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Category: Real Estate (page 156 of 266)

November 5, 2007

One more for the hunt: Introducing Eric Blackwell

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The winner of The Black Pearl Award a few weeks ago is the newest contributor to BloodhoundBlog:

Eric Blackwell is Director of Technology for a RE/Max franchise in Louisville, KY. He is active in the real estate webmasters community and consults on Search Engine Optimization and Marketing for select clients.

Eric is a good soldier, so he’s pointing his BloodhoundBlog traffic to his day job, but he also operates the hugely informative Eric On Search weblog.

How many contributors do we intend to add to BloodhoundBlog? As many as it takes to make sure we don’t miss anything. And with that in mind, if you have something we need, we need to hear from you. There is plenty of room in the RE.net for many voices. But if you can command the attention of a national audience, we can provide the platform so that your voice will be heard.

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November 5, 2007

TV writers shoot selves in foot: Rassafrassin’ swearing unconvincing

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

TechCrunch:

The strike poses an interesting challenge for television at a time where internet usage has surpassed TV viewing time in most homes. Users are already choosing online entertainment over TV, how many more will switch off their televisions when their favorite shows stop going to air? These eyeballs present a real opportunity for online content creators at all levels; from the VC funded video startups through to the DIY part timers. The trends in viewer numbers have all been headed online to this point, this strike could well accelerate this trend, particularly if it lasts over the long term.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and, of course, this was the subject of the very first post I wrote on BloodhoundBlog:

In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give away, in turn to be remarketed by others…. If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?

As an irony supplement, some of the free content that will be created during this strike will have been created by the strikers.

Amendment: Like this:

There are natural barriers to wealth, such as scarcity and inaccessibility. There are man-made barriers to wealth, like walls and laws. And there are barriers to wealth that are co-factors of relative wealth and poverty.

In a condition of vast abundance, trying to build walls around popular media content is an effort doomed to failure. What the Writers Guild actually needs to advance its agenda is not a strike but a campaign to forbid the creation of cheesy entertainment without a license.

And now you understand the National Association of Realtors…

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November 4, 2007

I may see you on the way down

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

At our office meeting this past week, our manager shared this video with the troops. Our meeting, you see, happened to coincide with Halloween, and the intended nexus was a scary market and overcoming fears.

So, watch the video of the Crazy Man with a Death Wish (I dare you to take your eyes off of it), and we will have a short review and Q & A following the show.

Review

We all have fears, and to a real estate agent who enjoys the finer things in life, such as food, shelter, and the occasional trip to the Haircut Store, our current market can be quite frightening. These fears can be overcome, as demonstrated by Crazy Man with a Death Wish.

Simply think of your career as one big-ass challenge, one where you have been dropped at the top of a ginormous mountain with a snowboard. Think of your career as teetering on the head of a very tall pin. Executed with absolute precision and focus, you will reach your goals. Flawlessly navigate the moguls of misfortune, and you will quickly reach base camp from the pinnacle of self-doubt. Screw up, and every limb will be ripped from your fragile body in a single, excruciating moment of self-destruction, or worse. You might not get the Top Producer plaque at the year-end awards ceremony.

Q & A

Q. This is supposed to be metaphorical of my real estate career? Isn’t Crazy
Guy going downhill very, very fast?

A. Yes, and your point is?

Q. Wouldn’t a better metaphor be one where I am at the foot of the ginormous mountain of opportunity, and I must work very hard to scale same?

A. Just trying to keep it real here, but good point. Do you have a link to that video?

Q. Okay, so what if I am schlepping my pathetic unprepared self up that vertical slope toward solvency and see the oncoming avalanche of no-fear agents on their way down?

A. Make a snow cave.

Q. Can I fly the helicopter?

A. No.

Tomorrow we will watch a spooky video involving an agent who, while dropping notepads at random doorsteps, survives an attack by a pack of rabid Lhasa Apsos who had escaped their model-perfect, highly upgraded Read more

November 4, 2007

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

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A dozen-and-a-half nominees, but seven of them are from BloodhoundBlog. We had a great week; there were five more that I had to wince hard and cut.

