The new Levitt and Dubner Freakonomics book has come out (called, of course, Super Freakonomics) and the buzz has already started. The two authors are making the talk show circuits and they have a scheduled appearance tonight at Town Hall in Seattle.
With the first book, they pissed [...]
A couple weeks ago on one of my afternoon walks I happened upon this For Sale sign:
Oh! And then I remembered this:
Kendra Todd has left Florida and was moving to Seattle and joining Keller Williams.
Then yesterday I received this notice of a[...]
Is there an online class divide? The research, and our own use, suggests that there is.
In “Does your social class determine your online social network?”, author Breeanna Hare found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the [...]
Rumor has it that Playboy was quietly being shopped around for $300 million and Apollo Capital Partners who owns Realogy, Century 21, Coldwell Banker and Better Homes & Gardens, has been approached to purchase the floundering dirty magazine business.
Former CEO Christie Hefner would have received $1.7 million, [...]
It’s always been a good idea and the right thing to do, but now the Federal Trade Commission will require bloggers to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.
It is the first time since 1980 that the commission has revised its guidelines [...]
It could be that technology will trump all of these new NWMLS rules, and blogging/comments/AVM restrictions will become ineffective and impossible to enforce with the new Google Toolbar application called Sidewiki.
Sidewiki is part of the Google Toolbar and is built directly into Firefox and IE and will be in [...]
The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) recently announced new rule changes that will impact agents ability to blog about certain homes. There has always been a rule about not advertising another agents listings without permission, but this new rule specifically forbids blogging about a listing if the seller opts out.
The [...]
I don’t have a professionally-made website. I don’t have my own programmer or graphic designer. I have to use out-of-the-box solutions for mapping and search. But it’s mine and I worked hard to get it to rank in the search engines for Seattle Real Estate and Seattle [...]
Jim Reppond noticed that Jim Cronin, Greg Swann and I were listed as answers for the question “Who is the current President of the National Association of Realtors?”.
I guess the author was hard-pressed to come up with the 3 most ridiculous contenders for [...]
Coldwell Banker today announced the launch of the first-ever international home search application for iPhone and Android-powered devices. The mobile application enables users to search for property listings and recent home sales in 28 countries and the results of these searches as well as the search itself can be saved [...]
Jim Calabrese, owner of NY firm Real Estate Signs has been banned from Facebook for having too many friends that had the same characteristics, i.e. REALTORS. Apparently, according to FB, this is in an indication of spam, spamming or potential to spam.
His supporters [...]
If the the puiblic didn’t read Amanda Bonnen’s Twitter feed before, they will now, thanks to a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Horizon Group Management in Chicago.
Bonnen, a tenant, posted an update that said, “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks [...]
I get these all the time.
Emails directly from Windows Live Mail blocked for safety by Windows Live Mail.
If Microsoft can’t even deliver their own mail, why do we continue to trust them to deliver anyone else’s? I would love to use Outlook but last time I [...]
Quadrant Homes has come up with a clever video contest called Lose the Rent with an Shepard Fairey Obama-like graphic. Make a video about your landlord and maybe win $1000.
[...]
Well, not my bathroom, my husbands (I have my own), but it’s in our house. He even gets a thank you and film credit in the end, hee-hee!
And The Ship Sails On by Joel Brouwer
Congratulations to our bathroom for its 15 minutes of fame.
[...]Mentally disturbed woman in Oregon harassing a family building a home on 20 acres:
Homeowner of feared stalker: ‘She thinks she’s the lady of the house’
[...]
Whack-A-Kitty, Whack-A-Mole, you’ve seen them all. Now it’s time to play “Whack-An-Agent”.
[...]
Here’s an ad I ran across today on Craigslist entitled “Local Realtors Needed To Input Flat Fee Listing Into The MLS”
Hello, we are currently in need of a Realtor in your area to input flat fee listing into the MLS. You must be a licensed Realtor [...]
