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Category: Real Estate (page 88 of 266)

December 28, 2008

“U.S adults” may not want foreclosed homes, but homebuyers sure do

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).

 
“U.S adults” may not want foreclosed homes, but homebuyers sure do

Did you see in the news where only 47% of U.S. adults would consider buying a foreclosed home?

An amazing number, isn’t it? What does it mean?

Almost nothing, of course. The real estate market in Phoenix, along with many, many other cities, is dominated by foreclosed homes right now. They are virtually all that is selling.

So how could so many homes be selling if so many people are averse to buying them?

This is a nice lesson in the uselessness of public opinion polls. “U.S. adults” are not homebuyers. Homebuyers are homebuyers. Asking U.S. adults how they feel about sushi or blackberry wine will tell you nothing about their sales, either.

What the survey does tell us is that the news has gotten out about the sometimes difficult process of buying a foreclosed home — especially a short sale — and about the often dismal condition of those homes.

And yet, foreclosed homes are selling and virtually nothing else is.

Why?

Because they’re cheap, that’s why. Even in the nicest neighborhoods, a lender-owned home will sell at a discount of 50% to 80%, compared to owner-occupied homes. In not-as-nice communities in the West Valley, you can pick up a stucco-and-tile 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,500 square foot home with a two-car garage for $50,000.

As I write this, there are 120 homes like that, all built 1995 and later, listed for $75,000 or less.

Let the price rise to $100,000 and there are 690 available right now.

Last month, 191 of those homes sold for $100,000 or less. That’s an implied absorption rate of 3.61 months, arguably a seller’s market.

So on the one hand an undifferentiated population of U.S. adults, who may or may not be in the market to buy a home, has a generally negative opinion of foreclosed homes.

And on the other hand there is a land-office business in foreclosed homes.

We will see many years’ worth of foreclosures in our market. How we feel about that in the abstract makes no difference.

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December 27, 2008

Which is the most useful tool, on social media, to engage your audience and create offline conversations?

by

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

Author website

I asked this question on LinkedIn.  Scott Schang‘s answer rang my bell the loudest:

Social Media has introduced me to other professionals that has resulted in business relationships indirectly. Although I have completed transactions as the result of blog responses, that is not the norm.

I would say that I use Social Media primarily as an idea factory to stimulate my marketing juices and utilize technology and 2.0 tools for business promotion and sales tools.

I consistently utilize online webinars, youtube videos and constant contact which creates a perpetual cycle of automated action items that convert contact into clients.

My product is really education and expertise. Through my internet “presence” I am perceived (rightfully so I would hope) as an expert in my field. I think there’s also a familiarity you develop by being so easily accessible on SM sites.

I have also met many professionals like yourself that have helped me to grow and become more innovative and creative through these on-line relationships.

I have built working referral relationships with many other professionals and I believe that my social media reputation helps to facilitate these relationships.

Bloodhound Unchained in Phoenix last year was really the launching point for my confidence to take more chances with my commitment to social media and I realized that I was far from alone in my search for enlightenment.

Rhonda Porter impressed me with her proactive use of Twitter to “build” a community:

I would have to say Twitter. I have “on-the-fence” clients that follow me for rate quotes and eventually convert. Facebook is a close second as I’m reuniting w/old friends from school and their friends and so on…

Linda Davis and Teresa Boardman impressed me the most from the REALTORs because I discounted the use of of Flickr.  I already noted their comments here.  Here are their Flickr accounts:

Linda Davis on Flickr

Teresa Boardman on Flickr

Linda Davis and Kristal Kraft will be teaching at Unchained this April.  As an added bonus, here’s Kristal Kraft’s Flickr PhotoStream.  All of these ladies get a lot of comments on their pictures; I think that’s a bitchin’ way to connect with people.

Danilo Bogdanovic always blows me away with Read more

December 26, 2008

A sermon for the ninety-and-nine: Don’t mimic bad examples among big-name real estate webloggers

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m kicking this back to the top from December 21, 2007. This was, I think, the second the the last time that I pissed off the echo chamber clique of big name real estate webloggers by pointing out that they were thoughtlessly committing a serious error. I was right about the issue addressed here, which is why, despite three or four days of mob outrage, no one adopted the insulting video tactic discussed in this post.

