Are the Condo Coversions in Your Town Going to Sell?
invite response
2005 Dec 1, 2:21am 20,267 views 70 comments
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Oh great. Now those nice realtors are targetting the wives and the frequent female visitors of Match.com.
Of course, you can still find a home that sells for $400,000 in Oakland. But to be sure, buy a gun and learn how to use it.
Then you can be on your way to making $600,000 in 10 years.
Today's women-empowering message: I've just learned how to make $300,000 in 13 years from a website whose color theme is pink and purple.
Plus, there's an incentive for me to learn how to shoot a handgun, and the prospect of meeting an Oakland police officer as my future husband.
Looks to me that the realtors are so pissed that everywhere they look they see doom and gloom stories for real estate. The inventories are rising, they have no clients and perhaps with all the extra time on their hands, they believe if they start publishing their pep talks, they will encourage people to buy again. :)
My favorite quote from Lydia's homepage:
"Tell me what you want. Then let me deliver. I’m a realist"
How do you reconcile the first two statements with the last?
I can tell you any pie-in-the-sky, needs-based valuation that I'm convinced my home is "worth", and you will 'deliver' a buyer at that price. Or, I can tell you I want to buy a 50,000 sft mansion in Palo Alto on my Wal-Mart cashier salary and you will 'deliver'.
But, you're a "realist".
RIIIGHT....
Lydia’s opinions are meaningless, but perhaps the biggest flaw on her website is her business strategy marketing (only???) to women, which, in this day in age, I don’t think is all that particularly necessary or relevant.
This might explain why she loves to cater especially to women :lol: uh oh...now I feel like a stalker, I'd better stop! ;)
Remember she’s trying to encourage people to buy, so she’s not trying to indicate a weakening market. Basically just more realtor BS.
...but what makes her really dishonest is that she is masquerading as a columnist, not as a realtor. Notice how she doesn't mention anywhere on the page that she is a realtor. Doesn't leave a company name, email address or business phone number. Obviously she wants her pep talk to pass as an unbiased view like she has nothing to gain from it.
Looks like she was a technical recruiter for IT 10 years and her job got outsourced....now shes a realtor...wonder what she'll be next year. :)
Oh man, look at this website she has.....She was in IT, that explains why her name is all over the web.
Personally, I don’t understand the notion of marketing STRICTLY to selected demographics.
She didn't say she strictly sells to women, only that she enjoys getting women into houses. It looks to me like she does alot of marketing for gay clients maybe as a marketing strategy since there are alot of gays in her area and I would imagine they would trust a gay realtor over a heterosexual. She may not even be gay.....it could be just a front! All in all, she was in IT, lost her job and got into real estate just because of the boom.
Here is her reasoning to delay buying a house. She says nothing about prices going down......that is dishonest to me!
"...maybe as a marketing strategy "
Purely for humor, mind you, but it's too bad she hasn't this business name:
http://tinyurl.com/xmdz
This might explain why she loves to cater especially to women uh oh…now I feel like a stalker, I’d better stop!
This is hilarious. I mean the irony, not the sexual orientiation.
I've been looking for the Basic Instinct version though, just out of curiousity (isn't it how it's all started?). So far, unsuccessfully.
technical recruiter for IT 10 years
Sounds more like a headhunter to me. She should've chopped it down to 5 to make it more believable.
KurtS, maybe you should send a copy of Ms. Males' website to the Tonight's Show.
I feel sorry for anyone who buys a $300,000 apartment - paper thin walls, bad construction, crappy stucco - just because the developer put out some nice stock-art brochures, showing happy smiling singles.
I don't.....money is dangerous in the hands of the stupid!
From the MSN article:
And San Diego real estate prices now are growing only by single digits, rather than double digits, says economist Raphael Bostic, with the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate. That retreat reflects the fact that job growth wasn’t keeping up with real estate prices, so the prices were bound to drop some, Bostic says.
