For a minute I thought you were going to reference the post I made on the geography poll regarding India. I was half asleep but remembered it was funny and wanted to reread it, yet it was gone from the top ten and I couldn’t find it either.
Yes I was on a rant, in fact tonight I checked it and 20 more nots were added to go back to the bank this week, yet only two or three new listings in the last two days. I have checked, but not on all of them so you may be right, there might be people delaying with short packages but those should end up listed at least. Could they be going to private investors without hitting the market, maybe some but not the volume I’m missing. I don’t believe in voluntary holdbacks either, it’s probably just overworked REO divisions. I’ll give it a few more weeks to come through, as sales slow and rates rise the reo folks should catch up. I just need more volume of must sells, inventory is falling, multiple offers are increasing, I refuse to believe that I may be wrong about this whole reverse flipping, that all the Fb’s are finding way to keep their houses, it is just so much easier to subscribe to the evil conspiracy theory.
Another part of that rant was the out of town (L.A. and O.C.) realtors with heavy accents (that is a gift, I can barely understand anything they say and it’s not english or spanish). Why would banks list with out of town realtors who are clueless about an area and even more clueless about R/E in general. It isn’t just a few examples, it’s fairly common. In some cases I may choose to play lowball with the listing agent (waiting hawk’s tactic revisited), we both understand the situation, they are aware of certain comps and addresses when I quote them and it’s just easier to cut the crap and not play “post bubble 101.” Are those agents charging so much less that the banks won’t go local. The last guy I talked to, Muhammad Al something or other, turned out to be a college student working under a broker who hadn’t a clue about anything. Nice kid, through our conversations at least I taught him what prop 13 was about and how property taxes are calculated. I also let him in on the whole home owners association fees thing and how gated communities are required to pave their own roads and pay their own streetlights, that is why a gate adds $100 a month because taxes wont pay for what the public cannot enjoy. He was pretty happy learning that some streets are private, how taxes are figured and how hoa’s manage certain things and how as a real estate professional these tidbits of information may come in handy someday. I lost him when i tried to convince him that the multicultuaral style of play invading the NBA is a good thing even if Pao, Sasha, Vlade, Mbenga and Turiaf couldn’t get it together against the celts. I explained that the rich history of certain rivalries and the power of fans such as those at the garden can totally change the game, I went on with some complaints about the officiating but I lost him pretty much after the third word I spoke, so i decided to not even discuss the complexities of the Patriots and spygate. If school is in session, it’s time to learn, but at least he picked up on the real estate taxes concept and how that affects marketability. But I digress.
