BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: May 2007 (page 2 of 7)

May 25, 2007

Retirement — A New Class Being Created

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

In the seminars we’ve been conducting in San Diego and out of state, we’ve been noticing a common denominator that is becoming more and more troublesome to us. It’s the number of stories being told of parents, grandparents, or the storytellers themselves.

It often begins with, “My dad is in his 70’s, healthy, and owns his home free and clear. He has Social Security, a small annuity, plus the income from his life savings. It all adds up to around $35,000 a year or so. His retirement years aren’t anything like he planned — and he’s becoming more disillusioned each year.”

That’s sad enough on its own merit. How would you like to live your so called Golden Years pinching pennies in a 50+ year old house, and enough after tax income to survive? Now imagine what his kids must think as they begin to enter their 50’s. “Is that my future? Why bother?”

Why bother indeed. Let’s crank up the way-back machine, and see if we can’t shed some light on Dad’s thinking when he was in his 20’s and 30’s.

Let’s say he was 25 in 1957. What if…..

What if we found Dad in ’57 and gave him a choice. He could work hard, invest in real estate, make some sacrifices early in life, and end up with a pretty nice retirement. His other choice would be in the form of a guarantee. How about we guarantee him a $35,000 annual income AND a free and clear home? The median income back then was no doubt less than $10,000 a year. I’ll bet he’d have taken the guarantee. To him it would have been a no-brainer. Yet folks who today find themselves in that exact position are leading lives far different than they ever envisioned.

True Story

I was talking with a prospect the other day, who lives in another state. His parents live in an adjoining state, are retired, and in their 70’s. They enjoy very good health, and are able physically to travel. They are living the very life described above — an old free and clear home, with a little less Read more

May 25, 2007

Newspapers are here to stay: I read all about it on-line

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Wall Street Journal On-line (you can’t make this stuff up):

Even a 30-inch screen can’t match the readability of what cheaply spits out of a printing press. I really believe that the copy protection mechanism for newspapers is their consumer interface, in the form of ink spurted on newsprint.

The author then runs down the litany of new technologies that will bust up the electronic media oligopoly, all seemingly without understanding that print is already on the other side of that hump.

The ultimate argument: Print will triumph because it shackles end-users in a prison of atoms. Print is better because it is user-hostile. You can’t copy it. You can’t extract from it and blog about it, as I am doing here. You can’t share it with a friend except in the same way you might share a communicable disease.

Breathe deep, pal. There’s a clue in the air. If you’re very lucky, you just might catch it.

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May 24, 2007

Making movies: Wrestling with science, commerce and art to sell the idea of a unique and distinctive Phoenix

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I don’t think I’m done with this yet, but it’s coming along. I mentioned last week that I’ve been making a movie in all my spare time. I’ve got about two weeks in the project by now, most of that lost to rendering and FTP. I may start over again tomorrow, but you can see where it stands for now, if you like.

The little idea is to show off how unique, interesting and beautiful homes in Phoenix can be, contrary to our bad press:

Phoenix is sometimes maligned as a vast suburb crawling with tract houses. The complaint is not without some truth, although our tract home neighborhoods can yield some very pleasant surprises. And every home is unique, no matter how similar it might seem to be to its neighbors.

But Cathleen and I get to spend much of our time in Phoenix neighborhoods where every home truly is unique — the historic and architecturally distinctive neighborhoods of Central and North Phoenix, where virtually every structure is a one-off expression of some one artist’s or craftsman’s vision.

The big idea, of course, is to learn how to make movies that will sell houses and us as Realtors and our brokerage.

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May 24, 2007

“This house don’t fit… what’s your return policy?”

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

this house don't fitThe year is 2015 and the RE online brokerages reign. Buyers search for homes online, click a button to complete a closing, and pick up their keys the next morning to see their NEW home!

Here are some sample voice messages left for the operators at the MegaOnlineBrokerage:


“I thought 13 by 13 meant feet, not inches…”
“I want to list my home online but the value keeps coming up ‘&=null’…”
“This key doesn’t work, how do I get into my house?”
“I thought they were going to fix the A/C before close- it’s burnin’ up in here!”
“The ad said there was a pool, but all I see is a dirty coy pond.”
“I have left 17 messages- will someone please call me back?”
“I must have clicked “buy” at the same time as someone else- this guy ALSO has papers on this house and our movers are fighting over who should unload first.”
“I thought all appliances conveyed- all I have here is a toaster.”
“Does the warranty cover squirrels in the attic?”
and my personal favorite, “This house don’t fit, what’s your return policy?”

