[In The News] Bloomberg TV’s “Money Moves” W/Deirdre Bolton 5-8-12

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 10:10 PM
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Always fun to speak with Deirdre Bolton on her show. The producers positioned us to speak on the main floor in the middle of a lot of activity – talked luxury housing market.

[Carbon Mesa Estate in Malibu, CA] Coolest Listing Presentation Ever Made

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 2:09 PM
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I got an email a few days ago from a group that was marketing a $35M property known as “Carbon Mesa Estate” in Malibu, California. They sent me an iPad with 3-minute action movie with high production values that shows off the features of the house.

The presentation was sent via an app (or a bookmarked home page button) on an iPad along with customized packaging and external speakers.

Because it is an app, I can’t share a link or a web site, but you’ll get a sense of it in my overview including who to contact if you happen to be in the market for a $35M Malibu property or know someone who is.

Impressive. Check it out (click on image below):

[In The Media] Nightly Business Report 4-3-12

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 10:45 PM
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Had a quick couple of clips in this one covering the Manhattan housing market. Inventory restrained, pent-up demand for Q2 to be released, credit remains tight, etc. Always great to speak with Suzanne Pratt at NBR.

REBNY Video on Real Property Tax Fairness

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Saturday, March 24, 2012, 10:00 AM
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REBNY is the trade group for the commercial and residential real estate industry in NYC. Here’s video that remains on their home page that addresses the issue of inconsistent tax liability between the four tax classifications.

I’ve been remiss in not posting this video since it was produced more than a year ago but it was well done, whatever your view on this issue is. My friend, journalist, columnist, former Crain’s editor and blogger Greg David as well as a number of well respected New York real estate types participate.

[In The Media] Yahoo! Finance’s The Daily Ticker 3-21-12

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 10:39 PM
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Had a great conversation with Aaron Task at Yahoo! Finance’s The Daily Ticker on NAR’s Existing Home Sale numbers and the state of the housing. First time I’ve been on the show.

[In The Media] Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” 3-20-12

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 10:32 PM
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Was invited to be on Bloomberg TV’s Street Smart today with Trish Regan to talk about the outlook for Manhattan housing prices with particular attention paid to reduced bonus compensation. Always fun to go to BB.

True (funny) story just before I did the interview:

I was getting mic’ed up and makeup applied while waiting for my turn on the set when I looked up and standing in front of me was Patrick Doyle of Domino’s Pizza holding a large pizza box as a prop for his appearance (It must have been warm because it smelled great).

I introduced myself and he couldn’t have been nicer, and a bit self conscious standing in a newsroom holding a pizza box. I immediately remembered his latest commercial – my kid’s and I were commenting on it last weekend while watching March Madness. I quipped to him that I had a few ideas that could make me CEO – he cracked a smile and then proceeded to do a great interview – check out his closing line in the commercial so my story makes sense.

[House Auction] Bidding A Penny At A Time

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 4:00 PM
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This home auction for a penny (ht HuffPost) story is one of those novelty real estate stories that makes the rounds each day. Yesterday’s story was the 14-year old that bought a house in Florida.

Penny auction for housing?

I’m not sure what to make of the real estate angle here – my brain is cracking under weight of the lessons to be learned. But I’m really more interested in the investor’s ingenuity. He gets a gold (or copper) star for effort and I wish him success.

Bat Phone v. iPhone

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Monday, March 12, 2012, 1:00 PM
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With all the hoopla about the new iPad, I thought I’d share this.

Finally, A Good Real Estate Brokerage TV Ad For Home Ownership

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Monday, March 12, 2012, 9:45 AM
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I saw this TV ad and I liked the message – it struck me as the way real estate brokerages should have been talking about the housing market long ago. Don’t speak about it as an investment like a stock pick, but soft sell it as an experience. Coldwell Banker gets it right. The Tom Selleck connection didn’t hurt either.

It initially caught my attention because it was a tongue-in-cheek valuation approach:

You start by taking the smell of pancakes made on a Sunday morning and times that by the sound of kids laughing from the bottom of their bellies. Then you add the taste of a good cabernet with family at Thanksgiving and multiply that by the warmth of a winter fire. Then you subtract the stress of work and minus the struggles of the outside world, add the power of a bedtime story and times that by the square root of a grandmother kissing her grandchild. Multiply all this by about 50,000 memories and 100,000 smiles. And then you have a value of a home.

Apparently all those appraisal courses I’ve taken over the years were for naught.

“People’s homes are so important because they are the setting for life’s most meaningful moments,” Michael Fischer, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker, said in a news release. “While the economics of homebuying are critical, we must remember there is much more to it: lifestyle, memories, family and pride of ownership.”

During the housing boom and bust, real estate messaging lost its way.

Mortgage Settlement Makes “Fraud a Business Expense”

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Thursday, March 1, 2012, 1:39 PM
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Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture Blog, lays out the $26B mortgage fraud – robo-signing settlement with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia in a context that we can all understand. Barry authored a much talked about column last weekend in the Washington Post.

This is interview required viewing for anyone connected with real estate and mortgages. Here are a few choice snippets:

“We’ve made fraud and perjury just a business expense.”

“Felony, fraud, perjury on a mass scale.”

“It wasn’t Jamie Dimon…or the $8 burger flippers…the process was too institutionalized…what we don’t know is who the mid-level bank execu who said too hell with 700 years of property law…just rubber stamp it and get it through…”

“It’s the Ford Pinto approach…eh some will burn to death, we’ll write a check later.”

Spoken with amazing clarity – always love Barry’s insights and delivery of his views.

• WashPost Columnist: Mortgage Settlement Makes “Fraud a Business Expense” [Bloomberg Law/YouTube]
  
• The Robosigning Deal is a Useless Embarrassment [The Big Picture]
  
• Foreclosure settlement a failure of law, a triumph for bank attorneys [Washington Post]