0
0

Why Not?


 invite response                
2006 May 16, 4:16am   24,546 views  230 comments

by HARM   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

realtorduderealtorlogoL

Given how low the barrier to entry is and how many licensed Realtwhores® are already out there (something like half a million in CA alone now), isn't the post-bubble aftermath a perfect time for me to study for my Realtwhore® license?

I know, I know... you're probably thinking: "Hey, isn't this the same guy who takes cheap shots at Realtwhores® every chance he gets? Isn't this the same guy who posts article after article about Realtwhore® deceit and trickery? Isn't this the guy who routinely characterizes the NAR/MLS as a monopoly and quasi-mafia crime syndicate?"

Well... yes, yes and emphatically YES !!! But despite my personal feelings about Realtwhores®, I'm willing to set all this aside for a very important reason: 6%.

Yes, if I become my own Realtwhore®, I don't have to worry about the inherent conflicts of interest, routine misdirection, lies and thievery that comes part and parcel of being represented by one of California's finest (unless I decide to rip off myself, that is)! Not only can I cut 3% --the buyer agent's commission-- right off the top for any house I decide to buy, but I will also have direct unfiltered access to the local MLS --without having to wait for Congress to de-monopolize it.

I can *guarantee* that I will do due diligence to ensure my client is well represented: ME !

I will be my own "agent of change" :-). This way, in a few years --when prices are close to bottoming out-- I will be ready to pounce fully prepared to tender my "insulting" lowball offer with information asymmetry working for me (for a change)!

So, the question is, how best to go about it? Should I take one of those local community college courses, or go the self-study route? There must be a flood of former Realtors® out there (about to become a tsunami) ready to unload their study materials on the cheap. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

I can DO this. Suzanne researched it.
HARM

#housing

« First        Comments 223 - 230 of 230        Search these comments

223   StuckInBA   2006 May 18, 12:34pm  

Some one mentioned Google trends a few days ago.

I searched "housing bubble" and "real estate bubble". In both trends, 4 out of 10 top cities looking for these words, were from Bay Area. Overall 6 to 8 (!!) out of 10 are from California.

This goes on to show how spooked Californians are about the RE bubble. Before anyone protests about BA being more tech-savvy, let me say these searches are normalized. The ranking is based on the % of searches !

Interesting fact. In both the searches, 3 of the BA cities are easy to guess - San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Clara. The remaining city is at 3rd place in both the searches - Pleasanton ! Go figure.

224   Different Sean   2006 May 18, 12:39pm  

DinOR
Sean, if we are going to have a “superior” market, truly the top of the food chain (one not dominated by empty nester house wives) we need to play hard ball. If that means issuing eye patches, canes and German Shepards with really nice dispositions then that’s what we need to do. Total transparency, total liquidity!

well, stop encouraging the housewives to play the market then, and shoving it in their faces through PR and advertising campaigns all day long in every conceivable medium. and desperately attempting to build up the kids' college funds to some sort of viable level. (it's lucky other countries offer tertiary education to their citizens for free...social goods paid for out of taxation on the mega-rich, instead of giving them juicy breaks...)

altho i personally believe stock market investment should be made through managed funds and pension funds, managed ethically and sessnibly, as it concentrates expertise, provides greater leverage, and takes the burden of learning the stock market off Joe Average.

but i also always thought that 'the market' was created to serve people, not people created to serve it as a capricious master. or are we talking about different markets? do you mean 'superior stock market' -- fair enough then i suppose, i don't go wandering around industrial plants with vats of bubbling acid and falling girders without a hard hat and a guide either...

225   Different Sean   2006 May 18, 12:41pm  

In S Cali we’ve lost many film industry jobs in the past 5 years…nobody in their right mind will start a new business here as workman’s comp is through the roof….

hmm, they shoot in prague and sydney nowadays... sydney is the indian call centre of hollywood, heh

226   HARM   2006 May 18, 12:44pm  

new thread: The Ghost of Irving Fisher

227   Randy H   2006 May 18, 2:14pm  

LILLL

The problem with hitting a "new plateau" is that it is effectively impossible to know that it is a plateau and not a peak until it is far enough in the past. That is, we won't know if housing prices are permanently higher or not for certain until we have enough time to see if they come back down.

It is almost always impossible historically, with a couple of extraordinary exceptions, to tell when you're in the midst of a real paradigm shift. Being a contrarian, the more people who insist we're in one now the more I'm inclined to believe we aren't.

228   Different Sean   2006 May 18, 3:57pm  

I agree with randy here -- there is probably nothing new under the sun in 500 years of European-style market economies -- and 10 000 years of organised trading between peoples...

the only paradigm shifts I see are the sorts of shifts such as increasing affluence through industrialisation (methods of mass production), where the living standards of so many are increased quickly, right into the halcyon years of the 1950s and 60s, along with increasing expectations of good wages, a 'career', home ownership, ongoing wellbeing and so on, which is really an elevation of the working class to the middle class. we could be seeing the 'hollowing out of the diamond' now though, simply through the deliberate control of property by the 'want mores', a phenomenon unfortunately creeping right down to the middle-middle class. this would represent a regression to Victorian levels of wealth inequality and disenfranchisement if it plays out and is broadly endorsed as somehow being a Good Thing. things working against it are deliberate govt policy fostering home ownership, a massive supply of cheaper housing and releases of cheap land as a market response to under-supply (if there is indeed an under-supply), and so forth... but i have bad feelings about the 'stickiness' of housing prices and the fact that it is a price-fixing racket...

229   Different Sean   2006 May 18, 5:12pm  

+ see the next thread 'the Ghost of Irving Fisher' for the belief in 'new plateaus' just prior to the Great Depression.

230   Jimbo   2006 May 20, 7:43am  

Here is a chart with GDP/hr productivity levels for various countries:

http://tinyurl.com/olzng

Note that Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway and France (!) are all more productive German is 92% as productive. Note this is per hour worked, not per year. American per year values are higher because Americans work more. Rather than deny this fact, we should be trying to figure out how they do it and replicate their success.

« First        Comments 223 - 230 of 230        Search these comments

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions   gaiste