There’s always something to howl about.

Month: February 2008 (page 4 of 8)

Gene Simmons: Originality is Overrated

I’m a Dan Kennedy disciple, a card-carrying member of the Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle.  I read his book, The Ultimate Marketing Plan, six years ago, and was hooked.  Gene Simmons is one of the keynote speakers at the GKIC Super Conference, this April.  I listened to an interview with Gene Simmons today about his message for this April’s Super Conference.  Oh, if you’re wondering why I listen when a 70’s rock and roller talks, it’s because he’s a marketer; a damned fine one.   Here are some snippets from the interview.  I think it may give you a glimpse to why I think the way I do about marketing.

1-You only get the respect you demand.

Gene tells a story about his advice to a fifteen-year old girl.  He advised her to get over the idea that people’s perception of you somehow defines you.  He continued by saying that you are only as important as you believe you are; how you perceive yourself is eventually how others behold you. 

Does your marketing message convey that?  I’m not talking about ego.  Do you truly believe that you are an expert agent or originator?  This isn’t about “act, as if”, it’s about demonstrated expertise.  Can you deliver the goods?  If your self- perception is less than expert, correct the flaws that hold you back. 

2- Originality is overrated.

I don’t think I could agree more.  To the doers come the riches, not the thinkers.  Anyone can have a great idea; it’s the implementers, the innovators, the action-based people who change the world.  Gene Simmons called KISS a pastiche; part rock and roll, part comic book, and part horror show.  A great example of pastiche,in theater,  is Quentin Tarantino.  Neither Gene Simmons nor Quentin Tarantino “created”, they innovated. 

Are you constantly planning or constantly doing?  I talk to agents and originators, daily, about their customer acquisition systems  Sadly, most explanations are long on ideas and short on action. 

3- Marketing is the most important thing you can do.  If the market is crowded, move the market.

Gene Simmons told the story of the Citrus Growers of America.  They crafted a message that the first thing you should do, Read more

Defining disingenuousness: Am I beating a dead horse? Or am I staring down a headless high-horseman?

This is a comment I just posted to Dustin Luther’s weblog. I’m putting it up here, too, so that people can see it (without the typos I found after I posted my 4Realz comment) and so that I can include links without getting shunted into moderation.

To be honest, I hate this kind of ugliness. But one of the reasons I am married to Greg is because I learned the hard way, a long time before I met Greg, that if you are not willing to stand up for what’s right, you are surrendering to evil.

This is my comment:

 
Dustin,

Disingenuous? From Dictionary.com: “lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere.” You believe that anything here is descriptive of me?

And let’s look at your entire concluding paragraph:

“And finally, Cathleen, I’ve been avoiding responding to comments on this thread because there is a small group of people (dare I call it a “pack”) who seem to be searching for any opportunity to defend Greg by criticizing people who were offended by Greg’s comments (seeing as how we’re in the midst of a political season, it seems appropriate to call it “negative campaigning”). I don’t assume you, or anyone else, was offended by Greg’s post, but it certainly seems disingenuous for you to insinuate that those of us who were offended must have an ulterior motive.”

How is that not a personal attack? You are smearing the integrity of people who have disagreed with you as a means of undermining their arguments without addressing them. How is this not an ad hominum attack? Or, do you claim to be righteous in offending Teri, Mike, Brian, Russell, Geno and me (the only six from, excluding Greg, twenty-two BHB contributors who have commented on this thread) because you’re Dustin Luther? And, by the way, isn’t your blanket statement that the BHB contributor’s comments “search for any opportunity to defend Greg by criticizing people…” a straw man argument? I certainly didn’t read the kind of defense you describe into either Teri’s or Geno’s comments. So that leaves Russell, Brian, Mike and me. Have you ever seen any Read more

Anastasia in the light and shadow

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story

The very first thing she said to me was, “I’m Anastasia.”

