Is Home Ownership Outdated?

As a record number of banks carpe domus ("seize the home"), and as jobs keep shuffling around in a more mobile, fluid society, one has to ask: is home ownership outdated?

And I don't mean in terms of fads, as if owning a home were akin to owning a bean bag chair or a lava lamp. Fads come and go, but the underlying structure stays the same.

What I'm asking is whether the underlying structure is changing. After all, it used to be that you could graduate high school, get a good manufacturing job with enough pay and benefits to provide for your family, and retire with a healthy pension. One job in one town for one life.

Owning a home made sense. You stayed put and your grandchildren were raised in the same hometown as you. You paid off your mortgage and maybe fueled your retirement off of its sale, leveraging its increased value.

But in today's world, that kind of life is as anachronistic as the milkmen and paper boys that went along with it. By 2006, workers between the ages of 18 and 38 changed jobs an average of 10 times; many times, switching cities to do so. And, with housing prices falling, a home is no longer a retirement tool.

This new way of living will end up drastically changing the way we work and live. As Richard Florida's new book The Great Reset points out, American society most likely (and in some cases already is) going to become a 'rentership society', rather than an 'ownership society'.

That's not to say ownership will disappear altogether. Indeed, it will end up making good real estate agents that much more in demand, and it will mean those out to own a home will be doing so for the right reasons, not just because they heard it was a good investment.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

As you may be aware, DotLoop is going convention crazy this week, stretching ourselves from Texas to Ohio (and soon to be in Virginia).

If you're attending the 2010 Keller William Mega Camp in Austin, Texas this week, look for us at Booth #500 and come get your free complimentary mesh bag to haul around your stuff, courtesy of our friends at American Paper and Plastic Company.

They will also be available at the upcoming Virginia Association of Realtors' REal Show: VAR's Convention & Expo 2010 Conference in Virginia Beach on October 1st.

So stop on by. And remember: with DotLoop, simplified real estate transactions are in the bag.

Overleveraged & Underwater

A good agent knows that any home buying process doesn't begin with scoping out neighborhoods or searching online for open houses.

It starts with a trip to the bank to get pre-qualified for a loan.

But in the midst of the chaotic economic downturn, such pre-qualification has gotten pretty prickly, with banks now necessitating a perfect credit rating and ties to royalty just to be seen.

Consider the case of the Britos, a San Francisco couple who pre-qualified for a $650,000 home loan in 2006 and who now only pre-qualify for $280,000.

As the article points out, the receding loan amount is maybe a bit of an over-correction in the market.

Still, at its peak, the ratio of borrowing leverage for states most affected by the housing crash (think Arizona, Florida, and California) were as high as 15 times a borrower's income. Talk about risky.

During the housing boom, the old standby of "your house should be no more than three times your salary" went out the door, replaced by "get as much as you can and then buy more than you need."

And we're all see the effects of that logic.

What do you think? Would you rather have people qualify for less or more?

Just Another "Convention"-al Week

It's a busy week here at DotLoop. Not only have we launched our new features, but we're attending several conventions and conferences around the country.

We'll be live in Austin, Texas at the 2010 Keller William Mega Camp (look for us in booth #500).

We're saddling up for another show in Galveston, Texas at the 2010 Texas Association of Realtors Convention and Trade Expo.

A bit closer to home (in our own hometown of Cincinnati), we are at the 2010 OAR Convention today. This is the 100th anniversary of the convention, and we're excited to help OAR celebrate!

We'll just be getting over our jet lag when it's back on the road at the Virginia Association of Realtors' REal Show: VAR's Convention & Expo 2010 Conference on October 1st.

Whew!

Our Thoughts & Prayers To Those Out West

Yesterday was a tragic day for our friends out west, in particular those neighbors in San Bruno, California.

A ruptured gas and a massive explosion roared through the residential neighborhood yesterday evening, destroying hundreds of homes and killing six people.

Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones and their homes from this tragic event.

Boulder Colorado also lost many homes in rampant wild fires now threatening the city.

In a week commerating the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, we hope that these tragedies do not go unnoticed and we hope you put a thought and prayer out to those who lost not just their homes, but in a sense, their lives.

Is It Green Or Is It Greed?

The construction industry has a 17% unemployment rate, but one sector not suckered into job losses are green buildings.

Accounting for up to one-third of all new construction in the US, green buildings are the hot new trend in construction. They're the asbestos of the new millennium, only without the carcinogens.

But what makes a building 'green' anyway?

For most, having the designation of a LEED certified building seals the deal (or is that insulates the deal?). LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a term created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit consortium of builders and designers.

But does the point-based system really make buildings greener, or just the wallets of its council? As far as new construction is concerned, do we really need any more buildings, or would it be 'greener' to simply rehab older buildings and bring them up to modern code?

It may be time to question some of the assumptions one makes about what makes a home environmentally sound.

After all, like most movements, the green movement seems to be more about making money than saving manatees.

Are You Ready to Evolve?

Real estate agents are an endangered species.

And, like dodo birds, jobs already lost in real estate are not likely to come back anytime soon.

That's according to the new report from the Labor Department, which speculates that most or all of the 8.4 million lost jobs will be regained by 2014.

The catch?

The new jobs will most likely be filled by two categories: high paying, high skilled jobs or low-paying, low-skill jobs. The middle, it appears, has been sliced out and shipped out overseas.

Of course, as a real estate agent, you no doubt have already seen what having less real estate agents is like on the industry. Perhaps the job-losses were long-overdue residual effects from having too many "me, too" agents.

For the fittest who've survived, however, your evolution is not yet complete.

The real estate world will continue to rapidly change, from less inventory with lower prices to clients who demand paperless, real-time collaboration and updates. Your job is to evolve and grow as this change occurs.

The best part, though?

No matter the changes in the economy, they'll never be able to outsource real estate agents.