There’s always something to howl about.

Month: October 2008 (page 1 of 7)

Do You Like a Good Scary Story? Read This One Anyway…

I am not, by any stretch, a conspiracy person.  I think the probability of a conspiracy succeeding is inversely tied to the number of people involved.  That makes me especially dubious of government conspiracies.  The bottom line for me is this: people are smart, groups are dumb.  If you want to understand something just follow the money.

But I am getting a little scared.

You may have heard about the various bailouts and financial manipulations the government is engaged in lately.  It has been in the news.  There was a $750 billion bailout, followed by another $500+ billion bailout.  A number of investment banking firms were bailed out (and, curiously, some were not) while AIG continues to be handed money.  Banks are being force fed money and there are more stimulus packages on the way.  All done, we are told, to save us from a world economic collapse.

But is it true?  This week the Fed lowered the fed funds rate… again.  Lowering the rate didn’t do a damn thing a month ago, so why are they trying again?  Here’s a better question: Why are they lowering the rate at all?  Lowering the fed funds rate effectively lowers the “cost” of money.  When do you lower the cost of something?  When their is a demand problem.  From everything you have read, do we have a demand problem or a supply problem?  We are being told that everyone needs money and no one will lend it.  So why in the world would you lower the price of money?

Let’s leave that alone for a minute and move on to the credit crunch.  As I mentioned previously, the world economic collapse is precipitously close and liquidity is the problem.  “No one is lending money.”  “Commercial paper has dried up.”  “Our financial system is grinding to a halt because cash is being hoarded.”  I have not taken the time to actually go out and find these headlines and link to them.  I trust this is now such common wisdom you will take it on face value.  But take a look at the following graph:

Interbank Loans

That represents the loans, in Read more

Introducing RE.net’s Hottest Bloggers Contest

In an effort to increase subscriptions and ad revenue, I have devised an ingenious new contest to identify the hottest bloggers on the real estate net. If there is one thing we can learn from People Magazine and the Republican Party – substance is secondary – most important: there is nothing that a “hot” headshot and $150,000 or so bucks can’t do to increase popularity and a list of the sexiest “insert your own category”.

Let’s put those bloglogs to good use! Start scanning your Twitter followers – clearly there are some hotties in the mix. Why not nominate a few – heck, why not nominate yourself?

Content you ask? What content? Kids – this ain’t about what you say or think, it’s all about how you look – and Billy Crystal nailed it – “it’s not how you feel, it’s how you look – and you look marvelous!”

You want to drive ad revenue to you site? Listen – sex sells. Adorning your blog with the “Hottest Blogger in the RE.net” will drive the kind of subscription traffic you’ve been longing.

Oops – gotta run – my stylist just called. She’s bringing over Armani for my photo shoot. I’m doing a series of new headshots for my avatar. We’re going to shoot a few – you know – the “too hot to handle” look – the “come hither” look. I’m banking on the “I’m too sexy for my content” look.

Money in the bank.

I’m Voting for Senator O’Cain

Greetings from the battleground state of Virginia.  I was 4 years old the last time Virginia was up for grabs.  Back then you could only vote once and you had to use your real name.  My how things have changed. 

I have lived in Virginia my whole life and grew up in a very conservative/Republican area that considered Ronald Reagan a liberal.  For the past 10 years I have lived in the very liberal/Democratic town of Charlottesville. I guess you could say I’ve seen both sides of aisle.  Amazingly, neither of these distorted perspectives (or perhaps both) have rubbed off on me. 

I’ve always said that no matter what, 30% of the people will vote Republican, 30% will vote Democratic, and the reaming 40% will generally vote for the lesser of the two evils.  I generally agree with Sean’s recent post about voters often voting against a candidate or a party, but I see something different in this election.  Perhaps it is just the battleground state status that has brought energy to the local campaigns, but I sense something else – a genuine excitement about the candidates.

Locally, all the excitement has been about Senator Obama, but that is to be expected.  Around the state, according to my family and friends, there is just as much excitement for Senator McCain and especially Governor Palin.  Sorry, Joe the Politician, but no one seems to care much about Senator Biden.

Until this year, I’ve always fallen into the 40% that votes for the lessor of evils.  This year, I have things I like about both candidates that outweigh the things I dislike about both candidates.  In fact, if I had a magic wand that could combine the two, I’d have my guy.  He’d be an articulate speaker, a war hero, and have a long history of bucking both his party and Washington politics.  He’d be the guy with great international experience and fresh ideas that gives this nation hope once again.  He’d be capable of rallying the youth of America and of leading our troops to victory.

If he existed, I’d Read more

Twenty-five most influential bloggers? Influence upon whom? Toward what objectives? Or: Why collectivism makes my skin crawl

Brad Coy sends news that I have been named as one of the Inman News “25 Most Influential Bloggers” for 2008. I don’t know this first-hand, since you have to be a member of the Inman Secret Handshake Club to gain access to the “Special Report.” Not quite true: You can also buy the thrilling “Special Report” for only $79.00. That’s only $3.16 an influencer.

