Month: May 2008 (page 7 of 8)

May 10, 2008

An Open Letter To Russell Shaw

by Cheryl Johnson

Real Estate Broker, Investor

Dear Mr. Shaw,

When I first read you were leaving Bloodhound Blog, I was quite concerned that perhaps you were suffering a health problem, or a family tragedy. When you reappeared as a new member in a different online community, I was very relieved to learn that you were alive and well.

Online communities are constantly changing, active members become inactive, new people join bringing new ideas that sometimes alter the character of the original group. Your leaving Bloodhound Blog does not bother me. I truly wish you well in the online community you have now joined.

It does, however, bother me that you withdrew from the Bloodhound Blog Unchained conference with less than two weeks on the calendar before the conference begins. I don’t know the particulars, of course, but I would imagine that you made a commitment to speak, and the conference organizers made plans based on that commitment. I don’t doubt that some people made plans to attend the conference because of your commitment to speak there.

Mr. Shaw, I like and respect you, so I want to say this as gently as possible, but unless a serious personal tragedy is involved, backing out of a commitment you made is just simply not an OK way to behave.

If my understanding of the situation is incorrect, please forgive me. And please understand that the conference organizers did not ask me to write this letter, they are not even aware that I am writing it. Someone needed to say this publicly, and I felt compelled to do so.

While I myself adhere to no particular belief system, a client of ours once gave me a little booklet titled “The Way to Happiness” which I found to contain simple, common sense advice. Let me quote a couple sentences:

“Keep your word once given. When one gives an assurance or promise or makes a sworn intention, one must make it come true. If one says he is going to do something, he should do it.”
Respectfully,

May 9, 2008

Brian Brady at today’s Unchained preview show: “If your clients are already on LinkedIn, someone else will introduce me to them”

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

As I had mentioned, we did a couple of BloodhoundBlog Unchained preview shows today in Phoenix, one for Realtors and one for lenders.

Tempe Realtor and real estate weblogger Nick Bastian wins the endurance award for attending both sessions. Nick surprised Brian Brady by Twittering about Brian’s discussion of LinkedIn, a piece of which is shown below, while Brian was delivering it.

The events were a big kick for me. I sold a house yesterday, and the buyers (whom we have discussed as the Halversons) dropped by to sign some paperwork. And Cathleen and I listed 14237 North 11th Street in Phoenix early today. The seller is fellow Realtor David Pinelli, who is now working in the equestrian suburbs of Boston, but who until lately was working with Allan Pinel in Palo Alto. David was able to come to the Realtor portion of the presentation this morning, a nice reinforcement of the ideas Cathleen and I have been talking about with him for the past two weeks.

As Brian discusses below, we met a lot of really interesting people who are excited about the potential of blending Social Media Marketing into their buinesses. The whole day was a blast, which makes me think that Unchained is going to be even more fun that I’ve been expecting.

Here’s where I end up: Our belief from the beginning was that the Seven Nights in Ireland style of conference — a vast excuse to behave badly far from home — was not for us. We bet on a real curriculum, a hefty regimen of demanding content, and our experience today shows that that bet will pay off.

I keep getting notes from very smart people whose identies I will keep concealed. The gist of their emails: “Kick Inman’s ass.” It seems like a worthy goal to me. BloodhoundBlog is the home of serious ideas on the RE.net, and BloodhoundBlog Unchained promises to be the locus of serious minds in wired real estate education. I don’t ever want for us to be anywhere but at the head of the pack.

Technorati Tags: blogging, BloodhoundBlog Unchained, real estate, real estate marketing, Read more

May 9, 2008

Bloodhound Blog UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing Conference brought to you by Zillow.com tickets go to full price tonight

by Brian Brady

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

I met the ninety and nine today and I LOVED what I saw. The next generation of social media marketers will learn this game quickly and excel. The next paragraph is for the 50-60 new readers we have on Bloodhound Blog (thanks for coming out today).

When Greg told you it was raining soup today, he meant it. You folks are on the cutting edge of real estate and mortgage marketing. Today, you entered the inside of the tesseract and saw the possibilities of the third dimension. Next weekend, you’ll figure out how you can warp time and supercharge your marketing efforts at the BloodhoundBlog Unchained Social Media Marketing Conference brought to you by Zillow.com. Take advantage of that special offer (URL on the card).

Y’all can stop reading here; the rest is for the folks who have known about UNCHAINED for five months.

