BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: February 2009 (page 5 of 5)

February 8, 2009

The Resistance Is Where The Action Is: Do what Others Don’t.

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

So I’m designated the ‘cold calling guy,’ on BHB.   Fine fine fine.  Also cool that Jessica Horton said that she’ll always be calling her 4,000 past contacts.   That’s cool.  But I want my database to be about 50 people that I do loads of stuff work for and with.  The 50 best people.   To get there, there has to be planned churn.  I want to continuously improve the kind of customer I have.   Not till my client list includes Warren, Bill, Steve, Rupert…will I stop.   If I was a Realtor®, I’d not stop until EVERY bank CEO, hedge fund manager, and millionaire asked me to list some houses.

I at least admit that I’m here to sell you something.   Openly.  It’s been called the ‘implied accusation,’ here before.  I’m friendly, but I’m not yet your friend.  I tell you why I’m calling in 2 seconds.  (Oh, how many of those’ how are you doing today,’ calls have you had…)  More honest than beating around the bush, and more pleasant for both me and you.  I don’t drop hints, I’m here to help, and I’ll need to be paid for it. And I’ll help, and you’ll be happy.  It kind of sucks when you know someone wants to sell you but doesn’t have the balls to ask you.

Since my last post on Twitter, my account has nearly doubled in followers, and I’ll be at 1,000 followers sometime this week.  (Follow me at @genuinechris ).   I’ve limited myself to calling 10 people a day that are new followers because I can’t connect to everyone…but I’m calling…it’s fun.   I am checking out twitterhawk to do it more, and yes, I’m throwing folks in Heap…when I like ’em.

The reason that people don’t call more, is mostly that they are cowards.   There is magic in doing what others won’t. Almost all the time, if you can summon whatever it takes to do that, you’re going to separate from the pack.  Or herd, since we’re all pack animals.    Any place where people resist, there’s probably money to be made.  Something noone wants to do?  Something mentally hard?  Read more

February 7, 2009

Thirty-three touches from the cloud: Seriously seeking CRM

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We need a CRM solution, and it’s making me crazy that we don’t have one. We wrestled with REST for a couple of years, but we never got it cranking on all cylinders, and it lacks features I don’t want to live without. Chris Johnson raves about Heap, but I’m not sure it’s everything we need.

I need help, it’s true enough.

What I want:

  • Cloud-based. I don’t want any proprietary apps running on dedicated hardware. I want to be able to do my CRM business from any web-enabled computer and any iPhone anywhere.
  • iPhone empowered, therefore, of course. Needs to integrate with Contacts, iCal, etc., and it needs to sync periodically through the cloud.
  • Email-based data entry. Heap can do at least some of this. What I would like is to be able to have a form on a web page produce an email that is mailed to my CRM, with that email initiating a sequence of events: Create client record and initiate a particular set of sequences of follow-up contacts. These should be selectable by the email received: Investors should be subscribed to different campaigns from sellers or first-time home buyers.
  • Jott-able. Heap does some of this, also.
  • As tightly-integrated with Google Apps as possible. For example, I want the calendar to be the Google Apps calendar.
  • Action scripts or event scripts or whatever, as automated as possible, ideally already scripted with the text already written. By now we’re talking about the “33 touches” idea from The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, but I want as much of this as possible to happen automatically and hands-free. As above, there will be different “8×8” scripts for new clients, and possibly also different “33 touches” scripts, but, once these are assigned, I want for them to proceed “untouched by human hands.” Agent 360 seems to be well-equipped in this regard.
  • Action scripts that require real live human action should create to-do lists for the affected team members.
  • We own our own data. That means we have the ability to move our data off in a usable format whenever we want, and our data is never shared with anyone else.
  • Simple to use, with Read more
February 5, 2009

Are We In Trouble?

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

We are in trouble …

The population of this country is 300 million.

160 million are retired.

That leaves 140 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school.

Which leaves 55 million to do the work.

Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 15 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden

Which leaves 12.2 million to do the work.

Take from that total the 10.8 million people who work for state and city Governments.
and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work.

You and me.

And there you are, sitting on your ass at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice. Real nice.

February 5, 2009

Ask the Bloodhounds: What do people want on a real estate web site?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jim Flanagan of Flanagan Realty has a nice-looking Coldwell Banker site. But he sends along this question, which I’m passing on to the brilliant minds who read, write and comment here:

What does today’s real estate consumer want in (on) a real estate brokerage’s website? You may have answered this before but I have not been able to find the “list” on GOOGLE.

