California Association of Realtors Use Outlaw Josey Wales to Sell Homes in 2009

The California Association of Realtors have chosen to dump their advertising dollars this summer into some fairly lame radio spots.

The first one is so dumb, I hesitate to post the link here. Man, it royally sucks. Not that one should expect much creativity from the NAR/CAR dudes.

SPECIAL NOTE TO REALTORS, THE CAR AND THE NAR ORGANIZATIONS:

Listen, we radio listeners have had quite enough of ads portraying dumbass married couples making stupid financial choices in your "appeal to action" ads, thank you very much all the same. We don't need to be reminded how emotionally self-centered, irresponsible and carefree people have been when working "side by side" with Realtors on the biggest purchase of their lives! Look, Century21 sort of ruined this theme for everyone with the Suzanne Researched This ad. I mean who doesn't remember the classic bloodsucking Realtor line: "This listing is special John! You guys can do this!!"



The second radio ad from the CAR has a very different theme. It's called "Piece of Me". A little bit of Dirty Harry mixed in with some outlaw Josey Wales and some Pale Rider.

The final message of tha ad is: "The California Association of Realtors. For your piece of California. For your piece of mind".

Christ. How appropriate is it that Realtors can suggest that any of their actions are responsible for home consumer "piece of mind"? I'm trying to figure out for the life of me what they could possibly mean by that. Where were California's Realtors when the notices of default started flowing in from the subprime crisis? Did they hold "Piece of Mind" seminars to former clients? Did they give back a piece of their ill-earned commissions on such garbage sales?

And just where are the California Realtors going to be when the tidal-freaking-wave of Alt-A and Option ARM loans first come up for recast this summer?

Honestly, how does using a 6%er help me or my piece of mind in buying a house in the third most fucked up real estate market in the country, southern California?

Oh, it's going to be a fantastic summer in California real estate, you can tell.

Man if I'm Realtor, I'd sure keep some extra funds available for the dry cleaners:

A Weekend With The Realtors

I visited some open houses (5 single family homes) over the past weekend in Lake Forest, California.

Many of the homes I viewed were completely and utterly outside my realm of affordability - which pretty much sums up all single family homes for sale in Lake Forest today, despite numerous foreclosures and a certain degree of home price corrections as a result. But hey, I thought it would be interesting to view a few of the local homes that were for sale in the nose-bleed pricing stratosphere ($700 - $900K) and also find out what some of the realtors or maybe some homedebtors had to say.



Here are a couple of observations (since a realtor was present inside each home during the open house). There were no homedebtors present from what I could tell.:


-All 5 homes were single family's in Lake Forest with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths or more. All had been on the market for 1 month or more. All had been subjected to price reductions of varying degrees.

-4 of the 5 realtors mentioned "increased local sales activity in Lake Forest" and "all-time low prices for the area" for single family homes. One agent used the phrase "there are some great bargains out there".

- 4 of 5 realtors mentioned that "now is a great time to buy". 2 said that phrase exactly to me. When I asked why they thought it was a good time to buy, they cited the historic high appreciation of home values here, good schools of Saddleback School District, access to local convenience stores, no mello roos in Lake Forest, and the recent price declines.

One realtor told me an interesting story suggesting that in Orange County the trend is that "we always have 5 years of an up market and 3 years of a down market".

- One realtor promised that the home he was selling for $899,000 today (marked down from $900K) would be worth $1.4 million in another 4 years.

- 3 of the 5 realtors expressed their opinion that the "the market has bottomed out" or probably has bottomed out.

- 2 of the 5 realtors said the market would bottom out this summer. One then back-pedaled and said "it'll bottom out by around September 15 at least.....but don't hold me to it."



- At one of the open houses, the realtor mentioned to me that he would cut his sales commission by one-third of a percent (but that he would have to clear it with his partner first). That owuld be 0.33%. Given the sale price of the home ($799K), this would be about $2,600 in potential commission savings for the buyer.

- One realtor acknowledged my entrance into the home but decided to continue a loud and boisterous converation with another client about her failure to convince her lender to "make a deal" about the new rate on her condo ARM loan. He then proceeded to explain to her what a short sale was and that he had a visitor and would need to call her back later.