Call me crazy, but if someone cannot distinguish between x, dx and ddx when they are writing an article about x, I tend not to take their views very seriously.
I have had this conversation before with my wife: it is a hilarious human weakness (thankfully falling by the wayside) to ascribe expertise to the media. Whenever some jackass comes on the TV and starts talking about something you know about, you immediately either laugh or get annoyed at how utterly uninformed they are. But when the next jackass shuffles on and talks about something you don't know a lot about, suddenly you are prepared to accept that this jackass has a clue what he or she is talking about.
I say all of this, of course, as a complete jackass.
_shrug_
Cheerio,
prat
Whenever some jackass comes on the TV and starts talking about something you know about, you immediately either laugh or get annoyed at how utterly uninformed they are.
Guess I'm a jackass too, or somehow an informed layman knows more than the informed "experts?" I think people naively trust media to serve "the truth," when most likely their own interests are #1.
More specifically, is it really any wonder the RE has been trumpeted by media in the last few years? I wouldn't be surprised by a large vested interest in the RE food chain, from builder's stocks to REITs. When the media changes their tune on RE, I suspect they've already made their money.
"they could have a circle jerk on every balcony floor and have an atrium jizum smigma pond down below."
The next trend in home improvement! Soon HGTV will have a show featuring...well, maybe not.
can count on the media at large to follow the trend, not set it
I'm probably being too suspicious for my own good. However, I remember the media cheerleading during the dot-com boom, when anyone with a moderate IQ should've been highly suspicious of the whole thing. Of course, they're just reflecting the "buzz" out there, but for those controlling information channels, I always suspect a money angle. Say, a network had some major investments in RE, and I ran the show. I'd have more than a little tempation for the news to sound bullish on RE. If I'm thinking that, I'm sure those who can are doing it.
Just gotta love it http://www.craigslist.org/eby/rfs/115296880.html
[snip]
Now is the time to buy while the rates are still low and the multiple offer situations have been reduced so that you may save some money and you will not get outbidden by investor type buyers. Ask me about a 7 day cruise for buyers at close! New Roof! New Dual Pane windows! New wall to wall carpet!
multiple offer situations have been reduced so that you may save some money and you will not get outbidden by investor type buyers.
LOL...like there would ever be a bidding war on that dump!
That toilet picture is classy.
Regarding the "media bias" angle of this thread in regards to the MSN article posted earlier in the thread by Windog:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Homebuyingguide/P85323.asp
I find the author's selective use of quotation marks to bias the article very irresponsible. For example (excerpts):
[snip]
But the drama that “bubble†theorists have looked for is missing.
[snip]
The inventory of homes on the market is about 45% greater than average, says Bill Wendel, a fee-based buyers’ agent in Boston whose Real Estate Cafe blog contains running articles and commentary on “the real-estate bubble.â€
[snip]
Todd Sinai, associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, derides bubble theorists as “Chicken Littles.â€
[snip]
The market hasn’t collapsed because it wasn’t really terribly inflated to begin with, says Bostic. “I’ve never been much of a ‘bubble’ person,†he says.
[snip]
The repeated placing of "bubble" and "bubble theory" in quotation marks. I don't like it. Anyone who's done any research on speculative bubbles knows there's a lot more going on than just "theory." Speculative bubbles themselves are case studies of historical occurrances--the Dutch tulip bulb craze, the British South Sea bubble, the American 1920's stock market bubble, Japan's real estate bubble during the '80's, and of course America's most recent tech stock bubble. These are just a handful of numerous historical examples that followed the same trend of boom, speculative excess, and bust. There is no "theory" to deride, nor is it responsible to quote as gospel the statement of some random jackass smugly stating "I've never been much of a "bubble" person" with no facts to back up his subjective statement. Finaly, to state that our current RE market "wasn’t really terribly inflated to begin with" has got to qualify as one of the most preposterous statements I've ever heard, period. I guess it's not surprising they didn't publish any of that guys supporting evidence or even his though process in coming to that conclusion.
