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Category: Marketing (page 124 of 191)

June 21, 2007

The responsibility of mortgage brokers and other front-liners in the foreclosure fiasco

by

Mortgage Banker

Author website

A quick note: I am a mortgage broker and banker so I wear both hats. I consider myself in the group below.

Seth Godin wrote a great post the other day simply titled “Responsibility” that focused on one key question: “Are you responsible for what you market?”

His answer was a resounding yes based on this premise: marketing works. If you agree that marketing works then you should agree that the idea of free choice is really not that free. Marketing influences choice. Godin cites the decline in cigarette smoking over the period since advertising has been significantly curtailed as one (of many) examples:

If marketing works, it means that free choice isn’t quite so free. It means that marketers get to influence and amplify desires. The number of SUVs sold in the United States is a bazillion times bigger than it was in 1962. Is that because people suddenly want them, or is it because car marketers built them and marketed them?

Cigarette consumption is way down. Is that because people suddenly don’t want them any more, or is it because advertising opportunities are limited?

This post led me to some new thinking on our embattled industry and the current round of finger-pointing up and down the money-ladder. The common refrain from mortgage brokers as a defense to the “predatory lending” accusations being bandied about by consumer groups and government entities is “We only sold what the banks gave us to sell” and “Brokers don’t underwrite the product.” These notions that depict brokers as impotent pawns in the mortgage game with little control over their actions-resigned to the whims of the banking world, forced to peddle whatever products were made available by the banks- is callous and dangerous. This position is clearly one that Mr. Godin would whole-heartedly disagree with; and I do too.

As brokers we’re responsible for the loans we choose to put our customers in. When we choose to put a retired person on fixed income in a negatively amortizing payment-option loan for maximum rebate with out clearly identifying their comfort level and understanding of the Read more

June 21, 2007

Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference: Notes from the epicenter

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website


Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, making his presentation on real estate weblogging at today’s Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference. Jay was fantastic, with one practical demonstration after another of the power of weblogging. Jonathan Dalton added some great insights from the sidelines, and the incomparable Dave Smith made the trek up from Tucson. I’ll have more tomorrow, along with video of Jay’s presentation and mine. In the meantime, Staging Arizona Real Estate has a report on the event.

More: Jay Thompson, Jonathan Dalton, Shailesh Ghimire.

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June 21, 2007

Real Estate Weblogging 101: A how-to book-in-weblog-form for would-be real estate webloggers

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

In commemoration of the Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, BloodhoundBlog today launches Real Estate Weblogging 101, a book-in-weblog-form about weblogging for real estate professionals.

The book is built as a WordPress weblog because it seemed foolish to me to write about a deep-linking medium without deep linking. Even so, I believe this is the first time WordPress has been used to publish a book. It seems plausible to me that dead trees are a dead letter, so this won’t be the last book “printed” in an on-line content management system.

In large measure, content for Real Estate Weblogging 101 comes from BloodhoundBlog posts written over the course of the last year by Greg Swann, Teri Lussier, Kris Berg, Brian Brady and Allen Butler. Because the book is written using the “Pages” feature of WordPress, it is built with revisability and extensibility in mind. We anticipate adding appropriate articles to the book as they become available.

From an introductory article to the book:

This is a book about real estate weblogging, but it seems absurd to write about weblogging in the form of a book. The Dan Rathers of the world will finally admit that the old media are obsolete on the day after the last paper-boy dies of old age. The internet is a linked world, and to write about an internet phenomenon without linking is absurd. And the internet is an infinitely revisable world, so to give up the power of instant, infinite revisions seems foolish. Unless you print it out at home, you can’t take this book with you to the beach. But what you can do is pursue all of the supporting links until your understanding of real estate weblogging approaches perfection — where perfection is understood to be a blindingly moving target.

