Saturday Morning Cuppa | 9/21/13

The Price of Real Estate Experience: $25,000

The Wall Street Journal published an article this past week on the price of experience, when it comes to agents selling homes. From my long lost cousin, Bennie:

“The more experience you have, the more likely you are to sell the properties that you list, the more likely you are to sell it at a higher price and the less time it stays on the market,” Prof. Waller says.

Not too surprising that more experience means less time on market and higher sales prices. Malcolm Gladwell, in Tipping Point, references 10,000 hours as the tipping point for a person to become an expert, or have expert opinions on a topic or within an industry.

Buh Bye Fannie and Freddie?

Zillow talks government sponsored entity (GSE) reform. For those following along, the GSE’s being discussed here are FNMA and FMMC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, respectively. Admittedly, a dry conversation about inside mortgage baseball items. But here’s my question, as raised by Bob Bemis on the illustrious Mr. Rob Hahn’s blog, “…(W)hy is Dr. Humphries hosting this discussion, instead of Dr. Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist?”

Zillow is not a trade organization with the stated, dual purposes of protecting homeownership and advancing the Realtor initiatives. Yet, they sat two Senators down to discuss an issue that is vital to the real estate consumer and industry.

As a commenter on the blog asks, “Is the size of the platform more important then the dollar in pocket now?”