I don’t like the way people behave in these mad spasms, but I don’t care, either. The only behavior I control is my own, and, as I discussed last night, I never take an action I know in advance is morally wrong. Doesn’t mean I’m never in error. My contributions to BloodhoundBlog, very often, are discussions of what I’ve learned from my many, many errors. But I strive never to be intentionally in error.

But I have a unique understanding of the ontology of human ethics, and it’s something I feel a responsibility to share with the readers of this weblog. If you want to see everything I’ve written here on the subject, pursue the Egoism in Action category.

Or don’t. I’m easy enough to ignore — which will tell you a great deal about those mad spasms, if you trouble yourself to think the matter through. But if you want to profit by my experience at this kind of mass communication, I’m happy to share what I know. –GSS

 
I always thought that bible story about the lost sheep was stupid. If it were me in the story, I would stay right there with the ninety-and-nine, making damn sure that tomorrow it wasn’t the ninety-and-eight. Too bad about the lost sheep, but the mission-critical job has to come first.

Here’s an interesting fact about weblogs, and about internet discussion forums in general: You will almost never hear from the ninety-and-nine. If you manage to build an audience, you will hear from people who are reading your site. That’s a good thing. But if you take those people as being representative of your audience, you are making a mistake. You Read more

December 26, 2008

How Much Does Knowledge Cost?

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.”  quoted by John Naisbitt.

As RE Web 2.0 has evolved, there has been so much emphasis on the data, yet as we sit and evaluate the present solutions, consumers are still unclear how to interpret the information.

“Information is not knowledge.”  quoted by Albert Einstein.

Buying and selling real estate isn’t all about the data – it’s about knowledge and expertise.

If knowledge is not information, what is knowledge?

According to Merriam-Webster online, knowledge is defined as the following:

Knowledge:  (1): the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2): acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique b (1): the fact or condition of being aware of something (2): the range of one’s information or understanding <answered to the best of my knowledge> c: the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning : cognition d: the fact or condition of having information or of being learned <a person of unusual knowledge>
If consumers are to gain value from technology in the real estate arena, the solutions must be focused on the interpretation of the information.  Interpretation of information is knowledge.
Who possesses knowledge in the real estate arena?  Experienced Realtors, brokers, mortgage professionals, attorneys, title/escrow agents, property inspectors, experienced investors and others involved in the transaction.  Experience gained over time, after executing a number of transactions.
The prevalent mindset is to reduce the cost of the transaction by reducing the commission paid to the real estate agent because technology delivers information more openly to the consumer – but what value has been created?  Has true value been really created if more information has become available?
Reduced fee business models often focus on reducing the most value aspect of the transaction – the knowledge and expertise of the real estate professional.  Granted, if the knowledge and expertise is not readily identifiable, it makes sense to pay less.  I believe reduced fee models address the barrier to entry for new agents who may lack Read more
December 24, 2008

By publishing enough of the right information, Mom and Pop teams can triumph over Redfin, VOWs, Realty.bots or big-name brokers

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’d like to introduce you to some really nice folks. Take a look:

The couple on the left are the Anybodys, Jeff and Janice. Jeff is a middle-manager for GE. Unless he owns a Pizza Hut. Unless he’s a Civil Engineer for the county health department. Janice is a schoolteacher — or a stay-at-home mom — or the assistant manager of the parts department at the Saturn dealership.

On the right is their real estate agent — real live real estate agent Allie Howard.

This is good real estate marketing, profoundly effective in all kinds of ways. Virtually anybody can see themselves as the Anybodys. They are exceptional examples of everything that is unexceptional in American middle-class life. And Allie is just geeky enough, just semi-hip enough, just po-mo enough and just down-to-business enough to connect with the Anybodys in the intense but decisively temporary marriage that is a home search.

Everything in this photo is perfect. The clothing is casual but expensive — in just the right colors. That hand-written type face is an homage to the “Hello!” of the original Macintosh. Everything about this image is devised to make you feel comfortable about proceeding with a real estate transaction with Allie.

So who is responsible for this inspired piece of marketing?

Redfin.com, that’s who.

That’s right, the home of the geeks is working very hard to become the just-geeky-enough place for Janice — not Jeff — to shop for a home.

Just two weeks ago, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman was wondering among the Bloodhounds if hi-tech companies like his would crush all the Mom and Pop brokerages. But here we see that self-same Kelman working very hard to compete with Mom and Pop on their own turf.

