Married real estate agents make both "most likely to fool around" lists

Say "no" to "add on" insurance

Real estate agents, however, show up on lists for both men and women who are most likely to cheat on their spouses. Must be those staged bedrooms in all those empty Open House events.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2010 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime


Deadline Newsroom - Doctors, cops and lawyers top the most-likely-to-commit-adultery list for men. For women it's teachers, soccer moms and nurses.

Real estate agents, however, show up on lists for both men and women who are most likely to cheat on their spouses.

Must be those staged bedrooms in all those empty Open House events.

I'm just sayin'.

AshleyMadison.com, a dating site for married people who want some action outside the marriage, checked their nearly 2 million member base by profession and gender and found that among the top five professions, real estate agents showed up on the lists for both guys and dolls.

Married Men Most Likely To Be A Creep
• Physicians
• Police Officers
• Lawyers
• Real Estate Agents
• Engineers

Married Women Most Likely To Be A Skank
• Teachers
• Stay-at-home Moms
• Nurses
• Administrative Assistants
• Real Estate Agents

See what's happening here? Patrolling police officers visiting stay-at-home moms. Doctors and nurses hooking up. Lawyers representing administrative assistances in sexual harassment suits. Married real estate agents getting in on with anyone.

Noel Biderman, president and founder of AshleyMadison.com, notes there are several contributing factors to why people of these professions stray more often -- working in high stress environments for long hours.

Today's housing market can be quite stressful.



• Click on the keywords below for more stories on this subject.

© 2010 DeadlineNews.Com

Advertise on DeadlineNews.Com | Shop DeadlineNews.Com

Get "News that really hits home!" for your Web site or blog from the DeadlineNewsGroup.Com.

You are reading a sample of "News that really hits home!", now available from several beats and published in a growing number of locations.

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop.

Perkins was the first Examiner to cover three beats for the Examiner.com news service:
• National Offbeat News Examiner
• National Consumer News Examiner
• National Real Estate Examiner

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

San Jose Numero Uno Market For Sellers

Prices are down 6 percent from the peak, sales are at near record low levels, but compared to the nation's 40 largest metros, San Jose is the top town for home sellers. Find out why. (More Silicon Valley news.)

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Much of San Jose, CA is a buyer's market, but sellers have a whole lot to crow about too.

San Jose was recently named the No. 1 Best City For Home Sellers, according to Forbes.com. And San Jose's neighbor to the north, San Francisco, won the No. 2 spot.

In fact, seven of the top 10 spots went to cities in the West.

To ferret out the best cities for home sellers from the nation's 40 largest metros, Forbes examined unsold inventories, market tightness, construction starts, home vacancy rates, job creation and the impact of new higher conforming loan limits.

No. 1 for home sellers, San Jose is considered the capital of Silicon Valley, a region where home prices are down 6 percent from peak prices and home sales are the lowest they've been in 10 years. The city also has one of the nation's most expensive housing markets.

However, when compared to other large metro areas, relatively speaking, that hasn't stopped buyers.

The region's high-tech industry and the flow of venture capital makes for one the nation's best job-creation markets. These aren't small potato jobs, but high-paying high-tech jobs. Both job centers and good schools continue to attract buyers.

Also, San Jose's temperate climate and proximity to other desired destinations in the Golden State makes it a big draw for buyers out of town.

Forbes also says San Jose is the nation's tightest housing market. It has the lowest home vacancy rate on the list.

With much of the same appeal, San Francisco is also a world-class city with a much sought-after liberal, open lifestyle. The City By The Bay has also siphoned off a chunk of the technology industry from Silicon Valley and it is often rated as one of the world's top travel destinations.

The other metros in Forbes' Top 10 Best Cities For Home Sellers list are: Salt Lake City, UT; Austin, TX; Kansas City, MO; San Antonio, TX; Denver, CO; Providence, RI; Charlotte, NC; and Seattle, WA.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Advertise on DeadlineNews.Com

Get news that really hits home for your Web site or blog from DeadlineNews.Com.
Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Media Bashing and the Real Estate Market

Special to the Deadline Newsroom
© 2007 By Dena Kouremetis

As a regular media contributor to real estate issues for consumer consumption, I know I don't have to go into statistics to make my point on this topic. Numbers about the real estate "depression" are screaming off every page of every newspaper across the U.S.

As a member of both the press and the real estate industries, however, I feel I must express myself regarding the accusation that it's the media that is breaking the backs of the average Realtor.

