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Category: Real Estate (page 67 of 266)

September 27, 2009

iMovie lets me produce six short real estate videos in three hours

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve never loved video as a means of promoting real estate listings. I much prefer lots and lots of really big, really detailed photographs.

But: The SMS marketing we’re doing with DriveBuy Technologies makes video a necessity. The integration of YouTube into smart-phones is simply too compelling an opportunity to pass up.

Hence, on Thursday I pounded out six videos for three of our listings, all in about three hours total labor. That’s everything, from set up to sequencing to background music to recording voiceovers.

How is that possible? I used iMovie, the more basic movie-making software for the Macintosh. I also have Final Cut, but iMovie makes making basic plug-and-chug videos a breeze. Even better, it integrates directly with YouTube, so I can publish from within the app.

I’m promoting houses, so I’m using photographs, not full-motion video. Assembling these little films is quick and fool-proof.

How’s the quality? You tell me. I think these are more than adequate to the task.

Let’s take a look:

For 5415 West Hasan Drive:


The house…


And the neighborhood…

This is just plain vanilla Ken Burns stuff, and you can take it the way the software does it or manipulate the effect yourself.

Here are two more, made for 1946 East Vista Drive:


The house…


And the neighborhood…

These two were done using iMovie’s Scrapbook theme, and all the transitions were done automatically by the software.

One more: 5708 East Paradise Lane:


The house…


And the neighborhood…

These videos used iMovie’s Photo Album theme, again with no manual intervention.

Without doubt you could do even cooler stuff by intervening with the software, but these results seem pretty sweet to me without my having to do a lot of manual tweaking.

September 26, 2009

My September and what I learned…

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

This September has been my toughest in the last 43 that I have had. Not in the business sense, mind you. But I have been dealing with health issues that I now (thankfully) am well on the way to complete recovery from. I will be stronger than ever.

Like most things that have been tough, it has been the source of great learning as well. Aside from not writing here much at all, the main thing that this forced downtime did was to force me to think. And think I did.

In evaluating many aspects of my life one of the main faults that I found with myself was was that I simply had not lived deliberately. I did not spend my time deliberately. I did not connect with people as deliberately as I intend to now. And the business side of my life was / is no different. I had not marketed deliberately as I would have liked. I need to be more direct and deliberate and to the point. I had contented myself with the notion that if I did this and that…then eventually my actions would create customers who would at some point pay for my services. Hogwash.

I found myself siding with many of the folks here. The Jeff Browns who get belly to belly with folks who can either say “yes” or “shove off”. The Brian Brady’s of the world that do not have time to waste on less than direct marketing with measurable results. the Greg Swann’s (who if you ask him why listing with him is better than the next REALTOR can actually give you a direct answer). Even when dealing with new technology, the idea that we don’t need to be direct and deliberate and to the point is amazing to me.

We must have a pipeline. Deliberately. Leads. No matter how you get them they need to be there. Buy them from others. Rent them. Advertise for them. SEO for them. Network for them. Cold call. Whatever. Maybe all of the above. My new focus is to be direct. Read more

September 26, 2009

Looking for a reason to buy real estate? How about free ice cream?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column (permanent link):

When I was a kid, my Uncle Jack, my mother’s oldest brother, told me a story I’ve never forgotten. He was at a little county fair way out in corn country. Nothing special, just beauty contests for hogs, cheesy little rides and sticky, sugared confections.

Late in the day, the ice cream vendor decided to pack it in, announcing that he was giving away what was left of his inventory. People elbowed their way to the front of the crowd, so eager were they to get something for nothing. They walked away with the ice cream piled into their bare hands, rushing off to their cars, leaving a trail of melted drips behind them.

The lesson I took from my uncle’s story was that those folks didn’t really want ice cream. They were willing to get themselves dirty, and to get their vehicles dirty, just to have something for free. Most of them probably didn’t even eat the ice cream, and they certainly couldn’t have enjoyed it. Imagine trying to inhale a glutton’s quantity of chocolate-fudge-swirl before it melts all over your clothes.

Could that be what’s going on right now with the $8,000 first-time home-buyer’s tax credit? I happen to be carrying three listings that are undeniably “investor’s specials” — which means they’re a good buy, but they need a lot of work. Even so, my phone is ringing off the hook with agents trying to sell those houses to owner-occupants — folks with very little cash trying to get an FHA loan so they can buy a house, thus to get $8,000 in “free” money.

Do those buyers really want homes, or do they just want that free money? What will happen to the properties when the $8,000 is spent? Should we dial the clock back to 2006 to see if anything looks familiar?

