change is coming to the IDX search as soon as the providers can figure out how to get the kinks out.  The change will require every consumer using the REALTOR "search listings" sites to accept the terms required for usage of the listing information.  A gray box will pop up in the search listings window which will describe these terms.  Unless the consumer checks "I accept" or "I agree" they will be unable to search the listings provided in the IDX link to the MLS.  The MLS is requiring this terms of use box to be placed on ALL the IDX listings site which are coming from the MLS.  There will be no avoidance of the gray box by going to another company's website as "the box" will be there as well!

For those of you using my site regularly to search for listings, just consider this new step to be a simple hoop everyone has to jump through to get to the houses that are for sale!  It's just one more click to get to the goal.

Fish and Flush

If you got one of these for Christmas to go with your tropical fish shower curtain, I hope you intend to remove it before you list your house for sale!  Enlarge the picture by clicking on it to get the full effect of the toilet with a fish tank in the tank!  Yes, it's a true 2.2 gallon fish tank formed to fit around the tank which flushes water into the toilet bowl.  Both tanks are completely separate so there's not danger that the fish will get sucked into the city sewage system.

From a woman's perspective I'm not sure I see the point of fish in the toilet tank.  From a man's perspective, who knows.  I think it might be distracting.  From a young boy's perspective, I think concentration on the one bowl might interfere with concentration on the other bowl!

FishNFlush toilet tanks can be purchased for a mere $299 by going to their website!  This is the gift you should have gotten for the person who has everything?

Holiday Fun

It's holiday time and little ones will be visiting the "grands" and sometimes being bored.  If you're looking for things to do with your elementary grandchildren this link has several fun games to do as well as a holiday greeting from me to you!  There's a reindeer arm wrestle, snowman meltdown (similar to hangman), a hilarious santa dance, and much more all compliments of Office Max.  To find the additional games click the Office Max icon in the lower left!  Enjoy!

Do It Yourselfers

I'm a "do it yourselfer".  I love the DIY network.  I also do a good job when I DIY!  I know this because every project we've done has increased the value of our homes and professionals have complimented us on our quality of work.  But . . .

Like all "do it yourselfers" I make mistakes.  Why?  because I'm not a professional.  Professionals learn from other professionals while they are on the job.  There is a certain amount of the job you can learn from a book, but sometimes the source of information leaves out an important step or a trick of the trade.  It's kind of like wondering why Grandma's recipe never tastes like it does when Grandma makes it.  Sometimes it's because she left out her "secret" ingredient!

I'm fortunate in that the professionals I use to supplement my ignorance know they can tell me when I've made a mistake.  Our long term relationship has taught them that I want to know when I've blown it.  As a result, I get on the job training in "doing it yourself".  The list of mistakes I've made usually will not impact the structural integrity of the house, but they are things professionals would not do because of their experience.

Two "mistakes" that come to mind immediately are hanging sheet rock and installing subfloor.  I did not know there was a right and wrong way to hang sheet rock years ago.  I knew there was a front and back and that you only dimpled the nails/screws rather than breaking the surface paper of the sheet rock.  Our first ceiling install particularly frustrated me.  I taped and taped and taped and could not get the indentations where the sheet rock joined to go away.  An old contractor informed me that it was because we had hung the sheet rock with the joists instead of across the joists.  Since that project, we have carefully crossed the joists with the sheet rock and made sure to stagger the corners so all four corners are not in one location.  It amazed me the difference this one small tidbit made in my taping of the next project.

The same principle applies to subfloor.  We could not figure out why the mobile home subfloor we installed was sagging between joists.  It didn't make sense.  We had used the same product as the manufacturer, etc., etc., etc.  I asked the general contractor who installed our windows in the same mobile home why the floors were sagging.  He gently informed me that we should have crossed the joists instead of running the subfloor with the joists.  Now where had I heard that advice before?  The next time the floors in our cabin are replaced, we will know better.  Just like the sheetrock, we will lay the boards across the joists instead of with them!

