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Spousal flak chart
2007-10-12 21:51:00
Biz partner Kevin and I spent a solid week on the road up until yesterday and now he may be the recipient of the full blown sail at home. Fortunately, Kevin and his lovely wife are looking forward to parenthood, but sadly, Kev is sailing into red sky in morning (umm, sailor's warning) according to this chart. I'm letting him know that all he needs are two boys and ten years, and he'll be sailing red skies at night!
More About: Comedy , Chart , Char , Flak

Homescopes and the new local Blog Networks
2007-10-12 21:46:00
Homescopes.com is a new website developed by a group of Coldwell Banker real estate agents in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma County. Its mission is to draw in consumers who are interested in hyperlocal news - market conditions, neighborhood details - supplied by agent bloggers covering different regions around the Bay (and later Northern California). Homescopes.com's local "blog network" site architecture (code named "uber-blog" for those who have been working with us) was developed to bring immediate traffic to its individual bloggers. The layman metaphor is Homescopes acts as the "newspaper front page" to aggregate and distribute the published content of their blogging agent "editors". As a content repository, Homescopes is positioned as a search engine magnet, and the resulting traffic flows through directly to the participating agents' blogs. Think magnifying lens. Homescopes will initially receive greater traffic than the blogs due to its portal position, but in the ...
More About: Technology , Networks , Blog , Local , Loca

The White Paper pdf is Dead
2007-10-12 14:32:00
In the Web 1.0 days, readers downloaded "White Paper " pdfs. Sometimes one needed to provide contact info, and out pops a nice print quality pdf that may have required the help of a desktop publishing expert. Here are my objections to downloading white papers:First, I never want to provide my contact info.Who cares if these white papers are print quality with graphs and doodads? I never print them out, let alone hand them to clients.Why do many of these white papers read like court documents with provisos and disclaimers? Just use plain talk.Why spend all those production resources - formatting, publishing, etc. - to develop what is basically a PR piece?Finally, why do I need to download and store the white paper on my hard drive, and let it collect dust there? 'l can't even tag it and will almost immediately forget about it.That's why I never download a white paper any more, unless I have to. Blog articles are the new white paper: They don't need to be print quality.They need t...
More About: Blogging , Dead

Lead Generation Paradigm Shift
2007-10-09 02:47:00
The lead generation paradigm is changing dramatically. Web 1.0 was about buying leads sourced from sites that collected contact info, usually as a toll for the consumer to see additional information. Web 2.0 promotes the free exchange of information with the presumption that the good will of such exchange would lead to a business relationship. The newest paradigm is just beginning to appear. Web 2.x will promote the free distribution of data as currency to attract leads. User generated content, whether from blogs or video, will soon be distributable across sites with consumer traffic - MLS sites, IDX broker sites, Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com. It's a kind of content network and in order to participate, an agent needs a blog or another venue to display their user generated content. Old Paradigm - Pay $$$ for leads Impact Client impression Buy leads from Ho...
More About: Shift , Generation , Lead

Cyberhomes - data merchant
2007-10-05 02:18:00
The latest from Cyberhomes is the evolution of their business model. Since launch, Cyberhomes has espoused that it would provide the infrastructure for data delivery first to the brokerages, starting with automated home valuation. Dustin Luther called it a "white label" Zillow. Cyberhomes now powers the revamped AOL Real Estate site after AOL's contract expired with Realtor.com on September 30. The new role Cyberhomes plays is data liberator - AOL and other listings services no longer have to rely on listings data from gorilla competitor Realtor.com. Moreover, Cyberhomes adds parent Fidelity National Title housing data for more comprehensive analysis of the market. Cyberhomes doesn't have all of Realtor.com's listings yet. According to Marty Frame, GM of Cyberhomes, they have hired a national sales team of 9 so far to work with brokers to gain access to the listings. This allows Cyberhomes to quietly build the infrastructure for a national listings database. Unfortunately, Cy...
More About: Technology , Data , Merchant , Chan , Chant

