There’s always something to howl about.

Month: July 2008 (page 1 of 8)

Generation Jones: Angst Filled Baby Boomers Are A Great Market For Realtors

I started the discussion about “generational” marketing with the controversial article:

The Youth Myth: Why It’s Hip To Be Square in Real Estate Brokerage

In that article, I discussed why the Baby Boomers represented an under-served market for high-tech real estate agents and lenders.  Fascinated by the responses, I started researching more and committed to a series about how to market online to this generation.  Greg Swann and I agreed that this will definitely be a session at Unchained Orlando.

The second part of the series is available on Home Gain Blog:

Baby Boomers Were Not Created Equally

Why did I take a detour to Home Gain? To throw up a big tent.

Here’s an excerpt:

The younger Baby Boomers, or Generation Jones, are a bit different from their older cousins. Born in 1955-1966 and children of “The Silent Generation”, they came of age in the late 70s and early 80s. They were promised a better world, became latch-key kids (from divorce or dual income families), and remember odd and even days at the pump. Live Aid defined this generation.

Barack and Michelle Obama are Jonesers as is Sean Hannity. Their big cultural shift was Carter to Reagan, pension plans to 401-k plans, and Pell Grants to student loans. They listened to KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and The Beastie Boys; less idealistic, more individualistic. That music represents the feelings of this sub-generation’s view towards life.

The series will be back on BloodhoundBlog and I expect to have 4-5 more installments; we’re just taking a little detour today to invite more people to the party.

Marketing to Baby Boomers:

Part One: The Youth Myth: Why It’s Hip To Be Square in Real Estate Brokerage

Part Two: Baby Boomers Were Not Created Equally

Ironically, Ironman is Just a Man

I love the word Irony.  Maybe its because Ironman has been my favorite song forever.  Or maybe it’s because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Ironman.  Oh, wait.  That just takes us back to the song Ironman, which is the theme song of the movie.  No, I know why I love irony.  It’s because all around us life is full of irony if only we will pause to notice it.  Want some examples?

Take the three original learned professions, the priesthood, the law, and medicine.

Priests keep our most private confidences, and priests today are known as violating our most sacred honor.  Lawyers, who were originally called to be ambassadors of justice are today known as the greatest of liars and truth is no longer admissible in a courtroom.  Doctors, called to save lives and preserve health, practice in hospitals where the American Medical Association claims 300,000 people die every year, the result of doctor negligence.

How about something closer to home, like real estate?

The mortgage industry helped people achieve the American dream, the dream of home ownership.  Today because of astonishing levels of greed in the mortgage industry (and lack of adult supervision), the same people who were helped by the mortgage industry are now in foreclosure and losing their dream.

And then there are real estate agents.  First you have the word “real.”  If agents are real, they why do so many have a reputation for being phony?  And you have the word “agent.”  An agent represents a client, protecting that client exclusively in every way, including financially. Just like a lawyer who can only represent a plaintiff or a defendant, but not both, an agent represents his client and not the opponent.  The next step of irony is to create a system called “dual agency.”  Voila!  We can represent both.  I suggest lawyers create dual representation, too. That way lawyers could practice lying to themselves as they promoted the plaintiff’s version of the facts on one side of the courtroom, and then the defendant’s version on the other side of the courtroom.

I love irony.  How about a political and judicial system that ignores Read more

Before They Get It, Make Sure They Get It.

For many buyers’ agents, there are two distinct stages in a real estate transaction.  I know, it may seem like there are many, but in the broadest sense there are only two.  You might call them the Age of Enlightenment and the Dark Ages.

The first stage is when you do most of the work with your client.  From the marketing that first attracts them to the countless showings and all the way to writing an offer and negotiating that last counter before acceptance.  This can be called the Age of Enlightenment.

The second stage, the Dark Ages, often begins just about the time you recommend a lender or two and begin the loan process.  I have heard agents describe this as akin to pushing the contract, the client, the paperwork AND their commission check into a gaping black hole… of silence… then waiting, hoping and praying a deal will come out the other end.

