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Lessons from the Library: RPR on Notice

Joe Cline — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:45:48 +0000

OCLC (an organization with a mission similar to RPR, but for libraries) has alienated itself from it's supposed beneficiaries. Could something like this happen with RPR?

In order to understand the potential problems with providing original real estate records to a communally-owned database, as RPR is suggesting, it’s useful to look at an analogous situation that exists in a similar community: the library world. On July 6, 1967, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) was founded as a cooperative effort among libraries to allow standardization and sharing of bibliographic records among libraries who signed up for this service. The records were to remain the property of the library that created them, but would be free to use for any member library, with only a small cost-recovery fee charged for various services. OCLC continued to grow, until today it serves 72,000 libraries all around the world, who participate by creating bibliographic records and sharing them. OCLC is also available for library users to search, allowing them to locate hard-to-find items through its online search options. So, libraries created bibliographic records for books and journals and CDs and DVDs, and users could find information on them through OCLC. And everything was fine, for a while. Then, in 2008 OCLC announced its proposed “Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records,” which required that all records before and since that appear in OCLC would bear a line granting copyright (license) over the record to OCLC and prohibiting the record’s use in any other service that was similar to OCLC. Essentially, OCLC simply took over the license for those records. OCLC did not make those records, so how could they do this? The answer lies in the way that copyright law is structured. The records stored in OCLC were comprised of facts. Facts cannot be copyrighted. I can’t copyright the fact that a house is located at a certain address or that it is on the market for a specific amount; I can’t copyright that grass is green and the sky is blue. I can, however, copyright the way that I describe the house, the look and feel of my real estate descriptions, and the formatting I use in creating a listing for the house. It’s the last issue, that of formatting and metadata, that created the situation with OCLC. OCLC didn’t claim ownership over the information in its database; it couldn’t. Copyright doesn’t allow for ownership of facts. Instead, OCLC claimed ownership over the format and metadata (descriptions of the books) – the look and feel of the interface – as its justification for claiming the right to license the records. Because the information had to be entered in a format that OCLC set up when the initial database was first put into place, OCLC owned the format. The records in that format were thus the property of OCLC because the format was OCLC’s. Restrictions were outlined that restricted the rights of libraries to use the records, even for records they had created themselves and that logic would dictate those libraries “owned.” Despite public outcry, the provision was implemented in 2009. But OCLC was a consortium of libraries working together, right? So how could they do something that was so clearly at odds with what the majority of the membership wanted? The answer, sadly, is that OCLC’s leadership seems more interested in protecting its own financial interests than in being responsive to its membership. Once OCLC became the standard that most libraries used, it began to derive its own profit-driven agenda; since it essentially had a monopoly on the records that had already been created, it no longer needed to serve the libraries that had created it and built its success. If any of this sounds familiar, it should. Similar situations are arising throughout the intellectual property world. If RPR successfully implements its proposed database, it can make a claim that the records contained belong to it, no matter who originally created the record, because RPR would own the format and metadata. This would allow for a widespread land grab that could end up costing members and others simply to get their own listings back. Don’t think this could ever happen? It already has. Just ask a librarian.

Recovery signs begin

J Cline — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:23:37 +0000

United States new home sales numbers have continued to increase between May and June. The numbers made available by the US Commerce Department appear to reflect a market recovery. Between May and June the sales of single family homes increased 11 percent alone. This jump indicates a third consecutive increase, and surpasses the anticipated increase of 2.3 percent by many economists. This particular jump holds additional significance. Home sales have not made a significant increase of this nature since Dec. 2000, 8.5 years ago. Additional positive news for the housing industry can be found in re-sales that posted an increase of 3.6 percent for the month of June. This puts the housing market in a more stable up swing than previous projection. This can be found in a report from the National Association of Realtors. In the Austin area more than 2100 single family homes sold in June. This is actually down 4 percent from June of the previous year. According to a report from the Austin Board of Realtors, the year over year sales volume gap is decreasing every month, making Austin a steadier housing market then the majority of the country. The median price has remained the same, just under 200 thousand dollars, when comparing the same month in both years. Overall, Austin sales volume is also increasing. The housing sales market report of this area indicates that sales have increased 61 percent since the onset of 2009. Once again this proves the housing market in Central Texas is one of the most prolific.

My Rant on The Home Value Code of Conduct

Joe Cline — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:37:17 +0000

The new home valuation code of conduct is a lazy tool of weak minds. If you can’t stand by your estimation of value in the face of scrutiny, then maybe you should be changing your values. And if you don’t like working for a bank that pressures you to inflate values or do other things that you don’t like, FIND OTHER CLIENTS! That’s what everyone else in the business world does. I just had a transaction get pushed out a week, a family lose a weeks worth of on the market time for their existing home, and a family end up putting $5k extra down that they didn’t have to put down because of an appraiser who did a sloppy job. Of course, I pulled the data that showed an error in the comparable lot size the day we got the appraisal a week before the originally scheduled closing. I forwarded the evidence of the error to the lender, who forwarded it to the appraisal management company, who forwarded it to the appraiser, who did nothing about it. Why should he? He can’t be fired from the bank’s list of appraisers. We can’t talk to him or say hey man, are you retarded? Look at the lot? Turn your head 90 degrees and look at the lot next door, can’t you tell that it’s not twice the size of the lot you are appraising and that therefore your adjustment and the data on the appraisal should be fixed? I plan on filling a complaint with the Texas licensing board for this and every single apathetic appraiser that I run across now. In what other free market do people get handed business with their license and then get removed from responsibility for the quality of work they do and professionalism with which they do it? Your license is your ticket to the game, not tenure and guarantee of business. Sorry, but real estate is a rough and tumble business. 95% of agents don’t make it 5 years. It should be the same way with appraisers as with all other new businesses. Find a way or find the door. I’m open to hearing other viewpoints, but right now, this whole deal seems like a cop out. One last thought. When other groups like NAR put aout a Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics as NAR calls it generally speaks to how the group’s members should act. When the appraisers lobby for and get passed a Home Value Code of Conduct it speaks to what everyone else must do. Strange huh? A slightly miffed Austin Realtor. Joe

