Real Estate Information

by Phoebe Chongchua Realty Times

Less is more when it comes to pools, at least when you re referring to depth. Industry experts say a trend in pool construction is leaning to smaller and shallower pools.

“People are looking more for a family-friendly pool, a sports pool — where they go from three and a half feet to five and a half feet deep,” says Josh Lawson, General Manager of San Diego Pools.

This trend is also helping to keep temperatures stable throughout the entire pool. “With a deeper pool that bottom couple of feet is always a lot cooler than the upper feet depending on circulation,” says Lawson.

Click here to read the entire story.

BY CHRISTOPHER O DONNELL Herald Tribune

Some Florida condo owners are fearful of legislation that they say could make it easier for developers to force them to sell their properties.

Right now, many condo projects are safe from a hostile purchase by developers because of contracts that say all owners within the project must agree to a sale.

In particular, those contracts have protected aging waterfront condo projects that are targeted by developers who want to buy them, tear them down and build vastly more expensive and profitable new condos in their place.

Click here to read the entire story.

One of the biggest challenges of being a home owner are the little projects that come up. Do you do it yourself or do you hire out the work?

It depends on the project and depends on your finances. In the case of tiling, I actually enjoy the work, though I hate the time it takes.

This past weekend, I decided I would put down the tile in the master bathroom I ve been putting off for, well, a year. To be fair, I did set the tile and paint the other upstairs bathroom, so it s not like I haven t done anything myself in this house.

When it comes to do it yourself home improvement projects, I ve learned there are three immutable rules to a project.

1. It s not really a project without an injury. 2. It s not really a project without a trip to the hardware store, usually several.

3. It s not really a project unless something goes wrong, because it always does.

This little tile project was no exception. I had already put down the wire mesh, so I didn t have to worry about cutting and scratching my hands and face again. However, several projects ago, I broke the guard on my tile saw. So when I got to the tile cutting part, little slivers of tile got lodged in my hand. I did wear eye protection, you have to with tile. This was a minor injury compared to past adventures. No trip to the E.R. so I was very happy.

With tile, you first have to measure the surface to know where to start tiling. You measure one side and mark it off with a chalk line in the dead center. Then you do the same thing for the other side. Now you know where to place the first tile.

Now that I knew where to place the tile, I mixed my mortar. I finally broke down and bought one of those drill attachments that turns my drill into a hand mixer. Money well spent. I gathered my tiles, my mortar trowel and my bucket of mortar. Now all I needed was my tile spacers. In this application, I m using 18″ tiles with a 1/8th inch grout line. I normally use 1/4 inch spacers. Those I could find. The 1/8th inch not so much. Just as I was ready to break down and make the inevitable trip to Home Depot, my wife found them. Somehow I had forgotten that a year ago I put them in this bathroom cabinet in anticipation of completing this project.

Whew! I dodged law number two for the first time. This was going to be great. I quickly set the uncut tiles.

Now it was time to measure and cut the remaining tiles. I went back to the closet containing the tile and realized I only had three full tiles left, but I had a bunch of scraps from the other bathroom. Surely they would fit. After all, a year ago I had carefully measured the two rooms. I should have had enough. I usually even buy a little extra in case of breakage. Yup, the scraps didn t fit. No big deal I thought. I ll just cut all I have and set it and get more tile from the hardware store. After dodging rule number two once, it was about to rear its head.

It was six o clock Saturday when I reached this point. I figured I would head out to the hardware store in the morning. Now I m going to let you in on a little secret. I always buy my tile from Sutherlands. I ve seen them in other parts of the country, so if you have one in your town, take advantage of what I m about to tell you. Periodically they put their flooring like laminate and tile on sale for excellent prices. Normally they have a section of tile they sell for .99 a square foot. When they have their sales its .79 a square foot. They have an excellent selection though some of it looks obviously cheap. I don t buy that kind.

At my last home, my wife wanted very nice tile for the kitchen. I relented and we paid about $4 per square foot. I ll never do that again.

