There’s always something to howl about.
Mention “Redfin” to many real estate traditionalistas and among the “Yeah, buts…” the closer is usually, “Yeah, but they aren’t profitable.”
Congratulations, Glenn.
As we ponder the future of this business, the impact that technology is having and will have, and why it is taking so long to see real change, Redfin’s success proves that, sooner or later, money talks and bullshit lets its license expire.
We’ve avoided DocuSign because ZipForms was so terrible in the Mac world. While the new implementation is not great, it’s better. And as kludgey and expensive as DocuSign seems, I really, really want electronic signatures.
But I have questions:
1. Can I use DocuSign to do my “broker oversight” signatures? That’s not a legal question. I’m just asking, is it possible?
2. If I receive a document — say a counter-offer — from another DocuSign-using Realtor, can I use DocuSign to get my client’s signature on that document?
3. Same question, but just an ordinary PDF? How about an ordinary fax?
4. What about added documents? We do a lot in the way of extended additional clauses, especially on listings, with each version of those clauses being unique. Is it possible to add our own forms in a DocuSign envelope?
5. What do you love about DocuSign?
6. What do you hate about it?
I’m grateful for any insights you can offer.
When we wrapped up BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, Brian Brady and I were already talking about doing an event in San Diego during the National Association of Realtors Convention. Since then, we’ve both gotten really busy, which makes planning for anything difficult.
But: We’re both bursting with lots of new ideas. Brian was regaling me on the phone tonight with some incredible viral conversion ideas. I know that Teri Lussier wants me to talk about persuasive copy, but right now I’m more interested in the persuasive power of the elephant in the room. Plus which, there are a lot of Bloodhounds we can call upon to talk to us about what they’ve been doing.
As with last year’s Unchained in Orlando, the NAR has attempted to lock up every possible meeting space, and, as with last year, they’ve failed to lock us out.
My question is this: When we come to town, who is coming with us? What we’re going to do is a one-day event, an all-day marathon of ideas. I’m inclined to support freedom-loving people everywhere, so we might also stage an adhocratic mastermind session while we’re there — partly a scenius, partly a demonstration of the intellectual mettle of this little apartnership we have going. When the Bloodhounds howl, criminals and cockroaches run for cover.
This is just running a flag up the pole to see who salutes. The price is $100 for the one-day event, and, if you make the commitment, we’ll give you a $100 break on the price of our next full conference in Phoenix. If you want to join us, click the PayPal button below.
Click on the PayPal button shown below to get your $100 ticket for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in San Diego on Friday, November 13th, 2009
Here’s a real kick in the head: I will turn 50 years old that weekend. If you’re in town with us Friday, we’ll cut you a piece of birthday cake.
So Goggle thinks it’s going to win the real estate search game. As far as I’m concerned, there is no more meaningless a result in an online property search than a red pin designating the location of a property on a map. Take the map above in the example – a snapshot of the the greater New York City area with little red dots designating search results. New York’s a big city with alot of little neighborhoods. Help me understand how this solution is any better than any of the others? How has Google upped the ante in providing a better solution?
They haven’t.
What I find interesting about the online search game is how many players fail to understand what makes a particular property unique – desirable – a one of a kind. How does a little red dot convey the weighty significance of LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION? I just read Joe Burslem’s post over at FOREM, regarding how Google is now getting serious about real estate.
Should Zillow and Trulia be worried? Not if they view search as a value added activity. SEO juice isn’t necessarily the fuel that runs an effective or valuable search. The content around the search is key. What makes a location important? When consumers seek a home – not a house – what evokes the emotional response? A view? The possibility of walking to a farmer’s market on Sunday, while passing a Starbucks?
A street view is a “window” into a location, but it doesn’t define it’s personality. Location has an identity. Zillow has already done the homework to identify the boundaries to neighborhoods. Perhaps a valuable next step may be to better identify a neighborhood’s identity – its personality – or maybe link the characteristics of a location to the attributes of a property.
