BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: July 2008 (page 4 of 8)

July 18, 2008

My Mind Share Mis-management Manifesto

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

Eric Bramlett and I have been playing with Google’s upgraded adwords tool quite a bit lately. Not surprisingly here’s one of the first things that crossed my mind…

And while the numbers would indicate that Trulia CLEARLY has not created much in the way of brand awareness in the consumer ranks (think about it 60,500 searches in June and how many of those were REALTORS?). And while I could make SEVERAL valid points to their VC’s about how that is not a great reason to throw another $15MM log on the fire, that is not the subject of my manifesto. This is:

NAR: WAKE THE HECK UP!

You currently have the REALTOR brand. It is strong. You can see that people are clearly searching for REALTORS. (See MLS to see how you mangled the last one) You are mismanaging the online use of that REALTOR brand in a MAJOR way. Homestore is squandering the brand by using the quality of the online presence to extort money from the REALTORS themselves.

Look at the figures that Bramlett posted. Read them Lawrence. (please) What do they say? IMO they say that people are looking for REALTORS. They say that if we FIRED Homestore and made the national listing site a NON PROFIT center for NAR, we could do better. Much better. Yes that would mean some staff cutbacks in the bureaucracy. High time that happened anyway.

The main reason that we have REALTORS giving listings to third party sites with so little consumer mind share as Trulia is because REALTOR has mangled them and is holding the REALTOR hostage. I cannot blame Trulia for trying to move into a space where Homestore has abdicated it’s position…a monopoly position granted by a fiat of well intentioned (but IMO highly misguided) leaders at NAR.

Our listings were not yours to sell IMO. And if somehow we granted you that right, unless you dump Homestore or get them to start taking our online presence seriously, you have proven IMHO beyond all doubt that we the REALTORS should now take that right back from you. You have mismanaged it.

What do I Read more

July 18, 2008

Google Search Volume & Mind Share

by

Real Estate

Author website

Huge news in the world of search: Google now publishes search volume for specific keywords through the Adwords Keyword Selector Tool.  In the past, we’ve had Overture (which went away,) or Wordtracker to turn to.  Both of these tools were fairly inaccurate.  The new data that Google released appears to be far superior to either of these tools.

I’ve long been a fan of Google Trends, and I’ve wasted many an afternoon looking up the strange search habits & statistics of Googlers in different areas & cities.  Want to know if Keller Williams is more popular than Re/Max? Google Trends can give you a good idea.

The new data that Google has opened up to us gives us very powerful information about mind share, or public awareness.  It logically follows that the more people are searching for a specific brand, the more generally aware the public is of that brand.  We can now put a “search score,” in points on any specific brand.

So….how did everyone stack up?  you can click on the image for an easier to read doc, and more information

July 18, 2008

Mortgage Market Week in Review

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website
Well, believe it or not, we’ve made it through another week.   And wow, what a week it’s been.   I’m going to try a little bit of a different “scenario” for this week’s Mortgage Market Week in Review.   Rather than trying to tell you everything that’s been happening this week (it would be a REALLY long story) I’m going to try to hit the highlights (or low lights if you will) of what’s been happening.
So, here goes:
1. Starting with last Friday afternoon, we found out that IndyMac Bank (in California) was closed by the FDIC. It’s the largest bank or savings institution that has failed and approximately 10,000 of their clients had more funds in IndyMac bank than was covered by FDIC insurance and will therefore lose a lot of money.   This started the week on a very negative note as the financial markets started getting a serious case of “Who’s next?” worries about the banking world.
2. Chairman Bernanke of the Federal Reserve and Secretary Paulson of the Treasury testified before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.   I’m going to give you an extremely abbreviated version (my opinion) of what he said:  1) The economy is not out of the woods, it’s actually not even close to the edge of the forest.   2) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are very important to the health of our country’s economy and we are putting these “rescue efforts” in place not because Fannie and Freddie need it now, but strictly because we want the markets to be comfortable that they won’t fail.  3) Right now the risks to the economy from the credit crisis significantly outweigh the risks to the economy due to inflation (meaning rates won’t go up any time soon – at least the rates that they control).
3. The “it’s not so bad” syndrome started taking hold on Wednesday.   What’s that?   I guess I’d describe it this way.   You have a house with a very nice deck and a screened in porch on the back.   A storm comes through and a tree gets knocked down and it falls on your deck Read more
July 17, 2008

Project Bloodhound: Passion, Authenticity & Connecting with Others

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

OK, I will confess.

