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There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Marketing (page 49 of 191)

April 11, 2009

Wanna Piss Off The RE.net? Succeed with Online Sales Letters

by

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

Author website

I forgot how much I love Copyblogger.  Greg Swann is echoing its posts on a scene in the sidebar.  I just clicked over to the one which explains that the death of ugly long-copy is overexaggerated.  That article links to an article that asks “Is Your Tribe Holding You Down?”  When you read about “the Cool Kids”, does it remind you of the RE.net?  A few wealthy tech guys and a whole lotta bloggers with a real estate license, pontificating about how consumers “might” behave.

Then there’s the “IM crowd” who remind me a whole bunch of the BHBU grads.  Speaking of which, where are all the BHBU graduates lately? I think I know the answer to that because I’ve talked to a lot of them on the phone.  The BHBU grads are JUST like the “IM” crowd Copyblogger talks about; they’re hella busy.

If  you’re all worked up, you can skip the rest of this rant and yell at me.  Otherwise, keep reading

THIS burns my ass- agents and originators marketing the way the “cool kids” tell them to rather than doing what they KNOW works.

Take a look at this.

“EEEEWWWWWWWW” says the RE.net (usually over on ActiveRain).

Okay…but what about this?  This agent is using long copy techniques in a her video.   Is what she is doing much different than this?

Check this! This Unchained graduate is  inviting people to register for free homebuyer education courses (and building a HUGE opt-in database).  If you think he’s a genius, he’s not.  He ripped a page from the Dan Kennedy playbook.  (Scott will admit that, too- ask him in a few weeks at Unchained)

Here’s another example of ugly marketing.  I don’t know how many agents have told me that they have inventory problems.  Could you turn to CraigsList to find properties, that aren’t listed,  for your buyers?  Before you criticize the messenger, consider the message.  Few agents reverse prospect for home buyers.  While we talk about single property websites, nobody is discussing single-buyer websites.   Think old-school cover letters, accompanied with offers, to tug at the heartstrings of hard-hearted sellers…on the internet.

Which is more important to Read more

April 11, 2009

Do something even if it’s wrong!

by

Realtor, Attorney

Author website

I love the old cliche, “Do something even if it’s wrong!” I am a broker who needs to be creative and diligent in connecting with buyers and sellers, and rather than sit around scratching my bald head, I decided to launch my own small town online newspaper. I have a huge Internet presence already with my real estate sites, but I was convinced consumers wanted a good online newspaper that was easy to navigate, had good content (without the regular diet of negative stories), offered free classifieds (that are more powerful than Craigslist), offered a free online business directory, and gave non-profits the opportunity to publish articles and news so they can connect donors and volunteers with the needs.

Of course, the exclusive rights to advertise a real estate brokerage are mine. But this site is about so much more than just connecting with potential clients. It is about community service, helping local businesses, providing a very powerful forum for readers and writers, and much more.

I got on this before the Seattle PI shut down, and before we learned they would continue with an online presence. I’d like to think they are following my example, but I’m not so arrogant. It’s more about consumer demand and preferences, but I am having a ball with this online newspaper that has taken off like a rocket.

Call me crazy if you want to, but I’m going to do something, even if it is wrong. Oh, the newspaper, if you want to see what it looks like, is at Sequim-News.com.

April 10, 2009

How India Made Me a Better Agent

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

The following is a true story.  The names were not changed and only the mistakes were innocent.

Not too many years ago I took a month off and traveled to India (for those new to the real estate profession, there was actually a time one could take a long vacation and still be successful).  India was not so much a destination of choice as it was obligation:  I was married at the time and my wife’s family is from there.  In any case, I found myself in India.

It is common for foreigners traveling in India to become sick the first week (the malady even has a name: New Delhi belly).  When I began feeling better I wanted to go for a run.  From the tenth floor window of our hotel room I looked down upon a large, undeveloped space bounded on all sides by city streets – roughly the equivalent of a city block.  I guesstimated a lap to be just short of a half mile and headed down to get in an hour’s worth of exercise.  Seemed simple enough from the tenth floor.  Strange thing though: once on the ground the loop was not nearly as obvious and that third left turn just never appeared.  I was quickly lost:

Lesson 1: No matter how great or simple or brilliant your marketing plan, things can and will go wrong.

