kaulat

I looked back to last year's blog about this time. It was "Basketball Day" and I wrote in orange...sigh....but like the housing market, SU will come back, too! The spring listings have started, and I must admit I've been among the crowd to bring them on. Currently there are 101 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service (even if they are in another county). Of these, 33 are in the village and 28 are waterfront. Ten - count 'em! - 10 new listings came on this past week. Of course, 3 were re-lists - an over 1M waterfront, an almost $450,000 town house with acreage, and a village home in need of care for the low $200,000s. The others were three waterfront homes ('tis the season) ranging in price from $525,000 to $985,000. Another has lake rights but looks lovely for the mid-$200,000. Going out a bit there's a very pretty newer home with acreage for around $500,000 but you can always stay in the village and enjoy my listing at 50 W...

As talk of a buyers' strike begins to filter through the media, the already striking buyers shrug their shoulders and hope the noobs will at least have the decency to bring some pizza with them to the picket line. Though in all reality a picket line gives a sense of presence, this strike is marked by the lack of anybody baring their arse anywhere. If you want to know if there's a strike on or not, just ask the agents. Tales of desperation and woe are becoming commonplace; agents are cold calling people they had a conversation with at an open house two years ago; agency principals are throwing their young and stupid under the bus; and there are prayers for Japanese radiation to float towards Australia and fall as rain upon the graves of the recently departed - c'mon in this market who wouldn't sell to a reanimated corpse? In Tasmania, the writing is on the wall is visible to some. Dean Chamley, who has run a successful flat fee real estate business across the North-We...

If you're a long term reader here, and no I'm not going to unfurl a list of every government agency, bank and brothel who send regular traffic here, but let's just say if you're in the Daily Planet and reading this site, you ain't getting value for money. All you real estate agents and bankers, you should only read this on work time - not at the knock shop. But yeah, long termers. One of my earliest old gold standards was rambling about the levels of dwelling construction against the numbers of people being added to the Tasmanian population. Now depending on your time frame and we'll use the exact ABS figures, so the population is right, from 2003 to 2009 Tasmanian builders were pumping out a new dwelling per 1.62 people being added to the state population, when the average was at 2.4. Now, the boys at the HIA have been notorious for using the arbitrary figure of Tasmania being 200 houses short a year, why not 225? Why not 175? Well who would know, maybe it'...

This past week I went back to class for my continuing education credits. The title of the course dealt with Buyer Agency, and since I hadn't taken anything like this is in a while, I thought it would be interesting. It was, very! We had a wonderful small group of agents and a very mesmerizing educator, John J. Waugh. So we talked - and talked and talked. Something I had been rolling around in my head because of the past week came up - mortgage pre-approval. Money is always a touchy subject, and I learned early on that when money enters a conversation as it must in real estate, the world changes a bit. I prefer to send my buyers to a mortgage person, someone I know and trust or someone they know and trust, rather than qualify them for a mortgage myself. This used to be done all the time by agents, I am told, but the consensus in the class was that most "used" mortgage people to do it. But it must be done. I had a conversation earlier in the week with an agent who to...

As Leigh Sales introduced a story on falling markets in her trademark 'educated bogan' accent, my focus marbles rolled away. For reasons unknown, there's a huge lava lamp flowing behind her on the 7.30 Report set, which rendered me unable to concentrate on much else. But as I said, the story was something to do with falling, to which I thought, "hmm the people of Cairns could relate." Cairns is like most regional cities, but I can't quite confirm that because I've never been. My brother lived there for a while and invited me to visit at least seven times, but it seemed a long way to travel to sweat, not everyone thinks the same apparently because Cait Bester, of the Cairns Post, reliably informs us that investors will flock to the city and grind up against as much house as they can in the coming months. We've heard this faultless yarn before and how did that turn out? Rather badly , but that might have been my fault because I did something unfortunat...