Let me make two interstitial points, if I might.

First, do not underestimate Glenn Kelman. We’ve beat up on a lot of people in the last 30 months, but, as far as I can tell, Glenn Kelman is the only one among them who is actively trying to figure out what he’s getting wrong. That doesn’t mean we have been right, necessarily. But Kelman is going to keep testing and revising his Read more

December 23, 2008

The Frog and Scorpion (Millenium Edition)

by

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

Author website

Rod Blagojevich tried to sell the Illinois Senate seat, recently vacated by President-Elect Obama.  Blago is to public service what Bernard Madoff is to investment advisory; a modern day pirate, raping and plundering.  Their sociopathic behavior is exacerbated by their belief that position implies entitlement.  If you’re a believer, there is a special place in hell for them. You’ll hear Blago take the stand and offer this defense, in a classic Midwestern dialect,

“I didn’t do nuttin’ wrong. Daat’s how things get done in Chi-caago. ”

He’ll walk and that will be that.  How do I know this?    He wants to fight the charges:

“I’m not going to quit my job. I’m not going to do what my accusers and political enemies have done and that is talk about this case in 30 second sound bites. I am dying to show you how innocent I am. I intend to answer every allegation that comes my way.”

I think Blago’s DYING to speak out because he’s got the dirt on the whole Illinois political machine.  It’s a festering wound, oozing pus from a century of infection and I believe it’s reach extends from the freshest of aldermen to the highest office in our land. You shouldn’t care about this because “Daat’s the Chi-caago Way”.  Illinois voters price corruption into the market when they vote because they have no choice.

Here’s why you should be pissed off; Banks are refusing to disclose the uses of TARP funds:

Goldman:  When pressed for what the TARP money was being used for, Goldman Sachs replied that it is spent to “facilitate client activity in the capital markets.”

Morgan:  Of the 16 banks that were contacted by ABC News and asked how they were spending the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, only one bank pointed to a specific loan that it made with the cash. That was a $17 billion loan that Morgan Stanley made to Verizon Wireless.

Keep in mind that both Goldman and Morgan relinquished their status as securities firms and applied for Federal bank charters.  The brokers became bankers; members of the 3-6-3 club.    Did you expect this to Read more

December 21, 2008

John Kalinowski’s custom real estate signs — and his custom-made approach to everything at his new Cleveland real estate brokerage

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Totally stunning email this morning from John Kalinowski of LiquidBlueRealty.com. John is a profile in courage, to my way of looking at things. He’s just launched a brand new brokerage. In this real estate market. In Cleveland. He’s being very sweet to the Bloodhounds in this note, but this is an amazing amount of work he has undertaken:

I finally had a minute to sit down and send you a note, to thank you for all the help you’ve provided me, even though you weren’t aware you were helping! I’ve been following your site for quite some time now, absorbing every little tidbit possible, and in the last two weeks left RE/MAX to start my own brokerage in the Cleveland Market, Liquid Blue Realty. I’m building the entire company around the custom sign idea, and so far the response has been incredible, to say the least!

I am eternally grateful to the Bloodhounds (and to Russell Shaw) for all the inspiration that has pushed me to make this move. I even built my own website, using WordPress and the Thesis template, even though I’ve never had a blog or built a site before. I probably wouldn’t know what WordPress was if I hadn’t started following your site.

Our signs are 24″x36″, just like yours, but are actually printed directly onto a sign material that is made of some sort of hard plastic with aluminum bonded to each side. Our printer owns what amounts to a giant inkjet printer that can basically print on anything that will fit inside (I’ve seen them print on a bedroom door!), and uses waterproof ink. They use the same process to print conventional signs for other agents, and the panels are about 1/8″ thick and weigh about 5 lbs, so these are serious signs.

Believe it or not, I create my sign files on a PC! I start with MS Publisher with a full-size 24×36 image, then print to a PDF using Acrobat Distiller at 300 DPI. I then jump between Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to fix the CMYK values on the blue color, and to create the huge 350mb Read more

December 21, 2008

The Way of the Farmer, a video podcast from BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, 2008: Using the internet, social media and direct marketing to farm for listings

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here is both the best and the worst of BloodhoundBlog Unchained so far.

It’s the best, or a piece of the best, because it covers a great deal of hard-nosed, hard-boiled, hard-headed nuts and bolts real estate sales technology in rapid-fire fashion.

