BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Real Estate (page 115 of 266)

June 7, 2008

Is ePerks.com’s Ben Behrouzi, infamous for trying to censor a real estate weblogger, stealing content from Mervyns and Chevron?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

At his new web site, BrokerScience.com, Trace Richardson is on a tear. Trace got his teeth into the story of ePerks.com’s attempts to silence real estate weblogger Vlad Zablotskyy with a cease and desist letter. Starting with an analysis of how ePerks has managed to achieve an orderly self-destruction, Trace has uncovered one irregularity after another in Ben Behrouzi’s internet businesses.

The latest snafu? Behrouzi added “Values” and “Culture” pages to the ePerks.com web site. The only problem is: The content seems to have been taken, in large measure, from Mervyns.com and Chevron.com.

Here’s the full run-down on Trace’s stories on Behrouzi’s start-ups:

At this point, I’m thinking Ben Behrouzi is beyond redemption. From the evidence, he seems to be much more interested in pushing people around than in making money on the internet. My hope is that other internet entrepreneurs following this train wreck can manage to catch a clue: For the first time since Athens — for the first time in history, really — ordinary people have equal access to the Agora. You cannot shout Vlad Zablotskyy or Russell Shaw or Trace Richardson or me down. Our voices are at least as loud as yours, and we will not be silenced by threats, intimidation or dirty tricks. You can learn to live by cooperation and conciliation, or you can master the art of starving alone.

Technorati Tags: , ,

June 6, 2008

I can think. I can wait. I can fast.

by

Real Estate Broker, Investor

Author website

Back  in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I read all the works of Herman Hesse.   Some of them over, and over again.  Siddhartha  stuck a deep chord.

Siddhartha, after living three years as an ascetic, emerges from the forest and meets a beautiful woman.  In order to obtain worldly items to please woman, Siddhartha seeks employment with a merchant.  The merchant asks Siddhartha “What have you learned that you can give?”   Siddhartha replies “I can think, I can wait, I can fast.”

The merchant asks Siddhartha, “What good is fasting?”

Siddhartha responds “If, for instance,  Siddhartha has not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him.  But as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly.  He is not impatient, he is not in need, he can ward off hunger for a long time and laugh at it.  Therefore, fasting is useful, sir.”

I can think.  I  can wait.  I can fast.  Those three short sentences became a mantra.

I can think.  I can offer ideas, I can create solutions.  I can wait.  I can hunker down and stay the course.  I can fast.   One look at my waistline could convince you not to take this answer in the literal sense.  But I can indeed  wait calmly,  in a position of strength, unencumbered by impatience or urgency.

I can remember repeating “I can think, I can wait, I can fast” to prospective employers a few times on job interviews back in those long ago days, to be met with blank, but polite, stares.

Fast forward a few decades.  I write a post on Bloodhound blog exploring ideas about re-inventing a small real estate brokerage in the Web 2.0 World.   People correctly point out that I need to assess what I can give a prospective agent. 

I visualize myself sitting across from a new agent, conducting an interview.  The agent is asking “so, what do you offer?”  I ponder E&O, desk fees, commission splits, niche marketing, contact systems, lead generation, vertical searches.  Lions and tigers and bears.  Oh my.

But after all these years, I have come full circle.   What else can I give Read more

June 5, 2008

On Becoming A Real Estate Agent (and other things)

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

Every once in a while I get in a metaphysical mood and need to get it out of my system, so bear with me. I usually get like this when I”m transitioning from ideas and thinking to action. I’m taking actions to transform my business once again so I’m in the process of becoming what I’ve been thinking. Often ideas are stuck in the theory phase and never become a reality. Back in my heavy drinking days I had grand ideas that could change the world but they never left the barstool — probably a good thing they stayed there. I’ve always been a “thinker” and it’s too bad I didn’t have a great mind. When I was in my thirties I began making the transition from thinking into action — or, rather, I began putting my thoughts into action — although I still have some brilliant ideas I’ve never put into action like my idea to start a cafe that specializes in blackberries: blackberry pies, blackberry cobblers, blackberry tarts, blackberry sauce on pork chops, blackberry bagels…..perhaps when my Forrest Gump comes along I’ll do it.

