BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Marketing (page 170 of 191)

September 29, 2006

BloohoundBlog is three months’ old — and we’re taking the rest of the week off to celebrate . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

There are still over 400 unanswered emails in my inbox. Plus I have a bunch of Arizona real estate news I want to talk about. Plus I have tabs and tabs of real estate weblog posts I want to link to.

But… BloodhoundBlog is three months’ old today. A three-month-old Bloodhound can move your furniture and mow through a pair of shoes in three minutes flat. A three-month-old BloodhoundBlog is but barely aborning — well begun, but half-baked, at best. Four-hundred-twenty-five posts, but they add up if you do a few dozen in a single day…

But part of working hard is knowing when to stop. There is a bottle of Old Bushmills in the cabinet over the refrigerator that demands at least three fingers of my attention this night. Irish Whiskey is an acquired taste, particularly if you’ve scorched your tongue with Scotch. But — for tongue-scorching — Cathy has laid in the stuff for me to make a Hatch chile salsa, and last night a client gave us chile rellenos and some other muy caliente delectables. Mere liquor is nothing compared to the endorphin rush that comes from eating really hot food.

When I was a young kid working in New York, I had a boss who would stroll through the office at about 4:50 on Friday afternoons. “Why don’t you take the rest of the week off?” he would say. He never got tired of that joke. And I never have, either.

So here’s a toast to you all, as we take the rest of the week off. Thanks for being here with us!

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September 29, 2006

Butterflies might be free, but home-buyers pay for real estate advice — whether they know it or not . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Ardell raises some questions at Rain City Guide about my column in this morning’s paper on negotiating the buyer’s agent’s commission. I’m going to address some of her remarks here, but my fullest statement on the topic is quite a bit more comprehensive. In the newspaper, I get 350 words a week, with the result that I am splitting this one topic over 5 (or possibly more) weeks. I’m thinking, too, that we should create a category for these weblog posts, because both Cathy and I are writing quite a bit on the subject.

And thus to Ardell’s points:

“I find that most consumers would like we in the industry, to lead the revolution and win that battle for them, rather than being involved in the process of that change in the industry.”

I’m sure that would be nice, but I don’t expect it to happen that way. One of the reasons agents are so close with the co-broke information is that they’re giving up so much on the listing side. Buyers are the last sheep to be shorn — even though buyer representation is getting easier, not harder, and even though the prices of homes have risen dramatically over the years.

I don’t see any way for this to change across the board without buyers becoming educated and putting their education to work. One market segment who could help a lot are the For Sale By Owner sellers. They could implement my idea of conceding funds directly to the buyer, to be used at the buyer’s discretion for representation or other costs, with none of the risks a listing agent might face.

“Has anyone seen the Buyer Agent fee show on the Buyer’s Closing Statement when the transaction closes?”

This is the only way a HUD-1 is produced in Arizona. If it’s not being done that way in Washington — one HUD-1 for everyone — I can’t imagine why. In any case, the buyer can negotiate for full disclosure of all funds.

“Seller pays his agent and buyer pays his agent, is the only rational answer…”

But it’s not actually true. For a represented home, the seller sets Read more

September 29, 2006

My Friday treat: The telephonic equivalent of midnight vandalism . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So here comes the call, at 9:27 am. Blocked Caller ID. I don’t normally take line-blocked calls, because they’re almost always spam. But I was waiting for an important piece of information, so I took the call anyway.

An irate Realtor, of course, angry about this morning’s Arizona Republic column. I should have been expecting it. Anonymous phone calls from Realtors and brokers — pissy but pusillanimous — are a regular Friday treat around here.

And here is where I respect doubly the people who send email to gripe at me: They put their names behind their words, and they have to devise an actual argument to justify an email.

So I’ve got the call, like it or don’t, and the cranky Realtor on the other end says, “I’m a Realtor and I want you to know that I don’t agree with your columns saying that we get paid too much.”