Up until we started Project Blogger, I had NO idea EXACTLY what being a green REALTOR was all about. I mean, I understood the general concept, in a promote conservation and sell the benefits of green housing sort of way… But I really did not understand HOW a green real estate blogger would connect with a GREEN customer, until I was faced with the challenge of helping a NEW green blogger in Louisville–here in our office. It is a new challenge for me.

One of our agents approached me. She already was a beginner in our blogging group and she asked if I would help her get a DIFFERENT blog up and running. “What’s your niche or hyperlocal?” “That’s just it,” she said. “I want to blog about environmentally friendly housing. I want to be a GREEN blogger.” I instantly knew that this was a MUCH better fit for her than the niche she was in.

This was something that she IS passionate about. Her other niche was more because she found it to simply be attractive business wise. We have a saying in our little blogging group in our office: “Blog about baseball if that is what you are passionate about. You will sell more real estate that way.” The point is, by being passionate and authentic, you will ATTRACT more people to you. You will connect with others in a meaningful way. And Dawn, the agent in our office will connect and sell and enjoy the process more because her voice will be authentic.

When you CARE, your writing emits an almost magical quality that it doesn’t have when you are writing for money alone. Stephanie, I don’t have her blog up and running yet. She is on vacation with her family for a week or two, but if you don’t mind, I’d love to get the two of you together via email or whatever. I have already sent her to your blog and she came back going.”..wow….”. (That’s a quote.)

I guess every day here at the office just reinforces the point to me that authenticity and passion Read more

July 17, 2008

Project Bloodhound: Writing for the archives: “See that fella over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10 years, he’s got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he’s 20 years old, too. In 10 years he’s got a chance to be 30.”

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Here today; gone tomorrow? I have no clue what happened to the original post and the once dead link, but it did make me think about the importance of a blog archive.

One of the first things I noticed about BloodhoundBlog was the tremendous amount of useful information in the archives. It’s very possible that back then I spent more time poking through old stuff then keeping up with the first page, and still today, if I need to jump start my brain with an idea about marketing or I’m looking for an example of how to tackle a complex real estate issue, BHB is the first place I look because of it’s extensive archive.

TheBrickRanch archive is always in the back of my mind when I write for my blog. I want to build a complete real estate-pedia for the Dayton area on TBR, so I try to make the work there vital and useful enough to provide content for the future. I sit down and write with one person in mind, but I want to write for the person I don’t know; the person who will find this a year from now, or two or three years from now. Is the information timeless? I understand that not everything we write can be pertinent to the future, and sometimes I just want to have fun, but when someone uses the search box, please, I hope there is some there, there.

Blogs are an ever evolving medium- organic, fluctuating, there’s an ebb and flow to blogging that lends itself to change. I’ve changed a few things on TBR lately, and some of the posts I wrote last year needed to be updated accordingly. As I’ve grown, both as a blogger, and as a real estate agent, I’ve gone back into my archives and changed posts to make them stronger, added pingbacks from one post to another to make each post more relevant and provide more information. It’s general blog maintenance that encourages a more dynamic and beneficial use of the blog.

I want my posts to converse and link with each other, just like a conversation. When we Read more

July 17, 2008

Todd Kaufman: More bad news.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

Google your name. The dogs are still barking and their favorite mic is back ON. (It was ON all the time, but now we can turn up the volume a bit more!) And we like it LOUD.

Congrats Greg! Looks like things are back on track! I hope you did not post this earlier and I did not notice…been on vacation and been buried with work this week once I got back.