When the above realtor got off the phone, he introduced himself and then told me about his clients' problem (did not mention her name), an elderly woman who can't afford the "new payments" on her condo. The realtor proceeded to say that he didn't understand why lenders don't work a solution out with their customers on these ARM loans. Then he decided to ridicule his client referring to her by saying "some people are just stupid".

- One beautiful 4 bed single family home I visited was for sale for $899,000 in a lovely Lake Forest cul de sac. Really terrific home. Was previously placed on the market for $915,000. Even though I stated to the realtor that I was just perusing and not serious about buying right now, the realtor said he was very sure he could talk the owners down to $879,000 but that the sellers would not go below $840,000!

I thought to myself, holy shit, the sellers may be screwed as it is with the fucked up housing situation of OC, but the realtor they've decided to hire is feeling footloose and fancy free about leaving plenty of cash on the table. If there is a case to be made for people to pay realtors an hourly wage instead of a flat % off the sales price, this realtor was poster material.

I left the last home really hungry and thinking about stopping by a local Pollo Loco restaurant for some lunch.

I then decided no. What I really needed was to take another shower.

OC Realtors Said It Would Never Happen. Yet It's Happening Right Now.

L.A. Times is reporting that Orange County, San Diego County and LA County collectively showing a 17% price decline between January 2007 and January 2008. Only Las Vegas and Miami are worse.

The C.A.R. reported an increase in the rate of home sales in February by 10% over the previous month,but this still constitutes a 29% decline from February 2007 sales.

And Realtors wept

American Home Mortgage, one of the largest and most well-known mortgage lenders in the United States of America, just announced the layoffs of 7,000 of it's 7,750 employees. AHM has also stopped accepting mortgage loan applications following a cease and desist order from the states of New York and Connecticut as an investigation into violations of mortgage banking laws at the company goes into overdrive. More will be known as to AHM's business future following hearings August 24th to determine whether the cease and desist order will be permanent and whether AHM can even keep it's lending license going forward.

AHM CEO Michael Stauss:

"It is with great sadness that American Home has had to take this action which involves so many dedicated employees. Unfortunately, the market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative."

More evidence that the real estate market is slowly, but surely unraveling.

Let's hope the guy behind the curtain comes out with a mattress to ensure that soft landing repeatedly promised by the NAR, that group of oh so in-the-know, trusted advisors.

Cramer Says: "Dump Your House"!

Jim Cramer from CNBC on the collossal housing crash and whether you should keep paying your mortgage on a so-called "asset" declining in value, or just dump your losses and rent.

Very compelling statement also on prioritization of paying your bills: Pay off credit cards first, THEN pay your mortgage.

Nice!

Transcript Courtesy of Housing Doom:

Here's the video link: http://tinyurl.com/2kqgnf

Transcript:

Torabi: "I have to bring up a video we did yesterday that was entitled ‘Walk away from your house’". Torabi: "Jim Cramer says, y’know, ‘there is a time to walk away from your house’. To re-visit the video yesterday, you said, ‘when your house is down 20%, essentially, when you have no more equity left…’"

Cramer: "Right"Torabi: "…that’s a good time to sell…"

Cramer: "Yeah"Torabi: "… but what [unintelligible] because that"

Cramer: "Well not just sell, to walk away. You can’t sell it."

Torabi: "How do you walk away?"

Cramer: "Well you just default on the mortgage. It makes huge economic sense. You go rent. Uh, you don’t want to lose your job, so you keep your car. Uh, you keep your credit cards so you can buy, and all that really happens is is that you made a bet and you lost, so don’t compound it by continuing to pay."

Torabi: "Now the hierarchy of debt, you were saying also that y’know, your credit card debt should be less of a priority than if your house is losing value"

Cramer: "Oh, yeah, credit cards are much more important than your house. Remember, your house is only a good bet if you can build equity. But if you are going to lose money each month, you might as well rent. You shouldn’t own."

