BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Real Estate (page 41 of 266)

November 9, 2011

Hey, Ron Phipps: I say the National Association of Realtors is a rent-seeking Rotarian Socialist conspiracy against the American consumer. Can you offer even one argument to refute that claim?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

My friend and partner, the ever-more-Unchained Brian Brady, posted a Facebook link to a Wall Street Journal article on the current push by the National Association of Realtors for extended loan subsidies for the rich:

To understand why 90% of U.S. mortgages are still underwritten by taxpayers, look no further than the nearby letter from Ron Phipps of the Realtors lobby. He makes clear that the Realtors, like the rest of the housing-subsidy crowd, are working hard to get Congress to reinstate a $729,750 loan-limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantees.

Why do rich people need taxpayer-underwritten home loans? They don’t, of course. The NAR needs loan subsidies at all income-levels to keep churning the real estate market.

In case you haven’t looked at your bank statements or retirement accounts lately, the NAR has already churned the American economy into a five-year coma. But like every other legislative vampire, the NAR won’t stop sucking away at unearned income until the body politic is entirely exsanguinated — bled to death.

This latest Five-Alarm Urgent Action Item — one of three or four a week Phipps and his minions spam-spew — is nothing more than an extension of the original NAR philosophy: Milk consumers, taxpayers and real estate salespeople for the benefit of brokers.

Do you doubt me?

The real estate licensing laws, written in their original form by the NAR, exist to limit competition in real estate brokerage, eliminating alternative sources of real estate brokerage to artificially sustain higher commissions for NAR brokers.

The sales commission co-brokerage fee — the vaunted “cooperation” among brokers — exists to create the Multiple Listings Service oligopoly, the golden handcuffs by which real estate salespeople are bound to their brokers and to the NAR — and which, not-coincidentally, continues the viciously anti-consumer NAR policy of de facto sub-agency.

The IRS “safe harbor” exclusion shielding real estate brokers from having to report income for their employees makes it possible for brokers to churn-and-burn gullible real estate salespeople like a toy store burns through your kid’s allowance money. No other business can afford to treat human capital — that would be you — like so Read more

November 7, 2011

What’s your marketing plan for 2012? Set a Bloodhound’s pace this Friday at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re having a Scenius this Friday in Anaheim, a BloodhoundBlog Unchained event that we’re running, subversively, during the NAR Convention. We’ve done this before, but the NAR was a lot more powerful the last time. By now it just seems pathetic — but we don’t much care either way.

We care a lot about the Scenius, though. What we do is put a lot of bright, ambitious people together and then revel in the great ideas that emerge from the synergy. Our guests are some of the inventors of the wired world of real estate, and they will have lots of new ides to explore.

Just think: Since the last time we did BloodhoundBlog Unchained, Google has come to be beset by Bing, Twitter by Facebook and the web by app-centric mobile computing. Seems like a good time to rethink your marketing strategies, doesn’t it.

If you’re going to be in Disneyville for the NAR Convention, or if you’re within driving distance, join us.

Here are the details:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000
Mapped.

The dogs will hit town Thursday afternoon, so, if you’re around, look us up. But the main action will be Friday. I know there are seats left, I’m not sure how many. If you want to get your 2012 off to a running start, assert yourself:

Make the Scene: $99


















October 31, 2011

The Greatest Listing Single-Site Ever Created!

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

…is what people might say once we are all done here.

After following Robert Worthington’s post: Videos are in My Arsenal and the terrific advice he got, I decided it’s my turn to spend some time in the barrel. Not for videos (despite the abundant potential I see in videos, I’m not there yet) but rather single sites: I am dialing in my individal listing web site model. Well… at least I think I am.

Heck, just last week I bragged in a Comment on Eric Blackwell’s NAR, IDX, Franchisors post “I know I can put together a single site that blows away most other agents and ALL other aggregator / franchisor lead generator thing-a-ma-bobs.”  Later that night, however, as I lay down to go to sleep, all I could hear, over and over in my head, was Robert Duvall saying to John Wayne in the movie True Grit: “I call that bold talk for a one-eyed, fat man!”  I realized that such a brag, based on only one person’s review (don’t kid yourself, though, my mom can be a tough critic) leaves room for improvement.