The price for UNCHAINED will be $350 after midnight tonight. Act now.

May 9, 2008

Thinking myself out of business: a lone real estate agent faces the future

by Mike Farmer

Real Estate Broker

Agents get leads from different marketing strategies, both offline and online, but where will most of the leads come from in five years? Looking ahead I’d have to say leads will come mainly from one source — Google.

Unless something changes, Google has the lion’s share of searchers. As more and more home buyers use Google to search for area information and sites where real estate listings can be found, it becomes obvious for listing agents and buyer agents that search placement is, and will be even moreso in the future, vital to success in the real estate business.

Before I go any further, I’ll address opposition to this statement by saying that some agents will continue to be successful using marketing methods outside Google search, but I’m talking about the majority of agents working in the real estate business full time. I’m excluding the mega-agents who attract buyers and sellers through their star status and obviously superior abilities of attraction and promotion — the majority of agents will not be stars. Plus, even the offline efforts that give an agent exposure might be eclipsed after someone gets online to begin searching — an agent’s name might appear in a magazine, or a billboard, or through the mail, or a flyer in a store, or on a “for sale” sign on the street, but when the buyer goes back to their computer to search, another agent who has mastered the art of placement will pop up and lead the buyer in a different direction. I predict the online presence will become more valid in the buyer’s mind than offline presence as consumers learn to trust and depend on the net more and more.

I don’t believe Zillow and Trulia will be major factors in lead generation. If they survive, they will be a draw for those curious about real estate in general, but searchers will be more sophisticated and agents will be smarter about SEO.

It’s my opinion that the majority of agents will need to get good placement on Google in order to be successful. Google placement won’t be the ONLY way to market, just the most effective way Read more

May 9, 2008

Listing Remarks Haiku

by Cheryl Johnson

Real Estate Broker, Investor

I finally commenced a project I have been contemplating for some time: I started printing out pages of property description text from various Bloodhound Realty single property web sites to put into a three ring binder, so I can refer to them for inspiration on those days that I struggle to come up with something interesting to write in a property’s listing remarks.

Following Bloodhound Realty for the past couple years, I am always amazed at, and envious of, the quantity and quality of rhapsodic text produced on a regular ongoing basis by the Bloodhound crew.

In that spirit I offer Friday’s Listing Remarks Haiku:

A poem. By Cheryl Johnson.

this is a nice house
two bedrooms one bath fenced yard
call for lockbox code

May 8, 2008

Two BloodhoundBlog Unchained warm-up events Friday in Phoenix

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Flat out and miles to go before I sleep. I’ve told Cathy to make my excuses this way: Greg is wearing three hats, and none of them is a nightcap. This is a reminder to you from me from last week:

If you’re in Phoenix on Friday, May 9th, Brian and I will be doing two 2.5 hour Unchained previews at the Mesquite Branch of the Phoenix Public Library (4525 Paradise Village Parkway North, Phoenix, AZ 85032). We’ll be talking to Realtors from 9:30 am to 12 Noon, and to Lenders from 1 pm to 3:30 pm. These two events are free — provided you pay attention — sponsored by Chicago Title and Mortgage Solutions of Arizona. RSVP with Lisa Capes at Chicago Title — 480-695-3136 — if you want to come.

Brian Brady is here in Phoenix, which is a real treat for me. I will tell you that he is itching to raise the price on Unchained tickets, so tonight may be your last chance to lock down the $199 price for all three days of the conference.

We may shoot some just-for-fun videos tomorrow. If we do, I’ll post them tomorrow night.

Technorati Tags: blogging, BloodhoundBlog Unchained, real estate, real estate marketing, real estate training, technology

May 8, 2008

I’m in Business to Make Money

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

One of the best parts of BHB for me, is taking the ideas and the round tablediscussions that happen here and bringing them to the street. (I must admit an occasional guilty pleasure taken, when I use the knowledge I glean from BHB to steer and even dominate these discussions. I am shamelessly looking forward to Unchained, that I might return a 600lb gorilla in gorilla marketing.) There has been some very interesting debate recently, both here and on other blogs, over the valuation of real estate services. It is a tough dialogue because large amounts of money are involved and strong feelings abound.

