A busy week on the internet, I suppose. The scam that we first brought up a in an earlier blog entry has found a new way to find us. Instead of the national sites at Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia, they’re now using our own company’s site, KW.com. Here’s the new version of the old message:

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I am Mr. <removed> a Japan origin I need a 4 bed room single family home to buy, in your city with a garage and 2 bath with or without swimming pool price should be between $400,000 to $500,000 please send me list of home to chose from my address

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If you’d like to read an informative discussion on the spread of this scam, take a look at this Trulia blog. Amazing stuff. Good that so many are working together to avoid being taken.

Spam is getting smarter, too…we use Gmail as a very effective filter, stopping hundreds of emails every day and only mis-capturing one or two on a monthly basis (yes, I do go sift through the thousands of spam emails every few days, just to be sure), but some interesting things have started to happen. First, our two accounts are identical in every way, but Carol seems to get more and more of two distinct message types getting through. The “male enhancement” product spam and the Nigerian scam are starting to make headway in her account, but the exact same messages are stopped in mine. Odd, eh? Of course, now I just started getting “Yahoo Groups” updates (I don’t utilize Yahoo…) with some inappropriate content, so I guess I’m catching up!

Y’all be careful out there…

Some days are just too gorgeous to take the short road home…why not share? I clamped the FlipVideo camera to my dashboard, took the scenic route and uploaded the highlights to YouTube. If you need a break from your day, feel free to take a ride through Waikiki, past Sandy’s and over the Makapu’u lookout on a sunny Oahu day.

Ahhhhh…

Gotta love the internet…

We got this promising-sounding message this morning:

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My secretary Lim Kee Chong Contacted you on Trulia, I am the one that needs a property urgently and I was told you could get me one .I am a very busy man let me just tell you how I want the house and conclude the deal in a short time frame.

I am Mr. Wang Tao a Japan origin I need a 4 bed room single family home to buy, in gated community in your city  with a garage and 2 bath with or without swimming pool price should be between $400,000 to $600,000 please send me some listings or MLS you can reach me at Tel: +81-3388-73121 also my Canada representative is  Edward Brown Tel: 416-824-1768 .

If you can be fast about getting this house I will appreciate as this will be my retirement home and it will be a cash buy. I will want you to send me the MLS and a contract form to sign .

 1. I will want to close on 23rd July, 2010

 2. I want to put down $5,000.00 Earnest money + $150,000.00 down payment towards home.

 3. I want to put contingency on inspection on the contract.

My legal name is Wang Tao of 2000 Sheppard Avenue, Toronto Ontario Canada M3N 2J1 and I am single, I will not be in Canada before the closing date to wire the funds to an attorney so I will advice you to send me an attorney information for a check to be drawn to give enough time for check clearance since I wont be in Canada to wire funds for closing.

Please forward me a purchase contract agreement in docusign format, docusign format is an electronic way of signing document.

My Canadian Rep Mr. Edward Brown Esq will Issue payment in US Funds for the earnest money and the down payment for the property payable to your attorney, the check will be delivered to your attorney.

My Rep Mr. Edward Brown Esq can be reach at:1-416-824-1768, I strongly advice that I need an attorney to represent my interest in this transaction, my lawyer can pay to seller or title company so therefore I would like to deposit all payment with the lawyer.

Please I need the following information for your attorney immediately at my own expense

Law Firm Name……………………………………………

Law Firm Address……………………………………………….

Law Firm Telephone……………………………………………

Lawyer’s Name…………………………………………………..

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Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it? As it turns out, pretty much EVERYBODY with a profile on Trulia or Zillow got the exact same request over the past few months, sometimes via email, sometimes by phone. Different names, same message. It took all of about 10 seconds to find multiple online conversations among agents who were wondering what the scoop was and a short list of folks who found out. Here’s the gag: there really IS someone at the phone number listed who will happily tell you that the request is legitimate. You send a Purchase Contract and they sign it and send you a check for the deposit…but the check is too large.

Oops, so sorry, the secretary sent the wrong amount.

Then they ask for the agent to wire the overage to them, usually with some sense of urgency attached. Their hope is that the kind and trusting real estate agent will send those funds right away…why? Because the original check is no good. However, since it’s drawn on a foreign bank, it might take a few days to verify that. That gap in time is what the scammers are counting on.

