Sandicor vs. Zillow

by | Apr 4, 2015 | Commission War, The Future | 3 comments

This missive was emailed to San Diego Realtors from our MLS company:

Dear Brokers, as you may know, the relationship between Zillow and ListHub ends on Tuesday April 7th. If your listings are going to Zillow by some means other than ListHub, this does not affect you. However, if you have been using ListHub, your listings will no longer be going to Zillow on the 7th.

Sandicor has been in the process of implementing a replacement syndication system and negotiating an agreement with Zillow that would offer substantial benefits and protections for you and your listings along with protections for Sandicor, in the event you elected to send your listings to Zillow. While our syndication system is being put into production, our negotiations with Zillow have not resulted with an acceptable agreement between us.

Please know that the terms of the agreement were developed by a fifteen member Broker Group, representing a wide variety of brokers, from a 2 person office to our largest brokerages. All were unanimous in the terms developed, which included protections for the listing data, brokers / agents and Sandicor. The terms are very similar to other licensing agreements we have with IDX vendors and other vendors.

Unfortunately Zillow was not agreeable to those terms and appeared to be unwilling to consider much beyond their terms. We revised the agreement such that we felt we addressed some of Zillow’s issues, at which point we were told they didn’t have the legal resources available to discuss it any further. We then tried to negotiate an interim agreement, which also was not successful.

While Zillow does not have the resources to negotiate with us at this time, we have not given up and will endeavor to work on an agreement that is acceptable to all parties.

While our 15-member team probably believes that Zillow will come around as soon as they can drum up a few more lawyers, the tone has already been set.

If the MLS wants direct uploads, then we’ll have to comply with Zillow’s rules.  Other MLS companies are already toeing the line:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/record-setting-number-of-multiple-listing-services-sign-direct-agreements-with-zillow-group-in-past-week-including-two-of-the-nations-largest-300060695.html

All that has to happen is for Zillow to hold out, and either our negotiators will cave and allow them to pimp our listings however they feel necessary, or we will be forced to manually input the listings onto Zillow – where Z will pimp our listings.

Either way, they will pimp our listings.

Zillow owns us now, and this is the MLS death march.

The MLS only provides a basic product for agents to use, while Zillow builds a dynamic, engaging product for consumers.  There is no impetus for change – those who control the MLS don’t see a need to compete with Zillow.  Realtor.com is supposed to be competing, but they haven’t done much yet.

Who cares?  The realtors who don’t have listings should care.  They are the ones who will get squeezed out slowly, as Zillow helps to convert the industry to single agency.

News Corp doesn’t care about realtor.com, they care about News Corp.  The best hope to keep the MLS relevant is to privatize it.  Here is more on that from the Notorious ROB:

http://www.notorious-rob.com/2015/04/02/constituents-customers-competition-the-root-of-all-issues-of-the-mls/

Fannie’s 20-Day First Look

by | Apr 3, 2015 | Ethics, Jim's Take on the Market, Market Conditions, Mortgage News, No-Foreclosure as Banking Policy

fannie

Fannie Mae has been over-pricing their REOs by at least 10% since 2012, and have been getting away with it because buyers think that because it’s a foreclosure, they are getting a deal, and because Fannie provided ‘HomePath’ financing where no appraisal was required.

They instituted a seven-day First Look Program, where only the owner-occupying buyers were allowed to purchase, which helped to whip up the excitement in unsuspecting buyers, many of whom were purchasing their first home.

But in October, 2014, the HomePath financing was terminated, and apparently the REO portfolio needs to be goosed again.

Here the ‘new’ 20-day First Look Program is rolled out by our N.A.R. goons, and presented as a great new idea to help buyers and preserve neighborhoods.  But in reality, it’s extending the period that Fannie can take advantage of unsuspecting buyers:

Appraiser Squeeze

by | Apr 3, 2015 | Jim's Take on the Market, The Future | 6 comments

In the post last week about real estate crowdfunding, reader Jiji said we’re close to bubble territory, and I suggested this:

It will take a few ingredients to come together:

1. Alternative financing.
2. Desperate buyers who were previously shut out (self-employed, foreclosed, BK, etc.)
3. Appraisal shenanigans.

Crowdfunding could be the source of alternative financing, and we know plenty of folks have been forced to the sidelines in recent years by big money and insider trading.

This article talked about the pressure on appraisers:

http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/33410-did-little-known-arizona-law-start-the-appraiser-death-clock

One of their readers, an appraiser,  offered this expanation:

One need only to go back to the beginning of the “appraiser death clock”. It all started with Andrew Cuomo and his suit against the GSE’s that resulted in the HVCC and was carried forward by Dodd-Frank (the one’s responsible for the “bubble”) that invented the AMC’s.

Many of the AMC’s are wholly owned subsidiaries of the big banks who seized the opportunity to turn the appraisal process into a profit center by paying “cram down” fees to appraisers who can’t make a living on the current fee structure.

Take for example Bank of America who charges the customer $550 for the appraisal and then assigns it to Landsafe AMC (their subsidiary) who pays the appraiser $305 for the appraisal and keeps the rest to cover operations and a big chunk towards profit. Or JP Morgan Chase who charges the customer $460 for the appraisal and then assigns it to Clear Capital AMC who pays the appraiser $250.