The Long Tail of Real Estate Bloggers
2007-10-03 00:27:00
I had an interesting discussion yesterday about whether blogging will go mainstream and become a real estate marketing medium as ubiquitous tomorrow as agent websites are today. Remember in 1999 when having an agent website, or even an email address, was considered leading edge? After all, a blog is nothing more than an enhanced agent website. We discussed how Active Rain "owns" the blogger community. If indeed blogging becomes "de rigueur" or status quo, then owning the blogger community will eventually encompass owning the most influential voices of the real estate professional community. Why? There's a long tail of smallish cities and towns all across America that still don't have blogging agents. As they come on board (and you see the half hearted blogging attempts of agents in some of these towns on Active Rain), they will understand the community aspects of blogging (as bloggers already understand) and become integrated into the close-knit "blogosphere". You see the evidenc...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Blogging , The Future , Bloggers

What Active Rain should do now
2007-10-01 10:58:00
Watching the Active Rain / Move.com imbroglio from the blogosphere sidelines has been fascinating... here's a strategic take on how Active Rain can move forward:Active Rain's AssetActive Rain has one asset that differentiates their social network from any other real estate site: it owns the bloggers. This core group of real estate professionals represents the social networking hubs, the influencers that are prized by viral marketing advocates. They are intensely loyal to AR and in aggregate, the voices of these bloggers have been underestimated because the consumer has yet to discover their existence.If you believe blogs and other Web 2.0 constructs will eventually be adopted as the new marketing platform for agents (and we think so), a real estate futurist has to project when consumers will realize that blogs and blogging agents are go-to sources for their transaction needs. From this perspective, AR's management may be premature in selling AR because the market that will develo...

How to get a reader to store your blog and contact details for future refer
2007-09-27 17:25:00
For real estate bloggers, capturing a reader who happens by your blog via a search engine, link or other referral means is critical to building the readership. Reader s generally do four things to store your blog for reference purposes: Bookmark the site via the browser bookmarking function - browser bookmarks tend to be disorganized and difficult to use (I hardly use them) Subscribe to the RSS feed - usually done after reader has visited site enough times to believe it's RSS-worthy... but you want them to store your site details to get that second visit! Subscribe by email - similar multiple visitation process to subscribing to the RSS feed, but more intrusive due to today's email glut ( I never subscribe by email) Bookmark via a social bookmark like Del.icio.us - probably the easiest instant method, but the reader must be tech-savvy to understand social bookmarketingSo there are hurdles... What's missing is a simple way for a reader to store your blog/website address or contact...
More About: Future , Contact , Blog , Store

Google Maps with customizable icons
2007-09-26 00:28:00
Google Maps is getting close to becoming a usable mapping tool for broker websites. They've introduced customizable icons (hint: to add a customizable icon, one needs to click on the existing placemark icon). Above is a screenshot of a map I created in about an hour showing a short list of Bay Area real estate bloggers by address (btw, this map can be embedded into a blog, but I did not because there's a bug - explained later). The utility is simple - to know more about a certain region of the Bay Area, just click on the blogger picture.When clicking on the blogger's picture, the popup screen can contain widgets for contact, communication and data delivery - in my case, a Jaxtr phone call app, a Plugoo chat application and a feed subscription. There's an application bug - the script for the Plugoo application doesn't stay in the editor so I did not embed it into this blog. Here is a the link for the mapping application above. These popup screens on Google Maps act like min...
More About: Google , Icons , Google Maps , Googl

Google Maps / Web 2.0 makes regular folks application developers
2007-09-25 14:01:00
Here's one more reason why Web 2.0 is overhauling internet marketing. Regular folks can now develop applications like mapping mashups more easily than an experienced API developer. Yesterday's article about how easy it is to use Google Maps to develop customized applications for real estate is a demonstration on how Web 2.0 is beginning to cut developers out of the loop in creating user-generated content. Before Google My Maps, Google had developers working with their Maps API to develop "Google Mapplets"; these mapplets are found in the Mapplets Directory. I'm no developer, but I realize user-generated Google My Maps are pretty similar to those developer-generated Mapplets. I found evidence of a Maps API developer's displeasure with being cut out of the development process: Yesterday Google ate some of their young by releasing MyMaps: we?re announcing My Maps, a new feature that makes it quick and easy to create your own custom Google Maps just by pointing an...
More About: Developers

Evolution of broker/agent websites
2007-09-20 12:39:00
SecondSpace, the developer of sophisticated search engine optimized marketing platforms for real estate, signed with Florida broker/developer Joe.com to redo their website. It's significant because it ushers in a new platform paradigm for brokers - engineered by Silicon Valley vets instead of local web design firms. The broker website will suddenly become much more intelligent and interactive, and the early adopters have finally appeared. The chart below chronicles the evolution in the broker and agent adoption of internet platforms, starting with simple websites. The last three stages in yellow represent the new platform paradigm shift as online real estate slowly moves into the sphere of Web 2.0.Evolution ary stage Platform Provider Adoption rate Agent needs a website Agent website design Agent website providers, independent web designers Ubiquity makes agent websites ho-hum and ineffective for lead generation Broker needs an online...
More About: Technology , Blogging , Websites