It's the little things like this which make or break a project.  These are insignificant examples but I use them as an analogy.  Doing it yourself can appear easy.  Sometimes we don't even know when we've done it improperly.  Any time an amateur takes on a professional's job, the risk of mistakes is high especially when dealing with buying or selling real estate.  No matter how much you may have researched the project, the experience of a professional real estate agent can protect you from large or small errors.  Sometimes correcting the errors made in real estate is more expensive than the commission paid a professional to do the job right for you to begin with.  Why risk your most important investment without professional guidance?

Disintermediation

Million dollar words, or are they billion dollar words?  Disintermediation is the latest discussion topic in real estate.  Why can't we just come right out and say what it means?  Disintermediation means to eliminate the middle man in an economic supply chain.  The reason this term has become a buzz word in the industry is because of the other latest rage: transparency.  Now if you have followed me to this point, you're doing better than I sometimes do when I read these heavy posts on disintermediation.  It does help to have several belts of coffee doing jumping jacks in your veins! 

So, let's go back to when the internet was invented.  The internet was supposed to be this fancy defense system for our government to prevent information from being acquired by enemy governments.  It was supposed to keep the secret!   Shhhhh.  Don't tell them, but it didn't work.  Instead the private sector saw the potential of the internet and information is now being disseminated throughout the world.  The proliferation of the internet and its use to broadcast information has created transparency, the ability of the consumer to become knowledgeable in a field.  The opaque walls which formerly separated the consumer from information have now become transparent!

Because of this transparency and proliferation of information, real estate professionals are currently questioning whether they are going to become "has beens".  Will they be disintermediated?  The answer is still to be revealed.

My personal opinion is that information is important to a real estate transaction but cannot in any way replace the experience, knowledge, and creativity that an agent can bring to the transaction.  One can learn information about a lot of topics online, but that information does not create an experienced professional.  Raw data is just the base of the pyramid of value an agent brings to the consumer.  Interpreting that data is key.  Emotional distance from the transaction is key.  Creativity is key.  All three qualities and many others are contributed by the real estate agent.  No, I don't think we're going to be disintermediated, changed maybe, but not disintermediated!

Realogy-The Saga Continues

Last August I published an entry on Cendant's spin off of the new company Realogy (pronounced real-a-gee), the world's largest real estate brokerage and real estate franchisor responsible for names like Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, and Sotheby's International.  Realogy at that time became a publicly held company complete with a Wall Street listing (H for homes?) and regulations and reviews as a result.  This week another change was announced for Realogy.  It seems this time an agreement has been reached for a private company to purchase Realogy and return the company to the private sector.   Apollo Management, a leading private equity firm, has offered a measly 9 billion dollars for the company.  Stockholders and government agencies must still give their final approval to the deal, but the buyer and seller have agreed on terms and only await final approval.  Since stockholders will be given a price better than the current market price, one would assume they will approve.  If the sale comes to completion, Realogy will once again become a privately held company.  The current CEO will step down at the end of his contract.  When changes like this happen in quick succession, one needs a crystal ball to figure out the future.

Yankee Blog Swap 2006

Greetings, denizens of the Twin Cities. I bring you fair tidings from Phoenix, land of 65-degree winters and scorching summers. Why are you reading me instead of your usual host, Bonnie Erickson? Because we’re participating in the great Yankee Blog Swap – a chance for readers of multiple real estate blogs across the nation to become very confused by a new voice and photo.

From what I understand of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, most of you spend the winter months shuttling from one heated area to the next with as little outdoor exposure as possible. For us it’s the summers where we live like Gollum, eschewing the Yellow Face driving temperatures into the one-hundred-teens and only coming out at night when it’s a far more bearable 94 degrees at 11 p.m.

From everything I read about this blog swap, my article is supposed to be real estate related. But that really doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me. So instead I’ll tell you about my grand excursion to your backyard a few years back.

I’ve been to Minneapolis once – I spent three days and three nights there in July 2000, visiting a friend living in Plymouth. My first TC experience came at the airport, where I discovered the gates are numbered sequentially with the lower-numbered gates closest to baggage claim. If memory serves, my flight landed at Gate 824 and it took me about 45 minutes to walk to where my bags were waiting. (No such problems flying Sun Country home, aside from the shock of discovering there still were 727s taking to the skies … I found a Hughes Airwest bag of peanuts in the seatback pouch in front of me.)

