Month: July 2009 (page 3 of 3)

July 12, 2009

My wife and I recently learned, though we had very strong suspicions before, that Beth’s dad has Alzheimer’s. He’s forgetting everything now. Not just things mundane, but things that I’m pretty sure he desperately would never want to forget.

David McGregor is his name. You’ll forget it, of course, in just a matter of hours. His life was exemplary up until now by most standards. Farm boy. World War II navigator in the Pacific. Shot at. Emotionally tried. Grown up before the full bloom of youth had passed. Husband. Father. Engineer. Farmer. Christian. Words that we only really come to know by watching men like him live their lives. Men we only come to know by watching them fail, sin, prosper, behave like saints and embrace life.

So I was musing this Sunday. Wondering what I’ve forgotten, who I’ve forgotten.

The disease we call Alzheimer’s will no longer be a stranger to either Beth or myself, just as other diseases are no longer strangers in your own homes, families and friends. Amongst the Bloodhound men and women are these very same quiet bearers of either a disease or the weight of sharing that disease with a loved one.

So I was musing today, this Sunday, and I wanted to stop for a short time to let all of you, anyone reading who loves and bears and carries a burden know….

I won’t forget. Not on this Sunday morning coming down…..

July 11, 2009

What drives your fear of flying solo?

by Jolenta Averill

Realtor, Indie Broker

airplane wing & fluffy white clouds on a beautiful blue day In my endless quest to dispel the many myths surrounding what it takes to thrive as an independent broker, I’ve compiled a list of the top ten ways agents deceive themselves into thinking that they can’t – or shouldn’t – set up shop on their own.

1. Creating a “sense of community”

Unless you’re actively recruiting, the last thing you probably need to be doing is hanging out at an office chit-chatting with other agents. Sure there’s endless entertainment and comic relief swapping horror stories and real estate tips and yes, you’re building rapport with other agents that could help a future deal go more smoothly than otherwise. But let’s face it, ultimately you’re just wasting time. If you need to create a sense of community, being active in your local community is a far better, more authentic, alternative. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or another cause you have a passion for. Create a true sense of belonging while building a meaningful network of contacts outside of – but related to – real estate. If you want contact with other agents use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and ActiveRain to interface with agents outside your market. You may even find you feel freer to share with those who aren’t your direct competition and with whom you may wind up being able to refer business to in the future.

2. Access to real estate expertise

Early in my career I did several transactions involving options to sell that only one broker in my company knew how to handle. Since there is an endless number of ways that transactions can evolve, there are many experienced, competent brokers who don’t know or who don’t have all the answers. That’s one of the most attractive things about real estate, in my opinion. Never a dull moment. Granted, I don’t advise anyone to go out on their own until they have a critical mass of transactions under their belt. For me personally I felt that number was about 100 transactions (five years) but your mileage may vary. I am always shocked when people with six months or a Read more

July 10, 2009

Finding Perfection in Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Earlier this week I was watching some old reruns of M*A*S*H. What a well done series that was; funnier the first few years than it was later, in my opinion, because they got more political. But the later years did give us a terrific character: Major Charles Emerson Winchester III. Do you remember this guy? What a pompous ass he was. Speaking of pompous asses, why am I spending your valuable time reminiscing about a sitcom? Good question, but I’ve got an even better answer.

I’m a big believer in being present. If you’ve read any of my stuff or heard me speak, then you already know this. As a matter of fact, if you’re anything like the agents I meet out here, you might even be tired of hearing it. You might find the whole topic a little touchy-feely. “There goes Sean again. He might be a debonair, handsome, witty, intelligent, entertaining, man-of-action; but I’m tired of the Zen-happiness thing. (I took a little license imagining what your thought about me might be; you might not actually find me debonair…) So today I’m going to sneak a little happiness in on you using pop culture: M*A*S*H to be specific.

Back to Major Charles Emerson Winchester III; as much of a buffoon as he was, the writers also gave him some of the most interesting lines. I’m thinking of two in particular. During one of his character’s early episodes, by way of explaining himself to the other doctors, he says, “I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, then I move on.” That’s a great line isn’t it? “I do one thing at a time…” sounds like someone who is present. Someone who is focused on what he’s doing right then and there. So far, so good. “I do it very well…” Hmmm, a little ego coming in here; not so much about being present as it is being recognized by others for his accomplishments. “Then I move on.” OK, so now we see that he’s not really present at all. He’s thinking about the next thing, but before Read more

July 8, 2009

San Diego dogs: When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to San Diego during the NAR Convention, will you be ready to stand up and howl?

