March 18, 2008 by Joe Kennedy.

It never ceases to amaze me what some real estate “professionals” or self proclaimed “trusted real estate advisors” will write to try to make a buck.  In this post, a “trusted real estate advisor” from John L. Scott writes about how “the media” is constantly attacking the real estate industry.  As both a real estate broker and a member of “the media” (who by the way won the Media of the Year Award from the Seattle King County Board of Realtors in 2006 - the most recent year they awarded it), I am personally insulted that anyone - especially a Realtor would attempt to make a case for “the media” causing the impending imploding of the real estate market.  In many cases, these are the same people who have been telling their clients that they can continue to expect double digit appreciation each year on any home they purchase - the same clients who have a better chance of losing a ton of money as the local market “readjusts” to more reasonable prices.

I should write here that before writing this post, I spent a good amount of time writing a comment on the “trusted real estate advisor”’s post - and as I predicted, it was deleted without even a response from the original author (who I do not personally know - or have any desire to).  One thing I wrote in my comment is that I’m sure she did not give “the media” credit in the past few years when she was selling listings for more than asking price in less than 24 hours - of course not.  It was because she is a “trusted real estate advisor” and such a professional - in her mind it had nothing to do with the fact that money was so easy to borrow, that anyone who simply stated they made $100k per year could qualify to buy homes that were valued way too high.  As pointed out in the following post, many of those buyers are now losing their asses - but their “trusted real estate advisor” still got paid.

Despite real estate professionals like this who have their heads in the sand, have been ignoring all the warning signs of doom and are grasping at straws and blaming “the media” - there are some who are actually living through the problems brought about by the good times of the past few years - and telling it as it is: as one broker put it -  “The reality is, our real estate market is in the tank,”.

In my humble opinion, the Eastside may not be quite there yet, but our real estate market is in for real trouble.  This broker and member of the media, has been warning people for over a year that the local market is greatly overvalued - and it saddens me to hear stories like the one in the PI article linked to above, who lost over $100k in less than 6 months.   I’m afraid we are going to be hearing a lot more of those stories in the next few years - and will be doing what I can to help these people out of their problems - and warn them to be careful when choosing a “trusted real estate advisor” - or when listening to anyone who blames the media for reporting the news.

Posted in Blaming the media, real estate market in the tank, Bubble, Media, Blogging, REALTORS, Bellevue | No Comments »

January 21, 2008 by Joe Kennedy.

According to an article today by Jessica Swesey at Inman News, ActiveRain has secured $2.75 million in a Series A minority investment from House Values.

House Values has certainly pissed off many real estate agents and brokers over the last few years - including yours truly. They have lost a lot of money (not to mention goodwill and repeat customers) through the way they do business. It’s amazing to me that after all their layoffs, cutbacks and change in business that their investors are allowing them to invest in other (albeit related) sectors.

As far as ActiveRain, I stopped blogging there after they announced a lawsuit against Move.com. (Apparently they were going to sell ActiveRain and all the people who helped build it down the river to the Realtors). I’m pretty sure that I will be deleting my ActiveRain account after this latest news, as I know that I want NOTHING to do with House Values. HV has given the lead generation industry such a bad name, that it has been very difficult for new players with great ideas to get a fair shake from the many agents and brokers who have been burned.

What do you think? Should real estate agents still be supporting ActiveRain after they took investment from House Values?

In the end, this is going to be great news for other Real Estate Networking and Blogging sites like Wanna Network.

Posted in REALTORS, Media, Investors, Blogging, Move, WannaNetwork, Consolidation | No Comments »

December 5, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

I was spammed the other day by someone on behalf of Coldwell Banker, “inviting” me to a Coldwell Banker New Media Conference.  Normally I just delete that crap, but for some reason I scrolled down and noticed that “Nationally known blogger” Chris Pirillo will be speaking about how social networking and blogging is affecting real estate.

Chris is so much more than a nationally known blogger and I would encourage anyone who gets a chance to hear him speak to take advantage of it.  I’m sure it will be entertaining.

Here’s the details: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

November 20, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

Since NAR and the local Realtor Associations have been unfairly picking on “the media” and blaming it for the current state of the real estate market, I don’t have a lot of great things to say about these organizations. With yesterday’s news that NAR has decided to provide $10 million and up to $5 million more to start a credit union, I have an even less positive view of them.

