But that’s really neither here nor there.

In an article posted Sunday I discussed “silly counter offers”. The esteemed John Wake left this comment:

“It also sounds like you have a great client… and the seller and/or listing agent will be a PITA the whole way.”

For those not familiar with the term “PITA”, it’s “net lingo” for “Pain In The Ass”.

And as is the norm, John was spot-on in his assessment (on both parts).

Here’s a recap….

Our very qualified buyers make an offer on a very nice home.

The specifics of the offer aren’t all that important. It was a strong offer, by a strong buyer (as evidenced by the amount down, earnest money, closing time line, their loan parameters, and the fact they don’t need to sell an existing home).

Some things the buyers asked for:

* They wanted a closing date of July 31.
* They needed a 15 day inspection period as they will be out of town for several days (the “typical” inspection period is 10 days).
* They used electronic signatures (which as discussed Sunday, are perfectly legal).

The sellers countered:

* They wanted a closing date of July 30. Yes, one day sooner. The reason, as quoted by the listing agent? “I don’t like closing on Thursdays or Fridays”. (wonder if the seller really cares?)
* They nixed the 15 day inspection period, insisting on 10 days — this despite knowing the buyers would be out of town for a portion of those 10 days.
* They did apparently relent on the electronic signatures. A concession!

There were other items countered. We were a little apart on price, but close enough we felt we could work it out.

So our buyers re-countered on price, and again asked for a 15 day inspection period.

Next the seller re-re-countered. They were now OK with the purchase price — and let’s face it, that is (or should be) 99% of the battle.

But here’s where it went beyond ridiculous.

They countered the closing date again (after we’d agreed on their silly “no Thursday closings” rule). They, in a seemingly random act, pulled the close of escrow date in by two weeks.

WTF? Can you say PITA? The Buyers did. They said “Adiós”.

I so want to ask the sellers:

Dear Sellers,

Why, pray tell, does the COE date now need to be 2 weeks earlier, when a mere 24 hours ago you’d already dictated what date you wanted???

And for whatever reason, you again refused to allow a 15 day inspection period. Hmmmm…. you know that 10 days doesn’t work for the buyer. All they need is a few more days. And you say, “Nope”. Are you just being difficult, or are you afraid a little extra time might uncover a problem?

And now you want additional earnest money, with some of it made non-refundable after the inspection period (you know, the one you won’t allow five extra days for).

You were this close to going under contract. And you blew it. There are 43,158 single-family homes listed for sale in the Phoenix MLS. We’ll find another one.

Sellers, you don’t have to concede to every buyer demand. But think about at least cooperating. Look at what the impact to your bottom line is. Work with the people that are telling you they want to buy your home.

Don’t be silly.

.

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Yet another market shift?

That’s a question I’ve heard several times since opening Thompson’s Realty.

There are a plethora of reasons…. (that was just for you Kris)

Not paying a commission split to my former broker, not paying Century 21 a “franchise fee”, not worrying about my broker telling me what I can and can’t post on this blog. All are valid reasons for opening a brokerage in any market.

But the primary reason we struck out on our own was so we can run our business the way we want to, not subject to the whims and demands of others.

And today we were able to implement one aspect of control in our business that was never possible before.

It probably doesn’t sound like much, but I can’t begin to explain how thrilled I was to write this statement into a listing agreement that was signed today:

Seller has the right to cancel this listing agreement with 24 hours notice.

That’s correct. The right to cancel. It will be in all our listing agreements.

I don’t believe in holding a client hostage. If we aren’t performing to their expectations, then (to quote the great Russell Shaw), “Fire me”.

Please fire me.

Personally I don’t believe this clause will ever need to be exercised — for poor performance on our part. But it’s there, and we will of course honor it. Poor performance isn’t the only reason a client might need to cancel. It’s certainly possible that a client’s situation could change, and it’s ludicrous to hold them to a listing agreement if they are no longer in a viable position to sell their home. (And yet there are countless brokers out there that will do just that.)

Today’s listing agreement was with a great couple in Las Vegas that have had some bad prior experiences with real estate agents (I know.. shocking).

This little clause gives them comfort and control.

What could possibly be wrong with offering that?