She had pronounced the name ‘Anna-stay-juh’ but I took care to be more formal. I nodded gravely and said, “‘Ah-nah-STAH-ziuh’. I’m honored.”

She giggled delightedly. “Why’d you say it that way?”

“To lilt, to laugh, to dance, to dream. To fly, to sigh, to sing, to speak. To embroider the air, to perfect it with the perfect sound: ‘Ah-nah-STAH-ziuh’.”

She giggled again and that was answer enough.

She was four-and-a-half on the day we met. Not awfully, terribly short, but at no risk of scraping her head on anything. She had a round little face that had borrowed too much mischief to be cherubic but was angelic nevertheless. Her hair was brown and it was almost always almost everywhere; it was obviously brushed and tied and obviously instantly disarrayed by her mischievous wanderings. She was a beautiful child, beautiful inside and out, but her eyes were the crowning glory of her nobility. They were bluer than blue, deep and dark and purple, as purple as the crest of a dynasty. They were clearer than any gemstone, and they seemed not to reap the light but to sow it. For all the days I knew her, I could never see enough of those purple gemstone eyes.

“What’re you doing there?” she asked. I was sitting in the shade of a little olive grove reading a book. She was standing on something behind the block wall of the property next door, just her head and shoulders above the wall.

“House-sitting. You know what that means?” She shook her head and her hair flew into a more advanced state of disarray. “It’s like baby-sitting only easier.”

“Why’re you doing it?”

I shrugged. “The official answer is, I’m helping out a friend. The unofficial answer is, TV, refrigerator, hot and cold running everything. Does that make any sense to you?”

It might have or it might not, but we’ll never know, because she changed the subject. “I have a kitten. His name is ‘Sputin.”

I said, “Rasputin. Somebody likes Russian names. Say it: ‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.”

“Why?”

“Just say it. ‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.”

She said, “‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.” Her voice Read more

Comments to Contacts to Clients: Bawld Guy Talking…at UNCHAINED.

Sometimes, you don’t have to look far for expertise; it’s right in your own backyard.

bawld guyJeff Brown took me to lunch, yesterday. Our lunches usually last a couple of hours. We crunch numbers for investors, tell stories about the Padres, and try to start conversations, with the server, for his bachelor son. Yesterday was different because I had an agenda. I wanted Jeff Brown to participate as a faculty member of UNCHAINED.

I crafted my sales pitch as a sped down the 805 (remember when I talked about scripting?) . I reviewed all of the reasons it made sense to participate and tried to translate those reasons into tangible benefits for Jeff.

The sales pitch lasted 3 seconds. Jeff accepted because he’s the kind of guy who believes in abundance. He wants you to wildly succeed regardless of what’s in it for him. That philosophy is important because it’s why Jeff is so successful. He makes people wealthy first, then worries about how he gets paid.

I talk about bridging the digital divide; Jeff has perfected it. Jeff Brown can teach you how to turn a comment into a contact and a contact into a client. Jeff is a guerrilla commenter. He find opportunities in comment threads and capitalizes on them like a halfback hits the seven hole.

If you’re coming to UNCHAINED, you should be thinking of questions for Jeff. Here are some of mine:

1- How do you determine that a commenter is a good fit for you?

2- When is the right time to initiate contact?

3- How do you deal with “angry” emails?

I have the luxury of face time and can tell you, it’s worth every minute. Please welcome Professor Bawld Guy to the UNCHAINED faculty.

PS- Jeff is truly an amazing online marketer. His branding efforts are second to none. When my six-year old daughter hears that I’m on the phone with him, she whispers to my wife (he’s the bawld guy, right?) . His branding is so effective that we have to explain to her teachers Read more

Besides that Mrs. Davison, how did you enjoy the post?

