OC Realtor: "Great time to buy in Rancho Cucamonga"

The real estate industry, by it's corrupt nature, is in dire need of reform. Consumers of real estate in the United States of America need more information and greater protection.

What Americans must put up with today is essentially a sales organization, call the N.A.R. or National Association of Realtors, which has asserted itself to be something it is not, and can never be: an objective, informative, consumer-focused industry trade organization that serves American consumers with constructive, unaltered market data, historical sales data and pricing analyses. Above all consumers of real estate need to be reassured that licensed standards of professional business ethics are being enforced.

This can easily be accomplished, just not by a group of salespeople, which is what the N.A.R. is. It's not possible by salespeople because of the obvious conflict of interest inherent in the business exchange. Real estate sales people wants to sell and want to earn commission on the sale. How can this be balanced with the consumer need for an unbiased, representative "trusted advisor" role? Many realtors don't ever realize the precarious position they occupy when serving buyers and sellers of real estate.

It can't be balanced.

At a time of decline in the American real estate market from California to Connecticut, one would expect the realtor sales pitch bullshit and self-serving lies to stop.

Instead the bullshit never stops. And the lies never stop.

Now is always a "great time to buy". And just why is it always a great time to buy? Well, mainly because American realtors have mouths to feed and bills to pay. That's why.

If you're a prospective homebuyer with a small family, Ms. Krista-Leanne Yates of Alcco Realty instructs you to get off the fence, turn away from the still high home prices of Orange County and purchase a home based more inland in Rancho Cucamonga, CA:

Yates continues, 'By searching for Rancho Cucamonga CA real estate young families can find properties such as a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom single story home with a mountain view on a 7,150 square foot lot for only $400,000.-

Nice lot size, but Ms. Yates, in case you haven't looked on Redfin, young families can (potentially) buy 2 bed, 2 bath single story homes in OC now for $450K and sometimes less - with a very distant Saddleback mountain view. The median family income in Rancho is abut $69,640 per annum. Ms. Yates is so focused on the well-being and customer satisfaction of young families (read: driven to earn sales commissions) that she recommends they leverage themselves by 7 times their gross income to purchase a home that either is declining, or very likely will decline, in value in the coming months. See local home sales decline in lower paragraph.

Jay Yerman, First Time Home Buyer Specialist with T.N.T. Lending in Rancho Cucamonga adds 'Payments on this home can be as low as $1960 a month with the right credit driven program offering 100% financing, no money down.

"T.N.T. Lending"? You gotta be kidding me. That's almost as bad as the Remax Realtors Hotair Balloon logo.

Hey, let's all stop what we're doing and listen to what T.N.T. Lending has to tell us about the "right credit driven program with 100% financing, no money down". I mean, we can all rely on their advice. Sounds super-duper! Where do we sign? And where is that ominous, horror movie background music coming from?

Before house hunting it is advisable to obtain a free mortgage pre-approval letter. This will allow real estate agents to only show properties in the specific price range of the maximum mortgage.

Of the maximum mortgage? Listen everybody, I'm going to show you only those houses that earn me the largest commission check and leverage you to the f&*%ing hilt! Come on! Let's go!

'Sellers also take an offer more seriously if the home mortgage loan is already pre-approved,- concludes Yerman.

Right. With that kind of local median income in Rancho Cucamonga, pre-approval is more important now than ever before, assuming T.N.T. Lending and their ilk have tightened lending standards. Ms. Yates, why do you care about what the seller "takes seriously"? Whose side are you on? Here's a tip: today potential buyers take sellers more seriously when they finally come down from their ivory towers long enough to realize the glory days are over, the pool of qualified buyers is dwindling and leveraging a property to live in is not a sure-fire way to beat inflation anymore.

Yates concludes, 'The latest housing figures indicate that sales in the Inland Empire fell 47 percent in March from the same month a year earlier. Inland Empire prices still are a bargain compared with coastal areas such as Orange County and we expect to see a movement of buyers moving inland.-

Uhhh....Ms. Yates, if sales in the Rancho area are declining year-to-date by 47%, then why is now the great time to buy? Value can and likely will plummet even further. Why not wait a few more months so that the young families you feign to care about so much won't have to leverage themselves to such a massive extent?

There are some good realtors out there.

But they are few and very far between. Experience is golden. I recommend working with realtors who have survived market crashes before in you area. I wouldn't trust any who have 8 years experience or less. Those that have really "been there" are in this career for the long haul. They will likely listen carefully to you, and will not push you into doing something that doesn't make sense. Listen very carefully what a realtor or realtor organization says. Make sure that they represent your wants and needs at all times, and that they really are knowledgeable of the market.