Jeff H. RIP

by | Nov 20, 2023 | Bubbleinfo Readers

I heard from Jeff’s wife today that he lost his long battle with cancer last night.

He was among the most dedicated of my blog followers, and regularly chimed in with words of encouragement because he appreciated what I do – he was a retired broker from LA.

Here’s the one time you saw him on video, in 2021:


Bubbleinfo Anniversary!

by | Sep 24, 2023 | About the author, Bubbleinfo Readers | 17 comments

It was 18 years ago today that I started writing this blog.

It was a Saturday morning. I set up a free account at squarespace to get it started, and it was solely because I expected every other realtor to do a blog too. Funny how that turned out!

Donna said, “Yeah well fine, just don’t spend too much time on it.”

I’ve been a part-time blogger ever since!

It was in August, 2005 when our escrow officer called me to say the buyer of one of our listings was objecting to signing the loan documents. Their realtor/lender beat me over there, and I heard her telling the buyer, “No worries, we will refinance”. It was one of many things that were happening then that led me to start the blog (the home got foreclosed 22 months later).

This is my first blog post, and it still resonates somewhat today:

Housing blogs were becoming popular and I commented regularly elsewhere. It caused more people to discover what I was doing – and to slam me just because I was a realtor, even though I was being pretty gloomy. By 2009, I had picked up quite an audience, and enough attention that the LATimes picked up on the blog, which led to this piece by ABC News Nightline:

The ABC TV spot ran in April, 2009, which coincidentally was the trough of the San Diego Case-Shiller Index. The audience here exploded, and at the same time the bank-owned listings being sent to us increased substantially. We sold 72 homes in 2009, our all-time high!

All kinds of crazy things have happened.

For example, we monitored the Jenae scandal in Bressi Ranch and La Costa Valley where she and co-conspirators were doing seminars and selling homes to unsuspecting suckers who financed their purchases 100%. Jenae promised to rent them out but they were adding $100,000 to each purchase price that was kicked back to her partner John as a tenant-acquisition slush fund. He finally went to jail but Jenae claimed she was duped too and she is still selling homes around the county today.

My life was threatened a couple of times, I’ve evicted dozens of people, I’ve been in a movie, and on CNBC TV (twice), plus I’ve been on ReasonTV, and in Grant’s Interest Rate Observer (on October 3, 2008 for those who have access). I’ve been on industry panels, I’ve been an expert witness in court, I made a citizen’s arrest of squatters, and I’ve met with the FBI to turn in scamming realtors…..among other things!

I’ve had 12,101 blog posts here with 68,179 comments and 3,000+ Youtubes with 2,341,000+ views, plus 14,200+ tweets. It has been one heck of a ride – let’s keep it going!

Thanks to readers everywhere, and a special acknowledgement of those who have utilized our real estate services over the years. It is why I do this blog, and I appreciate your support!

More T-Shirts!

by | Jun 16, 2023 | Bubbleinfo Readers | 4 comments

Yesterday was Donna’s birthday so I took her to Red Tracton’s last night – the only place I know that has prime rib during the week.

Reader Peter O. was nice enough to say hello, and I wished I had a Bubbleinfo t-shirt to give him! I’ve been thinking of printing another batch, so I’m taking this to be the moment to do it!

Peter – and anyone else who wants one – please email me your size & address and I’ll get them out to you!

klingerealty@gmail.com

Padres Contest Winner!

by | Feb 14, 2023 | Bubbleinfo Readers, Contests, North County Coastal, Padres | 2 comments

There were 182 NSDCC listings in January, as of today – which means we have a clear winner, even if a few more listings get added by late-reporters.

Congratulations Rob Dawg!

The season starts on March 30th, and May looks like a great month to attend a game. What might be the two best giveaways of the season (vs. the Reds and the Royals) happen that month, plus the Dodgers make their first visit back to Petco Park.

Dawg’s favorite team, the Red Sox, also return in May!