But becoming is different than thinking about it. My wife taught me a lot about becoming the other. When she was pregnant, I was terrified of being a father and went into my theorizing phase, thinking it to death. When she had our first child I was still theorizing and thinking while she simply became a mother. I was always wondering – How does she know all this stuff? Well, she just became what was called for. I’m sure a social worker could go back and critique her “parenting skills” and find she was lacking in modern child-rearing techniques, but no one loves their mother anymore than her sons. She never sat around in an anxious state wondering what actions to take — she became a mother and a damn good one.

Becoming takes committment. Until you commit and take actions the ideas are still theoretical. One reason a lot of agents in real estate are never successful is that they never become real estate agents, they merely have a license, and real Read more

June 5, 2008

Real Estate Marketing Channel Dominance Theory – my truth.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

MIke Farmer got me to mention the thought of Navy Seal Teams as a basis for real estate marketing. He got me thinking on that…and my mind turned towards my Market Channel Dominance Theory(s).

istock_000000792680xsmall.jpg

Or…let’s just call it B-I-N-G-O. In the game of BINGO, you can win by being the first to dominate one row, either across, down or diagonally. Let’s throw out the diagonal option for a second. (and the free space in the middle-there’s NO free lunch).

First off, real estate marketing channels, (local radio, newspaper, TV, Organic Search, Paid Search, Blogging (and you have to break this out for EACH niche and hyperlocal) can take the place of letters BINGO making each column represent dominance of a marketing channel and each row represent exposure generating ability across ALL marketing channels.

My theory #1: If you are a listings focused REALTOR, you need to get exposure across as many channels as possible. Why? Because you want to WIN listings presentations and to do that, you need to answer the $64 question..”What are you gonna do differently to market my home?”. You want excellence for your clients and nothing less.

My theory #2: If you are focused on buyers, you do NOT need to be all things to all people, but to be effective, you need dominance of a marketing channel. This gives you excellence in attracting buyers by having top of mind presence and does not require dominance of other marketing channels.

My theory #3: The ULTIMATE Guerilla marketing group (whether brokerage, team or lone agent with employees-franchise or not) is a highly skilled group of folks who can EACH dominate a vertical (read: marketing channel) and they work UNSELFISHLY to defend each others’ turf. This gives you excellence in attracting buyers and in sellers by having top of mind presence for your merry little band…errr…brand. Like Greg’s recent point here about BHB. None would get orders from headquarters. They would not need to have excellence defined for them. They ARE it. Each would be a specialist and yet communication of threats and opportunities would be immediate and instant. Read more

June 4, 2008

An Unchained expostulation: Guess who is not coming to Inman?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We made a ton of video clips at BloodhoundBlog Unchained. BrokerIPTV.com made a bunch more, and theirs feature strange and esoteric production elements like good lighting and audible sound. The difference is, ours were on YouTube right away, and theirs took a while to gestate. One that I’ve been waiting for finally hatched today, yours truly on the subject of being Unchained:

If you watch that clip, this should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: I don’t tell people what to do. There are no rules for BloodhoundBlog contributors. I don’t like rules, but I also don’t like working with people who need to be told what to do — and I really don’t like working with people who try to tell other people what to do.

That paragraph is predicate to this one: Since there is no Official BloodhoundBlog Policy on anything, it should be obvious that there is no Official BloodhoundBlog Policy on Inman Connect. Bloodhounds have been invited to speak at the last couple of events, and I, personally, have no feelings about this one way or another.

But, oddly enough, for this summer’s event, only one Bloodhound has been invited to speak, Estately.com’s Galen Ward. That’s not completely true. Just after Unchained, Brian Brady was approached, perhaps as a ham-handed divide-and-conquer strategy. But Cheryl Johnson was not invited to teach PhotoShop, Eric Blackwell and Eric Bramlett weren’t invited to teach SEO, Geno Petro wasn’t invited to teach the art of mesmerizing an audience. Mike Farmer, Sean Purcell and Jeff Brown are, each in his own way, reinventing the real estate brokerage, but this is not a topic of interest at Inman Connect.

