BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Marketing (page 171 of 191)

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #95: Ten reasons why you should never get a job . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

In addition to teaching you how to be self-employed, Steven Pavlina offers you ten reasons why you should never get a job:

In our household it’s a running joke for one of us to say to the other, “Maybe you should get a job, derelict!”

It’s like the scene in The Three Stooges where Moe tells Curly to get a job, and Curly backs away, saying, “No, please… not that!  Anything but that!”

It’s funny that when people reach a certain age, such as after graduating college, they assume it’s time to go out and get a job.  But like many things the masses do, just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.  In fact, if you’re reasonably intelligent, getting a job is one of the worst things you can do to support yourself.  There are far better ways to make a living than selling yourself into indentured servitude.

I’ve been self-employed since 1993, and I know that, by now, I would truly hate to have a job. Pavlina speaks for me throughout this essay as he delineates all the disadvantages that accrue to the employed…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #94: How to manage your manager . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, From flippingHECK: How to manage your manager:

Why should you manage your manager?

There have been several companies I’ve worked for in the past that, whilst having a good “social” relationship with my manager(s), I have felt un-wanted and un-rewarded by what I would class as bad management.

When I say “bad”, I don’t mean evil in a Freddie Kruger way, it can come in a variety of styles and disguises. Not only can they drive you to a nervous breakdown with their ineffectual management styles, they can also make you look exceptionally stupid and kill any chance of a pay rise/promotion/parking place that you may once had.

Bad managers are everywhere – you may even be one yourself and not even know it! Whilst some of this article takes a rather lighthearted (even tongue in cheek) look at managing a manager, I think there are some important points here that you’ll hopefully be able to use on your own boss (or indeed yourself).

Lucky me, I don’t have to worry about this. But — who knows — maybe The Leggy Blonde will want to look it over. If you’re unlucky enough to have a boss — or a sales manager, which might actually be worse — this article offers some sound advice for surmounting that obstacle…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #93: A few tips on avoiding unexpected fees, penalties on rental homes . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

With regard to my recent advice to a young landlord, a reader phoned to leave this sage counsel:

Don’t forget about the rental tax. The worst way to find out about unpaid taxes is by getting a bill for three years’ worth of arrears. If you’re aware of the issue, you can write the tax into your lease and have the tenant pay it.

You should exercise a similar forethought when it comes to municipal and homeowners association fines. If you don’t specify in the lease that the tenant will pay for any infractions, then you will be left holding the bag.

The same goes for utilities. You will need to restore the utility accounts to your name every time the property goes vacant. You should specify in the lease who pays the charges and deposits for restoration of interrupted service.

If you should ever have to evict a tenant, pay particular attention to the utilities, because you could end up parking a big chunk of money as a deposit for your former tenant’s bad payment history.

There’s more to it than this, of course:

Here’s a money-saving tip for a vacant house: Throw the main breaker so that anyone showing the property can’t turn the air-conditioning down to 60 degrees and then forget to turn it off. When you’re working on the property, you can turn on the power for the time you need it. The rest of the time, your bill is zero. (A refrigerator without power must have its doors propped open or the stench will be outrageous.)

Good grief! Who needs Realtors? Everybody knows this stuff, right?

Here’s my best advice for any landlord: Befriend the neighbors. Their fear is that your tenants will pull down their home values. Let them know that that’s your fear as well and that you need them to phone you when your tenants are over the line. You will have addressed their concerns and turned them into an informal espionage network.

And: If the neighbors come through for you in a big way, which can happen, buy ’em dinner. They’ve earned it…

Technorati Tags: , Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #92: Weblog Review: TransparentRE . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Pat Kitano’s TransparentRE.com weblog is a profoundly unapologetic disturber of the peace. Pat’s background is technology, rather than real estate, so he devotes his days to asking questions no one in the San Francisco real estate industry wants answered.

As with Kevin Boer, with whom he has a loose alliance of like minds, Pat’s work is highly analytical — although less reliant on graphs and charts.

