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The story:
Foreign buyers snap up U.S. real estate
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
My take:
Are there foreigners out there buying? Of course there are - there always have been! Foreigners are also leary about buying in this market because of all the negative publicity. No one wants to buy in a sinking market.
And while people like to lament that “eveyone’s a real estate agent”, I find that “everyone’s a writer” (including some ex-real estate agents). With the ease of publishing today, anyone can write a story and, using the right buzzwords, get it picked up. It’s amazing to me how many non-relevent stories get picked up by my Google Alerts where writers insert the work Hamptons in there, just to get the piece picked up by SEO.
That’s why, in my opinion, so many of these dramatic, “the world is ending” and Foreigners Gone Wild for US Real Estate” stories get picked up. Editors and publishers are looking for eyeballs and writers who deliver that get kudos -the integrity of our media has gone down the toilet, just like a lot of other things in the digital world.
As my friend Dave’s mom said to him and I when we were both getting divorced; ‘Well boys, now you did it, and now you’ve got to live with it”.
I’m livin’ with it…
‘very few people in this world can reason normally. there is a terrible tendency to accept all that is said, all that is read, and to accept it without question. only (s)he who is ready to question, to think for (him)herself, will find the truth! to understand the currents of a river, (s)he who wishes to know the truth must enter the water.” - Nisargadatta
There are some incredible deals out there, for those with the courage to step forward and have some respect for those who stand in the river.
We are so pleased to announce that Jeanine Edington has joined Re/Max Beach Properties of The Hamptons as Vice-President.
Jeanine is a professional career Realtor who has listed and sold hundreds of properties amounting to multi-millions of dollars from Southern Indiana and Kentucky to New York and The Hamptons.
I had the priviledge of working with Jeanine a few years back at Prudential Douglas Elliman and watched her become a force in Hamptons real estate while she was with the Corcoran group.
We’re genuinely excited to start 2008 with the addition of an Associate of Jeanine’s caliber as we begin our second full year of operations, here in the Hamptons. md
for more info on Jeanine, goto: http://www.jeanineedington.com/
Here in the “fabulous Humptons” we’re inundated with brokers attempting fake English accents. There are even reports of some ascots floating about. Well, here’s some more material for them from across the pond:
A Bluffer’s Guide to today’s property market
telegraph.co.uk
Cheers!
Very relevent issue in the Hamptons. Interestingly enough, several of the major companies out here have consistently had their principals as the top selling brokers year in and year out, even though the agents complain about it, they have stayed with it, because on the other end of the scale, the non-selling brokers are typically just administrators who have very little business savvy.
That, however is changing. One of the majors here is in for a big fall soon because their managers abuse their position and take food out of their agents mouth on a consistent basis.
I agree that a broker should “stay in the game”, but conduct themselves “beyond reproach”, ensuring that there is no question as to where their business came from. md
see this terrific post from the Sellsius blog on When Your Broker Competes
September 7, 3:45 pm
New York sees fewer new brokers
As the housing market cools, fewer people are becoming real estate brokers in New York.
At the end of 2006, the New York State Association of Realtors had 73,737 members, a figure that dropped to 66,788 by August 31.
Nationally, the association said only 11,679 housing agents became members in the first half of this year, compared to 129,552 in the first half of 2005.
Barry Hersh, associate director of Baruch College’s Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, said far fewer people are switching to real estate from other fields than two years ago. Hirsh said the real estate field was overcrowded during the boom.
“We had 28,000 sales people in Manhattan and 12,000 transactions to make,” he said, referring to the 2005-2006 peak period.
Kathy Braddock, a partner at real estate consulting firm Braddock and Purcell, said new agents who were part of the 2005 flood had unrealistic expectations.
“For a moment there everybody said, ‘Oh, I can make a million dollars in real estate,’and you can’t,” she said.
Along with the slowdown, another issue aspiring brokers must contend with is required class time to obtain a license, which is slated to increase from 45 to 72 hours. By James Kelly
ed note: it was not unusual to go by any Hamptons brokerage during the month of August and see it empty. Guess the beach was calling…md
OK, I admit it. This bull (not just because I’m a Taurus) started growing claws the last few weeks, with the news stories flowing about AHM, IndyMac, First Mangus, Thronburg, Green Point, Countrywide, and countless others. I’m an eternal optimist, with a realist bent, but even my closest business friends were walking about with one raised eyebrow since early August.
As I have heard and repeated many times before “if you do a rain dance long enough, it’s going to rain”.
“Is our rainy day(s) here?”, I asked.
“Just look at the papers and listen to the news”, I was told. Ohhhhhh, of course.
