MISCELLANY

Had a phone call today from an old friend, a broker from Red Bluff that I first met in the 1970's when I opened an office in that fair city. She was then the chair of the ethics committee for the MLS, a position she treated very seriously. We used to spend hours talking about the business and our shared concern for the greed driving so much of the business, rather than a concern for clients. Her call today reflected her feelings for some of her consulting clients that indicate not much has changed in our business, except for the worse, as demonstrated by the foreclosure and mortgage difficulties affecting so many. I am flattered that she thinks I have an explanation for what has happened, or that some solution is at hand, governmental or otherwise. What happened is easy enough, the solution less so. Simple greed, beginning with lenders and programs with ridiculously relaxed standards funded by greedy investors seeking the higher return of high risk mortgages, fed cheerfully by the real estate community selling homes at ever increasing prices and commissions, arranged or aided by appraisers anxious to please their real estate referral base, and let's not forget the eager buyers hoping to turn what should have been a home purchase into an investment opportunity. Why is anyone surprised by the result?
We are getting listing inquiries from people that have burdened their property beyond the market value, and they ask us how that works, and we have to be very careful how we answer. Because they wake up in the morning in "their" house it is difficult to grasp the concept that what what they "own" is the equitable interest in the house. So long as payments are made on time, the house is theirs, in a possessionary sense, but to sell it without spending some money, they first have to develop an equity interest. In some cases the value of the home has gone down and left them in an untenable position, but in most cases that we run into, the people have tapped into their equity and used the money for other purposes. Most of us learn early on that having and eating cake are mutually exclusive. Without doubt the rampant greed in our industry is the underlying cause of our current problems and my pointing to the participation of the home buyers is not intended to excuse that. We are the people with the licenses after all.
June statistics for the market watchers. All figures are for MLS reported sales of single family residences. Greater Chico, 83, last year, 98, total listings, 542. Paradise/Magalia 39, last year, 46, listings, 409 Glenn County, 10 each year, listings, 169. The significance, if any, is the ratio of sales to listings, 15% for Chico, 9.5% for Paradise/Magalia, for Glenn, 6%, and a whopping (to me) 1120 listed properties in that small market area. If you are considering listing you should fine tune these figures for the listings and sales in your price range to provide meaningful guidance.
We have just finished production on our new TV spot. Pointed to the loan market chiefly and should be on Fox channels beginning right about now.
All of our agents just completed a training session for reverse mortgage lending and all are now certified with the largest reverse mortgage company in the nation. These are critical loans for senior citizens and it very important that we offer proper guidance. They are a good solution for many, but not everyone.
Our commercial lenders offer ongoing training in which we are quick to participate, and a new to us lender will shortly be visiting our offices to bring us up to speed on some pretty exciting products for small businesses.
I want our people to be fast on their feet and able to provide professional help across the whole spectrum of real estate sales and mortgage lending. Single source responsibility we used to call it in institutional selling. We owe it to you .
As usual
Thanks for visiting.