If a search result can personify a property’s location, consistent with how a consumer lives, the red pin comes alive. Search is meaningful.
Google – you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Today is July the Second, the date of the actual drafting of the Declaration of Independence. By now the United States is just another National Socialist oligarchy, a savage jungle of predatory pressure groups, each one looking to plunder the national treasury at the expense of all the others, each one hiding behind an elaborate camouflage of high-blown rhetoric.
Whatever the putative purpose of some piece of legislation, the actual purpose is to advantage some pressure groups to the disadvantage of others. The putative purpose and the high-blown rhetoric are for the children — for the dumb-ass voters, that is — while the legislators and the lobbyists know that its all a matter of getting in enough snout-time at the public trough.
Freedom means freedom from government — nothing else. We trade our freedom away a drop at a time, like a never ending blood transfusion, never pausing to think that the pigs at the trough might not stop at just a little blood, might not stop at the replacement rate, might not stop until every drop of blood, every dollar of excess production and every last liberty of the American people are completely exsanguinated.
The American patriots bellowed, “No taxation without representation!” We have since learned that this actually means, “We yearn to be fools and jackals in our own behalf!” And the cackle we deliver up to black humor is a premonitory death rattle. For it is obvious that the man being taxed is not represented, and the man with his snout in the taxpayer’s trough is represented in ways you know nothing about.
Consider this atrocity of Wal-Mart’s, a company once deserving of great respect, brought to us by Cato @ Liberty:
A couple of years ago, I shared a cab to the airport with a Wal-Mart lobbyist, who told me that Wal-Mart supports an “employer mandate.” An employer mandate is a legal requirement that employers provide a government-defined package of health benefits to their workers. Only Hawaii and Massachusetts have enacted such a law.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Wal-Mart is a capitalist success story. At the time of our conversation, Read more
Since Greg’s post last week stirred up some good discussion of what NAR should be doing about the crazy energy bill, I thought I’d pass along the official word from NAR. Personally, I think the Senate is going to kill or “fix” the bill – after all, they will actually have time to read it, discuss it, and have dialog with the public BEFORE they vote on it.
From NAR
What Does the House-Passed Climate Bill Do?
The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the House recently, takes a multi-pronged approach to improving energy efficiency and NAR weighed in primarily to ensure existing homes and buildings are made exempt from the bill’s energy labeling program. That effort was successful. The bill limits the energy labeling provisions to new construction. The legislation addresses NAR concerns in other ways: 1) prohibits EPA from regulating carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings under the Clean Air Act, 2) eliminates a proposal to bolster a private right of action (making it easier for citizens to sue over minor climate risks), and 3) provides property owners with financial incentives to make energy efficiency and other property improvements. The Senate must pass its version, but timing is uncertain. A summary of issues is available online.
Should NAR be more aggressive in fighting this legislation? Maybe, but maybe they are better off watering down the important uber-crazy items like mandatory energy ratings. Also, NAR likely feels they have a better chance of success with the Senate. Just read former Senate Majority Leaders Trent Lott’s book Herding Cats to see how hard this will be to get through the Senate. Even with a Democratic Majority of 60 it will be very hard to get this passed. The fight is just starting and I applaud Greg for his justifiable outrage.
To pluck a petal from the bloom of friend and recondite commenter, Don Reedy, I’ve been ‘face down in a slope of iceplant’ for 30 days. Yes, iceplant. (I’ll let the man himself expound a little later but allow me to tempt you with the essence of his yarn—- it involves a houseboat in San Diego, a Belushi Halloween costume (including handcuffed briefcase), and a lost weekend somewhere in the bowels of the 1980s. Un huh.)
You see, I too have been on a pastoral quest of sorts this month and presently find myself scurrying through the Bloodhound shadows to slip this flimsy piece under the Big Dog’s door before the triple witching hour tonight—June’s last breath. I take a peek around the literary pound and am relieved to find that my WordPress password is still active and that my name and mugshot are still posted on the BHB sidebar. Only a handful of hours remains between me and blanking an entire month on the hallowed front post page. Hopefully I’ll push Publish before the final strike of Midnight and keep the holy streak alive. Admittedly, I’ve been remiss in my self-imposed dogmatic duties.