In all honesty, I don’t know where TransparentRE fits into the real estate food chain. I’m inclined to think that Pat is an incipient technology vendor.

The weblogging platform is WebSite Tonight, which I believe is offered by hosting vendors such as Godaddy.com. Looks and feels like WordPress.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #91: Ask the Broker: How dangerous is life in Arizona . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We disclose the answer to this question all the time:

How dangerous is life in Arizona?

That’s kind of a tricky question. Ignoring the things that can happen to you anywhere, we have hardly any injuries — except for the fatal ones…

Seriously, this is a bright-line disclosure issue on our website. We do an enormous amount of relocation work, and we never, ever want for one of our clients to get hurt because we failed to warn them of the kinds of things that can happen here that don’t happen anywhere else.

So: here’s the Cliff’s notes:

In Arizona, especially in the Phoenix/Scottsdale-area, you are at an inordinate risk from:

  • The sun
  • Extreme heat
  • Dehydration
  • Dangerous desert life
  • Fierce storms

The Sonoran Desert is a place of extremes. It can change from heavenly to deadly in a second’s time.

If you’re planning a move here, please read all of our disclosures — and use that as your jumping off point for serious reading about how to survive here.

Metropolitan Phoenix is a heaven on earth, each day another perfect day in paradise. But you have to learn how to live here…

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #90: Stupid mistakes of the newly self-employed . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Pat Kitano from TranparentRE sent a nice note about Steven Pavlina so I went looking for more. This is from his article “10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed”:

1. Selling to the wrong people.
2. Spending too much money.
3. Spending too little money.
4. Putting on a fake front.
5. Assuming a signed contract will be honored.
6. Going against your intuition.
7. Being too formal.
8. Sacrificing your personality quirks.
9. Failing to focus on value creation.
10. Failing to optimize.

One point I might add is learning to master your own time. The only benefit I can think of to having a job is that there’s always someone to tell you to get busy. Not so for the self-employed. If you don’t learn to monitor and manage the hours of your days, you’ll be back on the clock in no time.

This is a very long article, and an outline-like summary does it little justice. Read the whole thing — particularly if you’re self-employed or want to be…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #89: How to get promoted when you work from home . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Home Office Blues offers thoughts on “How to get promoted when you work from home”:

One of the dangers of working from home is that it is more difficult to move your career forward. “Out of sight, Out of mind” often applies to telecommuters. What options are available to the upwardly mobile teleworker? How do you set yourself up for promotion when the odds are stacked against you?

I’m glad you asked. It turns out that the steps that are necessary to get promoted when you work from home are the same as those that are necessary to get promoted when you work in an office. Like everything else however, the telecommuter must work smarter.

Here are the 3 steps to getting promoted:

1. Be valuable.
This is obvious. You must do good work, have a good work ethic, and be a real value to your company. Most people stop here assuming that their work speaks for itself. Don’t make that mistake. You must proceed to step two.

2. Be visible.
You must market yourself and your work. You must make your presence felt by making sure you are working on visible projects. And finally, you must network and build relationships across the organization (and beyond). Know what other people are working on and be sure they know what you are doing.

3. Ask for the promotion.
You are doing good work; people know it and you have paid your dues. Don’t stop there. If you want to be promoted, you have to ask for it. This is where most people drop the ball. For some reason people are afraid to ask for what they want.

Even though this is about the world of corporate advancement, I found it valuable for two reasons: Realtors working from home suffer the same kind of invisibility from the Mother Ship. And, in essence, our true employers, home sellers and buyers, only see us working when we’re working directly with them. We need to make the same kinds of efforts to make our efforts known…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #88: Rental house smart opportunity if set up as business . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my personal favorites from my Arizona Republic column:

I’m helping a young friend buy his first home. I’ve known him since he was in high school. I admired his decision to defer college for an arduous tour of duty in Iraq. He’s back in school now and he and his mother are buying a three-bedroom home to use as his staging ground for his assault on ASU.

