The AI Realtor

It’s inevitable that artificial intelligence will be utilized in the business of selling homes. Having AI assist with writing home descriptions or other advertising would seem to be a natural fit.

How about speaking with clients on the phone though? Listen to the brief conversation above.

Here are some of the results:

‘Owned, A Tale of Two Americas’ on PBS Tonight

Giorgio’s movie will debut on PBS TV this week!

Tuesday, February 8th at 10:00pm on KPBS

Saturday, February 12th at 9:00am on KPBS2

If you want to watch it on your schedule and don’t mind paying $4 to $5, click HERE.


We had a great time while filming the movie, and hopefully some day we’ll see what ended up on the cutting-room floor. Here are the previous blog posts:

https://bubbleinfocom.wpenginepowered.com/category/documentary-film/

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Giorgio has gotten some great press around this release:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90718940/how-home-ownership-incentivizes-people-to-keep-racist-housing-policies-in-place

Why Sell Your Home Now

School is back in session and the holidays are right around the corner – it’s the time of year that potential home sellers start looking forward to the next selling season, instead of moving in September/October.

Are you thinking of waiting until 2022? Here are my reasons for selling now, instead of later:

1. The Shine Is Off The Frenzy.  Those who are pulling back on their enthusiasm:

JBREC – Two of three buyer categories are down slightly (above chart).

CoreLogic – they only predicted a gain of +9.1% in San Diego pricing over next 12 months, which is way less than the +23.7% since last July. Don’t be surprised if +9% becomes the new +3% of predictions – it’s a lot higher than the previous safe bets without being double-digit.

Zillow Offers – backtracking 5% on price commitments made 2-3 weeks ago.

Navy Fed – suspended the issuing of home-equity loans ‘temporarily’.

Refi appraisals – heard of several appraisals coming in low as market softness creeps into their minds.

2. Interest rates – They have nowhere to go but up, and it’s just a matter of when. Once they start, home buyers will want something in return from sellers.

3. Boomer liquidations – There probably won’t be a mass exodus, but all you need is 2-3 on your street.

4. Fewer Fix-Ups – The current inventory is so thin, sellers are getting away with murder now. If there was an index that measured how close sellers got to selling ‘as-is’, we’d be setting records today.

5. Safe – You know what you can get today, and let’s admit – it’s a lot higher than it used to be. Cashing out now instead of risking any of the above getting worse in 2022 is the safe bet. How much are you hoping to hold out for next year? Another 2% or 3%?

When is the best time to sell? When everyone else isn’t!

Millennial Homeowner Stories

Hat tip to Eddie89 for sending in this article that includes 14 stories of how millennials purchased homes:

An excerpt:

Homeownership, like other forms of participation in the American dream, increasingly resembles an exclusive country club, with membership predicated on who your parents are and your race. To wit: A millennial’s likelihood of owning a home increases 9% if their own parents were also homeowners. While 39.5% of white millennials own homes, the black homeownership rate is just 13.4%, the Asian ownership rate is 27.2%, and the Hispanic ownership rate 24.6%. “Left unchecked,” the Urban Institute study declares, “current trends will result in even greater wealth disparities among white, black, and Hispanic millennials.”

The trends we’re seeing right now in homeownership will reverberate for generations to come — and accentuate the 21st-century parameters of privilege. The difference between people whose family can afford to help with a down payment and people who have no choice but to rent might mean the difference between who can live within 15 minutes of their job and who has to commute two hours, between who’s employed full time and those who depend on contingent work, between who can presume safety in public spaces and whose skin color makes them a perceived threat, between who can pay for college independently and whose children — and grandchildren — will eventually take out their own massive student loans.

I wanted to talk to people within this new reality about how they actually managed to make homeownership work. So I created a survey, and asked readers and Twitter followers and friends of friends of friends: Tell me everything. Tell me how you found the house, how you pulled together the down payment, and how you feel about all of it. Being transparent about this stuff won’t necessarily make buying a home easier for others. But it will hopefully demystify what it takes to make it happen, and help make clear that millennials who don’t own homes aren’t failures. They’re just young people who have faced a dramatically different financial and real estate reality than the generations that came before — a reality that has impacted some more than others.

What follows are 14 stories chosen from over 500 submissions, and they all exemplify, in some way, themes I saw again and again. (Stories have been lightly edited for length and clarity; some names have been changed to protect people’s privacy.) Many people received money from family for a down payment; they chose to buy in an area of the country where homes are markedly cheaper; their parents were homeowners or felt very strongly about homeownership as a mark of adulthood; others are ambivalent about their own homeownership and the way it excludes so many others their age.

Link to Article

“Bizarro Desert Wonderland”

Were you thinking you could always move to the desert? H/T daytrip:

Link to Full Article

Mark Grden was looking for peace and quiet when he bought his house a half-mile from the main entrance to Joshua Tree National Monument in 1998. And for years, he found it.

“I used to sit out on the porch and watch bobcats creep past under skies filled with stars, bats and owls,” he said. “Neighbors knew each other and kept an eye on each other’s property.”

But over the past two decades, this otherworldly landscape has gone from a destination for hikers and rock climbers to an international attraction luring 3 million visitors per year — overwhelming the area’s craggy campsites, low-slung motels and Grden’s once-sleepy community.