Torabi: "And, but, yesterday you’re also saying there are no places in this country where there is value in homes. A lot of homes are depreciating…"

Cramer: "No, No, there is no place where [mumble] you wouldn’t be down on your home if you bought it in 2006, that’s what the issue is. So, I’m saying that buying homes in 2006 was like buying the Nasdaq in February of 2000. They’re very very similar - it was better to be margined out than to continue to put capital against those Nasdaq stocks."

Cramer: "There was a report this morning by David, I believe it was David, uh, Blitzer, on, when I was on with the wonderful and fabulous Erin Burnett and it was that the, some housing prices have, uh, been, have actually stopped going down and some are going up and I just think that’s not true. I think, like, bad CDOs, and, like, bad leveraged loans, the actual mark to market is down everywhere. I get that from the 5 homebuilders whose conference calls I listen to. There are no up markets, and there are markets that are falling 20-30%, and those are the ones where it’s much smarter to walk away from your house."

Torabi: "Is the 20-30%… what’s that based on, or is that just…"

Cramer: "It’s where the, uh, purchase prices are, uh, when you back in the discounts. The discounts are very hard to see, cause all the homebuilders do two things: One is is that they offer incentives that don’t surface, so the list price is $250,000, but you’ll get rebates just like a car, so the list price of a car is $25,000, y’know, but you’re really only paying $18,000, so take in that, and the second thing is is that there’ll be Realtors, and what’ll happen is is that you’ll say ‘look - the list price is $225,000′, but you can negotiate down and go $190,000. I’m using the negotiable prices.

Cramer: "This is happening in the inland empire, in Sacramento, uh, it’s happening in Phoenix, it’s happening in Denver, and it’s happening in Las Vegas, and in southern California, uh, anywhere near the bread, the so-called bread basket, Modesto, these are all places where there’s tremendous overbuilding, and where it may pay to leave your house."

Hey Jim,

"Boo-Yah!" from overpriced and overvalued Orange County, Southern California.

OC California: "Unbelievable how many people were conned into taking these mortgages"

State of California homeowners, as of July 2007, rank second to only Nevada with the most frequent use of the f-word.

Foreclosure, that is.

The OC Register reports that in Orange County foreclosure filings totaled 1,647 in June, or one for every 589 households. That's down about 8 percent from May, but more than doubled the total compared to June 2006.

There were over nine thousand filings in Orange County, California over the first six months of 2007, over three times the number of foreclosure filings during the same period in 2006.

The OC Register article quotes Dr. Walter Hahn, an Irvine-based real estate economist and consultant, who says that foreclosures will increase going into 2009. Hahn says millions of subprime borrowers and real estate speculators will see their introductory "teaser rates" adust and will not be able to afford higher payments.

"It is just unbelievable how many people were conned into taking these mortgages," Hahn said.

Would we call it that?

Dr. Walter Hahn, 40 years of real estate experience in Southern California

I mean, being "conned" into taking a mortgage? That sounds like pretty strong language, while admittedly probably not as strong as the other f-word being used with just as high frequency in 1 out of every 589 OC households right about now. I don't know. Being conned into doing something sounds so criminal!

There are hundreds of OC mortgage brokers out there still touting the merits of interest-only and pay option ARM loans. Is it OK that people are still being "conned"? Maybe these mortgage brokers are just trying to do their part and contribute to the greater good of Orange County society because they know something most of us do not. Perhaps the rate of interest that the layperson sees today are at an all-time high, while OC mortgage brokers sees lower rates on the horizon?

And what role did Realtors play in selling these homes to home debtors in Orange County?
Did they assuage home debtor concerns about the balloon mortgages, saying it would all be OK and that they could "just refinance in a couple of years"?

Let's remember that the OC median home price was around $600,000 per unit in 2005.
Median gross incomes for families in Orange County, CA hovered at around $75,000 per annum. Those two market variables (some like to call them fundamentals) don't always make good bedfellows, unless you can get creative. Real creative. To buy a home with such an income, well, let's just say it would take "some doing". And some outside of California, where home values tend to be a little more grounded with reality, might call creative home financing "cheating". But let's not use that word. Let's just say the OC realtor found a homebuyer, and just referred them to a "great contact" of theirs in the mortgage business, and, abracapocus, deal is sealed. The homebuyer is now a glorified OC homedebtor and welcomed to the exclusive club! Over there is my accountant Skippy, and over there is my broker, Scooter, and next to the hearth, my realtor-niece Buffy! See you at the martini bar! Don't forget, tee off at 10:00 sharp!