I decided that I would keep going, counting on the innate, natural sense of direction all males possess… (I’ll pause for a moment while the women stop laughing).  Two and half hours later I decided I was really lost.  Nothing looked familiar and I was no longer even in town.  It was also at this point that I stopped and took a good hard look at my situation: “I am lost, I don’t speak the language, I don’t have any ID with me and I’m not carrying any money.  Hmmm, this is not good.”  I decided to enlist some help; I was pretty much all-in after running for over two hours and imagined everyone back at the hotel worried sick.  Plus, there was the ‘spectacle’.  Read more

April 9, 2009

The failed listing revisted: What the hell do sellers need you for…?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I keep meaning to come back to Barry Bevis and his discussion about what to do about “stale” listings, but I’ve got too much on my plate right now. In the mean time, let’s talk about this house:

Killer, huh? I mean, it’s a totally breathtaking expression of what modern architecture can be. Here it is looking back the other way:

The view is Camelback Mountain. It’s not just an incredible house, it sits on almost an acre of some of the priciest land in Phoenix.

A house to die for, not? Well, not to die for, but certainly to live for, to scrimp and save for, to dream that, one day, you might be able to own this home.

But look closely at those photos… They seem a little… schmutzy… Don’t they?

The listing for this home expired yesterday. There were a total of six photos for the listing — I’m not making this up. And all six of the photos were like the three I’m showing here.

That’s not quite true: The other three were worse.

What’s wrong with them? They’re scans… At some time or another, some magazine wrote up this home — easy to understand why. And then the listing agent made the photos for this listing by scanning from the magazine. That’s why they’re schmutzy — it’s dust on the scanner surface or perhaps damage to the paper on which the images were printed. That’s why there are moires in the images, as well. It’s the scanner’s grid of pixels creating an interference pattern with the half-tone dots of the printed images.

But wait. There’s more. This is the descriptive copy from the listing — on my honor absolutely sic:

Remarks: cHECK OUT THIS AWESOME CONTEMORARY LOCATED IN THE HEART OF ARCADIA WITH THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE VIEWS OF CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. THIS SUPER CONTEMPORARY WITH SURLY IMPRESS YOUR CLIENTS. VERY FEW HOMES LIKE THIS ARE AROUND, AND WITH LOCATION, VIEWS, AND FINISHES. GATED COMMUNITY AND GATED FRONT DRIVE WILL ENSURE YOUR CLIENTS PRIVACY REAR DRIVE OFFERS ACCESS TO GARAGE AND MULTI-CAR PARKING. AWESOME KITCHEN, KILLER MASTER SUITE, AND 3 ADDITIONAL SUITES THAT OFFER BATH AND PRIVATE Read more

April 8, 2009

The Inman Prayer: “Deliver us not into deliberation and tempt us not into leadership, for ass-licking for lucre is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen…”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

You just can’t make this stuff up:

Inman News is launching a new feature: Real Estate Product Reviews.

Would you like to be part of a team of real estate professionals that reviews and rates new real estate technologies, tools and services?

We want to hear from you.

I’ll just bet you do…

I loved this bit of reptilian reciprocity:

Imagine if the digital/virtual book (Vook) knew at what point you stopped reading, and then starting sending you Tweets from characters in the story up until that point, or giving you a tease of what’s coming up next. I can riff a bunch of ideas off this but my head is going to explode!

Amazingly enough, this harshly critical review of vacuous vaporware comes from a vacuous vaporware vendor who has suffered equally harsh treatment from Inman “News” — call it quid pro lizard.

Our whole world is out of joint by now, so much has the word “supportive” come to mean “promotional.” Drew Meyers is a sweet, sweet man, but this article is nothing but vendor-pimping. The vendor might well deserve the accolades, but, if so, why bury the lead? The post is not about SEO nor about a well-optimized web site. It’s about the vendor who built that attestedly well-optimized site. Hiding that fact reeks, in my opinion.

And it wouldn’t do to forget the best little PR3 weblog in Texas. Agent Shortbus is not a whore, and don’t you dare say it is! It’s more like a big-hearted, big-haired, round-heeled gal who just happens to like a Prime Rib before and a Blue Agave Margarita after. What’s so bad about that?!?