I think this is very smart by itself, but here is the stroke of genius: He is going to rent his two spare bedrooms to other students, using their rent to help amortize the property. The house will be his starter home, but it will also be his first foray into real estate investment.

This is my young friend Andy. Here is the advice I gave him:

1. Form a limited liability corporation to own the property. God forbid something tragic should happen in the home, but, if it does, you want to limit your liability to the home itself, not the rest of your assets.

2. A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. In Arizona, a lease of less than 12 months does not have to be in writing, but if you take your verbal lease before a judge, he will treat you to equally verbal laughter. A written lease protects both parties, the landlord and the tenant.

3. The past is prologue. If a prospective tenant cheated his last three landlords, he’ll cheat you, too. Credit and rental history matter, and the most important part of being a happy landlord is mastering tenant selection.

4. Pay your own rent. Since the home will be owned by an LLC, pay the corporation the same rent your tenants are paying. If there is a surplus on costs, you’ll be able to use it for maintenance and improvements – or as capital for future investments.

The bottom line: “Owning a rental home is the smallest of small businesses – but it is a business. Treat it that way and it will enrich you now and for years to come.”

Technorati Tags: , , , Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #87: Weblog Review: RealBlogging.com and RealtyBlogging.com . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I am at a complete loss to explain RealBlogging.com and RealtyBlogging.com. I will stipulate the idea of weblogging to a purpose, as against ars gratia artis, but even then I can’t figure out what the purpose is. I gather the sites are composed of re-syndicated content, but I don’t understand to what end.

Just as a guess, I’d say the objective is consulting and speaking gigs for the contributors, but I have no confidence in that answer.

It may not matter, in any case. I take the RSS feed on both of these weblog, but I never find myself clicking on the “More” tag. Whatever point there may be to all this activity, I think both weblogs must stand proudly beside it.

Looks like a proprietary weblogging platform, who cares what.

I may find better use for these two weblogs in the future. I haven’t so far…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #86: Ask the Broker: What does pre-qualification mean…?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a question I’m hearing every day right now:

What does pre-qualification mean?

Why am I hearing that question? Because I’m representing the seller in a house that is not closing, day after day.

So what does pre-qualification mean? Nothing.

What does loan qualification mean? It means the buyer has paid the loan application fee.

What does final underwriting mean? Hide and watch…

Seriously, pre-qualification often doesn’t mean very much. The buyer may have had a phone conversation with the lender. They may have discussed income and debt. The buyer’s credit may have been run. But other than the credit report, there probably has not been any tangible demonstration of the basis of the pre-qualification.

Lenders pre-qualify buyers because buyer’s agents ask for it.

Buyer’s agents ask for it because listing agents ask for it.

Listing agents ask for it because sellers ask for it.

Sellers ask for it because they think it means something.

Everyone else knows better…

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #85: How to build a high traffic weblog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From Steve Pavlina.com, excellent advice on building a high-traffic weblog:

Here are 10 of my best suggestions for building a high traffic web site:

1. Create valuable content.
2. Create original content.
3. Create timeless content.
4. Write for human beings first, computers second.
5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.
6. Let your audience see the real you.
7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.
8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.
9. Keep money in its proper place.
10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

The article is very long and very detailed. Read it all. I think this is remarkably good advice…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #84: Give your weblog posts a magic middle . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Business Blogwire serves up “5 Tips on How to Give Your Blog Posts a Magic Middle”:

1. Think meat and potatoes.

2. Transitions are crucial.

3. Make your theme abundantly clear.

4. Read your post carefully before publishing it.

5. Whatever you do, overdeliver.

The dinner is in the details, of course, but I think these are good working principles for any kind of writing or presentation, not just weblogging…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #83: Let Realtor do his job and price your house . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

Here’s how to get yourself in trouble when you price your home for sale.

