360Digest

I have always known, anecdotally, that I reside in the Halloween Capitol of Seattle, but until now I have not had scientific proof.

In Seattle, the Fremont neighborhood claims to be the Center of the Universe, but I know that this is not true. This time of year, Capitol Hill is — at least it’s the Center of the Known Halloween Universe.

In a move of utter brilliance, Capitol Hill Seattle blog has published this Ultimate Guide: Fancy Pants Capitol Hill Trick-or-treating. The folks behind the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, a neighborhood blog catering to the “fancy pants part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill,” have determined, by using Zillow Heatmaps and a childhood theory, that North Capitol Hill is one of the best places to score candy this year.

Of course, I’ve always known this, but up until this time, have had no scientific way to prove this obvious thesis.

This is why I live here. I have had a compelling a desire to live in Halloween Central, and I reside in the epicenter.

The author claims to have received 250 children last year. I know that is true, but I am raising the bar, as we received over 500 kids and I hope this year to break our record.

Halloween Central, circa 1937

I live in the center of all this Halloween madness, an area roughly from Galer to Mercer, 16th Ave. East to 22nd Ave. East. If you look on a map, I am precisely at the center. My house already has a bit of historic provenance, being a former ancillary for the Presbyterian Church (formerly known as “Presbytery House”) and was in use from 1912 to 1964. The Robels then raised their 6 children there and we are the third owners. We were given the church logs, sign and various newspaper articles and clippings attesting to its history as a church, vicarage, meeting place and chapel, and we are holding those items for safekeeping, to turn over to some new residents, someday.

Because of or in spite of its history, we take great pleasure in decorating the home for Halloween. Spooky music, strobe lights, howling witches, animatronic figures, black lights, this and more go into our home decor in October. Some neighborhoods have “Candy Cane Lane”. We have haunted houses, ghouls, giant styrofoam gargoyles and “Bates Hotel” signs.

My neighbors across the street have built a coffin out of what appears to be an old shipping crate, the neighbor behind me has a haunted house in their garage and the guy a few doors down dug an open grave on their front lawn. But I have a few tricks this year that’s going to blow them out of the water.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

If you’re finding it hard to sell your home, imagine how difficult it would be if there was a murder or other mayhem that occurred at the property. Perhaps obligated to disclose this by state statute, how much value does a home lose when a murder or suicide occurs?

The New York Times had an article about buying stigmatized properties (Some Buyers Regret Not Asking: Anyone Die Here?) This article makes a great point,

“Plenty of prized homes in the tristate area are more than a century old, and to experience their magnificence one must accept the fact that someone probably died within their walls.”

This theme was elaborated upon by the folks over at Zillow (If these walls could talk…..). It concerned houses where people had died or been murdered and the possible existence of ghosts or bad ju-ju in the home.

ABC News aired a segment How to Sell a House of Horrors — ‘Dr. Disaster’ Appraises Properties Where Chilling Crimes Occurred, about what happens when someone is killed, murdered or dies in a property. How much value does it lose? Will it ever sell? Apparently, if one holds on to it long enough, people forget. Nicole Simpson’s condo on Bundy, which sold just a few years after her murder for $590,000, $200K less than she paid for it, is now on the market for $1.8 million dollars.

The American Bar Association had a great article with a legal emphasis , Stigma Busters — A Primer on Selling Haunted Houses and Other Stigmatized Property. It used to be that sellers in Washington State were required to disclose a death in the home for sale. Now, the responsibility for investigation falls on the Buyers, as they have the opportunity to perform what’s called a “Neighborhood Review” where they can look into any past crimes, deaths or other disasters, traffic patterns, neighborhood noise, proximity to shopping and the like. Wanna see if there are any sex offenders in the neighborhood? King County Sex Offender Search.

Have you already bought a stigmatized house? Contact Heather Mack. She has an MA in Pastoral Studies from Seattle University and performs “House Blessings” to purify the home. You can call her at (206) 330-7158 or email her at HeatherAnnMack@Yahoo.com

With home prices dipping in many areas, some people are finding it difficult to accept that promotion and move across the country, since the home they bought last year can’t be sold or if it can, sells at a big discount.

