Category: Real Estate (page 91 of 266)

November 27, 2008

One for the Authors…

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

One of the things I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving are the people who code, write, and give form to the internet. I am a huge defender of intellectual property rights as well as compensating those with links who author, post, and code on sites around the web.

I am honored to be able to write here and be one of the dawgs. I still feel intimidated by some of the great folks I get to write with here. I am well compensated for my efforts both with an audience and a place on the right hand of Odysseus’s blog with a link. With that in mind, please know that what I am about to say is out of respect for your generosity, Greg.

I am not a nameless faceless content generator. I am an author. I could not ask for more freedom and respect than Greg offers to us. Thank you, sir.

I am seeing three trends that are violating my respect of authors and creators in the real estate space and I want to get them off of my chest. Thanks for your patience while I do.

Ugly Trend #1: De-emphasizing of Authors on Group Blogs.

If you author a post on a blog that I have anything to say about, you will receive credit and links for your efforts. Simple as that. The current trend of consciously shifting the focus onto the domain and away from authors is offensive to me. Enough said. I got upset when Trulia no followed links to sites that gave them content (err..listings) and said something. Taking author links away from those who write is no different than no following them and I feel the need to be consistent. Good enough to hire, not good enough to marry? No thanks.

Ugly Trend #2: Content Stealing via RSS Feed

My buddy Kevin Koitz just guest posted on my Search blog about WordPressDirect and the increased ease of splog creation and the fact that it takes authenticity away from a blog / site. My antidote on WP blogs? This plugin or the one that is in Cheryl’s Read more

November 26, 2008

As an expression of gratitude to the Bloodhounds, here’s an Unchained Melody for Thanksgiving

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Thanksgiving was a holiday established by productive people to celebrate the success of their work. –Ayn Rand

I love this place — this life, this earth and this tiny little corner of the net. The accretion of evidence leads me to believe that the world is becoming more and more the realm I would have designed for myself. Yes, we’re headed into serious economic trouble, and, yes, we’re headed that way under the leadership of a man who has never held a job in his life and who makes no secret that he knows nothing about the causes of wealth and poverty.

But: Even so: So what?

We are on the cusp of riches without limits. We are literally standing around getting soaked to the skin as soup rains down from the skies, and yet we are so much in the thrall of our treasured wounds that we can’t even see it. That much, at least, is a correctable nuisance.

The curtain goes up at eleven tonight on Act Three of my life, and I know better than anyone that I am the best beneficiary of the riches I talk about. All my life people have asked me for writing advice, and, without intending to be glib, I told them simply this: Have something to say, and have a way of saying it. I am befriended by the times, and — amazingly to me — I am by now able to ship these piles of ore I have quarried from my mind. Do you want to know how to change the world forever, for the good? You do it one mind at a time — starting with your own.

I’m grateful to the Bloodhounds — to the people who read, comment and write here — both for BloodhoundBlog and for Unchained. I’m thankful for our clients, who have been prosperous enough to keep us in business. I don’t think I ever adequately express my gratitude to Cathleen, who gives me everything that can be had from another person. There are so many others — Richard Riccelli and Brian Brady and Teri Lussier — so I hope Read more

November 26, 2008

Digging In To Dig Out

by Brian Brady

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

Wholesale lenders, escrow companies and title companies are sending me e-mails this afternoon:

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday and as a demonstration of our commitment to our core values, ABC Financial will be closed Thursday and Friday (and Saturday and Sunday). We wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and thank you for your business.

WTF ?

Okayfine. Rant over, captured in three letters. Sermon begins:

Thanks, Dave. The words of encouragement are appreciated; readers might look at the words of the song he quoted, though:

If you’re going through hell
Keep on going, don’t slow down
If you’re scared don’t show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you’re there
Yeah, If you’re going through hell
Keep on moving, face that fire
Walk right through it

“Keep on moving, face that fire.” A good reminder for us to persevere in the face of adversity. What the title, escow, and mortgage companies are doing, however, is living in a 2005 world. There are loans to be funded, resales to be recorded, and transactions to be closed. There are, without a doubt, thousands of transactions that won’t fund, record and close on Friday…and thousands of clients who won’t be able to take advantage of the weekend to move. Double that number if you count the chain reaction real estate transactions produce.