Wherever I go I hear agents lamenting the "bad press" being doled out that is making consumers terrified of buying or selling homes until the "slump" is over.

I wish everyone would just take a moment to ponder a few things.

The press reports the news -- which means anything NEW happening in any industry. If homes in Indiana, for example, have not suffered through foreclosures or depreciation from the housing and lending debaucles, that means that it's business as usual in Indiana and no news is good news. Why should it be reported?

Real estate professionals may be held just as responsibile for the current sub-prime fiasco as lenders, since their role is to be an advisor as well as a representative to their clients. Why?

• Real estate consultants are the ones who must at all costs, point out the small print to their clients that the lender may gloss over in explanations.

• Real estate consultants are the ones who can advise and disclose, by questioning their clients, if they are about to get into an investment that is way over their heads.

• Real estate consultants are the ones who should be painting worst-case scenarios for an adjustable rate loan's monthly payments. What if the house DOESN"T appreciate? What if the borrower's income DOESN"T go up? What if their credit scores are not enough to permit them to refinance when they have to?

I may be thrown under the bus by a lot of my peers for writing a piece like this, but it's like the sound of fingernails scratching a chalkboard to me to continually hear people maligning the press for what is happening out there. Real estate professionals gleefully collected milions of dollars in commissions in 2004-2005, when multiple offers were rampant in many areas. But when they knew their clients could barely afford the monthly payments on these homes, I really wonder how much counsel they offered to the people who made those commissions possible.

At the time, the real estate industry was clamoring for creative financing so that people who made average incomes in places like the San Francisco Bay Area could buy million-dollar-plus homes, obviously betting on fast apprecation, refinancing when they had to, or turning it for a quick profit. Those same consumers, whose incomes may not have increased significantly since then, are finding that their mortgage's fixed-rate periods have ended or are ending soon and something must be done in order to keep their homes.

True, many of the larger, more corporate real estate companies used "market conditions advisories" when presenting paperwork to their clients, but I wonder how seriously their agents took these important disclosures when advising their clients.

No one has a crystal ball, of course. As Realtors, we must lay things out before our trusting clients and let them make their own decisions. Housing is still one of the best investments around, since God won't be making any more land. And it's a tangible investment that -- no matter what -- you can live in it as long as you can make the payments. Like the stock market, however, this is an investment that can fluctuate in value. Any stockbroker would tell you to diversify and save money for a rainy day,

So to all those real estate professionals who dutifully looked after the best interests of their clients, then, I salute you. And for those who rode the last big wave without making sure people knew what they were getting into, I hope this is a lesson that is difficult to forget.

Just stop blaming the press for what you may have helped to create.

• "Media Bashing and the Real Estate Market" Copyright 2007 is reprinted here with permission from Dena Kouremetis.

• Dena Kouremetis is a licensed California real estate broker, a homebuilder sales trainer, author and columnist.

• Hear Kouremetis' "Uncharted Waters: Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home," an educational podcast series about buying a newly constructed home.

• Media Bashing Rebutted
• Housing Mess Not Media Made
• Savvy Consumers Don't Shoot The Messenger

Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

---

Our weekly Deadline Newsroom Feed is looking for an advertising sponsor. Contact us at editor@deadlinenews.com and put "Deadline Newsroom Feed Sponsor" in the subject line. The rate is $200 per month on a month-to-month basis; $150 per month with a long-term contract, billed monthly.

Read more!

The United Metros of America

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Just as real estate thrives -- or doesn't -- by location, so does the nation, according to a recently announced blueprint for national prosperity.

The blueprint is designed as a new partnership with federal, state, local, and private sector leaders to strengthen metropolitan economies, build a strong and diverse middle class, and grow the nation in environmentally sustainable ways.

It isn't federal policy or a presidential campaign promise.

It's, well, metro.

And it has a strong housing component.

"We are a full-fledged Metro Nation and need to change our mental map of the United States, from a union of 50 states to a network of 363 highly connected, hyper linked, and economically integrated metropolitan areas," said Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director of Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program recently, when launching the "Blueprint For America Prosperity".

That a think tank, rather than the federal government, is launching such a bold bid to reshape the nation, is itself indicative of the nation's ills.

Brookings says more and more often, large metropolitan areas are at the forefront of social change, quickly addressing housing policies, sprawl, sustainable development, education, immigration, infrastructure, energy independence, technological innovation, global warming and a host of other pressing social concerns.

