Kary L. Krismer's Discussions

If a client didn't think I was properly servicing their needs, I'd release them.

I think if you look at the NAR forecasts of prices, they're incredibly inaccurate to the point of being meaningless. It's a waste of time to even read the headline regarding their press releases on the topic.In the stock area, every analyst has a different prediction.

A vacation home that you don't rent out isn't really much of an investment, per se. It's more of a consumption item--you buy it because you want to go there. In the end it might appreciate depending on where it's located. To the extent that you pay interest and real estate taxes it's possible you might get some tax benefits, but that's just really a reduction in what you're paying for your right to use the property.Stated differently, I'd buy the place depending on what it cost compared to how much I was likely to use it, not based on whether I'd be likely to come out ahead financially in the end.

I don't make predictions.I'm more of a contrarian. Ford is perhaps a good example. I bought Ford stock around the end/beginning of the year when there were news reports on the evening news mentioning Ford and bankruptcy. I've sold since, but today they announced a quarterly profit that took the press by "surprise."As to the real estate market, I believe it's driven more by the local economy than by much of anything else (basically that foreclosures are a trailing indicator). Our economy (employment primarily) is seemingly strong around here, so that should mean our real estate market should stay strong. But I wouldn't bet a ton of money on that.

Those programs tend to make prices rise, so they're counter-productive to some extent.As a real estate agent and homeowner I like them. As a taxpayer I wish they'd go away.

I just realized you can make exactly $87,978 a month doing short sales! If only I'd known that a year ago! ;-)

One thing you need to realize is that although the Zestimate isn't that accurate, neither are most bank appraisals--especially refinance appraisals. They are typically high. So using a refinance appraisal as evidence that a Zestimate is low is not really great evidence.

Being a contrarian, I'd say the fact that over half the population thinks the market won't recover until after 2008 is a pretty good indicator that it will have recovered by 2008. Put those predictions on the evening national news and it's a virtual certainty! ;-) :-)

Our friend Aldreth got me thinking. There must be a way to short the real estate market (bet on it going down).About the only think I can think of though is shorting REITs, and I believe they've been pretty well beatup already.I guess you could short the builders or entities like Home Depot, but is there a way to do it more directly? Seems like there should be a way.

Almay wrote: "but Aldreth... not everyone is purchasing their home as a short-term investment. Many are purchasing as a place to live for years and years, and real estate has proven to be a pretty good "forced-savings-account" for long-term ownership."Exactly. We're planning on increasing our investment in real estate by buying a better home to live in. It may or may not be a good time to buy, but we'll most likely be holding it a while (my wife has lived here over 20 years and I lived in my place before that about 15 years).To answer the OP, a lot of things turn us off. Smells, lack of parking, the neighborhood, layout of the house. There is no one thing. We found a perfect place, but it was too near power lines for my preferences.