But asking the agents I work with what they think of the NAR, their sense on the moral obligation of a contract and how they value their services opens up new view points and sheds more light on these issues. Recently I was talking to a Realtor I know and respect about how to answer the question of commission and agent value. Now, there may be many right answers to this question; but I have yet to hear one that cannot be debated and diminished. Not due so much to anyone’s superior skills as a wordsmith but rather the multi-faceted nature of the topic. This agent and I, however, after deciding that the premise of the question itself was suspect, eventually decided that there is one answer that is inarguable, morally justified and epistemologically sound. The very simple answer to the question of how one justifies their commission is this:

I am a real estate agent and, by definition, an entrepreneur. I am in business to make a profit. I charge what the market will bear.

May 8, 2008

Twitter – as good as bail money?

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

This is going to be a really short post. I keep on promising Teri Lussier that I am going to get some serious Twittering going on in our brokerage. Truthfully, I have been too busy on all of my projects like the contest and the industry newspaper to get there.

This news item might change my mind though! (grin)

Teri and Brian, I promise I will do a better job of Twittering, just in case!

May 7, 2008

What would it look like if home buyers actually shopped for value? An illustration of my kind of internet lead

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

This came in over the transom, and I think it is a thing of beauty. The ludicrous notion that buyers don’t pay for real estate representation induces too many buyers to be lax in choosing their Realtor. Everything we do is based on delivering value, so we do best with people who are sharp enough to shop for value. When I read this in my email inbox, I sat and marveled at all that it portends.

Like this: Most internet leads stink. Suzy with no last name (aka SuZQ1983@hotmail.com) might be cute and spunky, but she’s probably not motivated, and it’s good odds she’s not financially qualified.

But: The internet enables serious people to shop until they find exactly what they want, even as it teaches them how to want wisely and in exacting detail.

And: People who shop that way will not care that a Realtor was a high school tennis star or the immediate past president of the Junior League. Everything that chummy, clubby Realtors have used forever to get by has gone by the wayside. When people finally learn to shop for value, they shop for nothing but value.

With that, permit me to introduce you to my kind of clients. The specifics have been fictionalized, but the underlying email is real:

Currently we are email interviewing several Realtors in our area of interest in Arizona. We would like your response as to whether you would be interested in having us as your clients. We have created this document introducing ourselves.

Summary:

We are a couple in our forties who are moving from the state of Washington to the state of Arizona. We have specific requirements for a house, and we have a short period to purchase it. Our current house should close at the end of June. In the event we can not purchase a house in with a close date near then, we will either rent or lease a home.

We are looking in the Glendale to Scottsdale area, and we are looking at the $360K to $460K price range.

Who we are…
Carl Halverson, government statistician working in the US treasury department. Carl’s hobby is Read more

May 7, 2008

A celebration of Western Civilization and the Scientific Revolution

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

This is quoted from a John Derbyshire dismissal of a creationist documentary film. That much is good. This much is great:

Western civilization has many glories. There are the legacies of the ancients, in literature and thought. There are the late-medieval cathedrals, those huge miracles of stone, statuary, and spiritual devotion. There is painting, music, the orderly cityscapes of Renaissance Italy, the peaceful, self-governed townships of old New England and the Frontier, the steel marvels of the early industrial revolution, our parliaments and courts of law, our great universities with their spirit of restless inquiry.

And there is science, perhaps the greatest of all our achievements, because nowhere else on earth did it appear. China, India, the Muslim world, all had fine cities and systems of law, architecture and painting, poetry and prose, religion and philosophy. None of them ever accomplished what began in northwest Europe in the later 17th century, though: a scientific revolution. Thoughtful men and women came together in learned societies to compare notes on their observations of the natural world, to test their ideas in experiments, and in reasoned argument against the ideas of others, and to publish their results in learned journals. A body of common knowledge gradually accumulated. Patterns were observed, laws discerned and stated.

If I write with more feeling than usual here it is because I have just shipped off a review to an editor (for another magazine) of Gino Segrè’s new book about the history of quantum mechanics. It’s a good, if not very remarkable, book giving pen-portraits of the great players in physics during the 1920s and 1930s, and of their meetings and disagreements. Segrè, a particle physicist himself, who has been around for a while, knew some of these people personally, and of course heard many anecdotes from their intellectual descendants. It’s a “warm” book, full of feeling for the scientists and their magnificent enterprise, struggling with some of the most difficult problems the human intellect has ever confronted, striving with all their powers to understand what can barely be understood.

Gino Segrè’s book — and, of course, hundreds like it (I have, ahem, Read more

May 6, 2008

Bidding farewell to Russell Shaw

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

This is a sad day for BloodhoundBlog. Russell Shaw, who was our first contributor after Cathleen and me, has elected to stop writing with us.

