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Category: Marketing (page 175 of 191)

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #34: Establish your business credibility . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Nextebizguy shoes us how to establish business credibility:

1. Showcase Your Expertise

2. Establish Your Trustworthiness

3. Increase Your Exposure

I think this is exceptionally good advice for real estate webloggers. The article offers practical tips on each of these points, but the overarching point is that pedigree means nothing. To communicate with people, you have to earn their respect first.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #33: The best time to list your house? Thursday mornings…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my special pets from my Arizona Republic column, a discussion of when to list your home for sale:

Strategically, what is the best time to list your home for sale?

My answer is as soon as possible after midnight on Thursday morning. Why? Because your house will be available to all the Realtors planning their weekend showings, but all day Thursday, the listing will show zero days on market. All day Friday, it will be one day on market. All day Saturday – the most important day of the real- estate week – your home will show only two days on market.

Obviously, the fewer days on market, the better chance the home will attract a full-price offer. But consider that even if your house does not sell until the following Saturday, it will still show only nine days on market, still benefiting from the psychological advantage of a single-digit number.

My absolute favorite question is “Why?” We have a detailed reason for everything we do, and this is a sweet example of that kind of thinking.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #32: Weblog Review: Socket Site . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The problem is surely mine, but I don’t get Socket Site. It’s beautifully executed and cogently written, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who it’s written for…

Socket Site is one of many real estate weblogs I categorize under the general heading of “listing blogs”. It seems to be — although I admit I could be wrong — a daily review of available condominiums. One could draw an analogy to restaurant reviews — except that you eat out rather more often than you buy a condominium.

So my question is: Who is the audience? A rotating population of condo buyers? A regular population of condo aficionados? Other Realtors? I just don’t get it. It’s so pretty I keep it in my feed, but I don’t understand how it’s supposed to work…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #31: Ask the Broker: What’s in a name . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a question from me to me, one I’ve spent quite a bit of time on over the years:

What should I call my real estate brokerage?

I really hate personality marketing in real estate, so I’m much stronger on the subject of what not to do.

But here is the strategy we deployed in naming our brokerage.

First, we wanted an iconic idea — an idea that conveys a host of other ideas without explication. Odysseus the dog was an accident in our lives, but choosing the word Bloodhound was no accident. The word and the image of the dog, both in photographs and in our logo, sell a vast array of ideas about our business without our having to sell anything.

Second, we named our business “.com” to enhance our findability. We are not a realty.bot, and we will never be one, but using our web address as our business name means that our web address appears every time our business is mentioned.

An example: Every listing of ours produced by any IDX system, no matter whose, will list our web address.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #30: Real estate weblogging? Tell the world . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Online Marketing Blog’s “25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog”, here is tip number twenty-five:

Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.

There is no one on this earth who loves you like your mom does. Even your spouse’s love is conditioned on your continued good behavior. But your family, friends and former clients will have a warm spot in their heart for you long after you have done anything heart-warming.

As with everything in real estate marketing, you should be working your warm networks for weblog traffic.

Your weblog should be a part of all of your promotion, as well, as this tip advises.

All of this implies that you can’t have one-size-fits-all content. People will come to you with different interests. They won’t stay long if there’s nothing for them on your blog…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #29: How to increase your sales . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Larry Hendrick offers tips on how to increase your sales:

Would you like to earn more money next year? How about next month? Today I offer a method to increase your sales, and it’s not hard. It is represented with an easy-to-remember acronym: QUESTIONS. Questions that will give you the edge over your competition because they are too busy telling and not selling.
Here is the acronym with quick reminder words:

Q = qualify
U = understand
E = engage
S = state
T = timing
I = image
O = objections
N = notify
S = send

I am inordinately skeptical about sales tips ‘n’ tricks, because I think it is too easy to trip over into a rote, scripted kind of selling. But the ideas Hendrick discusses are not bad, assuming you keep your eye on the real prize: What your client truly needs — even if there is no sale involved…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #28: Timid investor lost chance for large rental home gain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column, a sad story about an investor who let a small fear lead to a huge loss:

In July 2004 I was working with a potential investor. She was prosperous and well qualified, and she was buying at a time when a nice rental home in the Phoenix area could still throw off a positive cash flow.

