Huiting's Blog

Real estate is very local. Every agent knows that. So it will really make sense to be able to search through posts posted by agents from a specific state, or even a county for large states.

California is on the edge of being totally broken. So I would like to read through posts by California agents.

No go.

I hope ActiveRain is listening. Technically, it is pretty easy as it just involves a new line of restriction added to an existing SQL line.

Thanks.

Update: I am referring the ABILITY to search by state. It is NOT my intention to franchise AR to each state so that we have 50 AR sites rather than this only one.

Recently, I read a few agents complaining about their computers. As a computer expert and IT semi-professional, I would offer the following advice for fellow Rainers.

I am not selling my service at all as it is not part of business at all. So these are pure neutral advice.

1. Buy the best computer---either a laptop or a desktop. Macbook is good but as most MLS systems got problem with a mac, most of us would have to buy a windows machine.
   
   I have used/fixed/worked on many computers the years. I would very poor experience with Compaq and Toshiba. I would also avoid sony and gateway. Some HP are pretty good but you have to  buy the high end business models. Hard-wares are very cheap these days. Do not save a few hundred. That money saved will be easily offset by repair bills. For dell, I got mixed experience. I personally would not buy any dell in the next couple years. Not worth the hassle for me.
   
   I have had really good luck with Thinkpad by lenovo. Especially any model before 2006. After Lenovo took over the thinkpad, quality seems to go downhill a little bit but those high end ones are pretty good.
   
   
   
2. Find a very good computer guy and pay a retainer fee.
   
   Trust me. This will be well worth it. I have worked on many computers and I know how a good computer guy can make even a crap computer run like a mac. There are many tricks and expertise to make it so. Find a retainer and ask him/her to take a look every 3 months. It will be money well spent.
   
   If you really hate a retainer fee, you may also find a barter deal. But this deal might become more expensive in the long run.
   
   

There are many things to make a computer work for you. Like data security, reliability, etc. But if you follow the above two advice, all others issues become irrelevant.

Some of you might know that Obama insists a "Buy American Clause" in his new stimulus plan. That means:

Every dollar in the stimulus plan will have be be spent on something MADE in AMERICA or MADE by AMERICAN.

Sounds good, right?

Well, of course, this move has been fiercely attacked by most countries (China, surprisingly, has not voices its anger yet) and oversea companies. Go google yourself.

Now, with this move, I strongly suspect what Obama can do for this country. Paul Krugman (he is 100% made in America), that most recent economist who won the Nobel price, is a strong supporter of international trade. He developed a new theory, in addition to the ccomparative advantage theory, to support international trade--the economy of scale theory.

Now, with this new plan:

• It violates basic economic theories, in addition to the international trade theory.
• It violates most international trade agreement, including NAFTA and WTO.
• It means US companies cannot even buy foreign oil. USA cannot even supply enough oil for Americans! Hey, it will not be a matter of $4, we simply cannot drive because there will be no oil in most stations.
  
• It means USA made products cannot compete with Made in Japan, Make in Canada, Made in Germany, etc products, for sure. Not to mention Made in China products. Because everybody else is sourcing world-wide.
• Expect to buy a Ford Taurus for $50k. Oh, sorry, not even an expensive car. Ford simply cannot even make a Taurus if they have to buy everything Made in America.
• Most grocery items will be at last trippled without stuff from Mexico. Even worse, People will be starving, because there are simply no enough food in the stores!

Hey, the following are 100% made in the US as well.

• Madoff
• Mr.Bush
• Most Wall street bankers

Do/did they do any good?

Plus, the stimulus plan will have to be financed by other countries. With that provision, who will buy all the T-bill, T-notes, T-bonds?

Let us see what this government is listening to the real economists, including me.

For those of you who wonder what TARP has done for this country, now you have an official answer. The wall street has used the money to distribute bonus for their poor performance.

Bonuses for Bad Performance

Good Americans may think bonuses are an appreciation for good performance.

Wrong.

Bonuses is a check designed for whoever work in Wall Street to cash out in the end of each. It is not connected with performance or what.