Back to my story. I headed out to the Sutherlands. There s only one in town now and it s twenty miles away. Now, one thing about the Sutherlands tile - they rarely stock the same stuff continuously. Now remember, I bought this a year ago. Sure enough, rule #2 and #3 struck at the same time. I couldn t find identical tile. So I went to Lowes. I was hoping maybe they would have something close. No luck. Not willing to give up, I went to Home Depot. Snake eyes. Then I tried the local tile store. Closed.

My tile vacation was not going to end successfully. How much tile am I short to complete this project? Would you believe one? One tile short! The contingency plan is to cut up the remaining scraps and make a design. But first, one more trip to the local tile store.

CNN reports existing home sales declined in March over February.

Sales of existing homes fell 8.4 percent to an annual rate of 6.12 million in March from February s 6.68 million rate, the National Association of Realtors said. It was the biggest one-month drop since January 1989. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast sales would fall to an annual rate of 6.45 million in March.

On top of slower sales, the median existing home price dropped by .3% to $217,000.

The median home price slipped 0.3 percent to $217,000 from a year earlier, the group said. It was the eighth straight month that measure has fallen and the ninth decline in the last 10 months.

To make things even worse, year over year sales volume dropped by over 11% according to the Washington Post, “it was also 11.3 percent below the number of units sold in March 2006.” This is coming off three straight months of increases.

The blames for the decrease according to NAR economist David Lereah were weather and subprime problems. Like many bubble bloggers, I m not buying the weather excuse, but I am seeing lending standards tighten up, especially for people with lower credit scores.

Though not related to purchases, I was searching for a 100% cash out refinance the other day for a person with good credit and couldn t find one.

Being the optimist that I am, I see a lot of potential in FHA loans removing a lot of the pressure from subprime. Last week FHA loan amounts in Utah were raised to better reflect the price of homes in the market. There are some great products in FHA, but borrowers will have to be able to prove their income and there are no investor or 100% LTV variations available. However, for the first time home buyer, or home owner with an adjustable rate mortgage, FHA loans are great products.

I believe as the summer selling season starts making headway, existing home sales will improve. One month s numbers does not a trend make. Utah s existing home sales bucked the national trend in the first quarter, but signs of a slow down did appear.

New home sales numbers will be released tomorrow. It will be interesting to see where they end up.

I had a question posed to me yesterday, “with all that s going on in real estate, is it wiser to invest in stocks?”

That s an interesting question. While I m still bullish on the Salt Lake real estate market, finding a good investment property from a cash flow perspective is very hard to do. Personally, I have a sizable investment in my primary residence, but I ve put my surplus capital in stocks.

The main reason I chose stocks is if a real estate deal comes along, I d like to be liquid enough to access my money quickly. The author of the primary question wonders how many people out there have sold all their real estate investments and reinvested into stocks. I don t know. I haven t really seen much mention of that on the housing boards.

Sure people who haven t owned

are investing in stocks, but what about the real estate investors? If you ve divested yourself of all your real estate holdings, except your primary residence of course, and shifted to investing in stocks, please post a comment or send me an email on how that is working out for you.

As I read the news today that the Stock Market had set yet another record, I was reminded of something Keith at Housing Panic said the last time the market took a dip at the end of February.

If you remember, the Dow had been on a tear and set a new record around 12,400. Then it dropped like a hot rock. The record was gone. It looked bad.

Keith warned -

YOU ONLY HAVE DAYS TO PREPARE.THE EPIC HOUSING CRASH IS UNDERWAY.THE GREAT UNWINDING IS HERE. THE BIGGEST BUBBLE, EL FINANCIAL MANIA GRANDE, IN HUMAN HISTORY HAS BEEN PIERCED.IT HATH BEEN FORETOLD.PEACE OUT. GOOD LUCK. FULL STOP.

I hope many of you, not because of HP but because of reality, have made the moves in your lives to prepare not just for what s happening, but for what is to come. The Dow could go back up 500 points tomorrow (it won t), but that s not the issue.

Keith preaches with such conviction that even I was beginning to believe. I was losing money in the market and Salt Lake is a real estate anomaly, only months away from joining the rest of the bubble markets in doom and gloom.

