I have been waiting for this article to be posted at The HooK since I read it on Thursday….  Lessons learned:1) Always have a home inspection, regardless of the “advise” you receive.2) Always have your own representation.  Dual representation presents too many potential for a) conflict of interest b) questions regarding “your” Realtor’s loyalty.3) All press is certainly not good press.Personally and professionally, I feel bad for all involved.  This is a great opening paragraph.Talk about a rude surprise: When sewage backed up in the crawl space of their house last April, Caley Clark and Steve Oberhauser called a local company to pump the septic tank.

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According to the one million-plus-member National Association of Realtors, 86% of new real estate licensees exit the business within a year.  And only 7% go on to their first license renewal.Obviously, the high turnover rate has negative consequences for consumers as well as for practitioners….  This in turn has lead to negative stereotypes, and a general sense, as evidenced by the growth of discount brokerages, that we get paid more than we are worth.  Link.Without higher standards for entry, my chosen profession will continue to be an avenue for experimentation by amateurs with little desire to be true professionals.

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So you want to be a landlord?One aspect of being a landlord that is often forgotten (especially in this exuberant market) – Expect routine cash outlays.  Rental properties aren’t all about money coming in. You’ll probably need to paint apartments (or offices) between tenants and every few years for remaining tenants….  If you want to attract and keep tenants, your property should look clean and decent.
Realtors – V- DOJA Justice Department antitrust suit against the National Association of Realtors raises a tricky legal question: Who controls information about homes listed by brokers as available for sale?EditorialAnd yet we have to admit the Realtors have a legitimate claim that they created and own the local MLS database of homes for sale….  The Justice Department’s lawsuit would require that all homes be listed on the MLS even if home sellers don’t want them to be.There are alternative business models and multiple websites for searching for homes, that are privately held as well.

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Slate’s take.With all these new agents swarming onto the scene, the price they charge may remain constant, but the number of houses each sells will not. The zero-profit condition predicts that, in locales where housing prices rise, the number of agents will also rise, and acquiring new clients will become that much more difficult. The occasional star agent will always make a bundle. But the theory suggests that the average agent won’t make much more in places where house prices have risen than in places where they haven’t.’Nuff said.

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