(Update: Unbeknown to me (because I’m days behind on my feed reader), Trevor Smith, Redfin Agent, posted about Redfin’s “Firing Clause” just a couple of days ago.  A good read as Trevor responds to some things that are typically brought up in these discussions.)

.

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Real Estate Confidential is a "reality show" that claims to show the "behind the scenes" activities of real estate agents (apparently all located in southern California, at least so far.) Now I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't vouch for just how "realistic" it is. 

However, at great risk of losing all credibility I may have ever earned, I will admit that I am somewhat of a reality show junkie. I can't help it. Sometimes mindless entertainment is good for you, and some reality shows offer very interesting insight into human interaction and behavior — a subject I've always found fascinating.  

Here's what Fine Living has to say about the show:

Most people only see their real estate agent when they're touring houses or at closing. FINE LIVING's Real Estate Confidential goes behind the scenes of the real estate world to find out what happens before the "SOLD" sign goes up!

The action behind closed doors is an arena filled with enormous amounts of phone calls, wheeling and dealing, and the nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride of negotiations leaves homeowners' lives hanging in the balance. We meet a team of hungry, funny, and professional real estate agents who show us how realtors price homes, how to best prepare your house for a quick sale, and what type of imaginative and often wild strategies work best in order to "sweeten the deal" when bidding on a home.

Sounds like a pretty accurate picture to me…  Amie said one episode included a client who neglected to mention to their agent the minor detail that they were facing immediate foreclosure. If you've been in real estate long enough to do, oh I don't know, more than two transactions then you know something like that could never happen (said in complete sarcasm mode).

The Fine Living Network is on channel 232 on our DirectTV package. According to the lousy website at Cox Cable, the network is available if you have the "Variety Package", however it doesn't show up on their channel list (which appears grossly incomplete). I can never find anything on their site, so you're on your own if you have cable in the local Phoenix area. I just TiVO'ed tomorrow's show (Saturdays at 6:30pm, DirectTV 232) and will let you know what I think.

In the meantime, here's a little video clip Amie provided:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Dj-A7FCUA[/youtube]

Real Estate Confidential” airs Saturday April 7 at 9:30PM Eastern (6:30 local) on the FINE LIVING channel.

Technorati Tags: Real Estate Confidential, Fine Living Network, 360i, Reality TV

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There are countless examples out there of agents not answering the phone. It’s a fact that agents (and their clients) have lost out on a sale due to a phone not being answered.

But what’s transpired here over the last couple of days set a new standard. I find it…. well, unbelievable, stupendous, incomprehensible. I’m not sure there is a word in the lexicon that truly fits…

I’m not making this up folks. I couldn’t invent this.

My lovely bride has a buyer. They are very interested in a nice east side condo. (The last one they made an offer on fell out when the inspector discovered extensive past fire damage in the attic. The poor owner had no clue as he waived his inspection — a really bad idea. But that’s another blog post.)

We have some questions for the listing agent. Just typical standard stuff. Plus we like to “feel out” the listing agent — glean a little info from them that will better position our buyers.

So Francy places the first call on Tuesday.

No answer, leave message. No return call. Repeat five times.

I don’t get it. If an agent leaves a message on my phone along the lines of, “We have a buyer interested in your listing. Please call so we can clarify a couple of things. It will take three minutes of your time”, I call them back. Swiftly. Don’t I owe that to my clients? But I digress…

Two days later, it’s quite apparent that the agent is never going to return our calls. So Francy calls the listing agent’s office. The person answering the phone, another agent, is of no help. So Francy asks to speak to the Broker.

He seems to be a nice guy. Francy reiterates that we have a very interested buyer, but we really need to speak to the agent and she’s not returning calls. Now for those not in the business the Broker is, in effect, the agent’s boss. Normally a call like this to the Broker results in the agent calling us within 5 minutes. (Typically with some excuse as to why they haven’t been able to place a three minute return call sometime over the last 72 hours.)

And here’s where this story takes the remarkable turn….

The Broker’s response?

“Oh, that agent doesn’t answer the phone. You need to email her your questions.”

WTF? Francy, who is usually never short of words, is speechless. About all she can muster is a polite, “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, she never answers the phone. Just email her. If you don’t hear back in a day or so, just let me know.”