Real Estate, despite all the talking we do with others, is essentially a lonely business. (We do still talk to lots of people in order to generate business, don’t we? I mean… I didn’t miss some new App that does that for us, right?) When we create marketing pieces, and even entire marketing campaigns, we are often working in the bubble of our own minds. I have borrowed, swiped and learned as much as I can from what’s found on BHB, and so I can ask no better group to take a look at the direction I’m going and provide criticism. This single site, Wellesley La Mesa, is the first one utilizing my new layout and over-all look/feel, so it’s not too late to make wholesale changes if I’m missing something or just plain on the wrong path.

One note: the web site itself (The UnRealty Group), is about 30% finished, with lots of articles and content missing, so if you link over there, keep that in mind before tearin’ into me… I mean passin’ on your constructive criticisms.  Thanks!

October 26, 2011

Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me writing in June of 2007. Someone linked to it from Twitter yesterday, and I read it for the first time in years. The argument holds up — there has never been any attempt at rigorous refutation — but it’s even more interesting now that America has discovered what Sarah Palin and others are calling “crony capitalism” — the pandemic affliction I call Rotarian Socialism or simply rent-seeking.

When I wrote this, I was sure that the real estate licensing laws had nothing to fear. Things have changed. For a first thing, when state governments have to choose between marginal departments and continuing to provide a food dole to reliable voters, the state department of real estate could see huge budget cuts. But even better, sooner or later it will dawn on people that the only way to push “businesspeople” like the NAR off the taxpayer’s tit is to repeal all commercial regulation.

That’s a game-changer. If you’re good at actually delivering value to your clients, so much the better for you. The free market rewards virtue. And if you’ve been depending on the NAR and all those huge stacks of rent-seeking legislation for your income — good luck at your next job… –GSS

 
Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel

When I walk into a supermarket, the first thing I look at are the floors. If they aren’t buffed to a blinding glow, I walk right back out. Why? Because if the manager isn’t staying on top of the floor maintenance, he isn’t staying on top of anything else, either. Without doubt, I am “protected” by vast armies of federal, state and local food cops, but it turns out that they are not willing to get food poisoning in my place. If I fail to guard my own self-interest, the courts might make me (or my heirs) whole — after-the-fact. But nothing can protect me if I won’t protect myself.

Surely you effect many similar sorts of “consumer protection” in your own behalf, possibly believing in your heart that the Read more

October 24, 2011

NAR, IDX, Franchisors.. It’s complicated.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

“It’s complicated” is my FAVORITE relationship status on Facebook.

It describes perfectly the indescribable complexities that arise in life. And on this newfangled thing we call the internet that NAR seems to be trying to lasso. Such is the relationship with NAR, franchisors, and IDX . In Anaheim, the real fun will be had at BHB Unchained (goes without saying)…but the interesting side show may be best described in Rob Hahn’s latest post. (Well worth reading BTW) R.O.B. is on my short list of people that when he writes, I read for a reason.

I will probably tick off both sides of this argument in the next couple of posts I write on EricOnRealEstate.com.. I am going to attempt to articulate both sides’ positions better than they have…truth is I think I have a better solution, but one that would never be agreed to. (see below)

One of the solid points that ROB makes at the end of his analysis is this:

Consider that the franchisor is not a member of NAR. Nor is it a participant in the MLS. NAR has no jurisdiction whatsoever over the franchisor.

And yet, the way that the original, now-repealed language of the IDX policy read, it purported to bind the franchisor to a variety of MLS rules. Look at the conditions numbered 3, 4, 5, and 6 above. Those rules bound the franchisor, by threatening sanction against the participant franchisee.

Now that the whole thing has been struck down, what binds the franchisor to any limitation?

Why couldn’t a franchisor now modify or manipulate the IDX information, or retain it permanently? Sure, a MLS could bring a lawsuit under some copyright infringement theory, but the Kelly v. Arriba case seems to lean heavily towards the franchisors. If anything, manipulating and modifying the IDX information would likely be seen as being even more transformative.