There's a lot of bottoms being proclaimed lately and coincidently most of those proclamations are from people who are arses. Sniffing out the real estate talk around the country is a pretty simple job, bookmarking a butt-load of newspapers and visit them on a semi-regular basis to see who is spruiking. Across the last week the bottom has been proclaimed in two North Queensland markets, Cairns and Townsville. While Cairns is stinking it up, Townsville isn't completely rotten, yet has been in suspended animation for a while. But that's all over because Gold Coast property consultant, Kerrie Young, was up to speak at a business breakfast and let rip with the following ... "You are definitely in a good position to come out of this downturn. People out there waiting for it to get worse or get to the bottom, it's (already) the bottom of the market. If you are hesitating, don't, get in now." Of course no one's going to turn up to the local branch of the Urban...

A few weeks ago Bob discovered The A rt of Racing in the Rain among his papers. He had been given it by a friend whose dog, Lily, a Boston Terrier, he really liked. Somehow he hadn't read it and neither had I. But all things happen for a reason. So I read it - set in Seattle, which made it fun, and about Enzo, a mixed something or other who was a very old dog and getting ready to die. The novel (by Garth Stein) is told from Enzo's point of view. And if you read it, I challenge you to ever look at a dog the same way again. I started noticing Koko more - how she moved slowly, laboriously, took a long time to wake up and slept about 23 hours a day. She still knew when dinnertime rolled around and could be counted on to find me at 6:00 every night. Then she'd go back to sleep until it was time to go to bed. Koko came to us through another agent, Hattie Peters. I worked at Gallinger when I started, and during that first year my mother moved in with us. Her dog, Dulcinea, passed...

Ah, spring! I took a lovely walk today by Hoopes Park in Auburn, just across the street from a rental property I listed. Such a great area - I almost miss being in a village or city. The sun was warm even though I was bundled up with my heated vest, a hat and gloves....It will come! There are currently 104 single family homes listed as active on the multiple listing service in the Skaneateles area. Thirty of these are in the village. Six "new" properties came on the market in the past two weeks. Three are re-lists of homes that have been on the market before for varying lengths of time, and three are new. A very pretty home - think curb appeal - with renovations completed on the interior came on in the mid-$300,000 range. Another small home - also village - is in the mid-$100,000 and is very sweet. Not too far out of the village an almost new home with a finished basement is now available at the "hurry up and buy me NOW" price in the low $400,000s. My pre...

  The general consequence of my bashful bladder means the urinal is a no go zone - even if I feel I'm going to explode. I hear footsteps behind me and the water works lock up; the presence of others is behaviour altering and sends me to the stalls for sanctuary. I bring this up because when people know they're being watched, they modify their behaviour. There's been a noticeable drop off in real estate stories across Tasmanian, now I don't know whether to strum my own bum hairs, write a sonnet to myself and claim credit, but it's hardly a bad thing to have this noxious blog ready carpet bomb journalists who fall prey to property spruiking. After all, they are meant to ask questions, right? Not glibly take the word of every silver tongue they encounter. The failure of hard news continues to be the unquestioning coverage of the guy with the hard-on. Of course he's gonna tell you it's a good time to have sex and what's the sub-editor gonna stick on top of t...

The conversation was about uprisings and it made it to the inevitable - "the thing that frustrates me, you never see anyone pull that in Australia - politicians never have to worry about that."  He was wearing a collar and tie, and had a business degree, so I doubt he wanted a full scale revolution - just some entertaining militancy here and there. So I had to remind him - when the locals arrive home to find the plasma TV still working, and the BBQ still cooking meat, not much is wrong in Australia land. Until something does go wrong.  When was the last recession in Australia? Who cares, they don't happen any more. A relic of a bygone era, like Steve Guttenberg and his other Police Academy friend - the one who made the funny noises. Since that last recession the peeps have gorged on debt, saved very little and understood bugger all about frugality. Houses have trampolined to insane heights and they've been used as ATMs to fund lifestyle choices because the river of mo...