In Jan 17, 2009, I wrote a post titled:

Learn from senior citizens

Today, I am so happy to read an article by Nick Zieminski, in Reuters

Old people's wisdom, for everybody else

I highly recommend this article to everybody.

The author wrote about another Author, Henry Alford, who wrote a book, "How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth)".

Senior citizens are a great treasure to our society. Likewise, Senior Realtors and the extended related real estate professionals are a great treasure to the real estate industry.

Senior citizens are a great book yet to be read.

MLS is a very good thing in that we can track down the history of a property. This specific property got quite a history. I do not want to reveal its address here for various reasons.

1. The property currently is listed at 99K. It is mixed use with upper apartment and lower commercial use. Currently it is a catering business.
   
2. In 04, one office listed the property at 219K and later reduced to 209.
3. Another office picked up the property at 2006 and priced at 219.
4. A third office picked up the listing and priced it at 250K in 2007.
5. A fourth office picked up the listing at early 2008 and priced it at 209k. No go either.
6. Now a fifty office picked up the listing and started at 179K until 99K now.

The blue line above represents the price change over the time (not to scale). Everything got a selling price. In the above example, the real market price might just right below the asking price (red line). Suppose the real market price is 20K below the asking price of 219K. And suppose the final selling price of this property is 90K (pretty reasonable). In less than five years, the owner actually lost about 110K by asking the wrong price.

By the way, this is a real and active listing located at Pawtucket, RI.

While all scientists worry about Global warming, it is certainly not true in New England. I cannot even count how many snows we have had, in addition to today's snow (storm). We suppose to have snow storm but our weatherman changed his word a few times from yesterday morning. I think finally he did get it right when the snow finally semi-stopped--it is just snow. He happily deleted the Storm from his wording to comply to the reality.

We have been enjoying near single digit temperate for ages and it seems that snows just loves New England and refuse to leave us. Luckily, I did take a few pictures of our summer. Hopefully it is not our last summer.

Ohn, I miss the flowers.

I was at a business party with my daughter Monday night. On our way home, my daughter insisted that she wants to go for a walk in downtown Providence.

So we went for a walk and I explained to her all the big buildings out there. Upon the Capital Hill, I told her it houses the RI government.

Still she asks me: daddy, what is government?

I suddenly find I am at my wit's end explaining such a simple term to a 5 year old. I had to tell her that it is hard to explain it to her and she will understand it when she grows up. I could find a better answer.

Any Rainer has similar experience? How do you reply to your kids?

Disclaimer: I am a business person and I try to stay away from politics as much as possible although it is natural for me to pay close attention to all levels of politics. My writing here is pure business. Please do not use any patriotic claims to attack my writing here.

I always try to answer people's questions why I might be a life-saver for their businesses. Today, I would like to offer one more "fact" to answer this question.

Honda to boost production capacity in China by 23%

Recap of the news above:

Honda will boost its production in China by 23% while shrinking its capacity in Japan and US.

Why?

Well, first, please understand that most cars are manufactured locally now due to various reasons.

So the logic reason is that Honda notices that demand in Japan and US is shrinking and demand in China is increasing.

The reality is--that is the reason. China has an ever increasing demand of cars now, although most cars are sold about 50% in price in China and the cost to maintain a car is much higher in China than in the USA.

So what is the catch here? There is an imbalance of demand in every aspect of the economy between different countries. This imbalance of demand actually generates lots of opportunities.

Today is the first day of Chinese lunar calendar. It is the year of Ox. For those who do not know this, I would like to write a few lines about this.

1,  This biggest holiday in China and many other Asian countries, is called Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. It is just like Christmas in the USA. Most Asian countries celebrate this holiday.

2, People celebrate the Eve of the new year, just like a Christmas eve. Usually the biggest things Chinese will do during the eve are to:

• Cook a great dinner. Most importantly, the Chinese dumpling.
  This dumpling is very interesting. It is actually a Raffle system. :-). People will hide various things inside some dumpling. These things might include money (coins), candy, Chinese date, chestnut, etc. Each "thing" represents different meaning and means different luck in this coming new year.
  
• Watch the CCTV New Year's Gala. This gala usually will boast the best artists from all the country, and some even from overseas. It is a great TV party with now commercial interruption for over 4.5 hours.