The wonderful thing about a book in the form of a weblog is that you can help make it better, too. Just as Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs helped Dan Rather discover this strange new world — no matter how much he might rather didn’t — you can set me right when you find me in error — and Read more

June 20, 2007

The sweet euphony of iPhone news . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

First: YouTube on board. We’ll continue to do our listing videos in NTSC video. Anything less stinks in a broadband world. But we’ll do YouTube versions, too, for all the mobile phone vendors who will leap on this bandwagon.

Second: The natives are restless:

June 29 is the day many gear-heads have marked on their calendars as iDay, the release of what independent analyst Richard Doherty calls “the most eagerly awaited consumer technology device of the last 20 years.”

Since January, when it was first announced, the iPhone has captivated consumers, Wall Street investors and the media as the right product at the right time.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has positioned it as the most advanced meeting of the Internet and wireless technology, with an iPod thrown in for good measure. And it looks really cool, and unlike any phone before it.

For Apple, the release of the iPhone promises to effectively double the company’s revenue within just a few years, based on the worldwide thirst for cellphones. For consumers, the trick is going to be nabbing one of the early iPhones on opening day before stock sells out.

The iPhone is being sold only at Apple’s 200 retail stores, Apple’s website and nearly 1,800 AT&T (formerly Cingular) stores beginning at 6 p.m. local time across the country. AT&T says it will close its stores at 4:30 p.m. and reopen at 6 p.m. Apple would not comment on its plans. No pre-orders are being accepted. Fans are expected to camp out in front of stores for days.

Jobs has projected sales of 10 million iPhones within the first 18 months — worth more than $5 billion retail. Neither AT&T nor Apple will say how many phones initially will be shipped to stores. Doherty expects 1 million units to be available in the first wave. He predicts stores will be sold out by the time they close on June 29.

Third: What else you can do if you intend, like us, to sit on the sidelines for a while.

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June 20, 2007

Zillow.com dimed out by ubergeeks: “Please don’t crash”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From Worse Than Failure, a coder’s redoubt:

Donniel Thomas writes “Javascript isn’t for the weak of heart or those short of patience. What works in one browser may not function properly, or result in a nasty JS error in another (*cough*IE*cough). Which is why I can understand what this programmer meant.”

The following screenshot is from the homepage of Zillow.com, which is one of the most popular and AJAX-y Real-Estate sites on the web. And, as of this writing, the coder’s plea still remains …


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June 18, 2007

Zillow.com exemption: Arizona State Senate gives itself a frank appraisal, elects to seek out other feet in which to shoot itself

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

To all appearances, the attempt to criminalize Zillow.com’s Zestimations of Arizona real property will be all over when the fat lady signs. Not sings, signs. Arizona Senate Bill 1291, as amended to suffer Automated Valuation Models gladly, passed it’s final reading tonight. The amended bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 28-2. All that remains to be done is for Governor Janet Napalitano to sign the bill into law and things can… continue pretty much as they have all along.

Of late it seemed the legislature might recess without taking up the Zillow amendment, potentially exposing Attorney General Terry Goddard to the embarrassment of having to enforce his own and the Board of Appraisal’s idiotic interpretation of standing law. For all that I’m glad to see better sense prevail, that spectacle would have been amusing to watch.

In any case, assuming Napalitano doesn’t find some previously-unsuspected third foot to shoot herself in, this silly little drama should be over shortly.

 
Further notice: My details are a little off here, but Cathy Jager at Little Pink Houses has the straight dope.
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June 18, 2007

Jay Thompson, Greg Swann, weblogging and liquor: The First Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference is on June 21st

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Reminding you that Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, and I will be speaking the Phoenix Area Active Rain Gathering and First Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, to be held on Thursday, June 21st, at 3pm.

The event is being put together by Shailesh Ghimire of CTX Mortgage. Visit Arizona Mortgage Guru for more details.