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors is campaigning for even more “free” money to bribe even more otherwise-unmotivated buyers. The only thing that could make the deal sweeter would be a double hand-full of “free” ice cream.

 
Spread the word: Click here Read more

September 25, 2009

Who hates Paper – This Guy!

by

Realtor, Productivity Guru

Author website

People that know the real Green Bay Greg know that I’m a geek when it comes to technology.  This passion for technology has helped streamline my business to become more efficient while helping the environment.  If you’re like most real estate professionals, I’m confident that you print at least a 100 pages of paper a week if not much much more. 

In reading a post from a well respected Bloodhound Blog contributor, James Hsu, I noticed that he started to transform his business with a tablet PC.  Being the geek that I am, I started to do more and more research about this great technology.    After thorough research I purchased my first tablet PC for real estate. 

After jumping in the water, I started to get really excited abot my new toy. As soon as it arrived I ripped it right out of the box and tried to sign a contract within the first 10 minutes of owning the machine. You might wonder how the hell did you know how to sign a contract on a machine you’ve never used? Well in researching tablet PCs, I started to find trends among the tablet PC users.  They either used a program called Microsoft One Note or another program called PDF Annotator.   Thankfully my tablet PC, the HP2730P, came with One Note preloaded on the machine.  I fired up Zipforms and went to file print and selected the printer (Send to OneNote2007).  After I printed the contract to OneNote I was signing contracts within seconds. 

My journey here at Bloodhound Blog will be about how I actually utilize my tablet PCc to completely run my real estate business.  Signing a contract is an obivious use, but after 4 months of using the tablet PC I’ve found ways to operate my whole business with it.   Streamlining and simplifying my day to day tasks has become a must for me, considering my volume of transactions is growing.  We all want to break through our personal barriers and graduate to the next level and that is what I’m going to share with you on a frequent basis.

What to expect in the Green Bay Greg Tablet PC BHB Blog:

September 25, 2009

Three new dogs for the Bloodhound pack — Damon Chetson, Robert Worthington and Greg Dallaire — and a reminder about transparency

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Yesterday I had mail from a Realtor who had proposed the idea of custom yard signs to a listing prospect. The client’s eyes lit up, and he saw not only the immediate possibilities but the future portents. Here’s what the Realtor had to say about it all:

One thing I found so interesting is that any time you mention custom signs, all the agents who don’t use them make comments about how worthless they are, but this guy, the client, the seller, got it immediately. Got the reason for it, could see how it would stop traffic, understood it all — without me selling him on it.

Funny how you have to sell agents on stuff that would make perfect sense to their own clients.

We’re adding three new contributors today. Two of them are envelope-pushing Realtors, but one is a certified, bonafied real estate client, an educated consumer who can tell a hawk from a handsaw — and who isn’t shy about speaking his mind about the utility of either one.

That consumer is Damon Chetson, a BloodhoundRealty.com client from way back and a long-time contributor to our comments threads. Damon is a newly-minted criminal defense attorney in Cary, NC, but he will be talking to us here about how he perceives the real estate industry as an informed outsider.

Robert Worthington is another frequent BloodhoundBlog commenter. He’s a hard-charging Realtor in Manitowoc, WI, and he spends all of his spare time looking for technobabble bubbles to burst.

Greg Dallaire is another Wisconsin Realtor, working out of Green Bay. Not only does he have a first name that rings sweetly to my ears, he sings a song very dear to my own heart: “I’m passionate about implementing technology into my business to increase productivity, improve efficiency, and increase profitability.”

As you might have inferred from my absences, punctuated by brief bursts of brevity — the wit of soul — I’m a busy boy. I’m about to become a busier boy, because I want to undertake a task for the ages. In the mean time, this was my response to the email cited above:

The actual message of Read more

September 22, 2009

Making the Numbers in Real Estate Marketing Add Up

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

In a recent Bloodhound post about Twitter (only Brian Brady could write the third post in just over a week on the same subject and generate so many comments!) there was a comment on marketing numbers that so intrigued me I felt compelled to respond in a post rather than a comment.  It’s been my experience that many of us do not accurately calculate the numbers when it comes to our marketing.  This should really come as no surprise – numbers and especially statistics can be beguiling and even misleading.  But if we’re not tracking and calculating our marketing efforts correctly, we’re just shooting into a dark room hoping we’ll hit the target.