What else do YOU suspect will be on the MegaOnlineBroker’s operator voicemail? And what do YOU think the scripted responses will be?

May 24, 2007

Trulia.com raises an additional $10 million

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So says BlogForward in a strange little post. That puts the San Francisco-based Realty.bot’s total VC investment at $18 million, so far.

Further notice: TruliaBlog, TechCrunch, John Cook’s Venture Blog. The BlogForward post is actually a splog of this Venture Beat article, a tendentious mess of unquestioned, uncited misinformation (e.g., “Zillow and Trulia don’t divulge their traffic”).

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May 23, 2007

Internet leads, Distrust Mountain and Scaling the Face – Base Camp

by

Mortgage Banker

Author website

In one of my last posts I wrote about converting internet leads or as I called it, successfully navigating “Distrust Mountain“. I received a ton of response to that post via email and the number one question was “What is the answer, what are the tactics?” to this statement in my original post:

The ability to climb that first, nearly insurmountable, face of defense on Distrust Mountain is what separates the good loan officer from the average one who is struggling to earn a paycheck. I call it scaling the face. Scaling the face requires all sorts of special talents including building rapport, telling a compelling story, having a unique selling proposition, displaying excellence and professionalism, building on small commitments, and numerous others. The tactics for doing so is a topic for another post, but needless to say, that wall is there and needs to be scaled.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but I have no magic bullet. I am sure that you all suspected that to be the case; for there truly is no such thing – if there was we would have all seen the infomercial. There are no gimmies in the sales world (thank you for listening, choir). With that disclaimer out of the way I’ll do my best to outline the best practices THAT I HAVE FOUND help successfully close internet leads. Unfortunately it’s a long process and I’ll need to break it in to a handful of posts over the next week to keep your eyes from falling out of your head; but I will get through it — bear with me.

I think our approach works pretty well; I also know that there is room for continual improvement. I don’t purport this to be the best or only way to convert internet leads; but it is our way. Our un-audited results indicate that we receive a return of about 5 to 1 on our investment in internet leads; and we’re pretty happy with that. If you want greater ROI, you’ll need to do a better job than Read more

May 23, 2007

On the NORDSTROM Analogy

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Apropos of pretty much nothing: my two daughters — for whom I live — drove down from Seattle last weekend and threw me a surprise birthday party. The appropriate aphorism: “A good time was had by all.” I just found two party hats in the freezer.

Which provides a seriously imperfect segue into: Nordstrom. Since the time I spent there informs nearly everything I’ve done in business the last thirty years; because what we do as full service agents has been rightfully compared to the Nordstrom model; and because I’ll reference them often, it might be worthwhile to give some background:

I was there when they were just breaking into the California market, before the Department of Labor made them shut down any employee off clock hours — which means a concerned Nordy personally delivering a prom dress to a hormonally anxious deb is considered illegal — and before any organized gangs began using their return policy as a profit center. The employee manual read in its entirety “Use your own best judgment at all times”, twenty five year old buyers were given multi-million dollar budgets with the single instruction “Buy what the customer wants…”, and every employee was given the imprimatur to say only one thing: “Yes.”

In the early seventies one billboard on I-5 leading out of Seattle read “Will the last person leaving please turn out the lights?”, but leading in to the city was another billboard that read simply “We understand there’s a recession. We’ve elected not to participate.” and signed Bruce Nordstrom. When the same Bruce Nordstrom — “Mr. Bruce” in the vernacular — was asked in a meeting why it was necessary to give money back to people who didn’t seem to deserve it, after an eternal icy silence he said: “That’s my money. You’ll give it back until I tell you differently.”

Everyone has probably heard the (true) anecdote of the radial tires returned for a full refund at the first San Francisco store. What everyone doesn’t know is that, while most department stores at the time funded their advertising at 4% of sales, we budgeted 2%. Read more

May 23, 2007

SparkNotes – Mutiple Offers (the Ghost of Christmas Past)

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

It’s a strange real estate world we live in. Some markets, such as Manhattan and San Francisco reportedly thrive, while others such as Southern California have been more than mildly affected by declining home prices and slower sales. And then within each region there are micro-markets. In my own San Diego, it is the tale of two cities.