I think I first realized we exist in a quirky, if not passionate and divided adult society when I found myself in a lecture hall observing an assistant professor and a fellow graduate student nearly coming to blows over a Henry James excerpt from the aptly titled,  An International Episode.  I watched on as a confederacy of my peers and elders; some undergrad, some doctoral, some by proxy—chimed in from the gallery seats as the two went at each other, a coffee breath’s apart.  Before long, the entire crowd seemed to join in, taking sides on what does and does not constitute a cultural faux pas and whether James himself, a man already dead for 72 years, was a genius or an ass.  

It was like a Pulitzer prize fight gone wild, only everyone was wearing turtlenecks and corduroy.  I was proctoring the lecture to make up some lost hangover hours from another class.  The whole Henry James dialectic was over my head to begin with,  so who was I to judge, one way or another, who had the longest literary wiener?  I fancied myself a sports writer, a true reporter of facts…(as I understood them, of course.)  That was more than 25 years ago and the memory all but faded away…

…only to resurface this week as I got sucked into the Comment Section vacuum of  a thousand faceless internet voices.  I think we all know of what I speak so no more linkage.  It intrigues me when I witness, walking past the bar of course, the same, aforementioned ardor present in, let’s say… the wide-screen crowd watching a televised sporting event.  I’m always curious as to why these raving fans, dressed in home team regalia; scream, curse and cheer for or against a particular team or athlete (or candidate, for that matter) who doesn’t even know they exist. Like the Chazz Palminteri character, Sonny,  says to C,  in A Bronx Tale,  

“Why you care about Mickey Mantle? He don’t care about you…” Willing suspension of disbelief can be, well…disbelievable, I guess. 

I played sports, albeit Division III, well into adulthood and I’m here to reiterate what the majority of us should already know; most noble opponents, whether professional, amateur or literary, leave it at the field once the game has ended or the last shot has fired.  It’s Read more

What would you expect for the BloodhoundBlog Unchained keynote event? How about two sharp minds, two sharp wits, exploring two very different points of view — all for your benefit?

BloodhoundBlog made its reputation, from the very beginning, digging up bones to pick with vendors. And of all the vendors that I, personally, have picked on, surely the one I have picked on worst is Redfin.com and its CEO, Glenn Kelman. But of all those vendors, of all those exalted CEOs, only one has come here to beard the Bloodhounds in our own kennel. And only one has called me after hours at home to try to help me see his point of view.

That one, solitary maverick CEO? The incomparable Glenn Kelman, of course. Call him what you will, he is sui generis, an entirely unique specimen.

And because — take him as you find him — he is unique and smart and funny and thoroughly original, I am proud to announce that Glenn will be joining us for BloodhoundBlog Unchained, the Social Media Marketing conference we will be hosting for real estate professionals in Phoenix from May 18-20.

Kelman will be one half of our keynote event, a presidential-style debate on New Wave versus Old School Real Estate Brokerage.

And who will be defending the more-traditional strategies of residential real estate representation? None other than the matchless Russell Shaw, mega-producing Realtor nonpariel.

But wait: If you’re expecting a food fight, put down those mashed potatoes! Both of these gentlemen are too bright and too self-assured to get bogged down in acrimony or name-calling.

Here’s what you should expect instead: A moderated debate with introductory speeches, responses, and then a flow of questions and answers from a panel of real estate luminaries — and directly from the audience. The purpose of BloodhoundBlog Unchained is to explore the intersection of Social Media Marketing with personal and direct marketing, so we know going in that there is validity on both sides of the debate. We will benefit from the diverse viewpoints of two masters of the real estate marketing craft.

Plus which, it should be a boat-load of fun. Both men are naturally funny, both possessed of a sharply poignant yet charmingly self-deprecating wit.

Even so, their debate probably won’t be a love-fest, either. But if something in the middle Read more

Is There Actually A Sky Up There Anymore?