But wait: The price just went up to $3.29 an influencer, since, as with last year, I am renouncing this denomination.

I’m sure the people who named me to this list thought they were offering me some sort of distinction. To the contrary, I see it as a diminution of the work we are doing here. Among the influencers are people I see as being active exponents of knowing evil. The rest are decent-enough folks, but I don’t see them, for the most part, as being stout advocates for anything that I regard as being good or vital or important. Nice people, but they’re just people.

Influence by itself is a meaningless standard of value: Fifty million Frenchmen can be as wrong as one. For the most part, the people in the RE.net whose opinions matter most to me already write here — and, of course, those great minds are all but entirely omitted from Inman’s list, even though their influence is more-positive and more-consequential than many of those included.

But none of that matters. What matters is this: I am either right or I am wrong — as are you. Agreement means nothing, endorsement means nothing, beauty contests mean nothing, dipshit lists like this mean nothing. All that matters is the quality of your thinking and and quality of your writing. The world is made by minds, not mobs, and I don’t want my name to be used to contradict that proposition.

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NYMag: “NYC Real-Estate Developer Offers ‘Obama Contingency'”

New York Magazine:

Holy election tie-in: Erik Ekstein, who’s developing +aRT, an 88-unit Chelsea condo that just began sales last week, says he’s including an “Obama Contingency Clause” in all contracts that go into effect between now and Election Day. If Obama wins, the contract goes through, but if John McCain prevails, buyers can back out — and presumably move to Canada — “with no questions asked.” (He says he came up with the idea after talking to potential buyers, who seemed to be holding off until the election.) Ekstein, a big supporter of the Democratic candidate, says he’s not worried he’ll lose business. “It’s a very narrow window, and we’re fairly confident he’ll win,” he says.

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Credit Default Swaps Are Not The Bad Guys

David Shafer is a frequent commenter here on BHB and his insights often make me think.  We do not always agree, but I always listen to what he has to say.  He recently posted an interesting and (typically) well written article entitled Credit Default Swaps; The real financial WMD.  You can imagine from the title his take on these instruments.  Part of the article quotes from a recent 60 Minutes segment on credit default swaps  called The Bet That Blew Up Wall Street which is a hatchet job… I mean fair and balanced investigation for which this particular news show has gained such renown.

I commented on this article to the point that it was obvious I was writing a post, which brings us up to date.  I do not agree with the popular sentiment regarding CDS’s and I definitely do not agree with the simplistic view put out by sources such as 60 Minutes that imply derivatives are nothing more than gambling.  The problem is not with the tool but rather the hand that wields the tool (and no doubt, some of the hands at the helm of the credit default swaps market belonged to real tools, if you know what I mean).

Read this very carefully: Credit Default Swaps serve a very legitimate and important purpose.  Derivatives are a must in the market place and here’s why: they provide a hedge on risk.  The ability to hedge risk is an extremely important aspect of our markets.  Without it equities would be lower, rates would be higher and capital would move more slowly.  Derivatives are NOT some bastardized form of gambling.  The suggestion by 60 Minutes and others that they should be outlawed only reflects their rudimentary understanding of how markets work.

I’ll give you an example using a derivative called options, which were my area of specialty as a floor trader.

ABC company insures the debt of XYZ company, allowing XYZ company to borrow desperately needed funds for expansion, research and other job creating endeavors from a large pension fund that would not otherwise have bought XYZ’s bonds (lent them the money).  Read more

The Fed Translated….

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent.   That’s the lowest that it’s been since June of 2004.  If you recall, former Fed Chairman Greenspan is being blamed, in part, for causing the credit crisis by leaving interest rates too low for too long.   How low?  1%.  For how long?  From June of 2003 to June of 2004.

The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly,  that’s a nice way of saying that the economic reports we’ll see for October are much worse than what they were for September owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures the consumer finally is realizing that they can’t do like the government and consistently spend more than they make. Business equipment spending and industrial production have weakened in recent months this isn’t just a housing problem any more, it’s spread much further, and slowing economic activity in many foreign economies our economic problems have spread all over the world is damping the prospects for U.S. exports when other countries are in bad economic straights, we can’t export our way out of a recession . Moreover, the intensification of financial market turmoil is I don’t think it’s a mistake that they use the present tense (is) rather than the past tense (has) – the turmoil is ongoing likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly by further reducing the ability of households and businesses to obtain credit Yes, I think I know what you’re thinking – aren’t all of these bailout programs supposed to get lenders lending and make credit easy again?  More on that later.

