June 05, 2007

A HousingPANIC question for the NAR and ramen eating realtors of America

Why aren't you yelling as loud as you can for homedebtors to lower their prices now, fast and hard?

This "we've hit bottom" spin you've gone to lately is actually hurting you. But I guess you're too dumb to see that.

Don't you see that's what it's gonna take for you to eat again?

New home prices are crashing - and the homebuilders are in control there, not you. Have no worries, those prices will keep coming down and down and down.

But desperate homedebtors who want to sell in a market with record inventory and rapidly slowing demand are gonna have to finally get the message that 5%, 10%, 15% price cuts from peak ain't gonna move the dead wood.

It's time for "drama pricing". It's time for you and desperate homedebtors to understand the relationship between supply, demand and pricing. And it's time for you to pull your head out of your asses, tell the truth, and come out with a coherent and believable message.

Get the word out. It's the price stupid. And get off the ramen. Hamburger helper could be yours!

29 comments:

Frank R said...

Stop taunting me with those photos of ramen. Ramen with sriracha sauce is killer. (I'm serious.) Now I want a bowl. You bastard.

Anonymous said...

Dry ramen is delcious too. It's a great meal in California and Arizona where water costs more than gas.

Chris said...

"It's the price stupid."

If there should be a new slogan for NAR, this is it.

Anonymous said...

The real question is, how high will the price of Ramen noodles increase?

A couple of Ramen noodle facts from the NAR (National Association of Ramenites):

Ramen noodles only go up in value.

Ramen noodles are a great investment.

They're not making land anymore. (therefore it's more expensive to build Ramen noodle factories).

Suzanne said we could do this (this meaning living on Ramen noodles since we can't afford much else.)

If you don't buy Ramen noodles now, you'll forever be priced out of the market.

I'm sure there are many more, but I'm tired and it's early in the AM here.

Cheers,
Chris G.

Anonymous said...

Because the cost of everything, especially Ramen noodles, are going up. Botox, boob jobs, skin resurfacing, fake bakes, everything is going up. So realtors can't yell at homedebtors to cut prices because their commission will be reduced. And then there's that son-of-Satan Redfin running around refunding most of the 6% commission!

Anonymous said...

Keith I realy don't know where this perception of real estate agents comes from.

When I sold my house my agent told me to list it lower than what I listed it for. I didn't listen. After 4 months I lowered the price to what he suggested initially and hey what do you know the house sold 5 weeks later.

He's also been doing this since 1981 and judging by where he lives ($3.8M according to zillow and I looked since I am a nosy bastard) and the car he drives (500SL) I doubt he eats much Ramen.

My buyer's agent was (is) the hottest little thing ever. I got to talking with her and she's married to a federal judge and does the r/e thing part time. Whether she sells 2 homes or 20 homes a year, I doubt she's eating much Ramen either.

Anonymous said...

Neighbor bought a new home without selling the old one first-- MISTAKE!
Wanted to list the current home for $329,000. The Realtor said she'd take it but only if the price was $297,000.
Then they dropped it to $274,000.
Then $265,000.
Only one showing-- an offer came in at $242,000. The seller took it without a counter. He saw the light-- take the money and run.
Other neighbors are mad now that he "Gave his house away".

blogger said...

Read Larry Yun and the NAR saying "we've hit bottom" and they expect prices to increase from here on out. That's where I get this from.

You can also read the blather over at realty times, where they're not dealing with reality

One realtor doing the right thing (telling you to lower your price) out of 1.2 million ramen eaters is not a representative sample

I think there are a lot of realtors out there though who do get it now and are telling people to lower the price. But the message from the NAR is the opposite

“We may look back and realize that April was the lowpoint,” Yun said. “Our forecast is that, by the second half of the year, existing home sales will pick up and prices will come around by late this year or early next year.”

Anonymous said...

I would guess that a decent portion of Realtors were "speculating" in the market and are now stuck with a decent portion of the inventory out there. I would bet that a nice portion of those were purchased with some of those toxic loans and thus the Realtor can't afford to drop the price without bringing money to the table...and they likely cannot do that.