Oil prices always jump when the Fed wants to warn against inflation
2007-09-19 10:13:00
Yes, this has nothing to do with real estate. It's my own little conspiracy theory (and I know quite well I'm proposing a perception, not fact), but crude oil prices always seem to spike when the Fed wants the public to feel the tangible pain of inflation through higher oil, and subsequently, gas pump prices. It happens when the markets are pressuring the Fed to lower interest rates... oil prices jump and the Fed tells "consumer nation" that inflation is a REAL problem that affects their pocketbooks. And they drop when there's a crisis like last month's credit market swoon... almost to downplay the "inflation spectre" that would have aggravated the credit crisis even further. Today's 1/2 Fed Funds and discount rate cut coincides with soaring record crude oil prices - they have jumped 60% from $50 to $80+ over the past nine months (note there is seasonality and prices are generally lower in the winter). It's as if the message from the Fed is - "yes, we dropped the interest ra...
More About: Economy , Inflation , Jump , Flat , Always

Mashup Factories
2007-09-18 09:44:00
Mashups is a pretty literal word for the meshing of two or more data sources to create new data research perspectives. Although mashups can comprise all media - video, music, 3D, data aggregation from various sources - real estate is most effectively exhibited on maps. Today, Rentometer discloses their partnership with Neighborhood Scout to present their rental listings data in context with the qualities of the neighborhood, visually confirming the presumption that the higher the rent, the better the block. Developing mashups is becoming a "mix and match" game. Programmable Web, the leading source for mashup information, compiled an unwieldy but intriguing matrix that exhibits how mashups of diverse data sets are being combined. Neighboroo, unveiled less than one year ago and now being prepared for a relaunch, was pioneering to display customized US maps based on a smorgasbord of data sources. Travis Chow, its founder, said back then the challenge to data mashups was finding usab...
More About: Mashup , Actor , Mash

Blogrush - blog traffic pyramid scheme attracts first movers
2007-09-17 02:11:00
The blogosphere consistently introduces online experiments for the blogger masses. The latest viral traffic building scheme is the Blog rush widget that was launched Friday and is already on several real estate blogs. I have no doubt its reception was explosive because it's constructed as a traffic pyramid scheme and fodder for first movers. The mechanics of how it works to conceivably distribute traffic to participating blogs is explained on their video. Mashable provides insights on the good and bad of a widget that, like many of their genre, exist solely to game traffic. I see one intriguing strategy for real estate bloggers - - Hyperlocal bloggers who write only about their local areas aren't attracting national traffic and thus tend to reach a traffic ceiling. It's possible that Blogrush might bring more national exposure, although that local content may still not keep new readers from outside. Frankly, I see the real estate blog readership as finite and closed and don't be...
More About: Blog Traffic , Traffic , Blogging , Pyramid

Yahoo!Mash unveils Facebook clone
2007-09-16 01:18:00
Yahoo! couldn't buy Facebook for a billion, so they did what a portal like Yahoo would do to compete with arch rival Google - create a second Facebook before Google does. Yahoo!Mash (invitation only, so the link may not show anything) is building a platform for developers just like Facebook's F8 to create widgets. Metaphorically, social networking is starting to develop multiple and incompatible operating systems... and developers need to repurpose their widgets each time. I'm not a developer, but I hope a Facebook application can be redone as a Yahoo!Mash app quickly.(note: partial screen of Yahoo!Mash... more widgets to the side and bottom) The interesting twist to Yahoo!Mash is the power of friends to "edit:" the home page, in particular, the About Me frame. The above screenshot include my input on Kevin's "About Me" page. This is a leap into personal transparency... you'll have to be pretty comfortable with yourself to let your friends create your "personal profile" becaus...
More About: Yahoo , Clone , Veil , Yahoo!

