Free Speech? Miami Realtor/Blogger sued by developer for $25Million January 29, 2008
It was reported by the Miami Herald that a local Realtor blogger is being sued by a developer who is not pleased that the blogger, Lucas Lachuga, remarked that the development was “doomed” on a January 10th post.
”Like any other blog out there, it’s a collection of my unbiased opinions and thoughts,” he said. “I have buyers all over the world who go to my blog. They know I’m not going to sugarcoat the market.”
Realtor Lucas Lachuga’s Blog is called Miami Condo Investments.
This is the kind of case attorneys probably would watch very closely.
The Dustin Luther factor: Where it all began, sprinkled with blogging surprises January 18, 2008
First, I don’t know about other’s experiences in blogging, but stumbling upon Rain City Guide over a year ago or so and Dustin’s introduction to me of the world of moving away from a static glorified business card (called a website) to that of the dynamic and interactive world of Blogging has had a tremendous impact on me and as a small business owner (like everyone here).
For example, I’ve been able to make contacts with people whom I would never have had the chance to without the platform of blogging, both personal contacts and business contacts. Today, I got a chance to head back to my old stomping grounds in Seattle due to a courtesy signing with a client who teaches at Seattle University. After finding a parking spot, I headed over to the campus and walked to the School of Engineering to meet for our appointment. After about 30 seconds, I realized I was talking to an old neighborhood acquaintance whom I have not seen for over 30 yrs!
Inspired, after the appointment, I drove up Madison St. towards 19th and headed North towards St. Joe’s School on 19th and Aloha where I went to school as a kid. On the Northwest corner of 19th & Aloha is a small building where I was given my first job as a skinny, messy 70’s style haired bloke. The impact of that first job is really what set the stage for the foundation of work ethic and character building.
My first job was given to me by the late George and Evelyn Benson of Benson’s Mission Pharmacy on Capitol Hill. For those unfamiliar, George Benson was a long time pillar of the Capitol Hill community and a respected Seattle City Councilman. You want to talk about customer service? I distinctly remember George pulling up in his car to hand deliver a prespcription for my mom or dad at our front door a few blocks away. Those were the days of intensely personalized service. Mission Pharmacy and the Benson’s are no longer, but the windows I washed and the sidewalk I swept are still there as they were 30 years ago.
I headed over to my old house where I grew up, drove around the front of the home, got out of my car and headed over to the steps and walkway that wind up to the front door, but I stopped short of that trek—memories just racing through my head. Walking back to my car, I then drove around to the alley, which really was “our” front door entrance. Peering through my passenger door window I stared up into my old bedroom window and into the back yard. I was too embarrassed to walk up and knock on the door. Perhaps another day.
Part of the motivation for telling you this is about finding out who you really work with and the idea of “trust.” Does it matter to you? Trust in real estate is the glue that keeps customers coming back to you. Trust to do the right thing. Trust to work in the best interest of our mutual client.
When you strip away all the marketing persona and fluff in our industry and get to know potential new clients in a transparent and personal way, giving a glimpse into what makes you tick, warts ‘n all, it is remarkable how quickly you forge trust in the person standing across from you. Finding a common denominator and building trust with a potential client on a level that has nothing to do with business has been exceptionally fruitful.
Since the beginning of this year, just days ago, through blogging, I have reunioned with two old childhood friends and received fruitful clients. When you strip it all away I’m not terribly different than any other agent or loan officer trying to make a living. On Thursday, I headed out to brokers opens to meet some new people in the business who work in our area and I bumped into an old “acquaintance” whom I met at college in 1985. I haven’t seen her for 21 yrs. The funny thing about the meeting was that she (the agent) mentioned to me “ya know, I just speak my mind, and I wanted to you to know that I had a crush on you way back when we were freshman.” What a Brokers open and what a week.
Dustin, although I’ve never met your family personally, thanks for introducing me to a way that a small fry can compete with the Goliath’s.
CNN Money.com: Appraiser sues WaMu January 17, 2008
The intersection of ethics and real estate meet again
As if WaMu didn’t have enough on its public relations plate, CNN Money reports:
Jeniffer Wertz, who is seeking unspecified damages, says WaMu stopped accepting her appraisals in mid-2007 a month after she reported that her local housing market in California was “declining.”
Evidently, Wertz claims that Washington Mutual wanted her to change her forecast to “stable.”
And on the other side of the coin
Bloomberg reporting that inflated appraisals causing significant losses to lenders.
`You started to see more and more loan products that would keep payments low, and I see that as correlating with appraisal pressure because those products only work in a rising market.”
(and, which loan products might those be I wonder tongue in cheek?)
Former guest at Inman Connect, Jonathon Miller, a sought-after New York appraisal and real estate consultant remarked:
“Lenders and mortgage brokers routinely pressured appraisers to boost values, said Jonathan Miller, a New York property appraiser for more than two decades who writes a blog about the problem.”