Though real estate sales are down nation-wide, Condo Domain announced they’re expanding into several markets, Seattle included. Most real estate firms across the country are struggling. Zip Realty has yet to make a profit. Redfin hasn’t shown a profit either and has had to raise their prices, [...]
GIS Virtual has just the solution for those too cheap or too broke to stage their listings. They are a digital visualization company that will virtually “stage” your listing with computer-generated drawings and animations. It looks good on the interweb. Of course, buyers may be a [...]
The Great Wish across America is to resume the life of comfort-and-convenience that seemed so nirvana-like just a few short years ago, when the very constellations of the heavens might have been renamed after heroic Atlanta realtors and Connecticut hedge fund warriors, and the boomer portfolios groaned with earnings, [...]
Complementing their existing video program, Coldwell Banker recently launched their video channel on YouTube. Since 77% of total U.S. Internet users watch video online and, after watching a video over half move closer to a purchase, they figured that video could be an effective online marketing tool.
So far, all [...]
Advanced Access down again.
When logging on, one views the following message:
Server Application Unavailable
The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the “Refresh” button in your web browser to retry your request.
Administrator Note: An error message detailing the [...]
I’ve had an Advanced Access website for 10 years and was very happy with it the first 5 or so, until the company was sold to Dominion. Since then, Customer Service is a disservice and the product continues to suffer.
They’ve had periodic outages almost every month, [...]
Chuck Marunde, a real estate broker and ex-real estate attorney in Sequim, Washington, has started his own online newspaper the Sequim Port Angeles Newspaper Online.
It seems to be a home-grown mix of local, regional and national news, politics, events of interest and local photos, and welcomes input and submissions [...]
Reprinted from a past post, for your reading pleasure
Redfin’s San Francisco blog had a wonderful post “Palo Alto: In Praise of Garages”, enumerating several noteworthy garages in the Bay Area. They noted both the garages of young Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard and another noteworthy garage, the [...]
Ichiro’s House in Lakemont - A very special open house this Sunday, April 5th, from 1:00pm - 4:00pm hosted by Shawn Filer.
Offered at $1,750,000 with fantastic Lake Sammamish views from every room. 4409 164th Ln SE, Issaquah, WA 98027.
And this is news? I’m pretty sure anyone reading this blog is on Twitter and I’m also guessing that if you’re on Twitter and you sell real estate, you’re trying to sell houses. We may put links to our listings or being more subtle, offer links to interesting real [...]
Coldwell Banker became the first national real estate brand to develop a home search application for the Microsoft Surface. The Coldwell Banker Home Search application allows one to search for properties, browse neighborhoods, amenities and more through the touchscreen interface. How cool is that? Of course, you can’t actually BUY [...]
Wow. This is too good to be true. Win a 1 hour private “Personal Success Coaching” with Frank McKinney http://www.frank-mckinney.com/personal_coach.aspx …… a $2,500 value, according to Mr. McKinney.
Here is how you can enter to win:
1. Read 1 or all 3 of Frank McKinney’s latest [...]
The Seattle PI’s last day as a printed newspaper is today, leaving Seattle a one-newspaper town. The PI will be moving totally online and will try to succeed with a limited staff of writers and advertising salespeople.
Not only were some seasoned writers asked to stay on board, but [...]
This aired the same day I got my new iMac. I had to load Fusion on there to run Windows too so I could use the MLS and update my website, neither of which worked with the Apple OS. I had Office for Mac, but then I discovered that my [...]
A real estate executive with CB Richard Ellis Group, flung himself out of a window at the MetLife Building Tuesday, falling to his death as onlookers watched.
[...]How did Seattle become the home for technology companies that want to help you buy or sell … a home? Sure, it’s where Microsoft and Amazon are based, and it’s a well-educated, tech-savvy community, and the University of Washington churns out more than its share of software engineers.
But why real [...]
After too many years of financing Homer’s annual Mardi Gras party on home equity loans, Homer and Marge’s adjustable-rate mortgage skyrockets.
CNBC’s Rick Santelli is angry about the homeowner bailout for that 2nd bath:
.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;} The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c CNBC Gives Financial Advice
Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin
Political Humor
Joke [...]
