by Roberta Murphy Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to sit across from Bob Dyson at his office in Del Mar and listen to this real estate legend discuss today’s real estate market. We were also fortunate to have Chris Dyson videotaping much of the discussion, which we have divided into four segments. At the start of our interview, Bob Dyson said these are the worst conditions he has seen…
by Roberta Murphy I received an irate call from my father, Bob Michelson, this morning. He, a calm and decorated veteran and pilot of three wars, was fit to be tied. In addition to following the stock market closely, he tracks world events with the eyes of a falcon. “GM’s stock price is at an all-time low and Citibank is sitting at a 10-year low,” growled the Colonel. “Meanwhile the…
by Roberta Murphy Call this a geeky rant. Call it a blonde tirade. Call it what you want, but I just don’t know what to do about diverse databases. I think I have them coming out the Wazoo. If you came here seeking luxury news, you may want to click away and come back tomorrow. Right now, I am trying to sort out a database problem that honestly keeps me…
by Roberta Murphy The real estate predators are always there–in good times and in bad. There are whispered stories in real estate circles of certain escrow and loan officers who, in the heady days of real estate, slipped deeds into the stacks of papers homeowners were signing as they refinanced their homes. The deed, of course, moved the property into the predator’s claws. As the Discovery Channel shows, predators will…
by Roberta Murphy Opportunities for real estate fraud couldn’t have been more ripe than in 2005 and 2006, when real estate prices started to quietly soften–especially in fertile markets like San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami. Home prices in these areas had rocketed to unsustainable levels, and some of the micro markets within these areas had already started to stall as early as 2005. By 2006, market time and…
by Roberta Murphy A year or so ago, real estate circles were abuzz with argument and discussion about the pros and cons of discount real estate services and commissions. Discounter Redfin had opened with one agent in San Diego, and their CEO Glenn Kelman promised that real estate discounters would turn the real estate brokerage business either upside down or inside out (I dont recall which). Beating Kelman at his…
by Roberta Murphy The displaced people of San Diego County are beginning to return home. Most return to standing homes; 1600 or so others are greeted by their nightmares: Homes destroyed by fires. We are just beginning to hear and see stories of people returning to the burned heaps of rubble that were once their homes. They sift through some of the debris and find broken china, perhaps a metal…
by Roberta Murphy Become a victim of identity theft, and you could be in for the nightmare of a lifetime. We have known several identity theft victims. One family lost their home because of it–and another even fears for his safety. It is a vicious crime that can take years to resolve and the damages can last far longer than that. And all too often, identity thieves are never caught…
by Roberta Murphy I believe we have a new issue to negotiate on behalf of our clients: CANCELLATION FEES A couple of weeks ago we had a buyer cancel a transaction within the timeframes agreed upon by the buyer and seller. Notice of cancellation was sent out shortly after the physical inspection on the $400,000 downtown San Diego condo. It should have been a simple matter, but that was not…
by Roberta Murphy Brad Inman this morning wrote an excellent article about the mortgage and real estate crisis that has gripped so many markets in the United States–and elsewhere. In The Housing Market Blame Game, Inman reports that even formerly raging real estate markets that were once seen as unshakable, such as Manhattan, are now beginning to share the pain with regions that had collapsed earlier. Many blame the real…