3, It is a tradition to visit relatives and friends during the first 15 days of the new year. During these 15 days, you can pay a cold visit to almost everybody and will be welcomed, theoretically, although people usually visit people they know well.

4,This national holiday usually last 9 days. Businesses usually do not open for business until after 15 days after the New Years eve.

5, Most Chinese around the world will do a formal huge party around this period. Usually the first weekend after this holiday. So if you want some Great free or semi-free authentic Chinese food, watch out for this weekend. Not only there will be free food, it is also a great networking opportunity.

6, People usually buy new clothes or add new things to the house, like big TV, etc. Just like the great Christmas shopping gala. People usually do not exchange gifts but it is a tradition that Grand-parents give money to their grand Children for the wishes that they receive from their grand children.

7, Everybody will celebrate this holiday. Even thieves will stop working during the first 15 days. (How wonderful is this).

8, This special holiday is also a great time to bribe somebody, legally, if you want to, by sending Holiday gifts. :-)

Happy Ox year, everybody in the Rain! Wish everybody have a prosperous Ox Year.

For those who still have doubt about video marketing, you need to take a look at the following link:

Barack Obama's weekly address--youtube

Barack Obama will send the weekly address to Youtube.com!

Back in Nov 2008, I wrote a post titled "Long Tail theory and Obama". I believe one of the key reasons that Obama won the election is the wise use of the long tail theory, or rather--the extensive use of web 2.0, web marketing and video marketing. Now it seems that Obama is revolutionizing the white-house using the video marketing that many of us are talking about.

If you want to get some feedback about Obama's video "marketing", you can go directly to the youtube page and see what people say about it. You will be surprised!

So, are you ready and prepared for the video marketing, if you have not done so, Realtors?

P.S. Video marketing is not main job but I would love to share video marketing experience with you, especially if you are located at CT, RI and MA.

I wrote a few other posts about how governments become really creative in taking money from tax-payers, including:

• raise cigarette tax
• create a toll system

So the government surely needs to raise money. But everybody knows that to make ends met, there are two ways, Either make more money or cut expenses. Companies are laying off people. When will the government lay off those redundant pay-roll people?

Last Sunday, I was driving to New York city. There was a heavy snow. From exit 18 to 8, there were many snow workers. They all work side by side two in a row. After exit 6, RI95 becomes only two lanes. Two snow trucks basically blocked the whole road. Even worse, the two drivers were driving at 15 miles/hour.  There are not that much snow on the road!!! We were holding off until exit 2 where it is near Connecticut. Thank god, after we entered Connecticut, there is no side-by-side snow trucks anymore.

On my way home from NYC, it was around 7:30 when I entered RI. The snow was about 2 inches thick. NO trucks at all.

There is either a management problem or a corruption problem in this case.

I believe it is the same case in many governments. So in stead of just asking for money, why the government first checks it own problem? When will see the government lay off its redundant employees?

So far, most people would agree the TARP program is one of the stupidest program ever designed. It didnot solve any problem yet created problems of fund abuse.

The current problem is caused the greedy and corrupt banking system. I strongly object any bailout plan for the banking system. However, I do believe we need to sale real estate industry. Not to restore the price to the 2005 level, because the price level was caused by irrational speculation; but to help  save properties from being running further down.

I think the government should create a policy such that:

1. Force banks to not to keep any property for extended period of time. For example, banks cannot keep a REO for over 6 months. If it does not sell, drop the price.
2. Create a program such that it will help fund people who will buy foreclosure/short sale properties.
3. Prevent all no-doc loans (lie loans) but create a strong incentive for first time buyers. By now, most foreclosure/short-sale properties are investment properties. The owners are by no means first time buyers. I do not have any data to back me up but I would imagine there are less foreclosures/short-sales for first time buyers than those investors.

Yes, there are many things that the government needs to do. But the above methods would incur very low cost and will surely prevent the real estate market from further running down.

I go to New York very often. One thing I feel so proud of New England is that we do not have as many tolls as in New York.To visit Manhattan, New Englanders have to feel the pain.