What the double F? A “day or so”?!?

I wonder — does this agent tell her clients, “Don’t call me, I never answer the phone. Just email me and I’ll get back to you within a day or so”. Maybe she needs to take her number out of the MLS and just put a comment in the agent remarks section along those same lines. I wonder — does this Broker make a habit of employing agents that don’t answer the phone? Maybe that’s how he markets his brokerage — “COME WORK FOR US, NEVER ANSWER A PHONE AGAIN!”

Its insanity. Pure unadulterated madness!

Tip for those looking for a real estate agent: Call your prospective agent. See if they answer the phone. Sure, you can’t always answer it. I tend not to when I’m with a client. But if your prospective Realtor doesn’t answer or rapidly return the call, continue your search. If they won’t return your call, it’s safe to assume they won’t return calls inquiring about YOUR home for sale.

Technorati Tags: bad real estate agents

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I still don’t understand this…. why would a Realtor not answer their phone?

We have clients *actively* looking to buy commercial property. They want something in the three million range. We’ve found what appears to be the ideal property. Perfect location, great shape, it’s exactly what our clients are looking for.

We’ve been trying to reach the listing agent for three days. We’ve left multiple voice mails and sent multiple emails. We just need a few simple questions answered. The last message we left was along the lines of, “We have a buyer prepared to write an offer on your listing. We just need 30 seconds of your time to answer a question. Please contact us by phone, fax, or email.”

Nothing. We’ve heard NOTHING from the listing agent. Not one damn thing.

I don’t get it.

Our clients are now tired of wasting their time and are ready to move on and find another property.

I’ll predict right here that this “professional” will call sometime on Monday with some lame excuse about why he couldn’t return a call for three days. It will be “weekend related”. Mark my words.

Here’s a tip for my fellow agents — if you don’t want to work on the weekends you need to seriously consider another profession.

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On Bad Real Estate Agents

Extreme Home Staging
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Home sellers long ago discovered that small touches could boost selling prices - fresh flowers, the smell of freshly baked cookies. Now a real estate developer, Centex of Dallas, is adding in beautiful people.

The experiment in what’s called “staging” is simple: Home buyers enter a home and see not just furniture but real people - actors - playing out the life they might lead there.

The Centex program, which its creators call HomeLife, has been used twice so far at Milestone, a 166-house development in Santa Clarita, about 25 miles north of Hollywood.

In one performance, the ‘model’ family spent about three hours pretending it was Mom’s birthday. They baked a cake, sang happy birthday and the children drew and framed a picture - of a Centex house. The original cast included a former Baywatch hunk, Jaason Simmons, in the role of Dad.

There’s more, if you can stand it…

Hat tip to Becky Troutt for finding this article. She commented on her blog:

……Ok, so picture this: You are walking through a model home and come across a “family” acting like they live there while they bake a cake, play cards or want to “show you around in their home.” How un-comfortable or weird would this be? It’s like having a seller at home during a showing. The purpose of viewing a home is in hopes that no one is there so you feel comfortable opening cabinets and looking in closets. If you have a “family” there, don’t you think more people are going to be watching what the family is doing or talking to them versus really looking at the house? GIVE ME A BREAK!

A note to builders: Spend your money on something useful like buyer incentives or paying their closing costs OR better yet how about cutting the price off the home instead of paying people to “pretend to be a family” in a model home???

I must say that I concur with Becky. Is it just us, or is this not the dumbest idea ever?

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Developers now eyeing big picture over the quick buck

Link to article

Apr. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

It’s not all about the money these days in metropolitan Phoenix’s real estate world, at least with some developers. Some builders are talking more about planning for the Valley’s future than what they can make on a deal.

[Jay's opine: Trust me, it IS all about the money.]

Look at the Superstition Vistas deal in the far southeast Valley. That giant swath of desert owned by the Arizona State Land Department could easily turn into the next series of Valley subdivisions with congested roads and not enough jobs or retail to support the homes. But for what is likely the first time in Arizona, developers, utilities and a wide range of government agencies are brainstorming how to work together to grow better. [And "grow better" = "more money". Duh.]

The groups even paid the Morrison Institute, a public-policy think tank, to come up with some ideas of how to better develop the 176,000-acre Superstition Vistas site.

