BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Russell Shaw (page 5 of 10)

Mega-Producing Realtor

September 29, 2007

Foxtons Almost Gone – About to Become a Footnote in Real Estate History

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Some of the “we do nothing for less crowd” got very good at marketing themselves to the broad public. They did this at a time when the average busboy or cab driver could have easily listed and sold a house. A few short years ago it was uncertain if the market disruption “full service at a much lower price” companies (yes really, service that is just beyond belief) had gotten a meaningful toehold and were here to stay.

That question is being answered again and again on a daily basis. Foxtons announcement that they were filing bankruptcy is one of my favorites. I don’t like them and I am quite delighted they have failed utterly. It isn’t often that I take delight in any company failing but for them (and anyone like them) I make an exception. They did everything they could to ruin the lives of others.

I want to be very clear on this, I am NOT “against discounters”. I was giving a talk the other day to a group of Realtors and mentioned Foxtons having already closed one office completely and now it looked like they were going to be gone for good. One member of the audience immediately said something about ZIP Realty. Totally different situation. Just totally different. Yes, I inadvertently started a fire (that may never go out) when I wrote this post, but I have nothing against ZIP, and neither does the public. Further, any competing agents who have lost business to them lost it fair and square. ZIP has a website that the public LOVES. Really. We’ve had several potential clients mention to us how much they liked the ZIP Realty site. We have had numerous cross sales with ZIP agents and have had nothing but completely professional people on the other side of any transaction we have ever had with them.

What then is the difference I am protesting here? Why would I have nothing against Help-U-Sell, Assist 2 Sell , ZIP Realty and find Foxtons to be so despicable that I am delighted they are shutting their doors in the United States? Simple, Foxtons Read more

September 24, 2007

Stand by for the real estate market shakeup

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

This is excerpted from today’s Inman News:

“RealUmbrella, a new site for home buyers and sellers that launches today in California, will not make many friends in the real estate brokerage industry, but it’s not supposed to.

At its Web site, the company states that brokers, Realtors and agents that exist today “are being re-purposed for tomorrow. Stand by for the real estate market shakeup.”

The company seeks to link for-sale-by-owner buyers and sellers directly in an online platform that features digital documents and electronic signatures for a flat fee.”

Here is the URL, www.realumbrella.com, so you can see for yourself the Big Giant Threat this particular we-do-nothing-for-less-in-fact-we’re-almost-like-a-real-Real-Umbrella-logocompany poses to Realtors. It might be good to note that there is NO company, proposal, idea or random thought ever, that attacks Realtors, that is too irrelevant for Inman to not select as “feature news”. It’s all good. I love the quote from some not-quite-bright dimwit, “brokers, Realtors and agents that exist today are being re-purposed for tomorrow. Stand by for the real estate market shakeup.”

I am standing by. Enjoying the hallucinatory thought process that would lead to making such a stupid statement. I’m thinking that Dave Liniger letting a fart over the weekend will have a greater effect than anything the RealUmbrella company will ever do.

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NUMBER1EXPERTlogoOn the off chance that you did not receive an email from Best Image Marketing, I am giving a “webinar” on Wednesday morning (9 AM PT). Anyone can listen in, if they care to. Here is the link to register. There are some great past webinars there as well and I’m thinking that the one I do Wednesday will wind up there a day or so later, if Wednesday morning isn’t convenient for you.

September 22, 2007

Approving A Loan The Careless Way

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Just ran across this in letters to the editor section of the Aug 13 issue of BusinessWeek. Wanted to pass it along.

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Approving A Loan The Careless Waybusinessweek logo

“Why Fannie and Freddie are fidgety” (News & Insights, July 30) talks about “low-documentation loans.” It would be interesting to know how many “fake-documentation loans” have been made.

