BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: November 2007 (page 2 of 9)

November 27, 2007

Serendipity, straight up

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

Upon self-examination I’ve concluded; were it not for a dash of serendipity on all the right occasions, sprinkled at just the proper times, I wouldn’t amount to very much in this world. The fact that I was born here in America and not under a bridge in Lagos is, in itself, a divine intervention of sorts. And if you don’t know of that particular Nigerian slum then let me just add that not being born at all would be a a more desirable volition in this writer’s mind.

what I could have received… 

lagos2lagos3lagos4lagos5 lagos6

what I got instead…

what I ammy wifeminibmwx3Elvishome 

And still, it’s not enough. In comparison to the Bill Gateses, the Mark Cubans and even the Flavor Flavs of this world…I am but a speck. Dust doesn’t even know I exist. Okay, maybe I’ve got more going on than perennial homeboy Flav…

flav

…but I’m sure there are many in this world who would argue agin. (On my own behalf though, if the ‘picture’s worth…’  cliche holds any water at all, I just saved the Recycle Bins 15,000 words.) I’m trying to be a greener man, thus the whole self-examination exercise in the first place. I’m just not a big fan of the color, I guess.

I calculated the amount of trees I saved by not succumbing to print advertising or mass mailings this year–and to honest, it wasn’t that much. In fact, I probably saved more of the rain forest by simply making half of what I made last year but even I can’t put enough spin on that reality to feel that I’m a better man for it. It kind of makes me sick, actually….

Until I hear about a place like Lagos, Nigeria and learn of the pure misery there. Now without getting into personal idealogical bents I will simply say that I listen to National Public Radio all the time, if for no other reason than to get my blood pumping and to know I have an opinion on a thing or two in this world, all specks of dust aside. Politically, I don’t like anybody and since, (according to those who profess their love for me), I’m wrong almost half the time anyway, I can safely go on record to say that there’s always a Read more

November 27, 2007

My Real Estate Marketing Disease–

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

One of the great things about my day occupation is that I get to associate with 120 of the finest REALTORS that are in Louisville. It is my job to help them advance their business plans using technology, and I love doing it. 120 business plans provides me with more than a few opportunities to laugh at myself and enjoy humor with others as we experience this wacky world of real estate.

So without further ado, I have compiled a few of my favorite personal Real Estate diseases (yes–I am building it over time) to help those who may be new to the industry understand the REAL disorders that come from a life of real estate sales.

Silver Bullet Syndrome-The innate feeling that if you can just copy what someone else does by getting someone else to replicate their work, then you can enjoy their success without putting the creativity into it. This disease originally stemmed from advertising and people copying other agents’ ad copy. The internet does not work that way. There IS NO silver bullet and many agents die in the desert looking for that mirage.
Familius Interuptus- That simultaneous feeling of joy and and dread that usually comes in the springtime with the success of your marketing campaigns with its corresponding increase in business, children’s end of school year activities, and the spouse (parenthetical note–yes the one who was upset because you DIDN’T have business a month ago) who does not understand why you cannot get to everything AND have “quality time” with them.
OMG Syndrome-The annual feeling of dread in the fall that the buyers have gone forever and will never return. This condition is made worse by the worrying spouse and national press announcing the official end of real estate industry as we know it. Symptoms range from mild irritability to outright paranoia and fits of rage. Somewhere in these fits you will utter (or think) the words “OMG–Why exactly did I get into this business in the first place???” Increased use of expletives is another sure sign.
Multiple Stream Dysfunction Symptoms include a gnawing empty feeling in the pit Read more

November 27, 2007

The long tail of a big dog: The group blog a year later

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

It’s a year to the day since BloodhoundBlog became a group blog.

Coincidentally, I was talking to Brian Brady today about our long tail, why the accumulated effort of a weblog is a leveraged asset: The most recent content will be the most popular today, but older content will attract greater and lesser attention in perpetuity.

To illustrate the idea, I ran the last year in MyBlogLog. We served nearly 600,000 pages of content in that time. The report is limited to the 2,000 most popular pages, with who knows how many more stretching out in the long tail.

It’s more a curiosity than anything, but, if you like, you an see it by clicking here.