Complacency breeds contempt in my world. I have always considered the last day of the month (which is Friday) to be a VERY important day. If you can close ONE extra transaction, on Friday, instead of having it bleed over until Monday, here’s what you’ll gain:

1- One hour of phone time. When the transaction won’t close because of the closed escrow company, we all have to make between 3-5 phone calls, explaining what happened and reassuring all principals that the transaction is fine.

2- One hour of e-mail time. Rushing to get last minute conditions in takes 30 minutes. It takes another 30 minutes to get the weekend out of the employees’ minds, after their 4-day rest.

3- Four days of simple interest (or spending power). When everyone gets their money faster, they can invest or spend it.

4- Points in the “Read more

November 26, 2008

Social bookmarking for home search. Will it work?

by Brad Coy

Realtor, Urban Jedi

This has been in draft mode for a few days now since I commented on this at Mashable. That’s just as well since Benn over at AG was able to get a look under the hood which changes my feelings about this new bookmarking app for home lookers. (now in beta testing)

I’ve been a big fan of using Delicious for my own personal research for a while now. It offers a simple way to tag, take notes, and store in the cloud what it is I need to understand about something I’m curious about so that down the road I can either share that information with others or keep it private to myself.

Dwellicious puts forth the effort to do this for home search. As some of you may remember, this has been tried before with little success (if at all) for some reason. My take at first blush is that it’s something that users will be hard pressed to adopt. I have worked with several tech savvy clients who have done their own home search with the tools to share information and what I have found is that they are very reluctant to share anything about their decision making process. People hold their cards close to their chest when purchasing homes and often don’t even know what it is they want until they see it. So, for note taking purposes, I don’t know that it will be much help, but it’s nice to have the option.

It’s too bad you don’t see a consumer based search site that has all of the inventory data with a few solid consumer centric options like saving, RSS updates, and sharing without all the advertising, hierarchy of ‘featured listings’ and sponsorship options getting in your way. Bookmarking while weeding through various sites seems to be a chore few will have the know how or patience to handle. Another problem might be the slowness of updating on these sites to make any timely use of RSS. It could be a rewarding experience for those to Read more

November 24, 2008

Citi’s So Nice I Bought It Twice (a Tin Foil Hat production)

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Alright, let’s see if I got this straight:

Less than 4 weeks ago Citi was purchasing Wachovia in a deal brokered by the FDIC.
Less than 3 weeks ago the Fed injected $25 billion into Citi
Less than 1 week ago Citi’s shares tumbled
Yesterday the Fed injected ANOTHER $20 billion into Citi

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah:

Based on share price, Citi is now worth $20 billion… which means we (the taxpayers) have bought her twice!

When Citi was buying Wachovia waaaaaaay back in October, it was apparently strong enough to handle the $42 billion in losses it agreed to take on in exchange for the Fed covering the other $270 billion that Wachovia was going to generate in bad loans. But now we discover that they actually needed us to purchase them… TWICE, and we’re still unsure if they’ll survive.

(For a clearer picture of which lenders had these bad loans and would fail, read The Mortgage Dance from July of 2008 and click on the “accounting debacle” link which was originally delivered in a speech in August of 2007! Or you can read about Countrywide beginning its fall back in May of 2007. My point is that much of this seems obvious now and was actually visible on the horizon quite a while ago. But the Fed keeps up its Animal House impression, telling us to “remain calm… all is well.” The possibility of a conspiracy grows so large that now i don’t even leave the house without my Tin Foil Hat.)

I have to wonder if there was more going on in that initial Wachovia deal. Was Citi getting a cash infusion of some type? One of the influential directors at Citi is Robert Rubin – the former secretary of the Treasury. I’m not sure I understand how he didn’t see that Citi was only three weeks away from failing. Although I can certainly understand how he might have an inside ear at the Treasury. Was the Wachovia deal a way to support Citi without making a public scene? That would explain the ensuing public scene (the technical term in economics is hissy-fit) that Citi Read more

November 23, 2008

If You Are Going Through Hell…

by Dave Phillips

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

I’m lucky… very lucky. I live in a great place that is insulated from the harshest realities that face many communities out there. I get a paycheck and not a commission and I’m 20 years from caring about the stability of my 401k.

I feel for those that are not as lucky and suggest that you follow the advice in this song by country star Rodney Atkins. I have seen many of our local Realtors immobilized – most have never seen a down market and no one has seen the historic crap we seem to step in every other day.

