Derek Eisenberg

There's a difference between telling the truth and volunteering it. Days on market stigmatize a home. The value of a home should be based on comparable sales; not perceived desperation of the seller. I have had listings with difficult tenants that took longer to sell because buyers could not get in. Similarly I have had sellers that refused to use a lockbox and could only show the house evenings and one of the two weekend days because they observed the sabbath. I have had sellers that needed to experience the market before they would bring their house down to the right asking prices. Houses with these types of situations take longer to sell but that does not make the seller desperate such that it should further buyer low balling. DOM should be invisible until the property closes. If a buyer's agent wants to know the DOM, there is a simple way for him/her to find out....he/she can ask. Derek Eisenberg http://www.mls2u.com

Unfortunately, this does not help REALTORS® and MLS members who have to agree to binding arbitration as part of membership in MLS with no assurance that the adjudicating arbitrators have to follow any rule of law or even their own rules. Instead it furthers the Kangaroo Rule of Law. Requiring arbitrations to adhere to both the law of the land and the bilaws/rules of the Realtor Association and/or MLS should be a right that no REALTOR® can sign away; not something you have to ask for which the asociation and/or MLS will never agree to. This is badly needed because if one does not agree to arbitration, one cannot peddle his/her wares (houses) in the marketplace (MLS). So it's basically give up your rights to a fair trial or go out of business. All arbitrations should be statutorily required to adhere to the law (and organization bilaws/rules) and any errors should always be subject to review by the courts. Derek Eisenberg http://www.mls2u.com

Michael (LittleBig), At the end of the day, regardless of whether the appraisal was good or bad, you signed a note and a check was cut. You saw how much money you would owe and had to know you were not capable of paying it back. Now let's say your house could adequately collateralize the loan amount. You would still lose your house. The only difference is that if your house was worth more, maybe you could have sold it instead of being foreclosed on but either way you borrowed more than you could afford and had to give up the house. Derek Eisenberg Continental Real Estate Group, Inc. Licensed Real Estate Broker http://www.mls2u.com