There’s always something to howl about.

Why should Realtors come to BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando? To learn the Bloodhound art of marketing listings, for one thing, as an expression of an attainable moral perfection

I like to think that, as a secondary consequence of the things I do, I goad good people into becoming better people. This is a part of everything I do, but it’s why there is a category called “Egoism in Action” in BloodhoundBlog, and it’s why so much of what I write about is focused on the idea I call “Splendor.” As much as I can, I want to help the people I come into contact with — here and in the corporeal world — to navigate the path from rational self-interest to undiluted self-adoration — an attainable moral perfection.

I like to think I help good people become better people. I know beyond all doubting that coming into contact with me induces bad people to become worse people. I absolve myself of all guilt in the matter: I would never, ever encourage anyone to pursue any sort of disvalue. But Joseph Ferrara, as an example, seems to have wasted two years of his irreplaceable life sticking metaphorical pins into a metaphorical doll of me. How sad for him, but I am undaunted, undamaged, undiminished — quite the contrary.

Poor Joseph is an extreme specimen, but he is hardly alone. Closer to home is Jonathan Dalton, who seems to devote some huge fraction of his every waking moment to trying to vanquish me in his imagination. He does this in secret, without naming me or linking to me. I wouldn’t even know it was happening, except that people keep sending me his snarky little posts. I cannot imagine what crime the poor slob has committed, that he would punish himself endlessly with thoughts of me, but never doubt that nature is just: Whatever his crime, certainly he believes that obsessing over me — striving with all his might to shout me down inside his own mind — is the fate he has earned and deserved. How sad for him.

Here’s a recent specimen of poor Jonathan’s obsession:

So when you read that a listing agent will be checking your house every other day and will hold your house open every single weekend until it [sells] … don’t you have to ask, how is it possible that they’re available that often?

As a part of BloodhoundBlog in Phoenix, I taught a Master Class on the marketing strategies we have invented for our listings. I am very far from being perfect in many of the tasks one must undertake to be a successful Realtor, but I am far and away the foremost expert in the United States on marketing mid-market and upper-mid-market homes. No one — anywhere — does the kinds of things we do to get our homes sold. Realtors all over the country are toying — tenuously so far — with our marketing ideas, with predictably remarkable results. I love this. Remember, I like it when I can help good people become better people. And I taught our techniques in my own home market, even though I was potentially training my own direct competitors — none of whom showed up.

I don’t fear competition. For one thing, it’s raining soup. There’s plenty for everyone. But for another thing, I know that even Realtors who are working very hard to master our ideas will not catch up to us soon. As long as we have the courage to learn, to grow, to innovate, we’ll be fine.

As his bit part in the churlish, childish counter-reaction against Unchained led by Joseph Ferrara and Dustin Luther, Jonathan Dalton made a huge point of announcing that he would not be coming to Unchained in Phoenix because there was nothing I could teach him about the job of being a Realtor.

So what gives with the matter quoted above? It’s poor Jonathan reacting to ABetterListing.com, a site where I document our entire marketing strategy for higher-end listings. Among a great many other things, I discuss our policy on open houses and servicing our listings.

So: Do let’s answer the man’s questions: How can we possibly hold our listed homes open every weekend until they sell? And how do we have time to service vacant listings every other day, at the least?

The answer will require a small demonstration:

Jonathan Dalton’s listings, as documented on his web site:

  • 67th Ln, ACTIVE, 157 days on market
  • 111th Av, ACTIVE, 203 days on market
  • Weldon Av, EXPIRED, 126 days on market
  • 70th Dr, EXPIRED, 94 days on market
  • 70th Dr, ACTIVE, 82 days on market (relisted 176 DOM total)
  • Redfield Rd, EXPIRED, 107 days on market

It’s possible the man has actually sold a listing in the past six months, but it’s a mystery why he would keep expireds but not solds alive in his RealBird widget. Jonathan’s active listings, should they sell, are listed for $289,000 total.

BloodhoundRealty.com listings, YTD 2008:

  • Vermont Av, SOLD, 60 days on market
  • Quail Av, SOLD, 3 days on market
  • Madison St, SOLD, 42 days on market
  • 11th St, SOLD, 65 days on market
  • Beryl Av, SOLD, 45 days on market
  • White Mountain Rd, SOLD, 45 days on market (COE 9/17/08)

We’re 43 days on market, average, for the year, and we have had zero cancelled or expired listings. We deliberately took only six listings so far this year, but that’s because we won’t take a listing that won’t sell. Even so, our sold listings come to $1,285,000 for the year, not quite a million dollars more than Dalton’s still-unsold inventory. Our median price is lower this year than in years past, but we’ve turned down many millions of dollars worth of listings over the last two years.

But what’s the answer to Jonathan’s question: How can we have time to hold open houses and service our listings?

WE HAVE TIME BECAUSE OUR LISTINGS SELL!

As a Project Bloodhound moment, DO NOT use your blog as a platform for telling your prospective clients that you don’t intend to do a damn thing to earn their business. This is anti-marketing, and anti-marketing is worse than no marketing. But: If your plan is to brag to the world that you’re a lazy mediocrity, you should probably expect people to take you at your word.

But that’s all one to me. The only reason to attend to a bad example is to learn to do better, and absolutely everything within me is about doing better. If you join us for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando, I will teach you everything I know about the Bloodhound art of marketing listings SO THAT THEY SELL. Brian Brady and I are inventing new things all the time, and ours is the only net.centric real estate training event where you can learn the ideas we come up with every day.

Here’s a funny bit: Against my advice, Brian actually offered to comp Jonathan Dalton for Unchained in Phoenix. Cathleen takes criticism of me a lot more seriously than I do, so she might have boycotted the event had Dalton shown up, but, as luck would have it, he was tied up demonstrating his superior skills as a Realtor.

And the reality of the world I am consigned to live in is that I am expected to take cheap shots from the likes of Ferrara or Dalton or the innovative spellers at AgentShortbus without complaint. My assigned role is to take shit from self-made mediocrities as punishment for not being one of them. This I will not do. But I don’t care about any of this, except that I take no joy in seeing people deliberately pursuing evil in preference to doing what they can to improve their own irreplaceable lives.

But if you — in the silence of your own mind — want to learn what we have discovered about working as a Realtor or a lender in the enwebbed world, we’ll be in Orlando on November 7th. We’ll teach you everything we know. Or, if you’re too filled with resentment to admit that you can always learn more, we’ll teach your competitors instead.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,