A Rarely Seen High-Peaked Colonial Revival Fourplex in Berkeley!
It is an architectural rarity in Berkeley to see such a well-preserved and tastefully updated half-timbered and high-peaked Colonial Revival property. This one built in 1911 by the carpenter Arne Lundgren. Berkeley’s Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) even produced a little write up on this one, readable at:
http://berkeleyheritage.com/essays/high-peaked_colonials4.html
(more…)
This is a continually perplexing question for us, and one which probably has several answers. First, we think many sellers don’t realize that commissions are not fixed. The big real estate companies spend a lot of effort training their agents to focus on the service-side of their pitch and not on their fees. To support their rigid pricing structure, many agents will argue that if you pay less, you will get less. Its all a smokescreen, of course. There is no shortage of unhappy sellers who paid 6%. Loyalty is another reason, as sellers will often return to the agents who helped them buy their house initially. And although we certainly cherish the same long-term relationship with our former clients, we continue to work towards having sellers take a closer look at a comparable service that will cost thousands of dollars less.
Brett Weinstein
The slogan of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate reads “Service you Deserve”. I can’t help but wonder how this works with clients that have low self esteem, or even self loathing. These people have a day-to-day belief that they don’t deserve anything good. Or how about the criminal or sociopath that likes himself just fine but is really evil. He might deserve to be hung from a tree. So if these folks go to Pacific Union, will they live up to their slogan?
Brett Weinstein
In the October 2007 edition of Realtor Magazine, published by the National Association of Realtors®, the trade organization to which most real estate people belong, there is a section called “Cool Tools.” This is what is promoted as a “cool tool”:
Thriving Office
“When customers call, have your home office project the image of an established, successful company that is bustling with activity. Play the Thriving Office CD in the background to bring the sounds of an office to your home. The CD features two 39-minute tracks, “Busy” and “Very Busy,” and contains such sounds as ringing phones, typing keyboards, and mumbling voices. $12.95”
Isn’t this great. The group responsible for instilling the “Realtor Code of Ethics” to its 1,366,869 members is endorsing fraud. Brett Weinstein