About three years ago we subpoenaed the mortgage application that a plaintiff in a bogus lawsuit had submitted to a national lender. Attached to her application were copies of W-2 forms stolen from two different people whose annual earnings were much higher than the plaintiff’s. The plaintiff had simply pasted her own name onto the copies. She did not even bother changing the Social Security numbers on the W-2 forms.

Thus, the lender received an application with two W-2 forms, which, between them, contained three different Social Security numbers. They still approved the loan!

David L. Hagan
Pismo Beach, Calif.

September 11, 2007

Are People Who Don’t Understand “The Dip” Complete Morons?

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Matt Kinsey and Ken Wheaton are educated idiots. Here are the book reviews they wrote for “The Dip” by Seth Godin. I sent that link with those reviews to Greg Swann just as the book was being released. I suppose you could say I was trying to help him not waste his time going to hear Seth speak. Seth Godin came to Phoenix and I didn’t go to see him. That was pretty stupid of me to allow myself to be influenced by those two reviews. Even though I had loved his earlier book, Purple Cow, I bought into their reviews.idiot test

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Dean Selvey called me telling me he had a book he wanted me to read. He drove over to my office to give it to me. It was The Dip. I was leaving the next day to fly to San Jose to give a seminar for Starpower and took it with me to read on the plane. DAMN! What a simple and wonderful viewpoint Seth communicates in this easy to read, easy to understand book.

Get ALL the way in or get ALL the way out. Do it or don’t do it. Be the best or skip it. These concepts are apparently so advanced that some reviewers just can’t grasp them at all. They need a checklist (maybe for them Seth could write a manual on how to chew soft bread?), for sure they aren’t going to look directly at anything.

Today, Dean and I had lunch. It was very good. It was his turn to buy, so I really enjoyed it. Thanks for lunch and for the book. 🙂
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On a completely different note, here is a very nice write up on setting up a real estate sales assembly line from the legendary Ralph Roberts. Ralph was one of the original Superstar agents – he was one of the guys who did it back when there was no one to copy – he was a trail blazer. He understood The Dip.

September 7, 2007

I Want My Half

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

An email I received:

Dear Russell;

How many years have you been in Real Estate here in the valley? (I know it has been a long time)

We were going to build a custom home for resale in Circle G Ranches Silvercreek, which is in Gilbert. We had a lot partner that owned the lot and would subordinate it to us to get the construction loan. When the project was completed and sold, all debts would be paid and the profits would be split 50/50.

The deal did not work out. The real estate market (as you are very aware) has softened. The lot she bought in March 2006 for $485,000.00 has now appraised for $430,000.00. The lot owner feels she has suffered a loss on the lot and wants us to split the $55,000.00 loss, yet she will keep the lot and in the future either sell the lot or build a home on it.

What do you think? We think she hasn’t suffered a loss until the lot is sold and she officially suffers a loss.

Thank you for your time.

half-halfThis is my 30th year in the real estate business. I started with John Hall & Associates early in the year in 1978. Now for the far more important question, has your lot investor suffered a real loss. It depends on how you look at it. Is the “loss” real to her? I think that answer is yes. Is it real to me? Not so much.

Have prices dropped since March of 2006? Yes, absolutely. Is that lot now worth less? Maybe. But if we look at who appraisals are for we may get better insight on this issue. Appraisals are for the lender or necessary to show some other party the “true value”. They are not required by the buyer or seller. Oddly, issues like the buyer’s FICO score can be a factor in determining the appraisal amount – so – no disrespect to appraisers – but I’m not very interested in what an appraiser thinks the value is, unless that appraiser is going to buy it. There are various rules that appraisers must follow Read more

September 5, 2007

Fantastic Interview with Gary Keller

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

I just received, via email, the September newsletter from Custom House Publishers. It had the large post-it you see below. Clicking it took me to the Quicktime video you will see. I could not over-recommend watching it and paying close attention. For some years I have considered Gary Keller to be the most knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to the subject of correct and useful information regarding agent success. There is nothing he says here that is not valid and useful. I personally have five Custom House papers (mailing about 45,000 papers a month) but that isn’t why I am passing this along.