But the big CEO isn’t worried. As Slate reported earlier this year in “The CEO Real Estate Scam - The newest infuriating perk for corporate executives“, corporate executives are being offered “protection against loss” when they sell their house. These companies, including Ebay and Nike, have disclosed in their routine Securities and Exchange Commission filings that they’re now protecting their executives from real estate market forces. They are essentially guaranteeing that executives’ homes will sell for a good price. But the author takes issue with this new practice as “companies that depend on free markets are making sure their own executives are safeguarded from them.”

Many folks who are relocated are offered a package, and part of that package are referred to a local real estate agent, both to list their home and in their new home city. The employer may have signed a contract with a large relocation company, such as Cendant, who owns Realogy which owns Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s and ERA Real Estate.

The agents may be assigned the relocating Buyer or Seller and may be asked to pay a “referral fee” of anywhere from 30% to 45% back to the referrer, with a portion sometimes being rebated back to the Buyer or Seller, or passed on to the relocating company in order to reduce their total relocation costs.

The most interesting aspect of these agreements may be between the relocation companies and the brokerages. Some real estate firms, so hungry for these executive leads, sign agreements that pay the relocation firms a percentage of every sale from a referral, whether or not the referral originates from that relocation company.

For instance, a brokerage might sign an agreement where 12.5% of a referral fee must be paid to Cendant, whether or not the referral came from them. So, an agent in Seattle might make a referral to an agent in San Francisco and want a 20% referral fee. However, 12% must be paid to Cendant, even though they were not involved in the referral. So, for the referring agent to get 20%, they’d have to ask for a 32% referral fee. If the Seattle agent only asks for 20%, then they’d actually only receive 8%.

Another interesting outcome of this arrangement is an agent can end up paying a referral fee to someone who was not referred to them, someone who just calls or emails them from their website, or who they meet at an Open House.

For instance, Agent Cindy who works at Century 21, can meet a buyer at an Open House in Seattle and develop an agency relationship with that Buyer. Unbenownst to Agent Cindy, Agent Sally at Century 21 in San Francisco has referred that buyer to the relocation firm just a few weeks before. For whatever reason, the buyer declined to work with the referred agent and wants to work with Agent Cindy instead. She can, of course. However, Agent Cindy must pay the relocation company up to a 45% referral fee, even though that Buyer was never referred to her and she just met her at an Open House. Those are the terms of the referral contract signed between the brokerage and the relocation company.

Right after meeting a relocating buyer or seller, experienced agents immediately call their companies relocation office and “register” the client. This way, that buyer or seller can’t be “referred” to them and they won’t be obligated to pay a referral fee for their own clients that they’ve met on their own.

Realtor.com, which displays 3.9 million homes for sale and has 7 million unique visitors each month, will lose the Northwest Multiple Listing Service’s feed at the end of their contract. According to sources at NWMLS, the reason why the feed will be stopped is that a majority of the Board of Directors felt that it was inappropriate for the NWMLS to provide a service to a for-profit organization that is outside of their sphere.

Apparently, there was some dissent from a minority of the Board, but the majority felt that it was an inappropriate use of copyrighted data.

Realtor.com was already at a disadvantage because Windermere Real Estate has never allowed their listings to appear there via the NWMLS (though individual agents could buy an ad or webpage there and post their listings.) But now, with this move, Realtor.com will become even more irrelevant to local real estate buyers and sellers.

Realtor.com will finish out its contract through Spring, and then be discontinued, unless it goes up again for a vote or they reach some other compromise.

NWMLS serves over 2000 companies and 27,000 individual agents in Washington and Oregon.

I’ve been called many things, but this is a first.

Sex is like real estate (you should get a lot while you’re young), but I’ve not really thought of myself as a pornographer.

In the past, I may have looked at Play Girl at the latest model, where now I tend to look at Met Home for the latest model (of Viking gas range)…. My centerfold gazing is more likely to be at a newly remodeled kitchen with stainless steel appliances than “buns of steel” and I start breathing harder at the thought of French Doors rather than French kissing.

