BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Flourishing (page 38 of 38)

Thriving as only a rational animal can

October 16, 2008

To Condi, with sweetness

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

[I wrote this essay six years ago. I knew even then that Rice wouldn’t run for president — she’s much too smart for that. Too bad, though. She would have been a great president, a great argument for everything America can be. I don’t see this promise in Barack Obama — much the contrary — and I hope to Christ I’m wrong. Nota bene: Many of the links will be broken by now. –GSS]

 
The Los Angeles Times has an article (registration required, alas) speculating on the prospects for a 2008 presidential match-up between Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.

It’s not a brand-new idea. I first heard of it from Andrew Sullivan. And the Times article is following-up on, without mentioning, a recent public address by William Safire.

I am in love with this idea, and not just because I have publicly and repeatedly declared my enmity for all things Clinton. I would love to see Hillary Clinton get trounced at the polls by Condi Rice, but, truly, I would love to see Hillary get trounced at the polls by just about anyone.

And I’m not changing my spots to become a Republicrat this late in the game. Everything I’ve heard about Rice suggests that she is the least objectionable sort of mainstream politician — pro free-trade, pro second amendment, anti big government. And like that other bright light of black conservatism, Justice Clarence Thomas, she seems to be driven by firmly-held principles, not will-o’-the-wisp polling results. But it remains that she is a mainstream politician, a decidedly small-L libertarian.

Nevertheless I want her to run and I want her to win. I want what she stands for to win.

And by “stands for”, I mean what she stands for as a symbol. This is completely unfair to her, I confess. It was unfair to Justice Thomas, too. And as much as I regret what was done to him for all the things he stands for, both in his principles and as a symbol, nevertheless I am glad that he was stout enough of heart and spirit to withstand his torment. He conferred upon America a gift Read more

September 16, 2008

Life as a big, unchained hound in a big, unchained world…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I don’t give a rat’s ass about traffic, but I care a great deal about being as big as we are.

It looks like those new Technorati numbers are going to hold, and that particular screenshot sings to me. We’re not as big as the real estate porn blogs or the bubble blogs or the investor blogs, but we are far and away the biggest of the category I call the RE.net, the real estate industry weblogs.

My delight is not a matter of traffic or links, that’s just so much shoes on the carpet. What matters to me is not where we are but, rather, how we got here.

In email today a friend of BloodhoundBlog said:

I love it that you’ve done this, but I love it most because you’ve done it without the Twitterati, despite people making public pronouncements that they are boycotting BHB, by bowing to no one, by keeping your own counsel.

And that’s exactly right. I don’t care if nobody is listening, so long as we’re doing this work our way.

But consider: Hardly anybody bothers me, these days, with bad advice on what and how to write or how to manage this weblog, but this used to be a common thing. But we are what we are despite all that bad advice.

I know there are a certain number of people reading here — even if they have insisted publicly that they don’t — who don’t understand what we are doing at all. There are a small few who understand all too well — and it drives them completely crazy. Another small few get it and love it and catch every delightful little nuance of the theater of the thing. But the ninety-and-nine — and I never forget the ninety-and-nine — are here for their own reasons, and a healthy self-interest is the perfect expression of the unchained ideal.

I know that you are confronted all the time with what I consider to be horribly bad advice — kiss up, kiss ass, bend, yield, compromise, to get along you’ve got to go along. Of all the many things we can do Read more

September 13, 2008

A Bloodhound’s arrogance stumblin’ on the heart of Saturday night

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Cross your fingers, Cathy may have brought home a $600,000 listing today. As my contribution to our household finances, I lassoed a $50,000 prize of my own. Mine will be fun for the whole family though: We’re going to discuss it here as a unique marketing problem. Why unique? It’s a vacant lot with a structure on it. It’s a tear-down that can’t be torn down. It’s a certified antiquity with no discernible historic value. In short: It’s a challenge.

Why did I take the listing? Because I’m committed to the idea that marketing real estate is not fundamentally different from marketing anything else. I believe I can target-market this outrageously anomalous property and get it sold. I think this will be a fun exercise, a chance to explore radically different ideas about selling real property.

I linked today to a post I wrote more than a year ago. Like this post, it has that strangely disorganized cohesion of a weblog entry — part essay, part letter to a beloved friend — but I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written here. I reread it today, and Teri tells us in a comment that she did, too.