Once all of my mentoring videos and audio pod casts are cataloged and made available on a single page, I would hope this link occupies a prominent position on that page.

Enjoy.keller_post-it

 

September 2, 2007

Rufus Wainwright sings “Hallelujah” + Leon Russell sings “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

OK, it looks like BloodhoundBlog is going to have a music section after all. Here is a link to Rufus Wainwright singing one of the most beautiful songs ever. There are a number of artists who do this song, I believe his version is even better than the one by Jeff Buckley.

My favorite artist, this lifetime, would have to be Leon Russell . Here is a video of one of his monster performances, singing the Stones classic, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” combined with The Coasters hit, “Youngblood”.
This was from the Concert For Bangladesh recorded and filmed in 1971.

Enjoy.

August 29, 2007

What Should a New Agent Do? How About Paying Showing Agents by The Hour?

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Here are the emails I responded to tonight:

Hi Russell…I have learned about you from the book Billion Dollar agent. I have been on your site No Hassle Listings this afternoon and I’m most impressed. It is good to see some of the leaders of our industry taking the consultive approach and pay me only for the value I add.

Russell, I’m changing my business model and starting a team only brokerage here in Jacksonville Florida. We have been building websites and beta testing our value added products. Everything is coming together nicely. However, I’m surveying several people in hopes that I can get a industry understanding on three areas of importance. I would appreciate if you would share with me your compensation plans for Listing Specialists and Buyer Specialists and your weekly, monthly or annual expections for each.  Your years of experience tells me you have probably tested several programs. I’m planning on using Licensed Assistants who are paid $25/showing and $75/open house etc.

I want LS’s and BS’s doing only listing presentations, business development and negoitating contracts. Your thoughts would be appreciated. The third question is How does your Guarantee Sale program work? percentage reduction?, do you have investors who step in?

Thank you in advance for any information you are willing to share. Wishing you much continued success,

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My name is David Miller I’m located in Boston. I read “the millionaire agent” and got your name from that book. I was very impressed in your companies accomplishments!! I just have a couple of questions: What is the most important thing you can do starting out? In terms of marketing what is the most important and most effective…..do you use a telemarketer?. Thank you for your time. David

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Russell,

I just finished listening to the most recent podcasts on Bloodhound blog. Thanks again! I find your delivery to be very engaging and your material to be valuable. Again, thank you for being so generous. 

I hope you will address topics for brand new agents who do not have the processes in place to improve on. Since the drop out rate is high in this business new Read more

August 23, 2007

How To Price A Home + How Big Should My Farm Be

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

The first two videos are finally done. I uploaded one the other night and one more just now.

I’ll leave it to our resident genius (Greg Swann) to put them here, I’m just proud that I correctly uploaded them after figuring out how to do the recording with an external microphone (Thanks Allen!).

Here are the two emails I was responding to this evening:

I would like to set up a partnership with another Realtor where he works as a buyers agent for me and I get the listings. However we have not come up with a good pay structure and wanted your advice.

How did you come up with your pay structure and would you recommend me setting up mine the same way?

Thanks again for all your help and assistance and I would gladly pay you a fee for your services, just let me know the amount.

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I listened to your entire seminar series from Bloodhound Blog. I really can’t enough good things about what you have to say. I know you get compliments constantly and all are well-deserved, but I have to you this: Your honesty about how you feel regarding other sales trainers is not only refreshing, it is downright glorious. People, including me, walk through life and say nothing about all kinds of things
because we doubt ourselves and dismiss and/or repress what we really know to be true – a life of being the sheep I guess. I have my eyes wide open – Thank you.
So now that I have you all warm and fuzzy, I’d like your thoughts:
I have a farm area of 3500 homes. I want to send postcards every month. I think I can only afford 1000 and still be able to make it to the 12th month – a goal I have never reached – always stopping way short for some new strategy. I will eventually mail to all 3500. Which would be a better allocation for the 1000 I can
do?: the first 1000 starting on one side of a geographic area and eventually moving across the map? -or- using Read more

August 19, 2007

Is it Stupid to Hold An Open House – Or is it Great Marketing?

