There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Mike Farmer (page 1 of 3)

Real Estate Broker

Farewell

Greg, I would have written an email but I wanted to publicly address all of Bloodhound and it’s followers. I appreciate the opportunity given to me to be a part of such a powerful and dynamic group, but I must move along and pay more attention to my work and my own blog. I haven’t got the stamina to keep up with the number of blogs I post on, so I don’t want to just hang on the side pictures and not contribute.

This has been a great experience and you have some great contributors coming on board. I thank you and will always be a loyal fan.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mike

 

Social Media, Facebook, Identity and Complex Relationships

hamlet.jpgThe advent of social media has changed the way we communicate, do business and relate to the internet. Now everyone has the opportunity and means to create their own hamlet in the kingdom of the web. In the kingdom of the web countries are being formed and the good news is that the New Country is the country that should be — free, prosperous and open to those with the ambition to create.

Facebook has become a platform (free country) whereby applications and features can be added outside central control. In my opinion, Facebook has created the standard. The mistake many social media efforts made was creating centrally controlled sites not open to the many possible applications from outside. Facebook is creating something endlessly fascinating, chockful of possibilities for individuals to create their worlds and establish their identities.

Furthermore, Facebook is creating an information stream that will most likely become more and more powerful as time goes on and more applications are added, and as more and more people use it to share their links, offerings, wisdom and news. The great thing about it is that the information is user-generated and not controlled by Facebook’s idea of what is valuable.

This combination of open-source and open-use whereby the user can create a hamlet of personalized space to create identity and share with friends and associates is incredibly attractive to those who want to establish presence and a base of operation. An operating system where the user has control to develop their own information network is changing the way the internet is used. I have only begun to see the possibilities for my system — not only business-wise as a real estate broker, but as a person utilizing the internet to create social space that gives me identity and enables me to connect to streams of useful and enriching information — and to create complex relationships that form a diverse network.

Perhaps “complex” is not the best word, but what I mean is the operating system builds a diverse network of relationships that are connected in more and more far-reaching ways — from friends, to consumers, to colleagues, to Read more

On Becoming A Real Estate Agent (and other things)

Every once in a while I get in a metaphysical mood and need to get it out of my system, so bear with me. I usually get like this when I”m transitioning from ideas and thinking to action. I’m taking actions to transform my business once again so I’m in the process of becoming what I’ve been thinking. Often ideas are stuck in the theory phase and never become a reality. Back in my heavy drinking days I had grand ideas that could change the world but they never left the barstool — probably a good thing they stayed there. I’ve always been a “thinker” and it’s too bad I didn’t have a great mind. When I was in my thirties I began making the transition from thinking into action — or, rather, I began putting my thoughts into action — although I still have some brilliant ideas I’ve never put into action like my idea to start a cafe that specializes in blackberries: blackberry pies, blackberry cobblers, blackberry tarts, blackberry sauce on pork chops, blackberry bagels…..perhaps when my Forrest Gump comes along I’ll do it.

But becoming is different than thinking about it. My wife taught me a lot about becoming the other. When she was pregnant, I was terrified of being a father and went into my theorizing phase, thinking it to death. When she had our first child I was still theorizing and thinking while she simply became a mother. I was always wondering – How does she know all this stuff? Well, she just became what was called for. I’m sure a social worker could go back and critique her “parenting skills” and find she was lacking in modern child-rearing techniques, but no one loves their mother anymore than her sons. She never sat around in an anxious state wondering what actions to take — she became a mother and a damn good one.

Becoming takes committment. Until you commit and take actions the ideas are still theoretical. One reason a lot of agents in real estate are never successful is that they never become real estate agents, they merely have a license, and real Read more

Being a Trust-Player

Trust is more than a word, it’s embodiment through action. I become a trustworthy person. It’s critical in the new 2.0 environment to establish trust and to live it. The whole of business 2.0 is dependent on trust — individual players and companies.

