There’s always something to howl about.
From Teri Lussier, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition:
Paul Simon with Olodum, The Obvious Child:
Dusty Springfield with a potent message to Realtors, You Don’t Own Me:
And just as a reminder, this is the theme song for BloodhoundBlog Unchained:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
My eighth grade civics teacher was a big bear of a man named Russell Hazelton. He was a part-time preacher for a hard-line fundamentalist sect, and he was as dapper a dresser as a big man can get to be on two small salaries. The very first day of class he was deliberately about 90 seconds late. He wanted for everyone to be in the room and settled down so he could stalk into the classroom, turn, look us all over with the two ablative lasers he had for eyes and then bellow, “First impressions… are lasting!”
Was he wrong?
I remember every detail of my first impression of Mr. Hazelton to this very day, 35 years later. He knew exactly what he had to do to start his relationship right with our class, to put everyone on notice that he was in charge. He turned out to be a great teacher, smart, funny, engaging. But no one ever even thought about challenging him for dominance. First impressions are lasting.
Frédéric Bastiat was a French economist. One of his most popular arguments concerns the seen and the unseen. It is easy, of course, to notice what is seen, but you have to train your mind to take note of what could be seen, but isn’t.
Yesterday I stirred up a hornets nest, and I told you in advance what you should expect to see in response:
Regardless of what I say here or elsewhere, the incestuously cliquish part of the RE.net will insist that it is talking only to itself.
There were exceptions, thank goodness, but in the main the clique of big-name real estate webloggers behaved exactly as I expected them to, even though I deliberately built them a graceful exit:
If you find you’ve stepped in shit, admit it at once, clean up what you can and move on.
This is what is seen. What is unseen?
That post got 350 hard clicks yesterday, this in addition to the hundreds of people who would have seen it by RSS and email subscription. Amazingly enough, no one wrote in to say, “I like to be talked down to.” “I Read more
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I went to a high school run by the Jesuits. Think “Dead Poets Society” with Roman collars. The teachers were a little bit Pope John Paul II, a whole lot of Vince Lombardi, and, as is necessary to the development of young men, a healthy amount of Thomas Jefferson. The Jesuits are often admired for their ability to develop the “whole man”: intellectual, athletic, social, and most importantly, moral.
We were encouraged to be irreverent in the reverence of our school. The very irreverent actions we engaged in were seen by the Jesuits as an exhibition of curiosity. Pranks performed, under the guise of “school spirit”, were not only tolerated but encouraged. When it was suggested that one of our rival’s star basketball players was being bribed to attend a certain college, we waved checks in the stands when he attempted his free throws. Brother John, the Prefect of Discipline, may have handed down the ceremonial J.U.G. that day but the practice of pranks was generally tolerated.
Rarely did our pranks elevate to the status of unconscious insult. I say “rarely” because it did happen, about once a year. When it happened, it was usually the product of a good intention with garnered support from the crowd. In short, we took it just a bit too far without the forethought of the consequences of our actions.
The consequence was much harsher than a JUG; it was a speech attacking our moral fiber by none other than the President of the school. That sage old priest, a modicum of morality, started off the admonishment with a request to “walk a mile in the victims’ moccassins” and ended with the horrendous revelation that we, in our ignorance, injured some (or many) of those without the benefits we had.
Ouch! That admonishment always resulted in a bevy of boys, walking around with humble and contrite hearts, wondering if we would ever amount to the “whole man” St. Ignatius Loyola envisioned.
I’m going to digress from the high school story but I’ll bring it Read more
I was on Fox Business Network yesterday bitching about all the ways the U.S. government has interfered with the residential real estate market, resulting in both our recent boom and our current bust. The topic itself is not new to me, but it’s not something I’ve addressed in a full-blown philosophical argument. Surely that would be Quixotic, but when did that ever stop me? But: I’ve been very busy, and I’m about to get a whole lot busier. So last night I set that idea and everything else aside to bake some Christmas cookies. It was fun, it made the house smell good, and it actually brought Cameron out of his cave for a while. As soon as I can clear the decks today, I think I’m going to make fudge. Here’s the thing, and I have to remind myself every year: It’s Christmas. I don’t ever not work, but there ought to be room for play in the working day — at least some working days.
Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of stuff I might-could be dealing with, but ain’t:
Kelman had a post on all the crap he was force-fed prior to going on TV. I’m not picking on the man (for a change), this is a segue: I think we’re fools to buy into that crap. First, the mainstream media, to the extent that it clings to its creepy Vaudeville past, is the enemy of truth. Second, weblogging is the best friend the truth has made so far. The conclusion that I draw from these premises is that, even when we are on their turf, we should still behave our way. I hate everything phony, but even allowing for that, I think we damage our own credibility by playing their game their way. There’s no shortage of commercials on TV, but there’s damn little authenticity.
Zillow had a software release this week. How important was it? Important enough to be released eight days before Christmas, when no one is paying attention. What it amounts to, as far as I can discern from the effusive PR-speak in the press release, is smarter routines Read more
Seth Godin has a new ebook, yours for free. What’s the catch? Getting the value out of it is going to take work.
