Welcome to Real Estate Syndicate, featuring the thoughts, adventures, scripts, ramblings and soliloquies of a real estate guru.

How the Washington Mutual Takeover Will Affect Consumers

How the Washington Mutual Takeover Will Affect Consumers September 26, 2008 11:06 AM ET | Emily Brandon | Permanent Link - Originally posted on http://tinyurl.com/3lfb9e -   The government seized banking giant Washington Mutual last night and then sold some pieces of it to JPMorgan Chase for approximately $1.9 billion. Here is how this will affect former Washington Mutual consumers: What will happen to my bank account? If you had an account with Washington Mutual Bank yesterday, you now have... Read the story »

Redfin to Zip Diaries: When Years Equate to Thousands

I remember selling real estate in San Francisco back in 2003. Everything was selling. If the property had a parcel number it would sell. The fundamentals were just thrown out the door. Times have changed. When I moved to Chula Vista in July of 2007, we were very close to buying a home. So much in fact that we viewed at least 20 homes, after some discussion we decided that we would not buy a home here because we were not sure how long we would be in San Diego. Plus, I wasn’t sure how long... Read the story »

Redfin to Zip Diaries:: Part 2

Today started off nice, I had just picked up my extra hot white mocha when my cell phone started to ring. The phone call ended up being a client who was interested in purchasing a home. She had said that she was working with an associate agent of mine through Zip; however, she wanted to work with me. I asked her what prompted her interest in my services. She said that she had seen me on Redfin.com and had been using both sites(Good for her!); she had seen the video article on Channel 10 back in... Read the story »

Redfin to Zip Diaries::. The Welcome

Today, I attended my first all district meeting here in San Diego. It was held at the Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club, a little less than a hundred agents met to discuss current market conditions and introduce the newbies (like myself) to the rest of this large district. Christian our District Director was proud to say that our district had a 92% increase in closings when compared to May of last year.  –  Nice. One of today’s guest speakers was from E-Loan(one of Zip’s partners).... Read the story »

3 Months Later. Ohh, another Short Sale Approval. Figures.

Today, I received a preliminary report for a contract that I wrote almost 3 months ago. Can you imagine? I left Redfin 5 weeks ago, but for whatever reason the title company still decided to send me the escrow package as the broker of record. I specifically told them that I was leaving. Title companies are funny that way. I just finished looking at the photos online; it is a 4 bedrooms - 4 bathrooms - 2,541 square foot whopper sitting on a huge parcel. I am so happy for those clients; after all... Read the story »