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

When we wrapped up BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, Brian Brady and I were already talking about doing an event in San Diego during the National Association of Realtors Convention. Since then, we’ve both gotten really busy, which makes planning for anything difficult.

But: We’re both bursting with lots of new ideas. Brian was regaling me on the phone tonight with some incredible viral conversion ideas. I know that Teri Lussier wants me to talk about persuasive copy, but right now I’m more interested in the persuasive power of the elephant in the room. Plus which, there are a lot of Bloodhounds we can call upon to talk to us about what they’ve been doing.

As with last year’s Unchained in Orlando, the NAR has attempted to lock up every possible meeting space, and, as with last year, they’ve failed to lock us out.

My question is this: When we come to town, who is coming with us? What we’re going to do is a one-day event, an all-day marathon of ideas. I’m inclined to support freedom-loving people everywhere, so we might also stage an adhocratic mastermind session while we’re there — partly a scenius, partly a demonstration of the intellectual mettle of this little apartnership we have going. When the Bloodhounds howl, criminals and cockroaches run for cover.

This is just running a flag up the pole to see who salutes. The price is $100 for the one-day event, and, if you make the commitment, we’ll give you a $100 break on the price of our next full conference in Phoenix. If you want to join us, click the PayPal button below.

Click on the PayPal button shown below to get your $100 ticket for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in San Diego on Friday, November 13th, 2009

Here’s a real kick in the head: I will turn 50 years old that weekend. If you’re in town with us Friday, we’ll cut you a piece of birthday cake.

July 8, 2009

What’s the End Goal To be?

by Chris Johnson

Instigator, anthill kicker.

I’ve been migrating all of my data to Infusionsoft lately. A little at a time. Easy does it. One list, suck it in, de dupe it, and on with the next. Tag it. Infusionsoft is powerful stuff. A good tool. I hate the counterintuitive interface. I hate the fact that you can’t ‘tag’ people at account creation without saving. I hate the fact that the Usability Team was likely ignored. And I hate their customer service, which is of the same ethos as big boiler room refi shops from 2004. That’s all I’m gonna say. There are things to hate about it, just like there are things to hate about ACT!, Heap, and whatever CRM Mark Green whips out.

But, all that aside, Infusionsoft does a lot right. It combines an auto-responder, some analytics, a project manager and a goal tracker in the same spot. It tells you what to do, step by step. And you can set up smart workflows for different things. Right now, I’m underusing it.

What it taught me was a fundamental weakness in my business. Before I can sell, before I can scale, I have to create a coherent, robust & predictable customer experience. Meaning this: when I send people to a web page, or offer, Infusionsoft strongly suggests I know what happens next. And in my nascent business, selling blogs and social media propagation, I don’t know what happens next. I haven’t engineered a good enough customer experience to throw a bunch of customers at it. Yet. I’m tons closer today than I was yesterday, and this weekend was “what I want to happen time.”

But there’s the rub: most CRMs fill a leaking bucket. You throw some autoresponders and newsletters at people, and yeah, they’ll perform. The efficiency loss is never addressed: what happens when you make a sale.

And the other one: most people, especially D’s hate to be scripted. They hate to feel like they’re on some assembly line that they do not control. I lose time, personally, not in my ability to sell and market but because I have so many points that need to Read more

July 6, 2009

Why Web 2.0 Still Hasn’t Mastered the Real Estate Mantra: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

by Thomas Hall

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

So Goggle thinks it’s going to win the real estate search game. As far as I’m concerned, there is no more meaningless a result in an online property search than a red pin designating the location of a property on a map. Take the map above in the example – a snapshot of the the greater New York City area with little red dots designating search results. New York’s a big city with alot of little neighborhoods. Help me understand how this solution is any better than any of the others? How has Google upped the ante in providing a better solution?

They haven’t.

What I find interesting about the online search game is how many players fail to understand what makes a particular property unique – desirable – a one of a kind. How does a little red dot convey the weighty significance of LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION? I just read Joe Burslem’s post over at FOREM, regarding how Google is now getting serious about real estate.