Of possibly more immediate import to people reading this, Russell has decided not to participate in BloodhoundBlog Unchained. If you feel his absence will significantly impact the value you expect to receive from Unchained, let me know by email and I will arrange to have your money refunded to you.

Russell has been a consistent boon to BloodhoundBlog and to the RE.net in general. We will joyously celebrate any future contributions he makes to the wired world of real estate. We have never killed an account, so we will be twice delighted if Russ should choose at some time to return to the pack.

May 6, 2008

Trulia Widgets: Truliamazing Trojan Horse(s)

by Eric Bramlett

Real Estate

Much ado about Galen Ward’s Truliamazing Tricks of the Trade! Greg has already written a fantastic post about the reaction, so I won’t spend any time rehashing. An interesting side note that has been brought up by a few commentators is why Trulia is really kicking butt in the SERPs. It’s their Truliamazing Trojan Horse(s)!

Linkbait is one of the most powerful tools a white hat SEO can come up with. It can come in the form of interesting content (ahem, BHB,) controversial content, and neat tools that include a link back to the creator. Linkbait is by no means a bad thing. It’s part of what makes interesting/cool sites rank highly in the search engines. Google like-a-da-linkbait!

However, linkbait can definitely be a bad thing to you – in your market. If one of your local competitors cooks up some tasty linkbait, and you happen to repost it, and link to them, you’re helping your competitor rank higher than you in the search engines.

Trulia is truly kicking butt in the SERPs (for big time terms, and for long tails) because they’ve cooked up some solid linkbait in the form of widgets.

Let’s focus on one widget, and why it works – the “Trulia Stats” widget. (Oh, let’s also completely ignore how terribly inaccurate this widget is.)

Take a look at the bottom links that are included on the Trulia stat – “Austin Real Estate” which links to their Austin page, and “Trulia” which links to their main page. When you post this widget, you effectively tell Google that Trulia is the authority for your market, and then you give them another vote to their index page, which helps them kill it in the longtails.

So….what to do?

I would recommend not using the widgets at all (did I mention they’re really inaccurate?) However, if you want to be a “Truliamazing Agent” and act just like Trulia, then you can go ahead and post the widget, and either delete the link, or add the rel=”nofollow” tag. After all, you just trust their data – you Read more

May 6, 2008

The War Against The MLS Continues | The MLS Must Fall!

by Barry Cunningham

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

As the real estate industry awaits the long anticipated trial pitting the Department of Justice vs. The National Association of Realtors, another Multiple Listing Service has been targeted by the DOJ.

On May 2, 2008, the DOJ filed suit against the Consolidated Multiple Listing Service (CMLS) of Columbia, South Carolina. The suit challenges the manner in which the CMLS operates and governs its members.

The lawsuit states that CMLS rules unreasonably restricts competition among real estate brokers and has caused consumers in the Columbia area to pay more for the services of real estate agents and brokers.

The lawsuit alleges in part that the CMLS mandates that real estate agents and brokers perform a myriad of obligatory services, which provides for a reduced level of customer service and limits consumer choice.

The suit also states that these mandatory services provides for an exclusion of competitors who might offer innovative options that could provide better services to consumers in that area.

“Buying or selling a home is one of the most significant financial transactions in the lives of most Americans. The kinds of rules CMLS imposes stifle competition to the advantage of its members and the disadvantage of home buyers and sellers,” said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division.

“Today’s lawsuit seeks to remove unlawful impediments to competition for real estate brokerage services in the Columbia area, so that consumers will benefit from the additional options and reduced fees that competition can bring.”

The MLS in most areas allows for the free exchange of information by and between its members regarding available homes on the market. The efficiency of the CMLS, or any MLS for that matter, can be a benefit to the consumer.

The DOJ contends that certain practices by the CMLS negatively impacts how the real estate industry members can choose to operate their businesses and accordingly adversely influences competition.

Specifically cited are rules imposed by the CMLS wherein its members are not allowed to offer a home sellers the opportunity to avoid paying a broker’s commission if the seller locates a buyer on his or her own.

CMLS rules require brokers to Read more

May 5, 2008

Arizona Short Sales: Who Are You Working For?

by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

I, like some of you, have just received the AAR’s May newsletter, in which Christopher A. Combs, AAR’s “legal hotline” counsel, provides a legal treatise on a contractual issue regarding short sales in Arizona. I direct your attention to Exhibit A (page 11, dab-smack in the middle of the page).