I listen to misery and woe almost daily. There are plenty of Chicken Littles out there reporting that the sky is falling. And it is! There’s no doubt that the real estate market is in the tank in many places in the country. It certainly is in my neck of the woods. The question needs to be not, “Why is the sky falling?” or “Is the sky actually going to touch the ground?” or even “Is there a sky any more?” but “What do I do with this new reality?”

In my market, equity is a very rare thing. The area that I service primarily is a relatively new area of metro-Phoenix. So new, in fact, that there are very few people who have any equity left. Unfortunately, many of them are throwing up their collective hands, and thinking something like this:

“My house in not worth anywhere near what I paid for it. It will not be worth what I paid for it for a very long time.  There are tremendous houses out there that are much better, much bigger, and more upgraded than mine, that are offered for sale for way, way less than I owe on my house.  Let’s see. . .I’m paying $2500 per month on my mortgage. The market is glutted with rental properties that are better than mine, and I can rent them for about $1,000 per month. Think of the money I’ll save! It makes financial sense for me to kick my house to the curb, go rent a better one for half-price, let the market continue to go into the tank, then buy a better one a few years down the road. What will I lose? My credit? Credit comes back. My mortgage interest deduction? Pah. . .a measly sum compaired to what I’ll save each month on payments. Sounds like a plan to me. . .”

An unethical plan? Sure, but one that is ultimately appealing. Who said unethical was synonymous with unappealing? This is just the people who are manufacturing a crisis to get out of an unfavorable position. There are plenty who are facing a real Read more

It’s about RELATIONSHIPS….

Those who know me online KNOW that I am all about relationships.

That’s my currency and my value to people is my word. As contests like the GREATEST REAL ESTATE AGENT IN THE WORLD unfold…sometimes all you can do is correct things as they go…

Bob Wilson from San Diego and a couple of others did me a great service yesterday by clarifying something for me. He enquired about whether he would get a link back from my page AFTER the contest was over (with a bio and a picture for being one of the greatest real estate agents in the world). I indicated that he would.

In doing so, it “could” be claimed that I violated the spirit of the competition…I do NOT want to do that in any way… Sometimes you have to CLARIFY positions as you go and for me it is time to make things clear.

The true benefit that you get from joining my team is that you can work with the best of the best in building AUTHORITY online. This is NOT about trading links and has never been. We have learned more together as a team and formed some great relationships. (Wanna join us and LEARN together?) That is what it is about. If you linked to me in the hope of getting a link back:

PLEASE take your links down. I do not need that kind of help and I humbly apologize for the misunderstanding.

Here is what I hope:

That you can SEE the sincerity and HEAR the honesty in what I am writing and that because I am being totally upfront about this you will still want to participate. In fact, if you really want to be part of TEAM Eric…simply start building some on line authority and pass it to us.

And thanks Bob for pointing it out in the email to me last night. When I make mistakes I try to correct them quickly. I had to talk with existing team members to make sure that they had no misunderstandings as well.

I will be posting this same message on several places on the web in Read more

Greg Swann Is Right

I thought that post title would get your attention. I’m not a regular lawyer. But it does seem odd that no one has even dared to ask the obvious question, “Is liar liarMarc Davison a Little Nebbish”? Please understand, I am not saying that he is a little nebbish. But if Greg calling Marc a little nebbish is what got this whole mess going, I think it is a valid question. Why the big fuss over Greg calling Marc a little nebbish? Of all the things Greg has said and done it seems a bit odd that it is now important to unsubscribe to BHB and or stop posting here. I guess advocating the end of the NAR or all state licensing laws or all mandatory continuing education or the end of dual agency, not to mention the separation of the buyer agent commission from the seller – each and every one a common and typical and startling, in your face, post from Greg Swann. Lets see, this is the guy who went from just starting his blog to one of the most highly read real estate blogs in existence in less than a year – and this little faction of the real estate community is just now announcing, “I’ve unsubscribed”.

