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Category: Real Estate (page 154 of 266)

November 12, 2007

Dear Billion Dollar Agent,

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Yes, that is exactly the salutation Steve Kantor used to write to me. Steve is offering a free copy of the book he is about to release to anyone who will complete BDALogoThumba short survey. Here is the link to that survey. Below is the full text of that email.

__

From: Steve Kantor [mailto:steve.kantor@gmail.com]

Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 12:09 AM
To: Steve Kantor
Subject: Agent needs help – all of us in 2008 – share ideas for 2008 – Billion Dollar Agent

Dear Billion Dollar Agent,Time for another book – take 5 minutes to quickly reply on MONDAY – book published within a week. Highly valuable to you, all Billion Dollar Agents and hundreds of other agents already involved with this instant book project. I will be at NAR Las Vegas on Tue-Fri – if you are attending, please tell me so we can meet.

A group of 20 top agents have started an instant effort to gather hundreds of ideas from agents around the country of how to succeed in the coming 2008 market. If you reply to survey below and share ideas you will receive a free copy of the ebook PDF by Thanksgiving. This effort is being organized by Best Agent Business (www.bestagentbusiness), the publishers of Billion Dollar Agent:

Lessons Learned to help top agents.
Please take 5 minutes, complete survey below, and forward to fellow agents:
Survey link: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2275H36JR5S

Thank you!
Keep in touch,
Steve
—

Steve Kantor
President
Best Agent Business
www.bestagentbusiness.comCell: 202-297-2393

Fax: 240-751-4247

November 11, 2007

BloodhoundBlog.TV — Not quite ready for prime time…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So Jim Duncan, Dan Green and I took a very informative first swing at Studio BloodhoundBlog tonight, a multi-party video discussion show about real estate. Dan talked about lending and high finance. Jim talked about green real estate and real estate opportunities in a college town. We all talked about the upcoming NAR convention.

There was only one problem. I reengineered our on-line audio solution without rethinking the means by which I was recording the audio.

The result? A fairly nice-looking 37 minute film with audio on my end only — and even that’s out of phase.

This is not tragic. We’re inventing something new, and it’s understood there will be kinks to be worked out. I understood my mistake while the film was still being written down to disk from RAM. I know what I did wrong and I know how to fix it.

But this was a very god first attempt, and I’m sorry we lost it. Moreover, I wanted for this episode to spark interest among folks going to the NAR convention. I want to talk to people all week by webcam when you get back to your rooms.

The short video attached is a salvaged portion of tonight’s failed effort making that appeal. If you’re going to the NAR convention, take your webcam — and send me an email. I’ll email instructions on how we can do video interviews — essentially video podcasts.

We’ll try Studio BHB again next week, but we can go ahead and build a whole lot of BHB.TV content this week.

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November 11, 2007

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

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Fifteen nominees this week, although ten are from BloodhoundBlog contributors, writing either at BHB or at their home weblogs. I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t think I’m being biased. The one thing I could suggest is that y’all nominate more posts from a broader range of sources.

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 ( "Dan Green -- Flux capacitor Happy Anniversary, Flux Capacitor”,
“Kris Berg — Boomerang Warning: Boomerang may cause injury to others“,
“Geno Petro — Big, hungry beast Big, Hungry Beast“,
“Kris Berg — Trulia Make checks payable to Trulia.com“,
“Jim Watkins — True equity True Equity – In the Real Estate Sense“,
“Joel Burslem — Facebook Advertising Your Real Estate Business on Facebook“,
“Jillayne Schlicke — HR 3915 Mortgage Brokers and Loan Originators Should Support HR3915“,
“Steve Leung — Reverse offer Considering the Reverse Offer“,
“Kevin Boer — Curbed Curbed.com = HomeGain Redux; Is History Repeating Itself? Will Curbed.com Start Selling Leads?“,
“Sean Broderick — Rubik’s Cube Reasons Come First“,
“Brian Brady — HR 3915 HR 3915: Open Letter to Senator Dodd from a Veteran Mortgage Originator“,
“Kris Berg — SEO Chasing My Long Tail – My Truth About SEO“,
“Geno Petro — First in, last out First In, Last Out“,
“Jim Duncan — Green building Green building will soon be invisible“,
“Kris Berg — Snowboarding I may see you on the way down”
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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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    • November 11, 2007

    A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Undermining the arguments in support of the status quo

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Part V: Why arguments for the current method of compensating real estate agents and against divorcing the real estate commissions must fail

    As I write this, the National Association of Realtors is preparing for its annual convention, to be held this year in America’s playground, Las Vegas, Nevada. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAR, so that milestone will be part of this year’s festivities. Can you guess what won’t be on the program?