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June 16, 2007

Refurber brings social networking to home remodeling

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Via TechCrunch, here’s a new category for the taxonomy: Home Remodeling/Refurbishing/Restoration. The idea had occurred to me, but I wasn’t sure the category even exists in weblog form. Refurber, the site cited by TechCrunch, is not a weblog. Even so, it is the rarest of things in Web 2.0, a social networking web site that motivates return visits.

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June 15, 2007

Niggling Peeves: The NAR and How NOT to Conduct PR

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

It’s been a wonderfully grumpy week. Please indulge me:

When the NY Times came out with its piece on the Madison, WI FSBO market, the NAR typically over-reacted and sent out another set of talking points. Last time they did that — Sixty Minutes — they received some well deserved ridicule; I’m apparently not alone in finding talking points condescending and wholly counter productive. So this time they added: Please do NOT circulate this document.

Yep. That should help.

On a related note, today’s REALTOR&174; Mag email link gives a wonderful illustration on how spin backfires:

Poll: Few Consumers Know What You Do

A new survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Federation of America reveals that while 84 percent of consumers have a favorable opinion of real estate agents and brokers, many of them lack an understanding of the services that real estate professionals provide.

From which it’s easy to infer that people love us, even though they aren’t aware of all we do in a given day.

But. Here’s the actual survey. [Note I’m not defending the survey itself since it’s so badly conceived it exists primarily to establish its own conclusion.] The takeaway from the press release:

“Taken as a whole, these survey data suggest that consumers value the services provided by agents and brokers, and have usually had good experiences with these agents and brokers, but that their views are positive in part because of their lack of awareness of specific industry practices that could harm their interests,” said Brobeck.

Juuuuuuust a bit outside.

And the 84%? That’s the percentage of A) The 29% in the survey who’d bought or sold within the last five years; and B) who were rating their own agent. The generic number for all surveyed is 68% favorability, which means a third need a little extra convincing, more than would be required, say, by a set of talking points. One third is a serious number for a profession that begins its appellative with a capital and ends it with a circle R.

Speaking of which: You know the guy you meet at the cocktail party, the one who Read more

June 15, 2007

Questions answer why real estate license laws should be repealed

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link). This is familiar turf to readers here, but I’m wondering if consumers might invest more effort in contemplating the issue.

 
Questions answer why real estate license laws should be repealed

The idea of repealing real estate licensing laws continues to percolate in my email, and I’ve written more on the subject at BloodhoundBlog.com.

I think I can make understanding this issue easier. Give a look to these questions. If you answer them honestly, you will understand why the real estate licensing laws should be repealed — even though they won’t be.

In the absence of real estate licensing laws, are consumers more likely or less likely to investigate the education, qualifications and experience of prospective agents?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are new licensees more likely or less likely to equate their status as licensed real estate agents with better-educated, more-qualified, more-experienced agents?

Taking account that they make profits when they perform their functions well and suffer liabilities when they fail, do free-market oversight entities seem more likely or less likely to assure consumer protection than government bureaucracies?

The same question on a more practical level: When buying electrical equipment, if you could have either government regulation or oversight by the Underwriters Laboratories, but not both, which would you choose?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are free-market oversight entities focusing on real estate transactions more likely or less likely to come into existence?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are alternative business models — radically different from traditional real estate brokerages but offering consumers more choice and possibly substantial cash savings — more likely or less likely to come into existence?

In the presence of real estate licensing laws, are traditional real estate brokers more likely or less likely to try to outlaw alternative business models offering real estate brokerage services to consumers for reduced or even no compensation?

Is there any consumer interest that would not be better served by repealing the real estate licensing laws? Even if you wish to assert that the laws offer some benefits to consumers, can you argue that Read more

June 15, 2007

If You Don’t Have Something Nice To Say…

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

RealtorWives.com Microphone ImageAs a reminder, I write from the point of view of a consumer/RE enthusiast (I’m a Realtor Wife). That being said, I’m noticing a little movement in the blogosphere that will be short-lived if I can help it.