As long as there was some sort of a Franchise IDX policy, the franchisors voluntarily submitted to the authority of NAR and of the MLS to dictate what they could and could not do on their websites. Now that the whole thing has gone poof, I wonder what now Read more

October 20, 2011

Buy a McMansion, get a free McVisa. And, if you act right now, we’ll give you two McVisas for every McMansion you buy. (Just pay separate shipping and handling.)

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I could say I wish it were a joke, but the entire United States government is becoming a joke: Senator Charles Schumer (D-Hades) wants to give free visas to foreign nationals who buy luxury real estate:

Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates.

To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out.

The measure would complement existing visa programs that allow foreigners to enter the U.S. if they invest in new businesses that create jobs. Backers believe the initiative would help soak up an excess supply of inventory when many would-be American home buyers are holding back because they’re concerned about their jobs or because they would have to take a big loss to sell their current house.

“This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel,” Sen. Schumer said in an interview.

I love this on so many levels:

First, it’s more Rotarian Socialism: Subsidize the rich, since it’s their over-built, over-priced houses that aren’t selling.

Second, the proposal makes plain that U.S. immigration policy is just more Rotarian Socialism claptrap: It’s not about securing borders but securing pocketbooks.

But third, who wants to come here now? Not only is our economy crushed under the weight of a century of Rotarian Socialist kleptocracy, but there are actual proto-cannibal savages congregating in the public parks, goading each other into a homicidal rage. Any sane millionaire would have to say, “I left São Paolo for this?”

As always, Matt and Trey have the best answer to cant: “Vamos, Mantequilla!”

October 20, 2011

BHB Unchained – Five smooth stones.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

I for one, am looking forward to getting together with Greg and Brian and the rest of the gang in Anaheim. It has been too long. But BHB wouldn’t be Unchained if I did not contribute some of the stuff I have been working on in the last couple of years since we got together.

So here’s my contribution.

I will bring 5 smooth stones to the event. That is what David picked up to slay Goliath. It only took one. And that is all you will likely need to bring down a Philistine or two and make some money. But I am going to bring five of the best SEO, Search Engine Marketing ideas that a real estate professional can use to generate opportunities to get belly to belly with potential clients. Five of the most effective strategies that a REALTORs have deployed in the last year. I promise you that they will be attention getters and conversation starters (which is what that Scenius stuff that Greg talks about is ALL about). It is where the fun begins and people start sharing ideas.

Sometimes the best ideas are so simple that people don’t take action on them. My purpose in life is to help businesses harness online marketing to bring people to where you can start a conversation…and you can use the skills you already have to start skinning cats and hanging them on the wall. I can not and will not do it for you, but if you want some ideas and where to start, I can offer you five smooth stones to fill your sling with. You must have the courage to take action.

I look forward to meeting a lot of new friends as well as reconnecting with a lot of old ones!

October 19, 2011

The $99 Secret to Doubling Your Real Estate Business That THEY Don’t Want You To Know

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

That title is an attention getter isn’t it?  Too bad it’s not accurate… but hey, if I had said “The Secret to Tripling or even Quadrupling Your Real Estate Business” you probably would have written it off as so much hype, right?  So I dumbed it down… hope you don’t mind.

This started as a comment to a recent post here about the MLS, the mafia and NAR goons… a provocative subject matter, yes? Maybe too provocative for some, and more’s the pity because what lies behind it is nothing less than a beacon – a lighthouse in a stormy sea – that you probably don’t even know you need.  I know I didn’t…  But if you really want to double (or triple or quadruple) your business in 2012, you won’t get there sailing the same old boat around the safety of the same old harbor (the definition of insanity and all that).   You’ll have to get out there in the great unknown: you’ll have to get a little lost; and you’ll have to be willing to trust that far away beam of light from that far away lighthouse that you never noticed on the horizon before.

This lighthouse has a little plaque over the door.  It reads: BLOODHOUND UNCHAINED.  It should probably read: Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes.  For those unfamiliar with Dante and/or Latin, this will make sense by the end of the article. (Much like the title, that’s a teaser that I hope will keep you reading… the career you save might be your own.)

In the post linked above, the author said: “The leap is the risk of losing your religion.”