There are a number of reasons for this, most of them beyond the lender’s control, same as yours.  Underwriting guidelines are changing on an almost daily basis.  The actual loan options have decreased just a tad.  Sort of like Basking Robbins 31 Flavors suddenly going down to two flavors… and raising the price while they were at it.  But there is one aspect you have a lot of control over when recommending a lender: the lender themselves.

When it comes to choosing which lenders to keep on your short list, referrals are certainly important and past performance is great, but I also highly recommend you ask a single, all-important question.  Whether interviewing a lender for the first time or seeing your regular lender, stand straight and tall, look them in the eyes and ask this question:  “Mr/Ms Lender, by recommending you to my client I am also commending my commission to you.  In other words, I am handing you $5000, $10,000, $20,000 of my money in hopes of getting it back in a couple of weeks.  Why should I do that?”

If they cannot convey to you that they get it… if they cannot immediately give you a valid, even outstanding Read more

Bloodhounds and the Bar: Introducing Chuck Marunde

We’ve picked on and pissed off so many attorneys over the past two years that I’m amazed one actually wants to join the pound. But Chuck Marunde is not just a real estate attorney, he’s also a working real estate broker — not to mention a very talented writer.

Here is the man speaking in his own behalf:

After practicing real estate law for 20 years in Washington, Chuck concentrates on residential sales in Sequim and Port Angeles on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Chuck has personally closed 100’s of transactions and litigated most real estate issues.  He founded his first real estate law website in 1995, and is a minority shareholder in an International technology company.  Chuck is the author of numerous magazine and Internet articles with a primary focus on real estate. Because he has two sons who became professional athletes (Strongman and Mixed Martial Arts), he has also authored articles on the Strongman sport and has been a freelancer for Ultimate Grappling Magazine. In his spare time, Chuck is a sports photographer.  Chuck has combined his love for real estate and technology to create a growing Internet presence in his market. Chuck has degrees in Economics, Law, and Education.

Port Angeles is a quaint New England fishing village accidentally misplaced at the tip the Olympic Peninsula in the Puget Sound. Beautiful country, and a milder climate than any New Englander has a right to expect. The Olympic Peninsula is a rain forrest, and the whole of it is about the most radical tourist experience you can have without leaving the lower 48 states. As much as I love Port Angeles, my favorite spot on the OP is Ruby Beach. Highly recommended. Take the kids.

Meanwhile: Chuck joins us today as the newest hound in the pack. Here’s hoping he doesn’t come to regret running with such a lawless crowd.

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The New Real Estate Model – Part 2: Super Teams

In Part 1, I discussed the concept of Disbrokeration; some of its causes and effects. When I originally wrote about Disbrokeration I thought I had a pretty good idea what the next iteration of the industry would be: Super Teams.  This type of development is not new and successful Super Teams abound right now.  For me it seemed the logical next step in a 2.0 world where the Brokers have lost a great deal of their function.  Having said that, I see some flaws with Super Teams.  Especially in their ability to transcend a relatively common problem faced by many self-employed entrepreneurs.  My purpose here is to discover a model that will not just work, but work for the majority.  Let’s look at the pros and cons of the Super Teams and in Part 3 of this three-part series, I will share a model that I think may best serve the future of our industry.

Basic Real Estate Teams
Agents may have more than one reason to create a team in real estate. Some may do so for geographical reasons, some may do so to create multiple streams of income.  It can even be done simply for social reasons.  But the primary reason to create a team is economies of scale.  Simply put, a well managed team can be more efficient through intelligent design and effective division of labor.

Gary Keller, in arguably the best book ever written for real estate success: The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, discusses the team concept as a matter of course.  It is simply a requirement for reaching the millionaire level.  This is due to the economy of scale mentioned earlier.  Mr. Keller’s point is that one person alone cannot see enough clients, list enough homes and work with enough buyers to achieve a million dollars in income.  One simply cannot carry the work load necessary for such a goal.

Others have written on the benefits in creating teams.  Mike Farmer looked at it from the perspective of geographical and technological symbiosis rather than a purely profit driven necessity.  I think I do Mr. Farmer no disservice when I summarize Read more

LA Times…the 1st of many?

