Every now and then i do a rant video. I know there are people out there who dont like my rant videos, for those, this video and post are not for you.

The code of ethics for real estate agents says we need to be honest to all party in the transaction and that includes one agent to another and the buyers agent to the seller.

So agents, I know you have a fuduciarey responsibility to your buyer, but if you write an offer on a short sale and it says in the addendum you have ernest money for 90 days to give it time to be negotiated, then you are bound contractually.

If your buyer decides three weeks later later they want out of the deal, but when they learn they will lose their earnest money if they back out then mysteriously change their mind and decide to stay in, it is your responsibility to be honest with the selling agent.

In this situation the agent was just looking for the first opportunity to get out and save the earst money. As a matter of fact when we asked if the agent if the buyer was really still in because we did not want to lose the houes to foreclosure the agents response was sign an addendum to release the earnest money and we will answer that. That right there tells you they knew the buyer had been out of the deal for a while. Unfortunately for me the code of ethics does not allow me to call out the agent or i would get in trouble.

Yes you have fuduciary responsibility to pretoect your buyer, but you also have the responsibility of being honest. And buyers if you are not sure if you want the house, if you havent seen it yet, don’t write the offer. If you do, and your offer is accepted, then you need to fullfil the contract.

1) How I Made $50,000 on my First Real Estate Deal Even Though I Did Everything Wrong – Looking to get into real estate investing? Here are some good tips from a real life example of what not to do.

2) What I’ll be looking for at Inman Connect next week – Who is going to Inman Connect next week? I’m not, but with the RPR, Google property searches and other changes in the last few months it is going to fun watching the reports out of there. Of course check back to the Top 10 and we bring you the updates.

3) Home Buyers: Please Be Aware of the Owners Policy on the GFE – You can tell with her recent series of posts that Rhonda is becoming an even bigger fan of the new GFEs.

4) I’m Buying Your Lunch…Listen To Me! Advice For Newbies – This was written for commercial, but good advice for agents new and old in both residential and commercial.

5) Deceptive SEO Tactics That Real Estate Professionals Should Not Use – I debated including this post or not, first it is good advice on what NOT to do, but at the same time I almost don’t want to include it as some agents may say “good idea, let me try that.”

6) Proving the Value of a Buyer’s Agent – It is almost sad that something like this needs to be written. Every agent in the world thinks they do these basics of service, but if they did our industry would not be held in such low regard.

7) We All Need a Little Bundini Brown … Unless You’re Selling Phoenix Real Estate – I do not include Jonathan Dalton as much as I should, he is one of the top real estate bloggers in the country in my opinion. Here is another great piece by him on making sure you educate your client and be realistic.

8) The Anatomy of the Short Sale Part 1 – With the amount of people (including myself) spending so much time talking about short sales recently, you can tell 2010 may just be the year of the short sale.

9) Hey Bank! Take My House, Please! – Another good vlog of strategic defaults. A sign of the times fro sure.

10) Top 10 ESIGN Features of 2009 – Everyone knows what a big fan of Docusign I am. They had a big year of change in 2009 and they are doing a 2-part series on some of those changes.

1) The flip property – When it’s time to give it the slip – Dave takes a look at some of the pros and cons of purchasing a property that has been flipped and also what to look for in a flipped property.

2) Q and A: Using a buyer’s agent or going directly with the listing agent? – As I have discussed in many posts before, you should always have your own representation.

3) Half of Arizona homeowners with mortgages are underwater. 23% nationwide… – Imagine being in a state where every other house has negative equity. Well Arizona is not alone, and 1-in-4 nationally are in the same boat.

4) Advanced Facebook – Some good tips on using Facebook for real estate agents.

5) Thinking about buying an Apple iPhone? – Interesting video on how a real estate agent uses his iPhone. I am still not sold, or at least going to wait until it comes to Verizon to see if doesn’t drop calls there.

6) Mortgage rate predictions for the next 30 days – WOW, this is the first time in this poll I have seen everyone so much in synch with what is going to happen in the next 30 days, and it is not good.

7) New cameras for the Bloodhounds: MY take is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 offers a lot of bank for the buck – Many agents take their own pictures for their listings, so it is important to have pier reviews on cameras.

8) Tsunami of foreclosures in doubt  – Demand for retail space is falling fast in 2009, but will that trend continue?

9) Self love machine: Futurenow – How often do you talk about your customers on your blog or do you talk more about yourself?

10) Electronic signatures – Not groundbreaking but great all the same -  Everyone knows what a huge fan of Docusign I am, I do all my contracts either with Docusign via email, or in person signing. Here is another take on their service.

1) When the cash-for-clunkers “logic” comes to the real estate market, it’s time for every homeowner with equity to cash in big – Greg makes a good argument that if you have equity in your house right now may be the perfect storm time to consider selling and moving up in houses.

2) 19 tips for better real estate property ads and flyers – Most in-depth explanation of how to make a good property flyer I may have ever seen.

3) 5 tips for selling your home in a down market – Most everywhere in the country right now while the market is hot, it is still a down market. This post should help you think about ideas to get the most for your house or your listing.