In other words, there does seem to be an Official BloodhoundBlog Policy on Inman Connect, but it doesn’t originate here.

So be it. We care a lot. As is discussed in the clip, BloodhoundBlog Unchained set a new standard for training events in the wired world of real estate in our first swing at the ball. We dropped the ball completely on the drinking and partying and killing time in the hallways categories, but I know we traded a Read more

June 3, 2008

Chaos, Order, and Noble Corruption

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I’m pretty sure the simple fear of  ‘getting caught’ has kept me from doing a whole myriad of things other braver, but perhaps, less ethical men have done with impunity. Take the dirty cop trials going on in Chicago this week where 10 city policemen have decided to come forth to reveal their own bad behaviors–various unlawful acts performed at the arrest scene to ensure ‘the criminal’ doesn’t escape Justice–acts mostly surrounding issues of probable cause, search, seizure, and varying degrees of Miranda indiscretions (for the greater good of the community as a whole, they claim); little white lie kinds of cop acts like you see on Law and Order every night—bum-bum…  “These are their stories.” Northwestern University professor Jona Goldschmidt refers to this seemingly justified behavior as “Noble Corruption.”  I personally am too fearful to be nobly corrupt or even run-of-the mill corrupt for that matter.  And some days it’s the only redeeming thing I can say about myself…

“Hey guy,” as I look at myself in the bathroom mirror, “at least you’re not corrupt.”  Good thing I’m not a cop, I suppose. Too bad I’m a Realtor.

“Sorry Mrs Climbladder, but I’m fairly certain I’ve taken an NAR Oath of Ethics or at the very least, checked a box admitting to as much on my quarterly dues coupon. They always cash the check so I guess I’m in.  Anyway,  I couldn’t possibly recommend that you move forward on this Inspection Punchlist Nightmare the listing agent is calling an REO. You have the right to remain silent…”

I bring this up because for the third time in as many weeks, I’ve advised a client against moving forward on a property I felt was a dog; and not a Bloodhound dog either. A mutt. And not a lovable mutt either. A dirty old smelly mean three legged junkyard people killing mutt. A beast, actually. An upside down, sideways beast. With fleas.

I heard a self-proclaimed bottom feeding foreclosure poacher on NPR the other day state that he was actually doing a service to the neighborhood as a whole by preying on the misfortunes of the disamortized few.  And while I think I might even concur with him on some level, I’m way too afraid Read more

June 3, 2008

Mitch Ribak: It’s The Contact, Not The Content

by

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

Author website

As Jeff Brown would say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”.

Mitch Ribak is a Florida real estate broker who purposefully avoids the Web 2.0 world. Well, that’s not really true. Mitch Ribak is a blogger. I met him on Home Gain Blog and I read everything he writes. Why? Because he’s VERY effective at marketing.

Mitch is extremely helpful. In the 3-4 months I’ve known him, he’s answered every single question I’ve asked and gone out of his way to explain the efficacy of his pay per click marketing success. He is extremely open with advice, sharing with whomever asks for it. Mitch designed a CRM called 100mphmarketing.com which he’ll release next month. I respect this guy a lot.

Here’s the short version of this 15 minute interview:

1- If a REALTOR is not online, he’s going to lose out.

2- Buyers control this market, not sellers. Ergo, attract buyers with your marketing.

3- Websites should offer less content, not more. The most important tool is a lead capture tool.

4- Give enough content to entice the buyer to call you.

5- The lead capture form should be prominent on every page.

6- Quality lead generation comes from attracting serious buyers; the lead capture form distinguishes their intent.

7- Traffic should be high quality. Mitch uses PPC and affiliate marketing programs.

8- No email= no access to listings. Real estate brokerage is a business and businesses must deal with serious buyers.

9- Conversion is key. It is the contact with not the content provided for the customer that is of paramount importance. Autoresponders work because they automate the marketing process. “Dripped” MLS listings buys customers’ brain cells.

Mitch has “street cred”. His team of 14 agents closed 193 transactions, last year. Last month, they closed 38 transactions. Not a big deal? He sells real estate in Brevard County, Florida; the eye of the hurricane.

I’ll ask you to listen to the interview with Mitch before you comment.

