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Category: Marketing (page 98 of 191)

December 3, 2007

Speechless Without Writers

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Speechless Without Writers enlisted top actors in a show of solidarity with the writers’ unions.

Appearing in spots for Speechless are: Sean Penn, Holly Hunter, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Jay Leno, Harvey Keitel, Kate Beckinsale, Tina Fey, Tim Robbins, Gary Marshall, David Schwimmer, Patricia Clarkson, James Franco, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Andre 3000, Chazz Palminteri, Jason Bateman, Christine Lahti, Patricia Arquette, Jenna Elfman, Olivia Wilde, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Eva Longoria, Justine Bateman, Joshua Jackson, Rosanna Arquette, Diane Ladd, Rebecca Romjin, Minnie Driver, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick, Matthew Perry, Ed Asner and America Ferrera and the cast of Ugly Betty.

Click Here To See Episode 12.

December 3, 2007

I’m Not Even Gay Yet and Look What I Got

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

I received the following email from: real estate agent [gayagent@gayrealestatedirectory.com]. I think of myself as a pretty friendly guy and have sold homes to and for many gay people over the years. I’ve always behaved as though what was really wanted and needed was someone who would get the job done. This is yet another of the remarkably endless ways to charge Realtors money for something they “now need”.   

__

Market to the gay friendly community-One of the fastest growing markets today.

One of today’s fastest growing home owner market segments is our gay family communities. They are highly successful and very influential members of our American society. They have the means and the need to secure loans and purchase homes in some of the wealthiest communities. They are searching for like minded as well as opened minded business professionals to help them achieve their life goals.

If you are a gay or gay friendly real estate agent or broker we would like to invite you to become a part of our community. We need representation in major cities to service our gay community. Our future gay homeowners would like to view your website listings and possibly find their special dream home. To share your professional services with our visitors all you need to do is to go to this address www.gayrealestatedirectory.com and choose the agent and broker signup choice at the bottom of the page. This will take you to our submit page where you will receive instructions on becoming part of our marketing community.

Our gay community website has already moved up to the first page and top positions of the major search engines. We are one of the Top Gay Real Estate Directories on Yahoo. http://search.yahoo.com/search gay real estate directory .

We are also on the first page of Yahoo for Gay Real Estate Listings as well.
http://search.yahoo.com/search gay real estate listings As you can see, we work very hard to provide the Gay Community with a unique gateway access to some of the Top Real Estate Professionals and Brokers in the country. We want them to feel comfortable that our real estate professionals understand Read more

December 3, 2007

The Odysseus Medal: “We can see the bottom through clearing water”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Actions have consequences. When we became a group weblog, I set my sights on the very best writers. We haven’t recruited actively until recently, but, even so, a lot of the most talented voices in the RE.net have ended up writing here. Three of this week’s short list of thirteen nominated posts came from BloodhoundBlog, and I cut mercilessly to get down to three. Worse (better!), four more of the thirteen were written by BloodhoundBlog contributors working from their home weblogs. And this week — for the first but probably not the last time — all three winners come from the Bloodhound kennel. I would apologize for that, except that would require me to apologize for having the wit to pick out good writers in the first place!

All that said, The Odysseus Medal this week goes to Brian Brady for 2008 Housing Market Outlook For U.S. Investors:

While astute investors will have a virtual plethora of homes to buy, in the first half of 2008, they shouldn’t be PAINFULLY picky. Investors should be judicious but painfully picky is a sure-fire way to ensure that no deal will ever make sense. The shift in housing next year will put an upward pressure on rents, over the next five years, as the percentage of home ownership declines from its national high. It is conceivable, in the transition markets of Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, that rents could rise as much as 20%, in the next five years, as those former homeowners lease homes. The long-term fundamentals of these markets still make sense. More people move to those locales than leave each year so steady population growth is on an investor’s side.

While the forecast for 2008 is grim, there are silver linings amidst this black cloud. Investors will have opportunities to own great properties if they understand that while we may not be touching the bottom, we can see the bottom through clearing water. Investors should analyze property investments and consider purchase offers with both economic and utilitarian values in mind. In the aforementioned Phoenix example, digging your heels in and proclaiming that "the Read more

December 2, 2007

Unchained melodies: My way

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Daniel Rothamel offers up Frank Sinatra’s version of Paul Anka’s My way, citing these lyrics:

For What is a man? What has he got? If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who yields. The record shows, I took the blows, and did it my way.