It’s the worst, or of a piece with the worst, because it’s me delivering a lecture, rather than us doing the work I’m talking about.

There won’t be any lecturing at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, but there will be a whole lot of the doing of hard-nosed, hard-boiled, hard-headed nuts and bolts real estate sales technology.

This video represents just a slice of the content on the DVDs from BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, 2008. We’ve learned a lot since then, and we’ve learned a lot about how to share what we know, so what we really want is for you to come to BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix this year. But if you can’t do that, there’s a whole lot of great information covered on those DVDs. If you can’t be with us in April — or even if you can — the DVD set could be a great Christmas gift for your career.

We’re marketers, and because of that we know that sales increase when the barriers to commitment are low. So let’s commit, shall we?

Enroll now for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix

If you’re ready to rock, all you have to do from here is click a PayPal button to reserve your place at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix. The event runs from April 28th to May 1st, 2009. Many more details can be found at the BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix weblog.

Fair warning: This won’t be cheap. If you’re looking for the best possible deal, and if you qualify, joining the CyberProfessionals might be your best bet. And if you’ve entrusted us with your money before, either last May in Phoenix or in November in Orlando, we want to express our gratitude with a special Unchained Alumnus price. But whatever you end up paying, we’re going to make it worth your while and then some.

Here’s how the prices break out. Just click on the appropriate button Read more

December 20, 2008

Joe Strummer: My thoughts on the looming crisis

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

“Joe Strummer” is the pseudonym of a frequent commenter on BloodhoundBlog. He runs a weblog of his own — under a different pseudonym — and leads a life of joy, contemplation and undisturbed privacy under his real name. But no matter how he is denominated, Strummer is an expert in the Austrian School of Economics, a colloquium of great minds who are, alas, the eternally unheeded Cassandras of the decline of Western Capitalism. In this essay, penned yesterday, Strummer shares with us his reflections upon the burgeoning economic crisis:

 
My thoughts on the looming crisis

by Joe Strummer

This is a graph of the nominal value of the assets that the Fed has “owned” over time. Notice the fairly flat, slightly rising line until September/October of 2008.

Two points about this graph. First, the Fed did not get value for the $1.2 trillion it has purchased in “assets” since October. The $1.2 trillion in nominal value is actually nearly worthless. That’s because these “assets” are the mortgage backed securities backed by now- or soon-to-be-broken promises to pay by individual homeowners.

Second, the Fed has merely pumped about 1.2 trillion of dollars into the market place free. In other words, it has taken nothing out of the economy of value. When the government adds currency – what Jim Cramer calls, dropping wads of cash from helicopters – without getting anything in return, it’s called inflation.

Now, $1.2 trillion in new currency is bad, but not nearly as bad as when the Fed loans money to banks at a .5 interest rate. The Fed simply is printing money for any bank that wants to borrow it at .5 percent. Consequently, banks are now borrowing to 1) cover the losses they incurred to make themselves solvent, and 2) to have cash reserves that they can then use when the economy picks up to lend at future, higher interest rates.

All of this inflation hasn’t hit the real economy because banks are hoarding that money to wait for better borrowers or because borrowers simply are hunkered down right now trying to wait out the storm.

When the economy starts Read more

December 20, 2008

Mariana Wagner’s custom real estate signs are slicker than a Colorado Springs sidewalk in December

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Look at these custom yard signs from Mariana Wagner’s iTeam real estate brokerage in Colorado Springs, Colorado:

Mariana reflects: “Not exactly how yours is set up, as our wind and freezing temps make the hanging sign a disaster, but these rock. (We have installed a 1-800# on the bottom of each sign, as well.)”

I like the white space, especially, a vital design element I too often leave out. And I really like the way that Mariana and her team play with the Keller Williams color scheme without being imprisoned by it.

I’m dying to hear how they sell — the houses and the brokerage.

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December 20, 2008

Pictures Still Sell

by

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

Author website

From Constant Contact:

ConnectUp!SM Poll

Do you have an online profile that you keep current on networking sites?
I have one that I don’t actively use 6.54%
I primarily use Facebook 38.69%
I primarily use LinkedIn 38.32%
I primarily use something other than LinkedIn or Facebook 3.74%
I don’t have any 12.71%

Less than 4% of the Constant Contact community polled (a tech-savvy group of entrepreneurs), claimed to use anything other than Facebook or LinkedIn (not limited to but including Twitter).  Twitter’s been around for over three years and while it’s an awesome service, the hoi polloi just ain’t using it.  This means that potential homebuyers aren’t using, what Greg Swann once called “modern-day CB radio”.