Isn’t it interesting that they choose to attack the reporter for a completely objective posting of news, where the reporter purposely chose not to interject any opinion. For all they know, I was posting that article just because it was so ridiculous, yet they called for their minions and winged monkeys to attack, without even knowing where I stood on the subject….. That’s a great way to win people to your point of view.

Condom or Condominium?

Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love Houses

www.FastValues.com
“Enter your ZIP Code
to view recent home sales in your area”

www.ValueMyHouse.com
“ValueMyHouse offers prospective home sellers a FREE home value report, completed by one exclusive real estate professional. Following the introduction, the real estate professional has an opportunity to provide listing assistance.”

www.HouseValues.com
“….simply enter your ZIP Code/Postal Code in the box below, and we’ll take it from there!”

Are these other companies purposely trying to confuse the homeowner? Not to mix metaphors, but it seems odd to hitch one’s wagon to a dead horse like this.

House Values announced second quarter earnings and earnings per share dropped from 14 cents to 7 cents per share. HouseValues said it no longer expects to meet previously announced earnings projections, and has decided “to discontinue its practice of providing explicit guidance” on the company’s financial outlook “because of the unclear near-term impact of a changing real estate market, as well as entry into new businesses with which the company has less history.”

HouseValues will release financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2006 immediately following the close of the market on Tuesday, October 31, 2006. The company will host a corresponding conference call and live webcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Register for conference call.

Why would your average home seller enter all kinds of identifying information on an online form, just to get contacted by some real estate weasel, when they can go to Zillow and have their real estate data fix fulfilled with a couple of clicks of a mouse for free…..

More on HouseValues business model

Nigel Swaby writes on the Salt Lake Real Estate Blog “Housing Bubble Bloggers - A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?”

Keith at Housing Panic urges his winged monkeys to attack lady Realtor.

House Falls. The housing bubble. What’s really happening with real estate.

The Investing Sensei’s thoughts on The Housing Bubble.

Yahoo News weighs in on What the Bursting Bubbles Mean

Appraisal Podcasts pipes up with Bubble, Bubble Maybe No Trouble

Our hometown favorite Seattle Bubble.

The sound of a thousand eyeballs rolling to the back of heads everywhere…..

Donald Trump’s Apprentice star Kendra Todd, author of “Risk and Grow Rich” will be the keynote speaker for the Real Estate Association of Puget Sound at their second annual Real Estate Investing Super Conference this weekend.

The ad in Sunday’s Times reads: “EXPOSED! Everything you need to know about making money in Real Estate after the Housing Bubble Bursts!

Call 425-458-4797 to register. The $579.00 Platinum tickets are sold out, but you can still by a single ticket for $149.00.

TV Squad’s interview with Kendra.

I attended an education conference sponsored by the Washington Association of Realtors. One of the seminars was REALTORS(c) and Blogs, taught by Dustin Luther and Russ Cofano of Rain City Guide. There were about 200 people in the audience. All around me were real estate agents and brokers. Dustin was enthusiastic and clearly excited about the topic. Russ was even-tempered and a presence of authority and gravitas. It was a perfect set-up, and the 3 hours were packed with information. However, some in the crowd around me grumbled. A few harumphed. Others were skeptical. What is this blogging thing of which you speak, they asked? Where do you find these blogging things? Who reads these blogs? What IS a BLOG? Yes, it would be fair to say most did not get it. The average age of real estate agents in the U.S. is 54 years old. Now, maturity is not a bad thing. Age can bring experience and wisdom. But what I witnessed, mostly (not totally, but I’d say a good majority) were anachronistic responses better suited for the last century. Yes, all used a computer, all had cellphones. But that’s about it… really.

The most telling thing about this experience? Dustin asked the audience to go back home or to the office and look at Rain City Guide and leave a comment.

It’s now been 48 hours since the seminar. And we’re still waiting……. Not one attendee could bother, not a one.

C’mon you guys! I want to root for you, all you old cotton-heads and grandpa’s and soccer-moms-turned real estate agents. Let’s go! Show us what you’re worth, that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, that you ARE willing to keep up with modern technology and modern times, that you DO want to learn new techniques and ways of doing business. Prove to me that you see the value of social networking and open communication, that you embrace new modes of doing business and innovative ways to maximize your potential. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??!!??