Diogenes might as well be Cassandra, I do understand that. But we are too much at risk of becoming entirely enmired in bullshit, to the extent that we can’t even smell it any longer. When Inman News, the high temple of the vendorslut religion, can pretend to do product reviews — that seems like a good time to tune into Radio Cassandra.

We have this thing, and maybe none but few of us have understood from the first how unusual it is for real estate professionals to live Read more

April 7, 2009

Please Get Out of My Face(book)

by

Database Marketing Expert

Author website

Part of my core schtick at Top of Mind is to ask my prospects two critical questions about email marketing:

1)  Why are so many companies leveraging email as their primary vehicle for communicating with clients and prospects?

Two reasons – email is cheap and email is easy.

2)  Why are you getting 200+ emails in your inbox every day?

Exactly.  Cheap and easy creates a low barrier to entry… and a low barrier to entry creates clutter.  Clutter is a marketer’s worst enemy.  Bad news folks – Facebook is cheap and easy too.

I’m very fortunate to have some groovy friends in the mortgage industry – and after my Facebook Webinar with Brian Brady, I made even more of them.  Now I’m getting my new friends’ updates and:

75% of the time they’re telling me it’s time to refinance, locking loans or boring me with industry vernacular I don’t understand.

20% of the time they’re giving me a play by play on what they’re eating, what color tie they’re wearing or something else I really don’t care about

Okay, so now we’ve identified the problem.  Next step is fixing it.  Here are some best practices I’ve seen and a few I haven’t.

1)  Keep an eye on your frequency. Here’s a general rule of thumb: the more compelling and fresh your status updates are, the more frequency you can get away with.  I think the sweet spot is 3 updates a week so long as they can pass the next test…

2)  Before updating your status, ask yourself if anyone really cares. How many of your 250 friends care that you’re getting ready for bed?  For me, that’s the equivalent of tuning into MIX 96 FM and hearing “I’ll Tumble For Ya” by Culture Club.  I’m flailing like a maniac for the next station even if it causes a 57-car pile up.  If I hear enough Culture Club on MIX 96, they’re off my speed dial FOREVER.  Same goes for my Facebook pals.  Sorry, just keepin’ it real.

3)  Have a strong take on something topical – politics, current events, sports, etc. You don’t have to tell your friends that you’re Read more

April 6, 2009

Hello, Wisconsin! Introducing Jolenta Averill

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I went questing last week for a Realtor in Madison. I heard from precisely two people. One was a paranoid dinosaur who was convinced a free referral must be a scam. The other is a star in the making, I think.

I don’t know yet if she’s a good fit for my budding real estate investor friend, but I was so knocked out by the seriousness of her commitment to real estate that I asked her to join us here.

So: Permit me to introduce Jolenta Averill, an independent real estate broker from Madison, Wisconsin:

Jolenta Averill is a Realtor and independent broker servicing South Central WI. With a background in trading floor technology and customer service, she’s building a boutique cyber brokerage in Madison WI to help free agents from the chains of big box brokers.

Jolenta is convinced we’re smart and amazingly great writers, so I hope y’all can let her down slowly. Meanwhile, make her feel welcome and we can all watch he star ascend into the heavens.

April 6, 2009

Don’t vook now, but Brad Inman has invented The Undead Pool

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The New York Times:

Plenty of authors dream of writing the great American novel.

Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream — and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices.

Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, calls this digital amalgam a “Vook,” (vook.tv) and the fledgling company he has created with that name just might represent a possible future for the beleaguered book industry.

There is so much wrong with this idea — and I realize that the Times never gets anything right — that I can only think of two words in response:

Market research.

Print is dead. The book as a transmission medium, with or without print, is dead. Marrying books to video makes great sense — for comic books: DC, Marvel and the entire graphic novel business have never had things better. Adding video to actual books is just dumb. And blending “social media” into the batter is just twitter-brained echo-chamber cargo-cultism.

Here’s the real deal, and the talisman that reveals that Brad Inman is anything but a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur:

The chokepoint is dead.

Every dinosaur in the land is thrashing about, looking for a way to create a mass-media product that can be locked behind a paywall, thus to force the punters to cough up the dough like they always have in the past.

Welcome to our world, Brad, which you quite clearly have never understood.