    You guessed it. Not one session or event will be devoted to an earnest discussion of divorcing the real estate commissions, reconfiguring the way we account for funds at Close of Escrow so that sellers pay only their own agents and buyers pay for their own representation. I think it would be accurate to say that the NAR likes things the way they are, but it would probably be still more accurate to say that divorcing the commissions is not even on the NAR’s radar.

    Why not? That’s for you to decide, but the most common “yeah, but” objection you will hear to divorcing the commissions, among real estate professionals, is, “Yeah, but buyers don’t even care who pays the commission.”

    I wrote this series of essays so you would know why it is important for the real estate commissions to be divorced. But assuming I have failed in this objective, let me endeavor now to help you understand why this matters:

    In our current buyer’s market, some sellers are offering 4%, 5%, even 6% buyer’s agent’s commissions. Some new home builders are offering 8%, 12%, 16%. The highest buyer’s agent’s commission I have heard so far is 20%.

    You as the buyer bring or borrow every dollar that gets paid to anyone in a normal real estate transaction, so it is possible that you could end up writing a mortgage check every month with twenty cents of every dollar going to cover what you unwittingly paid for “your” agent. That’s twenty cents of every dollar of principal payment, but also twenty cents of every dollar of interest — and taxes, and insurance and private mortgage insurance.

    If buyer Read more

    November 10, 2007

    Reasons Come First

    by

    Commercial Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Imagine your 6 year old daughter playing with a Rubik’s Cube fresh out of the box on her birthday. She notices the six completed, colored sides in perfect visual harmony, whites across from yellows, reds from oranges, blues from greens. She rotates the cube, studies it, and then, slowly, begins to turn it, first the top counterclockwise, then the left side clockwise, then the right and bottom. She finds it fun to rotate and manipulate with her tiny hands, and it’s cool how she notices the changing patterns of colors on each side. You wonder if she’s recognizing how challenging the puzzle has become, because you notice as she begins to slow down. As she stops and looks at you, you realize that the fun “flashback” gift (given to her by someone in your family) will become your challenge for the next several hours or days, because she wants you to fix it.

    FILO! (my new word around the kids, thanks Geno), now what? It’s my fault for not noticing what she was doing in the beginning. I can’t reverse the steps. And, I wasn’t one of those genius kids 20 years ago that could finish it blindfolded, with one arm behind my back, or in a taxi, as portrayed by Will Smith’s character in In the Pursuit of Happiness. You’re probably thinking, most 6 year olds can rationalize to some extent that you can’t fix it, so they get bored and move on. Then, you bury the cube in the toy box and hope they don’t find it again, at least when you’re not around. But, imagine this scenario and that your 6 year old daughter, as mine is, being afflicted with autism.

    There is no rationalization, no cute distraction that moves her focus away from the problem at hand, right now. It’s now my problem. And, I can either, throw the damn thing away, endure the hours of endless tantrums and hope that she never sees another Rubik’s cube ever again in her life, or I can solve it. I recall the line from the original Die Hard movie, “I eat Read more

    November 10, 2007

    Want Garlic On That Ice Cream? You Don’t Want Cash Flow On Your Capital Growth Either

    by

    Real Estate Investments Broker

    Author website

    Dad, when he was poor, survived on peanut butter and onion sandwiches — no lie, as I couldn’t make that up. 🙂

    Though not nearly as weird, I like spinach salads with olive oil and malt vinegar. garlic ice creamI’ve not run into anyone else who likes it. They usually put balsamic vinegar on instead. Go figure. 🙂

    I love garlic in my stir fry, onions too. The malt vinegar on my spinach salads might be a little quirky, but not up to the level of garlic on ice cream, know what I mean, Verne? Not even if it was free. 🙂

    The same goes with cash flow. It goes well with retirement. In fact, surveys show it’s #1 on retirees’ wish list — more of it, that is. 🙂

    You’re invited to my place, for a short weekend read on the subject of how cash flow can actually significantly reduce your ultimate retirement income.