Agents who have participated in a short sale transaction knows there may come a moment when the lender announces a reduction in the commission it will approve as a condition of accepting an offer. A great deal of angst circulates around this issue because, despite what the seller agreed to [...]
As a preview of what goes on at Bloodhound Unchained, Greg Swann and Brian Brady came to Seattle last week to lead a 1/2 day seminar at the Zillow headquarters in Downtown Seattle.
Blogging, social media, search and Real Estate 2.0 was discussed in [...]
Six immigrants who were prequalified for huge mortgages are suing Bellevue Towers and JP Morgan Chase Bank after they lost a combined $174,050 in earnest money. They allege the preferred lender put down false numbers for their income, which made it possible to prequalify but not to qualify for the [...]
The name “BarCamp” is a reference to the events origin, with reference to the hacker term, foobar: BarCamp arose as a spin-off of Foo Camp, an annual attendant-driven conference hosted by Tim O’Reilly.
The ideas were absconded by and riffed upon by techies in the real estate field [...]
BlockShopper, a site which uses public records, Facebook and Linkedin to track down who’s buying and selling what, has been sued by a law firm for linking to its website.
The law firm didn’t say why it sued, but maybe they thought the posts compromised their lawyers’ privacy. Housing [...]
Government may begin to subsidize at risk homeowners mortgage payements
-The plan under consideration would aim to reach borrowers before they fall behind on their payments.
Congress says no to the $15,000 buyer tax credit
-In a surprising reversal, lawmakers remove the needed incentive that was unanimously passed by [...]
With the future of my group blog Seattle Real Estate Professionals at the Seattle Post-Intellligencer at risk and newspapers all across the country in tenuous circumstances, I’m sharing this intriguing article from a few months ago in the New York Times, Newspaper Shuns Web, and Thrives.
[...]We’re all going to be sick of each other by the time this month is over:
1. Rain City Guide Meet Up at Crossroads in Bellevue on February 4th at 6:30 p.m. with Ardell, Rhonda and Jillayne.
2. Bloodhouse Unchained Preview Event where you can catch a preview [...]
Buyer makes an offer on a Paul Allen/Vulcan owned building.
Buyer used Paul Allen/Vulcan site agents and Paul Allen/Vulcan-recommended mortgage broker.
Chaos ensues.
Read the comments. Apparently, the wronged Buyer consulted a independent Realtor and was told not to sign the contract, but Buyer went around Realtor and used site agent [...]
• Our friend David Gedye, who is always leading projects he cooks up with mind blowing results, just sent us an email for his newest project, a collaboration with CNN and Photosynth for an ambitious presidential inauguration project. He writes:
You’ll be interested to know that I’m [...]
We got the saddest news over the weekend, Seattle’s oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is being put up for sale by the Hearst Corporation. If no buyer is found in 60 days, they can close it down.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for other papers, of [...]
Writing about Elvis so I don’t have to, Seattle/Bellevue Realtor Debra Sinick writes about the recent tour she took of Elvis’ Honeymoon Hideaway in Palm Springs. It wasn’t an agents or brokers open, but an open house for the public to take an inside peek [...]
With the end of 2008 and a new year beginning, PC World took a look back at the Internet’s oldest commercial Web sites — the ones registered way back when in the distant past, in 1986. The biggest surprise? Microsoft.com didn’t come online until [...]
Today is the 120th Tournament of Roses Parade and, as the National Association of Realtors concludes the celebration of their 100th Anniversary they will be a participant in the tradition of floral floats with their own entry. There’s a Realtor Float. Really.
NAR’s float celebrates the Dream of Homeownership for [...]
V for Vendetta, with some holiday goodness on the snowy streets of downtown Seattle.
[...]Seattleites sledding down Denny using everything from real estate a-boards to garbage can lids on Capitol Hill Seattle blog.
[...]I wasn’t able to get far out of my neighborhood due to weather conditions, but I did shoot some great shots of some kids and high-priced real estate, all covered in snow, with appropriate soundtrack by Dan Phillip.