Yes. I found it interesting, thought provoking reading this past year but now that he has called Marc a little nebbish – hell, that is going too far. I will never read it again. Never. I’ve unsubscribed. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Me too. Yes, I am also one of the original thought people who just now decided that this was simply too much. Too far. No more Greg Swann or anything on his blog. I will never read it again and will get the existing writers there to also leave him. That will teach him. All 50 or 60 of us are G – O – N – E. Gone. Forever. Never again.

Wow.

Wow. Also, I don’t believe the never again part. Each person who Read more

Vertigo by map mash-up: How to spin your way around the globe

There’s Grant’s Tomb, looking a little scruffy in Riverside Park in Manhattan:

And here’s your chance to take a truly dizzying tour of the Guggenheim Museum:

These images, and many more, are brought to you by 360cities.net, a Google Maps mash-up of 360 degree panorama shots from all over the world. Probably more useful for fun than for real estate — but it’s definitely fun.

Tipped: Google Blogoscoped.

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Down Payment Assistance is another creative financing option you can deploy to make sure yours is the home that sells

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

 
Down Payment Assistance is another creative financing option you can deploy to make sure yours is the home that sells

It’s a hard world for home sellers right now. It’s possible that things are slowly getting better, but a qualified buyer still has at least ten suitable homes to choose from.

Does this mean you might sell now, or you might sell a little later? Probably not.

Does it mean you might sell for your price, or you might have to accept a little less? Probably not.

What it means is that, if your home is not the one that answers most of a potential buyer’s needs, it probably won’t sell at all in this market.

We’ve talked before about being the most appealing — best priced, best prepared, best presented. These are the homes that will sell to the best qualified buyers — while the near-misses languish month-after-month.

We’ve talked about using seller-financing to help less-qualified buyers. Carrying back a note for a third mortgage entails a risk of loss, but, again, that marginal difference can be moot if the house wouldn’t sell otherwise, or if it sells months later for a much lower price.

There is another creative financing avenue you can pursue, although this one comes with an assured loss to the seller. It’s called Down Payment Assistance. Through programs like AmeriDream or Nehemiah, sellers contribute a portion of the sales price to serve as down payment or closing cost assistance to the buyers, who receive those funds at close of escrow as a grant.

This is what I call Psycho Lender Math at its worst, since the lender is permitting the sellers to discount the home by a huge percentage while pretending that that same pile of money is coming to the buyers as a grant from a neutral third party.

The house still has to appraise for the full purchase price, so it really is just a seller discount disguised as a shell game — but if it means your house sells while all the others languish, you still might be ahead of the Read more

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is Really An Oncoming Train

Snowball Effect Continues To Negatively Affect The Housing Market

We might be in for a bumpier ride than previously thought. I believe in optimism – but I am a realist, first. As I look closer at the stats, talk to other brokers and agents, and peruse the news and blogs – it’s getting downright scary.

Last week here in Atlanta, Century 21 Dwellings closed five of its six offices. Dwellings President Chris Ballard said, “It was a financial decision. I was losing money at every location.” With red ink flowing at the rate of $75K a month – you can appreciate his decision.

I recently discovered that a few of Atlanta’s top agents were getting killed, as well. Agents that had done hundreds of sales per year no longer able to hit a hundred sales in the last 12 months.

Speaking with a few builders has been interesting, too. My first inclination is that the availability of labor must be plentiful and cheap – but that’s not necessarily the case. Many of the illegal aliens have returned to Mexico. One Mexican contractor – with six trucks – now only has one in service at any given time… and even that one isn’t always in service.

The dirty little secret is that many of these illegal aliens were able to purchase homes – but with no work, they are simply leaving the house behind as they go back to Mexico. It’s not like they are out a lot of money, either. Many of them were financed with “no money down” mortgage products, including option ARM’s.

Atlanta has seen an average of 3000+ foreclosures per month for several years now – but last month we had just under 7000 foreclosures… and the storm is still coming.

