There’s always something to howl about.
Cathy just made me think of this, bless her beautiful soul. Deadline for this week’s Odysseus Medal competition is Sunday at 12 Noon PDT/MST. The People’s Choice voting is Sunday afternoon as usual, so take a break form your end of summer reveling to cast a ballot. But take care of those nominations now, before you forget. You can nominate yourself or any post you admire here or, more easily, here.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
What’s the issue here, really? I am speaking of the anti-NAR revolution at hand, of course. Is it:
Lest I am accused of just having made a case for sending agent licensing requirements to the guillotine, let me assure you that this is not the case. I have had some pretty hideous plumbers in the past, and have even been to some really terrible doctors. While I will consequently not give my business to these poor performers again, I will still expect my next plumber or doctor to have met some minimum training standards. And I understand that these “credentials” are not a guarantee that they will be spectacular at what they do, but it is a starting point.
Ask not what your profession (or professional organization) can do for you. Maybe it’s time that each of us who has more than a casual concern for our reputation and our future survival ask instead what we can individually do for the profession. No cooperative of those claiming to be ethically, skillfully or attentively Read more
This is me in the Arizona Republic (permanent link):
What can sellers do differently to get their houses sold?
There are three houses for sale on my street. All three are comps to each other — around 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths. They’re priced within a thousand dollars of each other.
House number one is in excellent shape, a turn-key value. It isn’t selling. House number two is in decent shape, but it has a western exposure. It isn’t selling. House number three has been owned as a rental for years, a fact that is completely obvious at a glance. The lawn goes for weeks at a time without being mowed. Amazingly enough, this house isn’t selling either.
Clearly, even the best of the three is overpriced for this market. How can we tell? Because it isn’t selling, even though it’s the pick of the litter.
What does that say about house number two? And what conclusion might the seller of dowdy, run-down house number three draw, if he were of a mind to draw conclusions?
Here’s a better question: What might the seller of house number three do differently, if he actually wants his house sold?
It’s satisfying, I suppose, to blame “the market.” Too many sellers. Too few buyers. The lenders are in turmoil. What can you do?
My answer: Whatever it takes.
Homes are being sold every day. There are fewer buyers than there were a year ago, a lot fewer than two years ago. But even though too many homes are on the market, some of them are selling.
Which ones? Those homes that offer the greatest perceived value to buyers.
And where is that value perceived? In the quality of the home or in a bargain price.
The seller of house number three can beat “the market” in one of two ways. He can refurbish the home to the quality of house number one, then undercut it on price by five or ten percent. Or he can leave the house the way it is — and cut the price by twenty percent.
Either way, “the market” is ready to make deals. All motivated sellers have to do Read more
I call it the Law of Somebody’s Dinner. Free market solutions to problems tend to work because entrepreneurs or investors won’t get to eat if they don’t. Government solutions tend not to work because government employees get paid the same — or even more — even if nothing works as advertised. Economists would call “Somebody’s Dinner” an incentive system, and predicting whether some proposed idea will work is a matter of evaluating the incentives — weighing the perceived attainable rewards against the anticipated costs.
This is why the existing reputation management sites for real estate agents tend not to work. The site itself has an incentive — traffic equals advertising dollars. The agents may perceive a reward in the form of a competitive advantage. But the actual end-users, consumers, do not perceive that they have anything to gain or lose, either from reporting agent activity or from perusing reports. In the case of reporting, the activity could only be seen as charity, doing good for others with no anticipated downstream return. Worse, consumers, especially buyers, are unlikely to make critical distinctions among real estate agents.
So why would I expect the kind of certification system we’re talking about to work so well that it could supplant the NAR in the minds of real estate consumers?
Because a very rigorous certification system would be a significant long-term marketing advantage to the certificants. Individual agents already try to market to the kinds of strengths certification would verify, but their efforts are too localized to have a significant impact upon public perceptions.
But if enough first-quality agents were to pursue certification, and if they were to market their certified status among their clients, we could achieve a critical mass that would eliminate uncertified agents from the mainstream of real estate transactions.