"Metropolitan areas are vital to national prosperity because they're the engines of the economy. So much of what happens in America happens in metropolitan areas," says Rey Ramsey, Chairman and CEO, One Economy Corporation a non-profit spreading technology and information to low-income people.

Eighty-three percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas, which contain 86 percent of American jobs. The vast majority -- 94 percent -- of people in the nation's 100 largest metros live and work in the same metro.

It's not surprising then, that with such a constituency, metropolitan leaders, not Washington D.C. politicos, are the ones with their fingers on the pulse of innovation and the need for both swift and long-term change.

Unfortunately, dynamic efforts on the metropolitan level are getting short-circuited by out-dated policy and procedural procrastination from a growingly more detached federal government.

Stuck on political partisanship and legislative lethargy, bogged down in war and embroiled in another national election, the slow, plodding federal government is too often ineffectual when it comes to addressing the national penchant for prosperity.

"America's metros find our national government strangely adrift, ignorant of the dynamic changes sweeping the country and the new spatial geography of our economy.

Our federal government is mostly a legacy government, a collection of ossified agencies carrying out decades-old programs and policies, through means and mechanisms suited to a pre-Internet world. As a result, our federal government is out of step with rapid change, and is failing to leverage those assets that drive secure and sustained prosperity," Katz said.

He also characterized current government's housing policies aimed at "the expansion of McMansions at the periphery of metropolitan areas, while failing to address the rapid suburbanization of poor people and employment opportunities."

While the blueprint calls for plans to fully recognize and further tap metropolitan might, it also seeks an upgrade in the federal government to foster a federal-metro partnership to put the nation back on the right track.

"A metro can focus on building its economic strengths, but its economy is profoundly influenced by federal monetary, trade, regulatory and investment practices. A metro can focus on reducing income disparities, but only the federal government can close the gap between wages and the cost of living. A metro area can focus on environmental sustainability, but only the federal government can regulate industries on a national scale," Katz said.

Following the blueprint's introduction, Katz's Brookings crew will begin identifying specific reforms for the next administration and Congress to advance key national priorities including boosting innovation and productivity, replicating the best examples of urban school reform, increasing the supply of workforce housing, improving transportation within and across metros, and making energy efficiency in our homes part of the solution to climate change.

"We are a metro nation. And now it is time to start acting like one," Katz said.

Advertise on DeadlineNews.Com
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Buyers, Sellers: Realty Agents Rule

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - From the feel-good real estate news department: real estate agents continue to get the job done even in the softer housing market, according to buyers and sellers who hire them.

More than eight out of 10 sellers and nine out of 10 buyers would definitely or probably use the same agent again or recommend him or her to others, according to the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) 2007 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

The survey, comprised of some 10,000 responses, revealed that 79 percent of home buyers and sellers used a real estate professional, up from 77 percent over the past three years.

Forty-one percent of sellers found their agent as a result of a referral, while 23 percent used the agent in a previous home purchase. Similarly, 43 percent of buyers relied on referrals to find an agent, while 17 percent of repeat buyers used an agent from a previous transaction.

Finding an agent through a referral from a family member, friend, co-worker, other professional or trusted individual is recommended as a good way to find trustworthy help.

"Real estate is very much a face-to-face people business," said NAR's 2007 President Pat V. Combs.

The most important factors in choosing an agent for buyers are honesty, integrity, and reputation. Buyers also seek agents with a sound knowledge of the purchase process and responsiveness. For sellers, the most important factor in choosing an agent is reputation, followed by honesty and trustworthiness.

Most sellers favor full-service or one-stop brokerages, where real estate agents provide a range of services that generally entail managing the entire process of selling a home.

However, the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) recently reported that while bundled services is marketed as a convenience to housing consumers, consumers won't know if they are getting the best deal if they don't also shop around for the services they need. Shopping around and comparison shopping are the hallmarks of savvy consumerism.

The NAR survey concedes limited services, including discount brokerages and minimal services are important business models for sellers who want to take a more active role in the process, such as holding open houses, contacting potential buyers, negotiating terms or preparing contracts.

However, 81 percent of sellers use a full-service brokerage, while only 9 percent choose limited services and 9 percent use minimal service, such as simply listing a property on a multiple listing service. The findings are relatively unchanged from a year ago.

How do consumers benefit from using an agent?