[...]
We’re trying to raise some money for a friend who has been diagnosed
with ALS. He has a wife and two boys and we need to make some
accommodations in his home so he can stay there as long as possible.
The garage sale will be [...]
According to this article in today’s Washington Post, the the Treasury Department met with representatives of the NAR a few weeks ago and told them that they are considering a plan to intervene directly in the mortgage industry to force down rates and stimulate the housing market.
A source said [...]
Yeah, I was a (tiny) stockholder, via my 20+ old investment club WIMPS (Women Investing for Money, Power & Success). I just received this email today from the President of the Puget Sound Chapter of Better Investing:
For those of you holding WaMu stock, the news is grim. On September [...]
Equal Rights Washington, a statewide political advocacy organization works to end discrimination against LGBT people throughout Washington State.
They recently sent out a letter urging people to “procott” companies who support LGBT rights. Not boycott those who don’t, but “procott” and support those who do.
From a recent email from Josh [...]
CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. just landed one of the fattest real estate clients in recent history.
The Los Angeles-based global real estate services firm was just selected as a primary adviser for residential and commercial real estate assets the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will acquire as it takes over [...]
(Photo: Dan Schlatter)
Good sport Tim Ellis from Seattle Bubble and I pose in front of the deal board at Coldwell Banker Bain at a photo shoot at my office last week for an article in The Puget Sound Business Journal.
[...]Name This is an online company that allows someone to ask for help in naming their new business enterprise or product and then allows others to suggest the best name. The suggested names are ordered and prioritized and the winners can get paid.
Several real estate-related firms are looking for [...]
Every year on November 22nd, I like to pause and reflect about the body of work from writer and rabble-rouser Jack London. Jack London, who died today in 1916, was most famous for writing “The Call of the Wild”, but he was also a brilliant [...]
“Real estate, like car insurance, is usually a zero-sum game. You aren’t convincing people who otherwise would not buy a home to buy. You are stealing share from another broker who otherwise might get that client. Why should they choose you instead of them?”
Seattle marketing stategist Joe Hage discusses why [...]
I can’t say it was one of my favorites, but it did offer a few moments of amusement over the last few years. Who could forget the battle and flame war with Greg at Bloodhound Blog. What a hoot. Mr. Swann won that one and [...]
I had decided on a moratorium on Redfin news for awhile, but with their blogging, interviewing, press-releasing and general stirring up of the real estate dust last week, they’re hard to ignore.
With their venture capital dwindling and real estate commissions drying up, they’ve taken to a late-night-TV hawker mentality [...]
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Gaunt family in Buckeye wants to downsize and sell its home but they’re having trouble selling it.
So they’re taking a gamble and put an ad on Craigslist in order to raffle the 3,600 square foot home.
The [...]
I wish I could say that Dan Savage was looking at my other real estate blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website to read relevant and edifying real estate information, but alas, I think he was just looking for fodder for his Savage Love sex column.
How embarrassing! [...]
This is a great day for America, on so many levels and in so many ways.
My husband and I are Obama supporters and we created the “OBAMA” Room at Cafe Racer. That is the acronym for the Official Bad Art [...]
Happy Halloween!
Use Trulia Heat Maps to identify the well-endowed neighborhoods in your area (i.e. by highest average home price) and follow the red brick road.
Zillow blog Homes with a Scary History
Redfin has announced that they will discontinue “Sweet Digs”, the blogging program they instituted several years ago for each of their major markets. They paid individual bloggers, most with no real estate experience, to write about real estate in their respective cities. They initially hired [...]
Four speakers from different aspects of Paul G. Allen’s life will share the stage at a civic banquet on Oct. 30 to pay tribute to Allen, this year’s recipient of the Seattle-King County First Citizen Award.
Bill Gates, James Kelly, Sen. Patty Murray and Tod Leiweke [...]
Apparently so, from this ad posted on Craigslist. Why not just re-hire the people they let go? Is it so they wouldn’t have to pay health insurance?
