No firm plans to sell out to an MLS or the National Association of Realtors as of today. We are always flattered when we’re lumped into a group of companies that have invested exponentially more money than us and have exponentially more employees working for them.

Before we get started in earnest, I want you to take a look at this map-based MLS search interface. Estately.com is my current pet, in no small measure because it integrates all kinds of neighborhood and transit information into its visual representation of MLS data. There are other cool tools out there: Windermere has a very sexy map-based search. RE/Max has a national MLS system, and Keller-Williams can’t be far behind in that regard. Even so, the market leaders for all of these very cool tools are third-party start-ups like Zillow.com and Trulia.com.

So this is a long lead in to an apology to our regular visitors: we haven’t been cranking out the sexy new features recently. Two man shops like us (heck, even ten man shops) cannot even look in the wrong direction for fear of getting distracted and wasting time. We might have glanced out of the corner of our eyes, but we refocused and now I can happily say that new things are on the way. Soon…

So you’re buying a house and you’re thinking to yourself, “I want a deal, and in this market I should be able to find someone who is represented by an amateur (who blew their staging and marketing) and will sell their house for less than it’s worth. Or better yet, someone who has to sell or they’ll be foreclosed on.” (That’s a dangling participle, if you’re keeping score)

You’re in luck. Short sales are being advertised.
You only need to search for the code words. Here is what the code words for foreclosure are showing us today:

“Short Sale” - 18 homes and condos for sale in the greater Seattle area
“Motivated Seller” - 125 homes for sale in the greater Seattle area
“Foreclosure” - 11 homes and condos for sale in the greater Seattle area

If you want to see foreclosures as they come on the market, you can save a search with one of those keywords and subscribe to get emails every time a foreclosure comes on the market.

While doing this survey I spotted another example of mediocre representation. Directly from the description of one of the foreclosure homes: “All offers will be reviewed 07/31/2007 and may be subject to bank approval.” The home is still for sale. Oops! Maybe the agent should have included more than one photo. Or more than 2 sentences in the description. Seller, you need to ditch that loser and try out Estately Agent Match.

Have more words we should add to the list? Let me know if the comments and I’ll add ‘em.

Have you ever done the math to see when and how buying a home pays off? It’s not in the first couple of years - that’s for sure. By many accounts, you maximize profit after about 10 years in a home, at which time you have built up some equity, the cost of buying and selling your home (Realtor commissions, mortgage fees, moving costs) has been spread over a longer time period. After 10 years your monthly costs slowly start to rise because all that equity you have in your house could now be put to a higher use in stocks and bonds. You can always “pull” some of the equity out at that time and invest it in your preferred investment vehicle.

Want to see how your own situation pans out? Check it out for yourself at housemath.us (check the monthly cost vs. Sell Time chart after you’ve put in your basic information).

But it’s always nice to hear the same advice from a professional minus the charts and graphs:

Some how people have gotten the idea that buying and selling real estate, frequently is a good idea, or even a way to get rich. It didn’t used to be that way. People looked at homes as a place to live.

I get phone calls from people who bought homes two years ago and are kind of thinking they might like to move. I hate to get all parental with them, but I do. Sometimes I even say no, you can’t move you have to stay where you are.

…

Don’t even think about buying a home if you can’t live in it for at least five years. I know you can move any time you want to and when you do I make some money. The truth is that it costs money to buy a home, and it costs money to sell a home and it may not be the best use of financial resources to move around for the heck of it. Again it is your money and your choice. I would choose differently.

Real estate agents aren’t a particularly well respected group of people, but a select group has the integrity and intelligence to really help their clients. We had a client ask us to recommend an agent to help him buy a Belltown condo last week and the agent we recommended showed him comps that indicated it was overpriced.

Was this good for the agent’s bottom line (or ours)?

Not in the short run, but by building trust - by letting people know that we are working on their behalf to provide knowledgeable, high quality agents and not mediocre salespeople - we can create better business in the long run.