We had settled on a newer three-bedroom home in Tolleson, a good rental area with great appreciation potential. We put the house under contract (for $135,000, if you can believe that) and began the inspections.

The sellers were in pre-foreclosure. They hadn’t done a perfect job of maintaining the home, nor had they understood their rights under the builder’s warranty. In all, the repair issues came to around $1,500.

Not tiny, but not huge. Big enough, though:

My buyer canceled the contract. I thought this was a huge mistake, so much so that I offered to pay for the repairs myself. But she was scared enough by the specter of costly repairs that she not only walked away from this house, she fled real-estate investment altogether.

That house is now worth $225,000. She has lost $90,000 — so far — over $1,500 that I would have paid.

There is no way of predicting appreciation, of course, but how long could it have take for that home to buy back $1,500 — even if I hadn’t offered to pay for the repairs myself?

The end of the story: “Fortune – and fortunes – favor the brave.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #27: Weblog Review: Behind the Curtain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jeff Brown’s Behind the Curtain is one of the most-amusing weblogs in my feed reader. Jeff writes in a folksy, avuncular style that just sweeps you up. The man is nobody’s grammarian, but you’ll forgive anything to get to the next killing joke.

Like this:

First, is it me, or does everyone everywhere think they know which way is north on the map with real estate investments? I swear, if one more person corners me at some social gathering just to tell me how they’ve ‘found the next Golden Goose’ I’m gonna scream. What makes it worse is that half of these Donald Trump types are agents and brokers who should know better than to spew their ignorance in public. I remember thinking last weekend that if this guy just spent a few minutes talking real estate while walking on my front lawn, I’d have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood.

It’s a hosted WordPress weblog, and it’s updated only infrequently. But the whole thing is so sweet and fine, like a warm pecan pie, that I’ll forgive anything.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #26: Ask the Broker: If the buyer has no agent, what does the listing agent get paid . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This question came in earlier today. It’s actually pretty simple, if you’re an insider, not so simple if not:

I am selling my house with one agent and the buyer does not have any agent. My agent brings the buyer and they put in an offer. How much commission will I owe to my agent? Is it 5% or 2.5%?

It depends on how the listing contract is written. If your agent used a boilerplate form and didn’t change it to reflect a sale with no cooperating agent, then he will take the full commission, whatever you negotiated.

That much is easy. Unfortunately for your agent, he may be entering into an undisclosed dual agency with you and the buyer, exposing him to considerable legal peril. In that circumstance, we would insist that the buyer find some sort of professional representation — to make sure the buyer is represented, to make sure that your interests are not compromised, and to cover our own behinds.

Either way, the commission you pay is going to be the same unless you made prior arrangements for a variable commission.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #25: Real estate weblogging? Who knew . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Online Marketing Blog’s “25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog”, here is tip number nineteen:

Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.

This is hard. Not what I’m doing now, but real estate weblogging in general.

Real estate is a demanding job, with very long hours, and a lot of intense but irregular activity. How are you supposed to keep up a regular blog-posting schedule as well?

I don’t know, but it’s something you’ll have to work out if you want to make real estate weblogging work for you. People have to know they can depend on you to make regular, creditable weblog entries. As hard as it is to get a reader, it’s very easy to lose one…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #24: How to make buyers fall in love with your home . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Stix ‘n’ Brix teaches us how to make buyers fall in love with our home:

Uncover The Bones
Clean It Up
Neutral Does It
Curb Appeal Sells
Set A Comfortable Mood
Head Off Their Doubts
Price It Right

In general, I like the detailed advice given in this article.

The number one problem I have with homes I’m showing right now is that they are not market-ready. That can be a moving target, but, in this market, if everything is not absolutely perfect, everything might just as well be rotten. Buyers have many homes to choose from. If yours isn’t everything they want, they’ll just move on…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #23: The perils of pre- and post-possession . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is another of my favorites from my Arizona Republic column. The topic here is pre- and post-possession, either moving into a new home before the closing or staying in your old home after it has closed:

Pre- and post-possession create a de facto tenancy. It may be just a friendly agreement between buyer and seller, but when you occupy a home you do not own, you are a tenant. You should ratify the occupancy with a lease. But there is still potential for big trouble.