A lot from the news, as usual, plus tools, tips, tricks and techniques and the kind of deep thinking that makes this competition what it is.

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 ( "Galen Ward -- Photos Photos are worth 1,000 words (and a lot of money too)”,
“Kris Berg — The green room The Green Room“,
“Jim Cronin — RE weblogging The 7 Reasons Why Your (Future) Clients Should Care That You Are a Real Estate Blogger“,
“Jim Duncan — Martyr yourself? Are you willing to martyr yourself to the industry?“,
“Dan Green — Investors in ARMs Falling Prices And Adjusting ARMs: Real Estate Investors Have A Way Out“,
“Jay Thompson — Prize money? A Commission is Prize Money (?!?)“,
“Richard Warren — Trickle down The Economic Trickle Down Effect“,
“Rhonda Porter — Mortgage witch hunt The Mortgage Witch Hunt“,
“Steve Belt — Trulia Voices Opting out of Trulia Voices“,
“Brian Brady — Hiring a Realtor Hire A Realtor Like You Would Sign a Top NFL Draft Pick“,
“Bill Leider — What is a professional? What Is A Professional?“,
“Geno Petro — La spinster? Mademoiselle? Oui. La Spinster?…ZUT!“,
“Kris Berg — Gas guzzler My Hybrid is a Gas Guzzler“,
“Michael Cook — Perfect storm Real Estate Perfect Storm Warning: Do Not Miss This Window of Opportunity“,
“Brian Brady — HR 3915 HR 3915 Is Dangerous“,
“Teri Lussier — Twittering Twittering on a wing and a prayer“,
“Geno Petro — Search or sell Search Or Sell, Young Man“,
“Kris Berg — Genoa Petrol You, ma’am, are no Genoa Petrol!”
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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 4, 2007

    The Odysseus Medal competition doesn’t change its clocks, but virtually everyone else does: Nomination deadline is 12 Noon MST

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Cut-off is today at 12 Noon MST, which means that folks on the left coast, particularly, need to adjust their thinking. In any case, if you know of something that reeks of pith (does that sound right?), your own work or someone else’s, nominate it now before you have to wonder what time it is in Phoenix.

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    November 3, 2007

    How low can they go? Negotiating a real estate bargain

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

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

     
    How low can they go? Negotiating a real estate bargain

    Everybody wants a bargain. The question for homebuyers is, how do you get one?

    I was in a property last weekend with a buyer. The home was listed for $450,000 and the buyer asked, “Do you think they’d be willing to cut the price by $100,000?”

    Stranger things have happened, but I’d bet against it.

    Here’s why: Let’s assume the monthly payment is $2,000. The seller could afford to wait four years for a better offer before slashing the the price by $100,000 would make sense. There are other factors to consider in real life, and this kind of analysis is best done on a spreadsheet. But a lot can change in four years.

    You certainly don’t want to pay any more than you have to, but you cannot possibly pay less than the seller will agree to.

    What can make sellers particularly negotiable? A new job out of state and they can’t qualify for two mortgages. A new house under contract with a hefty non-refundable deposit. No one likes to think about profiting on the misfortunes of others, but sellers who are facing foreclosure are likely to be ready to cut to the quick.

    In other words, sellers who have a strong motivation to sell now are going to be a lot more willing to negotiate price cuts than people who kinda-sorta want to move, provided they can get their price.

    But even if you find a motivated seller, there’s a complicating factor: That seller has to have room to negotiate — equity in the home. If the house is encumbered at or near the list price, there’s a limit to how much the sellers can cut the price, no matter what their motivation. To go further would result in a short sale — the sellers would come to the closing table “short” of the full amount they owe.

    Short sales can be great bargains, too, but, since you’re negotiating with the lender more than the seller, they’re a chancy proposition at best, and they can take a Read more

    November 2, 2007

    Mademoiselle? Oui. La Spinster?…ZUT!

    by

    Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

    Author website

    I could see the fan and I could see what was about to hit it. We were all sitting around the closing table…signing, witnessing, and waiting to be paid (the latter being me, of course), when the question was posed to my client by her counsel—an attorney I usually recommend for relatively routine transactions. A nice guy but no Bruce Cutler if you know what I’m saying. He’s cheap, actually.