There’s an enormous amount of superstition about what makes some pages rank high while others languish. When you look at the actual figures, though, much of that fades away.
It turns out that the new playing field enforced by the search engines is eliminating many of the shortcuts that used to be effective. In other words, the best way is the long way.
The long way is to create content that is updated, unique and useful. Again and again we see that sites that do all three manage to get more than their fair share of traffic. So, I guess the title of the ebook is a bit misleading. The clicks don’t cost money, but they do take effort. That’s good news for people who have more talent than cash.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Last week Marcie Geffner, a real estate reporter in Los Angeles, penned an article for Inman News titled, “Web2.0: Where’s the beef?” (unfortunately, now behind Inman’s subscriber wall).
In her article, Geffner points out that, “an overly heavy reliance on blogs, social networking and video as a business strategy is a questionable proposition since no one has demonstrated that Web 2.0 works as a marketing tactic.”
Granted, there has been no large scale study or analysis of the success (or failure) of “Web 2.0” in real estate. I can attest from my personal experience that blogging has resulted in numerous prospects and more importantly clients — ie: closed transactions that resulted in food on the table and shoes on the children. Many other agents reading this have similar experiences.
However, many would also be quick to say, “I’ve blogged my ass off and received nothing.”
Is blogging/Web 2.0 the answer to all real estate agent’s woes? ARDELL, arguably the “Godmother of Real Estate Blogging” is on the record as saying that she believes that “all agents should blog”. Normally Ardell is spot on in her thoughts, but I have to respectfully disagree with her on this. Blogging is not a panacea, nor is it the right tactic for every agent. Yes, blogging’s Web 2.0ness results in transparency, it allows agents to see things from the consumer’s perspective and it is, bar none, the best way for an agent to demonstrate their personality and expertise to the masses. But blogging is hard work. Writing is an excruciating process for many. I happen to love blogging, I’m sick that way, but many people will despise the time and effort it requires.
That doesn’t make them any less an agent than one who does blog. Just as my refusal to door knock, cold call, or “farm” in more traditional methods doesn’t make me any less an agent. We’re just different, with different approaches.
I can’t begin to estimate the number of times I’ve been asked, “how many prospects/clients/closed deals have you got from blogging?” And I can’t answer that question. Yes, I could prove quantitatively SOME of the results. Read more
I am a total sucker for classic shitkicker music. What makes the songs of Leonard Cohen work, as an example, is that they’re so simple musically that there is all the room in the world for the lyric. We listen to a lot of complicated music, but the stuff I love the best isn’t really music at all, it’s literature, a thoroughly modern take on lyric poetry. If you read Horace or especially Catullus — without your high-brow horned-rims on — you’ll understand Tom Petty like never before.
Change of heart:
With Stevie Nicks, Insider:
Here comes my girl:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Kris Berg wins again. This time for her remarkable post showing men wearing funny hats while eating. She even 
commented on her right to win with that post here.
It is with great pride that this particular award is bestowed on Kris. She, will of course win other awards for this post, but those are not awarded by me. This one is. Congratulations Kris!
Chris Thile and Bryan Sutton explore the idea of excellence in a 20+ minute improvisational tour de force:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
I have a long-time investor client — he happens to be in town right now — who delivers his most effusive praise by exclaiming, “Outstanding!” I think this is a valuable exhortation of a valuable idea: It denotes appropriate enthusiasm for the most profound kind of excellence. When I selected the short list of Odysseus Medal nominations yesterday, I thought they were all very good. But when I looked them over this morning, there was nothing that made me want to shout, “Outstanding!” In consequence, I’m not awarding the Odysseus Medal this week. The posts are good, unassailably good, but nothing spoke to me of the sublime. Next week we’ll do better, I’m sure.
Gary Elwood wrote a post this week called The 3 Commandments of Online Marketing You Must Obey. I thought it was very good, but I think it was eclipsed by Bill Leider’s What Is A Brand?, winner of this week’s Black Pearl Award:
I believe your Brand is a widely held set of beliefs and expectations about what you deliver and how you deliver it. That applies whether you’re an individual or a multi-national organization. Your Brand is strengthened or weakened by every person in your organization and every function performed that directly or indirectly touches anyone. It embraces things like (and this is not an all-inclusive list):
- Name recognition
- Expectations held by the vast majority of people who will or might do business with you about what they can expect from you.
- The experience(s) that people have when they deal with you. Do those experiences exceed, meet or fall below their expectations.
- The consistency of many experiences.
- How you deal with people after the sale: customer service and how you solve problems.
- How and how well you maintain continuity of relationships with customers and potential customers.
- The perceived value received for the price paid.
Read both posts, though. They reinforce each other.