That statement is more powerful than most can imagine. I was fortunate enough to be at Unchained in Orlando, and again in Phoenix.  I came in with pre-conceived ideas about what I would learn, and maybe what I could share. I left with a new left arm… not literally, of course, but for how dramatic the change (and the challenge) can be, it might as well have been.

The problem, of course, is that this isn’t a chance to learn in a “classroom” sort of way (though you Read more

October 17, 2011

Why can’t the MLS or the mafia innovate? And what should you do instead of being an NAR goon?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Today, Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman warns us that we may be “outsourcing our brains” because MLS systems are so stupid:

I worry about whether the fundamental choice we made five years ago was the right choice, that if we played by the rules and used MLS data that we would be able to build a better Web site or a worse Web site. And, I think, the jury is still out there. But, I promise you, if brokers aren’t building the best Web sites for real estate consumers, we are headed for pain. Pain for the customer, pain for the broker.

For weeks now I’ve been sitting on a post by FBS CEO Michael Wurzer summarizing half-a-dozen non-starter ideas for MLS innovation. I’ve been waiting, so far in vain, for someone to post a comment stating the obvious:

Why can’t the MLS innovate? For the same reasons the mafia and the government can’t innovate: Criminals steal so they won’t have to produce wealth.

When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to Anaheim, we’ll be covering lots of nuts and bolts tactics for the hard-working grunts on the ground — as you would expect. But we’ll also be talking about very big ideas, most notably how to run our business like a business and not a crime syndicate.

I know Realtors don’t like to hear the truth about how the National Association of Realtors has behaved over the past 100 years, but just as with the leviathan state, the time we have left for childish stupidity is running out.

I can’t cause the congenital Rotarian Socialists of the NAR to discover, honor and live up to their humanity. But I can show you how to build a lasting business you can be proud of — by behaving like an honest trader and not like a predator.

I am not anti-NAR. I am not anti-MLS. I am not even anti-socialist or anti-graft or anti-sleaze. What I am is pro-values. If you will give me a few minutes of your time, I will show you how working with integrity in the real estate business is as simple as pursuing your own values — exclusively.

If Read more

October 11, 2011

Gates rents home near my hood – that’s all for now

by

Realtor, Guerilla Technologist

Author website

Recently Mr. Bill Gates and his wife have found a nice retreat in Wellington, Florida to relax for the winter months. The couple will be staying from January till May 2012. Gates is not far from my home in Boynton Beach Florida. What surprises me is the home that he settled on is located in Wellington, Florida. Wellington is known as the polo capital of the world. People from around the world migrate to Wellington 3 months out of the year to live in horsey Heaven.

Mr. Gates and his wife liked the property so much they were willing to pay and agreed to pay $600,000 rent for the 5 months they will be in town. As a local broker in the area, Mr Gates and his wife must love Wellington’s small town feel and must love the polo scene. Wellington has a nice mall, but it’s certainly nothing to brag about. Either way, Bill has the money and he can easily do whatever he please. I just wonder why he didn’t go after an ocean side penthouse or a cottage on the Intracoastal for a 20th of the price.

I wish Bill and his wife a great 2012 winter season in Wellington, Florida! Maybe I’ll see him around and get a picture of us next to each other.

October 5, 2011

Greg Swann’s second request: I need a partner.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

What? No one is going to send me to the NAR convention? Their loss — and the losses are but beginning.

Meanwhile, I need a partner. I’ve been thinking about this for months, but I don’t know that it’s something I can actually do anything about.

Here’s where I am, at this stage of my life:

I am swarming with ideas that can make boatloads of money.

And:

I am broke — not all the time, but frequently.

Being broke is temporary. The cure for that is just hard work and a little luck.

But the ideas are driving me insane, because I can see how much better things can be done, but I’m not able to accomplish even ten percent of what I can envision.

I need people behind me. And for that I need money behind me. And for that I need a partner, someone who can bring or attract investment capital — and manage it.

This is some of what I have going:

Ascende.me is as sexy as four-day weekend in Vegas, and there’s a lot more real-estate-porn power still to come. I’m building versions of Ascende for Realtors around the country, but I can see ways to turn it into a cash-and-carry money machine.