While there are multiple fine things about the Twin Cities, the three coolest had to be these:

• Driving across the Mississippi River. I’d flown over it a couple of times, but being that close to Old Man River was remarkable. (My friend, incidentally, thought I was the biggest dork in the world for being amazed by this. She lived a few blocks away.)
• Having lunch at St Anthony Main, mere yards from the aforementioned Mississippi.
• Catching a Twins game (no Saints tickets were available and, to my chagrin, scalping appears to be illegal there). I bought a ticket in the left-field stands, a Dome dog, large coke, nachos and parked for $23.50. In Phoenix, that total would barely get me a ticket and a parking spot.

The Mall of America was impressive, incidentally, but I don’t see the point to having two Victoria’s Secrets, three Foot Lockers and 68 Gaps in the same shopping complex. It also was odd viewing the plaque for Harmon Killebrew’s milestone home run, now sponsored by Cinnabon.

Having said that, there were three items that had me missing the Valley of the Sun:

• Speed limits. We don’t pay attention to them here. Not often, at least. In Minneapolis, I was driving exactly 55 (54 in some areas) and it drove me nuts.
• A grid system. You have to work to get lost in Phoenix. Central Avenue down the middle. Streets to the west. Avenues to the east. Very eight blocks is another mile (so 67th Avenue is one mile from 75th Avenue, etc.) Pretty basic. In Minneapolis, I turned the wrong way leaving the Metrodome and was in Golden Valley on my way to Pierre before I used my sextant and the gibbous moon to find my way back home.
• The Metrodome’s Force 8 wind. At that time I weighed, well, somewhat more than two bills. And on my way out of the dome, I was blown forward a good eight feet. Nothing … NOTHING … should shove a man my size that far. Except my wife.

I must admit, I give all of you all the credit in the world for acclimating to such climes. To me, waking up to 2 degrees on the way to a daytime high of 5 degrees seems like some sort of cruel joke. Is there a point to the sun rising for its six hours a day in such circumstances? My friend used to have to get off the phone with me once her bus reached its stop and she walked the half-block home lest her phone freeze to her face. Seriously. I can’t imagine it.

Here’s one semi-real estate related note before I return you to your regular programming. Should you ever come to Phoenix, be prepared for a shock if only in the sheer size of the place. We put the “aw” in “sprawl.” The greater Phoenix metro area stretches from Buckeye (let’s say 235th Avenue or so) in the west to Queen Creek (let’s take a wild estimate of 220th Street) in the east. That’s 460 blocks which translates into … remember from above? Just under 58 miles. That’s east-west. Going north-to-south, you stretch from Maricopa in the far south portion of the county to Anthem in the far north … I’m not going to look It up, but 50 – 60 miles would be a good guess.

Because of the sheer size of the place, we build out more than up. We also fence our yards. That may or may not be common back there, but I’ve had many Midwestern clients ask me why we would do such a thing. My answer? Because we felt like it. (Real answer: I haven’t got a clue.)

So that’s about it for my rambling today. Should you ever find yourself curious of what else there is to the desert, or just want to stop by to tell me to keep my heat-chapped Southwestern tuchas to myself, feel free to visit me at my Phoenix Arizona Real Estate blog.

Jonathan Dalton, REALTOR, Phoenix, Arizona

Twin Cities Market Summary

The RMLS stats for the 13 county metro area are almost complete for this year.  We've only got 2 weeks left to make any changes in the total sales for the year 2006.  There will be some additional sales to make the figures at right look a little better, but realistically the impact of the next few days will be minimal.  The purple bars in the chart show the pending sales for each of the listed years.  The interesting thing to note is that our number of transactions is close to what it was in 2000.  The year 2000 was the very beginning of the "feeding frenzy" when houses had multiple offers and sellers could ask any price they wanted for their homes.  The frenzy lasted about 5 years ending in October/November, 2005, when agents experienced an abrupt cut in showing requests and sales.