With all their technology, heat maps, search functions, blogs, forums, statistics, pie charts and graphs, Redfin should have just entered the market [...]
Photo by Dan Savage
So now Zillow’s doing lay-off’s too, as they’ve let go 25% of their workforce this week.
In its current permutation, I have no quarrel with Zillow and actually enjoy their product, read their blog, and use their valuations. With good comparative sales information, I find their value ranges pretty [...]
I can’t say that I’m surprised. The whole premise of the company was built on the idea that real estate agents are overpaid and that technology and automation can streamline the system and reduce costs. High volume and easy sales is what is required to keep the ball in [...]
So we all know how important it is to guard our online reputation. I get most of my business from referral, but I also get inquiries from my website, and I always Google someone first, before I meet them. Employers are now doing the same thing. Say Cheese: 12 [...]
Craigslist in the Seattle/Tacoma area is now asking for real estate brokers to register before being able to post ads on the site. Is this the first step before charging brokers for the ads? It could be that the party will soon be over, as Craig expands his pay [...]
This is just one story in the naked city, but I imagine this kind of thing takes place all over the U.S.. In “Home Free: Foreclosure Crisis Benefits at Least One Group: Renters“, writer Dominic Holden interviews a group of users who quit paying rent and now have lived [...]
With a winning bid of just $1.75, a Chicago woman has won an auction for an abandoned home in Saginaw. Joanne Smith, 30, recently was the top bidder for the home during an auction on eBay, The Saginaw News reported. Her bid was one [...]
This story came out a few months ago, but I just read about it today. A company in the depressed town of Stockton, California is keeping busy painting the dead lawns of foreclosed homes with green paint so banks can tart them up for [...]
This just received from a loan officer at Washington Mutual:
Dear Clients and Colleagues,
The acquisition of WaMu by JPMorgan/Chase strengthens our commercial real estate lending program and provides stability in an environment of change. Please be assured that we will fund our loans as expected, and we look forward to [...]
A discussion at the Seattle P.I. on whether or not the government should restructure sub-prime loans morphed into a conversation as to whether real estate agents and others “responsible” for the monetary crisis should be taxed to compensate those who’ve lost money in buying or selling a home. One [...]
Wall Street was shaken to its foundations in the most harrowing and volatile week in modern history, as a widening crisis of confidence led to the demise of the 158-year-old Lehman Brothers, a government takeover of American International Group , a shotgun marriage of Merrill Lynch with Bank of America [...]
An earthquake devastated the Sicilian village of Salemi in 1968, killing 200 people and reducing thousands of buildings to rubble. Down the hill, a modern city sprung up in the village’s place, but the historical center has been a ghost town ever since. Except for [...]
A woman in Sheboygan, WI is suing the city because the city’s attorney used legal threats to get her to remove a link to the local police department website — the city apparently believes you need permission to communicate the URLs of its pages:
The city went further, the lawsuit [...]
—– Original Message —–
From: Elizabeth Govea
To: Marlow@SeattleDreamHomes.com
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 4:10 PM
Subject: Searching for the perfect eco-homeHi Marlow,
As you no doubt already know, green real estate is getting lots of buzz, and homebuyers in Seattle are leading the charge in eco-home and eco-luxury search. I [...]
Tired of gloom and doom stories about the US real estate market? We are, too. Check out
Happy Real Estate News via Curbed.
Does your home make you happy? Alain de Botton can tell you why with his book The Architecture of Happiness. [...]
I’m table captain for a fundraising luncheon 9/18 at the Rainier Club for History Link and you’re invited.
Gathered will be a motley assortment of local authors, writers, historians, politicians and others interested in local history and current events, who’re dedicated to supporting the work of History Link, the [...]
The brokerage findwell, in a press release issued today, appears to be setting themselves up as a alternative to Redfin, refunding 50% of the commission to a home buyer.
In their press release, they claim $6.6 million in closed sales in the first quarter of operations, however, I’m [...]