Now fast forward to July 2007. A number of those better-than-median incomed OC homedebtors are falling hopelessly behind with their mortgages. Notices of default are three times what they were a year ago. Lending standards have tightened dramatically in most corners. Inventory of OC homes are increasing. Several large mortgage lenders (many based in Orange County) have gone out of business entirely. Some smaller lenders are trying desperately to stay in business. Meanwhile, Realtors are left scrambling on deck, unsure what message should be relayed to prospective clients: "What are we supposed to say again? 'It's a great time to buy' or 'houses are staying on the market longer than they used to'? "Oh God, what do we say now? What do we say!?"

And the pay option arms and interest-only loans? Hey, whether you need them or not, these same mortgage financing intruments that were used to "con" millions of OC home debtors? They are still in the front window of most banks and lending institutions here, here and here.
Fact is, the instruments might very well make sense to prospective homebuyers who have money to burn, strong cashflow, financial flexibility, and are somehow not averse to interest rate risk of any kind.

"Unbelievable how many people were conned into taking these mortgages".

True. Very true, but nobody put a gun to anyone's head.

And so it is. Caveat emptor, Orange County. Caveat-freaking-emtor!

It's a great time to buy a house in Orange Count.....wait, no it's not.

The OC Register reports today what many have suspected for some time - that the OC housing market is in serious trouble. As of June 21, 2007 home sales are down by a total of 29% from 2006 (including single family homes, condominiums and new homes).

In Lake Forest, CA year to date home sales are down 48.5% in June 2007 compared to June 2006, but the median home price skyrocketed to $647,500.

John Lansner correctly points out that while the total OC median home price is the same as this time last year at $640,000, it is impossible to discern whether actual home sale concessions in 2007 are up or down compared to last year's exchanges (concessions include paying out closing costs and buyer agent commissions, etc.).

It's now July. The summer home sales spectaculars must be in full swing.

Can OC Realtors now, after 6 shaky months, look at prospective buyers in the eye - in that oh so"special way" that a mere computer cannot- and still proclaim: "Hey, it' still a great time to buy"?

They can't.

But the Realtor told me everyone wants to live here

Think again.

Mr. Esmael Adibi, the Director of Chapman University's Anderson Center for Economic Research, and Mr. James Doti, the president and Donald Bren Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics of Chapman University, both claimed today that over the short-term fewer people will be migrating to Orange County, California.

Why? Here's the article from the Daily Pilot.

Mr. Adibi:

"Orange County is going to be a strong economy no matter what, but there will be fewer people moving in because of high housing prices and unaffordability," said Doti, the president and Donald Bren Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics at Chapman. "But we hope in the coming years, that will subside because of the natural amenities this county offers."Those amenities, Doti said, included the county's landscape, its educational system and its bustling arts scene.

Also, he said, the increased reliance on exports would turn the area into a trading hub."Global trade will be greatest with Asia, Southeast Asia and the trading port for much of that will be Southern California," he said.

A problem for the county, according to Doti and Adibi, was the housing market, which was slowing due to high mortgage rates and a decrease in the population — between the ages of 25 and 49 — that usually bought homes. Adibi said the average Orange County family paid 49.8% of its gross income on mortgage payments last year, a record amount.

While we keep reading how the National Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors wish to position themselves and staunch advocates of affordable housing, it's not quite making it happen on the streets of Orange County.

Median home prices in Orange Country rose again in May by 0.8% to $635,000.

I mean, when you think about it, why would realtors want home prices to come down to affordable levels when that would have an adverse affect on their income (6% of the home value sale)? I guess, you'd have to assume then that a home sale at any price, even if it's lower, is better than no sale at all. And a commission check is better than no commission check at all.

OK.

Good to be clear about what's important to realtors - and to what extent they are truly interested in affordable home prices in Orange County.