The numbers quoted (or maybe it was just the idea) are credited to Larry Kendall, but they provide an interesting opportunity to work a real world example of marketing in general and Twitter specifically.  For this exercise I am pulling some examples from the actual comment, but just about every one of us has made this type of calculation before.  I follow each with a slightly different view.

I want 50 local people that I can really connect with (on Twitter).  If I have 50 people and they each know 50 people, I have a pool of 2,500 people.  Not quite.  It means you have the potential to reach 2500 people, but it’s unlikely.  For the purpose of calculating marketing numbers… you’re reaching 50.  This is akin to speaking at a seminar filled with 50 people from the neighborhood and assuming you’ve reached all 2500 people in the neighborhood – you haven’t.  If, on the other hand, you send a direct mail piece to all 2500 people in the neighborhood, then we say you’re working from a pool of 2500 potential clients.  Is it realistic to think all 2500 read that mailing?  Of course not.  But our expected conversion numbers take that into account.   The expected conversion numbers are simply based on a pool of 2500.  A pool of 50 will generate no usable statistical model from which to base a marketing campaign.

If the *normal* turnover rate in my local Read more

September 21, 2009

Whats the Downside to Investing Today?

by

Real Estate Investor

Author website

My previous article suggesting today was the right time to start getting back to real estate investing was met with expected cynicism. Investors make money by going against the crowd, not with it, right? By the time everyone agrees that you should be getting back into real estate, you really should have been back six months earlier.

But it is important to address the very legitimate concerns of those still urging caution. The major concern was what if the market gets worse. I would answer this concern by first looking at what would need to happen for things to get worse. Inventory is already running pretty high and building has been stalled for almost a year. In order for things to get worse, even more inventory would have to hit the market, but would that really make things worse? In places like Florida and California with hundreds of thousands and homes and condos already on the market, ranging from vacant, bank owned, distressed sellers, non-distressed sellers, etc. what would a few thousand more do? In my opinion, not very much.

The economy could also get worse. Investors are demanding a stiff return on capital today under Draconian underwriting, so fire sale prices are in effect in most parts of the country. Sure, it’s currently tough to get financing and it’s expected to remain so over the next couple of years, but investors are pricing that in to their offer price. Rents are low and expected to remain so for the next year. Great, price that thinking into your offer price, every other investor has been doing that for the last six months.

Ok, so the final argument is no one would sell at those prices. The great thing about millions of homes being for sale is that someone will sell at that price; you just have to find the right property. Smart sellers are wising up to the fact that a low offer is better than foreclosure. Banks are wising up to the fact that a low Read more

September 19, 2009

Real Estate Investors: Its Time to Come Out of Hibernation

by

Real Estate Investor

Author website

Is it time to start investing in real estate again?

 

First positive sign, I am writing again.  While I write that half-jokingly, there really has not been a lot to write about for the past six months.  My previous advice was to take shelter and start researching the markets.  Well, I have done that and I hope you have too.  It’s just about time to put that great research to work.

 

Second positive sign, mortgage rates are still historically low and the media has begun to talk about a real estate recovery.  Since the news outlets are always about six months behind the real estate market, I would assume we are probably at least six months into a modest real estate recovery.  Low real estate prices and low mortgage rates create an excellent investing climate.

 

Third, mortgage rates are beginning to rise and there is substantial talk of a market recovery.  As the economy recovers, expect mortgage rates to rise.  Depending on the inflation indicators, we could see mortgage rates rise rapidly or we could see a gradual increase interest rates if it remains tame.  Regardless, no one expects rates to get substantially lower, so if you can qualify for a mortgage (and that could be a big IF), it might be time to buy.

 

Expect more from me as I see a general market recovery.  As one of the few real estate investors on this blog, I like to consider myself a slightly more objective analyst of the real estate market, as oppose to the perma-bull Jeff Brown.  Agents should start contacting their investor clients now and investors should start contacting their mortgage brokers.

September 19, 2009

Eliminate the Government Option For a Healthy Mortgage Industry

by

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

Author website

Most loan originators are grateful for the “government option” in the mortgage markets because of the liquidity crunch. I submit that the reason for the mortgage liquidity crunch was TOO much government involvement in housing and its increased involvement has ruined mortgage banking. That’s going to be a hard concept to grasp because all of us have relied on the government, at one time or another, to insure the mortgage loans we make. Lend me your mind for a few minutes and consider what might have been had we weaned ourselves off of the milky government teat for a free market approach to residential real estate loans.