You don’t become a trust-player by espousing transparency alone, you also have to determine motives, intent. What drives the transparency and what is the intent of transparency? What is your agenda? A natural, honest transparency built on unmuddied motives with the intent of being trustworthy is noble as long as you’ve searched your motives, and your behavior is in line with the stated intent.

Using transparency as a weapon or a smokescreen for hidden agendas is not trustworthy, not the avatar of a trust-player – it’s 1.0 scam dressed up in the latest social garb. Those who USE transparency as a marketing technique are cynically misguided and naked before the sharp 2.0 eyes of trust-players. Trust-players are interested in the truth not social chicanery. Trust-players are intestested in reciprocity built on mutual benefit and mutual trust. Transparency is for the benefit of honest business practices laid out on the table. Transparency is not for the benefit of uncovering thy neighbor who prefers privacy; however, transparency can be used as a flood light to reveal the thieves who thrive in darkness.

It’s best to be honest and reveal yourself as honest, rather than hide tricks only to have someone else reveal the tricks. Another way a business can get respect is to say THIS is what we do, and we realize some won’t like it, but, neverthless, it’s not hidden — you be the judge, here is the evidence.

The political players this season are realizing more than ever that it’s useless to hide the negatives — they will be uncovered.

Trulia has recently realized that nothing escapes notice. The one part I respected from Rudy in his defenses was when he said they would continue handling the “no-follow” set-up like they have been. That’s good, at least we know.

The funny thing about transparency is that it’s double-edged and sharp — while you might preach the public’s right Read more

Lil’ ol’ social me: my name is mike and i like you

(just for fun, no harm intended, i am slowly getting my groove back after years of corporate abuse and i owe it all to younger peoples )

Okay, so I’m blogging, being real, commenting like a responsible semi-adult who hates too much seriousness, heck, I’m even twittering. I belong to six or seven social groups and I make the scene from time to time, my name is Mike, but I sometimes go by mfarmer, sometimes by M, sometimes by mdfarmer so I might be mistaken for a doctor, but my middle name is David so you see the D is for real.

I’ve met swell people and smart people and people people and making new connections all the time. I’m a real estate broker by trade and my hood is Savannah, Ga — this is what I tell all the people I meet online — I’m branding.

I’m big on photos and looking into video, I learn all the time about new ways of walking and new ways of talking and I practice it on Twitter so that I might snap some jazzy lines here and there. In a sense it’s all about jazz online as I see it, cause I was raised with Kerouac and the beat thang, so it comes to me like a hungry dog. Jazz marketing sort of, a bop, a be bop, a bidddledy de dee bop and so forth. Remember me, I’m saying, when you got biz going down, when a little love’s to be shared. Social I am, my name is Mike. I sell a little here, a little there, I’m no mega, but I have fun and I like you.

I do a good job, transparently, I might add, but it’s not ALL about me, I’m working on a team concept, except I got lazy this weekend and, well, you know, I need rest, and sunshine, and i ain’t gonna be productive til Tuesday.

The people in the social connection network media transparent blogging being real thing is nicer than I imagined, so I’m getting out there and that’s all i had to say except i like U and my name is mike and if U R ever in Read more

Real Estate Enlightenment

The following is taken from The Intellectual Heritage Program of Temple.

The Natural Rights philosophy that we study in Intellectual Heritage reflects the central ideals of the Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason (1660-1798). John Locke and Thomas Jefferson are just two of the many notable thinkers and writers who share Enlightenment values.

A basic list of these values would include the following:

  • a deep commitment to reason,
  • a trust in the emerging modern sciences to solve problems and provide control over nature,
  • a commitment to the idea of progress in material wealth and in human civility,
  • a belief in the essential goodness of human nature,
  • an emphasis upon the individual as master of his fate and fortune, and
  • an engagement with the public sphere of discussion and action.

In short, the Enlightenment thinkers believed in the powers of humankind and saw themselves as part of a revolutionary development in history that would replace superstition and tired rituals and corrupt traditions with reason and productive energy.”