Fifty-seven percent of those who responded in the survey said they helped them understand the process, 47 percent said their agent spotted unnoticed features or property faults, 40 percent reported the agent improved their knowledge of search areas, 38 percent negotiated better contract terms, 37 percent offered a better list of service providers, 35 percent shortened the search process, and 32 percent negotiated a better price.

The Internet remains a useful tool for buyers who often start their search online, and then contact a real estate agent.

The survey said, 84 percent of buyers use the Internet (up from 80 percent in 2006), 84 percent use a real estate agent, 59 percent used yard signs, 50 percent used print or newspaper ads and 48 percent attend open houses.

Less often used were a home book or magazine, home builders, television, billboards and relocation companies.

However, real estate agents are still king when it comes to finding property for buyers. Thirty-four percent of buyers said a real estate agent found their property; 29 percent the Internet; 14 percent, yard signs; 8 percent, a friend, neighbor or relative; 8 percent home builders; 3 percent a print or newspaper ad; 3 percent directly from the seller; and 1 percent a home book or magazine.

Indicating the local nature of housing, local online public multiple listing services were the most popular online browsing for housing choice, used by 54 percent of buyers, followed by Realtor.com, 49 percent; real estate company sites, 44 percent; real estate agent Web sites, 40 percent; for-sale-by-owner sites, 20 percent; and local newspaper sites, 12 percent; other categories were smaller.

On the seller side, sellers typically sold their home for 97 percent of the list price.

Fifty-five percent reported they had remodeled or made improvements within three months before placing it on the market, spending nearly $3,000 on the project.

Most sellers expect an agent to market the home, with 90 percent of them reporting their home was placed on a MLS and 88 percent said their home was listed on the Internet, indicating dual-media marketing efforts. Eight in 10 also use the ubiquitous yard sign for marketing.

Eight in 10 sellers, using all kinds of brokerage services, said their agent reviewed sales contracts and purchase offers, managed paperwork and contracts, negotiated with buyers and scheduled showings.

Also, 75 percent of those responding said they worked with their agent setting the asking price. The same percentage also said their agent coordinated home inspections and appraisals.

Under-Reported Concerns Of Buyers Exposed
Finding News That Really Hits Home
FSBOs Fall Flat
Realtors Can Help Consumers Avoid Predatory Loans
How To Choose A Real Estate Agent

Advertise on DeadlineNews.Com
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Under-Reported Concerns Of Buyers Exposed

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – A real estate industry trade group that serves only buyers says their constituency isn't getting the straight scoop about housing market conditions and they want to set the record straight.

From delayed agency disclosures and "fake" buyer agents to poor home inspections and shoddy new home construction -- with the media making matters worse -- the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) says it has the full story.

Too often, says the group, media attention is focused on sellers when buyers are besieged by just as many new challenges in the boom-gone-bust housing market.

"When you’re shopping for a new home, you face many challenges. Picking a location, deciding how much you can afford, and securing the right financing are some of the most commonly discussed issues that you must solve," according to "Under-Reported Home Buying Issues" a survey of NAEBA members who were asked to identify the most under-reported issues facing home buyers.

The members also offered solutions for buyers facing those issues.

The report continues, "However, you should also be aware that there are many new and challenging issues which are not as often discussed, but which can be just as important."

While NAEBA claims obviously don't apply to every media outlet, especially those that cover real estate full time, here are some of the issues the group would like to see addressed more often.

• Fake buyer agents. Operating under a strict code of ethics and pledging undivided loyalty, NAEBA members represent buyers exclusively.

Without the dual role as a seller's agent, according to NAEBA, buyers agents are able to address only buyers' needs and concerns without being distracted by the business of managing sellers and their listings.

There's also the potential for a conflict of interest should a single brokerage represent both buyer and seller in the same transaction, something called "dual agency," a practice that's outlawed in some states.

However, according to the NAEBA report, some non-members feign NAEBA affiliation or misrepresent themselves as buyers agents.

Buyers who want exclusive representation should seek NAEBA certification, a written representation service contract and a track record of satisfied customers.

• One-stop shopping. One-stop shopping (a bundle of realty, finance and related services offered by a real estate brokerage) is marketed as a convenience to housing consumers. The bundle may offer the best deal, but consumers won't know that if they don't first shop around individually for all the services they need. Shopping around and comparison shopping is the hallmark of savvy consumerism.

