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Category: Real Estate (page 58 of 266)

March 13, 2010

The Purpose Of Real Estate Photography…

by

Breathtaking Real Estate Photographer

Author website

First, an apology.  One thousand apologies, in fact.  On January 20th I introduced myself and expressed my gratitude to Greg for giving me the opportunity to be an occasional contributor to this forum.  I mentioned a photography class for real estate professionals that I teach for brokers in our local market, and that I’d like to focus my involvement here on providing the content of that presentation in small bite-sized posts.  I wrote that I would start by questioning the real purpose of real estate photography and why it’s become more important than ever – and then transition to a number of tips and techniques that I believe will help many readers improve their marketing images very easily.

I wrote those words seven weeks ago and haven’t been back since.  Although I’m not presumptuous enough to expect that anyone else noticed my absence, I do feel an obligation to tell you that I did.  I wanted very much to begin this dialog with Bloodhound readers right away, but frankly, I’ve been shooting and editing seven days most weeks, 12+ hours most days.  Our market, like many others I suspect, has become extremely active since the first of the year and the agents I work for are listing everything in sight.  Today, inclement weather caused a shoot to be rescheduled and left me with a few hours to return to the conversation I started.

I know I risk losing you at the question mark, but I’ll ask anyway.  What is the purpose of real estate photography?  What is your objective when you photograph a new listing?  What are you trying to accomplish?  When I ask this question of agents in my market I usually get the answer you’d expect (with a look that says they think I’m an idiot for asking):  “I’m trying to SELL THE HOME.  Duh.”  Excellent.  And the photos will be used to…?  Now looking at the exit, “ADVERTISE IT!”  Thank you.

Would you agree with this definition of the word advertise found at dictionary dot com?  “To announce or praise (a product, service, etc.) in some public medium of communication in Read more

March 12, 2010

Treating Buyers the way Greg Swann treats sellers…and Cheryl Johnson treats agents in her office.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

One of the things that I admire about Greg is how thoroughly he makes sure that EVERYTHING he can do is done to market a sellers property. Custom signs, coffee table books, the list goes on and on. When it comes to sellers, he gets his money the old fashioned way, he earns it.

One of the quiet unsung Bloodhound heroes of a broker is Cheryl Johnson. If you want to see someone who puts EFFORT into building the best systems for her agents as an independent broker, she has my vote for the best and the brightest. BOTH best and brightest.

One of the tools that she often uses for this purpose is WordPress mu (multi-user). And she graciously left an explanation of how to use it via GoDaddy here on her blog.

In our brokerage, we have quite a few buyer leads coming in. Our agents WANT to treat them to something special, but they needed the tools to accomplish it. So here’s a little (big actually) DIY project using Cheryl’s post that we are just putting the polish on to help our agents treat buyers the way Greg treats sellers and Cheryl treats agents.

We created an ONLINE WELCOME KIT that allows each agent to have a welcome kit **simply a WP blog with EVERYTHING we can think of that they might need** of their own. Here’s one that we did for Stephanie Mattingly in our office. Bear in mind that we are still making changes so you may see a glitch or two as it gets fine tuned. Contact information all goes to the agent directly. It is simply a great way to give potential buyer clients the information they need, including a “Get Hooked Up” Guide to help them connect the dots once they move and a Services Guide to connect newcomers with local services vendors (and connect our agents to them as well.).

If you do the hosting the way that Cheryl describes in her post, the cost is simply a deluxe shared hosting account at GoDaddy. (a few bucks a month across 110 agents…equals pennies for each Read more

March 12, 2010

Marketing Channels: It’s a matter of trust (and conversations).

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

HomeGain recently published a survey of the Top 10 Most Effective Marketing Strategies For Real Estate Agents. There were some surprises in there. (Mostly for me, the apparently sustained use of print and direct mail.)

But then I got to thinking about it… I started examining how many in the real estate community market their wares and it reinforced something that I have been working on.

Last week I got to go to both HomeGain Nation 2010 and the RE/MAX Convention. In both places I got to talk with SUCCESSFUL agents who are thriving in today’s turbulent times. The common thread among them? That their marketing methods were cost efficient in both time and money in a)starting conversations and b) in bringing folks to a position where trust could be built.

Russell Shaw uses radio. He has a PROVEN system of starting conversations with the leads generated from those advertisements. He knows how to convert those leads into listing clients.

Mitch Ribak knows how to convert buyer leads from the internet traffic generated by HomeGain into conversations and into commissions.