4) Do you really think I’m visiting your Facebook profile to look for homes? Really!?! – Nik Nik looks at different ways in which you can post listings into your Facebook pages and some of the pros and cons of each.

5) Trulia’s November price reduction report – Home sellers cut $28.1 billion off asking prices – A quarter of all U.S. homes have had a price reduction. Everyone knows the problem with overpricing houses and how you should stay ahead of the market… yet..

6) You’re buying a new home. Should you work with the listing agent? A buyer agent? An attorney? – This is state specific for the attorney part at least. I believe if you are shopping for a home you should ALWAYS be working with a buyers agent who you hire to work for you.

7) Who else wants to be a commercial real estate broker? – Seems the commercial industry is a lot older and more experienced than the residential.

8 ) Why won’t these real estate agents sell my house? – Having a hard time finding a listing agent to sell your house because it is a short sale? You are not alone I guess.

9) “Getting better” scenes from movies – I wish we could use them with clients – This one is just fun… makes me want to go watch Better Off Dead tonight (one of the top 5 movies of all time).

10) A veteran’s journey home – There were a lot of great tributes to veterans yesterday, in my opinion this was the best.

1) Why don’t I have prices on my flyers – Always a hot topic among agents, put the price on the flyer or not?

2) Lis Pendens, Deed in Lieu…it is all Greek to me! – A look at the foreclosure process.

3) How mortgage rates are reacting to the August job report – Rates are improving today and how the jobs numbers effected them.

4) Should I list homes or work with buyers – You need to look at what the market is doing to decide what may be the best for you right now.

5) Just listed – Ok, I don’t put listings in this daily column, but this one had such a cool video I thought I would share it. Great job with the video Amy.

1) 3 reasons you should stop wasting your time online and call an agent instead – Most people start out looking for houses online, but that does not mean they shouldn’t seek the help of an agent to help them find their home.

2) Home selling strategies: Listings needs words that match buyers searches – You mean buyers don’t Google “custom home with majestic views?” PropertyNut has some good free classes on just this subject too.

3) First time home buyers NAR numbers – Almost half of all sales right now are first time home buyers, more reason to consider extending the first time buyer tax credit.

4) Thoughts on the NAR IDX enhancement group – For those of you who have been following the IDX/scrapping controversy, here is a must read by Jay.

5) Google Reader helps you blog more efficiently – Some good ideas on using Reader to help with your site that I had never thought of.

1) How we pick the home we buy – This is a very good post my Kelly that has me rethinking marketing of houses a little.

2) 2013 – The next real estate boom? – A good argument based on birth rates that the next boom is not that far away. That is of course if we can make it past 2012.

3) Homeowners be careful – A reminder on why as listing agents we need to tell our clients not to let just anyone come into the house because there is a for sale sign in the front yard.

4) The “smoking gun” that says the buyers’ market is over in housing – The bottom may be here or come and gone as a national average, but remember, your market may vary.

5) Lead generation is not working – Missy does a good job in explaining why your lead generation from your website may not be working.

1) 10 home buying tips you probably didn’t know – 10 tips from when to shop for a house to what to bring to the closing.

2) Listing your home as a short sale – Some advice on selling your home as a short sale including what you need for documentation for your bank.

3) On dual agency – Jay has one of the best pieces I have read yet on the pitfalls of dual agency.

4) 102% financing at 4% available now. No tricks. Here is how. – How to get a 4% mortgage with a USDA buydown.

5) First-time home buyers getting started with a FHA mortgage – An FHA mortgage is a great way for a first-time home buyer to get into a house.

1) New National Stabilization Program (NSP) can mean free money for your home purchase – There are a lot of details on this program you need to pay attention to, but from everyone I have talked to it seems to be the real deal.

2) Slaves to real estate – Good advice from Ines on setting a schedule as a real estate agent… Now if I could only act on the advice.

3) Another plan to fix the housing market: Rent-to-own – Interesting idea of having the bank rent back the foreclosed property to the homeowner they foreclosed on.

4) Want to buy a foreclosed home? Here’s the chart for where to look – 75% of all foreclosures are happening in just 10 states.

5) With MLS listings available everywhere on the Internet, why do you need a buyer’s agent? – Gregg does a good job at looking some basic reasons you should still have a buying agent. If you are a buyer remember, the seller has professional representation, you should too.

Top 5 real estate posts of the day 6/19/20091) What you may be missing about a short sale – There are some major differences between a traditional sale and a short sale. Ardell takes a look at the difference using show charts.

2) We are looking to attract more listings without paying a lot of advertising expenses – Russell Shaw has some good advice on getting listings and it comes down to two things, marketing and prospecting. If you are not going to spend money on marketing, you need to be out meeting people and prospecting.

3) Curb appeal or web appeal – Ines looks at web appeal, is it the new curb appeal?

4) 10 things to look out for with bank-owned property contracts – Banks love to rewrite state contracts after you agree on a price, we really cannot do much about it either. We either accept their version or we look for a non-foreclosure. Danilo takes a look at some things to be careful about.

5) Buyer’s agents and ethics: Is your agent hiding houses from you? – This was pointed out to me last night after I had just got done showing a $60,000 house with a whopping $100 co-broke.