You’d be a fool to take any real estate advice from me, but you’d also be a fool to think that there is nothing you can do to make your situation better. Like the song says, “keep on going.” Do something – read this blog, attend a course, try a new marketing trick, or find a song that motivates you.

Video of Rodney Atkins – If You Are Going Through Hell

Well you know those times
When you feel like there’s a sign there on your back
Says I don’t mind if ya kick me
Seems like everybody has
Things go from bad to worse
You’d think they can’t get worse than that
And then they do
You step off the straight and narrow
And you don’t know where you are
Use the needle of your compass
To sew up your broken heart
Ask directions from a genie
In a bottle of Jim Beam
And she lies to you
That’s when you learn the truth
If you’re going through hell
Keep on going, don’t slow down
If you’re scared, don’t show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you’re there
Well I been deep down in that darkness
I been down to my last match
Felt a hundred different demons
Breathing fire down my back
And I knew that if I stumbled
I’d fall right into the trap that they were laying, yeah
But the good news
Is there’s angels everywhere out on the street
Holding out a hand to pull you back up on your feet
The one’s that you’ve been dragging for so long
You’re on your knees
You might as well be praying
Guess what I’m Read more

November 23, 2008

Speaking in tongues: Using the power of a robust text editor to code HTML pages with dispatch

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Linked below is a short screencast on how I use the text editor known as TextWrangler to wrangle text into usable formats. This particular episode illustrates how I create coded HTML from my weekly Arizona Republic column. In future screencasts, I’ll want to illustrate more arcane ideas about deploying robust software toward highly productive objectives.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, real estate training, technology

November 23, 2008

The bottom of the Phoenix real estate market may be in sight — but, alas, the end is not near

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

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

The bottom of the Phoenix real estate market may be in sight — but, alas, the end is not near

When will the Phoenix real estate market finally hit bottom?

Believe it or not, I can answer that question with a high degree of precision: When the number of homes being added to the available inventory each month is generally lower than the number of homes sold each month.

But that’s a sleight of hand, isn’t it? I can’t say which month on the calendar will be the market’s nadir, I can only tell you what kind of market activity to watch for.

So here’s one way of looking at things. A newer suburban tract home in the West Valley is selling for $100 a square foot, on average. Practically speaking, this makes new home building unprofitable. Very few new homes will be built, so that source of new inventory is cut off for now.

Meanwhile, various loan workout programs are depleting the foreclosure pipeline. Where before a house might be offered as a short sale and then as a lender-owned home, now there will be an interregnum for the workout. What had been a gusher of lender-owed homes may slow down to a trickle, at least for the next few years.

Meanwhile, the low prices of currently available lender-owned homes are providing incentives for monied investors to come to Phoenix to snap up bargains. The nationwide economic slowdown might put the brakes on our normal in-migration patterns, but if people do move here, they’re going to be soaking up inventory as well.

So we should see some slowing in newly-listed homes, and we have upticks in demand. Are these enough to stop the general decline in home values in the Phoenix market? Ask me in three months.

But even if they are, we’re very far from being out of trouble. The loan workouts, particularly, may well keep home prices from plummeting. But because they will stretch out what in most cases will be an unavoidable foreclosure process, they will probably keep home prices low for years Read more

November 22, 2008

Saving Face(book)

by Geno Petro

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

I find it worth mentioning that the first Facebook event invitation I accepted and actually attended was a funeral. I responded ‘Will Attend’ via my iPhone before realizing that the fellow who had sadly passed on was not the person I originally thought he was. Same first name, similar last name, entirely different demons come to find out. All the same, I kept my virtual promise and wore my black suit to the office on Thursday. All day long people kept asking me, “Where are you going?….to a funeral?”

It was a wake, actually. And not the kind of wake that existed before Web 2.0. This wake included an eclectic playlist from the dead man’s iPod, a digital mixed media presentation on a flat screen of his life up until the previous Monday, and no casket anywhere in site. The funeral home was a funeral home though and there was no mistaking it, we were all gathered in a parlor. Parlor D to be exact.

It turned out that I did happen to know this fellow in passing but was, more specifically, a friend of a friend of his on Facebook–you know, that six degrees of separation social network that everyone and his uncle’s friend (including Uncle Geno) belongs to these days. I looked around Parlor D and semi-recognized several of the less stoic faces. Although I’ve exchanged some Wall-to-Wall comments with a few of them in recent weeks no words were spoken on this eve. Perhaps because none of us really look like the best face we chose to make public and just didn’t recognize each other. I, for one, am no where near as cool in real life as my profile picture implies—especially in a funeral parlor, D or otherwise.

