Ronald Ogden

I am just a little disappointed that, after setting-up your readers by pointing out all the unethical and/or unwise practices recently employed by our lender/appraiser associates and by our buyers, you choose not to focus on the contributory role Realtors have played in creating this tangled web and what we're doing as an industry to improve. Instead you focus on keys to keeping real estate brokerages profitable. Do Realtors really have no culpability for the current real estate crisis we are in? Let's talk about that. Ron Ogden, Principal Broker Dwell Utah Real Estate - Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate: www.dwellutah.com Dwell Utah Real Estate Blog: www.dwelltuah.com/blog

As long as real estate is relationship based (and it is--just look at ANY national real estate ad), a successful agent must have a powerful personal brand. Should it be aligned with the brokerage brand? Of course! To say that agents should not brand is to say that one agent is no different than another and that one relationship is just as good as any other. And that is just patently false. It does, though, make a one-page topic into a 3 page article. And generates quite a few reader comments . . . Ron Ogden, Associate Broker RE/MAX Metro - Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate: www.dwellutah.com Dwell Utah Real Estate Blog: www.dwelltuah.com/blog

This is just an exercise in futility. As mentioned in the article, in our current market situation where homebuyers have little bargaining power in relation to REO owners (banks) or 3rd-party approvers (banks), the banks will always get their choice of escrow/title providers. With all the budget mess in California going on right now, don't the California legislators have better things to do than implement meaningless legislation? Though born and raised in California, things like this make me happy to now be living in Utah! Ron Ogden, Associate Broker RE/MAX Metro - Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate: www.dwellutah.com Dwell Utah Real Estate Blog: www.dwelltuah.com/blog