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Category: Real Estate (page 80 of 266)

March 23, 2009

Nest Realty, Jim Duncan’s new broker, joins the custom sign club

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Long-time real estate weblogger Jim Duncan moved to a new brokerage recently — Nest Realty. As a part of their launch, they’re building custom real estate yard signs, the prototype for which you can see above.

Jim asked for my thoughts on the signs, and I’m going to go into this at some little length. All of this touches on the stuff we’ve been talking about since last week.

First, I think these signs are striking, very interesting graphically. The grid layout is sweet and fine, a very clean style of communication.

Second, I want that middle sign to be a hell of a lot bigger. My guess is that it’s 18 x 12, a very common size for real estate signs. We do our middle sign at 24 x 36. Jim’s sign is in much better taste than ours, but I need for people to know that they’re seeing a custom sign, so I think I need to grab them by the throat.

Third, my belief is that for custom signs to work, they have to have that paragraph of small text we use on our signs. The marketing objective of the signs is to stop traffic, not simply to promote a fleeting awareness of a home for sale among passing drivers. We’ve been using that paragraph of small text from the beginning, long before it was possible to make custom signs. We know from hours of observation that people slow down, stop, read the sign, take the flyer — all because they had to slow down to find out what that small text was saying.

There are some nice marketing ideas at Nest’s main web site, and the site for this particular home is worth a look. The HDR photos are incredible, and I want for them to be a lot larger.

This is a case where I don’t find the web presentation of the home to be at all satisfying, and that’s another one of the points that I hit all the time. We know from talking to our open house visitors that people will spend hours at a single-property web site if you Read more

March 22, 2009

Why should you buy real estate — and lots of it — now? Well, inventory abounds, prices are low, and interest rates are incredibly low. And there’s one other factor you might take into account…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Follow the tiny blue line. That’s the growth of the U.S. money supply. That vertical surge you see there at the right is, essentially, a doubling of the number of dollars in (virtual) circulation since August 2008. Every dollar you own will soon be worth fifty cents. And every dollar you owe will soon be worth two bucks. You do the math…

March 20, 2009

Priced Well? No Offers — Not Even Insulting Offers? My 2¢

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Greg Swann just published a post lookin’ for help from the professional community for one of our own. Barry Bevis, a Realtor in Tallahassee, has a listing that’s been giving him fits. He and several knowledgeable agents around town are in agreement — the current listing price is where it should be. The house is well kept. The lot is over a third of an acre. Very nice yard, and a hot tub. He’s done just about everything right to get this puppy into escrow. Its own site. Buncha cool pictures. Even had a custom sign made. Still, no sale.

No sale? Not even an insultingly low offer.

I went to the listing’s site. Plenty of info, and many photos, easy to navigate, and easy to get ahold of Barry. He obviously cares, and has clearly gone the extra mile as he markets this home. So what’s the problem? What might be going unaddressed?

Before continuing, let’s be real here. We’ve all been where Barry is with this listing. How many of us have scratched our heads, totally mystified by a listing that simply seems to defy a mountain of empirical evidence dictating it should’ve sold a dozen times by now? I have, many times. It’s maddening. Shortly after studying what Greg Swann does to market his listings, I had an epiphany — well, actually two. For me it was a good news/bad news joke. On one hand I was elated to have stumbled onto such a gold mine — which is surely what it is. On the other hand, I felt like such a doofus as I mentally compared his method to mine. But as often admitted, I’m ‘Japan’. I’ll steal anything cool and make it mine — screw my ego. Thanks Greg

First, I realized as experienced as I am, and as many properties as I’ve sold in the nearly 40 years of my career, I still couldn’t carry Greg’s jock when it came to the nuts and bolts of marketing listings from A to Z. The guy is head and shoulders above anyone else I’d studied.

Then the second epiphany hit Read more

March 20, 2009

Put Down The Pipe – And Step Away From That Lease Agreement

by

Associate Broker

Author website

Yesterday’s Unrealistic Sellers Are Today’s Unrealistic Landlords

Just when we thought we had finally convinced all potential sellers that the real estate market was in a crisis – and that realistic pricing was the only way that a sale could be consummated – we now must deal with the unrealistic landlord.