Okayfine. For my own part, I’ve always thought this song lays it on a little too thick, as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll at his thickest makes plain:

Sid Vicious gave it a pomo send-up, but the tune just might be beyond parody:

I do like the idea, but I worry that the first-person protagonist might be too much a Walter Mittyesque legend-in-his-own-mind. And so I end up here, with Limp Bizkit, to me a more convincing expression of the sentiment:

What else is out there?

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December 2, 2007

The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A baker’s dozen this week. Vote for the People’s Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy.

Voting runs through to 12 Noon MST Monday. I’ll announce the winners of this week’s awards soon thereafter.

Here is this week’s short-list of Odysseus Medal nominees:

< ?PHP $AltEntries = array ( "Marlow Harris -- Iggy's House Iggy’s House and B.S. Realty”,
“Jeff Brown — Lenders lend Lenders Clearing Deck To Blink, Uh, Lend — What Will They Think of Next?“,
“Robert Ashby — Credit crunch What Should be Done About the Continued Credit Crunch? How About Nothing?“,
“Jim Duncan — NAR speak Why use a realtor – decoding nar-speak“,
“Chris Johnson — 2011 Why 2011 might not even be the end“,
“Michael Wurzer — Advertising Everything Is Advertising“,
“Brian Brady — Market outlook 2008 Housing Market Outlook For U.S. Investors“,
“Kris Berg — Real estate blogging The Real Reason Your Agent Should be Blogging“,
“Jim Watkins — Foreclosure Sad Story of a Family in Foreclosure: Some things You Hate to See“,
“Mariana Wagner — RE agent You know you’re a real estate agent if…“,
“Geno Petro — Serendipity Serendipity, straight up“,
“Jay Thompson — NAR COE 7,373 Words – The NAR Code of Ethics“,
“Cathleen Colins — Memories Memories of my Dad in the house he never got to see”
);
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for ($i=0; $i< $num; $i++) { $pieces = explode("\t", $AltEntries[$i]); $radioGroup .= "

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    Deadline for next week’s competition is Sunday at 12 Noon MST. You can nominate your own weblog entry or any post you admire here.

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    • December 2, 2007

    Our program is so simple even a Realtor or a Loan Originator can do it

    by

    Incipient Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    I’m a firm believer that you can often learn as much by a bad example as you can a good one.

    Yesterday this little nugget slipped past my spam filters. Something, I don’t know what, compelled me to read it.

    I need your help. Do you know someone that knows lots of Realtors and or Loan Originators that may be interested in earning an extra $1,500 – $12,000 a month?

    The perfect person might be an Title rep, a Realtor, a rep for a Home Warranty Company, a Loan Officer, or just someone you know looking for an opportunity.

    We need people to show folks how to get out of the ice age and generate business quickly using a new approach – especially in a down market.

    << Blah blah blah insert plan to dominate the world via CD ROM business cards here. >>

    Just standard spammy crap we’re all inundated with on an hourly basis. Then came this part:

    Forget the Caveman, our program is so simple even a Realtor or a Loan Originator can do it.

    Huh? What marketing genius came up with this?

    I can just see a bunch of people, sitting around an office (or more likely in a booth at Pauly’s Pub and Pool Hall) brainstorming how to market their wares:

    “Anyone have any ideas?”

    “We could buy an email list and spam people!”

    “Excellent! Run with that one. Just be sure to leave out our web address and make sure if anyone interested hits ‘reply’ to the email that it will be undeliverable, OK? Let’s make it as hard as possible for people to contact us!”

    “Oooh oooh! How about if in the body of the spam, we insult the intelligence of our target market group!”

    “You are a freaking genius! That’s a fabulous idea!”

    Now I’m sure no readers of this weblog would be as clueless as these folks appear to be. But it does point out that it’s probably a good idea to stop and think about your marketing materials.