Two tips to get noticed on Google Maps and Yahoo! Local
2007-09-13 17:46:00
At Inman News blog today, I discussed how local search has evolved into its own search product category because general search is inadequate in delivering local results. Although most consumers won't look for real estate on local search and prefer the standard real estate listings sites, real estate professionals should understand that their community network ("their farm") will adopt local search platforms like Google Maps, Yahoo ! Local , Citysearch and Yelp to find local book stores, plumbers and wifi cafes. This translates into targeted hyperlocal marketing opportunities on these sites. Yahoo!Local and Google Maps are still relatively virgin because both have been rejiggered to promote user-generated content in the form of reviews, commentary and personalized maps. On both sites, there are still very few reviews. Real estate professionals have the opportunity to develop an online presence at these sites while the competition is still light. Here are two tips: List your business...
More About: Tips

Manhattanization of San Francisco - part 2
2007-09-12 02:09:00
San Franc isco moves closer to building its "Grand Central Station of the West" with the jury recommendation to the city's Transbay Authority's board of directors: That team, led by developer Hines and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, is offering $350 million for the right to build an obelisk-like, 1,200-foot office tower at First and Mission streets alongside a new Transbay Terminal. The team also designed a new terminal that would be topped by an elevated park the length of five football fields. The comments on Socketsite about the "butt plug building" make entertaining reading, and they express the public reaction (chagrin and awe) to the city going from quaint to gaudy. San Francisco's dot.com bloom in the late 90's and subsequent bust unleashed a flurry of high profile Manhattanization projects this decade: The new Downtown replete with 30,000 new condo units on the booksHome to the new Stem Cell Research center that will continue to bring in biotech The biggest upscal...
More About: San Francisco , San Francisco Bay Area , Part

Demystifying real estate blog readership
2007-09-11 12:40:00
The readership of real estate blogs is mysterious. Last month, I noticed how the fine mortgage blog Blown Mortgage became the recipient of a huge traffic jump that corresponded with the credit crisis. Readers discovered Blown Mortgage and other mortgage related blogs in their search for content to explain the sequence of crises.What's the secret sauce to building traffic to a blog? In general, top blogs chronicle their industries, whether it's tech, politics or news, on a "breaking news" basis, just like a newspaper or a social news service like Digg or Reddit. Engadget  Technology Boing Boing  Technology Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide  Technology Techcrunch  ...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Blogging , Blog , Real

Wall Street in Reactionary Mode
2007-09-07 12:38:00
During these jumpy times, Wall Street has been reacting to news on a very literal level - if it's bad, sell. The Wall Street I know fit the adage "buy on rumor, sell on news"... investors had already factored in what they knew was coming, and often executed contrarian strategies at press release - usually selling on good news in order to lock in profits. Today the global markets are off because U.S. employment stats took a nosedive in August. But that's what a credit crunch month will do... investors already knew August was a tough month for anyone related to real estate and banking. On September 5, stocks crashed on the NAR news about home sales in July plunging by 12% to the lowest level in six years. All this "news" seems self evident.. and a couple of bloggers noted this... Shocked shocked to find housing stinks We already knew what the pending home sales index would say Conclusion: to quote financial pundit David Fry Like I was saying, ?when subprime/credit/mortgage/h...
More About: Economy , Mode

Tribute to Blogging
2007-09-06 08:56:00
I'm only allowing myself one post per blue moon these days to display the psychic and social benefits of blogging (because most bloggers already get it). I was inspired to read how tech blogger Jeremiah Owyang is starting a new job at Forrester Research doing what he likes to do - research tech and write about it The ROI of Blogging ? Intangible - My future colleague, luminary Charlene Li, has already proven the value of ROI, but for me, it?s not needed, I could do an ROI report, convert to time spent, opportunities gained, and business won, but I think I?d be missing some of the point. Why? I already see an ROI in blogging, I don?t need to measure, it?s brought me so many friends, so many contacts, it would be silly to measure. Rembex Blog Fiesta! - Todd Carpenter's celebration of the real estate bloggers. Before I started my blog, I was a competent mortgage professional, just like thousands of others. After, I?ve been interviewed for books, quoted i...
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Domino effect of Bad Economic News
2007-09-05 13:54:00
There are days like this when all the news is bad... the continuing domino effect of the sliding housing markets > global credit crunch > foreclosures > consumer credit hit > dissipating consumer confidence has elevated fears of recession. Housing continues to get slammed September 5 - Housing recovery further away - National Association of Realtors reports that the number of homes going under contract for sale in July plunged by 12% to the lowest level in six years Commercial real estate, commercial paper, REITs and structured finance vehicles all falter September 5 - Commercial real estate in US poised for 15% price dropSeptember 5 - Commercial paper and structured finance downgraded by Moody's September 5 - Real estate funds fall may have plus side Credit crunch hits the consumer August 28 - Credit card defaults keep risingAugust 28 - Consumer Confidence in U.S. Falls the Most in Two Years; Home Prices Drop Refer to Timeline of the Global Credit...
More About: News , Economy , Effect , Economic , Domino