The summary of guesses, with some additions from the FB page:

16 Noodle
89 Momento
99 Tom
104 BWell_SoCal
111 Majeed
115 Lifeisradincbad
117 Susie
119 Beachside
120 Curtis
128 Joe
130 Rob
136 Skip
140 Haile
142 MC
146 Derek
152 Drew
158 Susan
160 doughboy
165 Kingside
174 SurfRider
175 Sciguy
186 Rob Dawg
190 Bode
200 Jeff Campbell
203 Lauren Stickelman
213 Shadash
252 Aunt Nancy
262 Eddie89
298 Nick
333 Sherman Messing

149 Median

This was the first time that the actual count of January listings landed in the upper third of the guesses. But don’t get giddy about the inventory just yet – here’s how it compares:

NSDCC January Listings:

2018: 426

2019: 418

2020: 354

2021: 289

2022: 223

2023: 182

The lack of choices is what causes hyper-frenzy conditions – it causes buyers to freak out. When a top-quality listing hits the market, buyers feel like this might be their only chance this month, or this year, to buy such a good match to their needs – and then the lack of transparency makes them go nuts.

It’s going to be a wild and crazy season – and not just for the Padres!

Bubbleinfo Subscribers

by | Feb 7, 2023 | Bubbleinfo Readers

Thank you everyone who signed up to receive an email alert when a new bubbleinfo post happens.

I think we have it working now – this is a test!

For those who haven’t signed up but would want each blog post emailed to you……please register your email address in the box in the right-hand column, under the mortgage-rate update >>>>

(or if you are reading this on a mobile device, the box will be at the bottom of your feed)

UPDATE: It doesn’t appear to be working yet, but hang in there. The tech who works on my blog lives in South Africa so I have to wait until he is back to work..

Bubbleinfo By ChatGPT

by | Feb 1, 2023 | Bubble Talk, Bubbleinfo Readers | 4 comments

I asked them to write a blog post for bubbleinfo.com. I think my job here is secure……

In recent years, the real estate market has been experiencing a phenomenon known as a “bubble.” But what exactly is a real estate bubble, and why is it causing such a stir in the industry?

A real estate bubble occurs when the price of properties in a particular market rise significantly and then drop just as dramatically, often due to market speculation and overheated demand. This results in a situation where property prices are not supported by economic fundamentals such as income and employment growth.

Bubbles can have serious consequences for both the real estate market and the wider economy. When the bubble bursts, it can lead to a sharp decline in property values, causing homeowners to owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. This can result in widespread foreclosures, a drop in consumer spending, and a slowdown in economic growth.

(more…)

Happy Anniversary Bubbleinfo.com!

by | Sep 24, 2022 | About the author, Bubbleinfo Readers, Jim's Take on the Market | 7 comments

This blog started on September 24, 2005.  It was a Saturday morning, and literally I thought I better get into this blogging thing before every other realtor started doing it. This was my first blog post that talked about 20% to 25% appreciation per year:

https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2005/09/24/20-25-appreciation-per-year-how-can-that-happen/

I am very grateful for you being here. At the height of the notoriety in 2009-2010 when all we talked about was foreclosures and short-sales, the monthly unique users was around 11,000.  To still have 6,421 over the last 30 days is fantastic, given that the market turned 180 degrees in the opposite direction since 2009, and I figure that once readers buy or sell a house, they are likely to quit reading and go on with their life:

The new-visitor count has to be loaded with bots.

Where are you from?

Ashburn must be where the bots live?

What devices are you using?

Do bots have a mobile device?

Beats me, but if they don’t, then the audience of real people is into the thousands – yay!

How about age and gender?

I love seeing the younger people – about one-third of you are age 34 and under:

About 60% of readers go straight to the home page, and the others are either searching for a specific real estate topic and find a bubbleinfo article, or readers are sharing links to articles with their friends and family, which I really appreciate – thank you:

Thank you for being here!

Ask Jim

by | May 20, 2022 | About the author, Bubbleinfo Readers, Jim's Take on the Market | 7 comments

The Other Bob (TOB) suggested a blog post where he and others could ask questions.

Let’s do it!

Leave your questions in the comment section, and I’ll do my best to answer promptly. The comment section is moderated, so you will see your comment once I have a chance to review and approve.

We are busy launching my best listing of all-time today, so it promises to be the biggest day in the nearly seventeen years of Bubbleinfo.com history!

For those who would like to review the history of this blog, the 10,094 posts are poorly organized here. You’ll see that I went back to the first three years and marked nearly every blog post as private (868 posts). Hopefully, the whole history will be re-visited, organized, and turned into an action thriller some day:

https://www.bubbleinfo.com/archives/

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