Marin County Real Estate Blog: Recent Comments

Comment on The "Big Six" Home Selling Factors

Bob Lilley — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:50:48 GMT

Excellent article! You list 6 points, in my "P.A.C.E." article I had five. But we are saying the same thing.

Realtors are marketers and pseudo-economists, but they are not magicians.

Denial in pricing and failing to engage with the actual homebuying public will bring nothing more than extra days on the market and net a lower sales price.

Well put! Mind if I pass it along? Truth always ands up making the most compelling argument!

Comment on Marin Real Estate

Robert Lilley — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:25:29 GMT

This is exactly what we are seeing on our side of the bay.

In fact, I just posted about it an hour ago!

I am a little surprised, with all the recent uneasiness around the budget deadlock!

Comment on Assessor Cuts Marin Home Valuations

Bob at East Bay Homes — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:26:20 GMT

While I'm sure the homeowners appreciate the reduction on their tax bill, I bet they are more interested about how long it will take to recoup the 28% reduction in home values!

Comment on Time to Buy?

Bob Lilley — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:55:25 GMT

Heck, yes it is time to buy! All we heard for the decade preceeding the crash of 2008 was "how cvan anyone afford to buy a home?"

Now that affordability is up, rates are low, and prices are at 2004 leverls, what is the excuse now??

Comment on Are Rents On The Rise?

Bob at East Bay Real Estate — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:55:47 GMT

Yes, loan qualification is a different animal than it was five years ago, but I'm not sure we want to return to those days either.

"Make sense" underwriting is what they used to call it when you could provide a good enough excuse for the bank to give financing to a couple who couldn't qualify under normal guidelines.

Often, the bank's desire to loan lots of money to unqualified borrowers didn't make any sense at all, and it turned into the disaster we see today.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way! Banks seem to be looking for an excuse NOT to approve a loan!

As far as rents, the traditional rate of home ownership was always around 50% until the "drunken sailor" decade of 2000 to 2010. At its peak, home ownership was as high as 69%!

Now, it is coming back down because many people (who used to rent) who were able to buy a home in the early part of the decade have lost their homes and are forced to rent.

When home ownership goes down, renter percentage goes up and rental properties become in short supply.

This drives the price of rents upward.

This is Supply vs. Demand that we all learned in economics class.

Now we are seeing - and feeling it - first-hand.

Comment on Opening Day on the Bay 2011

Destin — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:22:57 GMT

You got great points there, that's why I always love checking out your blog.

M

Comment on Are Realtors Stupid? by real estate broker Tim Ziffle

Bill — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:45:08 GMT

Finally someone has figured out the disconnect between these Associations and their membership. First, close your local association to be re-created in the memberships best interest, then cancel all MLS contracts. Re-create your MLS databases locally and take back control of your profession. MAR in Marin is the worst. In the last 10 years they've accomplished very little, and have made many bad decisions. Lot of nice people work at MAR but is that any reason to pay such high fees? Close it. Cancel their MLS contracts with BARIES. Hire a local firm to run the MLS. And, take back control of our profession.

Comment on The Anlyan Report

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Comment on Lower Your Property Taxes

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Comment on Lower Your Property Taxes

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