Here’s the best of it:

A Bloodhound’s virtues are genetic accidents, but that doesn’t make them less than perfectly admirable, whether evidenced in the dog or anthropomorphized and expressed in thoroughly conscious human behavior. Brought up right, a Bloodhound is a natural alpha, regal and indomitable. The dog will move with a lanky, un-self-conscious arrogance that is simply heart-breakingly beautiful to look upon: This what a thriving organism looks like.

I am steadfastly, philosophically opposed to the idea of humility. I think it is one of many evil ideas foisted off on us by malefactors who love us best at our absolute worst. To say to me, “You’re arrogant,” or, “you have a big ego,” is no reproach. On the one hand, it is a statement of obvious fact. But on the other, it puts me on my guard against you. A healthy, normal human being moves and acts and thinks and speaks with the lanky Read more

September 12, 2008

“Success” Sung in a High C

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

In the discussions over how much a real estate agent gets paid, there is one aspect often left out: stress.  There is a lot of stress being a real estate agent.  It is probably the least definable aspect of a deal, yet I believe it justifies a large percentage of what an agent earns.  The problem for me is this: stress is hugely unhealthy.  My passion is health; lowering my stress level and the stress level of the agents I do mortgages for is of paramount interest to me and I am always on the lookout for new ways to do so.

The following is an excerpt from a book about a young man on a journey and the guide he meets along the way.  It reveals an interesting way of dealing with stress.

… I had been short-tempered and I was unhappy.  “I’m under a lot of stress” I offered by way of excuse, “and this trip isn’t reducing it any!”  The Guide turned and asked me if I knew the four C’s of diamonds.  A little confused, I nodded yes and began to recite “cut, color…”  “Understand” he interrupted with an impatient wave of his left hand, “people are twice as brilliant as any diamond and require half as many C’s to be happy.”  He sat down across from me with a sigh and rested his hands in his lap.  He reminded me of Sister Christine, my fourth grade teacher, who often gave the exhausted impression of someone sharing something obvious to her, yet so obviously new to me.  “You have only these: Congruence and Continuity.  Congruence is how well your inner vision of yourself matches the outer world you witness every day.  Continuity is when your thoughts and your actions and your interactions align.  Which is just another way of saying ‘Keep your word’ especially to yourself.”

The story continues on a bit about something called The Mirror Effect which, while interesting, would require too much space to cover in this post.

“Your unhappiness is a product of your stress and stays with you because you do not recognize the power of Read more

September 7, 2008

Introduction to “A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission” — the eBook

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

[This is the introductory text to an eBook I have prepared discussing the idea of divorcing the real estate commissions, a topic I have discussed here at some length. You can find the eBook by clicking here. If you like, you can post a button linking to this book — there is code at the end of this post. But my primary motive for putting this together is to appeal to the various consumer-facing personal finance weblogs. I don’t foresee any meaningful reform in the real estate industry originating from the inside, so I am doing what I can to arm consumers against the pernicious evil that is the National Association of Realtors. –GSS]

 
Introduction

Here are three interesting real estate questions, two that came to me directly and one that was commended to me by Rudy Bachraty of Trulia.com.

Question #1: “Potential buyers for our home ($800K – California) have a realtor but he did not find our home for them. The buyers did and have visited both times without him. He has played no role whatever in bringing us these buyers. If we accept their offer why on earth should we give him 3% ($24K) of our home’s equity for contributing nothing whatsoever?”

Question #2: “When looking at homes on our own and calling the listing agents ourselves to set up appointments, does that obligate us to go with the listing agent if we decide to place an offer on the property?”

Question #3: “Since the amount of work involved doesn’t really differ according to the value of the house, financially, it seems like the percentage commission would make higher prices more favorable from a buyer’s agent’s perspective. If this is the case, why would the buyer’s agent be motivated to help negotiate the price down?”

Now, there are nice, long, complicated answers for each of those questions, and nice, long, complicated answers are the very essence of a certain type of salesmanship. It’s called Tap-Dancing, and it works — at least if you’re easily confused. But here are much shorter, much more truthful answers to those three questions:

Answer #1: If you want to hang Read more

September 1, 2008

It’s September 1st: Do you know where your next paycheck is?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Time is physics, the stately transit of the stars and planets. Time is space is mass is energy, four faces of the same one thing, elegant in its simplicity.

The passage of time — or, rather, the awareness of the passage of time — is a human artifact, a man-made thing. The Greeks or their forebears gave us seconds and minutes and hours — elegantly composed of factorials. Days, weeks, months, decades, centuries, millennia — time marches on, don’t it?