In light of the declines in the prices of energy  I saw $2.61 a gallon for gas this morning – but very few people are talking about why they have come down – because of lower demand due to slumping economic activity and other commodities and the weaker prospects for economic activity there’s a brilliant statement – weaker prospects?  Gee, I think my high school junior could see that! the Committee expects inflation Read more

And after Big Mother is finished subsidizing the mortgages of allegedly prosperous, allegedly self-reliant Americans, could it also please wipe their pwetty widdle noses?

When there’s taxpayer teat to be suckled, it seems nobody sucks like Realogy. The essence of Rotarian Socialism is bald-faced theft in behalf of the Rotarians. I cannot imagine a more telling, more shameless, more shameful example of Kleptocratic prevarication.

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LinkedIn As a Prospecting Tool

An old friend of mine recently asked me this about LinkedIn:

I see your active with LinkedIn… have you upgraded to the pay version of the site, and if so, which version and would you be willing to share your feedback with me?

Since I’ll be talking about this at the Bloodhound Blog Unchained Online Marketing Conference, in Orlando, on November 7, 2008, I thought I’d share this answer with the Bloodhound community:

I haven’t upgraded to the pay version but I use LinkedIn obsessively; I have since 2004.

Whenever I meet a new “contact”, I check LinkedIn and Facebook to see if they’re on that platform.  The automated “top of mind status” these platforms provide is invaluable.  If you were to look at my Facebook profile, you’ll see that I’m using the “status” tool a lot to talk about our mutually loved baseball team.  While that conversation has nothing to do with business, it gives past and potential clients a peek into my personal life.  In the age of the participatory web, customers crave information about people with whom they do business.

You’ll also notice that I’ve given people a peek into my political ideology; that’s probably not the best practice for a salesperson. The controversial conversations that spring from a Yankees/Red Sox rivalry are taken in fun.  The controversial conversations that come from ideological differences can drive a potential (or past) clients away.

Generally speaking, LinkedIn (and now Facebook) can be used as a database or CRM.  While it’s hard to balance the stated purpose of these media (connecting) with commercial uses (straight selling), a reasonably intuitive salesperson will learn “the community rules” quickly.

One of the biggest challenges for sales professionals is getting people on the telephone after meeting them on social networking platforms.  If you’re asking or answering questions on LinkedIn Q&A or participating in Facebook groups discussions, you’ll break down the digital wall and those prospective customers will be more receptive to your call.  I feel pretty comfortable calling someone if we’ve had an interesting exchange in the LinkedIn Q&A.  More than 80% of those calls are appreciated and future communication from me Read more

All these Widgets, Idjits, Digits and Midgets are making me fidget.

Every web 2.0 Realtor® that is any web 2.0 Realtor® has at least one or more widgets up and running on their preferred social networking sites. Some Realtors® collect widgets like my son collects insects—strange little trapped creatures placed proudly on display—creatures that I don’t want coming anywhere near me! And, just like my eight-year-old and his obsessions with all things creepy-crawly—I’m not sure if Realtors® really want these things, or if it’s just the thrill of hunting them down, jumping online, sniffing them out, inserting those few lines of pre-written HTML code into their blog like bugs going into my boy’s empty-and-cut-open Mayfield Dairy milk jug. Then, slowly but ever so proudly lifting them up, so the whole world can see their widgets, more widgets, and look, a whole colony of social-networking, virtual-reality widgets.

Or, as I like to call them: Idjits, Digits and Midgets.

The Idjits
– These things give me the creeps. Every time I see one, I think of the little girl from Poltergeist talking about somebody trapped inside her television. The only difference is that these are little faces trapped inside my computer—probably wanting to get out, but can’t. Prisoners in their own private sidebar hell wishing they had spent their time more productively than typing meaningless replies to words they never even read. Now, some agents swear by this widget and even use it as a makeshift stalker tracker. Obviously they don’t know what having a real-life stalker is like. If they did, they would know that the ones you can’t see are the ones you need to worry about. I’m not concerned about the agents staring at me on my computer, I already know what they are doing…or not doing.

The Digits – These contraptions tell people how good you are at selling real estate, how many posts you’ve written, how many points you’ve earned and how often you appear on the front page of such and such social media site. Funny thing is, not once have I ever been asked by a home buyer or seller how many posts I’ve written, how many comments I’ve Read more

Sherry Chris To Be Keynote Speaker at Unchained Orlando Online Marketing Conference

I’m tickled pink with this announcement.  Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes and Garden Real Estate will be the keynote speaker for the Bloodhound Blog Unchained Online Marketing Conference.

Sherry has worked in real estate brokerage since 1980.  She’s worked for Royal Le Page, Real Living, and Prudential California.  She was the Chief Operating Officer at Coldwell Banker (a Realogy company) for about a year before taking the helm at Better Homes and Garden Real Estate last October.