In many ways, web 2.0 is akin to The Enlightenment, at least the concepts and promises. We have to tweak a bit because I’m not sure many people understand “reason” like the Enlightenment thinkers understood reason, and as for science controlling nature, well, maybe technology controlling cyber-nature . Yet, as an eternal optimist, I believe reason is making a comeback — merely because transparency forces an acceptance of “what is, is”, independent of  definitions proffered by presidents before grand juries. Nature is another story, but we learn about what “is” and “isn’t” as we go forward and allow all science to have a voice.

The internet gives voice to reason and presents scientific facts, so the answers are there for those who search, even if you have to wade  through  gobs of misinformation, which brings us to an “emphasis upon the individual as master of his fate and fortune”.

On a smaller, more mundane scale there is an enlightenment process going on in the real estate industry. I read yesterday where Gen Y (or was it X) is changing everything by questioning traditional methods. This is not particularly new — new generations have been questioning Read more

Thinking myself out of business: a lone real estate agent faces the future

loner.jpg Agents get leads from different marketing strategies, both offline and online, but where will most of the leads come from in five years? Looking ahead I’d have to say leads will come mainly from one source — Google.

Unless something changes, Google has the lion’s share of searchers. As more and more home buyers use Google to search for area information and sites where real estate listings can be found, it becomes obvious for listing agents and buyer agents that search placement is, and will be even moreso in the future, vital to success in the real estate business.

Before I go any further, I’ll address opposition to this statement by saying that some agents will continue to be successful using marketing methods outside Google search, but I’m talking about the majority of agents working in the real estate business full time. I’m excluding the mega-agents who attract buyers and sellers through their star status and obviously superior abilities of attraction and promotion — the majority of agents will not be stars. Plus, even the offline efforts that give an agent exposure might be eclipsed after someone gets online to begin searching — an agent’s name might appear in a magazine, or a billboard, or through the mail, or a flyer in a store, or on a “for sale” sign on the street, but when the buyer goes back to their computer to search, another agent who has mastered the art of placement will pop up and lead the buyer in a different direction. I predict the online presence will become more valid in the buyer’s mind than offline presence as consumers learn to trust and depend on the net more and more.

I don’t believe Zillow and Trulia will be major factors in lead generation. If they survive, they will be a draw for those curious about real estate in general, but searchers will be more sophisticated and agents will be smarter about SEO.

It’s my opinion that the majority of agents will need to get good placement on Google in order to be successful. Google placement won’t be the ONLY way to market, just the most effective way Read more

The smarter agent emerging: standards out of experimentation

Choice is becoming more critical as options increasingly expand. I have read about this potential problem for years and now we seem to be well along the road to increasing abundance of options. As real esate agents, we’re inundated with options regarding web sites, social networking avenues, blogs to read, models to consider, marketing techniques to employ and advertising venues to use. It’s the flip side of the blessing, the curse of too many options and the problem of choice.

One of the benefits of sites like Bloodhound is that people are giving consideration to these problems and openly writing about what has been found to be the best practices. Awhile back I talked about an article written years ago predicting how the internet would intially be chaos, then experimentation and selection and winnowing, then a standardization period. I want to give credit to the writer, but I can’t find the source. Perhaps someone will remember.

It seems we are still in the experimentation stage, but as we quickly change and learn, choices will hopefully become easier. There is still a dearth of statistics showing the effectiveness of blogging, social networking and online marketing through website providers, RE sites and social sites but anectdotal evidence and personal experience based on analysis are beginning to give us an indication that these new forms of doing business have much potential for those who are adopting the right methods and utilizing them in a committed way.

I do have evidence in my own company that online business has increased by at least 20-30% each year for the last three years, I just haven’t pinpointed which methods produce what part of that business — perhaps it’s a holistic effect of it all.

Making choices is based on knowledge gained through experimentation, our results and the results of others, developing certain guidelines I can use to measure new offerings. In other words, I’m getting to a point where I don’t have to experiment with every new online offering, wasting money on useless gimmicks — it’s easier to tell now which ones have merit and which ones are just a snazzy remake of something I’ve tried that didn’t work.

