Jim Cronin at The Real Estate Tomato waxes philosophical, wondering, Is Big Brother Dead? A stray thought to the contrary: Panem et circenses?
The Realty Bloggers have a smart reflection on the slow but on-going ramping up of on-line real estate vendors.
There are two fun developments in our friend Richard Riccelli’s trial-by-FSBO-fire. First, he was approached by John Keith, an enterprising Boston Realtor and weblogger, who, having read about Richard here, offered to help him with a limited-service MLS listing. And second, Richard has a Strange New Respect for the idea of pushing the whole job of marketing a house off onto a professional. It’s not something he could actually do, of course. He’s too much a perfectionist — and the work product he produces for his home should be very instructive. But he understands now why someone else would delegate all that work, happily paying the fee.
Jim Duncan at Real Central VA asks Should buyers forego inspection in a hot market? His answer: “Hell. No.” I agree wall-to-wall, but there is a middle ground here: Inspect, retaining the right to cancel upon inspection, but specify that the home will be purchased with no seller-supplied repairs. In the Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Purchase Contract, we have seller warranties for all the major systems, so the buyer’s exposure is relatively minimal. (The AAR produced an “as-is” addendum that waives these warranties, making it entirely useless.) None of this matters in Arizona right now, where smart sellers repair absolutely everything before they list their homes for sale. But it’s a way of doing an “as-is” transaction without giving up everything.
Three from Sellsius°: The Future of Residential Appraisers links to an article discussing the further encroachment of Automated Valuation Methods on the appraisal industry. If I were building an AVM (ahem), I would hire the best available appraisers to point out the bone-headed mistakes in the software, then keep them working as an on-going Quality Control effort. As it happens, we are refinancing our home right now. I comped it for the lender, then Zillowed it to see how far off-base Zillow.com would be. It was only about 7.5% low (ouch!), but the reason was that it was using comps from vastly disparate neighborhoods. Useful comps for our house come from one-and-one-half sides of one street about three-eighths of a mile long. Using any other houses will introduce errors. An appraiser would know this and could share his expertise with software engineers, were they to value that experience.
Sellsius° also has two podcasts up, Are Real Estate Agents Necessary? and Redfin’s Glenn Kelman Speaks. I will probably go to my grave bereft of whatever nuggets of wisdom there are to be mined in these audio files. I have never understood the affinity people have for oral presentations of any kind. We read so much faster than we can listen that acquiring information through the ears seems to me to be a huge waste of time. We’re coming on bicycle season in the Sonoran Desert, so I may change my mind about these podcasts, but, for now at least, I don’t have 40 uninterrupted minutes to give to anything except work.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy has a cool new theme and a link-rich post on the mainstream media’s bubble frenzy. Blogger Jay Thompson asks if we ever heard back from ASU’s Dr. Jay Butler regarding a question we asked of him months ago. The answer: Like fun! In other markets, real estate practitioners have a place at the table, even if it’s below the salt. In Phoenix, we get data we can’t verify — but which does not correspond in any discernible way to the data we can verify — and the gut feelings — reported as facts — of people who don’t actually sell real estate. I used to have a lot of fun picking on Dr. Butler and Arizona Republic real estate reporter Catherine Burroughs. By now, they’re just dead bugs on the headlights — blocking the light, but not by much…
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing
jf.sellsius says:
Re: Podcasts, audio vs the written word: Pros & Cons
Audio conveys inflection, hesitation, tone, nervousness and other unzillowable-like qualities that simply cannot be gleaned from the written word, which is often calculated, thought out before written, edited, rewritten, staged and often lacking in tonal quality (like this comment). In fact, I would venture a guess that written words are interpreted as hostile when no such intent was present in the writer (I hope not here). For anecdotal proof, visit the forums/comment sections.
Perhaps my bias toward audio comes from my trial court experience. A witness speaking on the stand is gold compared to the copper of their written
answers to interrogatories. Yes, we can read the words faster but it is not what we want all the time, especially if we are trying to determine someone’s credibility.
You may also appreciate this archived post:
10 Ways to Spot a Liar
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/?p=849
Re: your multi-tasking bicycle ride (hey Greg, here’s another difference—you can’t bike ride & read)
You might appreciate Kelman’s voice saying that Redfin is like a fisherman that just scales the fish. They do not take the boat out, put the line in and wait for a nibble. (He then says it is not a good analogy) It’s easy to make money when you dont have to do the sale and marketing part, he also says. I doubt you’d ever read that in his writings. But perhaps you would read in a headline “Kelman Calls Buyers Merely Fish To Be Scaled”. Written word v. audio. Big difference at times, no?
September 13, 2006 — 9:14 am
Greg Swann says:
All very interesting. Here’s the funny part: I’m actually a good public speaker. It’s a negative factor, though, because I can watch people getting swept up in my enthisiasm, rather than rationally digesting what I am saying. The other end of this is that I can draft text on the fly. I say exactly and only what I mean to say, on paper or on the evanscent breezes of speech. I don’t tell lies. But I am painfully aware of how easily I could. It all serves to make me mistrustful of any testimony I can’t check.
But: Out of respect for you, I will buy myself a tiny new iPod to take out on my bike. If I don’t love podcasts, I always love music.
