The president of our firm, Mike Grady, visited all of our offices with a third quarter report.
The 1st quarter the entire industry was down 25% – why? It was coldest winter in history, sickest winter in history with the highest absentee rate, and we had a new president with some uncertainty.
Our firm is building a new office in Bellevue – Global Luxury – it is going to be very luxurious and right in Lincoln Square
The Kirkland office is moving to Park Place, adjacent to Kirkland Urban, and we will have a new satellite office in Silverdale.
Coldwell Banker Bain now has a new contract with a direct feed to Zillow. Instead of 3 business days it will take one hour. It will have top billing with listing agent on top. When a buyer contacts a broker besides us we will be notified and so can contact that agent to promote the listing. Reports will be given to us.
The Multiple Listing Service has eight hundred fields. Zillow only wants four hundred fields. We will also have a traceable hyperlink.
Skyslope is a transaction management system
– Used by many companies – it turns a transaction into an offer. It then goes into Contactually and will return your dates and forward to clients. It will be a nice automated system to keep track of timelines.
We are getting a new comparative market analysis program called Cloud, it is higher definition.
Put out a client advisory on wire fraud; we have put it onto every listing package and it is not enough. There have been two more cases – the wire fraud was in the agreement.
We need to have a conversation with our clients on the phone to tell them not to respond to any request for a wire. For example, if you see anything like this, call your contact at Rainier Title and Escrow who is handling your transaction.
If not represented by Rainier, still call the agent – or call the buyer – and tell them they should not take wire instructions by email. Get on a landline ☺
A commercial report came out from the Black Creek Group forecasting the same trend lines in boom and bust ending in the second quarter of 2017 and going backwards.
It also looks forward six quarters. When have metropolitan areas reached peak there is an overcapacity situation with high rises everywhere, and no one builds another high-rise for another decade. He expected this in the greater Seattle area (from Mt. Vernon to Olympia). He though they would say we have reached oversupply…but that is not what they said.
They said we have two more years of this pace before we begin to get to the point where the cranes leave and the lights go out.
Twenty-four months of continually escalating offices, hotels, and motels. This is a predictor that we will have a good residential market. Take a deep breath – two months of rest, then ride like the wind.
Buyer books will be out next month.
Third quarter report – share it – share in Contactually every morning. Print it and mail to neighborhood. Getting press in England and China.
There has been a Chase letter in closing files, which says that electronic signatures were used and you will take all responsibility. Don’t sign it. If you don’t sign it the transaction will still close.