I suspect many real Read more

I love freedom too much to be silent

running%20free.jpgI had some time today to write a few words. I’m waiting on a response — I spend half my life waiting on responses. Some people are prompt responders, some are slow, some are UNresponsive.

I was talking with the head relocation person for Gulfstream Aerospace this morning and she was telling me a story about one of Gulfstream’s employees, head muckity-muck of hiring, and how she made a referral to a local agent to help him with housing relocation who never called him. HEAD OF HIRING AT GULFSTREAM AND THE AGENT DIDN’T RESPOND! How does this happen?

Gulfstream is our biggest employer. She also confirmed what a lot of us have been talking about — new hirees coming to Savannah for employment are choosing to hold off on buying. We both concurred it’s the psychological effect, mostly. There is a some legimate cause for fear of the unknown in a shaky market and it’s understandable that people just starting in a new place might be afraid to make the committment to buy a home with so much uncertainty; however, underneath all that is a market opportunity to buy at the lowest point they’ll likely buy at for quite some time.

So, we wait. I am not into convincing people to buy when they are afraid. I give my opinions, identify them as such, show them some numbers and probabilities based on those numbers and let it go. In midtown Savannah this past twelve months there has actually been an increase in home prices — downtown is flat with a slight decrease. But, we wait. A few buy, but the rest, we wait and see how things go for a little while longer.

I have a suspicion that the psychological effect will break after the elections in November. I think many people subconsciously consider that a turning point, and end of some sort, a beginning of some sort. I don’t think anyone knows why, and most don’t consciously hold that position, but they will be affected none the less.

It WILL be a new beginning after eight years of Bush (eight years of any president makes us weary). I personally don’t put much stock in changing administrations Read more

Doom and Gloom Win Again: Real Estate Is Dead

It is now pervasive, whether fact, fiction, miscalculation or a misunderstanding of economic adjustments — doom and gloom has colored our lexicon and everyone’s on board. The “realists” are merely pointing out facts, the politicians are merely offering a big hand to help all the little people in this troubling time, the agents are merely accepting fate, the lenders are merely going broke, the pundits are merely predicting a dour future — it’s over, real estate is dead.

If you don’t believe it you are an idiot, a Koolaid drinker, a liar, a naive babe in denial or an unscrupulous player preying on the unsuspecting. When someone asks you about the real estate market, tell them it’s dead and getting worse. Tell them there is nothing positive in sight, that it might go for years, decades, a century, who knows, just tell them it’s dead.

We’re doomed, and gloom is our tomorrow and the next day and many after that. Close your doors, lock up shop, sell the Mercedes, real estate is dead. Foreclosures will climb, and after the sub-prime, the leveraged will crumble and then the middle will fold and the highest of the high will fall like tin men one and all. No one will be spared, real estate is dead.

The builders will watch their half-built McMansions sit like bones in a graveyard; realtors will be playing guitars in the park for nickels and dimes; a huge swooshing sound will be heard as the last of the ill winds blow over the rubble that was once a great industry and renters will rule the world and lord over those who once were lords of land. Real estate is dead.

Brokers and lenders will flip burgers or work as city clerks while builders cut grass and investors shine shoes and players of all stripes sing the blues — real estate is dead.

Obama will help the least fortunate, but the ones who rode high will meet their just rewards, for, afterall, it was greed that brought us low. In the wasteland of RE web 2.0 there will be blogs written by the depressed and dispossessed, mashups showing a combination of sorrow, charts showing Read more

Where Were You When The Real Estate Industry Morphed?

Life is good — I’ll be going to the Master’s next week. It’s been a few years since I’ve gone. A friend has some family connection with passes and if one of his business clients back out, he gets me in. Business is picking up also. I just got a contract on one of my “flips” before I even finished and put it on the market, so now I’ll change hats and be a buyer for a while looking for another one.