June 3, 2008

What does Zillow.com understand that Trulia.com is missing? “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I think that there may have been a time, in the blue-sky days of gray-skyed Seattle, when people with two-digit badge numbers at Zillow.com actually thought they might be able to disintermediate Realtors — much as Expedia.com had disintermediated travel agents. No one at Zillow will admit to this, but I suspect that a notion like this could have been in the original design parameters for the hypothetical software they were brainstorming in those days.

If this is true, then, to their credit, they came to their senses. Presumably, they realized, first, that the National Association of Realtors is a ferocious criminal mob that will do anything to destroy perceived competition, and, second, that, as simple as it might seem from the outside, real estate representation is too complicated to be automated cost-effectively, at least for now. Instead, Zillow.com made a conscious and thorough-going decision to partner with real estate agents and lenders, offering them exposure on its platform in exchange for building out its content.

You could argue that Trulia.com made a similar resolution, but it seems more likely to me that the San Francisco start-up is simply aping Zillow’s partnership with individual practitioners without really understanding it.

From a distance, the differences in the partnering relationships of the two companies could not be more stark. At Trulia, the most important kind of partner is the one who can deliver the most listings. The hierarchy runs from brokerage chain to brokerage to broker to agent to seller.

Zillow’s hierarchy is the other way around: The most important source of information about a home is that home’s owner. Next comes the agent, followed by the broker, the brokerage and the brokerage chain.

In both cases, higher parties on the hierarchy have the power to override — and thus usurp — the contributions of lower parties. What this means in practice is that sellers and their listing agents are regarded as being the least authoritative sources of information at Trulia — and therefore the last in line to receive practical benefits from the leads that might be generated by the on-line reiteration of the agent’s listing of Read more

June 2, 2008

Phoenix real estate market news: May rocked

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I tend not to cover local market news at BloodhoundBlog, but this is big, and I expect it might be replicated across the country. I’ll be writing about it tomorrow for Saturday’s Republic, but it won’t be news-pages news for another ten days or so.

Here’s the news, in any case:

May was a very strong month for clearing bread-and-butter inventory in the Metropolitan Phoenix real estate market. We track sales of newer suburban tract homes, with records going back to January of 2004. May was the strongest month for those homes since May of 2007, with the best month before then being November of 2006.

Price are down, month over month, and not just a little, so May’s results no doubt reflect the sale of a lot of lender-owned properties. But inventories of these same homes are down 7% from April and over 14% from March. The implied absorption rate from May’s results is 5.2 months, down from 8.4 months for April.

The lender/title month ended on a Friday, so it will be Wednesday or Thursday before I’ll be willing to commit to solid numbers. As a matter of anecdotal evidence, I called yesterday about a very market-weary short sale. After months of no activity, three offers came in over the weekend. The seller multiple countered, with the current high-bid being $17,000 over list. We won’t know for sure for two or three months after the fact, but May or June could be the bottom of the market in Phoenix.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

June 2, 2008

BloodhoundBlog in the terrible two’s and the me-me-me meme

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I had mail last night from a sweet kid who wanted to tag me in what she called a MeMe game. I thought that by itself was nice take on the idea of memes as represented in the wired world of real estate, but it also put me in mind of a promise I made a while back:

Inlookers: I will be happy to entertain any other What would David Gibbons do?-type questions. You can email me; I’ll shield your identity. Or you can use the “Ask the Broker” button — if you fudge the email address field, it’s completely confidential. If your question is obnoxious, don’t waste your time — because I don’t waste mine. But if you have a sincere question about BloodhoundBlog or me or whatever […] fire away. I am surely also the most forthcoming — and loquacious! — person any of you are ever likely to meet. If you want to know something, just ask.

This is not a vanity on my part. People who have met me in person will tell you that I don’t ask many personal questions. I see them as bring not so much impertinent as irrelevant. All I care about is work — mine, yours, ours. But if there’s something you’re just dying to know, don’t suffer in ignorance, and, for goodness’ sakes, don’t gossip. Ask away. I will conceal nothing.