Our source in Louisville? Search engine marketing. Do we have an effective way of converting over 7,000 leads from a status of “not a lead” to a closed commission? We have been working at increasing our closing percentage (so far successfully!) and it boils down to creating conversations. This has been a weak area for us, but I think we are nailing it down now. (And the numbers to date this year back that up.)

The Cluetrain was right. Markets are conversations. Marketing is about generating those conversations. And in my opinion, sales is about CONVERTING off of those conversations.

Why does direct mail still work in the eyes of many as indicated in HomeGain’s survey? Perhaps it is because it brings leads to an agent in a fashion where the agent is familiar with HOW to get them from lead to client. All of the leads from online sources matter not at all if no one becomes a client. There is no reason to search engine market anything if you are not able to turn Read more

March 10, 2010

You Don’t Need Today’s Idea of a Team To Succeed In a Big Way

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Teams have proven themselves a potentially profitable strategy in real estate brokerage, as almost every mid-large company has at least one pretty successful team under its roof. I’ve never had buyer agents or specialized listing agents on my team. I use the same philosophy Dad and his buds.

Though they all agreed about the possible income teams offered, many eschewed that approach for a modified MO, still more or less using a team. They preferred the OldSchool blueprint which had the go-to guy at the top, with support staff doing all non-revenue producing labor.

I’m convinced that approach is more conducive to a real estate investment broker than the army of buyer agents approach used in houses. Here’s why.

Caveat: The investment niche about which I’m speaking is residential income, mostly smaller stuff, say 1-4 units, though it would be just as effective with larger properties, as I’ve done before myself. It assumes knowledge of pertinent tax codes, complete understanding of before/after tax cash flow analysis, and the judgment to apply those skill sets in the implementation of the proper strategies dictated by proper analysis. Furthermore, I assume lead generation isn’t an issue. That is, there are enough prospects for a pro to get sufficient at-bats.

Let’s say your market’s median duplex price is $250,000 or so. A 3% side is $7,500. Let’s also assume the average net equity of your ‘low hanging fruit’ is $115,000 give or take. If your analysis shows a tax deferred exchange would markedly improve your client’s position, here’s what might happen. You effect the sale of his duplex, then ID about twice that much in ‘upleg’ property — property into which he trades. (This example uses 20% down payments.) You make 3% per side on those too — another $15,000 or so. One client, essentially one transaction, $22,500.

Compare that to the house team template. Using the same price point, and assuming the buyer agents are generating the sales, (and paid 50% of the commission) the team must do six separate transactions with six different clients to net the team leader the same gross income.

If Read more

March 9, 2010

What’s wrong with Private Transfer Fees?

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

Have you heard of Private Transfer Fees?  A private transfer fee is a fee that is required to be paid each time a property is sold at closing.  The transfer fee is attached to the property as a covenant that can run for a period, often 20 or 100 years.

The fees are being used for a variety of purposes.  In some cases, they have been used to satisfy demands from environmental groups.  Developers have also used them, by securitizing them up front, to help pay mitigation costs and up-front infrastructure costs on new developments.  Supposedly even private home owners might be able to add a 1% transfer fee to their homes with revenues serving as future household income.

The NAR, American Land Title Association and the NAHB are all looking at ways to prohibit or limit private transfer fees.  While that tends to make me like the idea of transfer fees on its own, I really don’t see issues with them.  Admittedly, I develop properties from time to time.  Yes, I am frustrated with impact fees, mitigation and infrastructure fees that have climbed to the stratosphere in my little part of the world.  This approach could really help to create some affordable homes that people might actually buy.

Freehold Capital Partners is active in the reconveyance fee financing arena working with developers to structure financing for infrastructure improvements.

Essentially, the concept is based on the premise that improvements which enhance real property are in the immediate and long-term public interest; and a system enabling present owners of private property to better and more fairly apportion present costs and profits amongst multiple future beneficial owners increases economic efficiency.

Traditionally, initial buyers shoulder 100% of the burden of amenities, infrastructure and other improvements, which creates a high barrier to entry into the development. By utilizing this funding tool, developers can now more fairly apportion expenses incurred for permanent improvements among successive owners of the property who will be enjoying the amenities and improvements for years to come. (A familiar example would be bonds issued to finance new schools, where the bonds are paid off over time by Read more

March 9, 2010

In defense of home loan cramdown!

by

Raleigh Criminal Lawyer

Author website

Al’s got a post up about the latest effort to get us out the housing mess. The feds are rolling out HAFA, set to take effect April 5, which will solve all of our problems! by giving financial incentives! for borrowers, servicers, and investors!