I am a member of these organizations because I am a real estate professional and value some of what they do for the industry - ok, in San Diego, I have to be a member to have access to the MLS - or I wouldn’t be a member. I certainly do not want to be a part of a NAR Credit Union (I already have bank accounts and am a member of another credit union) - and have a hard time thinking that part of my (very high) dues are going to pay for this. In my opinion, NAR is not doing a very good job of what it should be doing - helping it’s members (Realtors) provide the public with the best possible information relating to any type of real estate transaction. Until they get a better handle on that major challenge, they should not be spending their time or our money (even thinking about) getting into other types of businesses.

What is your opinion?

Posted in NAR | No Comments »

November 19, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

This post was written by Joe Kennedy, Broker with AAA Properties and Publisher of Eastside Business newspaper and online news site and first appeared on the Eastside Business Blog.

It’s (almost) funny how the REALTORS® are trying to blame the real estate market (local and national) on the media.  Almost funny, but more embarrassing, because in addition to being a member of “the media”, I am actually a dues paying member of the Seattle King County Association of Realtors, Washington Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, North San Diego Association of Realtors and California Association of Realtors - at least until my membership expires at the end of this year.  I don’t think that I will be renewing my membership and helping them pay for their smear the media campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in REALTORS, Media, Blogging, Residential, Eastside Business, SFR | No Comments »

November 19, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

As anyone familiar with Bellevue knows, there are a number of huge high-rise condo projects being built, with well over a thousand new units scheduled to come on the market over the next couple of years alone. Here are some of the projects currently under construction:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Residential, Condos, Bellevue | No Comments »

October 31, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

According to an article in the Seattle Times, Seattle area home prices fell in August.  I look for a lot more of this to happen, as there seems to be fewer buyers and a lot more inventory on the market - much of it drastically overpriced.

Posted in Residential, SFR | No Comments »

October 18, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

I had to laugh - and applaud!  This is a great marketing idea, but unfortunately does show the state of the market.  Agents are getting discouraged with the lack of buyers and sellers who think their properties are worth a lot more than they are.  Apparently this listing agent is finding that other agents are no longer showing up for open houses.  Many listing agents are finding that their open houses are only attended by neighbors who want to snoop - and only a short time ago, these same houses would have sold before a brokers open could be held.

I did get this email this afternoon through spam (apparently many real estate professionals feel that its ok to illegally spam other real estate professionals), which I hate and never condone - but I do have to appreciate the fact that this agent is trying something different …   Perhaps she should just try advertising it in Eastside Business.  That’s one of the places our advertising gets listed.

Posted in Brokers Open | No Comments »

October 13, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

I just received quite a pleasant surprise this morning.  Real Estate Blogging Queen and Washington Broker of Brio Realty, Ardell DellaLoggia accepted my LinkedIn invitation and I am her first LinkedIn “Connection”.  I know that Ardell has been very busy with her recently acquired duties as broker of Brio and if she’s anything like me, probably has an email inbox that is constantly full.  Not sure how long ago that I sent the invite, but glad that she’s now a connection.  She’s really very highly thought of in the real estate industry, a very smart lady with a lot of great real estate experience and a great blogger.  I wish I was as good a blogger as Ardell, but am sure I am not as focused (or as good as a writer) as I would need to be.

I’m glad that Ardell has decided to explore LinkedIn and hope that it is of benefit to her and her business(es).

Posted in Blogging, Bellevue | 2 Comments »

October 6, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

Since joining Active Rain a year or so ago, I’ve made a lot of blog posts and comments there and was at one time able to earn the top brokerage position in Bellevue for a short time.  Once I was found out, the folks at Active Rain and Brio decided to make sure that was not going to happen again.  I boycotted for awhile and then went back, until I was displaced still once again - once again by Brio (whose founder is also an owner of Active Rain).  I boycotted once more and then went back - until last week.

Last week it was announced that Active Rain had filed a huge lawsuit against Move.com (which operates Realtor.com). Apparently, AR was going to sell their platform (and their members?) to Move to use for a REALTOR blogging community.  I’ve had to think about this for awhile, but for now I have decided that I don’t want to be part of a group that can be bought and sold without any of my input or any regard to how the membership would be affected.

There are thousands of real estate professionals on AR.  They helped build it.  I helped build it.  AR was going to sell us down the river to make a few people multi-millionaires.  That’s fine and their choice, but my choice is to no longer contributing or participating at Active Rain.  At this point, I see WannaNetwork as a good alternative, but after the Acid Rain experience, I think that my blogging time will be spent on my own blogs - not to line somebody else’s pockets with gold.

Posted in Blogging, WannaNetwork, Personal | No Comments »