As Sean Purcell pointed out yesterday, the BloodhoundRealty.com real estate listing praxis is a fearsome competitor. Phoenix is not a great listing market right now — but Phoenix is not the only city on earth.

We’re also building a property management business, which is poised to explode. My rental homes lease fast and stay leased, yielding maximum profits for our landlords. I personally sell a lot of rental properties, which we then manage, and I am ready to start recruiting landlords who already own their rentals. As icing on that cake, I have killer ideas for taking a VOW feed and using it to build a virtual Point-of-Purchase for out-of-state investors.

Away from real estate, SplendorQuest.com is a forest in its seed stage. There is a big marketing business in there — conferences, books, magazines, web sites, etc. It’s a content play, so there is no limit to the profit centers it can throw off.

My Get Read more

October 4, 2011

I want someone to give me a conference room in rounds so I can launch a Scenius in Sacramento Anaheim.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I want someone to send me to NAR in Sacramento Anaheim next month. I don’t want to do anything even remotely NARish, I just want to commune with the grunts on the ground. I have lots of interesting ideas about innovation in real estate, and I am lucky enough to know a lot of very clever people. Put us all in a room together, and we can make magic. We’ve done it before.

This would be cool: A double- or triple-sized break-out room in rounds of eight, each table its own little Scenius. Some formal presentations from the front of the room, with web and slide support, all that stuff. But also a lot of time for real work at the table level. I plan on throwing off a lot of product ideas, and I would love to have a leavening of people from the development side of the on-line real estate table. I want to sell some very serious ideas, but I want people to go home with new product plans, new marketing plans, too.

Here’s a true fact: This is the most propitious time for revolutionary change in the residential real estate business. Why? Because things could not possibly be any more screwed up than they are now. There is no sane argument to be made against any attempt to right this flailing beached whale we scheme to call a profession. I have ideas. You do, too. I want to talk about how we can be the drivers of real change in our business.

Am I too vain to think that someone would put together a show for me? I know how to do all this myself, after all. But: I don’t have the time or the money to put anything together. I loved doing the BloodhoundBlog Unchained events with Brian Brady, and with all the hard-working dogs who graced us with their presence. But all that is way more than I can do now. It comes down to this: I’ll do this if someone will take on the logistics and costs, and not if not.

But what I’m promising is a Scenius, Read more

September 25, 2011

Video’s are in my arsenal – Lead conversation – It’s battle time

by

Realtor, Guerilla Technologist

Author website

If you were me, you wouldn’t love my annual paychecks. As a matter of fact, I’ve started out far worst that Russell Shaw was for the first nine years of his career, before he got into radio advertising. I’ve been searching for a way to build credibility online. If you’ve ever seen my face, you’d think I’m 21, not 30.  Of course you might be thinking, who cares 30 is the new 21.

Getting a great real estate deal from 365 Palm Beach on Vimeo.

I plan on having video testimonials of former customer so new customers can see that I am in fact a credible Realtor to do business with.  Let me know your thoughts on this video.  Does it need work?  Of course it needs work.  As a matter of fact, my entire business model needs work, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing what I am writing this very moment.  I would maybe writing about how my in house seo team is the best in south Florida.

My hunch is through video’s, I can increase my lead conversation through credibility.  I am playing with the idea of “Forcing Video Registration” as well.  Basically, a customer could watch a 30 second clip, register their info, and then watch the remaining 1.5 minutes of video.  Either way; in the name of getting out of the rat race and taking 1 full day off a week without real estate is the goal I am shooting for.  I know it can be done.

Also bloodhounders if you have any good SYSTEMS for getting repeat business please let me know.  From muggy South Florida down in the real estate trenches I’m Robert Worthington!!!

September 19, 2011

Connecticut State Supreme Court Justice: “I would have decided the Kelo case differently, but I had my head up my ass.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Alas, the judge wasn’t that honest. But he actually apologized for being instrumental in stealing the homestead of an innocent family under the color of law. The next time you look at your paycheck stub, just think: Sooner or later, some well-heeled gonoph in a Brooks Brothers just might apologize to you for ripping you off week after week. Won’t that be nice?

« 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