And I Thought People Were Gunning For Me…
Here’s an interesting tidbit from Realtor Chris Fountain, of Greenwich, CT. Up until last week, he also wrote a real estate column in the local Greenwich paper. Seems as though some of that paper’s real estate advertisers didn’t cotton to his rather honest assessments of the difficult local market, so they figured out a way to shut him up. You can now check Chris at his blog, http://www.greenwichrealestate.blogspot.com/
Just in case you don’t trust print media to give you the true story on real estate, here’s further confirmation that they aren’t. Of course, while every print media stock in the US continues to plunge toward 0, they aren’t going to alienate their biggest remaining advertisers: real estate companies. Read and enjoy:
Fired!
My publisher, Greenwich Post, has just fired me - according to the owner, it came down to a choice between my readers, who liked me, and certain real estate agencies who did not. The latter pays bills, the former does not, so I got the heave ho. Fair enough, but I question the wisdom of eliminating one of the few items in a newspaper that, according to my readers,anyway, made the paper worth perusing. If you have no readers, who will advertise? Oh well. I’ll be punching up my posting activity on this site, so please check in regularly for truthful reporting on the real estate scene. If you’d like calm, reassuring news that your real estate investment in Greenwich is doing just fine, feel free to check the Greenwich Post each week.
News Flash
One reason I was dumped was, I believe, my reporting a New York Times report that Realogy, parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Soetheby’s, was in danger of going bankrupt. I hear from other agents that staff members of at least one of those firms haven’t been paid in 4 weeks - they got flowers on their desks this past Friday. That’s a nice touch, but try placating your landlord with a bunch of wilted orchids.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:51 am
I own the building known as 32 Field Point, Greenwich. I’m negotiating a lease extension with Coldwell Banker, NRT, Realogy, Apollo. Can, or would anyone like to tell me more about the boys who run this show? Thanks, Barry
5.29.8
barrymonty@aol.com
May 30th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Barry (1:51, 5/30/08)-
The whole Coldwell/NRT/Realogy thing is a ship of sinking rats. However, they have plenty of fine agents within their system, so if you have a good agent of theirs as a counterparty, you should be okay. If- and when- Realogy hits the skids, the agent you’re dealing with can shift his license to a solvent brokerage in about eight hours.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Realogy’s troubles was fodder at the last office meeting I attended. I was surprised to find a very sucessfull broker, selling offices to become part of corporate.
KL
June 1st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
holy cr@p
this is among the reasons why I get most of my news these days via internet digging. For anyone who’s been paying attention (NY Times story on military “analysts”, recent Glenn Greenwald posts, the Judy Miller stenography flap, and most recently the accusations of Jessica Yellin and Scott McClellan), there’s very little reason left to expect honest reporting from the mainstream media, particularly where there is either money to be made or an election to be won.
Here’s hoping that the dangerously honest realtors like you and Chris Fountain prove to be the winning business model.
As you know, I’m buying in the Philly area at the end of 2009, and am desperately hoping to be able to find a local realtor like you or Chris.
Cheers
June 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Wow! A blogger blogging about a writer that was fired for writing about local news in a real paper!
This is pretty sad. I don’t know what it is about real estate professionals but it seems that some don’t have a firm grip on reality. Just how some think the whole internet and looking for real estate on the internet is a fad.
They have been denying that there was a “bubble” for a long time and are unwilling to face the reality of the situation. You can’t cover your ears and scream “LALALALLALA I Can’t Hear you” and think everything is ok.
I couple years ago I was asked to tag along with a family member when they were looking at real estate. This was around the time some people were just starting to talk about inflated home prices. This was a good agent, don’t get me wrong, but when talking about what she thinks about the market and where it’s going she kept saying there was no bubble or this area wouldn’t be affected.
I knew better. Even in this popular area, people are having a hard time selling their homes. Some listings have dropped by almost 100k.
RE professionals can’t tell people the real estate market is falling because people will continue to wait before buying hoping to hit a bottom.
Just like with the tech bubble, people are going to try and keep it afloat for a long time until things finaly settle. If you make your living selling real estate, you can’t tell your buyers to wait and see what happens.
Although mrotgage companies seem to have wised up a bit. According to news reports they are denying loans to people they already prequalified. Hopefully they’re doing this when they think the value of the home doesn’t jive with the purchase price.
It is very sad that this person was fired for being honest.