Free Ice Cream Anyone?

The post below is reprinted with permission from my “friend” Greg Swann who I’ve never met.   Greg is the owner of Bloodhound Realty in Phoenix and the owner of the Bloodhoundblog.com.   I’m privileged to be able to say that I’m one of the writers with Greg on Bloodhound.   It’s one of the most eclectic and truly inspirational groups of people who I’ve ever “hung around” with.    Check them out!

Tom

BloodhoundBlog.com – How about free ice cream?

When I was a kid, my Uncle Jack, my mother’s oldest brother, told me a story I’ve never forgotten. He was at a little county fair way out in corn country. Nothing special, just beauty contests for hogs, cheesy little rides and sticky, sugared confections.

Late in the day, the ice cream vendor decided to pack it in, announcing that he was giving away what was left of his inventory. People elbowed their way to the front of the crowd, so eager were they to get something for nothing. They walked away with the ice cream piled into their bare hands, rushing off to their cars, leaving a trail of melted drips behind them.

The lesson I took from my uncle’s story was that those folks didn’t really want ice cream. They were willing to get themselves dirty, and to get their vehicles dirty, just to have something for free. Most of them probably didn’t even eat the ice cream, and they certainly couldn’t have enjoyed it. Imagine trying to inhale a glutton’s quantity of chocolate-fudge-swirl before it melts all over your clothes.

Could that be what’s going on right now with the $8,000 first-time home-buyer’s tax credit? I happen to be carrying three listings that are undeniably “investor’s specials” — which means they’re a good buy, but they need a lot of work. Even so, my phone is ringing off the hook with agents trying to sell those houses to owner-occupants — folks with very little cash trying to get an FHA loan so they can buy a house, thus to get $8,000 in “free” money.

Do those buyers really want homes, or do they just want that free money? What will happen to the properties when the $8,000 is spent? Should we dial the clock back to 2006 to see if anything looks familiar?

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors is campaigning for even more “free” money to bribe even more otherwise-unmotivated buyers. The only thing that could make the deal sweeter would be a double hand-full of “free” ice cream.

Technorati Tags: BloodHound Blog, Greg Swann, Free Ice Cream, $8, 000 Tax Credit

Why Should a Buyer Use a Realtor?

A good friend of mine, (who I’ve never met) and co-author and founder of the Bloodhound Realty Blog, Greg Swann, wrote a column on there about a question that I think deserves more attention.   He addresses some issues that I see consumers on a daily basis “glossing over” when they consider whether to work with a buyer’s agent or to just work with the seller’s agent.

He’s given me permission to repost it here.   Enjoy!

Tom Vanderwell

With MLS listings available everywhere on the internet, why do you need a buyer’s agent?

By: Greg Swann, Phoenix Real Estate, Post Archive, RSS Feed
Posted: Saturday, July 18th, 2009, 6:43 pm MST
Category: Disintermediation, Marketing, Real Estate, Technology

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column (permanent link):

Here’s an intriguing question: Given that it’s so easy to search for homes on the internet, why do you need a buyer’s agent?

Face it, if you use the MLS search tool on my web site, you’re seeing exactly the same listings I see. And you know better than I ever could what you like and what you don’t like.

By now, the home search process is at best a partnership between the agent and the buyer. In some cases the buyer and I will work together to perfect our search criteria. But many buyers simply search the available inventory on their own, emailing me the MLS numbers of the homes they want to see.

So why do those buyers need a buyer’s agent?

Realtors hoarded the MLS data for so long that even they came to believe it was the source of their value to buyers. But this is very far from the truth.

You don’t need me to search for listings, although I’m happy to do that. And you don’t need me to open lock-boxes. You need a buyer’s agent to guide you through what is in fact an arcane and perilous process — potentially a financial disaster. You might not need me to find your next home, but you need me to make sure that you get it — or that you pass on it, if that is what is truly in your best interests.

A skilled buyer’s agent will write the kind of purchase contract that will prove surprising to you at every turn, with every term and condition tailored to achieve your best advantage. Your agent will supervise the inspection process and negotiate the optimal solution to the repair issues. Your agent will be prepared for every pitfall in the escrow process.

If you bought and sold houses every day, you could do all these things yourself. It’s because you don’t — and because the seller and the listing agent are looking to take advantage of your naiveté at every turn — that you need a skilled buyer’s agent as your steadfast champion in the home-buying process.

Steal this book: I’m going to write one or two more columns on this theme. If you want to use any of them on your real estate weblog, feel free. Just give me a link back to http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/

Greg Swann on Obama’s Housing Plan

Greg Swann is the founder of the Bloodhound Blog and the owner of Bloodhound Realty.   He has taught me a ton about real estate and how to do business and I love the way that he’s not afraid to call it like he sees it.

He wrote the column below in response to the Housing Plan.   Read it, he makes a LOT of sense.

Tom

BloodhoundBlog.com the Bad News

Here are two important questions to put the matter into perspective:

1. By how many dwellings will the standing inventory of housing be reduced under Obama’s plan?

2. By how many households will Obama increase demand for housing?

Since the answer to both of these questions is zero, we can predict with certainty that President Obama’s housing relief plan will do nothing to relieve the housing crises.

What will it do? The true essence of the plan is Rotarian Socialism for lenders. Obama’s hope — probably hopeless — is that if lenders take a lot of small hits now — by refinancing homes for substantially less than is owed on them — they can avoid a lot of much bigger hits later — by not having to foreclose on those homes.

But the real problem — in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Sacramento, South Florida, the Rust Belt, etc. — is that the residential real estate market is overbuilt. There are more houses seeking homeowners than there are homeowners (or tenants) seeking houses. The real estate crisis will not end until supply is reduced, demand increases — or both.

Obama is trying to shove a floor under home values. But since this does nothing to correct the systemic problem — oversupply — he is simply pissing away money while delaying the ultimate and unavoidable market correction.

Want a true housing relief plan?

Here in Arizona, we could do ourselves a huge favor by repealing the employer I.D. check law that drove all of our undocumented friends out of the state — just at the wrong time.

And it would make great sense to make immigration to America easier and faster. Imagine having neighbors who work hard, pay their bills on time and can spell correctly!

But those are sensible, economical reforms. We can’t expect anything like that out of Washington.

So how about a $15,000 tax credit for tearing a domicile down? Landlords in the Rust Belt could have their first profitable year in years.

How about another $15,000 tax credit for turning a single-family home into a commercial structure — with no live-in employees?

Bloodhound Blog, Greg Swann

Ask not what your country can spend for you…..

Thanks to my friend Greg Swann at Bloodhound Realty for tipping me off to this video…..

Enjoy!

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