The People’s Choice Award this week goes to Chris McKeever for A [HAR]d Lesson:
We are in a period where listings are flying everywhere. You post a listing in one place, it appears on several others. Some you may not even realize you Read more
Lyle Lovett covers Townes Van Zandt on Flying shoes:
Mindy Smith covers Dolly Parton (with Dolly singing back-up!) on Jolene:
Gary Jules makes you forget all about Tears For Fears with his cover of Mad world:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Some news first:
The first of the BloodhoundBlog Unchained lapel pins sold for $20.50. The second auction closes in about 24 hours.
Todd Carpenter is hosting a contest for the funniest RE.net blog post for 2007. I am badly eclipsed in a contest like this — where’s the award for Exotic Quixotism? — but I expect a number of posts from BloodhoundBlog to make the short list. (Nominate yourselves, y’all; nothing ever makes if off my to-list.)
Now then: The Odysseus Medal nominees: A dozen entries on the short list this week, and, again, a lot of Deep Think stuff. Vote for the People’s Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy.
Ahem: Please don’t spam all your friends to come and vote for you. First, what we’re interested in is what is popular among people who would have been voting anyway. And second, I’ll eliminate you for cheating. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Voting runs through to 12 Noon MST Monday. I’ll announce the winners of this week’s awards soon thereafter.
Here is this week’s short-list of Odysseus Medal nominees:
< ?PHP
$AltEntries = array (
"Kevin Boer -- Redfin The Lessons Of Redfin, Part I: The Marketing Value Of The Obvious”,
“Joel Burslem — Scripps Scripps Cracks Open the Door“,
“Kris Berg — Concurrent closings Newton’s Umpteenth Law – Concurrent Closings“,
“Dan Green — Foreclosures Why Healthy Bodies and Healthy Marriages May Be More Relevant To Slowing Foreclosures Than Interest Rate Adjustments“,
“Brian Boero — Blurred vision Blurred vision“,
“Krista Baker — Emotional needs Do You Address Your Clients’ Emotional Needs?“,
“Kris Berg — RESPA What’s my real estate license worth? More than a hundred bucks.“,
“Rhonda Porter — Closing procedures Major Proposed Changes for Residential Closings in 2008“,
“Gary Elwood — Online marketing The 3 Commandments of Online Marketing You Must Obey“,
“Chris McKeever — Listings portals A [HAR]d Lesson“,
“Bill Leider — What is a brand? What Is A Brand?“,
“Brian Brady — Sub-prime oil We’re All Sub-Prime Borrowers (Who Consume Oil)”
);
shuffle($AltEntries);
$radioGroup = “”;
$num = count($AltEntries);
for ($i=0; $i< $num; $i++)
{
$pieces = explode("\t", $AltEntries[$i]);
$radioGroup .= "
echo (“
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Deadline for next week’s competition is Sunday at 12 Noon MST. You can nominate your own weblog entry or Read more
There must be fifty ways to come unchained in rock ‘n’ roll. Here are three of them.
1. She’s free of him, whether he likes it or not. It’s Pure Prairie League with Falling in and out of love/Amie. This is one of the most incredible country-rock medleys ever committed to vinyl, but I can’t show you the studio version. The rights police want to make sure that nobody buys any old PPL albums this Christmas. Good thinking.
2. He’s free of her, and he’s not quite dancing in the streets. I’ve know about this version of Bob Dylan’s She’s your lover know, but I had never heard it until tonight. It was recorded at about the same time as Like a rolling stone, when Dylan was convinced he could become a singles act like the Beatles. Here is an abortive studio take. This raw piano version is better, I think, because there’s still room for regret, even if the singer knows he’s better off.
3. Why chain yourself to him when you can chain yourself to me instead? This is Jim Hendrix covering Bob Dylan on Baby can you please crawl out your window? This again was written at the same time, and the Hendrix version is clearly cribbed directly from Dylan’s Columbia single.
None of these are very good as videos, but do make an effort to disabuse yourself of the image of “bloodhounds that kneel.” No such thing.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Country-rock romance, great covers of great song-writers. Start with Leonard Cohen’s Tonight will be fine covered by Teddy Thompson:
Next, a buried treasure. Bobby Darin was an amazing talent who couldn’t manage to fit in anywhere. This is his cover of Tim Hardin’s If I were a carpenter:
Finally, Glenn Frey and Don Henley bring those incredible Eagles’ harmonies to Tom Waits’ Ol’ 55:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Cathy’s birthday. Here’s Michael Franks with Popsicle toes in commemoration.
A genuine, actual genetic difference between male and female homo sapiens is blood-flow to the extremities. Men can deftly work a bow or a knife or a snare in weather that leaves women with frostbite. We were talking about this at dinner the other night with Pirate DJ Russell Shaw. Another topic of conversation was the idea of the epicene, the sexual ambiguity in art upon which Camille Paglia built her early career. Here is Bryan Ferry as a post-modern epicene performing These foolish things.
And while I would rate both of those tunes as good jazz, they’re both really very clean jazz. Here’s something a little grungier, piano bar jazz for for Zillow’s dive bar, Tom Waits with On the nickel.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
