In my opinion, the Burgdorff brand has significant cachet among affluent buyers and sellers in prime areas.

The fact that NRT is shuttering Burgdorff is a clear testament to how bad the market is (volume, not prices, remember that realtors profit from volume). A decision to destroy the brand value associated with this likely wasn’t an easy one. Fact of the matter is that sales are down significantly, and at these reduced levels of sales, it simply wasn’t efficient to maintain two brands.”

Grim I can’t believe you posted this.
Burgdorff and Coldwell Banker use the same company to produce the marketing materials, the same marketing programs, little different website with cleaner background, elegant lettered fonts and more gold buttons and badges, but the realtors did the exact same things, expert guidance, open houses,professional photography, virtual tours, mapping, etc. The same program, what cachet? Different image? Agent wore more jewelry and different shoes coming to the house? That is why they folded into Coldwell. There was no difference and educated consumers saw there was none, except for you. Same thing.

“Working through the backlog
The glut of foreclosed homes on the market has already pushed down prices across the country. Existing-home prices fell another 16.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, according to industry data released yesterday. The overhang of homes in limbo means that foreclosure rates are likely to increase dramatically during the second half of this year and into 2010 as lenders work through the backlog, said Bob Bellack, chairman of Zetabid, which auctions foreclosed properties.

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“Prices will fall to the point where you have equilibrium, and it won’t reach that until there is no longer this foreclosure overhang,” Bellack said.

This could in turn put renewed stress on financial firms that carry mortgages or mortgage-backed securities on their books. As a general policy, many firms have been marking down the value of those assets as the loans become delinquent. But once the homes go into foreclosure and are sold, their value could decline even more, prompting another round of losses at financial companies.”

Did you ever eat down at the Boathouse?

Hammondsport is nice, for a short visit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31516049/ns/business-washington_post/

By Renae Merle

updated 13 minutes ago
A growing number of American homeowners are falling into financial limbo: They’re badly behind on payments, but their banks have not yet foreclosed.

The backlog of seriously delinquent mortgages, which so far affects about 1 million borrowers, is a shadow over hopes for a rebound in the nation’s housing markets. It masks the full extent of the foreclosure crisis and threatens to depress prices even further just as some parts of the country are hinting at recovery. For lenders, it could portend even more financial losses tied to the mortgage meltdown.

“It just means foreclosure rates are going to keep rising,” said Patrick Newport, an economist for IHS Global Insight.

snip

Sastry can enlist.

I was doing typical dumb 18 year old stuff

i was knee deep in rice patties.

SAS

I was 18. Do you know how cool it was that I could grow a real scruff?

What was the stupid part, the walk or the sideburns? :P