Sorry. Ok. I’m calmer now.

I know that others don’t see this as we do. I know that, but I can’t believe it.

I work in an office of about 50 agents. Out of those, 3 have and read real estate blogs. And we’re in a dense urban core in one of the most wired cities in the U.S.. So extrapolate those figures out to the rest of the U.S. and it’s a pretty dismal showing…. However it’s just a matter of time, as the current agents retire and younger ones come up to take their place, that agents will enter the fray. But I’m getting impatient and I’m eager to take my business to a new level. But I’m not working in a vacuum. I do not see the professional competency I would like mirrored in all of my co-workers. I want to be surrounded with professionals who take their jobs seriously and who radiate competency and confidence. I want to be around smart people who are intellectually challenging and who are interested in doing the best job they can for their customers and clients.

I’m not saying that all agents should have blogs, or even need personal websites. Many don’t have much to say. However, all have the obligation to stay up on market conditions and their local economy and current affairs that effect their market area. They should have both a micro and a macro approach to real estate, so they can best advise their clients, be they investment buyers or just those searching for their dream home.

If agents can’t police themselves, then real estate associations need to raise the standards and licensing requirements and brokers need to be more selective and not so eager to fill an empty desk. Agents have a responsibility to their clients to strive to learn as much as they can about the market and the new tools that are out there that will assist them in becoming more efficient and competent in their jobs.

Agents and brokers should real local newspapers and websites for local news and they should also keep up with national and international trends in real estate and other issues that effect the economic climate. They should make it a point to keep up with new technological changes and innovations, both in real estate and in the market in general. They should also read and understand current events and political matters, as those have a huge impact on both the local and national economy, and they should become students of human behavior, as all these things will help them in their understanding of current conditions in the marketplace and help them understand the buying habits, fears and concerns of their customers and clients.

And of course, to round out their knowledge on contemporary real estate issues and concerns, they should read and comment on real estate blogs!

Looks like someone’s got their panties in a bunch over Jack London’s “War of the Classes” The Scab, from a speech first given before the Oakland Socialist Party Local, April 5, 1903. Those who enjoy that might also like The Question of the Maximum
a speech first given before the Oakland Section of the Socialist Labor Party on Sunday, November 26, 1899 at the Grand Army of the Republic.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Thomas Sowell (1930 - ), Is Reality Optional?, 1993

* Real Bird reports that they’ve just completed an integration of the RealBird Map-based MLS Search service with the Northwest MLS (NWMLS) IDX feed. This could be an inexpensive way for an individual to put an interactive map on their site without a lot of fuss. Check out the new interactive search HERE. It’s only $159 a year and exports listings to Google Base, Edgeio and, it says, “1000’s of syndication partners”.

* Technorati launches a new newsletter called The Buzz Monitor. It’s a weekly update of what’s happening on the web, with headlines from the blogosphere, photos, tips and tricks from the publishers, and guides for their users. Sign up for the newsletter here.

* Kenneth Harney has an interesting story entitled “As IRS Income Verification Gets Tighter, Other Issues Emerge” in The Washington Post

“It’s going to get much riskier to fib about your income when you apply for a home mortgage. That’s because the Internal Revenue Service is overhauling a key income verification tool used by lenders — making it faster and easier to pull up electronically the confidential income tax information of borrowers.”

Called “liar loans” by some people, stated-income mortgage programs allow applicants to bypass standard underwriting requirements for W-2s or copies of personal and corporate income tax records.

* On Monday, the NWMLS reported that sometime between the evening of Friday September 29th and the morning of Sunday October 1st, the keybox was stolen from a house at a new construction site in the Union Hill area of Redmond. This fully-staged home had all of its furniture stolen as well as all of the kitchen appliances. There was no sign of forced entry and the key to the home was found on the kitchen counter.

* Some bloggers like making lists and/or compilations of other blogs, or even seeing how many posts they can write in a 24-hour period.

But some bloggers have found that might be dangerous. 101 Ways to Run Out of Things to Blog About