There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Blogging (page 74 of 84)

Blogoff Post #4: “How To Participate in the Blogging Community”

From the recent Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, freshblogger.com offers this advice on “How To Participate in the Blogging Community”:

1. Leave comments that add to the discussion.

2. Check out their sponsors or hit the tip jar.

3. Link from your own site.

4. Keep finding new blogs and share them with your readers.

5. Tell your friends and people you meet.

There is elaboration on each of these points. And while most real estate weblogs don’t have a tip jar, this is good advice about how to build the real estate weblogging community.

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Blogoff Post #2: Weblog Review: The Property Monger . . .

Blogoff play-by-play commentator, The Property Monger, is a game, intrepid real estate weblogger. Writer Jon Ernest strikes the right kind balance for me. He holds his own local market, Boston/Brookline/Cambridge, in due regard, yet attends to national real estate news and issues, bringing to all of it an acerbic, mildly-self-deprecating wit. The combination is addictive.

A sample:

Zillow is going to take the homeowners opinion of value and save it to their database!!!

So lets start the logic train:

One of the primary reasons Real Estate Agents are needed is to get a fair UNBIASED opinion of value. Homeowners almost ALWAYS overvalue their property because they know the blood sweat and tears that went into it. They know that it’s Italian marble, and bamboo floors, and imported whatever. They easily mistake COST for VALUE.

Now let’s assume that zillow takes over the Real Estate industry, and everyone uses zillow. Sellers use it to find out what their property is worth. And sellers know that buyers will look at zillow to find out what a property is worth. And they think that knowing that, the average seller isn’t going to try to stretch that number as much as possible?!?!?!

“Now, not everyone is that immoral Jon.” (yes they are) But ok, not everyone is that immoral, but you have to admit, there is a faction that is. Which leads us to the other problem is that even the moral and accurate Zestimates are still going to be derived by a fraction of innaccurate zestimates!

I think I’m officially sick with joy and annoyance at the same time.

The template is pretty but hard to read (albeit WordPress). I want to smack Jon for the sloppy grammar and punctuation. But through it all shines a living mind: Fun, funny, irreverent — and very serious.

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Blogoff Post #1: Cry, ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the war of blogs . . .

Welcome to the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff, a competition between Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog and Ardell DellaLoggia of SearchingSeattleBlog, more famously of Rain City Guide. The objective is for each of us to compose 101 relevant posts over the next 24 hours.

This might sound like a dumb stunt, but, in fact, there may be no two people in the real estate blogosphere better-suited for such a test. Ardell and I write many posts and comments every day, and we each of us write with our own unique, easily-identified style. We are both smart, both opinionated, and both very forthcoming — to say the least — with our views. Moreover, each of has a very high moral commitment to quality in everything we do. So, although there may be a lot of blog entries posted in this contest, I don’t think there will be any wasted entries. Your attention will be repaid with knowledge, insight, wisdom and, one hopes, grace.

I have beside me two quad-shot lattes, two chicken breasts, a glass of orange juice and a glass of water. I’m in this for the haul. Settle in and read, if you please. Comment where you will. I’ll see you in a hundred posts…

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Do you think you know who will win the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff? Here’s your chance to bet on the outcome . . .

Kevin Boer of In The Trenches has put together a virtual prediction market (a play-money betting line) on the outcome of the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff. BloodhoundBlog is heavily favored just now, so there’s money to be made by backing Ardell. The action starts tonight at midnight, so lay down your bet before then…

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Project planning in the real estate industry: Putting the client first . . .

Responding to my post on the spec-home I’m working on right now, John Keith commented

I still don’t get where you guys are coming from. Is it the actual dollar amount that bothers you, the percentage, the feeling that agents don’t add value equal to their commissions, or what?

How does Bloodhound Realty do things, and how are they different?

I might add, at most agencies, you wouldn’t end up with $12,000 off a $200,000 sale. The company might take up to 50% of the commission.

Again, is it the size of the commission, the rate, or the entire commission structure that is the problem, and what are the solutions you suggest?

It is the compensation structure. And probably the fact that the “company might take up to 50% of the commission.” And of course there’s a problem with “agents not adding value equal to their commissions.” None of these is the main point, but each is certainly an issue. And, I don’t think it’s a matter of where us guys at Bloodhound are coming from. The grumbling and discontent is out there in general. Anyone who doesn’t hear it isn’t listening.

There are people, lots of people, who are emotionally invested in the idea that our profession should just disappear! I know that it would not be a good thing for the consumer if everyone who wanted to buy and sell a house had to manage the transaction for himself. But there’s a big pool of should-be prospects out there who don’t see it this way. Why do so many people mistrust our profession? What does the public think is broken? How can we fix it?