I spotted a couple mourners secretly texting and reading emails beneath scarves and winter coats, their backs and bodies turned deliberately askew, diffusing any direct sight lines from the landlined elders–those old school survivors that always roam the rooms at such gatherings. Several others were braving the lake effect Chicago chill, conducting the most pressing voice-to-voice Read more

November 20, 2008

Rethinking Real Estate Web 2.0

by Thomas Hall

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

What do consumers want? I believe this question has been asked ten times to Sunday as it relates to real estate.

I recently read Marc Davison’s recent blog post at 1000Watt Blog summarizing the results of that exact question, What do Consumers Want?. The report, commissioned by Keller Williams, was developed and written by an impressive list of MBAs and PhDs. With that amount of intellectual firepower, it is often difficult to question its credibility.

In addition to the report commissioned by Keller Williams, MBA and PhD’s et al, I read a synopsis of NAR’s buyer and seller’s survey, essentially providing the statistics behind today’s buyers and sellers as well as their needs. I honed in a three key points in NAR’s report:

1. “Home buyers are consistent in their expectations of real estate agents. Buyers thought the most important agent services are helping find the right house, and negotiating sales terms and price. Because agents often are chosen based on a referral, or were used in a previous transaction, two-thirds of buyers contacted only one real estate agent in the search process.”

2. “Primarily, sellers want agents to price their home competitively, market the property, find a buyer and sell within a specific timeframe.”

3. “The most difficult tasks reported by unrepresented sellers are selling within the planned length of time, getting the right price, preparing the home for sale, and understanding and performing paperwork.”

What I found interesting about the Keller William’s report was its premise – How do you go about the process of selecting an agent? What I found interesting about the NAR report was that the premise was more consumer centric, not agent centric.

The question I pose is how many of the current RE Web 2.0 solutions have truly “blue sky” functionality? What if the premise assumed that there was no real estate agent? What if a solution existed that allowed the consumer to buy and sell real estate at will without the use of a professional?

Ok – now don’t excommunicate me. I think from a technology perspective, I believe it is a very valid question. All too often, solutions are Read more

November 20, 2008

Estately.com grows by more than 50%, adding Chicagoland and Long Island, NY, to it on-line inventory of homes for sale

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Seattle-based web search start-up Estately.com adds 120,000 new listings to it inventory today, expanding from the west coast to Chicago and Long Island. The upgrade brings Estately’s inventory to over 300,000 MLS-listed homes. Also a part of today’s announcement, the search-bot will show extended listing histories on homes, a move also recently taken by Redfn.com.

You can play with the Chicago listings by clicking this link. I have a link for the Long Island listings, but I’m not sure it’s working right.

As a matter of disclosure: Estately.com founder Galen Ward writes for BloodhoundBlog.

Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology

November 19, 2008

“…you don’t hear many MSM analysts making this obvious connection”

by Richard Riccelli

Marketing Provocateur

Interesting piece at kausfiles.com.

Excerpt:

Real estate prices started to plummet just as expectations of imminent semi-amnesty were turning into the reality of harsher enforcement. Schools in immigrant heavy areas of L.A. for example, reported declining enrollments in 2006. The nationwide character of the Gran Salida became apparent, even to the press by early 2008. It seems highly plausible to me that there is some non-trivial causality running between the decrease in the net inflow of illegal immigrants and the real estate bust–all the immigrants who have disappeared would have had to live somewhere. Even if they were renters, not buyers, they would ordinarily have bolstered the value of housing stock. (And some were buyers–search for “this borrower has gone back to Mexico and has no intention of returning.”)

Whole idea here.

November 19, 2008

Setting Goals Part 3 of 4.

by Chris Johnson

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Seeking splendor requires going after the best there is, not merely the best you think you can do. Holding yourself to the highest possible standards, and that’s what BHB is all about. We want to make sure that everyone with the stones to get after a life of freedom and independence has the right tools to do it. And one of the ways to do it is to ALWAYS know where you stand, in reality.

Realtor math, I called it, because people always inflated their transactions. Why? Because they couldn’t bear the thought of knowing that they were mediocre. Your mind reinvents the truth, as some of the ghosts.