I caught hell from my buddy Todd Carpenter for my defection from Twitter to the glamorous world of Facebook.

Nota Bene:  Neither Todd nor I sell houses to the public.

I recognized that while 140 characters is beautiful in its simplicity, all the world loves a winner.  In my opinion, Facebook is, without a doubt, the best social network to brand yourself today.  That’s where alll the customers are….and that’s where soccer moms are headed en masse.

Why is Facebook growing in popularity? I call it Twitter with pictures.  Take note of that last word; pictures.

From my question on LinkedIn:

Which is the most useful tool, on social media, to engage your audience and create offline conversations?  I’m most interested in how you engage the community with an intent to start an offline conversation. (ie- Answers on LinkedIN, Twitter, Status bar on Facebook).   Have conversations, started online, resulted in offline sales/deals.contracts, etc. ? I would consider a weblog a social medium

When asked how many transactions were generated, directly from Twitter or from relationships forged on Twitter, there was silence.  There was talk about the POTENTIAL of Twitter conversations and the wonderful relationships from Tweet-Ups but no transactions (from REALTORs).  Okayfine.

Let’s see what IS working, from the pros who answered the question.  Here’s Teresa Boardman, who says she loves Twitter… BUT… watch what results in money for her:

However I’ll mention Flickr because it isn’t on your list and it has been a great tool for meeting people off line. Conversations start online Read more

December 20, 2008

Workable real estate deals may require even more creativity

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).

 
Workable real estate deals may require even more creativity

I do a lot of work with buy-and-hold rental home investors, more and more of whom are able to come into Phoenix with all-cash offers. Poor me, I know.

But: I’ve been spending a lot of my time, lately, thinking about “triangle-trade” strategies — old-style funding mechanisms that we were happy to forget all about when money was easy.

So picture a buy-and-hold investor with 100% equity who wants the best deal he can get when he sells his former rental home. Why not do a lease-purchase instead of a straight sale? The investor can help his buyers accumulate a down-payment, perhaps working with them to improve their credit score at the same time. The investor gets a higher purchase price, the buyers get a lower monthly payment, everybody wins.

Or how about selling with a contract-for-deed? There are a lot of people out there with great incomes but lousy credit — more every day. If an investor — or ordinary homeowner — is willing to take on the risk of a carrying back a note, the home can sell now, rather than languishing on the market.

Or if the seller isn’t able to carry the whole mortgage, how about carrying back a second loan? If the seller has the equity, and if that will swing the balance with the buyer’s lender, it can make sense.

San Diego Realtor Don Reedy has come up with his own blast from the past: Parents help their kids get into homes by co-signing on the loan and helping with the payments, then share in the equity on resale.

Single people or single parents or childless couples could do the same sort of thing with a larger home: Go in on the home together as tenants-in-common, using their combined income to qualify for the loan, then paying the mortgage and sharing in the equity on a pro-rated basis.

Buyers are not in short supply, nor are homes available for sale. Creativity could make all the difference, going forward, in putting workable deals Read more

December 19, 2008

Blogger? Hell, No! I’m a Cyber Pro…Just Like You

by

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

Author website

I’m glad that Greg Swann addressed the whole blogging question.  Today, I’m going to share with you,  the members of the CyberProfessionals group, the genesis of the Bloodhound Blog Unchained University of Online Marketing Event, in Phoenix, on April 28-May 1, 2009.    I also want to tell you about the Bloodhounds and how this rag-tag group of agents and originators transmogrified from a pack of swaggering bloggers into some of the most nimble marketers on the web.

I think it’s important for you to know who we are …

…and why you should listen to what we have to say.

My online marketing game started on LinkedIn, in 2003. I had just moved from Phoenix to San Diego as a National Sales Manager of a start-up mortgage bank.  As start-up was the key word, I had to retain some personal production to pay for the higher cost of living, associated with the SoCal Lifetsyle.  I was invited to LinkedIn by a buddy in the tech field.  With the soon to be enacted “Do-Not-Call Legislation” on the horizon, a platform filled with high earning geeks was a phone-dialing, mortgage originator’s dream.  Rates were under 5.25% and LinkedIn was the “Online Chamber of Commerce” meeting…and I was the only mortgage guy in the room.