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Kris Berg had a wonderfully written post regarding open houses. This was my comment:

There are just two valid reasons for an agent to hold an open house and neither of them has much to do with selling the house being held open.

Reason 1: find stray (motivated) buyers (those that do not have an agent) and become their agent.

Reason 2: meet neighbors who will later want to sell their home.

Doing something time consuming one doesn’t want to do in order to “keep the seller happy” makes no sense.

One time many many years ago before I understood what I have written above I was holding an open house. I had lots of traffic and came to realize that virtually all of the people streaming through were not buyers but were neighbors, looking for decorating ideas and just liked seeing the inside of the other units in the complex. After seeing all of the rooms, as they were on their way out, they would realize they hadn’t even asked me the price – and as they were leaving would ask how much it was selling for. As any real buyer would have wanted to know the price sooner than later – after about 10 people through – I knew my day (yes, it was a Sunday) was a total waste, unless I could find a way to entertain myself. I choose the price. Just to see what would happen, I started quoting prices (in $10,000 increments) lower and lower to see if anyone would even blink. This was a $150,000 condo and I got the quoted price down below 100k. Each of the visitors just thanked me for my time and left.

There were several comments commenting on my comment (The BloodhoundBlog Method?) and I wanted to respond to those – and possibly clarify why I wrote what I did.

GolfingAnyoneAm I aware that some agents are very skilled at actually selling the house being held open? Yes. In fact, Greg and Kris both commented that they have sold houses numerous times by holding them open. My good friend Dean Selvey (currently the number 1 Re/Max Read more

August 15, 2007

The Official Start of the Specific Mentoring

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Here is an hour long interview I did today. It was a conference call that had about 200 agents listening and sending in questions. I received many emails from the agents saying it was a needed lift for them.

Curtis Johnson sent me the questions that were not answered due to not enough time and I will start posting video (and audio) responses to each of those questions by the end of the week. The external mic I needed to have decent sound quality for the video will be here in a day or two.

Achieving stable success in this business is at least 90% mental (as opposed to specific “techniques”) and that is what I will concentrate on delivering.

August 8, 2007

Realtors Will Continue To Sell Houses – Business Goes On.

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Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Some odds and ends here. (now isn’t that a compelling make-you-want-to-read-it opening?) I got a call today from my friend and fellow agent, JoAnn Calloway. She had been getting conflicting information regarding what is likely to happen with interest rates and the immediate possible changes to our marketplace. She was pretty sure I would know what was going to happen next. I don’t like to disappoint, so I want ahead and knew (no major changes to her market due to the sub-prime fallout). After I told her, she wanted to know how I knew. I told her I read BloodhoundBlog. That is how I knew. Yes, there are other posts on other blogs, but I find out about those posts and blogs by reading BloodhoundBlog. In this case, it was just a few posts, this one, this one and this one. Okay, it wasn’t just those posts – it was those posts, in combination with the comments to those posts. For example, when Greg showed the graph in this post and I saw Dan Green’s comments linking to this graph I was able to get a pretty good idea of what was going on as a result of what was being heralded by some as the end of the world as we know it. Long term (over the past five years) rates are slowly moving up. Short term, they are dropping a bit.get a brain morans
Prediction: the world will not end right away. I have seen the future and it is a lot like the past, only longer.

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Today, I finally ordered the external microphone for the digital video camera I have had for some time. This is for the coaching / mentoring I have been talking about making available here on BHB. So soon. Very soon, that will start for real.

If you have been waiting for that to get started, here is a little something that you might like. It is scheduled for 1 PM (Phoenix time) on Tuesday the 14th. The call will last less than an hour. For those reading this after the specific event I’m doing, but wanting to know about Read more

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