I’m not talking about the professional Leona Helmsley kind of landlord – they’ve always been around. No, I’m talking about the unrealistic sellers who are instructing their agents to continue to market their properties for sale… AFTER they have rented them out to unwary tenants.

Don’t get ahead of me, now. I know that this concept is not new. Home managers have been around for years… and they provide a great service to home sellers by furnishing the home – keeping it in showing condition – paying the utilities – maintaining the yard – all while being prepared to move out with 30 days notice.

Of course, home managers enjoy deeply discounted rents.

And therein lies the rub. The unrealistic seller wants market rent – while marching prospects through the home. A few days ago, I wrote a quick post about our new GAR lease, more specifically about Section 20 which reads:

Upon 24 hours advance notice to Tenant, Landlord shall have the right Monday through Saturday for 9:00AM to 8:00PM to access Premises of Property to inspect, repair, maintain the same and/or to show the Property to prospective buyers. In the case of emergency, Landlord may enter Premises or Property at any time to protect life and prevent damage to Premises and Property. In addition, during the last ___ days of the term of the Lease, and during any period when Premises is being leased from month to month, Landlord may also place a “for rent” or “for sale” sign in the yard or on the exterior of any dwellling on Property, may install a lockbox and may show Premises to prospective tenants or buyers. In the event a lockbox is installed, Tenant shall secure jeweelry and other valuables and agrees to hold Landlord harmless for any loss thereof. For each occasion where the access Read more

March 20, 2009

There are no second acts in American real estate listings: It’s priced right, prepared right, presented right — and the house still won’t sell. What do you do now?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Barry Bevis in Tallahassee is looking for help. And he’s willing to pay for it.

He has a listing that he’s having trouble moving, and he’s looking for marketing ideas to draw the attention of a buyer.

Here’s Barry’s note:

I have a great listing that just won’t sell…

I’ve given it my version of the Bloodhound treatment: Custom Sign, Website, URL and lots of photos. You can see the home by clicking here.

It’s in a preferred neighborhood with parks and shopping within walking distance. It has been well maintained and is priced well — according to comps and other brokers feedback. It has a great yard and a hot tub!

The negatives: After a year of trying to sell I know them! Small Master bath and No Half Bath. Tile Counters in the kitchen — our area prefers Stone. The cost to cure these “issues” is beyond what the seller can do.

We did start with it priced too high. The seller was “not in a hurry” and wanted to try a higher price. I said okay because he is a friend — knowing all along that it was a mistake. Now its in the ballpark and would appraise at the new list price.

I get a couple of people in a week — and loads of website traffic. But no offers. Not even obnoxious low ball offers.

So the seller keeps asking me what to do… Besides lower the price. So this month we are dropping the price 1K a week, a 4K price drop. That will make it show up on any buyers automatic web searches as “Price Reduced.” We are also offering to pay a point to drop a buyers interest rate, likely below 5%.

What else should I be doing?

I’m looking for ideas to ignite interest in this home and get it sold. I’ve got a $100 AMEX gift card to the most creative idea. Greg and I are the judges.

Step up and tell me what to do!

This is a tough problem, one I wish I were unfamiliar with. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “There are no second acts in American lives.” One of the Read more

March 18, 2009

The Wannabe Cosmopolite

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I choose to live in a big American city because frankly, I stick out like a sore sport in most rural settings and my accountant says we can’t afford London. One of my earliest pre-school memories was a Trenton to New York City train ride with my mother on a blustery Saturday morning.  How much of  that early 1960s day trip I accurately recall and how much is anecdotal family filler (pulled, kneaded and peppered over the redolent decades around my parents’ kitchen table) I’m not quite sure.  Still, certain sepia frames have been imprinted in my mind for life— gazing up at the sky scrapers whose dizzying heights give me vertigo to this day; creeping like a mouse through the bowels of  The Museum of Natural History, terrified of the mummies and the smell of all that marble; seeing  a man get his arm tore off by a taxi cab while standing at a busy Broadway corner…I’m pretty sure; sitting on a New York City phone book for a child’s eternity at  Mamma Leone’s, waiting for the dessert course to arrive.  Feeding the ducks in Central Park.  Observing  the landscape artists with easels and tams, their turpentined pigments slathered on thumb-holed palettes, probably all long dead by now but  full of  abstract perspective on that day.  Not peeing my pants for the entire afternoon.