“Now, I’m surrounded by Airbnbs filled with vacationing strangers who seem to think anything goes out here,” he said, shaking his head.

(more…)

Baby-Boomer Housing

These responses point to a massive downsizing trend!

From realtor.com:

LINK

It’s all about millennials these days. Everything seems to center around these special snowflakes. But what about the original “me” generation? We’re talking about baby boomers, of course. What do these roughly 76 million Americans want when it comes to housing?

Well, they want multicar garages, for one thing. According to a recent survey by national homebuilder PulteGroup, they were the top feature boomers were looking for in a new home, followed by open decks or patios; eat-in kitchens; and a private yard.

About 38% of boomers plan to buy a home within the next three years, according to the report. About 11% expect to purchase a residence within the year.

The survey was of 1,043 folks between the ages of 50 and 65 who plan to buy a home in the next decade.

“Retirement marks a new phase in a baby boomer’s life, and it only seems natural to relocate or move to a new home when transitioning away from their primary career, or from the day-to-day rearing of school-aged children,” Jay Mason, vice president of market intelligence for PulteGroup, said in a statement. “It’s not surprising that the 55+ buyer wants a variety of options and choices in their homes.”

According to the survey, 39% of respondents said the main reason they’re moving is because they want to retire, 33% want to downsize, and 30% want to move to a more desirable location.

“One thing we know about boomers is they are not done yet,” says Amy Lynch, president of Generational Edge, a Nashville, TN–based company that consults with companies on generational differences in employees. “As a group, they are starting encore careers and also going back to school. And they often move to be near their millennial kids, who are having kids.” They also start new families of their own, through divorce or remarriage.

All of these situations may require a move. About 26% of boomers plan to stay in their current cities, but just move to a different home, while 34% want to remain in the state, but in a different city or town. Also, 38% hope to cross state lines.

Their top retirement destination? You guessed it: Florida. It seems you just can’t beat all of that year-round sunshine. The state was followed by fellow warm-weather states Arizona, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The cost of living is lower in these states than on the pricier West Coast or in the Northeast.

About 82% of boomers wanted to be someplace affordable, and 74% want to be close to their preferred health care programs.

But boomers don’t want to just pack up and leave their grandchildren. Being close to kids was their top consideration when choosing a new community. They also want to be near the water and park or other green space.

“We are in a period in this country where family life and family connections are very strong,” says Lynch. “There’s a lot of regret among boomers because they worked so many long hours when their kids were young. With grandkids, there’s a chance to make up for that.”

Pets and Real Estate

Animal Owners:

  • Ninety-nine percent of pet owners feel that their animal is part of the family.
  • Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed said they would not give up their animal because of housing restrictions or limitations.
  • When finding a home, 95 percent of animal owners believe it is important that a housing community allows animals and 81 percent of U.S. households say that animal-related considerations will play a role in deciding on their next living situation.
  • Twelve percent of pet owners have moved to accommodate their animal.
  • According to REALTORS®, 61 percent of buyers who own animals say it’s very difficult or difficult to find a rental property or a home owner association that accommodates animals.

When it comes to selling, 67 percent of Realtors say animals have a moderate to major effect on selling a home. Approximately two-thirds of Realtors say that they advise animal owning sellers to always replace things in the home damaged by an animal, have the home cleaned to remove any animal scents and to take animals out of the home during an open house or showing.

Nearly half of all survey respondents, 52 percent, indicated that they had completed a home renovation project specifically to accommodate their animal. Of those who undertook projects, 23 percent built a fence around their yard, 12 percent added a dog door and 10 percent installed laminate flooring. Ninety-four percent of consumers indicated that they were satisfied with their renovation; 58 percent indicated they have a greater desire to be at home and 62 percent enjoy spending more time at home since completing their renovation.

https://www.nar.realtor/reports/remodeling-impact-animals-in-homes

Climate Change and Real Estate

swamped

This comes from the nytimes.com, not me:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/science/global-warming-coastal-real-estate.html

MIAMI — Real estate agents looking to sell coastal properties usually focus on one thing: how close the home is to the water’s edge. But buyers are increasingly asking instead how far back it is from the waterline. How many feet above sea level? Is it fortified against storm surges? Does it have emergency power and sump pumps?

Rising sea levels are changing the way people think about waterfront real estate. Though demand remains strong and developers continue to build near the water in many coastal cities, homeowners across the nation are slowly growing wary of buying property in areas most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

A warming planet has already forced a number of industries — coal, oil, agriculture and utilities among them — to account for potential future costs of a changed climate. The real estate industry, particularly along the vulnerable coastlines, is slowly awakening to the need to factor in the risks of catastrophic damage from climate change, including that wrought by rising seas and storm-driven flooding.

But many economists say that this reckoning needs to happen much faster and that home buyers urgently need to be better informed. Some analysts say the economic impact of a collapse in the waterfront property market could surpass that of the bursting dot-com and real estate bubbles of 2000 and 2008.

The fallout would be felt by property owners, developers, real estate lenders and the financial institutions that bundle and resell mortgages.

Read full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/science/global-warming-coastal-real-estate.html

waterfront

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