November 26, 2007

Unchained melodies: Southern accents

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is not a BloodhoundBlog Unchained theme, either, but it’s another move in that direction. When I met Jeff Turner and Dustin Luther at the NAR Convention, I talked to them about the idea of people who seem to oscillate at the same frequency, like similar isotopes.

I wrote about this once, a long time ago, because I think it’s a fun idea. Ours is a second-generation star, after all, so everyone you know, everything you’ve ever seen or touched is made of nuclear waste from an eons-ago super-nova.

I don’t believe in anything supernatural, and yet I can take note of circumstances where souls seem to harmonize instantly without having to be tuned to each other. I can say the same thing by talking about people coming from the same dirt or just smelling right to each other.

I grew up in Downstate Illinois, in coal country, and I feel a kinship with Teri Lussier — who was raised in Kentucky — that doesn’t require a lot of explanation. And while I’m a fast-talking, hard-charging intellectual entrepreneur — truly a mystery to the folks back home — I never forget the dirt that I came from. This is Southern accents, a Tom Petty tune covered by Johnny Cash. It’s about people who oscillate at a frequency I can always find. It’s about people who smell right to me.


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November 26, 2007

The Odysseus Medal: “The most powerful two-way Internet communications tool so far developed”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Let’s talk about real estate weblogging, shall we? By an accident of synchronicity, that seems to be what bubbled up to the top this week. The Odysseus Medal goes to Gary Elwood for Naked Conversations: The Lynchpin to Your Real Estate Marketing Blog:

In a nutshell, blogging is one of the best ways to communicate with your market. Better than postcards, email newsletters, flyers, magazine articles, weekly radio shows.

How are blogs better than these communication channels?

There are six key differences between blogging and any other communications channel.

1. Publishable. Anyone can publish a blog.You can do it cheaply and post often. In addition, each posting is instantly available worldwide.

2. Searchable. Through search engines, people will find blogs by subject, by author, or both. The more you post, the more findable you become.

3. Social. The blogosphere is one big conversation. Interesting topical conversations move from site to site, linking to each other. Through blogs, people with shared interests build relationships unrestricted by geographic borders.

4. Viral. Information often spreads faster through blogs than via a news service. No form of viral marketing matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.

5. Syndicatable. By clicking on an icon, you can get free “home delivery” of RSS- enabled blogs into your e-mail software. This process is considerably more efficient than the last- generation method of visiting one page of one web site at a time looking for changes.

6. Linkable. Because each blog can link to all others, every blogger has access to the tens of millions of people who visit the blogosphere every day.

Of course you can find each of these elements elsewhere. And none is, in itself, all that remarkable.

But in final assembly, they are the benefits of the most powerful two-way Internet communications tool so far developed.

However, bloggers and sophisticated readers of blogs will sniff you out as a fake if you lie, hide, withhold or micromanage information.

Successful blogging is about being off-the-cuff, transparent and off-the-record so to speak. Even if you sin.

SEOBook has a tutorial on SEO for webloggers up today, and this is a rockin’ thing — in context. Real estate weblogging is relationship-based Read more

November 26, 2007

Examining Myths: Crummy Markets Mean a Short Sale Extravaganza!

by

Real Estate

Author website

With the recent events in the mortgage industry & in most of the markets around the country, many homeowners are left upside down on their homes, and unable to sell.  This is one of the real dangers of homeownership.  While we (real estate professionals) all tout the many advantages of owning a home, and primarily that “real estate historically appreciates,” getting stuck upside down on a home is a scary proposition…because you’re stuck in your home.

In markets like these, real estate agents & brokers also get a little scared.  Fewer homes are selling, and fewer commissions are earned.  Many get out of the business, and many begin marketing “creative solutions,” & “creative opportunities,” which includes the short sale.  Short sales as a subject really started popping up a few months ago, and it’s really increased – it looks like we’re on the left hand side of the bell curve.

Everyone knows that some Realtors love to puff the advantages of anything that will help them earn – let’s analyze some of the myths that are now being touted, and that we’ll see more of in the future.