    The misuse, or rather, poorly timed pursuit of cash flow is maybe the most misunderstood factor in real estate investing.

    While you’re there, try listening to a podcast or two. By far, the two most popular are Purposeful Planning and Grandpa Economics.

    Enjoy your weekend.

    November 10, 2007

    A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Cataloging benefits — starting with a complete catalog of available homes

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Part IV: Divorcing the real estate commissions will result in benefits not just for buyers but also for their agents and for the real estate market as a whole

    The National Association of Realtors is embroiled right now in a protracted anti-trust suit brought by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The case in a nutshell: The NAR has been attempting to use MLS rules to stifle lower-priced competition.

    Recall that the NAR is a conspiracy against consumers. Its purpose is artificially to limit access to real estate representation, so that consumers will have to pay more than they might otherwise for real estate advice. The cause of action in the DOJ/FTC suit is a move by old-line brokers against young-turk brokers within the NAR. The trade organization stands accused of deliberately frustrating the objectives of its own members.

    What is the essential data field in an MLS system — do you remember? It’s the co-broke. Everything else is just details. Every true MLS system exists so that real estate brokers can communicate — in presumptive secrecy — how much they will pay when a co-operating broker procures a buyer for a particular listing.

    Can you think of one simple thing the NAR could do to make the DOJ/FTC anti-trust suit go away in an instant?

    How about… divorcing the real estate commissions…?

    Do you think that might work?

    Remember that the MLS system is a vestigial engine of sub-agency, designed from the outset to advance the home seller’s interests — at the expense of the home buyer’s interests.

    If we were to divorce the real estate commissions, the co-broke field would go away and with it the entire edifice of the top-secret MLS system.

    Does this mean homes would no longer be listed? Of course not. But home listing would become a free-market business — with no anti-consumer rules on what material facts can and cannot be disclosed to buyers.

    Without doubt there will be a shake-out period, with conflicts among vendors, errors of judgement, etc. — just as in any competitive marketplace. This will occasion much lamentation — before, during and after — starting Read more

    November 9, 2007

    Birthing BloodhoundBlog.TV in time for the NAR Convention

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    We’re going to do the first run of a BloodhoundBlog.TV taping this Sunday night. My own life is a blur, but events are ganging up on me. I expect to have video posted by Monday early morning, before I take off for Las Vegas.

    Cathy won’t be with me, alas. Her pneumonia might or might not be better, but the doctor is forbidding her to fly in any case.

    I can’t speak for the others here, but I’m stocking up on MREs and pea-shooters for the NAR Convention next week. If you’re going, take your webcam and let me know you have it with you. We’ll do some interviews once you drag your tired carcass back to your suite.

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    November 9, 2007

    A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: We’re just sitting here at the closing table, watching the money flow

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Part III: The who-pays-whom of real estate is not as simple as you might have thought…

    All right, let’s go buy a house. I want to talk about the flow of money in a real estate transaction, and there is no better way of understanding that flow than wading right out into the middle of it all.

    So let’s buy a house for $100,000. Where I live, in Phoenix, a hundred grand will get you a grungy dump. Where I grew up, in downstate Illinois, a hundred-thousand dollar house will put you among the diamond-crusted elite. Either way, it doesn’t matter. We’re not buying this house to live in it, but just so we can see who gets paid and how.

    I want for us to buy this house with 100% financing — nothing down! — even though that kind of loan isn’t as easy to get as it used to be. Even better, I want you to take 3% of the purchase price as a concession from the seller to defray your closing costs. You’re going to have to put down an earnest deposit to show that you’re serious, but I like $500 for a house this cheap. Not only that, but, since there is going to be money left over from the closing costs concession, you’re actually going to get your $500 back at Close of Escrow.

    Isn’t that cool? You just took possession of a $100,000 asset for not one red cent out-of-pocket. You bought a house for nothing. This is not a fantasy. I’ve done this for dozens of clients. But before you get on the phone to all your friends, telling them about your amazing financial skills, stop and think for a minute.

    Did you just buy a house for nothing, or did you buy it by promising to make monthly payments for up to thirty — or forty — or fifty — years for principle, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA fees and private mortgage insurance?