So this is what has gone down since I last posted Mother Nature is not a MILF on May 30th (an essay written mostly on my iPhone that netted a total of 6 unique comments including a few of my own trite responses). I pooled my talents, sunk my literary savings into a mental Ponzie marketing scheme, and found myself nearly wiped clean from the blogarian grid as I danced 30 days straight ‘with the one who brung me’ to this economic station in life to begin with—real estate sales. Eleven of them to be exact. I’ve never done eleven of anything in a single month much less an activity involving commission checks with accompanying deposit slips. And now, after eleven hard money contracts written and/or Closed in June, I come crawling back to my digital workspace on knees and elbows on this last day of the month, famished and thirsty for Google juice; mind, gut, and Adword Read more
I am able to generate business- both real and potential business, but I find myself in a situation where I want to team up with another Realtor. I’d like to partner with someone to share the work load, and keep transactions running smoothly.
To that end, I’m asking the Bloodhound family: What advice can you give me? How do you create a partnership? Formally or informally? Do you have a clear distribution of tasks and jobs each person performs? Is everything delegated ahead of time? And even as I write this, I’m answering my own questions, so perhaps better questions are these: What do you know now that you wish you knew then? What were the best mistakes you learned along the way? What one thing do I most need to prepare for?
I want the real dirt about partnering in real estate. If you want to email me privately, I’d welcome that. I can keep a secret. 🙂
Has anyone noticed listing agents hoarding REO inventory for their own clients? In California, where we now have only 4.2 months of inventory, we have begun to see bank-owned listings marked as contingent within only a minute of being listed, only to return to the market a month later and immediately be bought by a buyer represented by the listing agent. More than a dozen clients, in multiple threads, have submitted examples of these listings on our message boards. We’re trying to figure out what’s really going on and what to do about it. We thought the Bloodhound community might be able to help.
Meanwhile, our partner agents in the Inland Empire of Southern California are also seeing banks take offers on REO properties that are $20,000 or $30,000 lower than the highest bid, on the grounds that the house won’t appraise for the higher offer amount. It seems like the market is trying to set the price, and nobody is willing to believe it (perhaps for good reason).
Cathleen took most of my client contact off my hands Sunday so that I could have time free to play with a new API the FlexMLS folks are getting ready to release to their client MLS systems. I love FlexMLS, and I haven’t said nearly enough good things about it here, but let this stand as endorsement enough: If your MLS is on the cusp of its vendor contract, get FlexMLS. It’s plausible to me that other companies might have cool stuff, but other companies don’t listen to geeks like me. FBS is wicked smart to begin with, but they’re smart enough to know that nobody knows everything. By listening to the user base, they’re able to grow their product in ways that will matter a great deal to all of us going forward.
So for Act one, I worked out how to build radius searches from any valid street address. By software, I mean. I want to be able to work from street addresses to build searches on the fly.
Act two was just brute force API programming, building semi-custom searches into 11,000 or so unique pages. (I’ve mentioned that Realtors have a publishing problem, but I’ll bet you weren’t thinking in the thousands of pages.)
Act three was a quick-search form. A lot of folks already have stuff like this from their IDX vendors. The difference is that I can build as many as I want, as elaborately as I want, using the most common or the most arcane fields in the MLS system. As an example, imagine a weblog post about central vacuum systems coupled with a quick search form featuring homes with central vac. Can your IDX system do that?
That’s innovation, y’all, and there is a point at which it is nothing more for me than ars gratia artis — art for art’s sake. I play with new ideas not to make money or to skin elephants, but because I love new things, and I love to wring every last drop of implication out of anything I lay my hands on. I can find the marketing — and, one hopes, Read more
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I’ve been critical of California’s Proposition 13 because of its progressive nature. It penalizes immigrants and younger families to favor older, wealthier nativists. Howard Jarvis’ intent was to stop the California’s Legislature from its runaway spending; the Legislature did no such thing. In fact, the California Legislature has increased spending, over the past 31 years, in spite of the intended purpose of Proposition 13.