Cow_tipping said...

They're not making new ramen any more ... so like all the ramen is all ... used ... buy now before supply gets constricted ... I mean constipated ...
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

Cow_tipping said...

Very very soon we'll start seeing sellers agents disappear (or become buyer agents) and that will result in them selling new houses cos those are a better deal and easier to work with the builder. The existing Homeowners are fu(*ed.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

Anonymous said...

The REALTORS who are surviving are the ones who are getting people to lower prices

Anonymous said...

I live in the Inland Empire of SoCal and am waiting for that elusive bottom to this insane market. As I watch from the sidelines, I like to call realtors from time to time and inquire about a particular listing that might interest me when prices stabilize. Seems that every home I inquire about is "in escrow". Doesn't matter if it is a REO, 6 month old listing, brand new listing, or in some state of foreclosure (thanks Foreclosureradar). Same story with every realtor: in escrow. BUT they have another home that is just perfect for me and can I come over right now so we can drive some neighborhoods and do you have a home to sell (You are renting? drool, drool: no contingency, drool, drool)and you know that now is the best time to buy blahblahblah.
Funny thing, though, they all call back excitedly in a few days to breathlessly inform me that the home has just fallen out of escrow and can we go look at it now.
I guess this is part of the new realtor game to try to prop up some excitement in their dead business and bring back the glory days of bidding wars.

Anonymous said...

Keith, agents here are telling sellers to bump prices up 10% - I kid you not. They try to play a psychology game where they know the price will have to come way down, so why not bump it up to start and then when they come down 20%, the buyer thinks they negotiated a hard ass deal.

The sad fact is it works for mid range houses. The high end (for us $750K & up) is dead as a doorknob.

Anonymous said...

"Ramen with sriracha sauce is killer. (I'm serious.) Now I want a bowl."

Yeah, that's the equivalent of a mustard & potato chip sandwich over here. Hillbilly.

Anonymous said...

Keith,

No kidding, I'm not buying a house until YOU call bottom, any predictions?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Keith I realy don't know where this perception of real estate agents comes from.

When I sold my house my agent told me to list it lower than what I listed it for. I didn't listen. After 4 months I lowered the price to what he suggested initially and hey what do you know the house sold 5 weeks later.

He's also been doing this since 1981 and judging by where he lives ($3.8M according to zillow and I looked since I am a nosy bastard) and the car he drives (500SL) I doubt he eats much Ramen.

My buyer's agent was (is) the hottest little thing ever. I got to talking with her and she's married to a federal judge and does the r/e thing part time. Whether she sells 2 homes or 20 homes a year, I doubt she's eating much Ramen either.

June 05, 2007 12:41 PM


Your talking about a top 1% producer and a housewife w/ a hobby.

Keith is talking about the millions of new "Realtwhores" that were surviving off of the top producers crumbs, and are now S.O.L.
If the Judge's wife had to feed herself, she wouldn't be in RE.

I just hired a "realtwhore" who is also an "investor" with four homes and a condo. Two of her properties are in foreclosure. I hired her as a waitress. I might have to let her go, she has a frenzied, terrified/desperate air about her. I'm worried she might start to steal.

If you continue to believe the hype, your gonna miss out on the market, and all the ramen will be gone before you get there.

Anonymous said...

*****************************

NISSIN FOODS just announced the release of two new flavors of ramen specifically for realtors

CROW and S**T

Anonymous said...

3:25pm, your point would be move valid if you knew that your and you're are not the same word.

It's small things that give away the lack of education here. It makes sense that high school dropouts would be jealous of people who made money in r/e.

Anonymous said...

You're right, I used the possessive. What an idiot I am.
I better brush up on my English skills so that I can communicate more effectively in my home state of California.

stuckinthecity said...

keith said...
Read Larry Yun and the NAR saying "we've hit bottom" and they expect prices to increase from here on out. That's where I get this from.



No such thing. they are hanging on by finger nails, and they only got a couple of those left!

stuckinthecity said...