It’s an interesting question. Even if you have the secret sauce, how do you enhance that initial moment of engagement? Rephrased as a more metrical question, how do you cut the dreaded bounce rate?

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February 5, 2009

Things not to do…

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

At Unchained this spring, we are going to cover a lot of what TO DO when it comes to making your web presence as a REALTOR search engine friendly. That is going to be fun and I am looking forward to it.

But lately I am seeing more and more BAD advice and examples go out to REALTORS and I figured it was time to post a couple of things NOT to do.

Google has made it clear that link exchange schemes (aka reciprocal linking schemes) are a no-no. Search engines use links as a method of gauging a site’s (or post’s) popularity and relevance. Yet if you Google real estate link exchange and look in the pay per click section, what do you see?

Several REALTOR sites openly asking for exchanges. Paying to get people to look at their link exchange directories. Good grief. And one of them ranks #1 for a major city’s real estate terms! Geez…If someone comes to you and says “This is how to do it.” Run, don’t walk. You are getting some insanely bad advice.

Sad part is…the REALTOR may not even know how bad this is.

Should there be ANY PPC ads from people asking for reciprocal link exchanges? I don’t think so.

Other bad examples…Google came out and said clearly that buying links was a no-no. The thing is, how can you tell whether a link is paid or not? It is difficult to tell. The best advice is to make sure that whoever is linking to you looks natural because they ARE.

Since I was looking at Trulia’s pages yesterday, here’s a page that may or may not be paid. Do I know? Nope. But the thing is, it LOOKS like a paid link because why would a REALTOR in Columbus IN put the exact links to the “most Popular” city real estate pages on Trulia. And these same links are on many pages of that site.

Here’s some more info from Eric Bramlett on Trulia and some of the things going on there. (He’s done a great job of breaking it down and making it understandable for Read more

February 4, 2009

Trulia hacked, Meh..WordPress security again

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

I started talking about WordPress security after my blog was hacked. It was not much fun admitting that it was, and it wasn’t fun cleaning it up. But it was a good opportunity to help everyone by letting them know what was up.

Like Microsoft, WordPress’s popularity leads to a lot of people wanting to use it. A lot of people using it leads to a lot of other people wanting to abuse the people who use it.

Many started speculating that Trulia got penalized by Google. I can understand why that might be a popular notion given some of their practices from the past, but in this case, one of the Dawgs uncovered the apparerent problem. HT to Eric Bramlett for the find.

As Eric correctly pointed out when we started talking about WordPress security back in the day, the best thing to do is set a Google Alert, for site:mydomain.com +viagra (or +cialis and several other terms commonly used by these hackers).

If someone has hacked your WP blog and inserted links to poker, porn and pharmaceuticals, you will then know it and can find the problem and take action by filing a reinclusion request.

As Eric Bramlett points out, the team at Trulia should have this corrected shortly. (at least that’s how it typically works). This will be a pain for them, but a good opportunity to remind us all to stay secure out there.

February 4, 2009

You’re Gonna Need a Shovel

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

When I was young, my father taught me a very simple story:

A man walks by a big room and sees that it’s chest high in manure.  “Quick,” he says “someone get me a shovel.  There must be one helluva horse in here somewhere!”

Now the message was always clear: don’t be afraid of hard work and look upon every situation with an optimistic eye. Lately though, reading the paper has been a lot like running into that room; only I’ve begun to realize there’s no horse in there. Just a whole lot of shovelin’.

The latest pile can be found in a column by Dean Calbreath, a well-respected staff writer for the Business section of our local paper: The San Diego Union Tribune. You can read the full story here: Government Spending is Tool to Revive the Economy, although the title itself is about as subtle as a sledge hammer to the head. (I wonder if he was being ironic with the word “tool”?) In the column itself, Mr. Calbreath expects politicians debating the “stimulus package” will take heart in a new study by UCSD economist Valerie Ramey which concluded that for every $1 the government spends, it generates $1.40 in economic growth. Uh… yes, you read that right. The government is generating 40% growth on its spending programs. Wow! We really can spend our way out of a problem.  I mean Mister, at 40% growth we’ll be out of this recession in a quarter or two if the government will just get it through their thick heads to spend enough. (When I read utter nonsense like this I am reminded, as I so often am, of the wit and wisdom of Homer Simpson. Upon realizing he and a few other characters were literally trapped at the bottom of a hole they themselves had dug, Homer hit upon an elegant solution:  “We’ll dig our way out!” As the screen fades we can here Chief Wiggum say, “No, dig up, stupid…”)