Home Sales Looking Up

J Cline — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:36:37 +0000

We are in a very tough economy right now. In the past couple of years, the housing market has been at the forefront of this. Home values have dropped so significantly in some areas, many homeowners face a current mortgage loan worth more than their home. Foreclosures have increased nationwide, and even the Federal Bailout plan has not seemed to help the market as much as expected. Banks have tightened their lending practices and have made it nearly impossible for those with less than perfect credit to purchase a home. Many investors have chosen to stay out of the market as they wait for it to get better. Most experts believe that the national housing market will begin to see increases sometime in 2010. In the meantime, some good news has recently been released in the form of a report stating that pending home sales have actually risen more than 6% since November of last year.

The National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales for December were at 87.7 for previously owned homes. That is a 6.3% rise from November, the lowest month on record as 82.5. Realtors are hopeful this increase is the beginning of the end of the national market crisis, but do remain aware that the overall economy must also get better to fully pull out of the crisis. It is important to note that these increases were from the South and the Midwest. Pending home sales in the West and Northeast continue to decline. Sales of newly built homes are also low. While several investors are cautiously reentering the market, no one is quite prepared to go all in yet. There is more funding in the Federal Bailout plan that will hopefully help to better the overall market and help to stimulate the economy.

Interesting Aspects of the 2008 Real Estate Market

Joe Cline — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:15:51 +0000

As it turns out there is hope behind all the gray clouds created by the national media!Every now and again you have to wonder why a down market is considered bad. I talked with a friend who had the opportunity to pick the brain of a successful real estate investor. My friend told me the one gem that he gleaned from his conversation with the successful investor was that you always want ot have dry powder. I’m not the avid hunter so forgive me if I expound on this here, but that is basically reinforcing the old adage, “buy low, sell high”. But a lot of investors tap out their funds when the market is hot and they see dollar signs. The successful investor has dry powder ready to pull the trigger when the market is down so that they are flush when the market returns. And the market always returns. So if you’re thinking about investing, now is the time. Check out the info below.

Excerpts: Positive Signs for the Real Estate Market

Buyers Waiting on the Sidelines Should Get in the Game

Buyers wanting to hold properties for a long time could be well served by starting to look at purchasing the property now. Over the long term, home appreciation out paces savings from lower prices.

Despite the recent declines in some markets, national home prices are up 80.5% over the first quarter of 2001.

One reason potential buyers may want to act quickly: Historically, when home prices fall, they don’t fall for long.

“If we go back to early 90’s when real estate prices were falling, the reverse came extremely quickly and very unexpectedly.” There is some indication that the down market period will be shorter than it was in the 1990s. The job market is actually still very healthy today and the unemployment rate is low, contrasting with the rising jobless rate in the early 1990s. When the market reverses you may well end up missing the bargain you were holding out for and wind up paying more than you would have if you had acted during the down market.

Excerpt from David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Index Committee, “Good Time to Look for a Second Home?” by Sheree R. Curry, TheStreet.com, November 30, 2007.

“A combination of lower prices, a large inventory and mortgage rates well below 7 percent offer buyers a terrific opportunity to find the home that they want AND make a good investment. Real estate should be considered a a long-term investment.”

It really doesn’t matter if we’re at the bottom of the market cycle yet. What matters is, can you find what you want? If you wait till it’s a good market and everyone’s buying, you won’t have as much choice or you’ll wind up paying a lot more to get what you want since there will be others out there going after the same properies.

Excerpt from Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate appraiser from East Brunswick, N.J., “Welcome to the Buyers’ Waiting Game,” by Kathleen Lynn, The Record (N.J.), Dec. 2, 2007.

“From the consumers’ standpoint, it’s the old adage: whatever you are buying, buy low and sell high. The marketplace right now is saying that prices are low, in some places, very low, so why would you not be buying?”

The thing that keeps me awake is I believe that there is tremendous opportunity in the current real estate marketplace… that I would just hate to have the average individual miss an opportunity like this. I don’t think we’ll ever see the hot market we saw a few years ago, but we’ll definitely see it bounce back, maybe even shoot up, and people will see some appreciation on their properties.

Agents are looking to entice people from as far away as New Zealand, Russian, and China into buying homes in the United States. Europeans have a 45 percent discount on U.S. goods due to the strength of the euro against the dollar. Big exchange rate premiums that Canadians long paid just across the border were completely reversed this year and the Canadian Dollar is equal or slightly more valuable than the US Dollar. .

Century 21 in Orange County, Calif. had a recent referral from China. A Texas agent is working with two different clients from the United Kingdom who want primary residences in a hot market in Texas. “The strength of their home currency against the U.S. dollar is most likely making their decision a little easier.”

Excerpt from Tom Kunz, president and CEO, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, “Century 21 Seeks Overseas Buyers of U.S. Homes,” by Lynn Adler, Reuters, Dec. 12, 2007.
NAR says that the housing market is improving

Job growth and the replacement of subprime lenders to borrowers with weak credit with government-backed loans were cited as reasons for the improved outlook. “Despite over-exaggerated negative coverage on the housing conditions, many local markets are actually seeing price increases. Mortgage availability is improving.”

– Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, “Housing Market is Stabilizing, Optimistic Realtors Say,” by Alan Zibel, USA Today, Dec. 10, 2007.