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Month: September 2009 (page 3 of 4)

September 12, 2009

BloodhoundBlog Unchained San Diego Online Marketing Conference

by

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

Author website

Greg Swann and I conducted our super secret stategy session, last week in Phoenix.  The results are in; there will be a one day BloodhoundBlog Unchained Online Marketing Conference in San Diego.

Mark your calendars for Friday, November 13, 2009.  The conference will go from 10AM until 5PM and be held within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center.  We picked this date for a number of reasons:

  • we didn’t want to conflict with the scheduled Cyberprofessionals’ meetings
  • it’s the day after REBAR Camp
  • we can have a happy hour afterwards
  • easy fly-in and outs are doable; the location is a short cab ride from the Lindbergh Field (SAN)

The cost will be $49.00.  A $10 discount will be offered to alumni and the Cyberprofessionals.  If you’ve already reserved a spot, we owe you some money.  Expect that refund this week.

Much more information provided later this week; the location will be confirmed by Monday and the schedule will be up on Friday

PS:  if you’re planning on attending the Grand Opening of the NAR Expo,, you’ll  have plenty of time to make it there before the 7PM deadline.

PPS:  There will be limited seating so jump on this when Greg sets up the Paypal link.

September 11, 2009

Twittering Twitts of Twittledom

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

tweedledee-tweedledumI have always loved Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.  It is many things, not least of which is a truly amazing exposition on language.  I bring this up because I recently read Brian Brady’s piece entitled Is Social Media Marketing Worth the Effort and quickly imagined myself on a walk with The Walrus and the Carpenter.  Greg Swan commented on Brian’s piece by publishing a video of himself, talking to us about his lack of interest in Social Media Marketing.  I can only describe this as so eerily representative of what one might find on the other side of Mr. Carroll’s looking glass that it’s borderline derivative! For reasons that will be clear in a moment, I felt compelled to jump into the conversation.

‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.  That’s logic.’

That’s logic… You just have to love the confidence of that line.  What’s even more interesting is how well this quote appears to sum up a few of our SMM darlings.  I’m thinking of Twitter here and as a matter of full disclosure: I’ve never used it.  As a matter of fact, I don’t believe I’ve used any Social Media in a way that can be measured for Return on Investment or conversion of prospects into customers.  As a matter of fact, the very idea of measuring return on investment or counting conversions goes a long way in explaining why so few people succeed in our business: they confuse marketing with advertising.  I’m itching to write a piece exploring that malady and will get to it as soon as I can carve out a little extra time.  But meanwhile, we have Twitter.  I know people right here in the Hound who are so old-school when it comes to marketing that they’re actually successful in this business (I’m not directly referring to the Bawldguy here, but if you’re still unsure I will look in his direction and whistle) and yet even HE has a Twitter account!  Go figure…

In Twitter Policies Come to Read more

September 11, 2009

WhAcK JoB (and other freezer burned ideas)

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

Finally,  a bloggable thought!

Let me attempt to serve up something  palatable on the fine tapas Chinette as I poke through the  leftovers in the upstairs icebox. I know, it’s been a month of Sundays since I’ve broken literary bread with the family.

Hey, what’s this here?

Some freezer burned Zig Zigler?  Better check the expiration date on this mentally recorded morsel: 1976?  Hmmm…perhaps I’ll just let it thaw and feed it to the hounds with the dry food…

Insert  frosty Beta into Radarange and press PLAY

‘So there’s this Chinese bamboo tree that doesn’t grow an inch for four years, barely pokes its stem out of the dirt, then, in one amazing swing around the Sun, in year five,  it shoots up ten feet…..’ and  so I paraphrase the Zig man and countless other soap box derby wearers. It’s an old story.

I’ve tripped across many versions of the above Eastern yarn over motivational time and space; some prophets claim seven years for the phenomenon, some claim five, still others  declare overnight! The same question is always begged….does a bamboo tree (Chinese or otherwise) really grow ten feet in any amount of time (save a little daily watering) after laying  dormant for 1500 days ?  And if so, why?

Oh hell, we’re all pretty smart dogs around here. We all know why.

Personally, it took this mutt over thirty years to complete and submit for publication, a written project that was greater in length than a thousand words and didn’t involve an iPhone snapshot. The notion struck me like a branding iron as I sat at my desk  completing the final U.S. Copyright  and Writers Guild of America keystrokes (along with credit card info, of course) into my tired machine.  I can only hope that after 60 days and nights of finger pecking toil (not to mention the 30 years below the soil), what I sent off , paid for, copyrighted, and registered, is even worth stealing.

So anyway, here’s a sample of what my bamboo tree just sprouted:

SCOTTY takes two more shot glasses off the tray and hands one
to CAT CHOW who reluctantly accepts the offering.

CAT CHOW
So, do Read more

September 11, 2009

Why Your FHA Decision Engine Approval Gets Denied

by

Mortgage Technologist

Author website

The occurrence of FHA loans receiving an FHA TOTAL Scorecard approval and subsequently having the loan denied once it hits the underwriter’s desk is happening more and more. It’s a reality the field must acknowledge and from what I have seen, the good originators have taken note and have adjusted their game accordingly.