My buddy Jon Karlen writes on one of my blogs, RealEstateIndustryWatch. Today, he beat me to the punch and posted this.

Yes it is true. The LA Times Sunday Real Estate Section is now gone. Due to space constraints and budget cutbacks, it has printed it’s last issue.

One has to wonder if this will not be the first of many to face a new reality (for them). The online real estate marketplace IS the real estate marketplace. How many more will go? How soon? How many will consolidate into other sections of the paper? Who knows.

Thoughts?

I slipped my DISCo in Orlando: Psychometric analysis that’s actually simple enough to be useful

A big part of the StarPower curriculum is the DISC system of psychometric analysis. I’ve talked quite a bit about Myers-Briggs and Cathleen is a big fan of the Enneagram. These are useful tools, especially for self-analysis. But INTJs will behave very differently from INTPs — and from each other, for that matter — so having a tight bead on someone in Myers-Briggs terms is not all that preternaturally useful.

The DISC system, on the other hand, is simultaneously very useful in real life and very simple to deploy. Once you understand the four DISC categories of behaviors, you can make reasonable on-the-fly analyses of the people you happen to be working with. High D? Don’t waste time on details, unless you are asked for them — and then don’t stammer. High C? If you don’t volunteer volumes of detail, you must be hiding something.

There is a good deal of academic theory behind the DISC system, and I don’t want to portray myself as an expert. Cathy and I took two short classes on the subject, both taught by serious amateurs. Even so, we learned a ton about what we’re doing right with people, what we’re doing wrong, and what we could be doing better.

There’s more: We set about to do a gut-feelings-based DISC assessment on everyone we know, this for practice. When we finally get around to deploying a CRM solution, we’re going to use DISC to classify our clients. This will be useful at every touch, but one thing we thought of doing was deploying DISC-oriented drip campaigns: Cut to the chase for the D’s, fun and games for the I’s, home and hearth for the S’s, charts and graphs for the C’s.

Brian and I were talking about this on Sunday, and we both thought it would be interesting to DISCify the cut-outs on a landing page. That’s not just fun for marketing geeks, it’s a testable procedure that should result in higher conversion rates.

There’s no end to the value in this system, since it enables you to tailor any presentation to the predictable psychometric style of the person you Read more

A Decidedly Low-Tech Philosophy for Real Estate Success

When it comes to Real Estate I am, I imagine, like many of you. I strive to stay ahead of the curve and learn everything I can.  In its purest form, I agree with Greg Swann’s philosophy: I want to be so much better than the competition that listings are mine for the choosing.  I want to steamroll over mediocre agents and drive to extinction those that dabble in my profession.  The art, the skill and the passion of a great agent – an agent that is advising clients on the biggest investment of their lives – those are the attributes I seek: for myself and my fellow agents.  If someone is not up to that standard they should be removed from the business; but not by fiat.  They should be driven out on their last breath, gasping and choking on great, heaping spoonfuls of my dust.

Toward that end I am an avid reader, especially of BloodhoundBlog.  Technology is the great equalizer and the great slayer within our industry.  On BHB we are exposed to the best of the best and I am trying to wrap my non-tech brain around the fire hydrant of information that flows here.  I think I am doing alright: I understand how to Twitter people in the Facebook, Share my Mind with Google and constantly talk on miPhone while admiring the Street View out my Zillow window.  Last night I even had a tall glass of milk with my Obeo.   The Soft Infusion of most of these high-tech ideas has occurred in just the past week alone at BHB.  A fire hydrant indeed.

Sometimes though, it relaxes my weary head to go a little Low-Tech.  Here’s why: most people – my clients included – think it their hobby if not their outright job to put off till tomorrow almost anything they can. That desire to delay holds true even when what they put off benefits them.  Life is busy and the demands are great.

You can see this in almost all walks of life, but it is especially acute in women.  My sister is a prime example. I ask Read more

The Buck Stops Where?

Ya know – I’ve decided that I want run for Congress – my dilemma: overcoming the paradigm that one aspires to move up and not – um – down. BUT! Just think of all the fun I’d have riding the train under The Capitol – sitting in convertibles waving at my constituents in parades, playing golf with my lobbiest “buddies” – Ahhhh – what a LIFE!