Probably no proud any more. The governor of Mass recently proposes to put a toll booth between RI and Mass border.

You never know how creative those politicians are. I wonder how creative they will be in the months to come. Just as one person the article said, I think the next step would be--the government would just take all paychecks from patriotic Americans and give back whatever is left.

I rarely see reports like this but in today's Providence Journal Online version, there is a report titled "Market downturn claiming real estate offices".

It is a nice read. Both office owners and agents should be able to learn sth from this article.

A few points.

1, most offices basically closes their satellite offices and focus on their main office.

2, many offices in Newport, the seaside city where you see lots of high end properties, are closed.

3, One office actually opens a new division on commercial properties and rental properties. They are doing well.

By now, most of you may already know that ActiveRain has made a revamp of the whole website. Among the revamp, I would like to extend my praise for the new activerain logo.

Here is the old one.

Here is the new one.

(I uploaded both logos to the AR server so that in the future when AR changes its logo again, we still can look back "history".)

1, I really like the color. The new color set is more energetic and fresh.

2, The new logo is crisp and clean, compared to the old one.

The old logo is in JPG format. Most of you know that JPEP uses compression and thus results fuzziness. If you look carefully, you will notice the fuzziness in the old logo.

Actually, I see lots of logos in JPEG format with very annoying fuzziness.

Is your logo fuzzy? If yes, it is time to change.

3, The new logo gets rid of the Real Estate Network subtitle. This is an interesting move. That means the AR team is more confident about the AR brand and figures they do not need to interpret what AR is about.

4, The new logo is shorter now.

This is a significant move. AR is a content-driven platform and readers come here for content. That means it is very important to offer more Screen Real Estate for content than simply putting a huge flashy ads in the top.

Below is the old logo enlarged to 720pixels wide. We can easily tell the fuzziness.

This is a clear respect for AR readers and a smart move for marketing purposes.

Let us hope AR offers more positive surprises in the future.

Side Note: this critique is not only for AR, it also applies to every AR member here who maintains a website.

The world is never short of smart people.

A German woman named,Traude Daniel, could not sell his house. So she tries to sell his house via lottery. It is a big success. The new owner is very happy and the old owner is also happy. Read the full story in the following link.

A German woman sells house for $200 through lottery

Search "Traude Daniel" in google, and you will find more links to this story.

We all know that this nation is under tremendous economic pressure. I wish everybody can peacefully overcome this special period. But I know somebody could not handle it and may do something of extreme type.

Yesterday morning, a home invasion happened in East Providence of RI.

East Providence Home Invasion

Only a 17 year old and her baby sister was home. Luckily nobody was dead or severely hurt.

My heart is with the little baby girl and her big sister. I hope every body take in the Rain take necessary precautions to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

This is no new news but I would like to re-blog this news here to remind everybody that in this tiny state, we do have some places that ranks pretty high.

Lincoln, RI ranks 63 in the 100places to do business by CNN

Among the main advantages, CNN especiallys picks its 15,000 tax credit for hiring new employees.

Lincoln, RI is one of the only 6 cities in CT,RI,MA area.

I do not quite agree with this ranking but at least it offers some starting point to think about this topic.

Now that the new president is installed, it is time to do some real work. I am not sure if the new government is listening but in my mind, the biggest challenge is to reinstall a Fair Competition environment for smart,hardworking people in this great country.

In the past 8 years, many smart but not quite ethic people have taken fully advantage of the free market system to an extent that they actually abused the system.

If I work in Walmart for $8 an hour and my classmate is on the government payroll by simply bribing his/her aunt in the government of $8000, I will not work. I will try to save or even loan $8000 to bribe somebody so that to land a job or simply put myself in the government payroll without working for any minute.

If I work in Walmart for $8 an hour and my classmate is working in a pyramid marketing scheme cheating $8000 a week from innocent people, I do not want to in Walmart anymore.

If I run a company in the US and the union is killing my business, I will sure move my business somewhere where I can hire some body at a fair market labor price.

Extreme examples, but these are very true in reality.

What this country needs is a FAIR COMPETITION environment so that everybody starts off from the same starting point.

Let hope this is well heard in Washington.