Now look at Papago Park. A dozen prominent Valley real estate executives got together to brainstorm how to make it metro Phoenix’s version of New York’s Central Park.

And some in that group will likely never make money off the park’s facelift.

[Jay's opine: If you don't think a well devloped and high traffic Papago Park won't make money for these folks, I can hook you up with an agent selling swampland in Florida. Check the real estate values around Central Park compared to other parts of Manhattan...]

Also, at recent real estate industry forecasts, the talk has been more focused on water shortages, transportation problems and housing affordability than how much a building sold for or how many housing permits a builder pulled in a subdivision.

Some market watchers, like Rob Melnick of the Morrison Institute, say the Valley’s real estate market is at a crossroads. Developers see growth coming and realize there’s more money to be made if it does. [Jay says, "Um, so much for it not being all about the money..."] But if the area’s problems aren’t tackled now, growth will slow.

Talking about the issues is a good start. But it’s time for action.

Pricier apartments

The average rent on a Valley apartment jumped 6.3 percent in the past year. That’s the biggest annual increase since the mid-1990s.

It now costs $772 a month to rent the typical apartment in metro Phoenix, reports RealFacts. Renters are bound to be shocked because the monthly payments on apartments had been basically flat since 2001.

[Jay's opine: And when apartment rents rise, typically rental rates across all types of housing rise. Rents have been flat here for quite some time.]

Sweet home Arizona

Does the band Lynyrd Skynyrd have ties to the Valley’s real estate market?

According to the Arizona Department of Real Estate, a group of people claiming to have connections to the Southern rock band is contacting real estate agents across the state, claiming to have an investor who wants to buy houses or land. They try to rush the deal and ask for the agents to pay for their hotel rooms and meals. Then when the real estate agent finishes all the paperwork, the potential buyer disappears. And the deal never closes.

The Phoenix Police Department has received several complaints from real estate agents foiled by these Lynyrd Skynyrd groupies.

[Jay's opine: The Arizona Department of Real Estate should receive several complaints about idiotic real estate agents. Any agent who falls for this scam ought to have their license revoked. Too bad there's not a minimum IQ requirement for getting a real estate sales license...]

Arizona

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Annette Haddad of the LA Times wrote an interesting article on real estate investors. I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging emails and speaking with Annette and can tell you she knows her stuff. The link is here, but I don’t know how long it’ll stay active. I’ve copied the full article below. (Annette, I told you I’d quote you on the blog! Hopefully since I’ve provided full credit I’m not violating any copyright rules. I don’t need the LA Times copyright police knocking on my door!)

Housing Speculators Relocate to Hotter Spots

Some who scored with L.A.-area property take their profits to Las Vegas and Arizona. Their flight may soften the local market’s landing.

By Annette Haddad, Times Staff Writer
March 18, 2006

Southern California’s high housing prices have at least one silver lining. They have kept speculators like Jay McKee from driving prices even higher — and from making them more likely to tumble.

The former technology worker from Manhattan Beach was among thousands who caught the real estate investment bug during the housing boom. He bought an ocean-view condominium in neighboring Hermosa Beach two years ago, spent $30,000 to spruce it up and swiftly resold it for a $250,000 profit.

Instead of pouring his profits back into local properties, McKee took his spoils to Phoenix. He invested in 10 properties there and started a real estate development and home-building business.

“To do it in Southern California would be much more costly,” said McKee, who has already sold some of his Arizona investments. “You definitely get more for your money in Phoenix.”

Southern California’s high housing costs have become a big turnoff to investors like McKee, who have fled for more affordable pastures.

Many analysts say that’s a good thing. Although the falloff of speculative activity probably means Southland home prices won’t surge soon, it also could keep home values from tumbling — and lead to a much more desirable “soft landing,” or flattening of prices.

Too much speculative activity from investors hoping to turn a quick profit is perhaps the biggest sign that a market — whether real estate or stocks or any other asset — is in an overpriced “bubble” condition, economists say. Too many speculators drive prices too high, and when they sense that the market is topping, they tend to sell all at once, sending prices into a free fall.