In this article, Mr. Combs Esq. indicates that a “short seller” can accept as many offers as they can possibly get for their home, but that only the first one is “active,” will all subsequent offers being in a “back-up” position.

Now, to me, what this means is that the first offer I get is the “active offer,” and only that offer can be sent to the lender. Any subsequent offers will be on hold, unless, and until, something goes wrong with the first offer. If the buyer flakes out, or the lender rejects the first offer, we then send them our “next in line,” and hope for the best.

The way I see it, this is a clear breach of my fiduciary duty to my client. My duty is to sell the client’s property. Now, because of the nature of a short sale, my client, in fact, has very little to do with the process. He could care less how much I sell his property for, as he really has no control over whether it sells or not. Is it not in the best interest of my client to “accept” any and all offers, as they come in, and submit them to the lender, and let the lender decide which one, if any, they will accept? By dragging out the process of “oh. . .you don’t like that one? Let me send you this one. . .,” am I not doing even more damage to my client’s credit? Am I not to act in a timely manner, and get the most money for my client’s property as I can, so that we have a greater chance of getting the deal done?

This nonsense from the legal hotline seems to hamstring me while trying to perform my fiduciary duty to my client. The only remedy I can see Read more

May 5, 2008

The Realty.bot shuffle: Trulia.com’s response to complaints about nofollow tags on partner-supplied content seems truly atrocious

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Galen Ward’s post on Trulia.com’s policy of adding “nofollow” tags to links back to its own listings partners has elicited quite a bit of controversy.

The original post itself excited a great deal of commentary, and this is explored in encyclopedic detail in a fascinating post by Union Street Media’s Gahlord Dewald.

Trulia.com’s Rudy Bachraty participated for a while in that comment thread, then elected to take the respondent’s side of the debate back to Trulia’s home weblog, where head honcho Pete Flint made an effort to put out the fire. Comments there have been noticeably light, which made me wonder if Trulia has learned ahead of the curve why video commenting is a stoopid idea.

The story was picked up by Inman News today.

I am in the perhaps unique position of being just barely smart enough to explain what’s going on within what might well seem to others to be a blizzard of jargon.

Start here: I observed that Trulia is achieving truly amazing long-tail search results.

Galen pointed out that an ancillary reason for this is that Trulia is not allowing search engines to “follow” its links to its listing partners.

In other words, you — or your broker or your brokerage chain — feed Trulia.com a real estate listing, the primary content it uses to sell advertising. That listing will link back to its source (in hierarchical order: brokerage chain, broker, then lowly you if neither of the others is coming between you and your listing). But that link will include a “nofollow” tag, which means that when search engines see that listing page on Trulia, they will not queue your own page for spidering, nor will they in any other way regard that link as lending any strength to your page.

In still other words, Trulia is happy to feast on your crackers, but it’s not about to share any of its Google juice with you.

Trulia’s claims about why it is not doing this are specious and bogus, in my opinion, but you can read their side of the story at their weblog.

Does this actually matter? I think so, for two reasons. First, the Read more

Month: May 2008 (page 7 of 8)

An Open Letter To Russell Shaw

by Cheryl Johnson

Brian Brady at today’s Unchained preview show: “If your clients are already on LinkedIn, someone else will introduce me to them”

by Greg Swann

Bloodhound Blog UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing Conference brought to you by Zillow.com tickets go to full price tonight

by Brian Brady

Thinking myself out of business: a lone real estate agent faces the future

by Mike Farmer

Listing Remarks Haiku

by Cheryl Johnson

Two BloodhoundBlog Unchained warm-up events Friday in Phoenix

by Greg Swann

I’m in Business to Make Money

by Sean Purcell

Twitter – as good as bail money?

by Eric Blackwell

What would it look like if home buyers actually shopped for value? An illustration of my kind of internet lead

by Greg Swann

A celebration of Western Civilization and the Scientific Revolution

by Greg Swann

Bidding farewell to Russell Shaw

by Greg Swann

Trulia Widgets: Truliamazing Trojan Horse(s)

by Eric Bramlett

The War Against The MLS Continues | The MLS Must Fall!

by Barry Cunningham

Arizona Short Sales: Who Are You Working For?

by Allen Butler

The Realty.bot shuffle: Trulia.com’s response to complaints about nofollow tags on partner-supplied content seems truly atrocious

by Greg Swann

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