BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Greg Swann (page 44 of 209)

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

November 9, 2011

Hey, Ron Phipps: I say the National Association of Realtors is a rent-seeking Rotarian Socialist conspiracy against the American consumer. Can you offer even one argument to refute that claim?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

My friend and partner, the ever-more-Unchained Brian Brady, posted a Facebook link to a Wall Street Journal article on the current push by the National Association of Realtors for extended loan subsidies for the rich:

To understand why 90% of U.S. mortgages are still underwritten by taxpayers, look no further than the nearby letter from Ron Phipps of the Realtors lobby. He makes clear that the Realtors, like the rest of the housing-subsidy crowd, are working hard to get Congress to reinstate a $729,750 loan-limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantees.

Why do rich people need taxpayer-underwritten home loans? They don’t, of course. The NAR needs loan subsidies at all income-levels to keep churning the real estate market.

In case you haven’t looked at your bank statements or retirement accounts lately, the NAR has already churned the American economy into a five-year coma. But like every other legislative vampire, the NAR won’t stop sucking away at unearned income until the body politic is entirely exsanguinated — bled to death.

This latest Five-Alarm Urgent Action Item — one of three or four a week Phipps and his minions spam-spew — is nothing more than an extension of the original NAR philosophy: Milk consumers, taxpayers and real estate salespeople for the benefit of brokers.

Do you doubt me?

The real estate licensing laws, written in their original form by the NAR, exist to limit competition in real estate brokerage, eliminating alternative sources of real estate brokerage to artificially sustain higher commissions for NAR brokers.

The sales commission co-brokerage fee — the vaunted “cooperation” among brokers — exists to create the Multiple Listings Service oligopoly, the golden handcuffs by which real estate salespeople are bound to their brokers and to the NAR — and which, not-coincidentally, continues the viciously anti-consumer NAR policy of de facto sub-agency.

The IRS “safe harbor” exclusion shielding real estate brokers from having to report income for their employees makes it possible for brokers to churn-and-burn gullible real estate salespeople like a toy store burns through your kid’s allowance money. No other business can afford to treat human capital — that would be you — like so Read more

November 7, 2011

What’s your marketing plan for 2012? Set a Bloodhound’s pace this Friday at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re having a Scenius this Friday in Anaheim, a BloodhoundBlog Unchained event that we’re running, subversively, during the NAR Convention. We’ve done this before, but the NAR was a lot more powerful the last time. By now it just seems pathetic — but we don’t much care either way.

We care a lot about the Scenius, though. What we do is put a lot of bright, ambitious people together and then revel in the great ideas that emerge from the synergy. Our guests are some of the inventors of the wired world of real estate, and they will have lots of new ides to explore.

Just think: Since the last time we did BloodhoundBlog Unchained, Google has come to be beset by Bing, Twitter by Facebook and the web by app-centric mobile computing. Seems like a good time to rethink your marketing strategies, doesn’t it.

If you’re going to be in Disneyville for the NAR Convention, or if you’re within driving distance, join us.

Here are the details:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000
Mapped.

The dogs will hit town Thursday afternoon, so, if you’re around, look us up. But the main action will be Friday. I know there are seats left, I’m not sure how many. If you want to get your 2012 off to a running start, assert yourself:

Make the Scene: $99


















November 6, 2011

A cocktail to keep a Bloodhound hunting: Thirty-Six Hours in Vegas.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

It would be not-quite-correct to say that I don’t drink. I don’t object to casual drinking intellectually or philosophically, but it has never appealed to me. I will toast with Irish whiskey when appropriate, and I will sometimes have a beer with pizza-and-wings or Mexican food, but my absolute favorite beverage is dihydromonoxide, and alcoholic drinks of any sort are well down the list for me. De gustibus non est disputandum.