• Poor local news coverage. NAEBA says local news outlets too often don't abide by journalism's code of ethics if much of their ad revenues stem from the real estate community. Unbiased or broad based news coverage can difficult for media outlets that don't want to alienate advertisers, says NAEBA.

Consumers are advised to look for advertisements disguised as news stories and see them for what they are, be aware of the limitations of smaller, local media outlets supported by real estate ad revenues and take time, over time to examine a media outlet's editorial content.

DeadlineNews.Com recently raised related issues in "Finding News That Really Hits Home".

• Buying foreclosed properties. Foreclosures sound like a good deal. Below market prices can be alluring, a cottage industry of infomercials say they are a steal and they are flooding the market right now. However, a foreclosure acquisition doesn't follow the more structured path of a conventional listing purchase. Without a real estate agent or other expert to provide some specialized hand-holding, a novice could lose his or her shirt -- and the 'deal.'

• Websites not providing the full inventory of available property. Not all realty Web sites provide all available listings in a given area, but opt to provide only their agents' listings. Other companies don't manage their Web sites well, causing listings to fall out of date.

Larger Web sites, dedicated to listings and smaller ones that link to the larger pools of listings do a better job at scouring the market. A savvy real estate agent can also root out all listings available in a given area and, in some cases, even find properties that are for sale, but not listed.

• Inadequate home inspections. Pre-inspections offered buyers as a convenience from sellers, says NAEBA, can be quickie inspections rather than a thorough once over.

Even if a seller provides what appears to be an expert inspection that comes with a guarantee, buyers making what's likely to be the largest purchase ever, should always hire their own inspector.

The inspector should be licensed locally or certified by a national trade group like the American Society of Home Inspectors. Local certification offers another layer of protection.

Like choosing any professional, get referrals from family, friends, co-workers, professional associates or others you trust.

• Poor quality in new construction. Professional studies and grassroots action groups repeatedly reveal new homes are always defect-free for a variety of reasons, including the fact they are built by imperfect humans.

Consumers should make every effort to have a new home inspected while it is under construction during several phases, foundation, framing, wiring and plumbing and upon completion. Builders may not make this an easy task, but consumers can have new homes inspected by a professional during or before your final walk through.

Editor's Note: DeadlineNews.Com frequently covers all the issues mentioned in this report. A few recent and timely examples are below. Check out the DeadlineNews.Com Index Page for our complete archives of full coverage of the residential real estate market.

DeadlineNews.Com's founder, publisher and editor, Broderick Perkins has been covering the real estate market for nearly a quarter century.

Check us out for news that really hits home.

• Finding News That Really Hits Home
• It's a Good Time For A Home Inspection
• Many Left Behind In Real Estate School
• Buying Foreclosures Not For The Novice
• Timely Defect Litigation Guide Book Published

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Finding News That Really Hits Home

Reducing housing market conditions to rabid rhetoric aimed at the media robs real estate consumers of their right to know. Here's how to spot real realty news.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

• See what Seeking Alpha commentators have to say on this subject.

Deadline Newsroom – Which of these three sets of comments are most relevant for housing consumers in today's real estate market?

No. 1: "Builders cannot allow the national media to report what it deems to be the proper perspective on the value of real estate. Builders must get out in full force and spread, with repetition, one simple message: 'Real estate is the single best investment one can make.' "

No. 2: "Can't wait to read how the local papers will handle the news that closed sales are up (in the San Francisco Bay Area) from Sept. to October. These stories won't be written for a few weeks. I am sure they will find a way to turn positive news into a negative."

No. 3: "If you're a repeat buyer that's going to be in this community (Silicon Valley) for the long haul and you're looking for a home, this is as good a time or perhaps a better time than anytime in the last two or three years. But don't assume (that in) the better-priced, better-condition homes in neighborhoods where conditions favor the seller, that you're necessarily going to get a deal."

Well, obviously, No. 3.

All three sets of comments are the real words of real estate industry leaders who are experts and professionals in their field.

As such, they are also media sources or likely to be. Because the public generally looks up to industry leaders for direction, the media has a duty to call industry leaders on spurious, misleading comments that could hinder the public's grasp of the issues.

The media's job, in part, is to provide all the relevant information possible so that media consumers can both understand issues in the news and make informed decisions about those issues.

Two sets of comments above are suspect for obvious reasons. The first suggests censorship and, seemingly from the Twilight Zone, myopic mantra chanting.