Anonymous said...
I live in the Inland Empire of SoCal and am waiting for that elusive bottom to this insane market. As I watch from the sidelines, I like to call realtors from time to time and inquire about a particular listing that might interest me when prices stabilize.



I do this here in Chicago. 9/10 times, the sellers agent does not even answer the phone!

Anonymous said...

4:42pm, your point would be 'move' valid if you weren't so pathetic as to rely upon ubiquitous typos while providing one yourself. Sheesh, what a loser!

Anonymous said...

NISSIN FOODS just announced the release of two new flavors of ramen specifically for realtors

CROW and S**T


That's the funniest thing I've seen in a blog in months!

Secondly, attacking punctuation and spelling is the last desperate act of a coward who has no retort for the arguement. Some of us are graced with lucidity and a 110wpm. It often makes for minor mistakes as our hands work as fast as our brains. I have to assume that anyone that hunts and pecks a keyboard also has time to overanalyze [bask] in the words they just typed. Pompous fool. Get Bent.

Anonymous said...

The problem: even Realtors can't convince some homedebtors to lower their prices. Why? They've refinanced and refinanced and are so leveraged that they can't lower their prices without a short sale and a negative hit on their credit rating.

If the credit rating companies were to give short sellers a free pass for the next 24 months on short sales, we'd see all of this play out far more quickly. Because they won't, homedebtors will wait this out until they can't wait it out any longer, and then they'll be foreclosed. How long do they have? Anyone's guess but I say ARM reset date + 6 months.

Todd Tarson said...

The market doesn't lie, and it is never wrong.

There is a housing market out there, but sellers continue to speak a different language than buyers.

No doubt it is a down market and you won't find me calling the 'bottom' of it.

Is it a good time to buy?? Depends on the buyer, depends on the situation. I share the same information with buyers that I do with sellers... the buyers smile and the sellers sweat at that information.

Buyers hold all the cards. It starts and ends with price. If a seller isn't willing to offer the buyer a great deal based on the current market there is rarely any chance for a quick sale.

I don't take listings to be chummy with my clients. I take them to sell... if the seller doesn't like my interpretation of what I can market the property for... I don't get hired.

I'm begging 'real' sellers to set the price at the level properties are selling for today. I rarely use comps less than 2 months old (only have to if there is no other evidence of market activity).

And lastly, I do tell my sellers that even if we price the property exactly right to the market... at this time there are no guarantee's that a buyer will make an offer.

I can't speak for any other person that sells real estate, but price is the number one topic of discussion by a mile. No other topic or issue matters right now.

Anonymous said...

Real estate professionals are enablers when they list for unrealistic prices.

I recently called to ask about two duplexes for sale in the good parts of Orlando. One was prices at $800,000 and one was priced at 1.2 million. The first had a cash flow of $1800 a month, and second $2000 a month. It would have cost $5000, $6000, or $8000 a month or more to won them -- even with 20% down -- depending on what type of toxic financing was used.

I challenged the listing agents and they said smilar things . . . this is "priced for location." I replied that location was only of value if you were to live there -- or, in an income proerty, if it translated to rent high enough to pay for it. I would have to pay thousands a month in negative cash flow just for the privilege of owning them.

I was told that they were looking to sell to "patient money". I replied, "more like stupid money." They are both buried in residential neighborhoods and will never be redeveloped.

The realtors offered to show me other properties but I told them that if they were willing to list at such high prices -- their judgment was in question.

Maybe I will torure them with an offer based upon a cash flow analysis. Do you think that they would dare explain cashflow value to the starry-eyed owners.

Well, maybe next year. They will still be for sale.

Downtown Orlando

Anonymous said...

You are NOT going to believe the latest article from Blanche Evans!!!

I won't even explain it. You will just have to read it for yourself!!

Found the link on http://housingdoom.com/


Conditions Worsen For Summer Home Sales by Blanche Evans

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20070605_conditionsworsen.htm

Anonymous said...

Anon (who else) said:
"3:25pm, your point would be move valid if you knew that your and you're are not the same word."

Get over yourself. Seriously.