Foreclosures are the lion’s share of the Atlanta resale residential market right now, and with the onslaught that is coming – that fact won’t be changing anytime soon in this writer’s mind.

So I am into the bunker mentality right now. I haven’t taken on any clients that I am not convinced that I have a better than 50-50 chance of earning my Read more

The Odysseus Medal: Amy Winehouse is not in the house

Judging this contest, I get to read a lot of talented writers. But only one can connect Amy Winehouse to real estate and have it all make the most delightful kind of sense. The Odysseus Medal this week goes to Geno Petro for She tried to make me buy a rehab…:

Truth is; I can barely swing a hammer….Let me rephrase that; I can swing the hell out of a hammer but just not in a constructive way. I am not the fixer-upper type, in case we haven’t met. (See mug shot above for clarity.) I probably err to the side of demolition, if anything.

That being said, my lovely wife (and occasional muse) found a possible second home that in theory, could fulfill our retirement needs during those forthcoming platinum years that Dennis Hopper pitches on the Ameriprise commercials during prime time every night. All things equal, he’s my favorite corporate sell out so far this century, that Dennis Hopper.  Cool, quirky and rich beyond words, for sure.

“60 is the new 40,” exclaims my man, sharply dressed in black, The Spencer Davis Group blaring in the background, and looking unlike like any beshaded 72 year old cat I’ve ever met.  And I’m all over it. According to DH, I’ve got 40 more good ones ahead of me. According to his math and blueprint for living, I’m barely 34.  When he comes on the plasma in high def I get a sudden urge to run out and invest in something spectacular before I lose another precious second. I yearn to  join the expedition, or at the very least, embark on the journey to financial freedom.  After all, one man’s destination is another man’s starting point. Ask any truly wealthy person (9 figures+ by my definition) and I’m certain he will tell you as much. “It’s the journey, not the…” whatever.

But the ‘hidden gem’ my wife came across this past weekend, a shack on the Tennessee River, needs some serious attention; more attention than I’m prepared to pay for, quite frankly. She found it on the Film Location site our own house is registered with (unbeknownst to me until a few months ago). And in case you didn’t know, there is a market Read more

The Two Sins Writers Commit That Business Bloggers Can’t Afford

Here are two tips to help you avoid failure in real estate/mortgage weblogging:

1- Don’t commit the first sin; being boring. Make doing business with you fun for your customers. NBC Radio did a survey of radio personality Howard Stern’s audience. Half loved him and half hated him. The former group listened for an average of something like 25 minutes, the latter listened for something like 47 minutes. The reason both groups gave for listening? They wanted to see what he was going to say next.

Consider this first post:

Mortgage rates have declined some 1/2 of 1% in the past two weeks. We advised you to float your rate, back on December 27, 2007 but I warned you that the decline may be short-lived.

Lock all loans at application. If you have a loan in processing, and are floating the mortgage rate, lock your rate. The worldwide liquidity injection has had its desired effect. The anticipated Fed rate cut, on January 30, 2008, is already built into the pricing. there is more risk to mortgage rates rising than there is reward for holding out for a lower rate.

BORING!!!! What the hell was the author thinking? Now, let’s see what happens after he asked his readers what was wrong (fortunately, they gave it to him straight):

I fell in love with ARMs again, after a five month hiatus. Hey! It’s Valentine’s Day so I can tell you a love story. This love affair has been going on since I was in my 20s. The sexy allure of adjustable-rate mortgages were replaced by the stability of that old battle-axe, the fixed rate loan. The culprit was the flat yield curve. I dig curves so my eyes popped out of my head when I opened my e-mail this morning.

Adjustable-rate mortgages walked into my life like a wild-eyed, long-haired, bombshell on a Harley, toting a bottle of tequila. Normally, I balance her beauty with the risk she presents but I promise you, she’s a changed woman. This time, she promises to stay put for a ten-year period. Frankly, ten years is plenty of time for me to Read more