September 13, 2006 — 9:36 am
jf.sellsius says:
Ah, that’s interesting too. Perhaps you should hand them the written text along with your speech. That way they can get enthusiastic from your audio and can rationally digest your words. This is what some of my law professors did.
Ah, another brilliant example: Music vs. the written bar notes—no comparison.
Keep howlin’ Greg 🙂
September 13, 2006 — 9:50 am
jf.sellsius says:
One more example. I’m sorry, I can’t help myself.
Reading a joke vs. having Bob Hope or Chris Rock tell it
September 13, 2006 — 10:01 am
Greg Swann says:
> Ah, another brilliant example: Music vs. the written bar notes–no comparison.
Now, you’re down to notation systems, and it might be reasonable to argue that verbal speech is closer to Mothertongue (only-incidentally and not-necessarily abstract communication; everything you can convey to a baby or a beloved pet is in Mothertongue) than to Fathertongue (communication by abstract symbols alone).
Music and memory: All of us have the mental capacity to carry vast libraries of note-perfect music in our heads. It’s a tragic meaure of our wasted promise, actually, but one need never be bored. I knew a kid whose father was the choral director of a symphony orchestra. He could ‘hear’ operas he had never seen performed in manuscript, reading from the sheet music. Finally: Even if I never listen to a podcast, Cathy wants me to make some, Demosthenes on the beach.
September 13, 2006 — 10:44 am
jf.sellsius says:
Re: “hearing operas” from reading sheet music.
Yes, I know of this gift. But I have heard different orchestras perform the same sheet music yet they are vastly different. The particular way a note is held & caressed cannot be holden in the thought, tis such a new and gracious miracle (nod to Dante).
I cannot read music, & even if I could, I don’t think I could fully appreciate Verdi, certainly not Edgard Varese. And even if I had the ability to hear the notes by reading the sheet music, I would prefer to close my eyes and we swept away. Besides, my wife might object to the sheet music. 🙂
Here’s a good one—my wife says she can’t understand me…is that husbandtongue?
…
But still a joke does not translate via written words in the same way as spoken—it’s the timing, for one. The same goes for a song—you can have the written words and the sheet music but I suspect you would not trade that for the performance. Dylan to the point.
BTW, this conversation has given me the idea to put a podcast of a poetry reading by the author in this sundays PC.
Finally, I have an idea for you but email me to discuss it.
Ciao. Off to the shower and a little singing 🙂
September 13, 2006 — 11:44 am
John L. Wake says:
Greg,
I just found you via The Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. You have a gorgeous blog!
I just added you to my blogroll.
John L. Wake
Arizona Real Estate Notebook
http://www.arizonarealestatenotebook.com/
September 13, 2006 — 12:33 pm
Greg Swann says:
John,
Thanks! I wanted to talk about your blog later today, but you beat me here.
September 13, 2006 — 3:30 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Here’s a good one–my wife says she can’t understand me…is that husbandtongue?
This is husbandtongue: “Certainly, darling, of course I understand that you think it woulld be fair if I helped with the dishes and laundry, but sometimes I think it might be fair if you helped out when the cable box goes out. That’s not very fair, is it?” An argument like that works every time but one.
September 13, 2006 — 3:34 pm
Jay T. says:
Greg – thanks for linking to The Phoenix Real Estate Guy!
John – glad I was able to direct someone to the BloodhoundBlog. It is indeed a superior piece of work. Heck, I get blogasms coming here sometimes…
Jay T.
September 13, 2006 — 3:51 pm
Greg Swann says:
I just blogrolled both sites.
–GSS
September 13, 2006 — 4:08 pm
Rory says:
I actually did listen to the podcast “Are Real Estate Agents Really Necessary.” Now I wish I had the time back to use in my life some other way.
The podcast is based on a New York Times article, it features a New York Times bestselling author, Steven Levitt. His book Freakonomics, is the very thing that inspired contempt for the bestseller list. Anyone who has read his book and Malcom Gladwell’s book knows exactly what I’m talking about. I can’t believe that they are still being cited as credible authors.
I put you on the blogroll.
September 14, 2006 — 2:47 pm
Norma Newgent says:
OK Kids, be nice. You say tomato and I say tomahto…It’s all about diversity. As Realtors we should know that very well. Mix it up, have a good time. I enjoy stimulation in various forms and don’t want to be tied to just one way of communication. Some people read the book and others go to the movie-who had the better experience? It depends on the material. After several hours reading the screen, my eyes enjoy my daily dose of mobuzztv…
Love you guys!!
NRN
September 14, 2006 — 5:19 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I put you on the blogroll.
Likewise. You had me at Travertine.
September 14, 2006 — 5:43 pm
Jim Cronin says:
Did someone say “Tomato?”
G- no expansion on the “stray thought to the contrary?”
September 15, 2006 — 10:51 am
Greg Swann says:
> G- no expansion on the “stray thought to the contrary?”
I can’t improve upon Juvenal!
He was even in “Tombstone”, you know: “Credit Judias Appella, non ego.”
Actually, I’ll have further thoughts on the larger topic later tonight.
September 15, 2006 — 7:19 pm