Government lending didn’t really start until the 1920s with farm and home loans. FDR’s New Deal supercharged the idea of US government-backed home loans as a “band-aid” to the Depression-era liquidity crisis. Poorly-trained, high school social studies teachers taught us that the New Deal policies are what saved the American economy. In fact, evidence suggests Federal intervention ultimately prolonged the Depression, curbed creativity and innovation in lending, and turned the residential lending industry into a ward of the Government.

Twice, in recent history, did residential lending attempt to divorce itself from this dependent relationship…twice, we failed. Current legislators use these failures as evidence for why free market capitalism is “dangerous” when left unchecked. In reality, the de-regulatory efforts towards banking in the 1980s, and securitized real estate lending in the earlier part of this decade, were constrained by a government-provided safety net (FSLIC insurance and expansion of the GSE mortgage conduits) akin to bad parenting.

Consider the teenager. Adolescence is the awkward period between a child’s dependence on his parents and the independence from those parents that comes with adulthood. Responsible parenting dictates that greater responsibilities be given, as the adolescent ages. Responsible parenting rewards the adolescent for good choices and levies punitive restrictions as consequences for poor choices. It is when parents indulge the adolescent in freedom without responsibility that adolescence continues to the child’s middle-age years.    In short, if Biff kills his girlfriend in a Read more

September 11, 2009

Twittering Twitts of Twittledom

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

tweedledee-tweedledumI have always loved Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.  It is many things, not least of which is a truly amazing exposition on language.  I bring this up because I recently read Brian Brady’s piece entitled Is Social Media Marketing Worth the Effort and quickly imagined myself on a walk with The Walrus and the Carpenter.  Greg Swan commented on Brian’s piece by publishing a video of himself, talking to us about his lack of interest in Social Media Marketing.  I can only describe this as so eerily representative of what one might find on the other side of Mr. Carroll’s looking glass that it’s borderline derivative! For reasons that will be clear in a moment, I felt compelled to jump into the conversation.

‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.  That’s logic.’

That’s logic… You just have to love the confidence of that line.  What’s even more interesting is how well this quote appears to sum up a few of our SMM darlings.  I’m thinking of Twitter here and as a matter of full disclosure: I’ve never used it.  As a matter of fact, I don’t believe I’ve used any Social Media in a way that can be measured for Return on Investment or conversion of prospects into customers.  As a matter of fact, the very idea of measuring return on investment or counting conversions goes a long way in explaining why so few people succeed in our business: they confuse marketing with advertising.  I’m itching to write a piece exploring that malady and will get to it as soon as I can carve out a little extra time.  But meanwhile, we have Twitter.  I know people right here in the Hound who are so old-school when it comes to marketing that they’re actually successful in this business (I’m not directly referring to the Bawldguy here, but if you’re still unsure I will look in his direction and whistle) and yet even HE has a Twitter account!  Go figure…

In Twitter Policies Come to Read more

September 11, 2009

WhAcK JoB (and other freezer burned ideas)

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

Finally,  a bloggable thought!

Let me attempt to serve up something  palatable on the fine tapas Chinette as I poke through the  leftovers in the upstairs icebox. I know, it’s been a month of Sundays since I’ve broken literary bread with the family.

Hey, what’s this here?

Some freezer burned Zig Zigler?  Better check the expiration date on this mentally recorded morsel: 1976?  Hmmm…perhaps I’ll just let it thaw and feed it to the hounds with the dry food…

Insert  frosty Beta into Radarange and press PLAY

‘So there’s this Chinese bamboo tree that doesn’t grow an inch for four years, barely pokes its stem out of the dirt, then, in one amazing swing around the Sun, in year five,  it shoots up ten feet…..’ and  so I paraphrase the Zig man and countless other soap box derby wearers. It’s an old story.

I’ve tripped across many versions of the above Eastern yarn over motivational time and space; some prophets claim seven years for the phenomenon, some claim five, still others  declare overnight! The same question is always begged….does a bamboo tree (Chinese or otherwise) really grow ten feet in any amount of time (save a little daily watering) after laying  dormant for 1500 days ?  And if so, why?

Oh hell, we’re all pretty smart dogs around here. We all know why.

Personally, it took this mutt over thirty years to complete and submit for publication, a written project that was greater in length than a thousand words and didn’t involve an iPhone snapshot. The notion struck me like a branding iron as I sat at my desk  completing the final U.S. Copyright  and Writers Guild of America keystrokes (along with credit card info, of course) into my tired machine.  I can only hope that after 60 days and nights of finger pecking toil (not to mention the 30 years below the soil), what I sent off , paid for, copyrighted, and registered, is even worth stealing.