I do want to give Inman credit for a new invention, though. The “vook” (yikes!) is not dead on arrival. It’s dead before arrival. It stalks the night, a zombie of the mind, with its only reality, perhaps, being an unfinished web site and a gushing article in the notoriously useless New York Times. But this is not for naught. The “vook” will never live, but Brad Inman has inadvertently created a new category of hi-tech start-ups: The Undead Pool.

April 1, 2009

You’re Unique – Just Like Everyone Else

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

What makes you unique?  I’m not referring to your eleventh toe or your ability to recite the Arabic alphabet backwards.  That’s not unique – that’s plain odd.

Why do clients want to work with you?  What makes you better than the rest of the pack?  I ask this question based upon the comments I received in my last past.

Simply because you may rank first or second in a Google search does not make you unique – it makes you visible.   Now that you’re visible, what is the value you bring to the table?

I did a search on an address of a property I’ve listed, sadden to see that my SEO wizardry had failed me – Trulia and a whole host of other sites beat me to the punch – but honestly, I don’t care.  My client’s property is well represented in cyberspace.  It’s visible.  But visibility is not value in and of itself.

Now – say you use the fact that you rank first, maybe second on the list of the Google search you ran, specifically on the property’s address – or maybe even on the property’s characteristics – terrific!

But wait – as a consumer, I see your site and perhaps Trulia, Redfin or another local broker’s site with the same property – and a slew of other sites with the same information.  It’s visible but it is not specifically clear to me as a consumer why I would choose your site versus another.  Perhaps I choose your link because it’s first on the list.  Not a bad choice, but it was relatively arbitrary – it ranked first – not necessarily best.

If you’re marketing yourself as the best professional to sell a client’s home because you own the ranking of their property in a search result, you’re kidding your client – but mostly, you’re kidding yourself.

Greg Swann nailed the value proposition as to why high visibility on the web is a key differentiator:  he’s visible – but he also sells his clients’ listings in less time than comparable properties in his market.  Like almost 50% less.

Your high visibility facilitates your ability to sell Read more

March 31, 2009

It’s Springtime in Madison, Wisconsin. The trees are in blossom, the students are protesting — and I have a no-fee referral for an investment-savvy agent who works like a Bloodhound…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

An old friend, very smart, very good with numbers, has landed in Madison, Wisconsin. He’s sitting on way too much cash, and he realizes he needs to capitalize that dough before it gets inflated away to nothing.

That much is a silver platter. Deep pockets and unlimited future earning power, a client to die for. But: He’s an attorney, non-practicing, and an MBA, also non-practicing. He can handle the truth, no matter how ugly, but you will never slide even the smallest lie past him. You need to know what you’re talking about, and you need to be able to back up what you say.

He’s living in Middleton Hills, but he’s interested in investment opportunities anywhere in the Greater Madison area. He’s never been a landlord, so he’ll need education in that regard — and it’s plausible to me that he’s a better candidate for commercial properties than for rental housing. That’s something you’ll have to work out.

What I’m looking for, in exchange for a no-fee referral, is an agent who works like a Bloodhound. If you’re willing to work hard for a serious, motivated, monied investor, give me a howl. I’ll put you and my friend in touch.

March 31, 2009

Announcing RealSearchUSA.com

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

No, that’s not me with The Hoff and a Google Search Appliance, that’s Google’s UK Sales Mgr.		 RealSearchUSA.com will be a network of Independent brokers connected by a unique function – a natural language Real Estate search engine. Our goal is to create a true consumer benefit: A Google-inspired (and powered) natural language search experience that leads to a good, local independent broker.

The success of our network will be determined by Word of Mouth (or, more accurately, Word of Email, Word of Facebook, Word of IM, Word of Twitter…).

Here’s the thing about that: We, as the technical force behind the network, have no control over what happens after we hand a homebuyer off to a broker, but that is the part of the experience that will drive WOM for both the broker and the network.

Since we work on an exclusive territory basis to preserve the competitive advantage of a unique user experience, we need to be sure that we are working with the right brokers if we want to see that WOM, so we are being selective about who we hook up to the network.

That’s why I am announcing RealSearchUSA here on BHB: If we can network Web-smart brokers together at the Search Result level, not only would we be off to a good start, we would be taking concrete steps to strengthen the independent brokers who are poised to shake up this industry whenever a recovery gets going.