Because the appraiser has to do two appraisals just to keep up with their prior income status, they started “cutting corners” which produced poor quality appraisals, thus Fannie steps in and instigates Collateral Underwriter, a program that uses the appraisers own data against them to spot poor quality appraisals and “weed out” the poor quality appraisers.

This will create a shortage of appraisers which will either cause an increase in the appraisal fee or legislation to do away with the appraisal process altogether. After all, automated valuation models and “Google Earth” can do the same job as the appraiser. Appraisers we placed in the process to act as an independent third party to “PROTECT THE PUBLIC TRUST”.

Why are the ranks of the appraiser shrinking? Just ask yourself? Would you obtain a 4 year college degree, undergo over 350 hours of specialized appraisal courses and be directly supervised by a “certified appraiser” for 2,000 hours work experience, and subject yourself to the most constraining set of professional standards, just to make $25 to $40 per hour.

As an appraiser with 53 years of experience of real estate valuation, in my opinion, the answer is a resounding NO.

Let’s place the blame where is squarely belongs with the “big banks” who we bailed out and to Mssr’s Cuomo, Dodd and Frank, oh and let’s not forget Mr. Clinton under who’s administration this all started.

There are other good comments in the article too.  Will appraisers get squeezed out of the equation? Will they go to work on realtors next?

Taste of Leucadia Today

by | Apr 2, 2015 | Local Flavor | 2 comments

leuc

The Leucadia 101 Main Street Association is proud to present the Taste of Leucadia, Food for Thought on April 2 from 5:30pm-8:30pm. Join the community in celebrating the culinary flavors and local libations that make our downtown Leucadia district so unique. The Taste of Leucadia, Food For Thought will highlight our local restaurants, retailers, craft brewers and local vintners. The town will come alive as we celebrate with food, music, and poetry.

Each ticket to the event is $20 in advance ($25 the day of) with Sip Stops (craft beer/wine tasting included) prices are $33 in advance ($40 the day of).

There will be 18 Leucadia Restaurants participating this year and those include:

Bull Taco, Captain Keno’s, HapiFish, Sugar Coffee & Tea, Fully Loaded Micro Juicery, Pannikin Coffee & Tea, Vigilucci’s, Trattoria Italiana, Priority Public House, Peace Pies, Pandora’s Pizza, Kotija Jr. Taco Shop, Taste and Sea Cakery, Solterra Winery & Kitchen, Coffee Coffee, Le Papagayo, Jupiter Cold Brew, and Fish 101 Restaurant.

http://www.leucadia101.com/events/taste-leucadia/

Designer-Brand Condos

by | Apr 2, 2015 | Builders, Market Buzz, The Future | 6 comments

Hat tip to daytrip for sending this along:

http://tinyurl.com/lkswwop

Excerpts:

SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Florida (AP) — The wow factor for Miami’s skyscraper condos no longer comes from a dazzling Atlantic Ocean view.

It takes something more audacious to sell beachfront property these days to the global ultra-wealthy who arrive in Miami with millions to spend on second or third homes. It takes words invested with meaning in the language of the international jet set:

Porsche. Giorgio Armani. Fendi.

With a slew of residential and hotel developments, Miami is embracing the notion that homes, like cars, handbags and jewelry, should carry luxe designer labels. The trend has spread from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, where developers discovered a few years ago that luxury-branded hotels and homes could command huge premiums that the moneyed set would happily pay.

The pull is so powerful that developer Gil Dezer’s Porsche Design Tower is mostly sold-out, even though construction won’t wrap until early 2016, meaning that most buyers committed millions based on blueprints.

Shaped like a piston driven into sand, the concrete-and-glass Porsche Design Tower will contain three car elevators. Each can whisk a convertible up 60 stories and then slide it into the owner’s personal steel-reinforced garage. (The owner can stay in the driver’s seat.) Inside the apartments, curved windows capture a vista of waves billowing from a midnight blue into a pale green along the shore.

“People look at these apartments as bank accounts,” Dezer said.

Read full article here:

http://tinyurl.com/lkswwop

Western White House

by | Apr 2, 2015 | Historic Homes | 2 comments

For Gavin Herbert, the retired founder and CEO of Allergan—the nearly $70 billion pharmaceuticals company—it was a lifelong love of gardening that led to his ownership of one of Southern California’s most storied and valuable coastal properties: President Richard Nixon’s so-called Western White House.

Now, it will hit the market for $75 million. Mr. Herbert, 83, is selling the estate after 35 years of ownership and is looking for a buyer who will continue to care for the property. The 5.5-acre estate in San Clemente, Calif., has more than 15,000 square feet of living space over a main house, guesthouses and staff quarters, and 450 feet of ocean frontage.

In 1969, six months into his presidency, Mr. Nixon and some business partners bought the property, then 26 acres, for $1.4 million from the widow of original owner, Hamilton Cotton, according to reports from the time. He dubbed it La Casa Pacifica.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nixons-western-white-house-is-listed-for-75-million-1427910764?mod=trending_now_1

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