Backstory: The Tomato addressed the fact that there are a vast number of terrible RE.net sites and blogs online and they ask “Where’s Simon Cowell When You Need Him?” My primary response was “yeah, where is Simon? These sites are terrible!”

Shaun McLane and I began an offline conversation about hosting a “Blogger Idol” site with a panel judging and commenting on the junky blogs in the RE.net sphere. Shaun started Posh’d and seemed like a good fit for two reasons (1) he and I were thinking in the same direction about a startup site and (2) he’d done a great job putting together the good blogs/sites online. At the time, Shaun was busy with his real job and said he wanted to involve me but wasn’t ready to launch. Then last week, in an effort to contact Shaun, I found the Idol site he’d launched- oh well, I wasn’t persistent enough, I suppose.

The great news is that I actually found his new site because I wanted to let him know that I thought it was a bad idea and I didn’t want to be involved. My belief that it’s a bad idea is confirmed today by the harsh RSS Pieces article that tears a blog a new one.

I think it’s fine that others are out there trolling for the worst of the worst, but here’s why I’m steering clear:

  • I would be infuriated if someone called my site out and used the word “sucks” and “crappy.”
  • Am I the Ultimate Blogger? So much that I find the need to go out and presume that I have the authority to denigrate others’ blogs? No, I’m not, so I’ll stay quiet.
  • Bad press isn’t always good press. Sure, I’ll visit the site once to see how bad it is, but I will have the impression that it’s bad (since it was dubbed as such) and I’ll never Read more
June 15, 2007

What makes a group blog work? It ain’t duct tape and baling wire

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Drew Meyers at the Carnival of Real Estate blog has a post this morning on what makes multi-author weblogs work. He interviewed me, Dustin Luther of Rain City Guide and Jessica Swesey of Inman News Blog.

Like this: “What are the top three things that lead to a successful multi-author blog?”

My answer:

I’m tempted to answer talent, talent and talent. There’s more to it than that, though. BloodhoundBlog is blessed to have very talented writers, but we’re twice blessed that they’re such thoughtful, thoroughgoing people. Add to that they are so easy to get along with, and we have a killer line-up.

Lots more where that came from. Give it a look…

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June 14, 2007

Zillow.com news: Broker listing feeds “coming soon,” a lender opportunity and no news is not good news in Arizona

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From Jeff Somers at Zillow Blog:

Soon, we will be launching the capability for brokers to automatically upload their active listings for free to Zillow, reaching the more than 4 million people who come to the site every month — more than half of whom are in the market to buy or sell.

Even when we first launched the ability for listing agents and brokers to add their listings for free to Zillow last December, we knew we wanted to find ways to make the process even easier. We have talked with numerous agents and brokers around the country — and we have heard over and over that you want to send us listings through a direct broker feed. As I type, our developers are wrapping up work on a very simple tool that will allow brokers to automatically upload listings to the site and keep those listings up to date.

There is a form you can fill out to be notified when the feature becomes available.

Two days ago Zillow announced a similar sort of sign-up form for lenders. What might this mean? At the time, I held my tongue, since what I have to say is pure speculation. But with today’s news as hook, here are a couple of wild-eyed conjectures:

My guess is that they’re going to provide some kind of EZ lender hook-up for buyers and re-fi candidates. Perhaps LOs would have to assert interest in up to five zip codes or something like that. Zillow likes person-to-person contact, rather than engaging a nationwide vendor like Countrywide. If the presumption is that they’re looking for a comprehensively satisfying experience like Wikipedia or Ebay — and this is the presumption I work from when thinking about Zillow — then they’re going to want to facilitate relationships to be carried out on Zillow through time, rather than just throw off leads.

It is possible, using tax records and loan rates, to calculate profitable re-fi candidates: Homes that can be refinanced at a net savings, month-to-month, to the owner. Zillow has everything it needs to do this, and 70 million candidate homes to work from. This Read more

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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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