Should Zillow and Trulia be worried? Not if they view search as a value added activity. SEO juice isn’t necessarily the fuel that runs an effective or valuable search. The content around the search is key. What makes a location important? When consumers seek a home – not a house – what evokes the emotional response? A view? The possibility of walking to a farmer’s market on Sunday, while passing a Starbucks?

A street view is a “window” into a location, but it doesn’t define it’s personality. Location has an identity. Zillow has already done the homework to identify the boundaries to neighborhoods. Perhaps a valuable next step may be to better identify a neighborhood’s identity – its personality – or maybe link the characteristics of a location to the attributes of a property.

If a search result can personify a property’s location, consistent with how a consumer lives, the red pin comes alive. Search is meaningful.

Google – you’ve got your work cut out for you.

July 2, 2009

Rotarian Socialism in action: Taking lessons from the NAR and the NAMB, Wal-Mart is using compulsory health insurance as a weapon to destroy its smaller competitors

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Today is July the Second, the date of the actual drafting of the Declaration of Independence. By now the United States is just another National Socialist oligarchy, a savage jungle of predatory pressure groups, each one looking to plunder the national treasury at the expense of all the others, each one hiding behind an elaborate camouflage of high-blown rhetoric.

Whatever the putative purpose of some piece of legislation, the actual purpose is to advantage some pressure groups to the disadvantage of others. The putative purpose and the high-blown rhetoric are for the children — for the dumb-ass voters, that is — while the legislators and the lobbyists know that its all a matter of getting in enough snout-time at the public trough.

Freedom means freedom from government — nothing else. We trade our freedom away a drop at a time, like a never ending blood transfusion, never pausing to think that the pigs at the trough might not stop at just a little blood, might not stop at the replacement rate, might not stop until every drop of blood, every dollar of excess production and every last liberty of the American people are completely exsanguinated.

The American patriots bellowed, “No taxation without representation!” We have since learned that this actually means, “We yearn to be fools and jackals in our own behalf!” And the cackle we deliver up to black humor is a premonitory death rattle. For it is obvious that the man being taxed is not represented, and the man with his snout in the taxpayer’s trough is represented in ways you know nothing about.

Consider this atrocity of Wal-Mart’s, a company once deserving of great respect, brought to us by Cato @ Liberty:

A couple of years ago, I shared a cab to the airport with a Wal-Mart lobbyist, who told me that Wal-Mart supports an “employer mandate.” An employer mandate is a legal requirement that employers provide a government-defined package of health benefits to their workers. Only Hawaii and Massachusetts have enacted such a law.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Wal-Mart is a capitalist success story. At the time of our conversation, Read more

July 1, 2009

Follow me on this; I hope Cap & Trade passes for all our sakes!

by Al Lorenz

Realtor, Media Mogul

Do I really want the Cap & Trade lunacy, its huge loss of freedoms and destruction that will be wrought to the economy, including the real estate industry? No, not really. But I think it might be better than the alternative.

Because WHAT I WANT is for Americans to WAKE UP! I think Cap & Trade, HR 2454, may be just the ticket.

Surely, this will wake people up to what is happening! Skyrocketing energy costs, tax hikes, economic stagnation or worse and the nanny state in places it should never have been considered. Won’t that be enough to wake folks up?

I’m very concerned about what it might take to get the public to finally understand. Has public education wrought us a feckless population that has turned off their brains and are simply cannon fodder for smooth talking thieving politicians? Has that been the end game all along? There aren’t too many places left in the world to go where capitalism is still valued. When the U.S.A. is taking a more socialist stance than the People’s Republic of China on economic intervention, I have to wonder how folks have lost appreciation for why America is great.

So, back to Cap & Trade, or “Clean Energy” or whatever con they’re calling it. You see, I figure Cap and Trade can be made to go away pretty quickly. Sure, it will set us back and cost us just like the still to be spent stimulus money will cost us. Call it tuition for the American public whose memory is so far gone they can’t even remember back to Jimmy Carter. Again I digress, but that lesson was good enough to get us Ronald Reagan at the time.