In most cases, we can place a Google-powered Real Estate Search box on an existing Web site, as we have done here for Mike DiMella at Charlesgate Realty in Boston. It is a network based on an upgrade to Search, which is the function that most Real Estate Web site users are looking for in the first place, but here is the kicker: This search function will also make you a node on a network of independent brokers like you.

Allow me to explain the node thing:

We build Real Estate Search Engines using Google’s Enterprise technology. Our goal is to provide the best Real Estate Search experience for people who like the way Read more

March 29, 2009

The mapmaker’s dilemma: What the hell are you doing with your time?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

That’s a screen shot of the user interface of the beta version of the mapping software I talked about on Friday.

This version:

  • Creates a Google Maps KML file from a list of street addresses
  • Assigns a user-selectable map marker to those addresses
  • Optionally creates a folder on the file server for that address — to serve as an engenu folder
  • Optionally creates folders and folder structures, thus to create an engenu hierarchy
  • Optionally builds links from the map markers to the individual street address folders

This is me writing to the Swallow Hill Gang last night, a very brief outline of features and capabilities:

Any valid addresses, one to a line, will produce a KML file that can be imported into Google Maps.

Like this, which is me and my best beloved:

314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

You’ll have the map marker you choose. I’ll be adding more.

If you select Folders, a folder will be created for that address:

“314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

If you select Links, the folder will be linked from the map marker.

If you select Links without Folders, neither one happens, for obvious reasons.

If you precede a line with a tilde — “~” — a folder is created, and subsequent address lines and their respective folders and links are created hierarchically. Like this:

~Top Level Folder

would create a folder at the top level named “Top_Level_Folder”.

This structure:

~Top Level Folder
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

would create a link to a folder from the map marker for my house inside of the “Top_Level_Folder” folder, hence:

“Top_Level_Folder/314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

If you do this:
~Top Level Folder
~Top Level Folder/Second Level Folder
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

You would get this:

“Top_Level_Folder/Second_Level_Folder/314_East_El_Caminito_Drive,_Phoenix,_AZ_85020”

You have to build each level of the hierarchy as you go. No harm, no foul if you try to create a folder that already exists.

You can do this:

~Love
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek
314 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek/Girl Next Door
322 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020
~Love/Barefoot Boy With Cheek/Girl Next Door/And Baby Makes Three
402 East El Caminito Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85020

and you will have created what I hope will be a by-now obvious hierarchy.

If all you want to do is create a folder hierarchy, Read more

March 27, 2009

Building customized Google Maps and engenu folder structures from lists of addresses

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have very alpha software that makes a KML file that Google Maps will eat to make something like this:


View Larger Map

It’s kinda-sorta like ZeeMaps, except I get a true Google Maps map, which I can then customize and embed.

I start with a list of addresses, which I can type if I absolutely have to.

There’s more: I’m going to build in the ability to create an engenu folder structure from the list of addresses, so that a site like this essentially builds itself.

For that kind of engenu site, I’ll cut my time from 40 minutes to 20 minutes, on the order of two minutes a page for brand new, original, knock-your-socks-off content.

March 25, 2009

Is your business about to take a quantum leap? So is mine, so all I have time for is this: Whip your on-line and off-line marketing message into shape now, to make the most of the business coming your way

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

If you’re looking for the long, newsy pitch, I’ll try to get to it later this week. But for now I am working with and incubating more solid money work than I have in three years. I expect your dance card is starting to fill up, too.

Even given all the turmoil in the economy, BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix could not be coming at a better time. Why? Because you need to get your marketing profile in shape now — first to take advantage of all that new business coming your way, and second because your days of idle blue-sky time are coming to an end.

If you’re ready to rock, all you have to do from here is click a PayPal button to reserve your place at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix. The event runs from April 28th to May 1st, 2009. Many more details can be found at the BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix weblog.

CyberProfessionals: $397


















Unchained Alumnus: $597


















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Each of our eight three-hour labs will be taught by an expert, by a working real estate professional balanced on the bleeding edge of hi-tech marketing. We’re building this curriculum for our own self-improvement, too, so we know there is simply no better investment you can make in your career this year.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Phoenix!

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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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