The Broker's Record

Santa Cruz Mobile Home Owners, rejoice!

June 05, 2008

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Proposition 98 and Proposition 99. I came out against Prop 98, and for Prop 99. And now, today, here’s the scoop:

[From Prop. 99 passes; Prop. 98 defeated - Los Angeles Times]

Californians on Tuesday rejected a state ballot measure that would have phased out rent control and barred government agencies from taking homes, businesses and farms for private development.

At the time, I really didn’t know who was endorsing Prop 98 or Prop 99. I mean, I assumed it was evil money-grubbing corporations and whatnot behind Prop 98 – but over the course of the “campaign” I learned that the Howard Jarvis Tax Payer’s Association was backing this one. I can’t recall a single initiative or candidate that those guys have supported which I have thought, “Right on!”. I don’t know exactly who these guys are, but I suspect it’s a bunch of rich Republicans in Orange County.

Not only did the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association support it – so did the California Association of Realtors. Sigh. More often than not, I think that C.A.R.’s PAC (Political Action Committee) gets it right. Looks like this time the suits in Orange County held too much sway over them this time.

But we can all relax now – the good people of California saw through the sham that was Prop 98 and voted YES for Prop 99. We can keep the rent control in our mobile home parks – which is good if you are a mobile home owner, because had Prop 99 passed, your mobile home would have instantly been much more difficult to sell, since a good chunk of what you’re selling is really a rent controlled lease.

Rock on, California. I love ya baby!

Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 7:20am
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Changes to the Santa Cruz MLS

June 05, 2008

It’s 6:30 AM, which means I must be hard at work. Coffee’s done brewing, time to pour a cup. Right out of the gate, I’m researching properties today. One thing I notice is that MLS numbers have gone from six digits to eight – woooah! MLS numbers have been recycled for some time now – there can be several MLS entries with the same MLS number. I think they expanded the digit count because the MLS is growing, it won’t just be the five counties around here (Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Monterey, and San Benito) but will expand to include the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Another thing that’s happened release with “Release 3.8″ of MLSListings.com is that you can now search for bank-owned REO properties. There’s a new attribute on each listing that says if it’s bank-owned. The thing is, of course, that the agent has to manually set that flag, and agents are not the most detail-oriented people in the world – especially busy REO agents, who often put no comments or pictures on their REO listings. We’ll see how well that works out – but no matter, because I have my own weekly Santa Cruz REO and Short Sale list that I send out, which I find by manually reviewing all the listings that come on the market each week and send the list out to subscribers.

Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 6:48am
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