Leads are coming in on a regular basis, a mixture of strong leads, not so strong and weak. They are all possibilities. I’ve even had time to browse the web and see all the distinctions without much difference being made. As topics run thin we tend to make finer and finer distinctions to prove….what? Superiority? Most likely. Hell, I always think I’m superior. Well, not really, I just like to think I am a lot of the time. In my better moments I realize I’m perpetually on a learning curve. Just as soon as I’m ready to crown myself as “Expert” I hear something from left field that sends me back to the drawing board, to tweak, re-think, adjust.

Perhaps that’s the highest value of this great learning environment called the internet, we’re contantly evolving and becoming better, never crowned for long as “Expert”. However, the more we learn the closer we get to being knowledgable enough to know what we don’t know and how to find the missing pieces.

One thing that fires my imagination and pulls me into the good and the bad of the internet is the growing “conversation”. From Maine to Florida and from Georgia to Oregon, to Canada and overseas, people typing away, posting and responding, creating conversations that for certain specific interests like real estate become Great Conversations with various ideas and concepts being woven throughout. There’s no central authority managing the conversation, there’s no hierarchy of experts, only diverse voices growing, hopefully, not into a Tower of Babel but in different directions of movement and progress until the best ideas and concepts begin forming a great change for the better.

It’s a such a Read more

Flipping Homes: A Closer Look

First of all let me say that I distinguish between fraud and flipping. When professionals collude to trick sellers into taking a low price, then flip the home for a profit in a short time, this is not what I’m talking about, and it shouldn’t cloud the issue of flipping. Why do we always take the worst practices and make that the norm?

Hell, let’s change the name to something that better represents what I consider a legitimate real estate practice — let’s call it BuyRebuild&Sell (BRS) — it sounds like Briz, so let’s call it Brizzing, in order to give it dignity and a cool name.

So there is this dog of a house uglying up the neighborhood and no one wants to buy it. I come along and look at the home — yet I’m looking at it in a different way — I look at its soul. The poor darling is sitting there being made fun of, people are even cursing it — That damn ugly house! It’s killing values! Some even secretly wish it would burn down.

Now, I’m a compassionate person, and I’ve always rooted for the underdog and tried to protect those who were bullied and ridiculed for their appearance. And I’m a businessman. Yep, I’m a crude businessman who likes to make a profit.

I say to myself, this poor house needs brizzing. I’m a good brizzer — I’ve brizzed over a dozen houses now. It’s funny how some people look at brizzing — they like the fact the house has been brizzed but they hate the profit you make off brizzing. “I know what you paid for that dog of a house!” — “You are charging what? You only paid $60,000 for it!”

Yes, but I brizzed it, you dope! I took a chance on this poor ugly house when no one else would. I didn’t sit back and make fun of it and curse it, I brizzed it! I could have lost my butt on this, but I believed in this house — I saw its soul! And, I’m a businessman. I’m a crude businessman who likes to make a profit. So, shut Read more

Surreal Times: Election 2008

Every day around the world there are brilliant people going to work performing complex tasks that make all our lives better. There are companies developing and implementing service oriented architecture (SOA), information technology solutions more sophisticated than the world has ever known. Few people outside the inner workings of these companies know what is happening, because it isn’t reported. The leaders in industry building incredibly complex systems that respond with such a high degree of flexibility that reaction time to market changes is almost immediate are mostly unknown — they aren’t sexy and they aren’t political.

There are brilliant people making discoveries around the world: scientists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, programmers, biologists — they are mostly unknown. There are entrepreneurs with vision reshaping the way we do business in a 2.0 world. These people take chances and gamble on innovative ideas — they step forward, yet most people don’t notice them.

Every day there are improvements to the cars we drive, the medicine we take, the homes we live in — online search makes information easy and useful to access, buying and selling goods and services is offered up improved and less expensive, medical procedures extend our lives and add to the quality of our lives, entertainment is offered in diverse packages that make our lives more enjoyable, private charities are getting help to needy individuals in more creative and efficient ways. It’s all due to the myriad individuals who use their minds daily and development better and better management and delivery. The real leaders of the world, for the most part, go unnoticed.