The second professes to see the future, before the ink on the first draft of history (journalism) is dry.
With eloquent credibility, the third set of comments trumps them both.

It's sobering, balanced, market-local and without broad strokes painted in neither rosy pinks nor hues of blue.

It is a recent quote from Colleen Badagliacco, president of the California Association of Realtors, responding to questions from real estate writer Sue McAllister for the Q&A article, "Realtor: 'Just Be Cautious' " in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News.

It's a good example of credibility from a source, a key element in the best real estate news coverage.

There's no need to out the two real estate media detractors offering the first set of sample comments. Ironically, because the media is not censored, they live free to step forth, identify themselves and opine in the same media spaces they would like to see restrained from housing market coverage.

The point is, just as consumers must always do their housing homework -- and check it twice -- they should also learn how to spot media coverage that will best help them with their homework.

Right now, that's more true than ever.

There's no time for blame gaming, fault shifting or finger pointing. News sources, professionals from the residential real estate community and the media all have a credibility responsibility to those who really pay the bills, the real estate and media consuming public.

Here's how the public can find news that really hits home.

• Credibility is key. Seek out real estate news that's credible.

Track records of journalists, media outlets and their sources can help determine credibility.

Just as you should examine a housing market's past to understand the present, don't judge a journalist or media outlet solely by the story in front of you. Don't judge a source by single sound bite.

Just as you want a licensed or certified professional helping you buy or sell a home, choose professional media outlets and writers schooled and experienced in the field. Seek sources who provide relevant, balanced comments and information rather then self-serving rabid rhetoric and emotional barbs.

Examine journalists' and media outlets' bios, online "abouts," and past articles as well as their current attention to the housing market.

Journalists who choose real estate as their primary or only beat tend to have the most experience, much like any specialist. Media outlets that devote more time, resources or space to housing market coverage tend to do a better job.

• Balance bolsters credibility. Balance -- wrong-right, good-bad, up-down, all sides of the story -- isn't always black and white. If a journalist or media outlet provides 50-50 balance in every story, every day, all the time, be wary.

Media experts say the global warming issue was buried so long because the media gave "equal time" to quacks, naysayers and overnight climate change "experts," at the expense of valid information from scientists who spent decades studying the issue.

A news story is simply not always a 50-50 proposition. Some stories are complicated, multi-tiered events that require a series of articles to unfold. Others are a simple set of facts.

Instead of seeking 50-50 balance in every story, determine how well a journalist or media outlet manages balance over time. With balanced coverage there may be "good" news today and "bad" news tomorrow. In the end, after a relative short period of time, a good journalist or media outlet will cover all the bases.

• Analysis backs up balance. Analysis offers more in-dept "So what?" coverage. It goes beyond simply stating the facts and telling the story to explain what the news means and often, how to cope with what's been learned.

Not all news stories are designed for analysis, but the more the merrier.

Analysis is key in today's real estate market. For example, more than 2 million people are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure during the current housing downturn. So what? What does that mean to me? How can I determine if I'm a likely victim? If I am a likely victim, what can I do to prevent losing my home?

That's analysis.

Here's another example. Lenders are squeezing home buyers for more income and employment documentation, larger down payments and higher credit scores. A story saying so could also tell news consumers how to secure the newly required documentation (even if you work at home); how to find lenders not requiring larger down payments or how making a smaller down payment could cost more; how to raise credit scores and how to seek out more accommodating lenders.

News, in part, is designed to provide information that can be used to make sane decisions. Explaining the options and providing coping techniques aids in the decision making process.

• News vs. Opinion. Understand the difference between news, opinion and hybrid stories.
News stories are largely unbiased, objective articles comprised of facts from credible sources including experts and other informed individuals; documents, including studies, reports and polls; and often research to compare and contrast today's information with past information.

News stories can be one or a series of heavy, in-depth, investigative pieces with corroborated facts and information. They can be light features about people, places or things of interest, but again, based on reliable information and facts. And, they can be analysis pieces that offer fact-based advice.

A key giveaway? The professional writing or reporting a news story doesn't use adjectives. Adjectives are subjective, somewhat biased words based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

Seek news stories loaded with credibility, balance and, whenever possible, analysis.

Opinion, editorials, Op-Ed pieces and the like, are the stuff of editorial pages, broadcast shows with a single or combative pair of talking heads, and online, blogs. Opinion pieces are just that, an individual's beliefs, views, judgments or point-of-view about something, and not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. They take a stand.