The incentive is the agent’s first, and only secondarily the client’s. In fact, consumers stand to realize great benefits by working with highly-skilled, scrupulously-ethical agents, but they only agree with that idea in the abstract, at most, for now.
But because certification brings agents a significant added marketing value, certified agents have a very strong incentive to promote the Read more
I’ll have more later, but of all the many reasons the NAR deserves to be disintermediated, perhaps the simplest and most obvious is that these congenital retards cannot catch the frolickin’ Cluetrain.
More viewpoints, pro and con, on supplanting the NAR:
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
The Minnesota Association of Realtors went on another foot-shooting expedition yesterday, again calling for paid-up members of the statewide trade group to quit the business so other paid-up members can earn more money. I made fun of them the last time they did this, and I could easily have another go at them tonight.
But: Here’s the thing: What good would it do? After money, criticism is the best gift you can have from the marketplace, but many people don’t know how to respect that kind of wealth. They suck at what they do and they intend to go on sucking, and if you point out what they’re doing wrong, they puff up into an outraged defensive posture and try to portray you as the bad guy.
Even worse, the NAR hierarchy seems to self-select for mental and moral midgets, mealy-mouthed morons, minds enmired in mush, utterly incapable of conceiving that the only emotion they inspire among the membership is a tepid sort of revulsion. There is no sport in making fun of them. It literally is like picking on actual retardates. It’s not funny, it’s cruel.
Plus which, criticism, even raucously funny criticism, is not what’s needed. Here is the full and final cure to the problem posed by the National Association of Realtors, along with every rancid state and local branch:
Supplantation.
Not replacement. We can’t get rid of it, no more than we can get rid of the cartel-creating real estate licensing laws the NAR foisted off on an unsuspecting public. We can’t kill this vampire, no matter how much blood-sucking havoc it wreaks. But we can rob it of all its power.
How? By supplanting it. Just as the NAR seeks to elevate Realtors — dues-paying members — above mere licensees, we can create another, higher organization to deprive mere Realtors of any valuable marketing cachet.
This is something the Council of Residential Specialists could have done, but it, like REBAC, is nothing more than a lap-dog of the NAR. The real estate broker’s level of licensing could have and should have meant something serious, but, if anything, it’s an even worse joke than Read more
I receive more comments on these than any other card I’ve ever seen.
Say what you will, this is the most ambitious card we’ve seen so far.
And do please say it with pictures.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Here are the emails I responded to tonight:
Hi Russell…I have learned about you from the book Billion Dollar agent. I have been on your site No Hassle Listings this afternoon and I’m most impressed. It is good to see some of the leaders of our industry taking the consultive approach and pay me only for the value I add.
Russell, I’m changing my business model and starting a team only brokerage here in Jacksonville Florida. We have been building websites and beta testing our value added products. Everything is coming together nicely. However, I’m surveying several people in hopes that I can get a industry understanding on three areas of importance. I would appreciate if you would share with me your compensation plans for Listing Specialists and Buyer Specialists and your weekly, monthly or annual expections for each. Your years of experience tells me you have probably tested several programs. I’m planning on using Licensed Assistants who are paid $25/showing and $75/open house etc.
I want LS’s and BS’s doing only listing presentations, business development and negoitating contracts. Your thoughts would be appreciated. The third question is How does your Guarantee Sale program work? percentage reduction?, do you have investors who step in?
Thank you in advance for any information you are willing to share. Wishing you much continued success,
___
My name is David Miller I’m located in Boston. I read “the millionaire agent” and got your name from that book. I was very impressed in your companies accomplishments!! I just have a couple of questions: What is the most important thing you can do starting out? In terms of marketing what is the most important and most effective…..do you use a telemarketer?. Thank you for your time. David
___
Russell,
I just finished listening to the most recent podcasts on Bloodhound blog. Thanks again! I find your delivery to be very engaging and your material to be valuable. Again, thank you for being so generous.