    Your lender pushed $100,000 onto the closing table, but he did it on the strength of your promise to pay all that money back and then some. Read more

    November 9, 2007

    Don’t Be Like The Part Timer Queen- You’re Embarassing To The Industry!

    by

    Real Estate Rainmaker

    Author website

    please don't be this personThe line was only two people deep at the UPS Store the other day but it seemed to take forever!  I had simply made four copies and wanted nothing more than to slap a dollar on the counter, holler “keep the change, no receipt, thank you” and walk out.  Here in Austin, the service isn’t always at the speed of light because people take the time to say hello and ask about family (we’re convinced we’re a small town despite the continuing population boom).  I felt validated in my hurry hurry attitude because I was on my way to mass and didn’t want to be late, so COME ON, MOVE IT!

    Regardless of my toe tapping, the last woman in front of me didn’t even notice the overly emphasized sighs as she put her chest on the counter.  Yes, her chest- her very padded push up bra that was very stressed out to be a part of her wardrobe held her business up to the counter.  I think she was trying to impress the 17 year old cashier (who wasn’t impressed with the cougar chick).  After several more minutes of waiting, waiting, waiting, she finally cashed out.  Hooray, this is it, I’m almost out of here!

    But no.  “Hey, if you ever have any odd requests, here’s my card.”  The guy asked “so what do you do?”  She did the hair flip over the shoulder with her mane of 80’s hair band blonde mess and said, “I’m so glad you asked!  I’m a licensed massage therapist and so is my husband!  If you are ever stressed out or know anyone who is, I’m great with my hands…”  Eww.  He didn’t act grossed out, what a gentleman.  “Great, I’ll pass this along.”  She picked up her purse and I inched forward, knowing I was already late for mass.

    “Oh, and my husband is an EMT and I also sell jewelry- perfect for the upcoming holidays!”  She offered a little high pitched giggle as she hoisted her over-stressed boulder holder up some more.  “Cool.  Okay, have a great day.”  And then came the kicker that I had clenched Read more

    November 9, 2007

    How Stupid Would This Be?

    by

    Realtor, Audio Engineer

    Author website

    I came to the conclusion (in about 1990) that text based communication was destroying the intricacies, nuances, and intimacy of verbal communication.  There are non-verbal cues that lend a richness and meaning to verbal communication that cannot be achieved with emails, text messages, instant messaging, and most pertinently, blogging. I do not mean to belabor the virtues of oratory or rhetorical skill, but perhaps I should. Because we have many gifted writers here on Bloodhound Blog, our writing skills enable us to infuse our text with meaning and richness, humor, pith, sarcasm, and emotion. The use of visual images in the form of emoticons and jpg images has helped to facilitate some of the lost intricacies of speech. Is this enough? Maybe, but I think we could do better. Now on to the potentially stupid part.

    Imagine that I have something that I want to say (verbally) on Bloodhound. I open up the link, I click a button that says “Post,” a window opens up, and the beautiful botton says, “Click Here When Your Camera is Ready.” So, I straighten my tie and hair, make sure my portliness is portrayed from just the right angle, and launch. . .my webcam. So there I am, in all my humanity, sitting in front of the camera, saying what I want to say. Now, if and when someone wants to comment on my blog post, they do the same thing. Click the link, and start recording their response. Oh the richness! The humanity! Now, I realize that there would need to be a few advances in technology to facilitate this, and perhaps some ungodly amount of bandwidth potential, but think of the coolness! One of the things that really fills me with trepidation and hope is actually meeting the people who write here. I have met a handfull personally, and I must say that this opens up a whole new dimension to my reality. It really lets me know a lot more about these people. Some things I would like to know, for example:

    Is Kris really that pretty, or is that a high school photo?

    Does our Read more

    November 9, 2007

    You Have Your Real Estate Niche – Does Your Website?

    by

    Real Estate

    Author website

    Back in the day, I wanted it all. I obtained my real estate license, then my property/casualty insurance, then my life & health, and I was ready to get my mortgage broker license, as well. I wanted to OWN the transaction – and every transaction. Are you looking for a house in Kyle? I’m your man! Do you need a C-class multi w/ at least a 6 cap? Over here! And you know what my closing ration was? Neither did I, because I didn’t track it! I was too busy being the jack of all trades – and master of none.

    Experienced agents have found their niche – residential or commercial aside, they’ve found their real niche: Downtown condos, specific areas, specific neighborhoods, specific lifestyles, and a host of other choices. You tend to gravitate towards what you like, or where you live. But while agents have gravitated towards their niches, most websites remain broad & sweeping.