Here’s my thing, and it’s something I don’t think I’ve ever talked about with other people: I am constantly aware of the passage of time. It matters to me that I get things done, so I am always measuring my performance against the clock.

Even moreso if I have set aside time to complete a task.

Even moreso at the end of the workday.

Even moreso on Friday afternoons, when I look back to see what I accomplished for the week.

And much, much moreso at the start of a new month, when I not only look back at what got done in the month just past, but also look ahead to what the coming month promises.

If you’re in straight commission sales, you live out of a pipeline, that’s understood. It’s nice to watch those paychecks coming out of the pipeline, but the haunting question — always — is what am I doing right now to put future paychecks into the pipeline?

Like many people reading here, August was a great month for us. I won’t know until I see the final numbers, but it may have been our best month ever. Certainly it’s in the top five.

September shows real promise, both because lenders are getting back on their bicycles and because Phoenix is suddenly very appealing to all-cash buyers.

But still… I look at the calendar and I think about that pipeline…

I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got to go to work.

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August 14, 2008

Is An Educational Session A Sales Pitch? Of Course It Is.

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’m a salesman and have been since I hawked peanuts on the Ocean City boardwalk.  I’m addicted to “the pitch”.  I love writing them, watching them, and critiquing them.  Many people get upset when a “trainer” comes on to give an educational talk and finishes with an offer to buy books, tapes, coaching, et al.  Not me; I love it.  It gives me an opportunity to study someone else so I can better perfect my “pitch”.

The best pitch is the one that isn’t noticeable  It builds value and ends with a call to action that has the audience swamping you.  Rather than “asking for the order” it is so compelling that the prospective customers beg to buy what you’re selling- I saw one of those yesterday.

Lender (and Unchained graduate) Scott Schang invaded San Diego yesterday and presented to the East County Board of Realtors about a niche loan product.  He gave starving REALTORs  a juicy cheeseburger.  Scott invited me to both attend and critique his presentation yesterday.  He kicked butt but I spotted a few things he might improve.

Scott runs a shop called Porchlight Mortgage. Scott lends statewide and offers buyer brokerage in Orange County.  He has traditionally marketed directly to the consumer so this was his first shot at marketing to the REALTOR channel.  He did an excellent job explaining how his firm is committed to working purchase business rather than refinance loans and that value was recognized by the audience.  One agent questioned about his ability to wear his “lender” hat, with her clients, since he practices real estate brokerage.  What measures would he take to insure that her clients weren’t turned over to one of his “in-house” agents?

That was a fair question and I think Scott addressed it well.  I was thinking of Greg Swann’s “shoot the elephant in the room before he breaks all the furniture” approach to salesmanship.  Simply put, you HIGHLIGHT the negative objection up front…then shoot it down so it doesn’t become an issue. I suggested that Scott open his presentation by serving up that elephant.  I think he should proclaim that he is Read more

August 9, 2008

Redemption is egoism in action: In support of Mike Farmer, even if other people are criminal, I am not — but I will not cause them to become good by becoming a criminal myself

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Not completely off topic, but well above the normal fray. I wrote this ten or twelve years ago:

 
What I want to discuss is Socrates’ question about whether it is better to inflict an injury or to have an injury inflicted upon you. It’s a favorite of sophists and sophomores, I know, but I think it strikes at the very core of justice. The justice I seek and seek to defend is not “out there”, apart from myself. Justice (or injustice) is not what others do to me, it’s what I do to myself and to others. Where I find myself availing myself of the fallacies tu quoque or two wrongs make a right, I am rationalizing injustice, and the worst havoc I am wreaking is upon my own ego.

The Nazarene’s answer to Socrates was this: It is better to have an injury inflicted upon you, because redemption is still possible to one who has not inflicted injury upon another. I don’t believe in an afterlife and I don’t believe redemption hinges upon any one event. But I do believe that a “justice” that is itself unjust is vain at best and evil at worst.

We can make a joke by saying, “Political philosophy is the means by which ethical systems betray themselves.” There are actually a host of reasons for this, and all of them are amusing to me. For one, a political system has a meta-goal apart from the ethical system in which it is rooted: It must function in the real world.

Moreover, the political system itself has a meta-ethical or even extra-ethical goal in that its proponents will tend to imbue it with what they view are essential survival characteristics even if these betray the ethical system in which the political philosophy is putatively based. Any form of argument that the polity can or should or must do what it would be immoral or criminal for any individual to do is a form of this error. The counter is, but if we don’t inflict this injury, the polity won’t survive. And the counter to that is that a dispute resolution Read more

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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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