And more from the Bloomberg article….First American and WaMu working together?
“In New York, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest buyers of U.S. mortgages. He also sued First American Corp.’s eAppraiseIT LLC for allegedly caving to pressure from Washington Mutual Inc., its biggest customer and the largest U.S. thrift, to inflate values.”
Ethics in real estate: oxymoron?
What I love about this business: the people January 10, 2008
Escrow is one of the toughest jobs in real estate, for a lot of different reasons. But, it is by far the most interesting from our experiences in that both Lynlee and I have sold (circa 1990) as licensee’s, bought and sold homes as homeowner’s and today as owners of an escrow company.
For example, in a recent day at the office we have had people curse at us, a customer who threatens to sue everyone in the deal including the clerk at the corner 7-11, an angry client yelling at their loan officer so loud that other tennants in our building start calling to see if everything is ok, then, before we have a chance to catch our breath, my wife comes smiling out of the signing room after meeting with a client. Looking at her, I say, “what are you grinning about?” To which she wryly remarks, “that customer just told me, ‘please don’t take me the wrong way, but you are a very pretty lady.”
You can be the scum of the earth to someone at 10am in the morning and then a hero just twenty minutes later.
In escrow you meet the most interesting people: From rock stars, to brain surgeons, shakers ‘n movers, CEO’s, farmers, war hero’s, teachers, politicians, pro-athletes and more. And, the occasional world famous writer to boot.
“Hope Now” program to curb delinquency/foreclosures fraught with problems December 4, 2007
The Hope Now program currently being proposed in the other Washington is designed to assist current homeowners with Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM’s) in which their ARM’s may adjust upward causing financial hardship. An issue of immense concern is how do you sift through the thousands of homeowners and qualify those who’s mortgages are about to recast to some ugly interest rate? Further, how do all the stakeholders and investors of these mortgages see this playing out—that’s the part Attorneys will have to fight about (what say you Attorneys?).
If the Government players in this program, including one of the lead Conductor’s in this orchestra, Treasury Secretary Paulson, have their way, the investors of these loans will have to be a good sport and play along, never mind losing copious amounts of money, nor the other legal implications.
‘The modification of existing contracts, without the full and willing agreement of all parties to these contracts, risks significant erosion of 200 years of contract law,’ said Joshua Rosner, managing director at an independent research firm in New York.” - From Bloomberg.com
“On Monday, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said he hoped to reach agreement this week with lenders and institutional investors on a plan to temporarily freeze the teaser rates for certain qualified borrowers. But industry analysts and executives were skeptical about the government’s ability to produce a high-speed approach to handling thousands of cases with a few simple principles.”
The legal side of the issue goes without saying and how might this affect Freddie and Fannie? Read from Bloomberg.com:
- “If you think getting mortgage servicers and investers to agree on an outcome is tough, just wait until the lawyers get involved.”
- “While Paulson has been busy devising a plan that limits the damage to the economy without encouraging more risk-taking in the future, ‘Treasury hasn’t thought through’ one aspect of the plan, Rosner said: the implication for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored mortgage behemoths.” “‘Guess who’s the largest single holder of AAA notes? Fannie and Freddie,’ he said.”
Of the four groups that are being outlined in the plan for sub-prime borrowers, Group 2 would be for those who:
“….folks who haven’t been able to pay the teaser rate, not to mention the higher reset rate. Implicit in Group 2’s specifications is the fact that these people couldn’t afford their mortgage in the first place, lied or were encouraged to lie about their income, got a no-doc, no-questions- asked loan or were victims of fraud. They were counting on higher home prices and refinancing as a way out. `
`Some of these homeowners will become renters again,” Paulson said.
“Some of these homeowners will become renters again,” as Paulson remarked, is exactly the sentiment I have shared for many months. Is the crossroads we find ourselves in what the real estate industry and all its moving parts intended when making homeownership a reality for many people? And yet, here we stand.
Let Brokers charge what they want. Do away with YSP. November 15, 2007
Couldn’t the whole yield spread premium (YSP) debate with all the trimmings end with a simple solution such as allowing the broker to charge whatever they want? Let the free market sort it out. Certainly lenders would have to be on board and do away with incentives or change them somehow, but it seems to me that everyone is making it so complicated.
Yes, compliance issues, licensing and fair dealing issues are important and should be implemented in some manner.
Solution:
- Just disclose up front what the compensation is based on the interest rate or program the borrower qualifies for. Therefore…….
- No more the need to attend sales seminars on learning how to overcome objections, which will allow more time to attend seminars on how to provide sterling service.
- No more awkward moments for the loan officer attending an escrow singing when the borrower questions that “YSP thingy.”
- No more loan officers asking escrow “how will you explain YSP” to the borrower, as if escrow’s response somehow dictates whether or not they will receive future business.
