Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'competition'

How to Sell Your Home Quickly and For The Best Possible Price

There's really nothing mysterious about this. There are some subsidiary tricks and issues, but the most important thing is obvious. The economic games theory is crystal clear, as is the research into what really happens. But most people don't like...

Real Estate Agents and Mortgage Loan Officers Don't Want to Compete

It's the same reason the phone company doesn't want to compete, General Motors doesn't want to compete, Wal-Mart doesn't want to compete, Disney doesn't want to compete, and Microsoft will do everything in its power to appear as if it...

Translation: Salesgoodspeakian to English

It may not come as a shock to you, but loan officers, along with many other salesfolk, speak a different language than the rest of the population. What will probably annoy you, however, is the number of times they'll say...

The Future of Real Estate Agency is Expert Consultants, Not Controlling Market Access

Expertise and attitude, not control of an informational chokepoint, is the way that things are going. Let's analyze this from both sides of the problem. The current owner looking to sell really needs a marketer. For better or worse, most...

Real Estate and the Tale of Aesop's Dog (Greed Envy)

At a very young age, my parents bought me a book of Aesop's Tales. Aesop has gone out of style, probably because these are stories with a moral lesson, and it seems the modern society is actively averse to moral...

Mortgage Loan Rate Locks

One of the most true sayings in the mortgage business is, "If you can't lock it right now, it's not real." But many mortgage providers will play a game of wait and hope. They tell you they have a certain...

Multiple Mortgage Inquiries Do Not Drop Your Credit Score

>broker incurred 19 inquires in 1 week dropping my score. B.S. I'd go the full Penn and Teller on this one if I wasn't trying to stay family friendly. The law is clear on this one, and practice is fully...

Yield Spread is a Beneficial Tool That Can Be Misused

If you read the papers and the congressional record on the housing crisis, you might think yield spread is the central culprit for the entire meltdown. You would be wrong. Yield spread is a beneficial tool, offered voluntarily by lenders,...

Should I Buy A Home? Part 2: Process

Continued from Part 1: Preparation I am considering buying a home, although I have not made up my mind on the subject. This is not due to indecision, but rather due to a lack of necessary information. There are many...

Two Things Sellers Need To Understand About Buyers

There's an old saying in sales: "The best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs". I wasn't able to run it down to the original attribution, but it is as true a saying as can...

Nightmare Mortgages and Self-Destructive Behavior

This article started with another one of those desperate consumer fishing calls a while ago. Loan standards have tightened since then (In my considered opinion, over-tightened and the lenders and Wall Street will figure it out within a couple years)....

Why All The Fuss Over Real Estate Transactions?

Why doesn't real estate just sell for the asking price instead of having to go thru all the paper work...? Wouldn't it be easier to just put a price on it and sell it for that price? We don't...

Games Lenders Play, Part V - Selling a Low Payment

Hello, I've been reading your website for awhile now, and have found it very helpful as I'm learning to navigate this crazy loan process! I had a question I was wondering if you could write about/answer. We currently have...

The Consequences of Not Shopping Multiple Lenders

Minorities get higher rates. They add that the fact minorities are more likely to borrow from institutions specializing in high-priced loans could mean they are being steered to such lenders or that some lenders are unwilling or unable to serve...

Some Offers Are More Equal Than Others (Even If They Are For Less Money)

The phrasing in parallel with Animal Farm is intentional. Sellers need to understand this, and so do buyers, especially in a hot real estate market. Some offers are more equal than others, and knowing how to choose between competing...

The Loan Shopping Koan

It's very easy for loan providers to talk about a much better loan when you're shopping than they have any intention of delivering. Then you give them thirty to sixty days after you sign up, and you're put into a...

The Tollbooth Model of Real Estate Agency

Over the last couple of decades, there's been a rising movement, mostly on the part of those who want a piece of real estate agents business, to sell agents as a toll booth. Tollbooths sit there, guarding the entry to...

The Sperm Donor Theory of Buyer's Agents

Some fathers, sad to say, are not involved in their children's life beyond conception. Maybe it was just a one night stand and they have no idea they even have a child, maybe they were involved with the mother on...

Segmented Real Estate Markets And Taking Advantage of Them

Market segmentation is what happens when certain things are much more in demand than others. For instance in the hot market brought on by the tax credit of 2009, the central area of San Diego was in high demand,...

Don't Rely On Reputation - There Are No Silver Bullets

On a regular basis, I get emails that ask me what I think of a particular company. When I check out public forums, I see questions about particular companies every time. "What do you think of X Realty, or Y...