    Case in point

    What did I sell? Who knows…looks like all of Austin. If a searcher found this site, they get NO specific information on anything. They can search the MLS – but they can do that on ~3000 other Austin agent websites (thanks Jim Olenbush!) They might as well have landed on ripoff.com realtor.com and if they enter their contact info there, they’ve entered it everywhere.

    Web surfers are getting more & more sophisticated with their searching. While you still get a ton of “city real estate” searches, you’re also seeing more & more “neighborhood real estate” searches. Those browsers know exactly what they’re looking for, and they know when they’ve found it.

    Niche websites won’t get the same traffic as a “jack of all trades” website, but they’ll convert like crazy. I’m in the process of working on Life in Steiner Ranch – because I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand, like working it, and love selling it.

    In my humble opinion, this website is pretty – I happen to be very good friends Read more

    November 8, 2007

    The Search Friendly Blogger-Oxymoron or Perfect Weapon?

    by

    The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

    Author website

    In the beginning was the Keyword…just kidding!

    But that is how many SEO focused obsessed people look at it. After reading Kris’ post I could empathize with her position. Why spend hours fretting over well placed keywords. It is enough time to find the right methaphor and not leave dangling participles. One cannot (without divorce and a 30 hour day) do both…right?

    And even if we get beyond the aspect of time. Then there are all of these pages of content to write that are stuffed with keywords…a journalistic sacrifice at the altar of the almighty Google. You feel like you are selling your soul for traffic…and at that traffic that may or may not be interested in buying or selling a home in your area. Why bother. Either we have standards or we do not as bloggers, right?

    I am sure that there are other concerns as well…for brevity’s sake I will confine the concerns to those..just understand that I can empathize.

    You are RIGHT. Taken on the whole and not individually.

    Frank admission #1: There is only so much time. Too often SEO focused folks DO sell their souls for traffic in my opinion. We all have to make decisions and I have made many decisions in the past that I have looked back and regretted. I hope that is honest enough and blunt enough. They focus on how many links and how many keywords that they can stuff here and there.

    They often lose journalistic integrity. They often do not write for the love of the industry or the love of convincing others of their value. They are writing to please an algorithm. Scratch that…they are simply writing to get over on an algorithm.
    That said, the reality for search engines is that they are after essentially one thing–relevance. Relevance = traffic and success for search engines. This is something that TRUE blogs (and yes, TRUE bloggers) deliver better than almost anyone else.

    The content is fresh and frequent. The points that are made are direct and on target. They are convincing.  And good blog writing is a talent and gift. Geno, Russell and Kris (just Read more

    November 8, 2007

    A Big Hello From Austin! Here’s Where My Head’s At

    by

    Real Estate

    Author website

    Hello to everyone! Let me start out by saying that I’m flattered/excited to be here…I’ve already received two congratulations from colleagues who (already) read Greg’s post (about 5 hours ago) and my Google alerts have already hit me for “eric bramlett” with the same post. Let’s just say that BHB carries some weight, sucka!

    Well, since I completely copped Blackwell’s style by asking to write here, I thought I’d continue my “flattery by imitation” and start out with an intro post that shows my point of view, and you guys can go ahead and infer how my occupation(s) shape that POV.

    1) Entrepreneur. This is first & foremost because it’s what I am. I love to think outside the box, hate having a boss, & love making money. As an entrepreneur, I’ve come up with a total of 3million business plans, successfully implemented one, and successfully failed one. I have a couple more I’m seriously brewing right now.

    2) Realtor. Because it pays the bills, and I’m good with people. I take pride in my work, and treat people fairly. I disclose any bonuses before contract (Greg) and honestly look out for my clients’ best interests at all time.

    3) Broker. I wish it paid the bills, but it doesn’t. I hang anywhere from 8-12 agents’ licenses at any given time, and about half of them depend on it for income. I like helping them, and love watching them succeed.

    4) SEO/SEM. I’ve jacked w/ TONS of marketing, and online fits me well. I’ve successfully marketed multiple websites, and think I know a little bit about the subject. I’m looking forward to (finally) meeting a bunch of friends @ Pubcon this year.

    So…that’s where my head’s at, and those are the subjects that I will bring to the table. Hopefully, I can start some lively debate, and I hope I can contribute as much as I will learn!

    By the way….Where’s YOUR Read more

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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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