In my corporate life, before entering real estate, I was the buffer between IT and the end user… at different points when implementing different applications, I might have fulfilled the roll of systems analyst or project manager or user support. Too often I saw a technology being readied for implementation without listening to the end user and basing the product on his wants. Instead, the project was driven by what some pompous leader wanted the end users to want. If Read more

Coming Tuesday, the real estate webloggers blogoff . . .

First, Sellsius° gave us 50 new posts in one day. They threw down a gauntlet: Could anyone do 101 new weblog entries in a single day?

Ardell DellaLoggia took up the challenge and dared me to compete against her.

We agreed on Tuesday, September 26th, for the blogoff. We’ll start at midnight on Monday night and continue through to midnight Tuesday night — or until we collapse from exhaustion or dementia. New, original, creditable posts — and may the divil take the hindmost.

Sellsius° and The Property Monger promise post-by-post coverage. Tune in Tuesday at BloodhoundBlog and Ardell’s Searching Seattle Blog to see who wins.

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Friday morning read-a-thon . . .

Sellsius° delivers 50 meaty posts in one marathon session.

Kris Berg’s daughter discovers that moment of intense exhilaration you only know in the instant after you just might have been killed — but survived.

Transparent Real Estate details a Realtor’s money-back guarantee.

Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, argues that we should raise the bar on real estate licensing. His post is thoughtful and comprehensive, very well documented. My own take is that we should get rid of real estate licensing laws altogether and let anyone who chooses to work in real estate brokerage compete on reputation — and on his or her ability to obtain Errors and Omissions insurance. The Leggy Blonde is Teacher’s Pet to three movers and shakers in the Arizona Association of Realtors, and they insist that Change Is Coming. What they want is what Jay is suggesting, an apprentice-level real estate license, with the apprentice having to hit certain targets to obtain a full salesperson’s license. What we’re likely to get is Designated Agency, which covers the broker’s behind while resolving absolutely nothing else.

Christine at NY Houses 4 Sale has a detailed run-down of her favorite real estate weblogs.

And if there is anything I’ve missed, Todd Tarson probably caught it before he lit out of town.

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ZillowNews round-up . . .

Under the Zillow: The Tax-man cometh…

My two favorite bits, in two days of coverage:

Lenderama doesn’t need accuracy, he needs a Zillow-based tickler to stay in front of his clients.

MyZillow allows you to make “estimates” of what a property is worth. The estimate takes Zillow’s data and adjusts for specific information you know about the home. Then they generate a monthly email letting you know what those values are doing, while adjusting for your estimate.

Mortgage Brokers are in a unique position to make these estimates in a way that real estate agents cannot. Every time a broker does a refi, they can use the appraisal to work up the estimate to match the real value. Then you can save that estimate in MyZillow. You get a monthly report on that homes value. Now you know about how much the home has appreciated, and how much of the mortgage is likely paid off. With this data, you have a pretty good idea of your existing client base’s equity, and can market to them accordingly.

Based on this information, you could send out reminders that they may have reached 80% LTV, and should look into getting their MI dropped. Or, you could send out offers on HELOC’s, or Cash Outs. You could give them a heads up that properties are dropping in their neighborhood. Whatever you do, it’s just another way to help keep in touch with past (and hopefully future) clients.

Sheer brilliance.

And Sellsius&176; points out that Zillow.com has drawn a bright red circle around its own Achilles’ Heel:

If an owner gets to change the zestimate, guess what? It sits there right next to Zillow’s. Now what? Now we really need a professional more than ever to untangle these worms.

Overnight Zillow has gone from a veil of pseudo-scientific infallibility to a side-by-side pissing contest that can only be settled by a professional referee.

Nice going…

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Radio daze: Phoenix-area real estate webloggers make a five theater assault on the market . . .

Three Phoenix-area webloggers, Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, John Wake of Arizona Real Estate Notebook, and Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog, helped turn a radio show into a five-media event: The radio broadcast itself, listener call-in questions, live weblogging with listener call-in and write-in questions, an on-line podcast and static weblogging after-the-fact. KJZZ-FM radio host Steve Goldstein and producer Paul Atkinson pulled the whole event together. Economist Alan McGuire participated as well, along with call-in guests and pre-taped segments.

The topic was the Phoenix real estate market: Is it a bubble or simply a market correction? For the most part, the bubble contingency wasn’t represented, but there was a great deal of very detailed economic information coming in from all sources.

KJZZ has made its own web page available, along with a podcast of the radio broadcast. Paul Atkinson told me that the live weblogging was very active. The folks at the radio station were very excited about the vibrancy of the multi-media experience. I can’t speak for the other webloggers — I know they’ll speak for themselves — but I had a blast.

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