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Are you one of those?

You know, those people who want to live off-grid, have a cob house here in Salem Oregon, or build your own strawbale instead.  If those words are green music to your ears, I just stumbled on this cool map.

If you want to see who is doing what in serious green living across the US or here in Salem Oregon, check out this little map.  You can add your own house on here and talk about it briefly.  I’m thinking this would be great for those of you interested in this type of home.  Building codes vary and so being able to talk with a local who is doing what you want…that can be seriously valuable.  So…check out natural homes.

Like many Salem Oregon real estate agents, my transactions all seem to be from hell.  Not because I don’t have amazing clients; not because I don’t have a great loan officer involved ; and not because I don’t have a great escrow officer around me.   It is hard to find a post that says anything positive about banks, loan officers, appraisers, lenders…well let’s just throw real estate agents into that mix as well.  Rant this…rant that.  Everyone sucks, except of course the person writing the rant.    If my child told me today that he wanted to be an underwriter when he grew up, I’d be thinking I need to start those electric shock treatments NOW because clearly he isn’t right in his head.   I have spent many a sleepless night wondering what incredible minuscule detail the underwriter will use to derail my clients that are attorneys, journalists, doctors, teachers…you know, the people we generally consider stable home buyers, from getting a loan.  I’ve never seen such scrutiny to the point of ridiculousness.  I’d laugh if my clients weren’t so stressed out.

A couple of months ago, I had a client in distress.  The good news…I got them an offer AND we could clear title.  This situation seemed an anomaly to the bank who requested my short sale packet.

“This is NOT a short sale…we can clear title,”  I said.

“Huh?” was the reply. Clearly the concept of being able to clear title was something they hadn’t heard in a while.

“I just need to verify that you got my authorization form to talk to you?”

“No, you’re not in the system.”

“I’ve faxed it over three times now. I NEED to talk to someone, right now.”

“Can’t do it without the authorization form.”

“I understand that. Can I have a supervisor?”

My problem?

House under contract.  Inspections done.  Appraisal done.  Title report done.  DOCS at escrow. Buyer has signed.  What’s the problem?  The bank wouldn’t give the escrow company a payoff balance.  I’ve never heard of a bank not wanting to get their money back, but okay…there is a first for everything.  As I worked my way up the supervisor chain, I found a supervisor to just listen to me. The conversation pretty much went this way…

“Hey, legally you can’t talk to me without the authorization form that your company can’t seem to input into the system, so I’ll talk and you listen.  Here is what I need you to do…”

After saying what I needed to say, I hung up and Ted, the supervisor from the bank who just listened, took care of things.  The transaction closed 48 hours later.  I called Ted back and left a message saying thank you for not talking to me and just listening.   I called the buyer agent and gave her a big thank you for keeping her client in the real estate transaction as we worked through the mess.  I called the escrow offer and said thank you for hustling once we got what we needed.  I called and said thank you because they aren’t all the enemy…well maybe with the exception of underwriters.  They are still on my crap list.

A couple of days ago charges were announced related to real estate fraud.  According to the press release by the FBI in Oregon,

Among the 39 defendants named today are two real estate agents, 11 mortgage brokers, one bank loan officer, and one certified public accountant (CPA).

There are some ongoing investigations and they are expecting more charges to occur.

I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to comment on this.  I was having a hilarious and off tangent facebook conversation with some other real estate agents from across the country focused on the term “raising the bar.”  It’s the current term agents cry out to express the need for greater standards in our industry.  That battlecry has been going on for my entire career as a real estate agent here in Salem  and honestly, the bar hasn’t been raised a whole lot here in Oregon.  I mean Oregon just put into law that a real estate agent has to have a high school diploma or GED.  That wasn’t in the books before.  That’s like raising the bar a millimeter.  Not sure that is what the battlecry is about.

Personally I,  like these other fellow agents, am tired of the battlecry.  See here’s the deal.  The government can’t regulate behavior: they can only regulate systems.  It is up to each of us that makes up the system to regulate our behavior. If we want to talk about real estate fraud then brokerage owners need to look at how they fail to train their agents.    If we want to talk about improving the world of real estate it is up to the business owners, whether your own a brokerage or a mortgage business to have their own standards.  Government has never been about raising the bar; it has always been about the lowest notch on the bar. It is the responsibility of the business owners to ensure that we are well above that lowest notch.

I am not the biggest brokerage in town.  I don’t have “bragging rights” that I have 100 agents working at my firm.  I also don’t have to worry about real estate fraud.  I don’t have to worry that I have a mediocre agent in my midst.  My agents have direct access to a real estate attorney for any help they need.  Part of preventing fraud is making sure your agents can be successful so that they aren’t in a position of having to compromise their ethics.  I’d rather be the smallest game in town, with the best agents, even if there are only a few of us.

Me…I’m not aiming for the lowest notch.   Forget about raising the bar for the industry.  Raise the bar for yourself or your brokerage.  Consumers know the difference.