Fortunately, I read another article that said when the Dow takes big dips, history has shown it always recovers within five weeks. Sure enough, it did. Keith s prophecy the Dow wouldn t rebound 500 points in one day was correct, but in less than two months it has recovered over 1000 points.

We re still on very confusing economic ground. Every positive economic report seems to have a negative counter balance. One thing I can assure you is we re not facing an economic collapse in this country. We are going through a transition period and the indicators that used to be counted on can no longer be relied on. That s not necessarily a bad thing.

Fed President Richard Fisher agrees.

“And yet I don t think it will pose the kind of systemic risk that we are paid to worry about. And I do think there are offsetting forces that will continue to carry the economy forward, at a slower pace, but keeping us from slipping into recession,” he said.

Consider this weeks housing numbers. Existing home sales came out pretty poorly, but were counter balanced by not great, but not horrible numbers for new homes the next day. While the number of sales were down for new homes, prices stayed up, mostly propped by builder incentives. I suppose we re at the point where if the choice is between a new house and an existing house and the price isn t too different, it makes sense to buy a new home. (For what it s worth, existing home concessions are reflected on the MLS and in comparables for appraisals. I.E. if a home sold for 200k, but had 10k in concessions, it can only be used as a comp for 190k. New homes are appraised differently.)

My point is housing isn t what it used to be in the glory days, but we re certainly not experiencing an economic crash. The stock market is up, jobs are doing well and economic gloom and doom prophets are just plain wrong.

I m not one that believes in black magic or fortune telling, but the horoscope section in the Salt Lake Weekly, the local independent paper usually has some gems for me I can t ignore.

Yes folks, despite what the media is saying, home sales are on the rise! Below are actual sales stats taken directly from the Manatee MLS of homes that have sold and closed in the past few months in Manatee County.

Properties that SOLD in January 2007: Single Family Homes = 128 Condos = 34 Average Sales price for SFH = $347,200 Average Sales price for Condos = $326,697

Properties that SOLD in February 2007: Single Family Homes = 179 Condos = 44 Average Sales price for SFH = $354,732 Average sales price for Condos = $255,672

Properties that SOLD in March 2007: Single Family Homes = 209 Condos = 61 Average Sales price for SFH = $399,378 Average Sales price for Condos = $224,339

The

media tends to lump all the markets together and gives an average of what is going on. That is NOT factual information. Real estate is local, and every city is different. The above numbers don t lie! Now is a good time to start looking if you haven t already. Feel free to visit my website and search the MLS to see what is currently available.

Is there any such thing as a realtor-client privilege? An article of interest particularly to fellow Realtors.

In any Listing Agreement there is a point in time when the agency relationship ends.

A Listing Agreement, as it is widely known, is none other than a contract between the rightful titleholder of an interest in land (the 'Principal ) and a duly licensed real estate firm (the 'Agent ), whereby the firm stipulates and agrees to find a Buyer within a specified timeframe who is ready, willing and able to purchase the interest in land that is the subject matter of the contract while acting within the realm of the authority that the Principal confers onto the Agent, and wherein

furthermore the titleholder stipulates and agrees to pay a commission should the licensee ever be successful in finding such Buyer.

As in all contracts, there is implied in a Listing Agreement an element which is commonly know at law as an 'implied covenant of good faith and fair dealings . This covenant is a general assumption of the law that the parties to the contract - in this case the titleholder and the licensed real estate firm - will deal fairly with each other and that they will not cause each other to suffer damages by either breaking their words or otherwise breach their respective and mutual contractual obligations, express and implied. A breach of this implied covenant gives rise to liability both in contract law and, depending on the circumstances, in tort as well.

Due to the particular nature of a Listing Agreement, the Courts have long since ruled that during the term of the agency relationship there is implied in the contract a second element that arises out of the many duties and responsibilities of the Agent towards the Principal: a duty of confidentiality, which obligates an Agent acting exclusively for a Seller or for a Buyer, or a Dual Agent acting for both parties under the provisions of a Limited Dual Agency Agreement, to keep confidential certain information provided by the Principal. Like for the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealings, a breach of this duty of confidentiality gives rise to liability both in contract law and, depending on the circumstances, in tort as well.