Suppose the house burns down. Who is liable? The owner, even though he is not occupying the home? Or the occupant, who is not the owner and probably just lost all of his personal property?

This used to be common in the sale of a home, but the legal difficulties arising from pre- and post-possession can be huge:

If the owner did not disclose the tenancy, the insurance company probably will not pay on the house. If the occupant had homeowner’s insurance, not a tenant’s policy, his underwriter also might refuse to pay for the lost personal property. There may be two aggrieved lenders, and both might call their notes due, even though the house is now destroyed.

But the worst is yet to come. Everyone involved gets to spend years in court fighting over who owes what to whom. The owner will be out the value of the house. The occupant will have lost all of his portable wealth, including the memories attached to those things. Everyone will emerge from this lengthy process bruised, begrudging and much, much poorer.

My ultimate answer: “Take possession at the close of escrow, just as the purchase contract advises. Whatever convenience you might enjoy from pre- or post-possession, the risks are just too great.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #22: Weblog Review: The Real Estate Tomato . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jim Cronin’s weblog, The Real Estate Tomato could not be better-named. Juicy, tart and refreshing. Jim has a terrific graphic sense, and that serves to liven the place up as well.

This is a business blog, in more ways than one. Jim’s evangelical mission is to spread the idea of real estate blogging among practitioners — and not just Realtors. But Jim is a vendor, as well, and — although this is rarely obvious — his role is to move his company’s product line. I deeply admire the deft way Jim handles this, because I feel that the best salesmanship of those products comes from his not ramming them down our throats. I trust him because he doesn’t betray my trust, and that’s a lesson every salesperson should learn.

The blogging platform is Typepad, which I don’t hate, but which has a truly annoying trackback system. Overall the site is clean and easy to use.

Jim Cronin is an excellent teacher and The Real Estate Tomato is an excellent teaching web site.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #21: Ask the Broker: What about my pets . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s a question dear to Cathy’s heart:

I’m selling my house and have pets so I don’t want to put my house on a lock box. All the realtors I’ve talked to say I have to put my house on a lock box, and the one who I wanted to give the job to actually turned me down if I don’t put it on a lock box. She said she can’t sell it if I don’t. Is that true?

Good thing you didn’t call me: I would have insisted on a lock-box, you bet. But beyond that, I would want two more things:

  1. I would want the pets out of the house entirely
  2. I would want their odors completely eliminated

Pets are a wonderful thing. Because I love my wife, and because she loves every living thing, we have four dogs and nine cats right now. How do we sell our houses? We move first, then remodel the house we’re leaving prior to selling it. The carpets go, and everything gets repainted. Plus we pet-proof our new house before moving in.

Does that sound like an extreme expense? This is the burden you took on when first you admitted a large, furry, affectionate creature into your life. (Note that in real estate, pets that can’t escape their habitat and don’t make odors don’t matter.)

I have been in pet-occupied homes where I could not smell the animal. But I have been in far more where I can smell the pets from outside, even from the street.

Odor is a powerful subconscious influence on the human mind. Even people who like pets won’t like the smell of your pets.

So: Lock-box, yes, but not before the pets are out of the house and all of their odors eliminated. If you want your house to sell, you have to present it in the way the buyer wants to buy it. If you don’t, buyers will go elsewhere…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #20: Weblogging for real estate? Host it yourself!

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Online Marketing Blog’s “25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog”, here is tip number one, perhaps my number one crazy-maker:

Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!

So many of the real estate weblogs I like, including some I will review, are in violation of this rule.

True hosting is fast, easy and cheap. WordPress will come free with the hosting package. There is no good reason not to do this, and one outstanding reason to do it now rather than later: The bigger your traffic base, the more readers you will lose when you make your move. As with the Chicken Pox, you’re better off living through the pain while you’re still young…

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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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