    “Married, Divorced, or Spinster?” he asked my client, looking at a title form he obviously had never seen before.

    ‘BAM!’ (splat)… then dead silence for one of the longer two or three second periods I can recall in recent weeks.

    Did I just hear what I thought I heard? I hoped it went unnoticed as I looked up from the mindless game on my Treo, just three deals away from completing Solitaire for the 100th time in about as many closings. Not a chance.

    “Did you just call me the ‘S’ word?” answered my client, a lovely unmarried woman who, with pen in hand, was about to sign the final document and close escrow on her first condominium in Chicago. When a question is answered with another question in such a situation then the next one who speaks loses. We all know this. And I knew who wasn’t going to say anything as I went back to my PDA, clearing the game and pretending to enter something into the calendar, all thumbs in different directions on the tiny keyboard. I was careful not to make eye contact with anyone. I was listening though.

    “Pardon me?” asked the attorney.

    I felt like popping him on his forehead with the palm of my hand …”Dumb dog, dumb dog.” The funds weren’t transferred from the Federal Reserve yet. Say something stupid after we’re paid for our services and keys are handed over. And just like the time one of my golfing buddies got caught cheating on his wife, I was also in trouble just by association. (And for the record, the wife was much hotter than the girlfriend, I thought. Either way, she got the house, the stock portfolio and the good car while he was left with the girlfriend and I guess, whatever Read more

    November 2, 2007

    The Jim Duncan Channel: Learning to surf the enblogged globe

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    We’re adding another new BloodhoundBlogger today — and I’m not done yet.

    Today’s addition? A well-known name in the RE.net, Jim Duncan:

    Jim Duncan is a third-generation Realtor, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a long-time real estate weblogger. He is active within the NAR, and has made a name for himself as an ethical lodestone in real estate.

    Jim was one of the first webloggers to make contact with us when we started BloodhoundBlog. He is a very thoughtful man — a man full of thought — and he is never hard to find, since he’s always on the side of the angels.

    I think Jim is one of the most important voices on the RE.net, period, particularly on the subject of Realtor ethics. So why didn’t I invite him to join us a long time ago? Pure thoughtlessness on my part. For the most part we have added people by self-selection, and I have tried to avoid stepping on toes. (Honest, I have!)

    In any case, I finally caught a clue and thought to ask, and Jim was gracious enough to accept.

    Last night in email to me, Brian Brady pointed out that we had had 15 posts by nine contributors in the past two days. We’re not trying to overwhelm you, but we are trying to do what we came here to do. More and more, you will have to learn to treat the enblogged globe like television, tuning in to what works for you and switching away from what doesn’t. I know we are not for everyone. But for real estate professionals who care about the ideas that will drive our industry in the twenty-first century, we need to be a hot-button on your remote control.

    And if it all gets to be too much for you, you can tune out everything except the Jim Duncan Channel.

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    November 1, 2007

    Who is not whom in the world of “Real Estate Web 2.0”?

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    I caught this bit from the GeekEstate Blog in my feed reader.

    That’s the list of weblogs in the suitable-for-framing map of “Real Estate Web 2.0” produced by the 1000Watt Consulting group, a consortium of people who make money by not understanding the difference between wattage and luminosity.

    Notice anyone missing? It’s not just us. Curbed can’t find a parking space. Rain City Guide is left out in the rain. Even Bert and Ernie, who have been everywhere, can’t make it here.

    We get snubbed from dumbass beauty contests all the time, and I take a certain kind of delight in it. First, nobody has to be told what is going at BloodhoundBlog — or anywhere else that matters. And second — and this is especially rich — the essence of Web 2.0 is that no one can tell you what does or does not matter. The first middle-men to be disintermediated by Web 2.0 were the would-be arbiters of taste.