Honestly, though – I think the best part would be sitting in commitees and writing legislation. Imagine sitting in a big room covered in mahogany wainscoting, sitting in a cordovan leather highback chair behind the massive, hand carved desk with my BIG brass name tag in front of me -I might even have a microphone in front of me. My voice would boom while speaking down to the little peop – er – constituents – um – not MY constituents, but constituents nonetheless.

My esteemed colleague would be standing behind me whispering where the guys were going to meet up for drinks after the hearing while the pathetic homeowner in front of me goes on and ON AND ON about how some slick mortgage broker sold him a bill of goods and now he can’t make his mortgage payment. But I feign to listen because it’s only for a few hours and then I get to ride the under ground train with my buds ‘cuz tonight I’m drinkin’ and schmoozing with da bankers!

Just think about it! I’d get to drink single malt scotch while Jimbo Biggidy Big Banker throws his arm around my shoulder, pulls me aside – walks me out on the patio at The Capital Grille, hands me a cigar and tells me that those wacky Wall Street boys – ha ha – you know the type – custom shirts and suits from Hong Kong – well they really blew it. Look at ALL that hell they’ve caused.

Jimbo likes to talk in the third person.

Tommy – Jimbo’s bank is losing money. How was Jimbo supposed to know that people weren’t going to be Read more

Unchained in Orlando: Scouting Disneyville for the perfect location

We got to go to StarPower this year as guests of Russell and Wendy Shaw, which was very gracious on their part and positively dispositive on ours: We could not have made the trip without them. I’ll write more on our StarPower experience, because we came away with some very interesting ideas to play with.

For now, I want to talk a bit about Orlando. It was my first time there, and I might have passed on StarPower if I hadn’t had the secondary objective of getting the lay of the land in the Magic Kingdom. In fact, we didn’t even see anything of Disney — other than Disney-dazed kids, that is — but we got a very good feel for the area around the Orange County Convention Center where BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando will be held.

Here are some photos, just for fun:

This is the North/South building of the Convention Center. It’s immense, but, even so, it’s much smaller than the West building.

This is just the main entrance to the West building. This is where you will find the trade show floor of the NAR Convention. The NAR has also reserved all of the available meeting space in the nearby hotels, to what end I do not know.

Everything you’re seeing here is along International Drive, a fun, walkable commercial district lined with hotels, restaurants, shops and other attractions.

Here’s a little bit of International Drive’s whimsy. StarPower was held at a huge Ritz Carlton/JW Mariott golf resort, but we stayed in a hotel off of International Drive. We had a rented car, and I can navigate with some confidence in this Southwest quadrant of greater Orlando.

We’re Realtors, and we never go anywhere without looking at the real estate. Friday night while I was negotiating the sale of one of our listings, Cathy was in a state of complete rapture as we drove very slowly along South Bay Drive. If you’re looking for a place to play Google StreetView games, this is it.

Orlando in July was surprisingly pleasant. In November, it should be simply heavenly.

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A Little Afternoon Fun

On the radio over the weekend, they discussed a survey that had come out about gas prices and people’s habits.  It was reported that 20% of those responding said they would drive 10 miles out of their way to save 5 cents per gallon on gas…

For those of us that are mathematically disinclined, the average car would require an 80 gallon tank just to make that little investment break even.

For me, that survey response is not the scary part. The scary part is… how many of these people vote?

The New Real Estate Model – Part 1: Disbrokeration

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The Real Estate industry is going through some pretty rapid changes lately. We have everything from Apple’s iPhone to Zillow’s Zestimates. There is a lot of conflict too. Your local Board of Realtors is most likely still trying to throw a fence around listing information, while a wired world questions the nature and even purpose of a real estate agent. The RE.net is creating opportunities and shifting the nature of the game. The world is 2.0 and it communicates differently. A 2.0 world markets differently and rewards differently too. Throw in the most destructive credit crunch since the Great Depression and you have a recipe for… WHAT? Only one sure answer: change. But the question is this: change into what? What does the future of the real estate industry look like? Will there be agents? Will there be brokers? Will there be a real estate industry? This is the first of a three-part series that will attempt to answer some of these questions.