However, before adjusting your game, you must understand the reasoning behind why this is happening and will continue to occur in the future. Quite frankly, it is at this execution juncture point, that the details and actions of originators are what separate the superstars from the rest of the pack.

The Reason

While the technical reason behind this shift has been in place for years, the enforcement has not until recently. In a nutshell, HUD has stepped up their post endorsement technical reviews and NOT letting lenders insure loans they allowed in the past. In short, previously they were letting lenders slide and NOW they are NOT!

HUD has from the beginning made it clear to lenders that regardless of the Automated Underwriting System (AUS) findings, it was still the lenders responsibility to ensure the data input to TOTAL Scorecard was accurate as required per FHA guidelines AND also demonstrate if there are factors that could not be determined, measured or quantified by the TOTAL Scorecard decision that would invalidate the initial approval decision.

An example of such, is multiple and excessive Non-Sufficient-Funds (NFS) on the borrowers bank checking statements. Since FHA TOTAL Scorecard cannot measure nor account for NSF’s in their decision (recommendation), they defer this determination of layered risk analysis to their Direct Endorsement (DE) lenders to establish if unaccounted layers of risk invalidate a TOTAL Scorecard approval/recommendation.

It is important to note a point HUD stresses to lenders on the back-end…the TOTAL Scorecard decision is ONLY a recommendation and it is the responsibility of the DE lender to determine the accuracy of the approve recommendation. Thus, “due diligence” is the ambiguous “standard” DE lenders are being held to in regards to TOTAL Scorecard approvals. What this means to originators, Realtors and builders is the “approval” received from TOTAL Scorecard (Fannie and Read more

September 11, 2009

My 9/11 prayer . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

[This is me, from 09/10/2006. –GSS]

 
Cathy and I watched The Path to 9/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year’s Day. The photo you see is my son crawling all over a bronze statue of a stock broker in Liberty Park, directly across from what was then the Merrill Lynch Building — on December 30, 1999. I lived in Manhattan for ten years, from 1976 to 1986. For quite a few of those years, I worked just across from Liberty Park, in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway. At the other end of that little brick park was the southeast entrance to the World Trade Center complex. I worked insane hours in those days, and, very often, when I got out of work, I would go sit at this tiny circular plaza plopped down between the Twin Towers. Not quite pre-dawn, still full dark, but completely deserted — and to be completely alone in New York City is an accomplishment. I would throw my head back and look up at the towers, the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony running note-perfect through my head.

Everything I am describing was either destroyed or heavily damaged on September 11, 2001. Along with the lives of thousand of innocents. Along with the comfort and serenity of their families. Along with the peace of the entire world.

I don’t believe in any heaven except for this earth, this life — the heaven we make every day by pursuing the highest and best within us. The World Trade Center had its faults. I can detail every one. But it was a piece of the sublime, a proud testament to how high, how good our highest and best can be. I don’t believe in heaven, but when I think of what was done that day, I pray there is an everlasting torment for the men who did it…

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September 10, 2009

Have RE BarCamps lost their way?

by

Realtor, Newlywed

Author website

I attended the recent Seattle version 2.0 of RE BarCamp earlier this week. Also attending was fellow BHB contributor Al Lorenz.  Held at the Armory on Lake Union, it would be hard to find a location that was more beautiful to hold an event. And yet, I did not come to the event looking for beauty. I came to the event to learn more about techniques that we discuss all the time about marketing and salesmanship. What I discovered was a trade show masquerading as a grass roots event. The main hall of the Armory was lined with various vendor booths fully stocked with the obligatory vendor salespeople. Guys wearing crisp white button-down shirts standing in front of a large tradeshow booth. Bored looking salespeople just hoping that someone with a pulse would stop by their table and inquire about what shiny silver bullet they were selling. To entice agents to stop by and visit, there were all manner of free pens, flashlights, discount coupons, and much, much more…. I don’t know how much business any vendor did. I did pick up one flyer which has already found the way into the recycling after I looked that the product in greater detail online.

The attendance of the event was outstanding. There were over 600 RSVP’s for the event. The Armory easily held the crowd. The challenge of noise was something that everyone struggled with throughout the event. The PA system was difficult to understand simply because the hall was a gymnasium in previous years. The Keynote was by Ian Watt from Vancouver BC. It would have been a very entertaining and enjoyable speech had we been able to see the slides that he brought. The sheet hanging from the balcony was not really the best way to show off all that is glorious about PowerPoint. Ian is a very entertaining person and his presentation was the highlight of the event for me (even with the technical challenges).

The number of real estate professionals that had glazed over looks was disconcerting to me. I overhead a number of people mention that they did not Read more

September 9, 2009

Free Mortgages? Nope – but a free book about mortgages!

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website

From now through October 31, 2009, I’m offering a copy of  Straight Talk About Mortgages – the Book available for free!

