When Zillow burst onto the scene some two years ago, I was, like many in the real estate business, skeptical about the website. Now, as the dust begins to settle, I’m finding that I kinda like the site.

The initial reaction of many Realtors, myself included, was very fearful towards Zillow for a couple of reasons.

1. The obvious concern was that their Zestimates were going to provide unrealistic expectations for consumers who believe that everything they read on the web is true.

And the truth is yes, I’ve dealt with both buyers and sellers who were more inclined to trust the mechanical valuation process of the website than they were my professional advice. Of course, they only lean that way when the Zestimate is in their favor (nobody ever says, “Tom, let’s lower our asking price. I saw it on Zillow.”)

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The Wall Street Journal ran an article yesterday procaliming that The Housing Crisis is Over.

Now that takes some guts.

Back in October of 2005 I had a client (a referral from a good friend of mine) who wanted to list and sell his house up in Dublin Ranch because his soon-to-be Fater-in-Law, a financial planner from the Rocky Mountain region, was convinced that the California real estate market had topped out and it was time to diversify. Smart guy. Really, the only one I know who was calling the top right as it was approaching (and no, I’m not counting the ogres at UCLA or anyone else who predicted the bubble would burst for three years before it actually did).

The basis of the latest WSJ prediction on the real estate market has some merit in my opinion.

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

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I need to get up a post about how positive I’m beginning to feel about the real estate market and the summer that’s to come. Now I’m not going to over-do it - I’m not going to call for a full-blown recovery or bang on the GTTB drum just for the sake of being positive. But with the way the first part of the year has gone, I’m glad to share some encouraging news.

(GTTB: new web-moniker for overly-optimistic NAR types - “Great Time To Buy” - get it?)

1. The secondary market has finally figured out pricing for the new Jumbo-Conforming loans we were so excited about a couple of months ago when the economic stimulus bill was passed. Check with Brian at greenmortgagegroup.com for the current rate, but I understand they came down yesterday at 6% for a 30 year fixed. This is great news in jumbo markets like Pleasanton and Dublin, where it’s just opened up the market for a whole group of buyers that were forced out by the mortgage meltdown last summer. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s been almost three weeks now since we officially moved-out of our Pleasanton office on Hacienda Drive. Makes me wonder what I’m going to do when the mail stops getting forwarded in another week? It also explains why I haven’t done anything productive in almost six weeks. Moving is a big job.

More than five years ago, when my Dad/Broker/Boss inked the deal on the seven thousand square foot office space in Pleasanton, it seemed a perfectly logical thing to do. But the way the business has changed (driven primarily by the Internet), today such a huge brick-and-mortar investment would strike me as pure foolishness.

Agents just don’t use the office like they used to.

Five years ago we depended on the office for access to our business telephone and messages. We went in for access to the MLS. We found out about new listings through face-to-face communication with co-workers. Company policies and events were promoted through memos and fliers that we would pick-up in our mail slots. The whole thing was just so physical.

Now, most of that communication can be done through email. The MLS is at our fingertips via the Internet. Forms are all electronic. Files are stored on-line. We have user names and passwords to access DRE resources, tax record data and the latest industry-related news. Everything’s on line. If I’ve got an Internet connection, I’m in business.  Read the rest of this entry »

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