Proportionately fewer homes in the Southland are bought by investors than in Phoenix, Las Vegas, coastal Florida and parts of Central and Northern California. In Los Angeles and Orange counties, investor activity peaked during the first half of 2004, when the absentee-ownership rate reached 14% of sales.

Speculators accounted for about 25% of U.S. home sales in 2005, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.

There are reasons investors have found the Southland less attractive. Speculators often prefer to buy and sell new homes, and relatively few new developments have been built here. And the median prices of homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties, now at $490,000 and $617,000, respectively, continue to rise at a steady rate year over year.

That has made the region’s market both more costly and less prone to price surges — and quick profits — than Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Justin Lane is seeing the consequences of other speculators’ efforts in Arizona.

After watching prices double in the 16 months since he moved into the newly built Queen Creek neighborhood east of Phoenix, Lane says he can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. So he listed his five-bedroom house for sale in November.

Six other neighbors had the same idea, including one absentee owner who priced his house about 10% below the rest. That forced Lane to reduce his asking price from $362,000 to $343,000, still well above the $165,000 he paid.

“The investors are pushing down prices,” he complained.

Nationwide, speculative investors who buy homes with the hopes they can be quickly resold, or “flipped,” at a healthy profit share much of the responsibility for real estate’s wild ride in recent years, analysts say.

As Lane has learned, Arizona is one of the biggest magnets for speculators. Close to 40% of the homes in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, which include Phoenix and Tucson, were bought by absentee owners as investments or second homes last year, statistics compiled by La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems show.

For the nine months ended in September, investors snapped up 11,000 homes in the Phoenix area, according to mortgage data collected by LoanPerformance, a division of First American Corp. That was the largest number of investor sales for any U.S. region and a 14% increase over all of 2004.

By comparison, only 5,000 properties in the much bigger Los Angeles metro area went to investors.

Los Angeles and Orange counties didn’t crack the top 20 markets with the biggest investor share of sales. In addition to Phoenix, areas that beat the Southland included Las Vegas, parts of Central California, Sacramento and most of Florida’s east coast.

“There is no doubt that the investor has been the driving force” behind Phoenix’s white-hot housing market, said Jay Butler, director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University in Mesa.

Speculative buyers helped pump up Phoenix’s median home price by a whopping 40% in 2005, the highest growth rate in the nation, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The median home price rose to $255,000 in the fourth quarter. In 2004, Phoenix ranked 60th among U.S. markets with appreciation at 14%.

Even at their peaks, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties never saw home-price appreciation exceed 31% in a year, according to DataQuick, which analyzes recorded property transactions.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties became speculative hot spots as prices took off four years ago. But the investor share peaked at 28% in 2004 and has since ticked down to about 20% of purchases.

To be sure, appreciation rates have been declining in Southern California, in part because many investors who bought earlier in the cycle have cashed out.

And, like McKee, many of them have reinvested in Phoenix and other hot spots. Of absentee owners who bought in Phoenix last year, nearly one in four was from California, DataQuick found.

Phyllis Rockower is one investor who’s done with Southern California for now. Although she had been buying local real estate since 1996, the South Bay resident sensed that prices were peaking last year. So she started to unload her remaining seven properties in April, closing the final sale last month.

“People aren’t willing to overpay anymore,” she said.

Now there are signs in Phoenix that speculators with less staying power are beginning to sell in larger numbers. Rising inventories and weakening demand typically lead to softening or even declining prices.

Since August, the supply of homes for sale in Maricopa and Pinal counties has more than doubled to 38,000 as of Sunday. By contrast, in Los Angeles County — with three times the population — inventories have risen from 20,000 to 30,000 homes in the period.

Arizona State’s Butler figures that many Phoenix investors are looking to sell now because they are having trouble finding renters willing to pay enough to cover their mortgages.

He expects home appreciation in Phoenix to start declining this year, which could intensify if more owners decide to bail out. “It will be a question of whether there’s more panicking,” he said.

McKee sees the shift in Phoenix’s market as a buying opportunity. He’s still expanding his business remodeling existing houses and building new ones.

But he is hanging on to his first real estate investment: a single-family house in Manhattan Beach.

Southern California, McKee said, “is a great investment and a great place to live.”