In comparing the number of sales from today with the pre-frenzy figures, there are two important differences.  The first is that there are many more houses listed today than in 2000 which makes the competition between sellers fierce.  The second difference is not reflected in the chart.  That difference is the dollar volume in the sales before the frenzy as compared to today.  In 2000 the median price of a home was $152,000, and the average sales price for a home was $181,605.  Today the median price is $230,200 and the average sales price for a home is $272,522!  Even though the number of houses sold is similar, the dollar volume of the total sales is much higher today.

From a seller's perspective some of this is depressing news.  It means the odds are higher against a seller finding a buyer for their home than in 2000.  It also means, prices have to be reduced (but not to pre-frenzy prices!) to attract buyers to the home.  It also means, sellers are having to give "concessions" or incentives to get buyers to look.  Incentives range from paying the buyer's closing costs to giving a car or flat screen TV with the sale.

From the buyer's perspective?  Whoopee!  It's time to buy because there are lots of choices, price reductions, and "bennies" going with a purchase agreement!  The balance offered the miserable sellers is that the house they are going to buy will have the same benefits for them!

Figures in the chart are based on information from the REGIONAL MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE OF MINNESOTA, INC for the period January 1, 2000, through November 30, 2006.

(c) Bonnie Erickson 2006

Yankee Blog Swap 2006

Cape Coral, FL, December 19, 2006 - RSS Pieces, Inc., a Florida based real estate blogging firm, announced the first annual Yankee Blog Swap. The December 19^th 2006 event will bring together 28 of the most influential real estate bloggers for the Internet equivalent of a “Yankee Swap.” Household real estate names like Zillow and Redfin will trade blogs for the day with real estate pundits and man-on-the-street Realtors® to offer consumers and real estate professionals a full spectrum of information on everything from current market conditions to the future of online real estate services.

Drew Meyers of Zillow explains,"By pairing bloggers with similar focuses, the Yankee Blog Swap serves as a form of blogger discovery for real estate blog enthusiasts. As a participant, the value lies in networking with other participants and exposure to a new audience." Additionally, the Blog Swap intends to raise awareness to consumers that real estate bloggers can be valuable resources for those considering a real estate purchase, sale or financing.

When asked what the value of the swap to the average homeowner would be, Jonathan Dalton, a multi-million dollar producer with Century 21 Arizona Foothills, said "I'm looking forward to sharing my perspective on the real estate market with readers in Minnesota and also hope my readers here in Phoenix learn something from Bonnie. With consumers' thirst for information, the more viewpoints they see on the state of real estate, the better."

This inaugural event launches YankeeBlogSwap.com, a site dedicated to connecting bloggers in related industries for the purpose of expanding their respective readerships with fresh viewpoints from various authors. Bloggers can use the free Yankee Swap network to find guest writers for their blogs or participate in the frequent industry events. 

The first Yankee Blog Swap kicks off across the Internet early Tuesday morning, December 19^th with the following bloggers swapping sites:

Transparent Real Estate’s Pat Kitano vs. Zillow’s Drew Meyers

RSS Pieces’ Mary McKnight vs. Future of Real Estate Marketing’s Joel Burslem         

St Paul Real Estate Blog’s Teresa Boardman vs. Phoenix Real Estate Guy's Jay Thompson   

3 Ocean Real Estate’s Kevin Boer vs. SLC Real Estate’s Nigel Swaby

Issaquah Undressed’s Larry Cragun vs. Maury Properties’ Andrew Maury            

Chicago Home Weblog's Geno Petro vs. NY Houses 4 Sales’ Christine Forgione

Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog's Jonathan Dalton vs. Real Estate Snippets Bonnie Erickson

The boys of Sellsius vs. Real Estate Tomato’s Jim Cronin

ML Podcast’s Michael Price vs. FamousAgents.com’s Elise Wright

My Tech Opinion’s Reggie Nicolay vs. Ubertor’s Steve Jagger

Redfin's Glenn Kelman vs Rain City's Ardell DellaLoggia

CondoDomain's Anthony Longo vs. miOaklandCounty's Maureen Francis

The San Diego Home Blog’s Kris Berg vs.  Urban Dig’s Noah Rosenblatt

The Property Monger's Jon Ernest vs. XBroker's Jeff Corbett

For an overview of the event and all its participants, please visit, YankeeBlogSwap.com