What won’t be so easy to make go away is nationalized health care. I don’t think the lobbies that would support keeping Cap & Trade in place would be anything like the uproar that would occur if Nationalized Health Care, if it happens, has to be reduced or dismantled. So, I would rather have the populace figure out what a bad deal this whole socialist thing is with energy than Read more

July 1, 2009

It’s A Wonderful Life – A Eulogy from California

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Realtor, Renaissance Man

If you check out any of my social media profiles you’ll come to find that “It’s a Wonderful Life” with James Stewart is my absolute favorite of all time. Sure, I’m a Star Trek fan, a Dirty Harry fan, and lots’ more, but this movie captures the heart and soul of both an individual man, his family, and the community in which he lives. It is simply a great piece of art.

Usually I don’t think about “It’s a Wonderful Life” until December, since that’s when the movie usually plays on TNT, or the mainstream stations. But today, after seeing a clip from a financial news show with a colleague, I was suddenly dumbstruck with something that just has to get out of my head now.

It so happens that today is the first day of California’s umpteenth failure to pass a balanced budget, so it’s not as if I haven’t lived through this before. California’s budget, like those of the counties and cities that make up this Golden state, have been turning putrid for quite some time.

Some thoughts and insights have fomented and seethed in me for over a year now, and perhaps using “It’s a Wonderful Life” as an example, I can at least unleash the demons that beset my thinking on this recurring and repulsive problem.

Take seven minutes and watch the America I grew up in. It’s a wonderful piece, with a message we’ll talk about down below.

Sorry, I had to wipe some tears again. I’m a real softy when it comes to communities, straight thinking, generosity and courage.

What stuck to my craw this morning when I was forced to think again about California and its problems was the fact that our sense of community is almost gone, forfeited by years of greed, selfishness, NIMBY’s and the pervasive idea that “I’ll take all I can get, when I can get it, from whomever I can get it.”

Teri, not Dayton, of course.

Here’s the heart of my heartbreak. With schools about to lose and children losing more, medical care being shut off, community programs Read more

July 1, 2009

NAR Responds To Cap and Trade Concerns

by Dave Phillips

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Since Greg’s post last week stirred up some good discussion of what NAR should be doing about the crazy energy bill, I thought I’d pass along the official word from NAR. Personally, I think the Senate is going to kill or “fix” the bill – after all, they will actually have time to read it, discuss it, and have dialog with the public BEFORE they vote on it.

From NAR

What Does the House-Passed Climate Bill Do?
The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the House recently, takes a multi-pronged approach to improving energy efficiency and NAR weighed in primarily to ensure existing homes and buildings are made exempt from the bill’s energy labeling program. That effort was successful. The bill limits the energy labeling provisions to new construction. The legislation addresses NAR concerns in other ways: 1) prohibits EPA from regulating carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings under the Clean Air Act, 2) eliminates a proposal to bolster a private right of action (making it easier for citizens to sue over minor climate risks), and 3) provides property owners with financial incentives to make energy efficiency and other property improvements. The Senate must pass its version, but timing is uncertain. A summary of issues is available online.

Should NAR be more aggressive in fighting this legislation? Maybe, but maybe they are better off watering down the important uber-crazy items like mandatory energy ratings. Also, NAR likely feels they have a better chance of success with the Senate. Just read former Senate Majority Leaders Trent Lott’s book Herding Cats to see how hard this will be to get through the Senate. Even with a Democratic Majority of 60 it will be very hard to get this passed. The fight is just starting and I applaud Greg for his justifiable outrage.

Month: July 2009 (page 3 of 3)

Sunday Morning Musings

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Try not to forget the simple – the majestic – the pure

What drives your fear of flying solo?

by Jolenta Averill

Finding Perfection in Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

San Diego dogs: When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to San Diego during the NAR Convention, will you be ready to stand up and howl?

by Greg Swann

What’s the End Goal To be?

by Chris Johnson

Why Web 2.0 Still Hasn’t Mastered the Real Estate Mantra: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

by Thomas Hall

Rotarian Socialism in action: Taking lessons from the NAR and the NAMB, Wal-Mart is using compulsory health insurance as a weapon to destroy its smaller competitors

by Greg Swann

Follow me on this; I hope Cap & Trade passes for all our sakes!

by Al Lorenz

It’s A Wonderful Life – A Eulogy from California

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

NAR Responds To Cap and Trade Concerns

by Dave Phillips

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