And this is an instant when I am thinking too fast to stand in awe of how fast the human mind can think:

line-blocked call — hiding identity — no name offered — calling strictly to gripe — to penalize me for inciting her ire — wasting my time with no argument to make — nothing I say can possibly make any difference — moreover a phone call is no venue for intellectual debate — I need my phone back — I don’t get paid for this — I don’t have time for it now in any case

All that was about one-third-of-a-second.

Just like that, I said, “That’s your perfect right. Thanks for calling. Buh-bye.”

If you want to stand up for something you believe in, standing behind it by putting your own true name out in the open, then I’ll give you my time. I just might learn something, and that’s a treasure I’ll make an effort to earn. If you’re calling me to commit the telephonic equivalent of midnight vandalism — get lost. You tell me everything I need to know about you by concealing your identity…

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September 29, 2006

Repeat after me: Mr. Realtor, what do you charge?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my real estate column from today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link). Today should be a fun day. My editor told me that, in respose to last week’s column, a Realtor called him, threatening to turn me in to the Arizona Department of Real Estate. I can’t imagine what the violation might be, but the hearing would be a hoot.

 
Repeat after me: Mr. Realtor, what do you charge?

Want to foment a revolution in residential real estate? It’s easy to do. Just learn these five simple words: “How much do you charge?”

Sellers have known that question forever. It’s often the first thing they say at a listing appointment. They understand that they are hiring a Realtor for representation and marketing, and they want to know how much it’s going to cost them.

Historically, buyers have not understood that they, too, pay for representation. Realtors have always insisted that the seller pays all sales commissions, even though every dollar on the closing table is brought there by the buyer.

Unless the seller is taking a loss, the buyer pays for absolutely everything. That’s true not just for houses, but everything.

When you buy a bottle of Pepsi, the marketing and advertising costs are not paid by PepsiCo. They’re paid by you as a part of the purchase price.

In just about every other line of business, vendors roll out the red carpet for buyers because they know that buyers make the world go around.

Not so in residential real estate. We baby buyers, telling them tender, loving lies: “Buyer representation is free.” “I’m paid by the seller.” “My services cost you nothing.”

All of this is false. The cost for buyer representation is rolled into the purchase price, just as the cost of marketing and advertising is rolled into your bottle of Pepsi.

There is a difference, though. If you would have bought the Pepsi anyway, you can’t ask Pepsi to scale back its marketing costs.

But if you’re hiring a buyer’s agent to help you buy a home you have already decided to purchase, you should practice those five simple words: “How much do you charge?”

If you’re buying a new Read more

September 27, 2006

Digging out: A 102 link real estate weblog post about real estate weblog posts . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I fully expected Dustin Luther of Rain City Guide to file a post replete with 101 links at midnight last night. I thought it would be a nice commentary on the absurdity of what Ardell and I were doing, and a nice pastiche on his lists-of-10 posts. In fact, he delivered a hugely link-filled post later in the night, most of which still sits on my nightstand, undigested.

I finished my money-work today with nearly 1,000 unread posts and comments in my feed reader (hundreds were me and Ardell, of course) and over 400 unread emails that accumulated through the day yesterday. The emails endure, a glaring accusation, but the feed reader is clean.

Here’s proof in 102 links:

Ardell is back in good form, rocking boats and rattling cages. I think I speak for both of us when I say that there are always plenty enough words to be spoken, to be written, to be weblogged. What is evermore in short supply are ears to hear, minds to wonder, souls to take flight and soar. Welcome to Real Estate 3.0: Ethical, evangelical — all but ethereal…

Marlow Harris at 360 Digest and Kevin Boer at In the Trenches have been zeroing in on the accuracy of Zillow.com’s Zestimates. This has been Kevin’s project from the beginning, and a visit to his weblog is very instructive.