As much as I think Proposition 13 is bad public policy, I’m glad it’s on the books. The inevitable bankruptcy of California will cause its citizenry to take a hard look at the cost of the Great Social Experiment its Legislature pursued. Jeff Brown and Sean Purcell are subject to my cautionary warnings that the wealth-eating zombies in Sacramento won’t stand for their citizens’ impudence; I believed that one of those ghouls would try to repeal Proposition 13, citing its’ progressive nature. I was wrong; they hired a henchman.
Meet San Francisco Recorder-Assessor Phil Ting; he wants to change Proposition 13. Phil Ting is spinning his attack on Proposition 13 as corporate welfare. Ting claims that Proposition 13 unfairly benefits commercial property owners at the expense of residential property owners:
Paradoxical to the law’s initial intent, the commercial property loopholes in Proposition 13 have actually shifted the tax burden away from corporations and onto the backs of residential property owners.
For example, look at San Francisco, where I currently serve as assessor- recorder. Thirty years ago, commercial property owners contributed 59 percent of property tax revenues and residential property owners contributed 41 percent. Today, we see a virtual flip: commercial property owners contributed just 43 percent of property taxes in 2008, while residential property owners contributed 57 percent.
Sounds reasonable, right? Bear in mind that Ting called the Catholic Church a tax deadbeat for reapportioning its parish properties to local control, a measure all California Catholic Dioceses are enacting. This politically-motivated measure was payback for the Church’s involvement in a ballot initiative this past November. Ting’s the perfect hired gunslinger for the California Left.
Liberal, spend and try-to-tax legislators are trying desperately to figure out how to circumvent Read more
If you had your blast email spam from NAR President Charles McMillan, you know what’s important to the Grand Poobahs: Appraisers are all of a sudden just too dang honest, and that’s bad for business. Meanwhile, the so-called “cap and trade” bill that narrowly passed in the House of Representatives last night is full of nightmare provisions impinging on the rights of private property owners to do what they want with their land and structures. Where was the NAR? Elsewhere, of course. Where else?
From JammieWearingFool:
Beyond what it will do to our economy, at the end of the debate House GOP Leader John Boehner took to the floor and started reading from the 300 page amendment that the Democrats drafted and dropped on the legislatures at 3 AM, there was literally hundred of items to impose federal control over your life. Here are some highlights.
Want to replace a window? Not so fast. First you must pay for an appraisal of your house to measure its energy efficiency and receive calculations of both before and after the proposed change. Hey, it may be a great excuse for those guys trying to avoid putting in that big bay style window that the missus has been bugging you about.
Are you having a new house built? Back up, Skippy. This bill includes language that tells you exactly where you can put your electrical outlets.
Did you know that for one sort of appraisal service related to determining energy efficiency there is only one company you can use? Yup, it is right in there along with the name of the company. How is it that this one company managed to land the only contract to service 300 million Americans? Who is this company?
I wish I could answer those questions, but all of those provisions and more, Rep. Boehner went on for almost an hour citing them and still didn’t get through the whole 300 pages, is not available. You see because of when the Democrats dropped this amendment at 3 AM the text of it is not available. So much for that transparency. The total bill runs on Read more
Though there are a buncha things I read on this blog with which I disagree, there’s one thing for sure — there’s no shortage of reliable information. Also, expertise is freely shared by most of the contributors on what seems an almost infinite array of subjects. What this blog does best, from where I stand, is show the way to fellow pros to a more effective business.
Brian Brady, Sean Purcell, Chris Johnson and I seem to be the ones who at times address the other side of that coin — taking the ‘How To’ to the ‘Wow! This Stuff Really Does Work’ stage. Possibly the best nugget I’ve taken from BHB is Greg’s 20-something bullet point list for selling his listings. Talk about goin’ from the ‘How To’ to ‘Wow’ stage.
