A local San Diego brokerage, ARG has announced they are the first broker in San Diego to pull out of listing syndication.

I am not going to go into great detail on this site which is consumer orientated.  If you want to know more please visit an excellent article by Lily Leung with the San Diego Union Tribune.  She has also posted some consumer reaction to the announcement here.

Fred Glick makes several important points in the video below about ARG’s announcement which focus on Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com.

First, that the underlying message is to call the listing agent, no one else will know more about the property or represent you better.  Sounds like dual agency to me.

Second, that the seller should be concerned and not allow his or her listing to be syndicated on Zillow Trulia, or Realtor.com, the three largest consumer real estate sites on the Internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQm3ZvVRl4

What are your thoughts?

For our regular readers of San Diego Lifestyle my apologies for my long absence.  I’ve been busy with a few major projects and it has kept me from my regular blogging schedule.

We’ve made a few changes to San Diego Lifestyle including a brand new Diverse Solutions Home Search solution.

I’ve reviewed all the major IDX systems and Diverse is by far the fastest, easiest to use, and powerful consumer home search platform out there available to real estate companies.  For those that don’t follow industry news Diverse Solutions was just purchased by Zillow and I’m confident that it will continue to be a market leader in home searches.  Our older WordPress based search will be phased out over the next month or so.

We don’t required you to login to search or use the system, but the advantage of you doing so is the ability to save your favorites for easy retrieval, make notes, and access both of your desktop, laptop, or mobile device.  The mobile experience on a iPad or tablet is the best I have seen.  Rest assured that if you sign up we will not spam you or add you to any mailings without your permission.  You can however request a showing from within the program and one of our Associates will get right back to as soon as possible.

Secondly, San Diego Lifestyle is the now the public face of RealtyV2 with the addition of our Associates.  I will continue to write general real estate and San Diego information but my focus is not on active selling as much as management and projects.  However, I will always continue to represent past Clients to keep up with the latest changes in the marketplace.

I appreciate all your feedback and comments and look forward to another interesting year in Real Estate.  If you have the money and a good job there are some amazing opportunities in the marketplace with unheard of interest rates.

I thought this was really interesting that the San Diego Bay western salt ponds after 50 years, are being opened up to the Bay and tidal fluctuations.  This is the part of the final phase of the restoration project pictured to the left.  Here is what the U. S. Fish and Wildlife had to say regarding the project:

As you travel along the southwestern most corner of the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge, along the Bayshore Bikeway, you will see all the activity happening on the Western Salt Pond Restoration Project! Since construction began in December 2010, the dramatic change from commercial salt ponds to restored wetlands is taking place within the three western-most ponds (Ponds 10a, 10, and 11). What is going on under the water surface will soon be visible as we begin creating rare salt marsh wetland habitat.

The restoration of critical wetland habitat in San Diego Bay is essential to fish and wildlife and to the long-term health of the bay.

The western salt ponds will be transformed into open water, intertidal habitats such as mudflats, low-marsh, and mid-marsh (above). The construction will consist of earth moving by dredge, from Pond 10 into Pond 11 to create a sinuous network of channels that will serve as the main sloughs of over 200 acres of estuary in south San Diego Bay.

Once the channels are cut, and the proper elevations are achieved, the existing levees separating these ponds from the tidal waters of the bay will be breached in two places! These ponds have not received tidal bay influence since 1960 or earlier. By the end of Summer 2011, tidal ifluence from the San Diego Bay will flow and fluctuate within these ponds, which will allow natural plant propogation to take hold. Just wait to see what wildlife will come!

It is a challenging, yet exciting and rewarding project. It is the hope of all the project partners and local residents of San Diego that when completed, this project will restore native ecosystem functions of lower tidal marsh habitat…and to the rest of the South Bay. It is also the hope that in the future, this habitat will attract a keystone endangered species to thrive here: the Light-footed clapper rail.

Read more ….

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes made of ticky tacky,

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes all the same.

There’s a green one and a pink one

And a blue one and a yellow one,

And they’re all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same.

- Malvina Reynolds

The latest Case-Shiller report was out yesterday and you can view or download it below.  For those in a hurry here is a headline for you…

San Diego Real Estate Down 5.3% From Last Year!

In America we seem to be addicted to statistics and percentages.  Headlines proclaim “prices crash” when the adjustment is .2%. Many don’t really want the facts, just a quick soundbite which they consider factual rather than sensationalism.

Looking at the report closer we can see that the San Diego Market went down .2% from the pervious report, while the national average was -4.1%.

At San Diego LIfestyle we prefer to look at the facts from multiple data sources rather than a headline.  We drill down to street level for our Clients to find out the real story.