Download this RSS Feed file
2007-09-04 03:06:00
Loren asked me about it.... it's Mark Flavin's opml file that lists 500+ blog feeds, including most of the known blogs related to real estate, all recently filtered for dead feeds. A very comprehensive set of blogs to monitor on your feed reader, with lots of tech... once uploaded, edit as you please.Dang! looks like the blog webserver won't allow opml files  - so get the opml file here at file sharing app 4Shared, click on the Flavin export file and download it >>>>Download the opml file here to your hard drive and upload it to a feedreader you're not currently using... why? Uploaded opml files generally overwrites your subscribed feeds in a feed reader you're using, so just try a new one from this list of free online RSS feed readers:Google Reader NetvibesBloglinesNewsgator Webwag PageflakesIn order to upload the opml file, click on the function: Add a feed or Manage feeds... then follow directions to upload the opml file.Note: I had to quickly find a free ...
More About: File , Feed

"Bernanke put" in play
2007-08-31 11:33:00
Bernanke put: Fed action to drop the Fed Funds rate on September 18 predicated on a worsening economic scenarioCNBC had been lauding Bernanke's comments to the Fed retreat this morning the most important speech thus far in his tenure as Fed Chairman, but it was anticlimatic as expected. This is a good, boring one sentence recap excerpted from David Gaffen @ WSJ Marketbeat: ?We?ve got the impression that he?s very much of the view that not the Fed?s job to bail out financial markets when they get in trouble but should only respond to the economic outlook,? says Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. Frankly, Bernanke has been consistent with his message. The "Bernanke put" is real... on September 18, if the economy continues to sustain itself and the stock markets aren't dropping drastically, the Fed will have their excuse not to drop the Fed Funds rate. During the week before September 18, if this calm scenario is in play and the Fed seems to be signaling n...
More About: Economy , Play , Bernanke

Home buyers are returning this fall - part 2
2007-08-31 00:08:00
Ten days ago after the Fed calmed the markets' credit panic with a 1/2 point cut in the Discount rate, I postulated that home buyers will come back this fall when the Fed finally drops the Fed Funds rate, and mortgage rates drop. It's now almost certain to happen. Here are the parameters in play now: 1) The stock market upticked yesterday because the Fed has essentially admitted to following through on the rate cut and support the ailing housing market. Expectations have been set:: from David Fry's Market Outlook for Thursday ?Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated that the Federal Reserve is closely monitoring markets and is ready to act if necessary.? MarketWatch Bernanke also suggests that some ?creative thinking? be applied to allow subprime borrowers a chance to refinance. This reads to me like a bailout proposal. These statements ignite a rally. 2) I haven't seen any discussions on this yet, but the stock market now has a cei...
More About: Economy , Home Buyers , Home , Part , Buyers

The Small Intersecting World of Real Estate and Search Engines
2007-08-29 04:44:00
At Search Engine Journal today, I've authored the second in a series of articles related to search engine and Web 2.0 strategies for real estate. I discuss why real estate agents are so reluctant to blog, even when they finally understand how powerful a marketing medium it is, and introduce solutions to getting agents on board with blogging and Web 2.0. One of the solutions is the broker blogsite, which Jim at Tomato unveiled yesterday. Kudos to Jim and EVM !I'm fascinated by how small the intersecting worlds of search and real estate is. Yes, there are entrepreneurs like the teams at Second Space and Terabitz who prominently apply search strategies to real estate, initially as industry "outsiders". I've also met some very influential, creative people who, as techies generally do, work behind the scenes at largish real estate institutions. As "insiders", they apply their past experience and knowledge to tech-enabling an industry that seems to finally be getting it. Here are a few...
More About: Search Engines , World , Estate , Real Estate