Myth #1

“Short Sales Are a Great Investment“

A short sale, by definition, is a situation where the bank is cutting their losses in order to avoid the costly foreclosure process.  The bank is getting screwed, and they will try to cut their losses as close as possible – which means they ask for multiple BPO’s before they’ll agree to a sales price.  Multiple agents/brokers, who are all vying for listings from the bank, have given their expert valuation of the property.  The chance that the listing price will come in 20% below market or lower (which is the minimum to make a decent profit) is pretty slim.

Myth #2

“The Bank Will Cooperate With My Short Sale”

When trying to work out a short sale, you’re dealing with the bank’s loss mitigation department.  Loss mitigation will typically not talk to you unless you’re 60 days past due or more.  After you’ve crossed this bridge, they will discuss a short sale, but you’ll sit on hold for hours before getting anywhere.  Read more

November 26, 2007

7,373 Words – The NAR Code of Ethics

by

Incipient Real Estate Broker

Author website

In his post here earlier today, Jim Duncan said something I’ve thought since the day I stood up, raised my right hand and pledged to uphold the Realtor Code of Ethics:

I have argued before that if you need 8 9 pages to explain ethics, rather than a simple code of honor, you just might need too much guidance.

Adopted in 1913, and amended 31 times, the NAR’s Code of Ethics is 9 pages of double column single-spaced text. Seventeen Articles. Eighty two “Standards of Practice”. 7,373 words in 266 paragraphs.

It is loaded with gems like this (Standard of Practice 17-4, Subsection 5):

Where a buyer or tenant representative is compensated by the seller or landlord, and not by the listing broker, and the listing broker, as a result, reduces the commission owed by the seller or landlord and, subsequent to such actions, claims to be the procuring cause of sale or lease. In such cases arbitration shall be between the listing broker and the buyer or tenant representative and the amount in dispute is limited to the amount of the reduction of commission to which the listing broker agreed

Huh? Maybe it’s just me, but I had to read that 3 or 4 times just to make sense of it. And I’m not so sure I actually figured it out.

Do we really need 7,373 words to tell us how to act?

The United States Military Academy has an Honor Code. It’s no real stretch of the imagination to equate an “Honor Code” with a “Code of Ethics”.

West Point’s Honor Code consists of one sentence. 12 words.

A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.

It was derived from the Military Academy’s motto – the lengthy and convoluted, “Duty, Honor, Country”.

One of my old schools, THE University of Texas, adopted an honor code long after I left those hallowed halls. It is substantially longer than the Military Academy’s code, coming in at a War and Peace like 41 words:

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is Read more

November 26, 2007

The RE blog arms race

by

Realtor, Real Estate Ethicist

Author website

The (un)intentional arms race continues.

RCG, BHB, AG.

Seemingly every week brings another contributor, but to what end?

The writing has inarguably elevated the conversation. Two years ago the “divorced commission” concept was one that made sense, but had not congealed on a national level. Now, to a much greater degree, it has. I believe that there may be an end to Dual Agency in my lifetime, thanks in large part to the conversations held locally and nationally – again, due to these national blogs. The disagreements and debates are of a higher level than found almost anywhere else. The intensity with which writers and commenters argue is frequently fierce and typically civilized.

There is authenticity found here that isn’t found elsewhere. We’re not doing it for the advertising revenue. We’re not doing it for the salaries or the bonuses. We’re not doing it for all the “leads” that come our way. We’re doing it because we believe in what we do and seem to share a collective passion.

As Greg said earlier this year –

My immediate goal for BloodhoundBlog is to make it the best-read, most-rewarding real estate weblog in the RE.net. Further out, I want for our contributors to be so well known that they can pursue other opportunities: Public speaking, freelance writing, books, seminars, television shows, etc. I don’t know that we will attain this, necessarily, but the goal itself is definitely attainable: Witness Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit.

For now, I’m interested in growing our talents to see where they can take us. I think we benefit each other more together than we would apart …

At least six Bloodhounds are speaking at Inman Connect in January; if that’s not a form of acceptance, I don’t know what is. Look at the list of speakers – Presidents, CEOs, Directors … bloggers! The numbers of bloggers is phenomenal. Gaining acceptance and influence is a journey, and each day, week, month brings another convert – and another reader/listener/follower. In response to a recent email – the people in Chicago are reaching out; the RE.net is too large and influential to be ignored. Influential and powerful groups all Read more

November 25, 2007

The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Twenty-five nominees. I confess that it’s faster for me on Sunday if I’m not too picky, but this week saw a surplus of very good posts.