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Home investment

The number of absentee owners generally has slipped in Los Angeles as real estate speculators move to areas such as Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Areas with the highest number of homes purchased by investors*
Area Homes sold
Phoenix-Mesa 10,981
Washington 6,099
Chicago 5,645
Los Angeles-Long Beach 5,393
Riverside-San Bernardino 5,051
Las Vegas 5,037
Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. 4,921
Philadelphia 4,905
Miami 4,337
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 4,229
*In the first nine months of 2005.

Sources: DataQuick Information Systems, LoanPerformance

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Regards,
Jay

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Go to ThompsonsRealty.com

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After months of a frenzied buying craze, the Phoenix real estate market appears to have shifted toward a buyer’s market.

Notice I said TOWARD a buyer’s market. That doesn’t mean we are IN a buyer’s market (yet).

On a scale of 1 to 10, with a “5” being a neutral market, a “1” being a ridiculously strong buyer’s market and a “10” being an insane seller’s market, I’d say the current market should be labeled as a “7” (and dropping). Just a couple of months ago, it was an “11”.

So the shift has been significant, but we are still in a seller’s market. Some people would argue my assessment and claim we have shifted to a buyer’s market. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

What evidence do I have of a change in market conditions? Lots of anecdotal evidence, not too many hard numbers…

1) Inventory is up, significantly. I’m still waiting on September numbers, but the inventory of existing homes that are listed has probably tripled in the last couple of months. WHOA! You say. Tripled?? That’s HUGE. Yes, it is. But remember the inventory was incredibly low at one point. Despite tripling, there still aren’t enough homes listed to push us in to a buyer’s market. Yet.

2) The number of homes in the MLS that have had price reductions has increased quite a bit. 3 or 4 months ago, you NEVER saw price reductions. Heck, sometimes you saw price INCREASES. Now it’s not difficult to find a listing that has a price reduction. Please note, “price reductions” is not meant to imply that the values in Phoenix homes is dropping. On the contrary, our average appreciation rate year-to-date is a stunning 40 - 50%, depending on whose numbers you use. Compare this to a national appreciation rate of 10 - 15% (which is still really good!). Now, in my opinion, there is **NO WAY** we can sustain 45% appreciation rates. No way. I think appreciation will slow, a lot, and return to more normal rates. Listing prices are being reduced in the MLS because people are still used to the previous months buying frenzy and are, to be blunt, getting greedy when they set prices. People are still setting prices with 45% annual appreciation rates in mind. Then when homes don’t sell, they drop list prices in order to generqate more interest and the dropped price reflects current reality better.

Again, home prices aren’t dropping in the Phoenix area. They just aren’t accelerating and the torrid pace of the past several months. That’s actually a good thing as it stabalizes the market.

3) Open houses. Just a couple of months ago the only time you saw an Open House sign was with a FSBO (For Sale By Owner). Now Open House signs are *everywhere*. The reason for this is simple…houses are staying on the market longer than they used to. Which leads to…….

4) Time on Market is increasing. Back in April, the average time on the market was just a few days. Homes often sold just hours after they were listed. They often got multiple offers OVER list price. This was a buying FRENZY. It was nuts. That frenzy has ended. It’s not unusual for homes to be listed for a few weeks now. (Agents from other parts of the country that just read that are shaking their heads. There are places in the US where average time on market can be measured in months.)

These are significant changes. If they continue, we may indeed find ourselves crossing over from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. We are not quite to that point yet.

My guess, and it’s purely a guess, is that the factors I listed above will continue to shift and we will over the next few months find ourselves in a neutral market, where we may stay for awhile. Economists will tell you that all markets want to be neutral, and there is nothing wrong with a neutral market.

Should something change, and it can be just about anything, then we could swing back toward a stronger seller’s market, or swing into a strong buyer’s market. No one really knows for sure. If you could predict what the any market will do in the future (be that the stock market, commodities market, futures market or real estate market), you wouldn’t be reading this blog. You’d be sipping mai-tai’s on the beach in Tahiti….

Stay tuned, it’s going to be fun!!!!

EDITED TO ADD: Just a couple of hours after I wrote this, I received a document from my local Real Estate Association board. It contains some very interesting “anti-bubble” data. You can view the PDF file here

Go to ThompsonsRealty.com

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