Note to onlookers…this is kind of an “inside baseball” way of saying that Google is now back in love with BHB the same way that Technorati is…

Eric

July 17, 2008

How to tell a hawk from a handsaw…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

“The shame of speaking unskilfully were small if the tongue onely thereby were disgrac’d: But as the Image of a King in his Seale ill-represented is not so much a blemish to the waxe, or the Signet that seal’d it, as to the Prince it representeth, so disordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune, whose words do jarre; nor his reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous; nor his Elocution clear and perfect, whose utterance breaks itself into fragments and uncertainties. Negligent speech doth not onely discredit the person of the Speaker, but it discrediteth the opinion of his reason and judgement; it discrediteth the force and uniformity of the matter and substance. If it be so then in words, which fly and ’scape censure, and where one good Phrase asks pardon for many incongruities and faults, how then shall he be thought wise whose penning is thin and shallow? How shall you look for wit from him whose leasure and head, assisted with the examination of his eyes, yeeld you no life or sharpnesse in his writing?” –Ben Jonson

July 16, 2008

Listing real estate the Bloodhound way: Custom yard signs in English and Spanish

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

These signs don’t exist yet; they won’t be finished until Friday at the earliest.

This is the first time we’ve done this, custom signs with one side in English, one side in Spanish. The flyer is done in both languages, also, one on each side of the sheet. I may echo some of the copy on the web site in Spanish, also.

Just because we can, we’re using four unique photos on each side of the sign. The sign printer is digging this stuff beyond all measure. We came to them two years ago with these ideas, and, so far, no one else has even bothered to ask them what we’re doing. Meanwhile, we keep coming up with new things to try. I want for them to enter our work in sign-makers’ competitions.


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July 16, 2008

Is Hyper-Transparency A Cover For Mediocrity ?

by

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

Author website

Which one of these loans is better?

A- Loan docs at 6.5% with 1 point cost, disclosed at 6.5% with 1 point cost 30 days earlier…OR…

B- Loan docs at 6.5% with 1 point cost, disclosed at 6.25% with 1 point cost, 30 days earlier,  but the originating broker negotiated the 1 point cost before application ?

There is more than one correct answer:

If you said A, you appreciate integrity of expertise and execution. You understand that the originating broker stuck her neck out at quote time and delivered on her promise, regardless of the changes in underwriting and market fluctuation.  She assumed the interest rate risk and underwriting risk of the loan after reviewing a borrower’s application, supporting documentation,  and credit report.  She may have earned an extra .5% by properly executing the rate lock (because she subscribes to MBS pricing)

If you said B, you appreciate the integrity of hyper-transparency in lending.  While the originating broker may have made some mistakes in lock execution and underwriting analysis, he did act in the borrower’s best interest and collected only what he negotiated.

If you said that neither were acceptable, you probably haven’t had a transaction close in the past 8 months.

Which will you choose as the better customer experience?

July 16, 2008

Listing real estate the Bloodhound way: Teaching home sellers how to pay attention to marketing techniques, tactics and results

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This started out at a response to Jeff Brown in John Rowles’ “dinosaur” post, but it grew to take on a life of its own.

Jeff Brown:

Sellers, at least in my experience, have been excellent at discerning one thing — who produces results.

Oh, would this were so! I can take you through Phoenix, neighborhood by neighborhood, and show you in which neighborhoods the sellers are paying attention and in which they aren’t. We compete very aggressively in the neighborhoods where sellers are wide awake, but there are places we are called upon to go where the neighbors could not care less who sells what for how much in how long a time. It’s just not on their radar — nor is any tactic or technique for optimizing results. We only work with sellers who care, so it makes a huge difference to us.

The brokerage — not agent — we are most likely to lose business to has done an excellent job of promoting its long-standing reputation. For the most part the agents do nothing that we would consider exceptional, and their time on market and LP/SP ratios are horrible right now, but we can only penetrate that marketing veil if the seller is paying first-hand attention.