The Real Estate Special Interest Payouts To Congress

Most Americans view with disdain the daily "greasing of the skids" by special interest groups to gain favorable influence for policy votes in Congress. And who can blame them? One could argue that the bribe-like activities of special interest groups, PACs (political action commitees) in Washington D.C. are amoral and corruptive. It's that special, not-so-perfect aspect of the American political system.

Indeed there are thousands of special interest groups executing their plans every week in Washington D.C.. Now it is possible to track whether your own representative in Congress is being influenced monetarily, by whom and by how much. Just visit the website: Maplight.org.

In our main area of interest, real estate, there are some interesting surprises.
So who in Washington is getting the most slap-back cash from real estate industry special interest groups including realtors, subdividers, ?

Well, according to Maplight. org - and this may be just the tip of the iceberg of total funds paid, here you go, my fellow Americans:

Top 10 Recipients Funded by Real Estate Industry (all groups)
Recipient Amount
Joseph Lieberman: $966,665
Hillary Clinton: $632,830
Jon Kyl: $352,994
John Isakson: $325,810
Bob Corker: $290,403
Richard Santorum: $279,423
Bill Nelson: $227,330
Harold Ford: $219,633
Charles Schumer: $219,514 (Mr. SubPrime-Bailout-Program)
Michael DeWine: $183,630

Top 10 Recipients Funded by Real Estate Agents & Managers
Recipient Amount
Hillary Clinton: $530,058
Joseph Lieberman: $356,660
John Isakson: $199,200
Charles Schumer: $193,812
Jon Kyl: $170,932
Richard Santorum: $162,825
Bob Corker: $157,465
Robert Menendez: $154,930
Bill Nelson: $151,280
Mel Martinez: $143,900

Gee, with some of these nice payouts, these Congressional problem solvers might - just might mind you - be able to afford a down payment on an Orange County single family home!

Mr. Lawrence Yun of the N.A.R. Weighs In Again

Mr. David Lereah was the Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors (N.A.R.). Now that Lereah is pulling the ripcord and escaping the N.A.R. before the house literally burns down, Mr. Lawrence Yun, the Senior Economist of the N.A.R. steps up in his new flame-retardant suit.

He's not just a "senior economist". He's the freaking Managing Director of Quantititative Research for the National Association of Realtors.

OK, but who is this Mr. Yun really?

Does he have some fresh or even forthright comments about the state of the American housing market?

Will he come clean about the N.A.R. being a cartel driven by realtor sales commission earnings and sales strategies, not consumer education, market principles, business ethics, and operating as "trusted advisor"?

The answer is a resounding no.

Mr. Yun is a Lereah lacky. In February of 2007, he echoed Lereah's comments about the true state of the American market. If one were to follow this N.A.R. quantitative propeller head around all day, he'd have real estate consumers believing that the market bottom was hit 4 months ago and that everyone should get ready for a recovery later in the year:

"Sales will recover gradually over the second half of the year and prices will begin to edge up again"

Mr. Yun was wrong in February. He and the N.A.R. are wrong again now.

The U.S. economy is slowing down significantly, the U.S. dollar is approaching an all-time low in value versus the Euro and the British Pound, U.S. inflation remains completely unchecked by the United States Federal Reserve Commission, fuel prices in the United States are approaching unchartered territory at almost $4.00 per gallon in California, a jaw-dropping number of mortgage lenders have been completely or partially destroyed, surviving lenders have restricted their lending standards substantially, HELOC loans are down by 20% year to date and subprime and Alt-A loan foreclosures are rocking the entire industry - and we haven't even explored the probabilities that prime loans may also weigh in badly before the year is out.

To Mr. Yun and members of the National Association of Realtors: It's time for someone from your decrepit organization to step up to the plate and tell it like it is.

The Rancid Truth - Mortgage Lenders Make More Commissions By Screwing The Borrower

From California's North County Times:

California mortgage brokers, most of whom are licensed by the state Department of Real Estate, are legally obligated to act in the best interest of the borrower.
"However, there is no enforcement mechanism in place to ensure that they (do so)," said Paul Leonard, director for the California office of the Center for Responsible Lending. Leonard told a state banking commission earlier this year that mortgage brokers "have strong incentives to make abusive loans that harm consumers, and no one is stopping them."

