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I talked about how I see potential in disclosing property offers to all parties, in an open, real-time marketplace.  The discussion on Bloodhound Blog was predictably philosophical; xenophobia was displayed by some folks on Active Rain.

The Big Idea was that this added transparency might engender trust among the home buying public, the banks, Wall Street, and the Government regulators.  What I hadn't considered was the benefits to the seller.

Sellers sometimes question if they see ALL potential offers on their properties.

AREBOT.com hopes to change all that.  AREBOT.com announced its worldwide release on BloodhoundBlog:

AREBOT.com, which stands for the American Real Estate Board of Trade,  is the name of the company that intends to open up the demand-side statistics, by voluntary submission of properties, to an online NASDAQ-like market.

AREBOT.com is not intended to be an “auction”.  It is an open, transparent, real-time market.  Each zip code will have a live “ticker” moving across the screen, displaying actual offers on homes.  Each listed property will display a time-dated offer history.  Entries are voluntary and cost nothing to the sellers of the home.  The “price”, if you will, is that they offer the property on this  transparent market.

The Company has authorized me to extend an invitation, to Active Rain real estate agents, to a conference call:

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 1PM  RSVP on Bloodhound Blog

Buyers don't trust real estate agents, lenders, nor appraisers, because we willfully withheld material market data from them.  I talked about this on Bloodhound Blog:

What If The Real Estate INDUSTRY Didn’t Control The Real Estate Market?

Please click the link and read the full article before you comment because you'll look silly if you don't understand the full depth of the problem and proposed solution. 

Here's the problem:

We hid market information from the buyers while the Baby Boomers moved through the home ownership life cycle.   A huge generation, yearning for “The American Dream of Homeownership”, assured strong demand for houses in the post-World War Two housing boom.  Banks were all too happy to hand out money, even when forced to lend by the Government.  Lew Ranieri saw a 25-year boom ahead and found a way to create a shadow banking system that could “bury bad loans”.  Any agent dealing with a short sale understands the problem of buried loans because she’s heard:

“Well, we aren’t quite sure WHO owns this loan”

Kind of sounds like the forensic audit of Bernie Madoff’s books, doesn’t it?  That’s what you hear when the jig is up on a Ponzi scheme:  confusion, wagon-circling, and practiced deflection.  It eventually catches up with the schemers.  I’m firmly in the camp that no matter how many incentives we offer to stave off the inevitable forced sales, or to provide a middle-class tax cut, or to bribe the next generation of buyers, the simple fact remains that we have more houses than we need in this country…and the people just ain’t buying like they used to.

Here is a way the industry can solve the problem:

Prominently display the terms and dates of the rejected offers, verified by participating market professionals, in the MLS system, and you solve the demand side of the equation because you identify the “size of the market”.  Share that information with the banks and they’ll start trusting you.  Show it to the prospective buyers and they’ll throw their arms around you in joy.  The sellers will “get real” about the market, also.

This is why it won't happen:

We all know that ain’t gonna happen because “The Man” doesn’t want to release his clutch on the market.

That’s the real problem.  We don’t have a real estate market, we have a real estate industry created market.

Here is the final solution:

I met a guy last month who thinks he has a solution. It’s so simple it’s silly; an open market, like the NASDAQ, for real estate.  Watch offers for houses, in real-time, be accepted or declined.  NASDAQ Level Two Quotes go beyond the bid and ask; they show the “size” of the market for those prices. The implementation of that transparency greatly reduced the previous NASDAQ market manipulation, that stymied the individual investor to favor institutions.  It isn’t perfect but exposure to that data makes the market operate more efficiently.  Apply that model to real estate and you will quickly determine what the “real” market is for a property.

I talked about how to use the principles of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, when soliciting business from REALTOR partners, over on the Mortgage Cicerone.   I suggested that originators implement a 33-touch program for REALTOR partners so that you stay in front of them.  The Top of Mind Surefire system does an excellent job of co-marketing yourself, to both the REALTOR and the customer, post-closing.

What can you do, prior to closing a transaction, to demonstrate value to potential REALTOR partners?

I swiped the Loan Toolbox “Gift of Knowledge” idea and found a way to make it more relevant to your local market (and a helluva lot cheaper).

I like to conduct a 30-minute interview with a working, full-time REALTOR and distribute a CD of that interview it to my REALTOR referral base .   It’s much more effective than the Loan Toolbox Gift of Knowledge idea because it positions you as the interviewer. 

Here’s how I do it