In exchange, creditors must release borrowers from any deficiency liability on the 1st mortgage, must protect the Realtors fees, and must comply with standardized processes meant to speed up the short sale process.

Here’s my take, and I’m saying this as someone who is not at all trying to line my pocket because I’m a fledgling Raleigh bankruptcy lawyer. Honest!

This should’ve been run through the Bankruptcy process. Certain other debts can be crammed down in the Chapter 13 consumer bankruptcy process, meaning that the total amount owed on the loan can’t exceed the market value at the time of the bankruptcy. For people under water, this would’ve basically meant that the loan amount would’ve been adjusted down to the value of the house at the time they went through bankruptcy.

That would’ve brought mortgages in line with the way other kinds of secured debts are treated in the Bankruptcy Code, and it would’ve permitted an individualized look at each case (by bankruptcy lawyers, trustees, and judges) in a process that works reasonably well.

As it is, whole new administrations have been set up to handle these jury-rigged and ultimately flawed approaches to fixing a problem will require a little more than $1,500 to the borrower, $1,000 to the servicer, and $1,000 to the investor (HAFA guidelines) to fix.

March 8, 2010

Socialist need not read –> Like Big Oil –> Big Expired Program; windfall profits

by

Realtor, Guerilla Technologist

Author website

I’m greedy!  I’m an extremist!  I am conservative!  I am a capitalist!  Haha.  I love money!  2010 marks the years (not Karl Marx silly)  I mean marks the calendar for the 2010 to become the listing king.  Between website registrations, referrals, & and windfall expired letters I set out to fundamentally transform Worthington Realty from small hometown broker, to completely dominating the local market.  Below I will share the expired program statistics I am using that has fundamentally transformed Worthington Realty from nay to yay; or should I say mediocure to maybe Russell Shaw like (in the next hundred years).

So here are the expired numbers!

I have sent out 92 mailings

I have received 8 call back

I have listed 5 priced to sell quickly

I have 1 closing in the pipeline from expireds

92 mailings / 8 call backs = 11.5% Wow!  I mail out 100 and 11.5 will call back!  Sweet!

8 call backs / 5 listings = 62.5% of call back I am listing.  1 listing I turned down because of price, 1 listing I didn’t make the cut, and 1 call back canceled the listing appointment plans to keep for home for now.

92 mailings / 1 closing in the pipeline = 1.08% are closings  Average closing say $4k – $8k on the listing side.

92 mailings / 5 listings = 18.4 letters to get a listing.

My data is only 92 mailings that I have selectively sent expired letters to.  My initial mailing costs $1.52.  If no phone call, I then send out a post card every week for 12 weeks.  If still no phone call I leave it alone.  Each post card is $0.55  Most leads call within the first 4 – 6 weeks.  I have no idea why I am sending all the way out to week 12 (smirk)

I will update with more statistics in June, 2010 which will better quantify the data.

Do you currently have an expired program?

What are you thoughts on what works and what doesn’t?

Thank you taking time to read this capitalist post!  Big Expired Program; Windfall profits!



March 8, 2010

Obama’s Short Sale Program could put downward pressure on home prices

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

Mr. Obama’s latest program for the foreclosure crisis attempts to stabilize the market in a different way than his previous attempts.  Before, the feds tried to keep people in their homes by negotiating reduced payments through loan modifications.  Few people were able to use the programs and of those that did the rate of default recidivism was 50% within six months.  The “new” approach is to help those in trouble get out of their homes by streamlining the short sale process and adding requirements that will force banks to accept many more short sales.  Basically, the feds will pay owners to sell at a loss and give them a little cash in the process.

Starting April 5th, hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers will be encouraged to sell their homes through this process.  Since the basic laws of economics still apply, that flood of inventory at fire sale prices will create heavy downward pressure on other homes in their markets.  Prices should fall.

That’s just one problem with this approach.  The Home Buyer’s Tax Credit was already a magnet for fraudulent filings. The government mandated short sale process could be even worse.

Short sales are “tailor-made for fraud,” said Mr. Lawler, a former executive at the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae.

Last year, short sales started to increase, although they remain relatively uncommon. Fannie Mae said preforeclosure deals on loans in its portfolio more than tripled in 2009, to 36,968. But real estate agents say many lenders still seem to disapprove of short sales.

Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it. – MSN

With the high regard that the public holds for real estate agents, they should be a pinnacle of integrity when it comes to setting values for lenders.  Or, could that be a problem?  I’ve found that real estate agents offer different values, at times in spite of the Read more

March 6, 2010

The regal, indomitable arrogance of a healthy, normal Bloodhound

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

[Teri mentioned this old post (from June 2007) to me on Friday, and I’m revisiting the third act because it’s pertinent to some new business I want to take up tomorrow or Monday. –GSS]

 
Extracted from BloodhoundBlog post #1590:

This came in as a comment last night.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be[Teri mentioned this old post (from June 2007) to me on Friday, and I’m revisiting the third act because it’s pertinent to some new business I want to take up tomorrow or Monday. –GSS]

 
Extracted from BloodhoundBlog post #1590:

This came in as a comment last night.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be competitive and wanting to win, but, reading your posts the last few weeks, you ego is a little bit too big at times. Yes, you are a heck of a writer and you have one heck of a blog and you have assembled a heck of a team of contributors, but your ego is getting a bit cocky.

This is ad hominem, so it violates our comments policy, but I’m not averse to discussing the issue it raises in a general way.

[….]

A Bloodhound’s virtues are genetic accidents, but that doesn’t make them less than perfectly admirable, whether evidenced in the dog or anthropomorphized and expressed in thoroughly conscious human behavior. Brought up right, a Bloodhound is a natural alpha, regal and indomitable. The dog will move with a lanky, un-self-conscious arrogance that is simply heart-breakingly beautiful to look upon: This what a thriving organism looks like.

I am steadfastly, philosophically opposed to the idea of humility. I think it is one of many evil ideas foisted off on us by malefactors who love us best at our absolute worst. To say to me, “You’re arrogant,” or, “you have a big ego,” is no reproach. On the one hand, it is a statement of obvious fact. But on the other, it puts me on my guard against you. A healthy, normal human being moves and acts and thinks and speaks with the lanky arrogance of a healthy, normal Bloodhound. When people don’t behave that way, I want to know why. When Read more

March 4, 2010

Traveling Without Windows

by

Real Estate

Author website

I attended Homegain Nation early this week.  It was a fantastic time, giving me the opportunity to meet many great people I’ve known online for years.  I decided to run a little experiment and bring my Ubuntu laptop, while leaving my windoze machine at home.  So…Ubuntu performed extremely well, but MLS vendors performed very poorly.  I was not able to get the following web apps to work properly on ubuntu:

  • MLXChange (obviously)
  • Docusign
  • Zipformonline
  • QuickbooksOnline

I planned to use VNC to access MLXChange from my windoze desktop I keep running (which does crash, and I then call Ali to restart so that I can access it,) but I was pretty shocked that the other 3 vendors aren’t truly cross browser compatible.  So, for now, Ubuntu is my great “around town” OS, but it looks like I’ll have to use my windoze machine on road trips (until I get a mac.)

February 27, 2010

Ubuntu is Ready for Prime Time

by

Real Estate

Author website

I’ve been missing my Bloodhounds!  I reminded myself that arguing about politics is like arguing about religion, so logged in to push up a new post.

About a year ago, I posted that the Android OS was going to free me from Windows (and Office.)  Unfortunately, the g1 was a gigantic POS, so that didn’t happen.  However, in the meantime something fortunate did happen:

I dumped a giant glass of iced tea on my laptop.

During the two weeks of my PC repair, I was forced to move off Outlook and start using the powerful tools that Google provides (free) in their apps products.  End of two weeks, and I was off Outlook entirely.

Zoom forward a few months from that point and I’m bored out of my mind (funny how that happens in a real estate broker’s life during the Nov-Dec months.)  Out of this sheer boredom, I decided to install Ubuntu (linux) on an old PC laptop we had sitting around.

I’m writing this blog post on that machine.  Ubuntu is incredible.  This 5 year old laptop with 512kb of RAM runs faster than my 1.5 year old PC w/ 3gb of RAM and lightning fast processor.  I can’t wait to replace buggy Vista with Ubuntu on my fast machine!

So…I put it to you:  Find an old laptop in your house, download Ubuntu, install it, and give it 2 weeks.  Ubuntu is ready for prime time.  You belong in the cloud, and there’s no reason to be bound to an OS.

I’d love to hear feedback from anyone/everyone willing to give Ubuntu two weeks1!