Sherry’s mission?  To leverage a respected consumer brand into a household name for real estate.  Sherry’s comments about her mission:

“This will be a brand that embodies the future of the real estate industry while grounded in the tradition of the home,” said Chris. “The opportunity is tremendous. Better Homes and Gardens has a multi-media consumer brand presence that already exists in millions of households. Meanwhile, we have the rare opportunity to build a new system from the ground up by leveraging our expertise in real estate while benefiting from the full support of Realogy and all of its resources.”

Among the top priorities for the new brand during the next nine months will be the development of a platform that incorporates the best information technologies for both consumers and the real estate professionals who affiliate with the brand. Chris plans to develop a new media-rich Web site that will provide engaging and interactive content for a customer-base now highly adept at using the Internet for its real estate needs.

“We will build the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand with an eye on innovation and a respect for tradition,” said Chris. “Our innovation will be reflected in a contemporary, high-quality service offering that addresses the needs of today’s consumer while providing franchisees with significant competitive advantages. As for tradition, the brand will exemplify a full-service approach to the business that fosters personal relationships to meet the needs of every generation of homebuyers and sellers.”

Unchained Phoenix attendees will remember the brilliant address by Redfin CEO (and Bloodhound) Glenn Kelman.  There, Glen offered an “open-kimono” approach to his business model and discussed the power technology has to Read more

God Save Me From Another Real Estate Flyer

Over the past couple weeks I have been reading every real estate flyer I could find.  I am sure many of you are asking why I would submit myself to such torture… and you would be right to ask.  If I had to guess, eight out of every ten flyers I read were sheer torture.  How familiar does this sound:

Just look at all the room in this lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch style single family residence with attached garage.  Enjoy 1742 square feet of flowing space with enough room for parties or quiet solitude overlooking your own private backyard.  Hurry, this one won’t last long!

Did you just call that home a “single family residence?”  Why are you repeating the bedrooms and baths?  Is that information not available somewhere more appropriate?   Who are you talking to when you look up over your slide rule and say 1742 square feet?  Appraisers?  Contractors?  How many people do you think know the difference between 1742 square feet and 1648?  Or even 1700?  “Honey, stop the car!  This house has that extra 42 square feet we have been dreaming about.”  Please STOP… or you won’t last long.

Most of the real estate marketing I see starts like this and goes downhill from there.  The reason is simple: this is not real estate marketing.  Unfortunately, most agents do not know the difference.  I attribute some of this to the poor copy writing we are inundated with via the television and a lot of it to the fact that marketing is just not taught, or at least not taught well.

THE BIG FIVE
Over the next few posts I am going to discuss real estate marketing.  The list of potentially innovative ways to market a home are never-ending.  Many new ideas are shared right here on BloodhoundBlog.  I do not hold any illusions of being so creative myself.  But I do understand the basics of marketing and I am quite adept at borrowing great ideas from other people.  With that being said, in the next couple of posts I am going to discuss the five basics everyone should be doing:

  1. MLS Read more

Fire Up the Echo Chamber, This Time It’s Hot.

If you can’t yet make the grade as an Inmanically Annointed Blogger, there may be a place for you.   All you have to do is to Twit enough ass, and you too can be part of sepia tones and the best use of the Impact font on the RE.NET.   Come one and all, and sit at the cool table.  Daddy issues?  Who cares, we want you here, in the land-where-no-idea-is-too-stupid to be published, and no agent is too lazy to be anointed as the next superstar.

Just join the land of no dissent!  Crazy micromanaging?  Check!  Comment quotas, Check.  Are you keeping up?  Make nice.  Oh yeah, a search function that gives you no useful data, but lots of images?  We have that too!   We’re way ahead of you.   Keep up, chop chop!  Geniuses skip your apostrophes, it’s time to boogie.

OH, I’m talking about the newest and stupidest offer by a once great blog.     It wasn’t that long ago that the ‘nice’ folks at AG were an ideasphere, a  kickass content focused blog with good writing and great ideas. Is it still even navigable?  Hmm.  I guess I must not be keeping up.

But now, no dissent is tolerated, and everyone is an echo…and the writing that makes up weblogs is no longer featured.  Nobody’s saying we should be at the bilous level of dementia that Barry Cunningham’s at, but let’s crack some skulls and reason together.  It wasn’t that long ago at all that the folks there were contributing to the body and pushing ideas–not people–into the forefront.

But, when you feel like you’ve arrived, and insist that you’re cool (get out of your reader, we’re so cool here), nothing good happens.  Ego takes over, and we’re talking egotism, not egoism.

Remember: when you don’t agree with us, you’re being disagreeable.  Our paper-thin-sense-of efficacy can’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny.    See, we have some really stupid time wasting ideas that aren’t well suited to an individual agent trying to sell 30 houses a year, or a loan officer who is surviving this business.  We’ll live twit it all though, and every conference-turned-hookupfest Read more