Welcome!
Great post Kris, My wife is a Broker/Owner here in Ohio. It is my belief that it is more about the Broker than about the size or affiliation. Good Brokers and Brokerages are both consumer and agent centric. Additionally, your comments about the non-MLS, MLS (SoCalMLS)is right to the point of what is happening in real estate today, and to the real estate agent. The Internet, Google, AdWords, Yahoo and all the newer sites make the arcane rules and the protective regulations of local MLS Boards both stupid and sad. Smart agents and smart brokers will soon discover that the out of date, out of touch MLS boards are the problem, not the economy...houses will still be sold but by progressive and smart agents and brokers out side of the restrictive rules of NAR and local Boards. Back six or so years ago I attended the NAR convention in Las Vegas where Mr. Internet spoke about the importance of Domain Names to agents and suggested to agents at the time that they buy as many names as possible, in their market, with the term "MLS"...great idea...and I did. I have been buying domain names for over ten years now, so buying domain names was just second nature to me. Even though I am not an agent I can and do see the value of domain names like SoCalMLS.com. So last years I was suprised to learn of the ruling of the NAR concerning the use, by agents and brokers, of the term MLS. While it did not impact me, since I'm not an agent, it seemed wrong headed to harm those agents that took the advice of Mr. Internet and the advice in Realtor magazine and built their online business around a domain name containing "MLS". It was my belief then, as it is now that more agents and brokers will form their own MLS, much like the agent you mention. In most markets it would oinly take two or three of the top brokers to form their own non-MLS, MLS. As I mentioned I've been buying domain names for years...I like to think of them as virtual land...and many are real estate related. Here are a few of the ones I get calls on all the time to either sell or lease: TheNewYorkCityMLS.com TheNorthernCaliforniaMLS.com TheSouthernCaliforniaMLS.com GreaterNewYorkCityMLS.com GreaterCharlotteMLS.com TheGreaterBostonMLS.com TheMiamiMLS.com ShortSaleNation.com Right now these names are parked at Godaddy, but they seem to be growing in value as agents look for the right names to drive customers to their on line business. Again, good luck and keep up the great posts. Vince Ciroli Paradise Land Company (a virtual land company)
Sean, You may be a little light on your number...I was hearing that it is 1 Quadtrillion (that's 1,000 trillion). Additionally, much of this is off balance sheet. This is the reason banks won't loan money to other banks...no one knows what the other bank has. Also, the CDO's have nothing behind them...they are just bets between two players on direction of pre-payments of another bond (tracking bond). In the beginning CDO's were like "insurance" for a true MBS...and the game changed...no regulation...and big boy become stupid. These same "big boys" were also the smartest guy in the room...how do I know...the guys in the room told me so. Now we are going back to the same "smart" guy(s) to help us out of the mess they created and they are going to give us a different result. The problem is the different result is potentially much worse than our current situation. What the market seems to be telling us daily is the extent of the mess is known by the smart guys and they are dumping stocks on everyone before the entire problem is revealed. I don't want to sound like this is all a conspiracy...but were are the dumbasses if we believe all that is being told to us by Hank, Ben and the boys on capital hill. Sean...keep up the good posts, I enjoy your comments.
This is more like a race to the bottom...price cutting just gets more price cutting. This sounds more like a revenue hunt on the part of Coldwell Banker. While many homes are indeed over priced, price cutting hurts all other homes on the market. While many believe we have just a supply problem, we may also have a "demand" problem. It is now more difficult for borrowers, especially with "Jumbo" financing needs or for those that need larger down payments. The way out of this problem is much more complex than just a 10% off fire sale.