The best opinion pieces are spun from facts or knowledge and don't just opine or blather on emotionally without offering some solution, alternative or hoped-for outcome.

Generally opinion pieces are labeled as such, or should be, but look for a flurry of adjectives.

Hybrids, like this wonderful article, are a mix of news and opinion, even analysis and can be useful to both make a point and share useful information helpful in making decisions.

• Is The Housing Mess The Media's Fault? Toll Brother's CEO Says It Is
• Media Still Not Responsible For Housing Woes
• Savvy Consumers Don't Shoot The Messenger
• Housing Mess Not Media Made

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Media Still Not Responsible For Housing Woes

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – Implications the media is somehow to blame for the state of the housing market generates the mental image of a blind weasel doing the Shuffle.

At first, it's novel, a real hoot, and quite a spectacle.

But it gets old fast, like any stupid pet trick.

Veteran real estate professional Joe Brown, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker's Silicon Valley operations, overseeing two offices and 185 sales associates, was the latest to suggest the media is the primary culprit behind consumer behavior in today's tumultuous housing market.

To Brown's defense, during a pre-recorded interview with KLIV Radio 1590-AM in San Jose, CA, the producers spliced in a somewhat leading question ahead of Brown's response.

There should have been a follow up question to the response, if only to make sure Brown said what he meant to say and so that listeners didn't get his comment out of context.

In any event, in the pre-recorded context of the interview, the reporter asked Brown what's shaking buyers' and sellers' confidence in the market.

Brown replied, "I would say that the biggest impact right now, even though the economy is holding strong, is public opinion, and what they hear and read in the media plays a big part on whether they think it's a good time to buy or sell."

The statement instantly became an enigma wrapped in a riddle.

First, the comment was misleading, which, in part, is why KLIV should have called him on his answer during the recording.

The economy is not holding strong.

The Labor Department said this week, based on payroll estimates, the economy generated 166,000 jobs in October and unemployment held steady at 4.7 percent, thanks to stability in technology, small business and health care, as well as the lower-paying leisure and hospitality industries.

However, unemployment held steady because a separate household survey of real people revealed 200,000 people left the workforce.

Wages, rising only 3.8 percent since last year, aren't providing much of a cushion against declining home values and rising energy costs.

Gasoline is more than $3 a gallon in California, oil barons are poised to dump $100-a-barrel crude on the market and the housing-related finance crunch forced the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates again and pump another $41 billion into the economy to keep the credit-pinch from inducing an economic tailspin.

Thanks to the economy's 800 pound gorilla -- the mortgage-related financials sector -- Wall Street was a stomach-churning rollercoaster Halloween week.

That's not economic strength -- unless your mansion's 1,000 square-foot carriage house is full of Google stock options at $700 a share.

It's the economy withdrawing from a crack-like addiction to mainlined subprimes, Ninja loans, and ARMs and way, way too much dependence on fossil fuels.

Through all this economic news from a host of sources, there's Brown's implication that the media is the primary force directing the course of buyer and seller behavior and, by association, the course of the residential real estate market.

If only the media would just shut up and stop contributing to public opinion.

That's the companion cry-me-a-river implication that always comes with media bashing. If the media didn't report market conditions at the level at which they are actually occurring, consumer confidence would somehow gravitate to some higher plane of getting and spending discretionary cash.

Never mind that before there was a media and things went awry, the townsfolk hoisted axes, lit torches and marched down to the town square searching for truth in a pile of someone's cinders.

Even if we did live in that insane bizarro world where the media ignored the mortgage squeeze, wouldn't consumers discover they'd been had when the same mortgage application approved two years ago now comes back rejected?
Wouldn't they sort of figure it all out without being spoon fed by the media mind benders?

Less knowledge doesn't make consumers more confident.

It pisses them off.

What has consumers' knickers in a knot isn't the act of reading or watching the news. Such a simplistic rendition of today's complex economic conditions is a twisted denial of reality.

Consumers know what's happening to them. They are more and more often blocked from homeownership. They are losing hope and homes at a rate 100 percent greater than a year ago. The media isn't taking their homes.

Consumers know they trusted a housing market that sold them a bill of goods packaged with corruption and collusion likened to organized crime.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo isn't suing First American Corp. subsidiary eAppraiseIT because of something printed in paper. The suit alleges the company "caved to pressure from Washington Mutual" to inflate property values of homes.