Vote for the People’s Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy.

Please don’t spam the voting. I accept that there can be differing moral standards on scamming social media, but only one of those standards applies here. If you email 300 of your closest friends, telling them to vote for you, I will ignore all your votes. We’re interested in what is popular among people who participate here, not how popular you are with your buddies. That doesn’t even seem to me to be a complicated idea, but I’m explicating it nevertheless.

Voting runs through to 12 Noon MST Monday. I’ll announce the winners of this week’s awards soon thereafter.

Here is this week’s short-list of Odysseus Medal nominees:

< ?PHP $AltEntries = array ( "Wade Young -- FSBOs How to convert FSBOs into listings”,
“Todd Carpenter — Interest rates MBS, 10 year notes, the long bond, and why I couldn’t care less“,
“Benjamin Bach — Follow-up How to add $150,000 in gross commissions to your bottom line“,
“Geno Petro — Racoons Racoons in the Trash“,
“Steve Belt — Trulia Voices From Trulia Voices: Is central Phoenix an African American area of town?“,
“Jonathan Dalton — Trulia Voices What Did My Mom Say About Cows Giving Away Milk?“,
“Jeff Brown — Brian Brady The Difference a Lender Can Make — Real Estate Investment Savvy“,
“Eileen Tefft — Thanksgiving A Thanksgiving Real Estate Story“,
“Dan Melson — Housing mess How to Avoid A Repeat of the Housing Market Mess“,
“Jay Thompson — Business card Experimental Business Card #1“,
“Rhonda Porter — LO compensation Let’s Do Away with Loan Origination Compensation“,
“Gary Elwood — RE blogging Naked Conversations: The Lynchpin to Your Real Estate Marketing Blog“,
“Kris Berg — Lake Arrowhead WTF – The Lake Arrowhead Home Blog“,
“Morgan Brown — Option ARM An Open Eulogy to the Option ARM“,
“Krista Baker — Targeted messages Reader Q&A: How To Write Your Message from Your Prospect’s Perspective“,
“Dan Green — Mortgage rates Pre-Qualify Your Loan Officer By Asking: \”Where Do Mortgage Rates Come From?\”“,
“Dan Green — Bloggers video Oh, The Bloggers You’ll Meet, The People You’ll Read more

November 25, 2007

Unchained melodies: Extraordinary machine

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Teri Lussier asked me if there would be a theme song for BloodhoundBlog Unchained. She later repented of the question, but she was more right than she knew. Of course there will be a theme song for the conference.

We are champions of iconic ideas, words and images and sounds and scents that communicate the same one message on multiple, parallel tracks. The goal is to say one thing that says tens or hundreds of things, all of which turn out to be the same one thing.

This is not the theme song for BloodhoundBlog Unchained, but it is very definitely a theme undergirding my own unchained life. This is Fiona Apple performing live this August with Nickel Creek (O, for a DVD!). The song is Extraordinary machine.


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November 25, 2007

Real estate transactions without producing a single sheet of paper with Microsoft OneNote and PDF Annotator

by

Realtor, Real Estate Investor

Author website

I’ve fallen off the face of the world for a long time, but I’m back and I’m here to provide a follow-up to my discovery of Microsoft OneNote and tablet PC’s. In short, I’ve been able to complete my last 3 transactions …from first meeting the client through to closing ….generating less than 10 sheets of paper myself ….total (2 transactions had zero paper that I  produced and the third had about 6 sheets). It has simplified/revolutionized how I organize my client data and all the information that’s gathered in the course of a transcation, my notes, my tasks, prospecting, …you name it! I’ve been able to reclaim a good portion of some desk space since I’ve been able to do away with almost all my printed client files. When I go out for a showing, all I bring is my tablet pc and my keycard. The benefits go on and on.  It has by far surpassed my expectations from only a few months ago.