Brian’s a practitioner of what I call ‘Old Skool’ marketing. He’ll toss his latest marketing salad ’till it either produces or bombs. But even his bombs usually end up pointing him in the direction of enhanced success. He keeps doin’ what works, while never resting on his laurels.
Sean shows us where we may have unknowingly run outa bounds. He gently guides us back to the field of play, which is, after all, the only place any of us can ever score. He seems to have that sixth sense. You know the one — the ability to see what and why something will be effective. Or, better yet, how it can be made more so — like he did a few days ago.
Chris? Chris reminds me of Dad so much it’s freakin’ scary. If I believed in channeling I’d swear that’s what he’s been doing lately. If you read anything he writes and come away unsure about what he really thinks, you’re probably beyond hope. 🙂 He says things other people are thinkin’, but don’t dare openly express. Chris is like the guy in the locker room listening to all the guys brag about their romantic conquests. Know why he’s quiet? Those that do more than talk are rarely loud about it. They just, well, do. Chris understands Read more
I’m the leading bear in an article in Saturday’s Toronto Globe and Mail. I wasn’t as dour as the overall slant of the article, but it remains that the Phoenix real estate market is overbuilt. We have more kitchens than cooks, and, as long as that is so, a robust and enduring recovery is not possible.
One thing I didn’t say, but I wish were true: “Mr. Swann said he has clients from Canada, California, Oregon and elsewhere snapping up dozens of houses at a time.” I have dozens of investor clients, most of whom are buying nothing right now, since it’s stupid to compete for the privilege of over-paying for a rental home. I have one client who plans to buy dozens of homes, but who has not started yet.
The interesting thing is, it really is a great time to buy a house in Phoenix — except at the very low end. Sellers with equity are finally waking up and smelling the coffee, so the move-up market — at least below $500,000 or so, jumboland — is really starting to move. First-time home-buyers, enriched by the $8,000 tax credit, are butting heads with out-of-state investors for all the homes priced $100,000 and under. But for people with buying power, things are looking very rosy right now.
Even so, the Globe and Mail article is good reading. The authors explore a lot of systemic factors that could make our current mini-boom a fondly-remembered oasis in a desert of on-going bad news.
Last week I was working, late at night, plugging street addresses into encartus, in preparation for building a bunch of new engenu pages for a new web site we’re building, an exposition of truly-distinguished homes in Paradise Valley, Arizona. While I was working, I got pinged by an incoming email, a moderated comment to Brian Brady’s first post on the idea of disclosing all real estate purchase offers.
While I was reading all the other great comments to that post, I got pinged again, this time a private email asking me what I thought about the nominees for Inman’s most-innovative blog award.
To misquote a line many Bloodhounds love: I don’t think about them. I will stop in at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy once or twice a month, and I know I’ve been to MyTechOpinon and the Clean Slate Blog. But I don’t associate any of those sites with innovation. They’re just weblogs, that’s all.
This is not sour grapes. I don’t give a rat’s ass about beauty contests, and I’ve deliberately painted Inman “News” into a corner: By consistently ignoring what is obviously the most innovative weblog in the RE.net, they come off looking like petulant crybabies even as they despoil their reputation as a “news” source. And does this malign neglect hurt us? Uniquely among RE.net weblogs, we’re a PR6, as is the Inman “News” web site. With no capital investment and nothing but part-time, amateur writers, we’ve pulled even with the life’s work of a big-baby billionaire. One would think the idea of gamesmanship was invented yesterday.
And please don’t post treacly little comments about how you get good ideas everywhere. I have no objection whatever to the Special Olympics, so long as you don’t insist on calling the contestants Olympians. The three innovations cited in the first paragraph of this post, three among hundreds, are more than enough to split BloodhoundBlog away from the herd.
But that’s the point. BloodhoundBlog is ten days away from being three years old. In those three years, we’ve pioneered a vast host of jaw-dropping ideas. If we stopped writing on June 29th, our anniversary, we Read more