BloodhoundBlog will be two years old on June 29th. The world of real estate weblogging has exploded since we got started — but my argument is that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. We’re doing everything we can do expand this world we live in, to help more and more real estate professionals understand the implications of Web 2.0 marketing. In the coming weeks, I plan to revisit some of the underlying philosophical issues that drive BloodhoundBlog — to illustrate where we’ve come from and where we’re headed.

Louis Cammarosano sent this along yesterday:

Was going over our google analytics re the HomeGain blog and was checking sources of traffic. Someone came to our site from a Google search excellent real estate marketing. Click on the Read more

May 31, 2008

Who’s a Mortgage Fiduciary?

by

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

Author website

Are you ready for the next big argument about fiduciary capacity? It’s coming in the form of national loan originator licensing and it promises to be a doozy.

The Federal Housing Finance and Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 is proposed legislation that seeks to license anyone who quotes rates or fees to borrowers (among other things). It’s a political stunt, veiled as consumer protection that is yet another revenue racket for the government. It’s requiring a 20 hour pre-licensing course, with testing and national fingerprint registry.

Anyway, there’s a lot of talk about “acting as a fiduciary” to the borrower. The rhetoric leads me to this conclusion; it just can’t be done (at least under the current environment). A fiduciary is someone who subordinates her interests to her client’s. I just can’t determine how a mortgage banker can TRULY act as a fiduciary; they don’t have all the product offerings available.

Wells Fargo doesn’t offer negative amortization loans . Contrary to what you hear in the media, there are times when a negative amortization loan is JUST what the doctor ordered. If someone has a large amount of debt, it might be in their best interest to defer interest (at 6.75% pre-tax) so that they can free up some cash flow to pay down the higher interest debt (at 13% post-tax). In this flat housing market, it may be the only chance someone has to improve their credit score by swapping 13% money for 6.75% money. Many bankers can’t offer that product. Would they refer that loan out to a specialist (like an attorney or doctor would) or “sell” the client on the “in-house” loan program?

Conversely, would a Wachovia originator, who just cashed a check at Bank of America and noticed that they aggressively priced their 15-year loan, refer that loan across the street or write it at .25% higher?

Mortgage brokers, then, should be perfectly positioned to act as “true” fiduciaries. If transparent brokerage compensation was pre-negotiated in an exclusive right-to-finance agreement (much like a Read more

May 31, 2008

Imagineering Unchained Orlando: The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Everything about taking BloodhoundBlog Unchained to Orlando is in flux until we find out what we can do about meeting rooms. Even so, I’m swimming in ideas for how I want it to work.

As before, as always, I want for there to be a ton of hard-headed content. We set a new high-water mark for real estate conferences in Phoenix, and I want to bump that mark quite a bit higher.

Here’s how my thoughts run right now, all subject to amendment by cruel reality and subsequent brainstorms:

This is a one-day affair, and so it has to be a concentrated dose of that Unchained attitude. We also have to accommodate the comings and goings of the conventioneers, since it seems less than likely that they will all be available for the same one huge block of time.

What I thought we might do is run the circus from 8 am to 8 pm, with Brian and I doing a four-hour show three times or a three-hour show four times — thus to deliver the most that we can to the greatest number of people. An even better idea: Two different three-hour shows, each delivered twice. Unchained in Phoenix was eleven-plus hours of content, but we could condense that down to a very highly-concentrated six hours of material.

Then, in the next room over we could have a trade show floor with vendors we trust having an opportunity to present their value propositions and give away tee shirts and frisbees.

And then in a third room, this one cut into three or four breakout rooms, we could offer hour-long breakout sessions aimed at every level of geek, from infra to ultra. We need beginner sessions. We need expert sessions. This is a way we can meet a multitude of needs. Twelve hours times three rooms could accommodate up to 36 unique class sessions. I would expect many sessions to be repeated through the day, but 36 class slots presents a lot of teaching opportunities.

In the end, we end up with a sort of All-You-Can-Eat Buffet: Show up when you can, stay for as long as you Read more

May 31, 2008

Looking for the bottom? Real estate speculators are establishing the bottom-dollar price for lender-owned homes in Phoenix

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).