A similar ferment churned in my gut when I first strolled the arrondissements of Paris; same thing along the canals of Rome; and Gaudi’s Barcelona.  And while I can easily inhale the woodsy fragrance of say, a Walden Pond (or even Dyer, Tennessee) without much complaint, I am clearly no Thoreau.  Once you think you see a guy get his arm torn off in Times Square, you can never really go back to the suburbs.  Not entirely.

As each year strikes like lightning, I find myself  being both drawn to, and repelled from, the urban twist of what once was Sandburg’s Chicago with its animal sense of outcome and yellow inner eye… ‘ hog butcher for the world.’  Liebling’s Second City.  On a calm evening the whispers can Read more

March 18, 2009

The quest for all the world’s riches is over: It’s in your iPhone…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The feature set for release 3.0 of the iPhone operating system was announced yesterday, but I think the photo above says just about everything that needs to be said.

Yes, that’s the iPhone serving as its own graphic equalizer user interface in order to maximize the performance of a third-party peripheral.

There is no one else in product design who thinks like this.

The huge benefit of naming things is that it enables us to conceptually separate this from that, to isolate particular objects or ideas so that we can think about their unique properties and potential.

The outrageous curse of naming things is that we tend to force-fit whatever it is we’re thinking about into the shoebox we’ve crafted for it by naming it.

Do you see? A public hallway is a shopping mall, and vice versa, but few of us can think of both at the same time. A mobile phone powerful enough to please Steve Jobs is going to be powerful enough to do almost anything, but only people who think like Steve Jobs can find the almost anything inside the phone.

Every other smart phone on the market is just a phone with some gadgets slapped on as afterthoughts. The iPhone is well on its way to being almost everything…

March 17, 2009

Just Because You’re More Visible Doesn’t Mean You’re More Valuable

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

What really is the role of technology in real estate today?  So much of the discussion regarding the evolution and use of technology today seems to be centered on SEO – what ever you do, make sure Google finds you.

You have a blog or website.  It has super SEO powers.  It attracts many prospects.  So do hundreds – maybe thousands of other agents.

Sounds great.  You’ve found me.  Now what?

When consumers find me, what makes them want me? Regardless of whether or not potential clients find me via the phone book, website or as a result of a conversation a past client had at a cocktail party, the real question isn’t necessarily how they found me, the question is – once found, what do I offer to my clients that meets their needs like no other broker can?

What is your value proposition?  Your value proposition transcends your marketing message – it provides tangible, measurable ways in which you meet the needs of your clients, prospects and consumers.

“What is the role of technology?”  You can’t answer that question until you know what your client’s needs are and how you meet them.

The role of technology is merely a tool to provide a medium which delivers the desired results to your clients, prospects and consumers.

The emphasis on technology has been entirely too focused on how consumers find you and not enough on why they want you.  Just because you are more visible to potential clients does not make you inherently more valuable.  If you have a blog or website, is it aligned with meeting the desired results of your clients, prospects and consumers?

Having an IDX link or other MLS search tool isn’t unique.  In fact, search in general isn’t entirely unique.

If you’re found, what makes them stay?

What if a purely technology solution met the needs of consumers?  It’s possible.  If you can’t make it clear how you meet your prospects needs, someone or something will.

March 16, 2009

“What do you mean, stop the party? We haven’t ripped off the new neighbors yet!”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

One of the fun devices in Part III of Atlas Shrugged is something author Ayn Rand called “the policy of the microsecond.” Despite the high-flown philosophical claims of the looters, their actual motivation was never anything other than “the expediency of the moment” — one absurd rationalization after the next, justifying theft and visiting the consequences of that theft upon its victims.

Just about a month ago, as a comical palliative for the housing mess, I wrote this as a joke:

[I]t would make great sense to make immigration to America easier and faster. Imagine having neighbors who work hard, pay their bills on time and can spell correctly!

That’s the logic of the policy of the microsecond. We don’t want to stop stealing wealth from innocent people. We don’t want to amend our ways and do better going forward. We don’t want to undo the awful damage occasioned by centuries of accelerating criminal government. No. All we want to do is find a way to get through this crisis. We’ll worry about the crisis caused by this “solution” — the crisis of the microsecond after this one — later on.