    Here are a few tips to keep you from pulling the trigger on something and setting yourself up to look like a fool:

    • Read your copy out loud. You might be surprised how different it sounds from what you’ve Read more
    December 1, 2007

    The Future of Real Estate Sales

    by

    Mega-Producing Realtor

    Author website

    The real news from the mortgage and residential real estate business just keeps getting better.

    total sign

    First the 30% of investor or 2nd home sales went away. Then the 20% of the market that was the sub-prime business went away. Then the 10% of the market that was the alt-A business went away. Those numbers may not be exact but those are about the right percentages nationally. In the Phoenix area the number of true “investor sales” was even higher. Particularly in the edge communities where foreclosures have now skyrocketed. Yes, those very same edge communities where numerous builders sold 10 – 15 homes to each “investor” who wanted to buy them. Some of those subdivisions sales were primarily to “investors”. It is interesting to note that the amazing percentage run up in foreclosures in the Phoenix area is due to us having almost none a few years ago – back then everything could sell quickly. Drive through some of those neighborhoods on trash pick up day. Notice how few trash cans are out at the curb. (hint: a trash can at the curb = an occupied house)

    In my opinion, the drop in sales from about 10,000 resales a month to about 3,000 sales a month in our area isn’t going to be a “temporary thing”. Most of those extra sales were fueled by low cost, no real need to qualify, money that never should have been available in the first place. Here I am referring to the alt-A, the sub-prime and the stated income (liar loans). It never ceases to amaze me how people with money can find (or is it the other way around) really really stupid things to “invest” in. If they had all of the facts available, I don’t know anyone who could have loaned money (their money) on 1st & 2nd liens, who would have made any of the 100% LTV sub-prime loans. No one who wanted to keep their money for later, anyway. Yet billions and billions of dollars were flooded into such “investments”. Now, after the horse is WAY out of the barn, they are really Read more

    December 1, 2007

    Memories of my Dad in the house he never got to see

    by

    Realtor, Staging Consultant

    Author website

    Remember Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? Well, Broker Greg’s theory is Men are Sellers, Women are Buyers. His observation is that prominent in a selling couple is the man — dickering over commission then exacting justification for those commissions; and when offers come in it will be he who will haggle over the details. On the other hand, when shopping for the new house, he doesn’t want to shop: “Garage for my stuff? Fridge for my beer? Sold!”.

    So Thursday night, Husband Greg was perplexed. First, he surprised himself by doing physical labor. This is against his credo — the human mind is supposed to engineer methods to circumvent physical toil. But it was time for me to unstage Oregon. It closed yesterday and I had to get all my stuff out. When I buy staging inventory, I’m always careful to limit the heft of each item to something I can move in and out of the house without (Greg’s) help. However, I’m just recently recovered from pneumonia — a solid month of complete bed-rest. So there was Greg, huffing and puffing with the grunt work as I daintily packed my pashminas and platters.

    But what really floored Greg happened after he had packed up our last load, while we were sitting in the drive-through line at Wendy’s, waiting to celebrate with Frostys. And I broke down crying. Through my sobs I hiccuped that I would probably never be inside of 718 West Oregon again. This brought my dear articulate Greg to speechless amazement.

    We Realtors know we bring value to the real estate transaction… each in our own particular way — our value proposition; but we all offer the consumer the value of our experience from sheer numbers of transactions we work with. In comparison, years and years typically pass between transactions in which any individual consumer is involved. What is so easy for us Realtors to lose sight of, specifically because we do handle so many transactions, is the emotion involved in the process. Those of us who work with buyers get to see the elation of clients preparing Read more

    December 1, 2007

    Early deadline for Odysseus Medal nominations

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    The F.Q. Story Historic District Home Tour is tomorrow, so I’m going to be out for much of the day. In consequence, I’m moving the deadline for Odysseus Medal nominations to 9 am, to give me time to put together the short list.

    Between church and the hangover brunch, there aren’t a lot of nominations on Sunday mornings, anyway. But if you had plans in that direction, amend them. Anything that comes in after 9 will be kicked into next week.

    I can’t predict my time tomorrow, so my thought for BHB.TV was do do a piece on BHB.TV — how it’s done. If you have other topic ideas, speak up.

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    December 1, 2007

    BloodhoundRealty after dark: Illuminating our yard signs

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    The trouble with trade shows is the shopportunities. I can restrain myself, by Cathy can be suggestible. Jeff Brown had been talking to me about after-dark lights for our yard signs, but it wasn’t until StarPower, when Cathy saw the product offered by ListingLight.com, that we bought into the idea:

    That’s flash photography. The light emitted by the ListingLight is adequate for reading at night, but taking a useful picture would require a tri-pod. Even so, they do the job. Where every other sign on the street is an unreadable silhouette, ours pop out at a distance.

    Is it enough to sell the house? Perhaps not, but every little thing helps. There’s no telling when the buyer is coming by, and, even in Arizona, evenings are dark in Winter.

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