Correction: "thought process" is what I was trying to type and the end of my previous post!
LOL…like there would ever be a bidding war on that dump!
That toilet picture is classy.
Actually, I've seen bidding wars on houses much uglier than that, but that was over a year ago.......I don't think you'll find a bidding war anywhere now regardless of what the property looks like.
Actually, I’ve seen bidding wars on houses much uglier than that, but that was over a year ago
Some people are fools I guess. Well, I'm still seeing multiple bids, but I think they're a bit better than that ghetto box.
That toilet looks nice, though…. would fetch a nice price on eBay.
On ebay it would sell for more if it wasn't flushed the last time it was used! :lol:
Lenders crack down on mortgage fraud
[snip]
"Fraud for property" is the industry phrase used to describe usually honest folks who exaggerate their incomes or tell other white lies to obtain financing.
Now lenders and the authorities are turning their attention to borrowers encouraged to falsify their applications by loan officers who tell them "everybody does it."
Now they are going to do something about it?
Little jump? That is a 14.36% increase in a quarter. Who are they kidding? I am so sick of the spin about real estate.
Well lets see what they say when it goes up to 50%. Remember Alexis is the president of foreclosures.com and informing people that there are more foreclosures is to help her business..... If she was to say that the sky is falling, investors wouldn't be interested in foreclosures until the market completely corrects. She will always say in her articles that the sky isn't falling and that the market will not crash like the 90's.........and she is right...it won't, it will be much worse given the circumstances. I only read her articles for the data, not her opinion........use your own judgement because hers is obviouly biased.
Justice is NEAR!!
Justice? I wouldn't bet on it. Between the likelihood of a federal govt. bailout and the near certainty of economic dislocation, there could be lots of people who deserve far worse than they get and lots of people who didn't participate in the madness who get stomped.
As always, a dark sense of humor will be a handy thing.
cheers,
prat
03/08/05 (Unofficial -- taken from secondary records)
Conditional Salesperson License will be suspended if education requirement per section 10153.4 has not been met by 09/08/06.
Looks like he got his license before finishing his tests......I'm sure he doesn't have to worry though since he won't be needing his license by then. :lol:
Interesting how many news stories are out there that still believe you should continue to buy real estate and that there is no bubble.
Well you would publish such stories if you were a realtor and your job was at stake.......can ya really blame them?
From a realtor's blub I found in the mail yesterday:
For sellers, do you really want to sell your home, or are you just testing the market? If you're just testing, please, take your home off the market.. If you absolutely, positively have to sell, and you haven't had any offers recently, lower your price.
I understand that supply is a realtor's enemy these days because it kills the buying frenzy, but WTF?
Sellers are desperate and paranoid......they are seeing their equity blow away like dust in the wind! No seller wants to accept the fact that house prices are falling, but yet they are very curious.......at the same time, many buyers don't want to touch this market with a 10 foot pole!
How about this:
I sat and mocked
the peoples madness
predicted doom
predicted sadness
And now the piper
has piped at last
and housing gasped
its final gasp
but who is this
knocking on my door?
why uncle sam
and he wants more
A bit tough to do
I'm afraid to say
with the booms end
my job has gone away
_smile_
And a merry Christmas, one and all!
Cheers,
prat
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The developer's answer to the stratospheric rise in home prices seems to have become the condo conversion. What that usually means is taking a crappy apartment building, throwing a new coat of paint on it, maybe knocking out a few walls and throwing in an appliance or two and calling it a condo.
Do you know of any in your neighborhood? If so, how do they look? What do you think are the long term prospects for the condo conversions? I have heard in the past of condo conversions being turned back into apartment buildings when the market cools. Do you think that will happen again?
And what about pricing? How much are the crappy condo's going for in your neck of the woods? How far down do you think they will go in value?
And one last thing, do you think taking the apartments off the market will affect rents at all?
Per tannenbaum's request