So guess what happens? I might have been joking, but we live in a world beyond satire. From the Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president’s $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer.

The federal bailout forces taxpayers to subsidize overextended homeowners who bet on ever-rising house prices and used their abodes as ATMs, and it doesn’t get to the basic problem — the huge inventory of excess houses. We estimate that 2.4 million houses over and above normal working inventories are left over from the 1996-2005 housing bubble. That’s a lot, considering the long-term average annual construction of 1.5 million single- and multi-family units.

Excess inventory is the mortal enemy of house prices, which have already fallen 27% since the peak in early 2006. We predict another 14% drop through the end of 2010 if nothing is done to eliminate Read more

March 16, 2009

Seven Deadly SEO Sins for real estate pros…Vanity

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

Over next few weeks, I am going to post on several topics. An email a friend received this weekend was the perfect segue into something that I really wanted to point out.

Notice, please, that I am not jumping down Zillow’s throat for this blatant attempt at using people’s vanity to get them to take an action that they otherwise wouldn’t. That’s what marketers DO…online is no exception. SEO is no exception. Eric Bramlett included it in this post Linkbuilding basics. That’s an OLD post. Stroking egos is NOT a new marketing technique.

But this isn’t the first time I have warned people about widgets and badges either. Why do these guys still do it?

Hint: It works

Another reason is: Both my post and Bramlett’s are older posts so it bears repeating. Don’t link to local competitors or those who compete with you locally. Locally related high ranking sites linking to you are GOLDEN to an SEO effort. Google has no way of evaluating if those links are coming from a competitor or not. They don’t care.

For those who may be saying: “I don’t get it.” Here’s the linked e-mail above through an SEO’s eyes…

We like you. We’ve chosen you as a LOCAL EXPERT. (SEO eyes: You have a blog or site that has good standing in the search engines..we want a link…) Click here to get a badge (SEO eyes: link included) to put on your site PROCLAIMING how good WE think you are. (SEO eyes:Yet the message to the search engines is EXACTLY the opposite..it is how good YOU think WE are–hehe–nicely done! My competitor is now linking to me!).

Therein lies the rub. And the lesson, IMO.

Vanity is a Deadly SEO sin. Building your online authority requires you to measure it the same way that the search engines do…by those who link TO you (deeds) and not by being caught up in the praise of flattering words (words).

March 16, 2009

After the Great Recession: What Will Real Estate Be Like

by

CEO, Redfin.com

Author website

Over at Redfin, we’ve been wondering plenty what the world will look like after the Great Recession. It feels as though we’re falling and falling, like Alice in Wonderland, with no idea what strange new world awaits us at the bottom of this very deep downturn.

What will the Internet be like? How will venture capital change? Most important to us, how will real estate change? Aready we have seen data-sharing policies liberalized, a radical decrease in the number of real estate  agents and a radical increase in quality, and lower spending from the major brokerages on web technology even as venture-funded businesses have continued to invest millions.

We’ve wondered whether there will be more brokers or fewer, if consumers will choose an agent based on data or a personal connection, if the next generation of consumers will be the data-driven scavengers we’re now seeing pick through distressed properties.

We’ve wondered if venture capital will continue to flow into this industry or leave it alone until the next big bubble. And so we thought we would ask the Bloodhound community the same questions. What’s your take?

March 14, 2009

Independence, for Realtors, comes from having a broker’s license

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came up in a private discussion, but this piece of the pizza is a matter of interest for all Realtors. Ready?

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

I don’t think I’ve ever said this in public, but I promise you it’s an oversight that should have been obvious all along.

Everything Bloodhound is about being as independent as you can possibly be.

That doesn’t mean you don’t engage with other people. What it means is never being in a situation where you have to put up with other people, whether you like it, hate it — or you want to kill someone because of it.

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

A favorite game of dipshits who flitter into BloodhoundBlog is to pretend that they don’t understand what I am talking about when I deride vendorsluts.

Here’s a definition that will do no good at all: A vendorslut is a sleazoid who takes your money and gives you next to nothing in exchange for it — usually while binding you to an outrageously unfair contract.