I had a surprise yesterday. The Arizona Republic column brings me a small number of deals, but they tend to be very interesting. We’re working one now, two listings and a purchase. One of the listings is in Sun City, a Del Webb original, unmolested, on the golf course. We listed it our way last Friday, because that’s what we do. Yesterday I was out there to deal with the sign and almost all of the flyers were gone. When our flyers seem to evaporate, it almost always means that the neighbors are interested — not in the house, but in us as listers. I’ll be interested to see if the sellers out there really are paying attention. The houses don’t sell for huge amounts, but if the sellers are willing to work our way, it might be worthwhile to pioneer a second niche out there.

Our timing Read more

July 16, 2008

Greed is Good, but Greedy?

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

In a comment on a recent post, I shared with David Shafer the “revulsion that an ignorant, greedy originator causes.”  The Great and Powerful Oz – one of the sharpest minds in lending… actually just one of the sharpest minds period – called me on it and asked if I might define “greedy originator”.  Never one to back down from a challenge, I decided to give it a try… but in a post.  I want to hear what the ‘hounds on the street’ think.

The primary purpose of any business is to maximize profits. To quote the great Gordon Gecko: “Greed is good.” But I believe “greedy” – especially when used in a pejorative sense as I am doing here – defines someone who has crossed an ethical line in service of that greed. Lies of commission and omission are obvious examples of such a breach. More common and more directly related to my comment, however, is the originator  who chooses an inappropriate product for their client because the profit in that product is greater than the appropriate recommendation.

I do not believe (as I once did) that there is a fiduciary obligation between originator and borrower.  An originator is not working as an agent on behalf of a client the way a real estate agent does.  An originator is in the retail business.  Some originators are in the Kmart retail business (a market for clients who want very little service – simply shelves of loans to choose from) and some are in the diamond store retail business.  I argue that a great many, if not most, originators see themselves as the latter.  In which case, the borrower is paying the originator, at least to some degree, for their advice. There is an expectation and perception (usually encouraged if not advertised) that the originator is helping the client to choose an appropriate financial tool. Maximizing your profits in that process is just plain financially sound business practice. But suggesting a product that may not be among the best options – or in some cases is demonstratably a bad option – solely because the profit is greater… that is crossing an ethical line and earns that originator the Read more

July 16, 2008

Why aren’t the Dinosaurs extinct already?

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

In my last post, I made the case that many of today’s old school brokers are Dead Dinosaurs Walking.

In the last couple of days, two things have happened that have me questioning that theory and its keeping me up at night:

  1. I learned that a intelligent guy I know, a programmer who actually works for Rent O Meter (a RE tech start up), bought his first house last week. He used an agent who was referred to him. He did not use the Web in his search process at all. He told the agent what he wanted and what he could afford and had no problem when every listing the agent showed him just happened to belong to the agent’s brokerage.

    He bought one of those listings, the broker scored a 6% double whammy,  our programmer friend could not be happier, he loves his agent and actually referred him to me. To add insult to injury, the broker’s Web site is really just awful. This transaction is straight out of 1983:

  2. Another friend, who is not connected to the business, read the post and pointed out that the asteroid that hit the Yucatan, blocking the sun and causing firestorms on a planetary scale, probably killed most of the dinosaurs in less than a year. If the widespread use of the Web is the asteroid that hit Real Estate, then the impact happened around Y2K. Its 8 years later and lots of business-as-usual brokers are still standing.

    How is it that brokers who refuse to evolve can tough it out for 8 years while Tyrannosaurus Rex was well on his way to being a skeleton in the Peabody Museum within 12 months?

The first comment on that post said, “If I’ve heard ‘I’ve sold hundreds of houses this way and there is no reason for me to change now’ once, I’ve heard it 100 times.”

What if that is right? That somehow, despite all the evidence to the contrary (this Blog being Exhibit A), Real Estate is immune, or shielded somehow, from what the Internet has done and is doing to businesses as diverse as Travel 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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