I didn’t call it social networking then, I called it prospecting.  You see, I’m a lot like you.  I started my sales life dialing the phone 300 times a day, selling municipal bonds and mortgage-backed securities to widows and dentists.  I moved over to mortgage origination in 1995 and dialed homeowners with FHA loans, selling them savings of “over one hundred dollars a month”.  LinkedIn wasn’t about the conversation to me, it was about the contact. Online media wasn’t some “experience”, it was a chance to get in front of someone and sell them…and it worked…and I was hooked.

Do you remember how you felt when you tried something new and it worked?  It felt amazing, didn’t it?  That was me when I closed my first loan from LinkedIn.  Only two things felt better than that first closing:  the first time I kissed my Read more

December 18, 2008

A Poke (in the eye) from Facebook

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

You know, they say it isn’t wise – when you visit the Wizard of Oz – to look too closely behind the curtain.  Might not like what you see.  In Australia we were recently treated to a quick look behind Facebook’s curtain and I have to tell you: the king ain’t wearing any clothes!

Seems a nice young couple had bought a house, got upside down, stopped paying their mortgage and were doing everything they could to avoid the process servers and foreclosure coming their way.  Not altogether different from the unfortunate antics of a great many folks over in our neck of the woods.  I doubt many of us condone their behavior, but I find it difficult to root for the mortgage company either.  Sort of like watching a tether ball game between your ex-wife and her attorney: I don’t really care who wins just so long as both sides take one or two in the kisser.  Aaaaanyway, the mortgage company finally won the game.  Want to know how?  They looked this couple up and served them legal documents on Facebook!  (Read the full story here.)

Better yet, the local Supreme Court in Australia ruled that this was an acceptable use of the social networking platform.  Are you surprised?  Shocked?  Maybe even a little outraged?  I should say so.  I’ll bet Facebook was none too happy either.  Imagine the chilling affect this development may have on their social network site.  Let’s listen in:

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt praised the ruling.

“We’re pleased to see the Australian court validate Facebook as a reliable, secure and private medium for communication,” he said.

“The ruling is also an interesting indication of the increasing role that Facebook is playing in people’s lives,” Schnitt added.  The company said it believed this was the first time it has been used to serve a foreclosure notice.

I can only guess at the pride they’ll feel when the first paternity suit is served.  Are you kidding me?  I read this and the first thing I did was look up hubris in the dictionary, just to make sure I was using that word correctly in Read more

December 17, 2008

Making a Scenius scene to make an impact on your target market

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Lender Bob says, “Hey, I’m a lender. I want to get Realtors to notice me. Hell, I want to get in front of them so often they can’t forget me. What can I do?”

Realtor Beth chimes in with, “He’s got the right idea. I’m a Realtor. I’ve got a blog and all, but I don’t feel like I’m talking to the people in my farm. How can I get my name and my ideas in front of them ever day?”

Vendor Bill adds, “I’ve got things once worse. I need to sell marketing ideas to Beth and Bob, both, but how can I break through the clutter?”

These are problems that can be solved by Scenius scenes. With the right scene, you can aggregate content and share it with people you want to do business with.

Watch:

Lender Bob can link to financial news and stories on factors that influence interest rates. He can make this scene available to Realtors in his market, who will have Bob’s free content available to share with their own readers. Florida Lender Kevin Sandridge is getting ready to do just this in his market.

Realtor Beth can link to local news stories and then echo that content to other weblogs in her market area. I’m doing this with Phoenix Area Headlines, but Beth could do other things as well. For example, she could do a “best of local blogs” scene to spread the link love around. Or, like Chicago Realtor Thomas Hall, she could do a scene on green real estate.

Vendor Bill has the easiest job of all, if he learns to think Scenius: He doesn’t need to cut through the clutter, he needs to slice it and dice it and serve it up in his own scene. I’m playing with this idea with Switched-On Marketing.

There’s more. Eric Blackwell is using a scene as a way of getting his 100+ agents to get on-board the social media marketing train. Cheryl Johnson and I are both using Scenius scenes to manage our listings on-line — but that’s an advanced-class topic.

The point of this: If you’re in the business of self-promotion, we’ve Read more

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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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