What are you reading?

A few interesting recent posts by real estate bloggers …

Free Flushes? (Gordon Stephenson)

Flushing constitutes nearly 40% of domestic water usage, so in theory, this will reduce your water (and sewer) bills considerably. And it’s just “light grey” shower water, which if you avoid shaving, toothbrushing, and any other debris-generating activities (not to get too graphic), should be 98% pure domestic water and a little bit of ivory soap and shampoo.

Where is the Breaking Point in the Market? (Ryan Ward)

“The fact of the matter is that housing is not perceived to be affordable and perception is reality. Justified or unjustified buyers feel housing is overpriced and when you couple that with underwriting guidelines that are more strict than in the past few years, affordability looks to be even farther away.”

9 Advantages of Working with A Real Estate Professional Who Blogs (Jeff Dowler)

“You gain insight into what the writer actually knows about their particular role in the real estate business. No one knows everything about their particular field, but what they DO know becomes patently obvious. Not just WHAT they write about … but HOW they write about such matters.”

Long Distance Relationships (Teresa Boardman)

“It is becoming more common in my job to work for sellers that I never meet. We have long distance business relationships. It is more common with condos and lofts than with any other type of real estate. Owners move away and rent out the condo and then decide at a later that they want to sell it.”

If You Can Beat’em, Play Dirty (Ben Kakimoto)

“Well, it appears an agent with a competing condo blog got a little envious and started to play dirty. The agent bought Google Adwords with my name as the keyword search term as well as the title of the ads themselves.”

Turning Away “Business”… (Jay Thompson)

“… what is the point in taking a listing that can not be sold? All three of these homeowners called knowing exactly what price they wanted to list their home for. They were off the mark (on the high side) by $60 – $135K. I tried to help them understand the current Phoenix real estate market conditions. I supplied data, I waxed eloquently about why their homes would never sell at those prices.”

HR 5830- Short Refinances: Saving the US Mortgage Industry? (Brian Brady)

“Wanna try and guess the bottom? Watch the lenders. When short refis are offered, en masse, they think a turnaround is near. ”

What are you reading?