But I wanted to come up with something that I could stand to drink when I want to drink with Cathy on our date nights — at home, in town or in Las Vegas. So I invented my own cocktail, the top-secret recipe for which I will now share with you:

Thirty-Six Hours in Vegas

In a 24-ounce glass, pour over 8 ounces of ice:

One shot (or more) Tequila
One bottle of Lemon-Lime flavored Five-Hour Energy
12 ounces of Mountain Dew

Quite a bit sweeter than a Margarita, and very nicely caffeinated. That much liquid lasts me a long time, so I don’t notice the alcohol much, but I get all that good Mountain Dew stuff — hydration, sugar, sodium.

I’ll be in Anaheim for 36 hours later this week, but I doubt I’ll have one of these. If you make one for yourself, I’ll be interested to hear what you think about it.

November 2, 2011

Who said this? “The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief.”

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Witness:

But the stark fact before us is that great numbers still remain unemployed.

A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able—bodied but destitute workers.

The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief.

These games are no challenge in the Age of Google, but I think you’ll be surprised to learn the name of the author of this text.

November 1, 2011

The role of information hiding in keeping all of us enslaved to the state.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my book Janio at a Point. I wrote this in 1988 as a sort of blueprint to Agorism, anarcho-capitalism. It questions everything, which is why its proscriptions often meet resistance from people who are in love with human freedom except when it’s inconvenient or prevents them from pushing other people around. I would write the book differently today — and I plan to rewrite it before I die — but there is almost nothing I would change in its philosophy.

 

Information Hiding

We have looked at a number of the obviously tragic consequences of government, but there are others of which we can take account that are not so obvious. You can call it “beating a dead horse” if you want, a Madness. So be it. I want to make sure that horse stays dead…

All of these non-obvious effects are the result of what I call Information Hiding. We can easily see that government commits crimes: it taxes, regulates, conscripts, murders — all in a day’s work. And there is no barrier to our noticing that the state is lousy at keeping Crime from occurring and recovering losses. What is not so easy to notice is the way the government, by its crimes, contributes to non-governmental crimes…

This is no absolution. The man who wields a gun deserves to be shot. If he is misled by the state into thinking that this is an intelligent solution to the problem of survival, it is still only he who is in charge of his brain. It is still only he who motivates himself to pick up that gun. No matter what “egged him on” and how, it is still only he who is acting. If he commits a crime, he is at fault.

But it is worthwhile to look to the actions of government, to see if they do induce people to commit crimes. I say they do, and, moreover, that the actions of government tend to dilute the value of self-preservation and self-love. Beating a dead horse though it may be, I say that the idea of government is at war with human Read more

October 26, 2011

Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me writing in June of 2007. Someone linked to it from Twitter yesterday, and I read it for the first time in years. The argument holds up — there has never been any attempt at rigorous refutation — but it’s even more interesting now that America has discovered what Sarah Palin and others are calling “crony capitalism” — the pandemic affliction I call Rotarian Socialism or simply rent-seeking.

When I wrote this, I was sure that the real estate licensing laws had nothing to fear. Things have changed. For a first thing, when state governments have to choose between marginal departments and continuing to provide a food dole to reliable voters, the state department of real estate could see huge budget cuts. But even better, sooner or later it will dawn on people that the only way to push “businesspeople” like the NAR off the taxpayer’s tit is to repeal all commercial regulation.

That’s a game-changer. If you’re good at actually delivering value to your clients, so much the better for you. The free market rewards virtue. And if you’ve been depending on the NAR and all those huge stacks of rent-seeking legislation for your income — good luck at your next job… –GSS

 
Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel

When I walk into a supermarket, the first thing I look at are the floors. If they aren’t buffed to a blinding glow, I walk right back out. Why? Because if the manager isn’t staying on top of the floor maintenance, he isn’t staying on top of anything else, either. Without doubt, I am “protected” by vast armies of federal, state and local food cops, but it turns out that they are not willing to get food poisoning in my place. If I fail to guard my own self-interest, the courts might make me (or my heirs) whole — after-the-fact. But nothing can protect me if I won’t protect myself.

Surely you effect many similar sorts of “consumer protection” in your own behalf, possibly believing in your heart that the Read more

October 20, 2011

Buy a McMansion, get a free McVisa. And, if you act right now, we’ll give you two McVisas for every McMansion you buy. (Just pay separate shipping and handling.)