Pursuant to a recent decision of the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (http://www.recbc.ca/) , the regulatory body empowered with the mandate to protect the interest of the public in matters involving Real Estate, a question now arises as to whether or not the duty of confidentiality extends beyond the expiration or otherwise termination of the Listing Agreement.

In a recent case the Real Estate Council reprimanded two licensees and a real estate firm for breaching a continuing duty of confidentiality, which the Real Estate Council found was owing to the Seller of a property. In this case the subject property was listed for sale for over two years. During the term of the Listing Agreement the price of the property was reduced on two occasions. This notwithstanding, the property ultimately did not sell and the listing expired.

Following the expiration of the listing the Seller entered into three separate 'fee agreements with the real estate firm. On all three occasions the Seller declined agency representation, and the firm was identified as 'Buyer s Agent in these fee agreements. A party commenced a lawsuit as against the Seller, which was related to the subject property.

The lawyer acting for the Plaintiff approached the real estate firm and requested that they provide Affidavits containing information about the listing of the property. This lawyer made it very clear that if the firm did not provide the Affidavits voluntarily, he would either subpoena the firm and the licensees as witnesses to give evidence before the Judge, or he would obtain a Court Order pursuant to the Rules Of Court compelling the firm to give such evidence. The real estate firm, believing there was no other choice in the matter, promptly complied by providing the requested Affidavits.

As a direct and proximate result, the Seller filed a complaint with the Real Estate Council maintaining that the information contained in the Affidavits was 'confidential and that the firm had breached a duty of confidentiality owing to the Seller. As it turned out, the Affidavits were never used in the court proceedings.

The real estate brokerage, on the other hand, took the position that any duty of confidentiality arising from the agency relationship ended with the expiration of the Listing Agreement. The firm argued, moreover, that even if there was a duty of continuing confidentiality such duty would not preclude or otherwise limit the evidence that the real estate brokerage would be compelled to give under a subpoena or in a process under the Rules Of Court. And, finally, the realty company pointed out that there is no such thing as a realtor-client privilege, and that in the instant circumstances the Seller could not have prevented the firm from giving evidence in the lawsuit.

The Real Estate Council did not accept the line of defence and maintained that there exists a continuing duty of confidentiality, which extends after the expiration of the Listing Agreement. Council ruled that by providing the Affidavits both the brokerage and the two licensee had breached this duty.

The attorney-client privilege is a legal concept that protects communications between a client and the attorney and keeps those communications confidential. There are limitations to the attorney-client privilege, like for instance the fact that the privilege protects the confidential communication but not the underlying information. For instance, if a client has previously disclosed confidential information to a third party who is not an attorney, and then gives the same information to an attorney, the attorney-client privilege will still protect the communication to the attorney, but will not protect the information provided to the third party.

Because of this, an analogy can be drawn in the case of a realtor-client privilege during the existence of a Listing Agreement, whereby confidential information is disclosed to a third party such as a Real Estate Board for publication under the terms of a Multiple Listings Service agreement, but not before such information is disclosed to the real estate brokerage. In this instance the privilege theoretically would protect the confidential communication as well as the underlying information.

And as to whether or not the duty of confidentiality extends past the termination of a Listing Agreement is still a matter of open debate, again in the case of an attorney-client privilege there is ample legal authority to support the position that such privilege does in fact extend indefinitely, so that arguably an analogy can be inferred as well respecting the duration of the duty of confidentiality that the Agent owes the Seller, to the extent that such duty extends indefinitely.

This, in a synopsis, seems to be the position taken by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia in this matter.