So gas is going up again, thanks to the Middle East unrest and the - how do I say it - interests of the oil companies in their profit margin. It has happened in the past, of course. I remember the long lines in the 70s, getting on the Thruway to buy gas so I could get to work. Driving away from gas stations because I was afraid I would run out of gas while waiting. It's not that bad, now. Several years ago I was working with a client to buy a gas station, and I asked the owner about pricing around the time of Katrina. "Oh, we're all getting rich," he explained. Lovely, I thought. But here we go again, and I thought I'd compile a few things that I predict will happen in the next several weeks. I will receive an e-mail about how to stop the prices from rising. I already have, actually. This one involves not buying gas from Exxon or Mobil to force their prices downward and to start the trend. I don't now. I generally pick up gas when I'm over in Aubu...

ADDRESS: 4512 East VERMONT St, Long Beach, CA 90814 ASKING PRICE: $699,900 BEDS: 3 BATHS: 2.75 SQ. FT.: 1,500 $/SQ. FT.: $467 LOT SIZE: 4,735 Sq. Ft. YEAR BUILT: 1948 COMMUNITY: Belmont Heights/Alamitos Heights MLS#: P772185 ON REDFIN: 4 days DOWN PAYMENT: $140,000 INCOME REQUIREMENT (3.5x): $160,000 MONTHLY NUT: $3,700 DESCRIPTION: Remodeled 3 bedroom 2 3/4 bath Home with Contemporary Open Floor Plan and New Laminate Floors throughout. Light & Bright Living Room w/ Venetian Plaster Fireplace opens to Formal Dining Room. New Kitchen w/ Granite Counters, Pantry, & Stainless Steel Appliances including Gas Cooktop, Oven, Dishwasher, & Breakfast Bar opens to Dining Area and to spacious Family room which overlooks NEW Wooden deck with view of the Private Peaceful Backyard. Spacious Master Suite with a New Bathroom with custom flooring, Skylight tube, Vanity & oversized shower w/ seamless shower doors. 2 other custom remodeled bathrooms. There are many other NEW fea...

On one of those rare occasions (hah!) when I can't sleep in the middle of the night, I read Newsweek from cover to cover. The article that stayed with me in the morning was "I Can't Think!" You can find it at http://www.Newsweek.com/stories.html for March 7th. Or just search for "The Science of Making Decisions" and the article by Sharon Begley comes right up. The basic premise is that there is just too much information out there right now and that information prevents not only good decision-making but hampers any decision-making. How this relates to real estate is so very simple and so obvious that I see it daily. In the olden days, say 2005 and before, a buyer would contact me and give me his/her criteria for a house. I would probe a bit deeper - what is important, how long will you stay, what is the current status of finances, needs...and then I'd go looking. After listening, I would pull up 5 or 6 houses and we'd see them. Generally withi...

With great sadness I want to note the passing of Bob Feldmann last month. He owned the hardware store in the village which used to be where Kinney's now stands. He was an institution in the town. His wife, Shirley, worked at Gallinger Real Estate when I started there, and as far as I know is still an active agent now that it's Realty USA. I knew the family for years - they attended my church in Syracuse when I was a kid. Bob was so much a part of the village-scape when I would be there summers as an adult, and finally when I moved back in 1990. In the past few years when I walked West Lake Street I liked to look up and see Bob mowing or just enjoying the view from his porch. He will be missed. But real estate awaits, and does not end. Maybe slows down a bit, but we all do at times...Currently there are only 105 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. Thirty of these are in the village - and without going through every listing there may ...

Still away for a few days. Found this approriate and something to expect in the near future... From Realty Times  just as the wheels were falling off in the US, the NAR cranked up a PR campaign to counter the bubble talk and encourage the naive to commit financial suicide... NAR Campaign Negates Bubble Hype, Encourages Buyers And Sellers by Blanche Evans Published: November 3, 2006 "If you don't tell your story, someone else will," Joe Williams, co-founder of Keller Williams said recently about the media's disinclination to quote real estate brokers as sources for the myriad stories written recently about the so-called housing bubble. Imagine the frustration, ignored by journalists and unable to peddle nonsense to the gullible. Instead they turn to anyone but people who buy and sell homes for a living -- stock analysts, economists, media pundits, authors, and so on. The effect on buyers has been paralyzing. Many brokers say buyers are concerned with more than rising h...