First, collect a whole lot of information from wildly unreliable sources. Public records are almost always hugely out of date. The sales figures published in the newspaper almost never give you enough details to distinguish recently sold homes from your own. And your former neighbors are almost always fibbing when they tell you what they got for their homes.

The second step of the process is elevation by divination. Bill’s house has a bad front lawn, so my house must be worth more. Janet’s house had those hideous mustard-yellow drapes, so my house must be worth more. That custom entertainment center I built — the one that fits my TV only — cost $500, but it adds at least $4,000 to the value of my home.

Now, when you interview Realtors, be sure to pick the one who is easiest to dominate. After all, it’s your house. Shouldn’t you set the price?

Now stop for a moment and think what you — and your attorney! — would do to a dentist who let you pick which tooth to drill. When you sit down with a Realtor, only one of you knows how to price a home to the marketplace. Trying to second-guess and micromanage your Realtor may not be quite the same thing as grabbing the stick out of the hands of a jet pilot — at least not until you crash and burn.

So, armed with a weak-willed Realtor and really bad ideas on price, you’re ready to take on the world: “You have everything you need to languish on market for months on end, selling in the end at a deep discount.”

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #82: Weblog Review: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Hey, wait. I’m the Phoenix real estate guy. Jay Thompson is an East Valley Realtor who publishes The Phoenix Real Estate Guy weblog. All gussied up in a brand new weblog template, this blog is fun reading. Well-researched, deeply-linked and yet still great fun to read.

Jay is the Arizona points leader at ActiveRain, but he manages to punch out a ton of content at both places.

Like this:

What real estate school teaches you is how to pass the state licensing exam. They don’t teach you how to sell real estate, how to deal with clients, other agents, title companies, loan officers, inspectors, whiny kids, buyers, sellers, or brokers. Oh you may occasionally get a war story about real estate from the instructor-I learned more REAL real estate talking to my instructors during break that I did in the classroom. The schools churn out future professionals by the score every single day. And they do a damn fine job preparing you for the state exam. They do nothing to prepare you for selling real estate.

Hopefully the new agent aligns himself with the kind of broker that will take them under their wing and truly help them. Sounds simple, but finding a broker that does that these days isn’t easy. Too many brokerages just bring in agents by the truckload. Some have HUNDREDS of agents working for them. It’s just a numbers game to them. The more agents they have, the more desk fees they collect. If they run a commission split office, they figure if they hire a few hundred agents then dumb luck means some of them will turn out to be successful. Those that quit (and 80% do in the first year) are simply replaced by new sheep.

Jay is running WordPress — beautifully. The site just sings…

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #81: Ask the Broker: Isn’t there a third foot I can shoot myself in . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Oh, good grief:

I’m under contract to buy a FSBO. Since the seller and I are doing this without using realtors, I’ve been researching on the internet to make sure I do everything that a realtor would tell me to do. I hired an inspector, and just got his report back. He found a lot of things wrong! Some are little, but some are pretty important like problems with the electricity and slab. I think I’m getting a great deal on the price, but with this much wrong, I’m not sure. How much is too much wrong to accept? BTW, I bought the house knowing it would need alot of handyman type of repairs, and I’m looking forward to that.

I think this is a marvelous example of why no one should buy a home without professional representation. Are you buying a white elephant? You don’t know. Are you paying too much? You don’t know. Are the repairs going to clobber you? You don’t know.

Let’s assume you’re paying market value for the home and that the seller is willing to undertake reasonable repairs. For a well-maintained house in the Phoenix-area, the cost of repairs shouldn’t come to more than 2% – 3% of the purchase price. If we get north of 5%, I’m ready to run — or at least renegotiate the price.

But suppose you’re buying this fixer at what you think is 20% under market, while the repairs are looking to be less than 10%. That might be a smokin’ deal.

In your place, I might cough up the money to hire a very experienced Realtor to evaluate your situation. If he likes your deal, you’re probably fine. If he says, “Walk away,” I think you should run away instead.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

« Older posts Newer posts »

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.

Media Contacts