General market conditions can be found with national reports, slightly better with country reports, and the best with communities.  To find out the real story in a particular market you’ll need to analyze and find the best comparables.

I call this what your neighbors have been up to – recent sales will establish future value trends.

It is important to remember that while real estate can be considered a commodity, each property is unique.  The price of a can of chocolate can go up and down and the statistics really mean something.

Even in communities of little boxes that all look the same, some will be more desirable, and some less depending on location, closeness to shopping, or located on a 12 lane freeway.  Yet they are all thrown into the mix and averaged out with a catchy headline to sum it all up.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cgb-BCh-4g

Been changing a few things, hopefully for the better, on San Diego Lifestyle.  They include:

• Link to Google Chat from website - unfortunately only Flash.
• Cleaned up menu making it easier to find your way around.
• Additional ways to contact me including voice, text, chat, and Skype.
• Finally updated my photograph so people don’t look so surprised when they meet me in real life.

While working this morning at RealtyV2 Headquarters I kept hearing a strange sound like a waterfall.  Finally curiosity overcame my work ethic and I went downstairs to see the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W9zTWXSlVo

Pioneer Lofts, which is a historic building, is 6 stores tall.  I talked with residents that were on the roof deck that stated the water was well above the building height.

California Association of REALTORS® Sends Letter To Major Lenders

The letter written by CAR President Beth L. Peerce was address to major top 4 lenders and services urging improvements in the short sale process.  They include Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.

In the letter, C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce stated, “As public attention continues to be focused on the real estate industry in hopes of signs of a housing recovery, we trust you’ll agree that change in your short-sale process is critical.”

“We believe banks, investors, homeowners, and real estate professionals all have a common interest in conducting these transactions expeditiously and efficiently. The housing market recovery is in everyone’s best interests, and your urgent focus on these issues will help achieve that end,” Peerce continued in her letter.

Listed below are the suggestions to improve the short sale process.

• Provide realistic time frames and then meet those time frames.
• Provide a comprehensive list of information needed upfront.
• Provide approval requirements upfront that, if satisfied, would assure the borrower of a short sale approval.
• Disclose whether a loan you service is owned by you or if others own it. If others own it, provide time frames for approval. Be clear on who has final authority.
• Pre-approve the short sale and price upon request, prior to the property being listed.
• Review and respond with an approved offer to a borrower’s short-sale request within 30 days of receipt of the request. If rejected, be explicit on why, and how it can be corrected.
• Do not “restart” files from square one if something is missing. Allow the correction and continue, without bumping it to the back of the line.
• Have a person available who can inform the borrower about the file’s status and shortcomings, and who can assist in problem-solving.
• Increase the speed of processing files. Often, a single home goes through the process numerous times, resulting in months elapsing and buyers losing interest. The pre-approvals and cumulative files discussed above will dramatically assist this effort.
• Increase the amount junior lienholders receive. This is a common reason why short sales fail.
• When the property is cleared for sale, be explicit that there will be no recourse on the notes as required by SB 458, which now is in effect.

I believe these suggestions would go a long way in improving the short sale process. Most believe having a short sale is better on a neighborhood than a foreclosure.  The foreclosure process is taking way to long and the home sits empty and uncared for in the process.

SB-458 has taken away the risk for most homeowners of having a junior lender come back after them for recourse.  Improving the approval time frame and giving a green light early on in the process will keep buyers from having to write multiple offers in the hopes of finding one short sale that is approved.

Visit our short sale category for more details.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

California Tops In Short Sale Fraud

First the FBI announced a crackdown on short sale fraud, and then Freddie Mac  they are teaming up to go after bad real estate agents.  Freddie Mac short sales have increased from 4% of completed workouts in 2000 to nearly 14% in 2010.  The California Department of Real Estate has also issued a consumer alert.

As you can see from the image above, California is in the top states for short sale fraud.

Why are they going after real estate agents?

Since short sale fraud requires the cooperation of one or more real estate professionals involved in the transactions, we have begun reaching out to Realtor associations in target markets to educate them about the latest trends in short sale fraud, the red flags to watch for, and what actions they can take to stop it. We strongly believe responsible Realtors are America’s natural first line of defense against such scams.

There should be a special circle of H*ll for agents that participate in such deception.  The article goes on to give examples of possible short sale fraud.

Falsely indicating on a new short sale listing that there is an offer on a property in order to discourage legitimate offers and protect an accomplice’s planned low bid.

Manipulating the short sale listing price by making the house look more distressed than it really is (“reverse staging”), inflating repair estimates, or using similar tactics designed to obtain an artificially low home value on the Broker Price Opinion. (Our requirements prohibit the buyer, buyer’s agent, buyer’s attorney, or a third-party short sale negotiator to be the contact point for the agents preparing the BPO.)