Given the scope of the email fraud, let’s hope these jokers get caught (and the key to their cell gets misplaced).

Y’all be careful out there…

Two funny things happened yesterday, both which point directly at why we do our jobs in real estate…

First, we received an inquiry through one of the major real estate search sites, something that happens fairly often due to our ranking in the local area. It was someone whose parents were looking to move to Oahu and wanted a “large lot” (which they’re probably accustomed to where they live). The listing they were looking at was priced at under $475,000 and had over 400,000 square feet of land, which sounded great.

To us, it sounded a tad off…

The listing was indeed shown with the correct price and MLS number, however the lot size was just a little off…by a factor of 100. It was actually a smallish 4,300 square feet.

Next, we got a second inquiry from the same internet search source, asking about a listing of ours that has been in escrow for several weeks…of course, the on-line real estate search sites rarely update their data to show the flow of a transaction and this wasn’t reflected in the listing. As it turns out, it can take a looong time for listing status to change (if it ever manages to) on many of the auto-fed sites and the data that people get from those sites gets worse and worse as it piles up.

The long and short of it? Call your agent. Email your agent. Go to the people whose job it is to know what’s going on and let them send you information that’s timely and correct. As you might imagine, both of the folks we replied to were disappointed (as are several each week when they see the bargain of the century and it turns out to not be real).

One other thing…we sold a property a couple years back and the sale price showed up doubled on one of the big search sites. We contacted them and thanked them for making us look so good and asked that it be fixed. Well, it took more than a year and a half, but it did get corrected…except that the old, incorrect number is still in their database. The effect is that the “value” of the property (and all the others in the neighborhood) shows a massive spike back when we sold it.

Sheesh.

The intrepid adventurer must be persistent and patient, especially in the face of challenges that appear, at first, to be insurmountable. “Prevail” and “succeed” must remain in the forefront, leading the way like a beacon. The reward at the end of the journey will suffice to make all of the trials seem worth the effort.

Kinda like this…

When your transportation fails inbound (and you turn a 4-hour flight into a 6.5-hour flight and then extend it another hour sitting waiting for a gate to be available to get off the plane) and also fails outbound (and you sit in the plane on the tarmac for 3 hours watching lightning strikes and feeling the shaking of 90 mph winds), you stand in this line:

For 7 hours.

Except that you never get to the end of the line, because at the 5-hour mark your wife gets through to the 800 number and gets you a seat on another plane….after being mysteriously “disconnected” three times, of course.

Then, you check in to the plushest of hotels for a night of slumber between sheets of the finest cotton with your head resting upon a pillow filled with the down of geese.

Or not.

And at the end of your journey (the one that takes 32 hours instead of the scheduled 16) and miss the high school graduation that you flew all that freakin’ way to get to in the first place, you can count yourself among the few adventurous souls who have forded the streams, climbed the mountains, sailed the oceans and arrived to touch the ultimate prize.

The Fashion Moose.

Thank you, United Airlines, for a lovely trip.

This showed up in an email today…

“Our Company needs a proven experience and systems use information from a variety of sources, including mystery shop visits and store audits to quantify the gap between your brand promise and the reality of exactly what your customers have experienced.
Shopping for new clothes,Electronic at stores like The Gap, Macy’s, Old Navy, Banana Republic, QVC,Staples and other retailers.
Dining with your family or friends at restaurants like Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory,
McDonalds, Black Angus, Outback, Burger King and other popular restaurants.
You will pose as a typical shopper so you can give us feedback about their employees’customer service, sales ability, product knowledge, procedures, and professionalism,
We turn the information (you gave us) over to the company executives and they would carry out their own duties in improving their services.
Most companies employ our assistance when people give complaints about their services or when they feel there are needs for them to improve their general service. Your Identity would be kept confidential as the job states (mystery shopper).
You would be paid $200 for every survey you carry out ,bonus on your transportation allowance and funds would be given to you if you have to dine as part of the duty.
Your job will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide variety of shops, stores, restaurant and services in your area. No commitment is made on this job and you would have flexible hours as it suits you. If you are interested do get back to us with the below application:
Your Full Name:
Your Residence address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Present work address:
Home and mobile Phone numbers:
Email address:
Your Age and Current Occupation:
Your Gender:
So we can look at your distance from the locations which you have to put your service into, and your address would also be needed for your payments. We also implore you to send a scanned copy of any form of Identification for the processing of your application form and also for record purpose but if you cannot provide it presently then you can provide it later.