We want to know what we’re doing so we can do it more and better, and we want to know where we stand so we know what to pick up. How much do you have, how much do you weigh? How much have you gained year to date, how much WILL you do.

Google Docs isn’t perfect, but it’s free and it’s a 20 minute setup.

Creating an Online Policy and Procedure Manual

by Cheryl Johnson

Real Estate Broker, Investor

A question for other small independent brokerage owners and managers:

I have almost completed the online version policy and procedure manual for my smallish, independent brokerage office. It’s been a lot of work. Who knew? I ended up using a WordPress platform, since I didn’t have the energy to learn all the ins and outs of designing around the wiki format.

Here’s the question: Can the online version completely replace a printed version? Do you add a paragraph to your agent’s contracts stating they have read the online manual (yeah, right) and they agree to comply with the policies and procedures?

Creating a printed version kinda defeats the purpose, though I suppose I could install one of those “Turn-Your-Blog-into-a-Book” plugins.

Thoughts, suggestions, anyone?

November 17, 2008

Introducing BloodhoundBlog.net, free WordPress weblogs for real estate professionals

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Say hello to BloodhoundBlog.net, free WordPress Multi-user weblogs for real estate professionals.

We talked about doing this in Orlando, at the scenius on Swallow Hill Road. Where we started was with the idea of WordPress blogs for the CyberProfessionals to practice on.

We saw that the right system could serve the same function for any novice bloggers — including all of the folks on Active Rain looking to make the leap to WordPress weblogging.

And BloodhoundBlog.net can also be a space for BloodhoundBlog Unchained instructors to help their students get their homework together before coming to Phoenix.

Will this be your last word in real estate weblogging? It can be, but that strikes me as a poor idea. What we’re offering is a free weblogging platform where real estate professionals can learn and grow, ultimately to go off and set up their own WordPress.org weblogs.

And you had better know this is an Unchained weblogging world: You can import content from a host of blogging platforms, and everything you do on BloodhoundBlog.net is easily exported when you’re ready to move on.

If you want to go ahead and get started, just go to BloodhoundBlog.net and set up a new blog. It’s fast, easy and fun.

Still here? Who should set up a BloodhoundBlog.net weblog?

Stone newbies. If you want to learn to weblog, you might as well start with the best software, among people who can help you develop the best possible practices.
Intermediate bloggers. If you’ve been toying with Active Rain or with real estate forums, it might be time to put away childish things. The work you do with us will transfer easily to a full-blown WordPress.org weblog.
Kindred spirits. If you want to build a community of like minds, the price of doing so here can’t be beat.
Adhocracy activists. A weblog is the perfect means of coordinating, for example, the Wine-Tasting Realtors of Biloxi.
Teachers of lessons profound and arcane — starting with the slave-drivers of BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix.

How can we do this? We have the horsepower — dawgpower — that’s how. Even so, we’re not letting you all the way off the leash. There are plug-ins, but Read more

Category: Real Estate (page 91 of 266)

One for the Authors…

by Eric Blackwell

As an expression of gratitude to the Bloodhounds, here’s an Unchained Melody for Thanksgiving

by Greg Swann

Digging In To Dig Out

by Brian Brady

Social bookmarking for home search. Will it work?

by Brad Coy

Citi’s So Nice I Bought It Twice (a Tin Foil Hat production)

by Sean Purcell

If You Are Going Through Hell…

by Dave Phillips

Speaking in tongues: Using the power of a robust text editor to code HTML pages with dispatch

by Greg Swann

The bottom of the Phoenix real estate market may be in sight — but, alas, the end is not near

by Greg Swann

Saving Face(book)

by Geno Petro

Rethinking Real Estate Web 2.0

by Thomas Hall

Estately.com grows by more than 50%, adding Chicagoland and Long Island, NY, to it on-line inventory of homes for sale

by Greg Swann

“…you don’t hear many MSM analysts making this obvious connection”

by Richard Riccelli

Setting Goals Part 3 of 4.

by Chris Johnson

Creating an Online Policy and Procedure Manual

by Cheryl Johnson

Introducing BloodhoundBlog.net, free WordPress weblogs for real estate professionals

by Greg Swann

Search BloodhoundBlog

Subscribe to our RSS feeds

Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Back of the house

Media Contacts