California recently passed a law making appraisal pressure illegal, not because a talking head on the nightly news lobbied Golden State legislators. Many appraisers bowed under increased pressure throughout the last housing boom and consumers were left holding the bag with over-priced homes that are now plunging in value.

Book cooking allegations are rising over the housing boom-spawned mortgage-backed securities sector, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Secret Service and U.S. Postal inspectors have a growing case load of mortgage fraud which soared to record heights during the housing boom and federal regulators acted (far too slowly) several times in recent years to shore up regulations to give consumers greater protections when they go shopping for home loans.

Most consumers left twisting in the wind wind up financially ruined. Fifty-seven percent of foreclosure-prevention counselors surveyed by the California Reinvestment Coalition found the most common outcome for the homeowners they work with is foreclosure. A short sale outcome was reported by 33 percent of the counselors.

The media's job isn't to tell readers the sun is shining when their home is submerged in three feet of water. If the news is bad, it gets reported. In the next cycle, when the news is better, happy days will be here again -- in ink, online and on the air.

Rather than a society of censorship, we live in a free market where, for better or for worse, merchants get to try their untested, unregulated shenanigans on an unsuspecting public which too frequently doesn't know better to read the small print.

That's where the media comes in.

It's called the right to know.

It's either that or torches blazing across the town square.

• Is The Housing Mess The Media's Fault? Toll Brother's CEO Says It Is
• Savvy Consumers Don't Shoot Messenger
• Housing Mess Not Media Made

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

Read more!

Open House In The Deadline Newsroom

Welcome to the Deadline Newsroom (DNR), journalism's ground zero for news that really hits home! If don't have our content, you don't get it and neither do your clients.

DNR takes you inside the operations of DeadlineNews.Com (DLN), a residential real estate news and analysis operation based in Silicon Valley, CA.

DLN is a bootstrap media outlet covering local, regional and national residential real estate news and offers related consulting services.

It, quite simply, offers news that really hits home.

Here inside DNR, you'll find select DLN content, analysis, and other editorial efforts all open for commentary -- either brickbats or bouquets. You decide.

You'll also get inside the head of the publisher of both operations, Broderick Perkins,, a journalist for 30 years, who has earned numerous awards for all facets of consumer journalist from child seat belts, nutrition and information technology to small business, mortgage finance and real estate.

Most notably, Perkins covered an earthquake's impact on housing as part of the San Jose Mercury News team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for its coverage of the Loma Prieta Earthquake. He also earned a top award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors for his coverage of private mortgage insurance.

Perkins, who recently served as chief adviser for "Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home" (Nolo, $24.99), is also a pioneer in electronic journalism.

After he helped the Mercury News develop a new and expanded Real Estate section, with consumers as the central focus, he was instrumental in moving that section online. When America Online was the king of Internet service providers, Perkins was the first real estate writer to manage a daily newspaper-based online real estate news section, with the Mercury News, the first daily newspaper to venture online in December of 1994.

Perkins was also the first daily newspaper journalist to move a digital news feature (a realty industry supported Q&A bulletin board "Speaking of Real Estate") offline, to the newspaper's print edition. The landmark effort was, at the time, opposite the trend to move the news from print to the digital newspaper.

He also served as a consultant to the former Knight Ridder chain's "Digital Cities" effort, itself a pioneering move to put real estate news and services online.

He continues his you-can't-get-it-anywhere-else leadership in real estate content publishing with special coverage of ongoing issues including:
• "Post Boom Survival Guide" for a boom-gone-bust world.
• "FACT Act Amends Fair Credit Laws" keeps tabs on credit and privacy rights.
• "Global Warming Hits Home" analyzes the impact of climate change on communities, lifestyles and housing.

Learn more about his mission in "From The Broadsheet To Cyberspace."

The hardest working journalist in the real estate news business, Perkins continues in the tradition of the daily news reporter with at least one deadline a day, but he also has a firm grasp on the future of digital publishing.

The Deadline Newsroom is his latest example.

So go ahead, opine away. Link to us. Give us a shout out.

But beware and stay aware: All materials written by DeadlineNews.Com are protected, as intellectual property, by federal copyright law.

Broderick Perkins, Publisher, Executive Editor, Founder
DeadlineNews Group
DeadlineNews.Com
Deadline Newsroom
DeadlineNews Retail Outlet


© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

---

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property - Unauthorized Use Of Intellectual Property Is A Federal Crime

Read more!