February 27, 2010

Dawn In America Part Two

by

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

Author website

The American People will take Socialism but they won’t take the label  –Upton Sinclair

I believe that the American people will want the label of  “unfettered capitalism” but will not necessarily adopt the economic system.  Americans like government in small doses but they like (and mostly trust) their government.  The morality of the argument for voluntaryism, while sound, will be difficult to adopt.  Those of you, who believe that government is the problem rather than the solution, should never stop saying  “I told you so”  when Statist policies fail but you would do well to remain aware to the fact that Americans like a little bit of government. That is how we can thrive amidst chaos.

Let’s talk about how we might prepare ourselves for the next 20 years:

I don’t believe we’re in a depression nor even a recession nor do think the 1930’s were a depression.  Rather, I believe we’re in the middle of a huge economic shift like the one we experienced in the early part of the 20th century.  The economic decline of the 30s and the current economic decline was a fallout from a shift in technology.  The economic decline of the 1930s was some 25 years after the implementation of the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.  It took that long for the economy to absorb the shift from a mostly agrarian society to a manufacturing society.  It was no easy shift, either.

Critics in the 20’s and 30’s claimed that we couldn’t eat machines but crop yields increased “spectacularly” in the twentieth century.  Domestic food production was so efficient that, despite what Willie Nelson said 25 years ago, American farmers were quite prosperous.  The market rewarded those who improved our lives by moving us along roads, on top of the water, and through the air…faster and cheaper.  Americans wanted to travel because we were already well-fed.

Is it any surprise that the current economic decline happened some 25 years after IBM’s introduction of the PC?  Is this really a “failure of capitalism”, as Van Jones might have you believe, or an unexpected response to the Fed trying to prop Read more

February 26, 2010

Bleg: What kind of Direct Mail letter works best?

by

Raleigh Criminal Lawyer

Author website

Short bleg to all you BHBers out there. When I was in non-profit fundraising, one of the cardinal rules was that long letters – 12 to 18 page letters – perform better than short fundraising letters.

But I wonder whether the same principle holds true for direct mail letters where you’re selling a service. I send out direct mail letters for my law practice to people who’ve recently been arrested for various alleged offenses. Wonder if I should be sending out longer letters. Right now my letter is two pages…

Any thoughts?

February 25, 2010

Dawn In America- Part One

by

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

Author website

Anyone who has read this satirical piece knows that my writing turned macabre this past year.  One weekend, one book,  one article, and one website dramatically changed the way I look at the world and it inhabitants.  It has been painful to watch my political party regress from Bob Taft to Teddy Roosevelt in less than 25 years.  It is crushing to watch REALTORs and mortgage originators cheer for professional slavery rather than to muster up the courage associated with the rugged individualism that made this country great.

It has been said that it’s always darkest before dawn so while it was pitch black this past summer, I remained confident that Morning in America was nigh.  Rick Santelli fired the outburst heard ’round the continent and glimmers of light came by way of tea parties and election upsets.  As the economy sputtered, the previous and current administration acted like looters amidst a blackout but people have caught on to their theft- and they don’t like it.

It’s gonna get a lot darker before the dawn and I’ve never been so optimistic in my life. Here’s why- collectivism is a failed philosophy.  For all its noble efforts,  the unintended consequences of collectivism stifle the indomitable American spirit of reward for creativity, ingenuity, and innovation.  We saw collectivism fail here, here, and most recently here.  Now, the average guy in the street knows it, too.

Remember the Stockdale Paradox and you’ll remain optimistic with a keen eye to the circumstances as they unfold.  Now, hold on to your hat because…

It’s gonna get uglier so be prepared. I think great opportunities will go to the prepared. The day that emerges from the dawn will be so bright you’ll swear that global warming isn’t a hoax.  Here’s how I see the next cuppla years playing out:

  1. Real estate may decline, even more. While the lower end of the market has already declined to utilitarian value, the affordable housing organizations will (finally) attack that which artificially inflates markets; zoning regulations.  Rather than convert old military bases to detention FEMA camps, the impending currency crisis will force the Federal government to Read more
February 24, 2010

Swanepoel’s Trends Report is not useless. It makes a dandy prop!

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Cathy’s listing Friday, a classic North Central Phoenix luxury home. I was shooting interiors for her today, and saw this as a part of her staging:

Building the single-property web site for the home, tonight, I realized that in six months or fewer, I’ll be repurposing content for single-property iPhone/iPad apps, as well. I doubt you will have read anything like that in any repackaged regurgitant from self-styled real estate experts, but it’s where we’re all headed.

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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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