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I could say I wish it were a joke, but the entire United States government is becoming a joke: Senator Charles Schumer (D-Hades) wants to give free visas to foreign nationals who buy luxury real estate:

Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates.

To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out.

The measure would complement existing visa programs that allow foreigners to enter the U.S. if they invest in new businesses that create jobs. Backers believe the initiative would help soak up an excess supply of inventory when many would-be American home buyers are holding back because they’re concerned about their jobs or because they would have to take a big loss to sell their current house.

“This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel,” Sen. Schumer said in an interview.

I love this on so many levels:

First, it’s more Rotarian Socialism: Subsidize the rich, since it’s their over-built, over-priced houses that aren’t selling.

Second, the proposal makes plain that U.S. immigration policy is just more Rotarian Socialism claptrap: It’s not about securing borders but securing pocketbooks.

But third, who wants to come here now? Not only is our economy crushed under the weight of a century of Rotarian Socialist kleptocracy, but there are actual proto-cannibal savages congregating in the public parks, goading each other into a homicidal rage. Any sane millionaire would have to say, “I left São Paolo for this?”

As always, Matt and Trey have the best answer to cant: “Vamos, Mantequilla!”

October 17, 2011

Why can’t the MLS or the mafia innovate? And what should you do instead of being an NAR goon?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Today, Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman warns us that we may be “outsourcing our brains” because MLS systems are so stupid:

I worry about whether the fundamental choice we made five years ago was the right choice, that if we played by the rules and used MLS data that we would be able to build a better Web site or a worse Web site. And, I think, the jury is still out there. But, I promise you, if brokers aren’t building the best Web sites for real estate consumers, we are headed for pain. Pain for the customer, pain for the broker.

For weeks now I’ve been sitting on a post by FBS CEO Michael Wurzer summarizing half-a-dozen non-starter ideas for MLS innovation. I’ve been waiting, so far in vain, for someone to post a comment stating the obvious:

Why can’t the MLS innovate? For the same reasons the mafia and the government can’t innovate: Criminals steal so they won’t have to produce wealth.

When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to Anaheim, we’ll be covering lots of nuts and bolts tactics for the hard-working grunts on the ground — as you would expect. But we’ll also be talking about very big ideas, most notably how to run our business like a business and not a crime syndicate.

I know Realtors don’t like to hear the truth about how the National Association of Realtors has behaved over the past 100 years, but just as with the leviathan state, the time we have left for childish stupidity is running out.

I can’t cause the congenital Rotarian Socialists of the NAR to discover, honor and live up to their humanity. But I can show you how to build a lasting business you can be proud of — by behaving like an honest trader and not like a predator.

I am not anti-NAR. I am not anti-MLS. I am not even anti-socialist or anti-graft or anti-sleaze. What I am is pro-values. If you will give me a few minutes of your time, I will show you how working with integrity in the real estate business is as simple as pursuing your own values — exclusively.

If Read more

October 10, 2011

Bocephus wants y’all to know: A country boy can survive.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Just that quick:

The song is not new. If he were truly net.wise, Hank could have had this done the same day he quit/got fired. Even so, he’s close enough in time for the response to resonate.

I’m not taking sides in any of this; the man was a fool to go off message when we was making a PR run at a dipshit talk-show. But: The whole episode is fun to watch.

Jump now and you can download the recording for free.

October 6, 2011

Brian Brady makes it happen: BloodhoundBlog Unchained is on for Anaheim, Friday, November 11, 2011.

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Brian Brady got us a room, may the gods whisper his name in awe. We’re working on sponsorship, and I’ll have speaker announcements in the coming days. Here’s the big picture:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000

We’re going split the day between formal presentations and Scenius scenes. No one can predict where lightning will strike, but we have delivered transformative experiences before. If you go to the NAR sessions that day, you can look forward to being upsold on crap. Come see us and we could change your life forever.

That’s sounds like a value proposition to me.

I’ll have more to say soon, but right now I want to give people who are paying attention a chance to jump. We have a very limited number of seats, so if being there matters to you, get your credit card out now.

Make the Scene: $99


















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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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