I hope you will address topics for brand new agents who do not have the processes in place to improve on. Since the drop out rate is high in this business new Read more
Your first question is probably “what will you pay me” followed by “wait, what?” According to Mashable.com, a web developer short on cash has decided to auction off the rights to have his name legally changed to the name of the highest bidding company (most people sweat over providing a product or a service, but this guy is genius). This process will land him in the Guinness Book of World Records along with the highest bidder- talk about exposure! Leave it to a dude in cargo shorts and a wrinkled screen T to create a brilliant marketing plan- he’s pimpin’ out his own name!
This leads me to ask three things:
(1) Do you have a way to market yourself, your product or your services that is more unique than your competitors (or more unique than ANYONE for that matter)? Cargo shorts dude certainly did and his ingenuity will likely pay his bills while he’s chillin’ in the blogiverse (you know he’s got to be a blogger) in his La-Z-Boy!
(2) Here in Austin several Realtors have actually changed their names- not after their brokerages, but perhaps to look cute on a business card. There are several ladies who have changed their names to the likes of Sunny Happy Day (who is really named this, is a friend of my mother’s, but not a Realtor). Too cheap for lipo or implants? Change your name! Would YOU do this for business? I’m thinking of changing mine to Snarky Chick Anglin…
(3) What’s your guess for his highest bidder? Can you imagine meeting a guy at a party and him saying “Hi, my name is Cola. Coca Cola.” Or, “what’s up, I’m Banana Republic!” “Thank you for calling, this is Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, how may I direct your call?” Share your ideas for funny brand names that could end up simultaneously making this dude rich while scarring him.
————
Comments are encouraged!
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
If they’re ain’t no margin, there ain’t no mission. Active Rain has released it’s revenue model to the network of 43,000 members. My only question is, “What took you so long?”
In the interest of fairness, Jon Washburn, Caleb Mardini, & Matt Heaton are tech-guys. They always felt that if they build it, the money will come. And build it they did. In the course of 13 months, Active Rain has grown to over 43,000 registered members and has established a community blogging platform that is unparalleled in the RE.net.
The idealistic approach of MyHouseKey.org was a great one but it failed because of a lack of participation. No points? No interest.
Gather.com is another approach to communal blogs outside of the RE.net. Gather also uses the point system and offers rewards of free Borders’ gift cards for serial contributors. It seems to attract a sort of pseudo-intellectual Myspace user and doesn’t get the communal participation Active Rain does.
The boys of Active Rain have done a great job of balancing the fragile egos often associated with top-producing Realtors and loan originators. They’ve established community guidelines and let the members pretty much police themselves. Their Localism.com portal is an interface with consumers. They won the coveted Inman Innovation Award in San Francisco. earlier this month; it couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of guys.
The climb to revenue wasn’t an easy one. Rumors abounded of lead poaching, black hat SEO, and other conjecture about the unbeleiveable and meteoric rise in the RE.net; none of it was true. Strategic alliances, partnerships, news sharing with mainstream media, and rumors of a buyout were all bandied about as the boys toiled away. They kept their focus and rolled with the punches.
Now, they want to get paid. Bravo! The success of the Active Rain Real Estate Network comes from the collaboration among its members. Members refer business back and forth, share marketing ideas, and help change the way we do business with the consumer. It is, without Read more
More from Richard Riccelli on ideas for Allen Butler’s business card:
An object lesson in the art of the possible.
(Yes, Chuchundra, you are of course right**), since Vettriano’s licensing fees are likely to be a bit dear on a Realtor’s business card budget, let’s quickly explore what can be accomplished with an art budget of a few hundred dollars.
Visit your favorite stock photography/illustration source (getty, veer, jupiter leap to mind), navigate to the rights-free (cheap and forever) areas, type in your keywords, and see what suggests itself.
And if you have the decided advantage of a name that is also its own mnemonic, all the better to create a brand ID, if not a brand image.
The object is to stick with it. Like a bulldog, if not a bloodhound. (I know, it’s a pug. Stock photography does has its limitations.)
__
**p.s. and thx for the You Tube clip. Most amusing. I think I was in that room, just out of frame.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
I am in love with this idea, The Odysseus Medal competition.