And by that definition a huge number of real estate brokers are vendorsluts. Their entire business model is based not on selling real estate but on milking wide-eyed real estate agents for every penny they have, then dumping them as soon as they’re all milked out.

I can hope that no one reading this is some venal broker’s sucker, but that con-game is baked in the cake.

For that reason alone, you should:

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

Obviously, I believe that your best move is to up your own organization, to turn your practice or your team into your own brokerage instead.

But even if you choose to work as an associate broker, having your broker’s license gives you options.

Yes, your legal liability increases, but, as with all advanced education, having your broker’s license brings with it significant marketing advantages.

And if your own designated broker moves on or gets sick, you have the legal qualification necessary to move into the big boss’s chair.

Perhaps more importantly, with a broker’s license, you are a bigger threat, should the big boss get the idea he might want to sever you.

And, recalling that Read more

March 13, 2009

Show Me Yours – Then I’ll Show You Mine

by

Associate Broker

Author website

Looking At Rental Properties With A Whole Different Perspective

The more things change… well, the more they change.

In the past, when you represented a tenant in the lease of a property, it was understood that the tenant would provide authorization for the landlord to perform a credit check, if desired. This authorization, however, was a one-way street.

That was then… and this is now.

In the current real estate climate we find ourselves in – it would behoove you to inquire as to the financial stability of the landlord before allowing your client to sign a lease. It is becoming a more frequent occurrence to hear about another instance of a landlord losing a property to foreclosure during a lease.

While requesting the credit report of a potential landlord is an uncommon occurence – perhaps it should be as normal as the landlord requesting the credit report of the prospective tenant. After all – if the landlord defaults and loses the property to foreclosure, it will be the tenant who suffers.

If the landlord refuses to provide authorization to pull their credit file – perhaps they are hiding the fact that they have not been paying their mortgage… as is the case in many short sale situations I have seen. Yes, it happens. In the past two weeks, I have spoken with two three landlords who are defaulting with tenants in place.

Whether or not you insist on the landlord providing a credit report – you should make your client aware of the repercussions of a default on the part of the landlord according to the laws in your state.

March 12, 2009

My ZinePal wish list: Editors copyfit by cutting and adding copy

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is an email I sent last night to Frank Worsley of ZinePal. Also copied on this email were Teri Lussier, Brad Coy, Cheryl Johnson, Brian Brady, Sean Purcell and Eric Blackwell, the folks who have been talking about ZinePal privately. I’m sharing this in the hopes that it will spark other ideas.

Frank Worsley: > Let me know if you have any feature requests or run into any problems and I’ll try to fix it for you.

Okay, Frank, you asked for it.

This is my wish list for ZinePal, but I’m copying these other good folks because we’ve all been playing with the software. We’re all affiliated with BloodhoundBlog.com, a real estate industry-focused weblog. We love ZinePal because we have huge and unending publishing needs.

Emphasize that: We love ZinePal. I’m going to ask for a lot of stuff, and the others here will chip in with their own ideas, but I don’t want you to despair in any way. We’re happy to help you make ZinePal better, if we can, but you’ve already kicked our teeth in and left us smiling about it. We’re in your debt, never doubt it.

My background: I was a typographer when that word meant something. Even so, I understand that the world has changed — and I have changed, too. I want a certain amount of typographic control, if I can get it, but I’m not prepared to jump out the window if I can’t have it.

Much more important to me is control over the copy. Typographers copyfit typographically. They have to follow the copy out the window. Editors copyfit by cutting and adding copy. Give me editorial control and I’ll solve my own typographic problems.

So:

1. I want control over the feeds. I need for a feed to be forgotten if I need to reimport it. I need for as many posts as I wish to come in with the feed. I can work-around this by using categories in WordPress, e.g,

http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=7

Category feeds seem to come in in their entirety.

2. But: Once I have the copy in ZinePal, I need to be able to edit it in place. If Read more

March 11, 2009

BloodhoundBlog Radio: VA Home Loan Tutorial For California REALTORS

by

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

Author website

I recorded this webinar on March 11, 2009. The AUDIO IS HERE and will open in a new window.  Listen along and click through the links as I discuss them:

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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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