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    November 1, 2007

    PMAR, OAR, NAR, David Barry and the Essential Elements of non-Reform

    by

    Realtor, Associate Broker

    Author website

    The confluence of events:

    Last week I received a lead from our lead generation system.  I had only a name and email address:  she wanted info on three listings, then two more, then the next day seven more, each emailed separately.  There was no contact number, only her email address, and it turned out she wasn’t really in the market to buy, just curious.  And: all she wanted were the addresses, was more than a little annoyed – so was I – she had to jump through hoops to get them.  Damned REALTORS®!

    Monday I was in a meeting to introduce our new company web site, including a new property search engine.  The mock up included maps, street view and… addresses!  Transparency; terrific!  But, no, sorry, that’s not a real fixture.  Apparently that’s against the bylaws of one of the five MLSs we deal with; “Besides, we want to give a reason for the phone to ring!”  See above.

    Then last night – after fifty plus sugared up munchkins – I opened my annual Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors bill, which includes dues for PMAR, OAR, and NAR. Last year it was $343, and this year: $459. For those who dabble in percentages, that’s a 34% increase. 

    The stated reason:  A $100 ‘special assessment’ to OAR:

    The Public Awareness Campaign is an integrated program designed to address multiple issues facing the real estate industry in Oregon as a result of extreme changes in the real estate market including the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the threat of an initiative petition to give unfair advantage to a new MLS provider and the ongoing threat of a real estate transfer tax. 

    The Public Awareness Campaign special assessment will accomplish two goals – it will fund the specific campaign to raise the profile and enhance the image of our Members [sic] in the eyes of the public, and it will make available the necessary funds to educate the public regarding initiative petition issues that impact the real estate industry and consumers in Oregon.

    So that’s a $2 million confiscation, not to study and/or implement ways to make agents more efficient, to make us Read more

    November 1, 2007

    See Steven Groves and Greg Swann on “Real Estate and Social Media” at PodCamp AZ, Saturday from 3:30 to 4:30 pm

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Okay. So Cathleen is wicked sick, coughing like a rented tractor. We’re busy, and I don’t mean just a little. Applications are up, originations are up, rates are down, demand is maybe just short of a frenzy, and the mechanics of doom today accidentally discovered that the implications of currency inflation are that their desperately-sought collapse in values may already have happened — and no one noticed.

    In any case, just to complicate my life, I agreed to present with Steven Groves this weekend at PodCamp AZ at The University of Advancing Technology.

    We’ll be doing the session on “Real Estate and Social Media.” It’s Steven’s show, and his passion as well, so it should be worth seeing. We’re on from 3:30 to 4:30 pm, and we may be accessible in video live on uStream.com as well. I would like to shoot digital video, too, if we can rope a volunteer to operate the camera.

    The links I’ve shown here will give you all the details. See you there!

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    November 1, 2007

    You, ma’am, are no Genoa Petrol!

    by

    Realtor, Associate Broker

    Author website

    Dear Mr Shaw,

    I am writing to inquiry about a position as Blogging Assistant. I am a fan of your work on the Bloodhound Blog; your piece on the bananas was pure genius. I believe I would add value to your blogging enterprise, and it would be an honor to work under your tutelage.

    By way of background, I too used to contribute to the Bloodhound Blog. My tenure was cut short when some “Geno Petro” guy showed up. My spell checker says his name is really Genoa Petrol, but I don’t think that’s right. Anway, he knows books, he knows pop culture, and he can certainly turn a phrase. He even uses colons!

    While I have no real writing training (I have admittedly never enjoyed formal instruction in the liberal arts beyond the requisite How to Write in Nearly Complete Sentences college course where, I am proud to say, I received a passing grade), I did take an English and American Literature class in high school. (Yes, my school combined the two; this allowed time in the schedule for Home Economics and Making Fire 101.) It was there that I was required to suffer through read Jane Eyre and the Grapes of Wrath. I finished both, although I found the latter unsettling and eerily biographical. Oh, and the Latin I know comes entirely from the back of a dollar bill.