We judged ordinary Carnivals several times, and I was persistently underwhelmed with the overall quality of the entries. We judged hard, so the winners were truly worthy of their honors. But too many of the also-ran entries were just link-bait, entered solely to get the link back from the judging weblog.
We have none of that. I cut pretty ruthlessly to get to the short list, but we get nothing that is wildly off-topic or trooly stoopid — or stolen from another site. Instead, we’re seeing some insanely great posts, and picking just one winner is proving to be a very welcome but very difficult task.
It’s that way for you folks, too. I can tell by the People’s Choice voting, which is always broad and deep.
Together as writers, readers and judges, we are building something that matters, something that calls enduring attention to works of the mind that might otherwise just scroll away. The winners are worthy of note, to be sure, but simply to make the short list in this competition is a mark of excellence. If you make it this far, you’re keeping pace with a very fast crowd, an achievement hard to match.
And with that, to the winners:
Jeff Turner wrote an excellent post on why real estate video is unlikely to supplant virtual tours. I agree with his take and then some, and it’s something I’ve been meaning to write more about. But there are other, better uses for video in real estate. I’ve discussed a couple — videotaping your first tour of a home at the listing appointment, or taping the final walkthrough as a gift to the buyers. Russell Shaw brings us another, using video as a real estate sales training tool. Russ is just getting his sea-legs in the oceans of do-it-yourself video podcasting, but his initial effort won him this week’s People’s Choice Award.
Who is not rapt paying attention to the world of mortgage lending? Yesterday at open house, seemingly, it was all anyone wanted to talk about. As the Times rundown on Countrywide makes Read more
Week after week in the Republic, I hammer away on the idea that the only homes that will sell in this market are the ones that are priced right, prepared right and presented right. It goes for us, too, obviously, so we made a visual record of the process of preparing a home for the real estate market for a home we listed last week.
This is fun for me, because one of the things I tell sellers is, “You know what’s wrong with this house. You know exactly what you would frown over — or your mother-in-law would frown over — if you were seeing this home for the first time. Those are the issues we need to address before we can try to sell this house.” This gives us one extra way to show-don’t-tell the ideas we are trying to communicate.
Staging is all the rage right now, but staging is a wasted effort if the home is dirty or in palpable disrepair. This slide show illustrates a more robust idea of home staging.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, real estate photography
Richard Riccelli sent me this yesterday, his unique take on a business card for Allen Butler, The Realty Butler:
The art of the card
Allen,
Your euphonious butler idea can work … just be more evocative to move it up market. More like this on the front…with apologies to Mr. Vettriano and the Portland Gallery.
Formula for success: Fine art on the front** + Simple contact details on the back = Hard to discard.
__
**Don’t even THINK of appropriating this work without Mr. Vettriano’s permi$$ion! Of course you knew that.
That formula, fine art on the front, details on the back, could rock.
There is no guarantee that a top-drawer marketing guru will while away his Sunday redesigning your business card — but what have you got to lose? Show us your card and let’s talk about it…
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
I’ve written before about the practical consequences of the Age of Abundance. Here’s Seth Godin on the same subject:
So how do you deal with the shortage of scarcity?
Well, the worst strategy is whining–about copyright laws and fair trade and how hard you’ve worked to get to where you are. Whining is rarely a successful response to anything. Instead, start by acknowledging that most of the profit from your business is going to disappear soon. Unless you have a significant cost advantage (like Amazon’s or Wal-Mart’s), someone with nothing to lose is going to be able to offer a similar product for less money.
So what’s scarce now? Respect. Honesty. Good judgment. Long-term relationships that lead to trust. None of these things guarantee loyalty in the face of cut-rate competition, though. So to that list I’ll add this: an insanely low-cost structure based on outsourcing everything except your company’s insight into what your customers really want to buy. If the work is boring, let someone else do it, faster and cheaper than you ever could. If your products are boring, kill them before your competition does.
Ultimately, what’s scarce is that kind of courage–which is exactly what you can bring to the market.
Read the whole thing. And this was written four years ago… If you’re not moving up in incredibly irreplaceable value, you’re moving down in infinitely fungible price.
Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