A mortgage broker's incentive "is to close the loan while charging the highest combination of fees and mortgage interest rates the market will bear," a 2004 study prepared by Harvard University's Joint Center of Housing Studies concluded.

Brokers can earn higher commissions -- up to 3 percent instead of the typical 1 percent -- by having customers buy loans with interest rates that are higher than market rates, with prepayment penalties charged if the loan is paid off before a certain date, and with little or no verification of the borrower's income, known as "stated income" loans. That's the difference between a $12,000 and a $4,000 commission on a $400,000 loan.

But why will the home finance market bear high fees AND high mortgage interest rates? How can structuring loans that promote perpetual financial serfdom be acceptable to the borrower? How can reckless underwriting practices as well as tried and true "bait and switch" tactics be acceptable to loan consumers?

The answer is the 21st century financial retardation of the American consumer. Sure, one can certainly blame mortgage lenders and realtors for all of the hell breaking lose in real estate. It's almost too easy to do so - much in the same way one might blame ants for showing up at a picnic.

Compensation schemes like the ones described above might make one's blood boil, but the truth is that none of these incentives would ever be that attractive or effective, if the American consumers fueling the insanity weren't so incredibly illiterate when it comes to their own money.

We are approaching the middle of 2007 and millions of American home borrowers (not homeowners) are now paying the price with personal bankruptcy and home foreclosure - harsh lessons to learn that will likely affect their financial lives for years to come.

If you trust realtors, you are delusional.

Here's why:

If the NAR chief economist David Lereah, realtor posterboy extraordinaire, and the more prolific cheerleader of the American real estate industry boom over the last 5 years, author of infamous books like these:

then stated in late 2006 that the market was now in correction mode, but that we were all certain to experience a "soft landing", who then stated in late December 2006 and again in February 2007 that "we've hit bottom" already.

Now it is May 7, 2007. Mr. Lereah already has his bags packed up, ready to leave the real estate big leagues of the National Association of Realtors, and join a new, hole-in-the wall, real estate sales organization called Move, Inc.

But the final act in the play has not yet been shown. Prior to providing his last major NAR speech at an upcoming Washington real estate conference, the Bob-Saget-Look-Alike, Mr. Lereah, had the audacity to make this admission - probably the most damning one ever about the current American real estate market.

"Ask him in a couple of weeks", indeed! I think by now, Mr. Lereah, we already know what your duplicitous reply will be.

Bob Saget

Also, Bob Saget

So, I ask you: how can any prospective homebuyer in America today turn to a home realtor in good faith anymore for "help"in purchasing a home, assist them making the right choice, and work to protect his financial interests?

I submit to you that he cannot. Not anymore. The game is up.

Bob Saget has played you all, the home consumer, the realtor, the mortgage lender.

Time for the theme music to start. This really is America's Funniest Home Videos.

Got Hummer?

If you do have one, I'd like to know: Are you still enjoying your ride? I imagine by now you either hate the monstrosity with a passion or remain completely enamored with it.

If you live where I live (Lake Forest, CA) right now per gallon 87 octane gasoline is running at about $3.51 per gallon. Hummer owners are probably not only the most-frequently-seen customers at the local gas stations (8 miles per gallon city!), but they are likely dropping somewhere between $81.00 (H3) and $112.32 to fill it up all the way!

Holy crap!

I don't own one. I rented one (not by choice) on a business trip in Denver and was pretty unimpressed. Power, handling, driver comfort, road visibility...no good. But maybe that's just me. I drive a 2000 Honda Civic. But a number of people in Orange County do own Hummers, Exploders and Escalades, etc. A number of them are realtors...but don't get me started there.

But I guess you don't even need to have a Hummer to experience a coronary at the gas pump these days. Today, May 7, 2007, gasoline prices in the United States of America are only cents away from the all-time highest per gallon price in our nation's history.

And unfortunately, my opulent Orange County friends, there are few reasons to expect any future price declines as we approach the summer months and then the cooler fall and winter seasons.