My mind was elsewhere, so I don’t know if Marlow was in the lead with news about Trulia’s nationwide expansion. She’s certainly been all over the story, though, along with Trulia’s own weblog, Ubertor, The Real Estate Marketing Blog, Real Central VA and Marlow herself again. Two days later, she followed up with news that Windermere has gone Google. More from Joel on this move. My take: Okay, but an MLS is a tool wherein I can distinguish a slate roof from a tile roof and a true swimming pool from an above-ground pool. By that standard, we do not have and may never have a national MLS.

And from Galen Ward at Rain City Guide comes a discouraging word on Trulia and the virtue of moral consistency. To give the Read more

September 27, 2006

A Zillow.com dead pool . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

real estate 2.x:

If the real estate market continues downward, do you think Zillow’s traffic will go up? I am pretty sure that Zillow’s traffic will be directly related to property prices. Everyone loves to see how much money they are making — it is fun, but most people are not going logon each day to watch their zestimate go down (accurate or not). Personally, I find the site quite boring…one visit seems like enough.

My fourth question would be — if the validity of their purpose has been picked apart, and their revenue model is full of fatal flaws — when do they run out of money?

Maybe we should start a pool?

I’m thinking they probably have a business, if only because Realtors will always throw away money on advertising that is easy but useless. On the other hand, I’m suddenly flush with play money…

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September 27, 2006

Digg? Dig a better foundation for real estate instead . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Homethinking has a new Digg-like social bookmarking service called RealEstateVoices. Once you register, you can submit real estate news stories or weblog posts that you like, vote for links submitted by other people, or RSS-syndicate the results.

I haven’t had time to play with it (I have to run to Mesa), but the site is clean and understated, as you would expect from Homethinking.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #102: Who’s the most competitive . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

They laughed when I sat down at the keyboard, but, when I know what I want to say, I can write faster than my fingers can type.

When my son was younger, I used to drive around with my car full of kids. Once I taught a bunch of four-year-olds to sing Tell me what’d I say, the Ray Charles classic.

But our all-time favorite car game was called “Who’s the most competitive?”

“I’m the most competitive.” “No, I’m the most competitive.” The game could last for hours.

This is post number 102. Who’s the most competitive? I’M the most competitive…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #101: Taking the espresso bus . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We have the graphite version, very elegant. I buy the beans out of the silver bag at Starbucks, never the pre-packed stuff. Number 2 grind. Number 1 (Turkish) works, but it’s too easy to pack down, and then it burns. The number 2 grind is on the edge of being too loose, so sometimes the crema is a little foamy, but the flavor is excellent. I make double-shots, two of those for me, plus half-a-cup of steamed milk. A very eye-opening cup of coffee…

Thanks to everyone who came to watch us play. If you’ve left email or comments for me, I’ll get to them Wednesday.

Thanks Ardell.

Thanks Sellsius°.

Thanks Kevin.

Thanks Jon. The Property Monger Rocks!

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #100: Beginners guide to SEO . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From SEOmoz.org, a beginners guide to SEO:

What is SEO?

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Firms that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a more broad and general approach. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many practitioners of SEO (SEOs) consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization (since so many of those elements intertwine).

This guide is designed to describe all areas of SEO – from discovery of the terms and phrases that will generate traffic, to making a site search engine friendly, to building the links and marketing the unique value of the site/organization’s offerings.

For a “beginners” guide, this is a very robust, step-by-step approach to improving your SEO performance.

Bookmark the page. You’ll be back…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #99: Integrating a forum with WordPress . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, blogHelper offers great help on the subject of “Integrating a forum with WordPress”:

One of the most popular questions I’m e-mailed with is usually along the lines of: How do I integrate a forum with my WordPress (WP) blog?. Often, this is with reference to using WP as a more web site-ish CMS, e.g. a community site. So, I thought I’d kill three birds with this post. One: Write a (hopefully) brief guide answering the abovementioned question. Two: Before writing a how-to on using WP for a community site, prepare for it by tackling the forum integration issue first. Three: Participate in ProBlogger’s latest group writing project (which will be my first ever participation BTW).

Now, let’s get to work. I’ll list each option I know of, along with instructions or more likely, links to those elsewhere on how to integrate it with WordPress – both backend, e.g. user accounts, and layout/design-wise.