Clearly, whether the duty of confidentiality that stems out of a Listing Agreement survives the termination of the contract is problematic to the Real Estate profession in terms of practical applications. If, for instance, a listing with Brokerage A expires and the Seller re-lists with Brokerage B, if there is a continuing duty of confidentiality on the part of Brokerage A, in the absence of express consent on the part of the Seller a Realtor of Brokerage A could not act as a Buyer s Agent for the purchase of the Seller s property, if this was re-listed by Brokerage B. All of which, therefore, would fly right in the face of all the rules of professional cooperation between real estate firms and their representatives. In fact, this process could potentially destabilize the entire foundation of the Multiple Listings Service system.

In the absence of specific guidelines, until this entire matter is clarified perhaps the best course of action for real estate firms and licensees when requested by a lawyer to provide information that is confidential, is to respond that the brokerage will seek to obtain the necessary consent from the client and, if that consent is not forthcoming, that the lawyer will have to take the necessary legal steps to compel the disclosure of such information.

Luigi Frascati

luigi@dccnet.com

www.luigifrascati.com

Real Estate Chronicle

Labels: REAL ESTATE # posted by Luigi Frascati @ Monday, April 23, 2007

A collection of memorable quotes by a collection of memorable Islamic personalities. “The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible”. Mahmoud AhmadinejadPresident of the Islamic Republic of IranOccupation: politician

“The Jews are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment. There is no solution to the conflict between Islam and the Jews except the disappearance of Israel. Put a knife in your shirt, get close to an Israeli and then stab him. And, furthermore, let the entire world hear me - our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute. I encourage all Muslims to take suicide bombings worldwide. Don't be shy about it “.Sheik Sayyed Hassan NasrallahSecretary General of HezbollahOccupation: terrorist

“Jews are responsible for the world's moral decay and are the roots of the world's evil”.Sayyid QutbHead of the Working Committee and of the Guidance Council of the Muslim BrotherhoodOccupation: philosopher

“Our thanks go to the late Adolf Hitler who wrought in advance the vengeance of the Palestinians upon the most despicable villains on the face of the Earth. However, we rebuke Hitler for the fact that such vengeance was incomplete and insufficient”. Mahmoud al-ZaharCo-founder and Foreign Minister of HamasOccupation: diplomat

“Iran is ready to begin the next Holocaust and implement the Final Solution”. Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi RafsanjaniFormer President of the Islamic Republic of IranOccupation: clergyman

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. And then it will be America's turn”. Ismail HaneyyaPremier-designate of the Palestinian AuthorityOccupation: politician

“The battle with the West will surely come, the decisive Muslim victory is coming without a doubt and the Prophet - peace be with him - spoke about it in more than one Hadith. And the day of resurrection will not come without the victory of the believers over the descendants of the monkeys and pigs [the Jews] and the complete annihilation of the infidels”. Hajji Dawud Muhammad ibn-Abdulrahman ibn-Hossein al-SiniLeader of the State of QatarOccupation: politician

“Oh Allah, destroy America as it is controlled by the Zionist Jews. Oh Allah, avenge in the name of your Prophet the colonialist settlers who are the descendants of monkeys and pigs”. Sheik Abdul-Azeez Aal ash-ShaikhGrand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaOccupation: clergyman

“Those who have come at night, like bats, will hear us saying: death to Israel, death to America”. Sheikh Abdullah Ramadan ShallahSecretary General of Islamic JihadOccupation: diplomat

“In compliance with God s orders we declare that it is the duty of each and every Muslim to kill the infidels, civilians and military, wherever they may be and to wash the Holy Land with the blood of the beasty Jew. For there never was among them a supporter of peace. They are all liars, all criminals. They slaughtered our children, turned our wives into widows and their children into orphans. Therefore it is necessary to kill them all in accordance with the word of Allah the Almighty and Omnipotent, peace rest upon him. Make war on the infidel Christian, kill the filthy Jew in any place where you can find them. Have no mercy on them. Murder them everywhere”. Sheikh Dr. Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-ZawahiriIdeologue and Strategist of al-QaedaOccupation: poet

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Support US and Canadian troops abroad. Luigi Frascati luigi@dccnet.comwww.luigifrascati.com Real Estate Chronicle

Labels: POLITICAL ECONOMICS # posted by Luigi Frascati @ Sunday, April 29, 2007