Bob Casagrand’s March 2006 Real Estate Report

[sdrealtor]

Yeah Bob’s a great guy and an experienced Realtor. He’s seen it all! Funny, I never heard of him…….

OOOPPPPSS Just checked the CA DRE Licensee Website and it appears he’s been licensed all of 2.5 years.

DOUBLE OOOOPPPSSS….In his stellar real estate career he has 1 listing sold (yes you read that correctly!) and is currently in escrow on his second career sale. Well at least he has time to write about all the things he’s never personally done. Yeah….that’s the kind of guy I want representing me. To quote powayseller “A TRUE PROFESSIONAL”…LOL

[powayseller]

The integrity of a realtor is separate from his years of experience. From his photo, he looks to be in his 50’s, and I thought I had read he sold RE since the 70s, but that was my mistake. Sorry. However, his years of experience was my mix-up – he never told me how long he’s been selling RE. Furthermore, I am amazed that he is the only realtor in SD who has such a good understanding of the market. He writes like someone who’s been in the business much longer, that’s why I made the mistake of thinking he has been. He just sounds so knowledgeable, and he’s nice too. Since he’s not pushing people into buying with the “you better buy now before you’re priced out of the market and RE never goes down” phrases, he probably has had fewer sales. The drawbacks of a conscience!

Bob Casagrand has integrity, and sdrealtor, you don’t! When are you going to stop spying on people who disagree with you? Bob didn’t do anything to you. He’s giving us data, that you don’t even understand! You check out my house on the MLS, but you get the data all mixed up. You read Bob’s real estate report, but can’t figure out why the median price is going up, even though it’s written right there. I thought it would be fun having you on this board, but I changed my mind. You’re not a good sport, you’re full of yourself, and you give realtors a bad name.

[Californiabrownbear]

Why don’t you give SDRealtor a break? How many realtors have the guts to post on this site let alone admit they are a realtor on a housing bubble website? SDRealtor is bearish, although he doesn’t share your extreme position on the slowdown so you attack him even when he discloses information that is difficult to obtain without access to the mls. Unfortunately for some people his information hits a little too close to home. Can we please stop the attacks on those with differing opinions?

[sdrealtor]

He’s my quote word for word “A quick thought….do you think the decline in the percentage of homes selling under 500K had anything to do with alot of homes that sold between 475K and 500K last year now selling for 501K to 525K? I don’t know whether this is happening but it just points out how careful you need to be when reading anything into published statisitics.”

I asked a question which I do not know the answer to. It would be extraordinarily difficult to answer it. I understand how real estate data is collected and reported. Trust me, I understand it far better than your pal Bob and it is far far from perfect! I asked the question to get you all to think a little harder. When you hear something you disagree with you are quick to attack it and question its validity. When you hear something you agree with you give it a pass as the gospel. I encourage you to question EVERYTHING, that which you agree with as well as that which you do not agree with.

As for spying on Bob? Are you kidding me? That is information any one could find out rather easily. Spying is not necessary. Too much of people’s real estate decisions are based upon perception and not the truth. I speak the truth. You relied on your perceptions and then promoted him as something he is not. I dont blame you for being fooled…there is a lot of fooling going on out there. Bob Casagrande is one of many trying to pass themselves off as some sort of expert. The sum total of his knowledge comes from analyzing and interpreting poorly compiled data. Real knowledge comes from experience. I am not here trolling for clients. I have been complimented several times and asked for contact info, websites etc. I have never contacted one of these people nor will I. I am here to learn more about the market psychology and to provide balance to some very one sided opinions. Bob is trying to buy clients by being perceived as an experienced knowledgable Realtor. He spends a tidy sum doing so and obviously has had a very poor return on his investment. Pretty much the only thing I spend money on is to promote my clients property in ways I believe will directly help sell it not to get more listings. You will never see my face on a shopping cart nor a website no one every really goes to (realtor.com is the only place I spend money on the net because it directly helps drive traffic to my listings).

Here are a few tips when dealing with Realtors.
1. Look them up on the CA DRE website. Its http://www.dre.ca.gov Ask them how long they have been in the business and see whether they lie to you. Inexperience is not as bad as lying in my book.
2. Ask them how many transactions they have done in the last two years. If they havent done many, you will be one your own for alot of tough issues.
3. Do they own their own home? There are a very high percentage who have never owned a home. This may be due to them not making enough to buy one (i.e. no experience) not beleiving in the market (then why are they selling something they dont beleive in). But here’s the biggest problem. There are a lot of issues that come with home ownership (repairs, maintenance etc.). It’s kind of like asking someone with no children what its like to be a parent.
3. Ask for at least 5 references. You don’t even need to contact them. If they cant provide them quickly…run away.
4. Ask them what they will specifically do to sell your property. Too many practice the 3 P’s…Put a sign up, put it in the MLS and Pray! There are lots of things smart creative minds can do to help sell your home. If they dont have approaches beyond those 3, you might as well just list with a discounter like Help U Sell and save the money.

I could go one and on but most importantly ask questions and demand truthfullness. You deserve it!

[powayseller]

Sdrealtor has not disclosed anything. He has launched personal attacks.

[sdrealtor]

You want a disclosure….here’s one. While you are saying this market is losing steam, much to my surprise it is actually picking up momentum. I just checked pending sales for the last 3 weeks in thr MLS and compared to the same 3 weeks in 2005 they are running at 90% of the volume. A month ago we were at 70% of the volume.

[North County Jim]

Are the numbers you’re citing county-wide numbers or specific to an area?

[sdrealtor]

Countywide detached home sales

[rockclimber]

sdr: Some very good suggestions. Thanks for your input. I, for one, appreciate your views.

Now that I’ve said nice things, will you promise not to figure out who I am, hunt me down and kill me? 😉

[lostkitty]

That Bob doesn’t look like a spring chicken… any idea what he did for work before real estate? Just curious. If it was data collection for dataQuick or someplace I might still take him seriously.

[powayseller]

He’s a retired executive with over 30 years
business experience, managing divisions of major companies.

[lostkitty]

No dummy then. I am guessing he can even spell “anonymous” correctly. : )

[Californiabrownbear]

You are hopeless. Please find something better to do with your time.

[hs]

I am not trying to take any sides, but just want to share my opinion according to my own experiences by dealing with those realtors.

They are not much different from those used car salesmen.(Of course, not 100% of them.) If I could, I would buy without having my “buyer’s agent”.

[sdduuuude]

I appreciate that you provided some data regarding this realtor, because nothing speaks like data.

However, I can’t say that the number of RE transactions he has performed is relevant to his ability to analyze the data.

I’m quite sure Rich hasn’t sold any houses and he seems to be pretty good at analyzing and presenting the data.

Furthermore, one can be a true professional without having sold any houses. Not saying he is or isn’t, just want to avoid bashing him (sdrealtor) or pumping him up (powayseller) because I haven’t met the guy either.

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