We’re not ready for this at BloodhoundBlog, but this is an eminently doable next step of blogevolution. The forum software discussed is available to you as a part of your hosting package if you host your own domain. And where a weblog can serve hundreds of active members, a forum can serve thousands…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #98: First-timers’ search gives good lesson for buyers/sellers . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my all-time favorites from my Arizona Republic column:

I was out showing with first-time home buyers Saturday. This is my favorite job as a Realtor. Buying a home is never easy, but it gets easier with experience.

We looked at 14 houses, all in the same area. The buyers were smart, focused and well-prepared, which is not always the case.

They were able to distinguish their rational wants and needs from their visceral emotional reactions, so they were not swept away by homes that were beautifully appointed but a poor fit for their lives.

Out of the 14, they narrowed their choices to three, one of which was truly sub-optimal but happened to be selling at a great price. We revisited the top two choices and ended up settling on the second. The third choice didn’t even rate a second look.

Here are some interesting facts from this fairly typical home search:

  • Three sellers made it difficult for us to get in to see their homes, and one refused to let us come at all. You can be pretty certain your house will never sell if you won’t let buyers see it.
  • Many of the 14 candidates were poorly maintained, to put it mildly. Pet odors, food odors, yapping dogs and aggressive dogs — many of the houses were a long way from being show-ready.
  • The home my buyers picked was one of four with the exact same floor plan for sale in the same subdivision. We actually looked at three of the four.

They chose the best, of course, in terms of condition and location. They had no need and no reason to settle for less.

What can you take away from this? “If your home is not the best choice, either in presentation or price — or both — it’s not going to sell in this market.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #97: Weblog Review: ARDELL’s Seattle Area Real Estate Blog . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Although probably more people know her from Rain City Guide, ARDELL’s Seattle Area Real Estate Blog is the home weblog of my intrepid oppenent in the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff Challenge.

The site runs on the Realtown blogging system, owned by InternetCrusade, which gamely manages to make Blogger.com look good. It’s a travesty that such a large-calibre weblogger is shooting with such a small-calibre weapon.

But Ardell is so good that she couldn’t miss with a pea-shooter. She’s been one of my favorite writers in the real estate blogosphere since I knew there was a real estate blogosphere.

I entered this contest with a hard game plan. If you track my posts, you’ll see they run in regular cycles of five posts each, 20 laps of circuit-training.

I think I’m ahead right now, but I want to cross the finish line with Ardell. To that end, I have two notions.

One is that she do as Dustin suggests and pile up a few dozens one-liners.

And the other is that I will hold off on Blogoff Post #101 until nearly midnight.

I want to finish this race — and I intend to be an Insufferable Bastard on my Victory Lap. But I know already that we’re both winners in this contest, so I have no need to beat anyone.

Godspeed, Ardell. You’ve always been way ahead of me in every way that matters — and it’s all downhill from here…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #96: Ask the Broker: Are you glad you did this . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s a question with a following, judging by the 300 unread emails in my inbox:

Are you glad you took the Sellsius° 101 Blogoff Challenge?

Emphatically, yes. BloodhoundBlog is going to end up with dozens of new, worthy posts as a result of this — call it by its right name — dumb stunt.

I normally work from around 6 am to around 10 pm, a 16-hour day. I’ve been at this since last night at midnight, so I’ll finish in a little over 18 hours. My arms are tired and my brain is slightly mushy, but other than that I’m in good form. I could do a listing appointment right now and no one would guess that I’m toast.

On the other hand, I really thought this would go faster than it has. At my best — which ain’t now — I was averaging about nine-minutes a post. The Leggy Blonde has been reading behind me, and she has been gracious enough not to tell me what kind of typos I’m making.

But: This is proof enough that this is possible. My whole life, I have argued that the secret to getting anything done is to not stop doing it, so I could probably throw another 35 posts up against the wall between now and midnight.

But I won’t…

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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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