A few things broke along the way — you might follow a link to a page and get redirected to one of the other main pages of the site.  Also one or two links broke along the way, but those destinations will be going away pretty soon anyway.

Actually most of the move was surprisingly uneventful — which is how we like them!

The live MLS search feature of this site will be going away in a short time — basically as soon as I can get a visitor response page coded and test the existing links.  Unfortunately, this site has yet to pay for itself, so we’re needing to cut back on some of the expenses as we wind the site down.  We may also be moving to a different hosting company by and by, but that change should be fairly transparent.

Secondly, let me apologize, to wit:  I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping up much lately.

By way of explanation, first of all I’ve been focusing maybe 75% of my work life (or more) on actually selling real estate, rather than trying to grow my web site reach.  Business has been great out in the Sacramento area, and this site for the Oakland area has so far garnered lots of visitors but failed to produce any revenue from them.

What’s up with that?

Finally, since I’ve been busy with my Sacramento business and this site’s not making any money, I’ve been dedicating any time I do have to my Sacramento blog, and my newly launched El Dorado and Amador County Real Estate Blog.  Gosh, that name’s a little long winded, isn’t it?  Maybe I should have called it Baco-Bits.

No, Baco-Bits isn’t quite right.  Though it’s located in the heart of Republican territory (I’m sorry to say), it’s actually pork free.

So anyway, that’s what’s up with me.  This blog has some pretty strong fundamentals so it stands to make money soon.  (Hint hint, you Oakland area agents.  Come work for me or buy this blog).  But meantime till it gets a sponsor I’m off playing in the near East.

Anyway, in the meantime, here’s a site with pretty good traffic, but I haven’t been keeping up with the blogging quite as religiously as I should given my other blogs and site work, and given the potentially vicious cycle of being somewhat disappointed with the site’s results, therefore not putting the time in, therefore etc. and so on.

So, what then?  Guest bloggers?  That would be nice.  That could even include agents in the Oakland area, and we could work out some guidelines and hammer out some ideas for how we might share the benefits.

Or, I could sell the site it or lease it outright, but as I think about this it occurs to me that I might be shooting myself in the foot, since this site is poised to take off.

Any day now.

Any day now.

This August, the median sale price for a Condo in Oakland was $399,000, a 2% increase over last year’s median of $390,950.   At the same time, however, the average sale price dropped 5.5%, from $416,252 last year to $394,669 this year.  Curiously enough, sellers are offering their units at almost exactly the same price this year ($394,732) as they were last year ($394,637), but last year they were getting 5.5% more than list, while this year pretty much they’re getting list price.

The average condo that sold took 37 days to sell in August, as opposed to 24 days last year.

Today we reassess that opinion, since the numbers are a mixed bag at best.  Appreciation still looks ok on the face of it, with the median price rising 5.88% from August to August, and the average price risiing 6.88%.  However, at the same time, buyers are getting slightly bigger homes this year than last, so sold price per square foot has actually dropped, albeit by a very slight 0.7%.

The average home sold in Oakland in August for $619,214, or 1% more than the average list of 614,678.  The median sale price was $540,000.  Average days on market were up slightly, from 22 days last year to 30 this year, but expireds were up more significantly, from 65 total last year to 137 this year.  With declining sold unit volume as well (393 units last August versus 263 this August), the expired to sold ratio has shifted from 16.5% last year to 52.1% this year.

Inventory is currently at 4.9 months.

Meantime, inventory is quite high at 7.6 months, and many of the units that are for sale are expiring. Last July, five units expired versus 52 sold, for an expired to sold ratio of 9.6%. This year the numbers are 22 expireds to 37 solds, putting the ratio at 59.5%.

The average condo that sold through the MLS in July of 2006 listed for $415,837 and sold for $418,795. The median sale price was $385,00.

I hope Kris will remain my visible friend once she reads the dastardly revelations in this post.  I’m pretty sure she will.  First of all, if blogging is indeed group therapy, as Kris claims, then I have to be honest, or it won’t work.  At least I think that’s how you’re supposed to do group therapy.

Anyway, with this in mind, I’d like to “share something” that’s been “on my chest”.  “Let go your pain, and gain strength from the sharing…”  “You’re Vulcan???”  Oh wait, that was a movie.
Anyway, here’s my big revelation.  I love doing Walmart style real estate.  Let’s face it, I’m a total mercenary.  I think that getting to be a rainmaker, out here on the Internets (as Monseiur Colbert calls them — I mean “it”) is the best thing you can do.  Then when a home buyer or seller comes in, let a friendly and competent colleague do the work and get 75% of the commission, with a nice tasty 25% referral to Johnnie for typing his fingers to the bone.  I love Walmart.  I want to have Walmart’s babies.

Ich bin ein interloper.

My ex-interloper boss, Dave Liniger, probably has a guy like me in mind when he talks about interlopers and interceptors.  And I do admire what Dave’s trying to do — passing along “free” leads to his agents.

Of course, let’s take this in context — REMAX is a broker like other brokers, and the free leads you get at REMAX cost you your split (or association fee, or what have you), so they’re not really free.  I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  Dave is a fellow mercenary, and he’s clearly more successful at mercernarying than I am.  I am, after all, a soldier of misfortune.

Now where the heck was I?  Oh yes, I love Walmart.  I got a lead, you got a car, let’s make some money!  I want to grow up to be Walmart.  I want to have Walmart’s babies.

One problem with my Walmart business model is that it relies at least in part on a third party eight hundred pound gorilla, who for any given web venture may or may not decide I’m worthy of some banana.

But hey, no job is perfect.  But in what other job could you have as much fun as I’m having now, doing what I’m doing now, dressed as I am, with the commute I didn’t have?

I may have discovered my calling.

The average home sold for $535,044 in July, or 99% of the average list price of $538,345. The median sale price was $525,000.

This year’s crop of homes was somewhat larger than last year’s. As a result, the 2.25% increase in the average sale price from July to July can be considered somewhat “nominal”, since the average cost per square foot declined by an almost equal amount, 2.28%, during the same time.

Inventory is getting fairly high by Bay Area standards, at 5.8 months.