“Flipping” schemes where the fraudster “buys” a house at a short sale without putting down any of his own money and then sells it a few hours (or days) later to a legitimate buyer at a much higher price. These are complex multi-step schemes that use falsified title and/or loan documents to fool a lender into approving the ultimate buyer’s mortgage, which the fraudster uses to settle the earlier closing on the house he “acquired” at the short sale for a much lower price.

Manipulating the HUD-1 settlement statement so the fraudster can skim away net proceeds from the sale for himself or other parties in the transaction without the seller’s or investor’s knowledge. (The HUD-1 is the document that itemizes all fees, charges, and other funds involved in a home sale.)

Download full FBI report by clicking image below:

Google Docs & Google Sites powers RealtyV2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKueHy485n0

When starting RealtyV2 I was committed to a paperless real estate brokerage.  I looked at all the major transaction management programs including Transaction Point, Relay, and Dotloop.  The problem with each of these programs was a very steep learning curve for both the user and the customer.  Secondly, there were written to be all things to all people, including the unfortunate ability to deal with dual agency.

Over several years RealtyV2 has experimented with various on-line transaction management systems.  We started with using Adobe Connect which didn’t really work out for our needs, then went to Box.net.  Box was a wonderful enterprise product but a huge overkill for a small company like us.

During the time we were using Box.net we noticed that Google Docs for business was getting better and better at providing the system we were looking for.  The collaborative features of Google Docs combined with Google Sites allowed us to customize and simplify a custom website for our Associates and Clients.  Secure, available 24 hours per day 7 days per week, and easy to use we are fully committed to Google Docs for all functions of RealtyV2.  Being a small brokerage, Google allows us to access enterprise level systems at a fraction of trying to do something on our own.

Compared to large legacy brokerages, many who require Associates to use Transaction Coordinators, our philosophy is the management of the transaction is critical in representing the Client correctly.  While RealtyV2 only hires Associates that are experienced and  ethical, my job as the Designated Broker is to be another set of eyes.  When I was in corporate real estate file review was all about volume and relying on staff to try and maintain a standard of care.  RealtyV2 is a company committed to each transaction and we take the time to carefully review each unique sale and make sure our Client gets the proper representation and appropriate disclosures.  Because there are so many moving parts, it is impossible for a program to have an advantage over an experienced agent and Broker.

We do not completely rely on Google Docs as unlikely as they would be to disappear tomorrow.  All of our transactions are stored in Adobe PDF format and are also backed up on a local hard drive and a third archive on Docu-Sign.  Finally, each of our transactions is backed up to a custom Adobe PDF Portfolio that is given to the Client at closing.

No one knows what the future holds in the transaction management field but we feel as custom solution is the best for our goals.  Having all the data in an industry standard format allows us to change in the future if someone invents a better wheel.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Hat tip to Jacques Albrecht for sending me this article on The Street titled “A Huge Housing Bargain — But Not For You.”  I had seen the Request For Information (RFI) earlier in the month, and had not really struck home what direction the Government may be going in.  As you know I always try to be balanced in my perspective on San Diego Lifestyle and provide facts, not spin to my readership.  This however really stinks.

The source of this article was from Real Money in a column by Roger Arnold that suggests the Request For Information (RFI) is just a way for the Federal Government to get input from from the private sector to accomplish the goals set out in the RFI.  This is just a facade according to the article since the RFI was structured by the investors to begin with.

You can view or download a copy of the Request For Information below and judge for yourself from the link at the bottom of this post.

Here is what the article had to say Roger Arnold article had to say:

NEW YORK (RealMoney) — The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors — vulture funds.

These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value.

You and I will not be allowed to participate. These investors will come from the private-equity and hedge-fund community, Goldman Sachs(GS_) and its derivatives, as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds that can bring a billion dollars or more to each transaction.

What can be done about this?  I will be keeping a close eye on this as it develops. If indeed, it goes in the direction that the article suggests, I will be very surprised if there won’t be heavy push back from the Taxpayers and from the National Association of REALTOR®.  Once again, in my mind the taxpayer is bailing out another special interest group and paying the bill.

Assuming taxpayers don’t push back, the next step will be to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). The RFP will be the bid and plan for these homes by investors.

The way to keep taxpayers from pushing back is to structure the RFI so that the real intention, the bulk sales, is masked by feel-good goals, such as stabilizing neighborhoods and increasing the supply of rental properties.

Is the American taxpayer really that stupid?

View of download the RFI by clicking the image below.