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. There are two distinct buyer psychologies at play. One segment is looking for a deal; the other is looking for an upgraded, turnkey opportunity. There are similarly two demographics at work. One wants (needs) the lower-end, entry-level product (in San Diego, these prices start with a “4”), while the other is less affected by trivialities like mortgage rates, economic indicators or general market trends (in other words, money is no object). Mediocrity, whether it be price or condition, is just not being rewarded. It’s enough to scare the Dickens out of a seller.

“Ms. Blogging Person, have you actually read A Tale of Two Cities?”, you ask. Heck no. I, for one, detest Dickens. Given the choice of being subjected to one more reprisal of A Christmas Carol and bamboo shoots under my fingernails, I will opt for the root canal every time. That’s what SparkNotes are for.

And, Multiple Offers are alive and well. Having been involved in several during the past month, it has become painfully clear that newer agents who may have missed the wacky knock-down-the-sign-installer-to-be-the-first-offer-in-the-door antics of the late ’90’s and early 2000’s may be unfamiliar with the intricacies of multiple offer situations. It has also become clear to me that many veteran agents just don’t get it. Thus, I generously offer a few tips to the buyer’s agent who may find himself in a competing offer position. If you missed the book, here is the cheat-sheet.

  1. “Multiple” means “more than one”. Fancy yourself the expert negotiator? Well, Mr. Kissinger, good luck with that. You are not the only offer on the table, and your “look at me – I have a Buyer!” position of strength has been compromised. You need Read more
May 22, 2007

Watermark play: Ten samples for proof

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Using PicMark for the Macintosh, I built a watermark that satisfies my objective: To put a proprietary mark on photos that does not destroy the beauty of the image. I also wanted to satisfy Thomas Johnson’s goal, to put a web address on each photo.

The ten examples below show the watermark I built. It’s not perfect — there is one photo where I can’t find the semi-invisible mark. But if we presume any thieves are likely to steal more than one picture, we have an excellent chance of catching them. Moreover, being so obviously marked, it’s seems at least plausible that they won’t steal our photos at all.


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May 22, 2007

Extreme Transparency in Lending

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Mortgage brokers have been under assault by the extreme transparency advocates these last few years. Very smart people have embraced technology as the catalyst of change. They proclaim that technology will change how the American public compensates mortgage brokers. I think their advocacy has some merit.

Most consumers just don’t care about extreme transparency in lending.

Oh, sure. The engineers who read Milton Friedman and St. Augustine may actually adopt a moral position about the evil greed that permeates our industry. They might vent about the immoral nature of the “secret profits” earned by originators who do business the “traditional” way. These consumers, a very minor subset of the population, are predestined to mistrust anything that smacks of traditionalism. Last decade, full-service securities brokerage firms advised people that their high commissions were actually more effective to get investors to buy and hold rather than to trade incessantly. Still, the engineers distrusted the establishment while they day-traded their retirement accounts away on high-flying internet IPOs through ScottTrade.

This decade’s real estate boom brought out these “efficiency experts” again. They looked at the transaction costs in lending and proclaimed, “Something is awry!” This breed of consumer, is never, I repeat, NEVER going to trust a an originator no matter how inexpensive the service offering is. A mortgage originator can point to the value a trained advisor brings until she is blue in the face and this crew will run to Lending Tree faster than you can say free pocket protectors. This tiny portion of the population is not going to do business with me or you or your cousin Angela. Ever.

Most consumers just don’t care about extreme transparency in lending.

I sent out an e-newsletter to 300 past clients, highlighting a few articles, all dealing with extreme transparency in lending. These were the responses I received:

1- One nuclear engineer e-mailed me proclaiming that he would be processing his own files in the future and insisted that I waive the $495 processing fee. In exchange for the fee waiver, he would order his Read more

May 22, 2007

Faking It

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

Smarmy Fluffy FakeI just wanted everyone to know that I am the “Top Blogger.” I also host the “Fastest Growing Blog” in America. I have the “Highest Reader Satisfaction On The Web,” and I was voted the “Best Wife In The World.” There, I said it.