Regards,

Hiring Manager
Service Research Corp.
Robert Springs.”

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad…this sort of thing has been bouncing around for years. Is there really no mechanism for backtracking the email address and shutting this sort of thing down?

Just curious, I am…

Be careful what you wish for…

Some time ago, after yet another conversation that had complete and/or incorrect information, the phrases that make the world go ’round must have been put in place.

“…well everyone knows…”

or

“…well, you know, they say…”

At some point Carol said, “I should just get a t-shirt that says, ‘everyone’ on the front and ‘they’ on the back.” I’m guessing this would be the place where the buck stops.

Person: “They said…”

Carol: “I’m ‘they’…says so right here.”

Person: “Yeah, but everyone thinks…”

Carol: “I’m ‘everyone’ too…says so right here.”

Simple and direct, isn’t it? Well, evidently her older sister heard the idea and we got a package in the mail yesterday.

With a red t-shirt in it.

Want to guess what it said?

Everything old is new again, it seems. In June of 2009, I wrote about a listing that needed to be moved quickly. It was an older house in a nice area and the sellers had a number in mind that they wanted. Rather than doing the whole price-it-above-that-and-leave-room-to-negotiate thing, we priced it significantly below the market and told the buyers’ agents to bring their best offers and we would present them together (several days after the first of two open houses). Eleven offers in three days, all but one over asking and into escrow we went…ABOVE the number the sellers had been shooting for.

Fast forward a year to another listing that needs to be moved quickly. Heck, let’s do it again…it worked before. Once again, we looked at comparable sales in the area and priced it 10% below. The seller was not in a position to allow a lot of showings, so we compacted things further; two time periods for showing, appointments only, all offers to be presented five days later.

We’ve already received seven offers, all over the list price. Same strategy, same story…so why is there a list price at all? In a buyers’ market, it’s simply something to plug into a search engine. We’ve created a system that is driven by the one thing in the whole process that is completely negotiable and placed a value on it prior to the beginning of the negotiation (often based on not-so-useful influences). Isn’t this a little backwards?

If the sale price is negotiable, it should just be for sale, shouldn’t it? The buyer will decide what it’s worth and the seller can always counter (or reject) an offer that’s ridiculous. It seems that presenting it as simply “on the market” would generate interest with everyone interested in WHERE the property is rather than a made-up number that’s attached to the listing. And in the land of sellers who are still making mortgage payments, I’ll bet you that the days on market would drop significantly. Look at it this way…there have been just over 100 sales in the neighborhood where our current below-market-price listing is located. Average days on market? 61. That’s two mortgage payments made. Ours will be in escrow after a total of eleven days…less than 1/2 of a mortgage payment.

Sounds like a win-win to me…

It’s the spring concert season and we’ve had quite a tour of the islands! First, the Spring Concerts of the Kona Music Society held in a great venue up above Kailua-Kona where you could see for miles as the sun was setting. Good fun and two packed houses. Then, home for rehearsals and work and the Top 100 Realtor Awards…

Note the hard work being done on the beach before the gala…

 …and then BACK to the Big Island for a special show at the Kona Village Resort with the Kona Music Society, the KMS Children’s Choir and Danny Akaka. What a unique place, peaceful and remote but still top shelf. It’s the first time I’ve done a show where the audience was separated from the stage by a body of water. Check it out:

Back again for a morning rehearsal and playing at Kailua United Methodist Church and then off to perform at a joint Spring Concert with the Honolulu Chorale. Busy, busy…

And the biggest of the concerts is still to come. The 2nd Annual Spring Concert of the Windward Choral Society will be held the evening of June 12th at the Windward United Church of Christ (38 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Kailua, 96734). Start time is 7:00 PM and the show will feature multi-cultural music from all over the world, a string ensemble and the Marine Forces Pacific Band. Parking and Admission are free and there’s a place to have a picnic while you enjoy the music. Y’all come…

I’ve just sold a Resale - condo-townhouse property at 2304 1177 Queen St in Honolulu. Come and visit my site to see other properties in that area. If you are interested in looking for or selling your home, please Contact Me.