Well, refreshingly, lawyer, writer, actor and economist Ben Stein, as usual, helped put things in perspective for me this morning:
“ FEAR CAN TRUMP FACT Today’s news media will “catastrophize” anything they can. The subprime mess was always much smaller than the media let on. (See my column of two weeks ago.) In a nation of our size, in a world economy on fire with prosperity and liquidity, the losses were not large, but the media endlessly tried to scare us. ” Ben Stein 8/26/07
See the rest of Ben’s NYTimes article here: Avoid the Craziness and No One Gets Hurt
SEE BEN STEINS CBS REPORT HERE
Ok, so I get the UNSOLICITED SPAMail this morning and, DUH, open it up:
Well, if they list the “TOP REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN AMERICA” , I’d like to see how they do it and who those “top real estate agents in America” are.
So, I go to their website:
SPAM like this - AGENT QUEST - is getting me increasingly hot under the collar!
Are there really realtors and consumers out there who buy this junk? I guess people are falling for the Ambassador to Guyana needing to invest $22 million emails, so…
Sure, they’ll get you in touch with “TOP AGENTS”. If you agree with their definition of a “TOP AGENT” as being anyone who’s desperate enough to pay AGENT QUEST $59.00 a year! See below:
Insulting, exploitive, immoral - should be illegal!!! md
…that brokerages, here in the Hamptons and the North Fork move into the 21st century.
These tech introductions are still years behind the rest of the country as far as giving true exposure to sellers listings, but that’s been the parochial nature of the East End.
Check out the latest article on the subject by Lauren Elkies
August 2007
Hamptons listings: From Stone Age to E-Age
By Lauren Elkies
“There’s a joke in the industry that real estate is no one’s first career,” writes Alison Rogers in her new memoir, “Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding — and What I Learned (The Hard Way!).” “It’s always something people come to by default, seeking money.” see more from Salon.com here
Order Alison’s book from Amazon.com here
Also, check her interview out on Inman TV here
md
…is very similar to Manhattan.
Here, in the Hamptons aka “The Wild, Wild East”, it has been common practice for years, for agents and brokers to selectively co-broke their listings, not giving access to some agencies. It’s very similar to how cliques form in junior high While it’s against the Realtor Code of Ethics it might even be considered a “restraint of trade” by the Department of State or the DOJ. It has yet to be tested.
Recently, RealNet Solutions, the local provider of a back of house listing management system that coordinates with Hamptons Real Estate Online (HREO.com), started offering an electronic listings exchange system called OREX (Open Realnet Exchange).
For the first time, instead of faxing listings and co-brokes to each other, agencies who use RealNet can electronically share their listings. The question is: will they?
One step forward…
See this article, by Lauren Elkies about Manhattan co-brokering. Sound familiar?
June 2007
Co-brokerage and commissions in conflict
By Lauren Elkies
What does this post have to do with Hamptons Real Estate? Yes, I know, we are so very extraordinary and no other market in the world is like ours. True, we are very special and unique. That being said, so are Manhattan, Santa Barbara, Key West and Nantucket. And they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like we do. All politics and real estate are local, but the 80/20 rule applies and 80% of real estate is done the same way everywhere, whether it is done with dollars or pounds, in English or in French. Property, sellers, agents, buyers. We need to be smart enough to enjoy our uniqueness, but see the leverage of using tools and practices that work the world over. md
Where Trulia Went Right…Trulia has built relationships with many of the most highly-respected figures in the real estate industry. Pete Flint, Trulia.com’s founder and CEO, is a true diplomat and politician. Also, he is clearly able to articulate his vision in a way that excites people and engages them.
TOP INDEPENDENT AND FRANCHISE BROKER EXECUTIVES TO JOIN TRULIA.COM REAL ESTATE ADVISORY BOARD RISMEDIA, April 11, 2007-Trulia.com, the national residential real estate search engine, announces the addition of four highly respected real estate industry executives to its Real Estate Advisory Board… Hanna, Phillips, Saunders and Therrien join fellow broker and industry leaders from across the country including: Anthony Azar, CEO, Realty Executives Southern Arizona; Sherry Chris, COO, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation; Bill Plattos, COO and general manager, First Team Real Estate; Van Davis, consultant and Former CEO, Foxtons; Michael Koval, SVP and CIO, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.; Jonathan Miller, president/CEO, Miller Samuel Inc.; Robert Moles, chairman, Intero Real Estate Services; Steve Ozonian, chairman, Realty Information Systems Inc./Help-U-Sell Real Estate; Michael Pappas, president, The Keyes Company; Bob Peltier, president, Edina Realty, Inc; and Kaira Rouda, COO, Real Living, Inc. more here
…and where Zillow went wrong…Zillow has not followed Trulia’s example of relationship-building. They have tried to step over the largest group of independent business people in the US (Realtors) and form direct relationships with the consumer that supercede the Realtor. They wore on their chests as a medal the fact that they put tens of thousands of travel agents out of business with Expedia.com.
The idea behind Zillow is very clever indeed; however, the execution of the idea was not very clever at all. Arrogance has its price. See Chicken and Real Estate. md