What’s that you say? How can you disagree with my claims? I put them in print, they must be true! Alas, some of these may not be true, much like blatant imaginative statements made on Real Estate websites and business cards worldwide. Is this the stuff your marketing is made of? As most of you know, I’m not a Realtor, but I am a consumer (okay, a self-acclaimed consumer/shopping pro) who works for a Realtor firm and is hyper-exposed to Real Estate at least 70 hours a week. That said, I give you my Top 5 Offensive (and often false) Claims:

CLAIM #1- Top Realtor in The City/Nation/World
This is a personal favorite- simply Google “Top [insert your city here] Realtor” and the results are endless. How is it possible that hundreds of people are ALSO the “Top Realtor” in your city? This claim is frequently used because it is subjective, but when everyone claims this ranking, it falls on deaf ears! So, what does your claim mean? Are you the top highest producing, the top recruiting broker in the city, or do you claim the top closing ratio? All of us here know that fluff is abundant on websites and canned material still rules the day, but if you have to fake it… it ain’t that good.

CLAIM #2- Your Neighborhood Specialist
There are many specialists out there, and several Realtors can specialize in the same subdivision, but don’t close your eyes, point at a map and pick a spot to farm, thus claiming your “specialty.” That would be like ME saying that I am THE Scripps Ranch, CA specialist (yet I’ve never been there and besides, the Bergs have it on lockdown). I got a flyer on the door the other day. This Realtor claimed to be my neighborhood’s specialist and “Top Realtor.” Strange- I have never seen a Read more

May 22, 2007

The Way of the Rain Dogs: Peeing on your pictures to mark your Zestifarm — and to avoid becoming an unpuppy

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from mail from Thomas Johnson of ERA Houston, which, among other things, coins the terms “Zestifarm” and “Zestifarming” for the various ways one can pee on the tree in Zillow:

I love the marking your farm analogy. I walk my dog, Sophie, every evening and I have noticed that she marks everything that is of higher than average height: a clump of grass, a twig, a lump of Spanish moss, whatever. I liken that to canine text messaging a quick sniff, squirt and move on. When we get to the mailboxes, it is different. That is much more interesting. There is lots of sniffing and squirting. I guess we could call that pee mail. My takeaway is that there are so many little repetitions that we can use to mark our Zestifarms. And, the price is right.

Less like pee mail, more like Twitter. Even so, I just quoted that part to make the girls squeal. But: Nothing focuses the mind like an apposite metaphor. One theory says that dogs mark their territory so they can find their way home if they get lost. Hence the poor, lost Rain Dogs.

Dog owners know better: Dogs mark to cover the scent left by other dogs. To have your pee peed on is to become an unpuppy:

I spent the night tossing and turning thinking about “marking my farm”. I think that an agent could take over the cyber neighborhood before the entrenched legacy agent/broker even knew what was happening. A while ago, I bought a cheap little program called “watermark it”. It enables you to digitally watermark photos. I bought it to protect my MLS photos, but it was banned by policy. My 4 AM revelation was to watermark my Zestifarm photos with a small web address. It would not hyperlink, but “Kilroy was here”.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about, but I hadn’t done anything about it until I got this mail. As I mentioned before, there is an even better “pee on the tree strategy” than listing homes for sale:

Instead of announcing homes for sale, walk the neighborhoods you farm, taking Read more

May 21, 2007

Like a Virgin

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

So I’ve spent the last hour trying to navigate Word Press — I’m going to bet it’s much easier than I’m making it — have written a terribly serious post on the allegorical link between Nordstrom and real estate, and decided that’s a really inelegant way to introduce myself.

Yes, thirteen years with Nordstrom in the late sixties and seventies, the perfect business education. Twenty five years as a manufacturer’s rep, until getting on planes and traveling salesman jokes simply got to be overwhelmingly dull. I got my real estate license nearly three years ago, and immediately wished that I’d done it years before.

Which means most here probably know more about real estate than I do. The reason I came to Bloodhound Blog in the first place was to learn.

What I do know is people. Why they buy, their motivations and reactions. I know that the Arizona Board of Appraisal is thoroughly nuts for thinking it can shut down Zillow, or even trying. I have a pretty good notion Redfin will be out of business in two years. Sixty Minutes is an anachronism.

And I’m certain the real estate business is changing. Much of the status quo is antithetical to anything I learned at Nordstrom: the industry gets much of its incentive from what’s best for the industry, not what’s best for the people we serve. I’ll never understand the first seminar I went to after I was licensed, where the instructor said good agents spend 90% of their time prospecting for new clients. 90%. If I spend that much time selling myself, what, exactly, am I selling?

Phil Knight said: “Nike is a marketing company, but our product is our number one marketing tool.” What I do for buyers and sellers is my product, and my interest is in being as good at that as I can be.

That’s why I’m here; I really, really look forward to it.

Thanks, Greg; I’m honored!

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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