Back in March I wrote a post on Disbrokeration and the coming changes in the real estate industry. I suggested that Brokers, more than agents, were going to see their positions and their livelihood challenged. I still believe that to be true. In part two of this series I will run through the first evolution I saw for our industry: The Super Team. Not an uncommon idea, the Super Team already exists and the refinement of it is discussed in many areas. Mike Farmer has written about it in great fashion. I will discuss why it may work for some, but in general it simply does not solve enough problems. Worse yet, it adds new ones. In the final installment, part three, I suggest a new model for the real estate industry. A model that is easily copied, well developed and most suited to solving the issues in our industry. But first, we must understand why the current model will not last.

Disbrokeration: The End of the Current Model
The existing Broker model is actually a pretty old one, found in almost any industry that is focused around the act or Read more

What Has Your Local Association Done For/To You Lately?

Many of the Bloodhound writers and readers are rather disdainful of the entire Realtor® organization – all three levels (local, state and national). Greg Swann, in particular, has a penchant for wishing for the demise of the organization that keeps him on a leash. In fact, Greg, I’d suggest you stop reading this post now. Not because I will be defending the organization, but because you are already beyond any discussion of what a local association could/should be for members.

For those who are still reading, I will assume you have a least a passing interest in why you are a member of the Realtor® organization and some hope that it can serve you in some way. The fundamental question I’m exploring is the role of the local association in helping members to be successful. There are many different sizes and shapes of local associations out there, so I’m going to attempt to stay at the philosophical level. I will be using my local association, the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors® (CAAR), as an example, so for clarity we have 1100 members in a small but sophisticated real estate market. That makes us a mid-sized local, but to be honest, we act like we are big.

CAAR is currently debating this issue of the association’s role. At each Board of Directors meeting we start off with what we call a “Strategic Discussion” that involves an issue that is important, but not urgent (Covey’s Quadrant 2). Next week the Strategic Discussion on the agenda is as follows:

Strategic Discussion

What is CAAR’s Role on the Internet? When do we compete with members and when do we provide a common service that is in the best interest of most of our members? If we provide valuable public information, do we compete with members who could be providing that same information? Was the NGIC website a valuable service to members and the community, or an interference with our member’s business?

The NGIC website mentioned in this agenda item is a special site we created to help with a major relocation of much of the military intelligence personnel to our Read more

Do You “Knol”? Utilizing a new Google Offering

It looks like Problogger has mixed opinions on the launch of Google’s Knol. Meanwhile, Seer Interactive shows Knol already ranking for some keywords.

Search Engine Land compares Knol to Wikipedia and gives you step by step instruction on setting up your own Knols. I love the ability to have a collaboration but be able to moderate and control content edits. I have an ongoing feud on Wikipedia with someone who does not feel that a link to a hyper local blog full of community information belongs on Wikipedia – I put it on – he takes it off – one year later – 15 edits and I get incredible traffic to my local blog from Wikipedia. I just have to check it every few weeks!

For me it Knol is another tool in my arsenal of online marketing. I’ve got my start and am committing to adding fresh information at least weekly. Currently I’m ranked number 3 for the search “Real Estate” and the only one for “Athens, Georgia” who wants to join me? What content do you think will be most applicable and how do you plan to leverage this new tool?

Just when you thought Microsoft Internet Explorer couldn’t possibly suck any worse, it finds a way to suck with WordPress 2.6

Did you ever wonder why Bill Gates doesn’t have any children? It’s because he found a secret incantation by which, having named his company after his pet name for his most private appendage, he succeeded in making schmucks of us all. Top that, Steve Jobs!

Just when you thought you were about to escape into the cloud, Bill Gates has his revenge: There is a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer that causes it to issue juicy error messages to some users of WordPress 2.6.

No fix but Firefox, so far — or a Macintosh, of course. Your mileage may vary, but if you see the words “Operation Aborted,” you might issue a little incantation of your own…

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