So anyway, here’s a sample of what my bamboo tree just sprouted:

SCOTTY takes two more shot glasses off the tray and hands one
to CAT CHOW who reluctantly accepts the offering.

CAT CHOW
So, do Read more

September 11, 2009

Why Your FHA Decision Engine Approval Gets Denied

by

Mortgage Technologist

Author website

The occurrence of FHA loans receiving an FHA TOTAL Scorecard approval and subsequently having the loan denied once it hits the underwriter’s desk is happening more and more. It’s a reality the field must acknowledge and from what I have seen, the good originators have taken note and have adjusted their game accordingly.

However, before adjusting your game, you must understand the reasoning behind why this is happening and will continue to occur in the future. Quite frankly, it is at this execution juncture point, that the details and actions of originators are what separate the superstars from the rest of the pack.

The Reason

While the technical reason behind this shift has been in place for years, the enforcement has not until recently. In a nutshell, HUD has stepped up their post endorsement technical reviews and NOT letting lenders insure loans they allowed in the past. In short, previously they were letting lenders slide and NOW they are NOT!

HUD has from the beginning made it clear to lenders that regardless of the Automated Underwriting System (AUS) findings, it was still the lenders responsibility to ensure the data input to TOTAL Scorecard was accurate as required per FHA guidelines AND also demonstrate if there are factors that could not be determined, measured or quantified by the TOTAL Scorecard decision that would invalidate the initial approval decision.

An example of such, is multiple and excessive Non-Sufficient-Funds (NFS) on the borrowers bank checking statements. Since FHA TOTAL Scorecard cannot measure nor account for NSF’s in their decision (recommendation), they defer this determination of layered risk analysis to their Direct Endorsement (DE) lenders to establish if unaccounted layers of risk invalidate a TOTAL Scorecard approval/recommendation.

It is important to note a point HUD stresses to lenders on the back-end…the TOTAL Scorecard decision is ONLY a recommendation and it is the responsibility of the DE lender to determine the accuracy of the approve recommendation. Thus, “due diligence” is the ambiguous “standard” DE lenders are being held to in regards to TOTAL Scorecard approvals. What this means to originators, Realtors and builders is the “approval” received from TOTAL Scorecard (Fannie and Read more

September 8, 2009

Is Social Media Marketing Worth The Effort ?

by

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

Author website

Greg Swann and I are working together, later this week.  We’re meeting in Phoenix to do some video work (mostly Q & A stuff), discuss the what we want BloodhoundBlog Unchained to look like,  and host a discussion about SMM at the  Phoenix Association of REALTORs (with Kerry Melcher).

We KNOW social media marketing works because we’re both busy but we really want to start measuring the efficacy of each effort.  BloodhoundBlog Unchained is a labor of love.  Our profits have been miniscule but we learn so much from the process of hosting the conference.  Hobby or not, we’re still committed to producing the premier three-day workshop, about online real estate and mortgage marketing, in the industry.

One of the reasons Greg and I have such a great partnership is that we approach the same issue from completely opposite camps.  Many of you have seen us “do our bit” about filling the funnel vs. pure pull marketing. I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret; we both practice what the other preaches.

I watched the forced registration issue with great interest.  I’m spending thousands of dollars to have a similar IDX for mortgage rates developed.  Naturally, I want to recoup the thousands as quickly as possible without threatening the customer to the point of having her click away.

I’ve watched people preach expertise about SMM who have never dealt with a bad Yelp rating, never engaged a stranger about their profession on Facebook, and haven’t monitored their blog comments in a year.  We’re all trying to find the highest and best use of our time while providing good content for the stranger who graces our websites with a question.

I want those people to become prospects, then customers, then clients, then sneezing fans but I don’t want to spend all day wired to the laptop or answering questions via e-mail.

Our critical mission is to find out what works and what doesn’t.  Most of the ideas we develop come from questions in these little workshops we do. People ask us questions and Greg and I try to find the answers.  Those answers usually come from you; we Read more

September 6, 2009

My NAR tax-credit video: “Tell the National Association of Bloodsucking Vampires to go to hell. It’s where they belong.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Want to know what Realtors can do to help resurrect the American economy? They can get the hell out of the way, that’s what.

Here’s my entry in the Al Lorenz/Don Reedy NAR tax-credit video contest.

Think you can do better? Please do. And tell everyone you know in the media to latch onto this with every tooth they have left in their dainty little lapdog jaws.

This used to be a free country. Whether or not it ever is again depends on what each one of us does now…

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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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