So, I really do hope those of you are enjoying that gigantic beast of inefficiency and impractical machinery! Enjoy it, for the sake of the rest of us, who ride in your wake.

Now for all of you Hummer owners, if you ever see someone you've never met before at the gas station or on the road tell you to "f*&% off!" by flipping you the bird, view this site and it will help you with some background information as to the reasons why.

Mr. Lereah, you have a credibility problem.

In case America's real estate agents haven't figured it out yet, they need a new spokesperson because the one they have, Mr. David Lereah, has lost credibility.

After consecutively denying the existence of a housing bubble in 2005 and 2006, then later retracting and insisting in 2006 that a "soft landing" surely awaits the American housing market, then going back on his previous market hype to forecast a down year in 2007, but one that will still grow at historic levels over 2006 results, to then in February 2007 insinuate a recovery for the American real estate market, to today - forecasting a real estate market recovery only sometime in 3rd quarter 2007 following devasting news that existing home sales declined 8.4%, the worst sales performance for the real estate industry in 18 years.

By now it should be obvious to prospective American homebuyers, future home sellers, economists, mortgage lenders and even realtors themselves that the N.A.R. cannot be viewed as a trusted advisor any longer with respect to the real estate market. It's motivations are completely and utterly duplicitous. There is no interest in sharing with the public full and unfettered, objective housing market data.

The N.A.R. continues in April 2007 to promote the idea that today is no less a "great time to buy" than it was in 2006 or 2005 - despite completely different real estate market growth patterns, rising inventories, declining home values, declining home prices and heavily restricted real estate market financing conditions, not to mention completely different economic circumstances, not the least of which is the all-but-decapitated U.S. Dollar!

It's about time for people to quit their bitching and come to accept the National Association of Realtors for what they are. The N.A.R. is simply a pseudo-public relations organization for realtors whose sole motivation is to sell property and earn commissions on the value of that transaction. The N.A.R. is constantly trying to sell. Once that relational vector becomes well understood by the American public and the mainstream media, it might call into questions some of the assertions made by it's President, posterboy spokesman Mr. Lereah and its 1.3 million members.

Some realtors have been in the industry a long time and have worked their asses off, surviving by referrals through the roughest of markets. Before you select a realtor, I recommend you ask them what they did from 1989 to 1999. Many have obviously proved themselves, demonstrating strong business ethics, and have chosen to help people objectively. They know the ins and outs, and are even more fed up with the N.A.R. than the lay person.

But the majority of realtors, I submit, are unlicensed or poorly licensed, poorly trained, inexperienced, opportunistic, self-centered, easily corrupted, and dead-focused on earning that 6% commission check. To hell with convention, business ethics and regard for your fellow man, they want that commission check! How else are they supposed to make payments on that f*** off huge Hummer they drive around town with their realty website and cell number painted all over it?

Realtors are basically all about a business transaction. Many prefer to portray themselves as some sort of societal counseling service for America: to go that extra mile to "help you and your family find that perfect dream home - just for you. It's all about you".

Bullshit!

Realtors want the transaction done and they want their freaking money! Period. And all of the stupid questions you ask, repair demands, price offers and counter-offers during price negotiations are nothing but Tourette's-inducing irritations obstructing the path to THEIR commission check.

The mere idea that the N.A.R. is somehow of help and "looking out for the interests" of prospective homebuyers and homesellers is so ridiculous anymore, it no longer is funny. It's infuriating. Ask the thousands of subprime homedebtors about their realtor experience. They'll tell you, and in detail, exactly how helpful they were in getting that loan to secure their dream house.

If there is a positive to the 2007 U.S. housing crash and David Lereah's repetitive PR goofs (read: lies) as to the U.S. real estate market's true condition, it is that some daylight might now expose the N.A.R. charlatans for what they really are, and might convince more Americans to show vigilence when selecting a realtor - or even first determining whether a realtor is even needed!

Remember today's quote: "There is no way to spin this news" - David Lereah, National Association of Realtors, April 24, 2007.

If that is the really case, Mr. Lereah, then perhaps you're no longer as useful to he N.A.R. as you used to be?