All my information about all my transactions are at my finger tips. Lender contact, escrow, title, cooperating agent, etc. No more waiting till I get back to the office to dig through files or worse yet, pull out the boxes of closed transactions from 6 months ago to find something. I have it all right in front of me and I have to thank OneNote for most of it. I have yet to see any other agent carry one of these things around and I just think … they just haven’t seen the light yet! 🙂 Last week Stewart Title emailed me saying they were going to start going all electronic and had this huge write up on the benefits. It was nice to see an industry that generates a TON of paper going in this direction. It’s just gonna keep going!
Here is the setup that I’ve settled on…this is by no means an advertisement for these products (as they all have little issues or quirks).

Data management – Microsoft OneNote. OneNote stores all the Read more

November 24, 2007

Real estate representation has never been about information brokerage

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m behind on these, but this is a good time to catch up. This is my column from the Arizona Republic from last week.

 
Real estate representation has never been about information brokerage

As I write this, the National Association of Realtors is holding its annual convention at the Venetian Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the trade group, a cause for celebration.

But the NAR is also embroiled in a years-long anti-trust suit brought by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Real estate buyers and sellers are steadily migrating to the world-wide web as their primary communications medium, even as the housing market is suffering through an extended downturn in many parts of the country.

Of the challenges facing the NAR, perhaps the greatest is finding a path to relevance in the internet age. The group’s own statistics demonstrate that a steadily increasing percentage of home buyers and sellers are conducting their search for real estate information and representation on the web.

This internet-focused client base can be significantly more tech-savvy than many Realtors, with agents constantly racing to catch up. At the same time, Realtors’ presumed traditional value proposition, access to MLS listings, has been obviated by on-line MLS systems and nascent Realty.bots — venture-capital-funded internet start-ups devoted to delivering real estate information.

In fact, truly valuable real estate representation has never been about information brokerage — a fact both the Realtors and the Realty.bots seem to be slowly discovering.

The value a Realtor brings to a home seller is not the MLS listing, which is at best an administrative function. A skilled listing agent should advise sellers on pricing, preparation and presentation — the factors that get skillfully-marketed homes sold when no other houses are selling.

The best advice a buyer’s agent can provide to his or her clients comes not in a stack of MLS listings but in specific tactics to deploy during negotiations, inspections and throughout the escrow process.

Whether the NAR can sustain relevance into the twenty-first century remains to be seen. But, even though consumers may find Read more

November 23, 2007

Black Friday — Not Just Crazed Women Shoppers — Drinking the Kool-Aid — Perception and Confidence

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

What takes hold of women on Black Fridays? It’s like a perfect storm of planned group hysteria, guaranteed bargains galore, and shopping, shopping, shopping. Realizing how many women will take umbrage to this, I hereby stipulate only a smallish minority participates in this annual ritual of dueling plastic at dawn.

Pardon me — did I say dawn? My bad. How ’bout 4 AM?! And this after coma inducing feeding frenzies the afternoon before. I guess when the monkey needs feeding, energy isn’t a problem. 🙂

I see on the far horizon the possible sighting of Black Friday, The Real Estate Version. As my crystal ball is as cracked as yours, I’ve no idea whatsoever when it’ll begin. I’m sensing it though. It’s coming from that spot located in the back of my head, where all the small voices reside. This voice is barely audible. I’m not even sure if it’s the right voice, but I know one thing — it’s louder today than it was last month.

Like malls around the country, holding the fort against the hordes of shopping junkies, there is method to their madness. There’s a clearly perceived empirical benefit driving them. I have to believe that, cuz my own mom talked my own Much Better Half into participating. Yep, I awoke this morning just before 10 from my expertly induced Thanksgiving coma, to find Trophy Wife asleep on the couch in front of the TV. Nothing like doing over five hours of pre-dawn battle with Black Friday Kool-Aid drinkers I guess. 🙂

Let’s create an analogy here to the current real estate correction.

Assuming the annual January clearance sales will follow the holidays as night follows day (for Black Friday participants, kinda like the hair of the dog) let’s call post January, The Shopping Correction.

The RE Correction has lasted for over two years now, or roughly the equivalent of these things historically. For shoppers, going from January to Black Friday is an eternity, much as this correction must seem to most who’re feeling the pain of the RE version.

What if, as my little voice seems to be Read more

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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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