“Raising spending stimulates the economy,” Ramey said.  “On average, government spending raises gross domestic product and raises employment, although it sometimes leads to Read more

February 3, 2009

Are You an Innie or an Outie? The Answer May Be an Ancient Chinese Secret

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, The Story of Success.  I found it a facinating read.  If you have not yet read his book, or any of his others, I strongly suggest it.  The premise of Outliers discusses the contributing factors, opportunities and cultural legacies that help shape the outcomes of individuals whom we recognized as highly successful.

One of the most enlightening discussions in the book provides perhaps a new perspective as to why people of Asian decent traditionally outperform people of Western cultures in math.  We often believe that academic achievement is attributed to IQ and intellect, yet Gladwell’s explanation is more basic.  It may very well relate to how Asians count and the character length of the actual numeric characters allowing them to retain more information in a smaller period of time.  Again, I found the author’s insight facinating.

Success is not solely a factor of intellect.  At a certain point, cultural influences/rules and situational circumstances contribute more to why an individual or individuals are successful.  Even more at the core of real success are the long hours of dedicated hard work.

I began thinking about how this all relates to the nature of real estate, both as a professional as well as the profession itself.

No doubt, we are currently experiencing a significant confluence of events both culturally and economically.  The theory that real estate was a fairly sure bet, rarely if ever losing value has been more than proven wrong.  Business models which leverage technology are not offering transformational change in how value is created in the real estate transaction.

Why did Rockerfeller become wealthy?  Gladwell surmizes that he became wealthy due primarily to his time of birth, coupled with America’s dynamic economic transformation.  Along with his hard work, his fate collided with enormous opportunity.  It seems Bill Gates too collided with good timing – he came of age during the era of the birth of the personal computer.

It takes more than just smarts to make it to the top.

I sense we are again at a cross roads of transformational change, both culturally and economically today with even farther reaching Read more

February 2, 2009

Saint Badda Bing

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I know someone who knows a guy who might know of a ‘pocket listing’  back in the old neighborhood. That’s how everybody refers to a certain kind of good fellow in one particular ‘Near West’ Chicago block of stoop and brick row homes—guys. They call them guys. Guys from the Neighborhood.

“He’s a guy.”

“Who?”

“Him.”

“Him?”

“Yeah, him.”

“He’s a guy?”

“Yeah, he’s a guy.”

“He ain’t a guy.”

“Sure he is.”

“No he ain’t”

“He ain’t?”

“Nah.”

“I thought he was.”

“Nah. You’re thinkin’ of his cousin.”

It’s the sort of community where adult children inherit the homes from their parents and never move away; the same homes their parents inherited from the grand parents.  The housing stock is a  block-by-block mixture of  row homes,  traditional city bungalows, wood framed Two and Three Flats circa 1900, and turn-of-the-century brick Multi-Unit tenements. The same Italian restaurants, corner bars, and beef joints have lined Grand Avenue from Ogden to Ashland for generations. Guys, both young and old,  loaf in front of their social clubs three seasons a year blocking the side walks in both directions, their Caddys and Buicks double parked against the curbs.  Nobody gets a ticket.  Nobody seems to have a job.

“His cousin?”

“Yeah.”

“But not him?

“Nah. They got the same first name and hair.”

“I did not know that.”

“Yup.”

“I thought they was the same guy”

“Nah. Different guy. Same hair though.”

“I did not know that…”

And so on for hours.  Or years. Generations.  Anyway, I know someone who knows someone who has a place he might want to sell on the down low  (that’s Not Listed on the MLS for all you traditional RE peeps).  A real guy, apparently—and like I said, also someone from the old neighborhood.  Of course, this guy my friend speaks of doesn’t live in his building anymore and hasn’t for almost a decade. He’s been…well…he’s been away.  Away, serving his country and the great state of Illinois to the tune of  concurrent life stretches which, I learn from my friend (who is my age and stills lives at home with his mother who is also seated at the table in a house coat this snowy morning) is much better than consecutive life Read more

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