Not only do they go unnoticed, they are disparaged directly and indirectly by politicians building power bases. It’s especially noticable this election year. You would think the world revolves around and depends on the choice between three people. Government has positioned itself in the hearts and minds of many people and in the press as the true leadership that will reshape the world and improve mankind. If this idea wasn’t so dangerous, it would be hilarious. All one has to do is sit back objectively and consider the brilliant people at work each day building, innovatiing, managing and delivering Read more

Jerry Rubin Died A Stockbroker

The point of my title might not be obvious, and it’s not meant to discount youthful exuberance — God knows we need youthful exuberance. However, Peter Pan and Michael Jackson aside, we all grow up. What does that mean — grow up? I take its meaning as maturation, becoming wiser, thinking long term, becoming responsible to self and others.

Organizations, even countries, like individuals, seem to go through the growing up process — from infancy, to childhood to adolescence to young adulthood to middle age to the twilight years. If companies and countries can continuously reinvent themselves between young adulthood and middle age that’s a good thing. The analogy with individuals breaks down here, for the most part, because individuals can only “remodel” so much before the realities of age take over completely. However, individuals can stay fresh in mind and spirit for quite a long time through constant learning, reflection and openness. This freshness of mind and spirit coupled with maturity and wisdom is an attractive combination in individuals — these are the people I gravitate towards.

RE internet companies seem to be in their mid twenties. There is an emphasis, a feel, a persona, if you will, of “youth” with companies like Redfin, Zillow, Trulia and the rest. What is their phiolosphy? It’s like most 20 somethings; it’s a mixture of style, doing good, distrust of tradition, worship of change, but very little mature, rational long term vision. Unlike Realtor.com, they play their music loud, dress in t shirts and jeans, talk funny and love to give stuff away to their buds.

They are the RE version of Google starting out, just doing stuff with no business model, having fun, being different with an attitude and declaring like grandiose young mini-gods they will “Do No Evil“. Oh, I’m sure there are grown ups developing plans and thinking about making money, but this is the sense, the feel, I get from these companies.

Do they have to “grow up”? Can they survive in the business world by hanging out with their friends, creating stuff and giving it away? They will make more and more friends, that’s for sure, but Read more

Biz 2.0: Super Real Estate Companies

When I first started in real estate my goal was to own a big operation after getting my broker’s license. A quintuple bypass changed my plans and I now operate a boutique operation, small, profitable and simple. I spend my extra time doing things I enjoy like golfing, reading and writing.

But I haven’t stopped thinking about big. It’s my belief that most large RE companies don’t fully exploit the advantages of being big, with access to resources largely going to waste in offices run from defensive modes with key players protecting turf rather than striving for excellence and market domination. Internal competition has been a weakness of big RE companies, along with the lack of talented employees with broader skills than RE skills. There’s a time and place to compete and there’s a time and place to bring talented individuals together to co-operate.

All companies and all offices differ, but from what I’ve seen much is missing. Big doesn’t have to mean slow, stubborn and infected with in-fighting and politics. I admit, I have idealistic binges that sometimes border on drunkenly naive, but I also know what people working together can accomplish — I’ve witnessed it through personal involvement and I’ve read the stories of companies who’ve achieved excellence through new ways of thinking, co-operation and a dedication to talented people given free reign to think, act and innovate. I also have no knowledge of the sophistication involved with large franchises, but I know that even independent offices with 50 to 100 agents can develop 2.0 systems that drastically improve their ability to compete.

It starts at the top with leadership. I should say enlightened leadership. Fearless and open-minded leaders are rare; hell, most everything I’m about to describe is rare — that’s what makes it special, and that’s why great companies achieve the largest market share in their line of endeavor. Good leaders are an amalgam of psychologist, priest, coach, cheerleader, protaganist, antagonist (questioning his/her own leadership), hero(ine), visionary and sage. That’s asking a lot, but good leadership demands a lot. From Alexander the Great to JFK to Lee Ioccoca, the styles are different and the scope greater or less, but the key elements of Read more