- No more agents having to watch helplessly at their clients becoming frustrated or stressed out due to lending problems associated with YSP’s and the completely preventable situation where a transaction spirals out of control at the last moment.
- How about lenders just have a simplified schedule of programs and rates that the borrower can choose from and if they pay a higher interest rate they receive a rebate that can be used on their behalf. How about just turning the PC monitor around and showing the consumer the several programs available and then have a good old fashioned counseling session. It would save every single moving part in a transaction a lot of grief. And it would save transactions from failing at the last moment because a “nuclear bomb disclosure” by a lender about the yield spread premium a loan officer is earning that freaks out the borrower.
I can just about darn near guarantee that if a consumer knows where all the chips are on the table, they would have no problem moving forward with a transaction. Give a consumer the very best rate they can qualify for, at the very lowest fee structure you can, with all the chips clearly on the table and Bam! you have a happy client, fostering long-term value.
When will someone just give the consumer what they want? Somebody is working on it and they are going to will be very successful. Is it really more complicated? If so, sound off.
My inspiration for this week: Hamoody November 4, 2007
Life in real estate. Good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks. When things get a little bit crazy, what picks you up? A few weeks ago I mentioned that inspiration is everywhere, if you let it in your world.
My inspriation was someone who I read about, but today, I got to see in person. A remarkable story. An amazing boy.
Be sure to click on the photo’s.
Blog Wars: It’s everywhere.
The last month has been educational for me in a lot of ways about our industry and confirmed a lot of my thoughts, both good and bad. There is a lot of passion out there in the blogosphere and out in the work place. The one nugget I always come away with is that the real estate industry is full of very independent people who are fierce in the way they do business and in the manner in which they convey their positions on issues. Both in the work place and blogging, some are professional, others make fools of themselves, intended or not.
One common denominator I see is that people genuinely want to improve our industry, its function and image. The problem is, how can that happen with such fragmented independent practitioners that all play a part in this industry? There are so many moving parts with industry specific (lending, title, escrow, Realtors, consumers) internal self-serving issues. Perhaps this fragmentation of independent real estate practitioners is a core reason why the industry and associated moving parts has suffered from image and credibility problems for so long. Just take a recent look at all the folks that were operating under the radar over the past two or three years with criminal records.
Recently, I don’t know how many times on local or national blogs and forums, I’ve seen the quote from agents and loan officers, “sure be glad to see (insert any practitioner here) get out of the business,” or “I’ll be happy if there are less (insert practitioner) here as this market shifts,” and so on. Again, the problem is, everyone is saying it. It’s like each team praying to God…..”and help us beat the other team.”
Passion and Blog Wars extend far outside our real estate industry. That’s what is so interesting to me as a small business owner involved in the real estate industry and blogging. I know this is foreign for many of my friends and colleagues in the real estate business, but here goes anyway: The world does not revolve around real estate. The Blog Wars extend into every crack and corner of our society: soccer mom’s, politics, economics, Church, professional sports and the “Holy Land of Blogging” known as the technology and software industry.
It’s Stormy out there, but we are having fun! October 19, 2007
OK, so it’s stormy and gloomy outside and there are blogger civility issues going on. The stock market gloomy today? Oh yea, that too. But,we are having fun! What are you doing around the office to keep things bright and morale high?
We’ll, someone had a birthday at our office and her Elvis memorabilia continues to grow at her desk and Pumpkin season is here! I love the Fall. My wife dislikes it and hates my favorite saying this time of year: “it’s great Soccer weather!”
The funny thing about this cardboard Elvis is that it has a sensor so that when someone walks by, Elvis talks! Elvis appears to also be light sensitive. When we turn off the lights after work, he said, “hi, good to talk to you.” Can’t wait till the night cleaning crew comes and turns on the lights. They will be in for a treat!
Does the NAR & the Big Brokers really want to fight The Blogosphere? October 17, 2007
There have been a lot of discussions lately regarding Blogging, both it’s merits and potential for fallout on many levels. The problem with trying to keep Blogging under wraps: If you do, you have the potential for political backlash, both from the agents that build the brand of the broker (Re/Max, Windermere, Coldwell Banker, etc. ) and the Blogosphere itself, an enormous Goliath. Is it a battle anyone really wants to have?
Over at the Seattle PI Real Estate Professionals Blog, agent Sandy Kaduce remarked, “they will take away my blog from me when they pry it from my dead cold hands.” And, our friends howling down in the Sun in Phoenix take on the National Assn. of Realtors possible policy on curbing blogging for its membership.
But, what if an agent’s very own client blogs about their very own listing for sale and soliciting advice from the general public? For example, this case at Seattle Bubble from blogger “Econ101″. (a little more than halfway down in the comment fields)
I’m not certain anyone understands the possible repercussions of curbing blogging.
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