Credit crunch - and now, the Consumer
2007-08-28 17:35:00
The big stock drop today was expected... like the second wave of a tsunami - media reports the credit crunch tangibly affecting the consumer. Today's bad news revolving around consumer panic reminds me of the lender panic of two weeks ago. Cons umer Confidence in U.S. Falls the Most in Two Years; Home Prices Drop Home prices fall record 3.2% nationally Credit card defaults keep rising List of housing sector layoffs The media really shifted its focus - it wasn't about the lenders and the hedge funds today, it was Everyman. September 18 - the date of the next FOMC meeting to decide on cutting the Fed Funds rate -  has become the red letter date that determines whether the Fed will, in essence, support the housing and credit markets... and thus, the consumer. Fed watchers are wary of the arguments the Fed has to keep from dropping the Fed Funds rate and that's what is making the markets nervous.Technorati Tags: credit crunch, consumer debt, credit card defaults, housing pr...
More About: Crunch , The Con

The Fed and Puritanical Ethics
2007-08-27 15:19:00
A week ago, the Wall Street Journal explained a Puritan ical financial concept underlying the Fed's hesitancy to drop interest rates - no bailing out players who bend the rules: Wall Street has a dream: that the Federal Reserve will rescue financial markets with a sharp cut in interest rates. Behind that dream lurks a problem, something financial people call moral hazard. Moral hazard is an old economic concept with its roots in the insurance business. The idea goes like this: If you protect someone too well against an unwanted outcome, that person may behave recklessly. Someone who buys extensive liability insurance for his car may drive too fast because he feels financially protected. The August 25 Economist pipes in further with "Does America need a recession?", implying a little bloodletting will be just the ticket...Mark Thoma at Economist's View counters with sane reasoning why the economy doesn't necessarily need to get worse to get better and most of his commenters agre...
More About: Ethics , The Fed

Virtual World meets Real World
2007-08-27 01:51:00
Virtual world participation in massively multiuser strategy games like Warcraft and 3-D immersive communities like Second Life have reached critical mass - both over 9 million members each - and can potentially be used to model real world crises. The Economist points out how Warcraft fabricated a viral epidemic and epidemiologists monitored the reactions of the participants (excerpt for those without Economist subscriptions): A couple of years ago [Warcraft's] owners, a Californian firm called Blizzard Entertainment, accidentally spiced things up by releasing a plague far more virulent than they had intended. It started in a sparsely inhabited area but soon found its way to the cities, where it wreaked havoc. So far, so cod-medieval. However the plague, and the reactions of the game's players to it, recently came to the attention of Eric Lofgren and Nina Fefferman, two epidemiologists at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Writing in this week's Lancet Infectious Dis...
More About: World , Virtual , Real , Virtual World

Latest video ideas
2007-08-25 15:00:00
Reggie @ MyTechOpinion says - incorporate your own real estate video channel on your blog or website using Kyte.tv: Your TV channel can include still photos, slide shows, video, music, voice and instant polls to help enhance your online presence and in turn, provide you a competitive edge in your real estate business. You may choose to include videos outlining industry trends, steps towards home ownership, the selling and buying process, real estate investment, or even showcase local attractions & hotspots. Of course you would also include video tours and photos of your listed homes for maximum appeal. Why not also invite colleagues such as your preferred lender to talk on evaluating loans, and improving credit. The ideas are limitless. Go2Web2 and Techcrunch find new startup Tubecast.tv - in essence, full screen internet "TV" that broadcasts channels like a cable box... click the up/down arrow to peruse channels (and no client downloads necessary). Most of the channels - for ...
More About: Video , Ideas

Countrywide saved / exploited by BofA today
2007-08-23 11:57:00
Investors cheer BofA's $2 billion investment into Countrywide ... an iconic bankruptcy threat dissipates. On CNBC, BofA is being lauded as providing proactive support to their industry, but look at the sweet deal BofA received: Under the terms of the deal, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America acquired $2 billion in the form of nonvoting, convertible preferred stock yielding 7.25 percent annually, Countrywide said. The shares can be converted into common shares of Countrywide at $18 per share, with certain restrictions. If Bank of America were to convert its shares under Countrywide's current share count, it would hold between 16 percent to 17 percent of Countrywide shares, said Robert Stickler, a Bank of America spokesman. As of Thursday 9:30pdt, Countrywide shares are up to $22.83 (up 4.6% from yesterday, of course the uptick was predicable). So BofA gets a nice preferred yield, but more strikingly, they received stock convertible at an $18 strike price. a 17% discount off ye...
More About: Economy , Today