 
Looking for the bottom? Real estate speculators are establishing the bottom-dollar price for lender-owned homes in Phoenix

If you’re looking for the bottom of the real estate market in Phoenix, chances are it’s right up the block. It’s that house with the jungle of overgrown weeds in front.

It used to be for sale. Then it was a short sale. By now it’s lender-owned. A year ago it might have been listed for $250,000. Now the price has been slashed to $120,000 — maybe less.

That’s a sad story, particularly if you knew the owners. And now, as you watch the parade of investors checking it out, you might feel a certain anger toward them.

If so, your anger is misdirected. Between syrupy books and movies and high-strung high-school-teachers, we have been indoctrinated to despise speculators. But the truth is, speculators are the garbage collectors of capitalism. They come in and clean up messes they did not create, returning productive value to underperforming assets.

It you’re looking for a villain in these stories, look to the borrower, to the lender or just to the vicissitudes of life. But it is the speculators who are going to bring the real estate market back to a viable state.

How? By establishing the bottom-dollar price.

What is your home really worth right now? It’s worth as much as the lowest-price lender-owned comparable plus the cost of returning that home to turn-key condition plus a small convenience premium. In other words, if the lender-owned house sells for $120,000, and if it will take $10,000 to make it as nice as your home, then your home is worth $135,000 — $140,000 at most.

And if you’re not willing to sell you home for that price? Get it off the market right now. It will not sell for more, but the surplus of over-priced inventory is a false signal to buyers that the market has not found its bottom.

If you must sell into this market, you’ll sell at the market price. If you can afford to wait, you will almost certainly do better Read more

May 30, 2008

Are you a professional practitioner or just an order-taking lackey? How to list a home for sale like you own the damn place

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve written a ton about how we list homes for sale (and not just in that post; surfing the archives repays effort). At Unchained I illustrated some of our ideas, and you can catch this show on the DVDs if you missed it live. Everything we do is about selling the house — not selling us as a brokerage or as agents and not attracting buyers for other listings. We reap a substantial secondary marketing benefit from listing as hard as we do — both the efforts we undertake and our victory dance when we succeed — but our entire focus is on selling the house.

There is more stuff I could talk about, and we are always playing with new ideas. It’s fun — for me at least — to work with buyers, but listing is a perfectible praxis: By the assiduous application of thought and effort, we can get better and better at it the more we do it. But there is a limit to that proposition: You cannot sell a house that won’t sell, and that’s what I want to talk about.

But first: Listing in Phoenix right now, and in many other markets, can be a heart-breaking endeavor. There is too much inventory and there are too few buyers, and even the most perfect home can come up second-best again and again. “If you list, you’ll last,” but it could be that you’ll last a little better right now if you focus your attentions on motivated, qualified buyers, rather than speculating on sellers. You don’t have to blow off sellers, but I think you might be wise to reschedule listing appointments in favor of showing appointments, if one has to give way for the other.

Here’s the real meat of the matter, though: How much will you get paid for a listing that does not sell?

We charge a $1,500 non-refundable retainer when we list, but that doesn’t begin to cover our costs before we even hit the MLS. I’ll come back to this idea, but the point for now is that we actually lose money if our listings don’t sell. Read more

May 30, 2008

True Confessions of A Real Estate Broker

by

Real Estate Broker, Investor

Author website

The times are indeed changing.  I am not a real estate salesperson.  I am the broker/co-owner of a small real estate office.    Please put the hammer away, Greg.  My partner Bob, and I, opened it up precisely in order to own our own systems,  and develop our own approach to business.  Initially, it was just us, but after over 25 years in the business I realized I wouldn’t mind having a few agents on board to help with the heavy lifting.  And while I certainly don’t want to milk any underlings, there are bills to pay.

So here’s the question … In true Web 2.0 spirit I am putting it out to the community.

Gentle readers, if you were a broker-owner of a small independent real estate office, just precisely how would you structure your business to survive in the Web 2.0 world?  Or is the extinction of the broker/salesperson model so close and inevitable that it would not be worth the effort?

Could a small independent brokerage reinvent itself based on, say, a team concept?  What commission split would you offer agents?  What services would you provide for agents, or not provide?  

Any and all comments and opinions are welcome.  Thank you, everyone.

« 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