    So, I am seeking a position with the potential for upward mobility, as I find I have none at my current position.  I believe that I can turn my “negatives” in to “positives”; unshackled as I am by the encumbrances of any real credentials or talent, I can quickly embrace new approaches. Since a truly original idea has never come within two quarks of my brain, I am adaptable. Finally, I have good problem solving skills.

    I do not come to you without references. As a blogger, I have received much praise on my own blog which boasts a current readership of three:

    “Since it doesn’t take much to be a Realtor, your pool is full of monkeys.” – – Eric Estrada

    “Most Realtors are lazy and uneducated. They will go away like other brokers Read more

    October 31, 2007

    Real Estate Partnerships Under Attack in Congress

    by

    Commercial Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    For many of us that are involved in professional real estate designations (CCIM, CRB, SIOR, CRS, etc.), we’ve spent countless hours studying, networking and differentiating ourselves from the pack in order to better represent ourselves and our clients. Among the benefits is being alerted to the fact that someone in Washington is making a move that will impact our clients, their businesses and our livelihood without the aid of the WSJ, CNBC or the mainstream media’s focus on its impact to our profession. Below is an alert I received this evening that I wanted to pass along to the BHB:

    CCIM INSTITUTE CALL TO ACTION: OPPOSE TAX INCREASE ON COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

    House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is moving forward with legislation that would make major changes to the tax structure. The bill proposes a massive tax increase for real estate partnerships, raising the tax rate on “carried interest” from 15% to 35%. This legislation would significantly impact commercial real estate projects, most of which are organized in partnerships. Why this legislation is detrimental to real estate practitioners:

    • Drives investors to put their money elsewhere such as stocks with much more favorable tax treatment;
    • Diminishes the value and/or put many partnership out of business because the capital would not be there to facilitate them;
    • Creates a disincentive to investing in real estate since many would no longer earn a reasonable profit;
    • Stifles growth in a part of our economy which has become increasingly important over the last several years due to manufacturing, call centers, and other key industries moving offshore;
    • Punishes partners involved with prior arranged transactions by causing a totally different economic result than all partners agreed with in advance; and,
    • Fails to recognize that real estate investors are involved in their investments daily, while hedge fund managers are not involved daily in their investments.

    Contact your U.S. Senators and Representative informing them of your concerns and urge them to oppose the carried interest provision. How to contact your legislators:

    1. Look up your Members of Congress and their contact information;
    2. Introduce yourself in a sentence or two. For instance: “I am Read more
    October 31, 2007

    Real Estate Perfect Storm Warning: Do Not Miss This Window of Opportunity

    by

    Real Estate Investor

    Author website

    One very unique thing about investing is the valuation process.  While there are numerous ways to value an investment, the only true measure is what it can be sold for.  While I can say a piece of property is worth $1 million, if it does not sell at that value it is simply not worth $1 million.

    This is essentially the free market concept.  You can set your own price and your business will succeed or fail based on the number of people who think they are getting value.  Another interesting part of this equation is time.  The more time you have to wait, the more likely you are to find someone who agrees with your valuation.  However, as the saying goes, “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

    This is the crux of a very important issue in investor perception.  Most investors make irrational decisions quite rationally.  If I see a house that seems unreasonably valued, and then I see a similar house that is even more unreasonably value, the first house now seems like a bargain.  This cycle continues until investors either run out of money or some event scares investors back into rationality.

    The problem then over corrects itself.  Investors go the other way, thinking that every house is overvalued, when it may have only been a handful.  This happens until there is an overwhelming amount of value on the table; so much value that even the most naïve investor could make money.  And the cycle begins again, and again, and again.

    Small investors are always the most susceptible to these cycles because they have the least amount of information.  They have no idea where interest rates are heading or where the next hot spot is emerging.  At best they might read the Wall Street Journal or Businessweek.  The problem with this strategy is that by definition news is old.  By the time something is reported, it will already have happened.  Furthermore, by the time your neighbor mentions it to you or by the time you see a special report, the market has most certainly moved on.

    This begs 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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