Why?  Because I want to.   That’s reason enough for me, how about you?

Click here to download your copy:

Straight Talk About Mortgages The Book

I’d like to ask two favors in return for a free copy:

  1. Once you’ve had a chance to read it, let me know what you think of it.   Just send me an e-mail at tvanderwell@straighttalkaboutmortgages.com.
  2. Take a minute, think of someone you know who might be thinking about buying or refinancing their house and send a copy of the book on to them.

Thanks, enjoy!

Tom Vanderwell

September 8, 2009

Big Vampire is watching you — but every day is another chance at grace

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came in for a trackback on my NAR tax-credit video post:

http://hottopics.blogs.realtor.org/2009/09/08/
my-nar-tax-credit-video-“tell-the-natio/

The link resolves to an https address — in other words, a secret inner-sanctum blog. They won’t stand up for themselves in the clean, clear light of day, but they’ll piss and moan to each other in private.

It’s not that they’re gutless, mind you — or not merely gutless. So much the worse, they know they’re wrong — and they still won’t do the right thing.

How horrifying to spend your whole life thinking you’re one of the good guys only to discover that you are every bit as corrupt as Charlie Rangel, immersed snout-deep in the corporate welfare trough, turning a million mostly-innocent entrepreneurs into cheerleaders and lobbyists for even more legislative piggishness, turning three hundred million innocent Americans into cannibal’s fodder for your million-vampire-feast.

Who killed liberty in America, the last best hope for freedom on this Earth?

Was it Alexander Hamilton and the Whig/Federalist/Republican party, the original champions of corporate welfare?

Was it Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party, who wanted freedom for everyone — so long as you’re not black, brown, red or yellow? Or was it Lyndon Johnson and the modern Democratic party, who want freedom for everyone — provided you’re not an American?

Or was it the National Association of Realtors, who helped to turn a nation of hard-working, hard-charging, fiercely independent people into a gaggle of sniveling beggars, who can no longer even imagine paying their own way in life, who spend all their time concocting new ways to despoil their neighbors.

With every passing day, we are that much closer to being a nation of vampires, and it was the National Association of Blood-Sucking Vampires who first taught us to attempt to live by plunder instead of production.

But as much as I despise what they have done, still I feel for them as people. So I’ll offer up this much as a salve for the scabs they can’t stop themselves from picking at:

Redemption is egoism in action.

When you discover you have behaved badly, either willfully or inadvertently, there are three things you must do:

1. Admit your error Read more

September 8, 2009

Is Social Media Marketing Worth The Effort ?

by

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

Author website

Greg Swann and I are working together, later this week.  We’re meeting in Phoenix to do some video work (mostly Q & A stuff), discuss the what we want BloodhoundBlog Unchained to look like,  and host a discussion about SMM at the  Phoenix Association of REALTORs (with Kerry Melcher).

We KNOW social media marketing works because we’re both busy but we really want to start measuring the efficacy of each effort.  BloodhoundBlog Unchained is a labor of love.  Our profits have been miniscule but we learn so much from the process of hosting the conference.  Hobby or not, we’re still committed to producing the premier three-day workshop, about online real estate and mortgage marketing, in the industry.

One of the reasons Greg and I have such a great partnership is that we approach the same issue from completely opposite camps.  Many of you have seen us “do our bit” about filling the funnel vs. pure pull marketing. I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret; we both practice what the other preaches.

I watched the forced registration issue with great interest.  I’m spending thousands of dollars to have a similar IDX for mortgage rates developed.  Naturally, I want to recoup the thousands as quickly as possible without threatening the customer to the point of having her click away.

I’ve watched people preach expertise about SMM who have never dealt with a bad Yelp rating, never engaged a stranger about their profession on Facebook, and haven’t monitored their blog comments in a year.  We’re all trying to find the highest and best use of our time while providing good content for the stranger who graces our websites with a question.

I want those people to become prospects, then customers, then clients, then sneezing fans but I don’t want to spend all day wired to the laptop or answering questions via e-mail.

Our critical mission is to find out what works and what doesn’t.  Most of the ideas we develop come from questions in these little workshops we do. People ask us questions and Greg and I try to find the answers.  Those answers usually come from you; we Read more

September 6, 2009

BloodhoundBlog.TV (12 Trailers…)

by

Retechulous...

Author website

Set Your RSS DVR. BloodhoundBlog.TV is almost ready to roll. We’ll be announcing the initial channel lineup in the coming days, but for now we dare you to resist the urge to spend the next 30 minutes or so with eyes glued to the 12 “trailers” below…

Click to view each vid in a popup…

[tubepress mode=’playlist’, playlistValue=’C40E2D660311A60F’, resultsPerPage=’40’, description=’false’, thumbHeight=”90′, thumbWidth=’120′, tubepress orderBy=’published’]

September 6, 2009

My NAR tax-credit video: “Tell the National Association of Bloodsucking Vampires to go to hell. It’s where they belong.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Want to know what Realtors can do to help resurrect the American economy? They can get the hell out of the way, that’s what.

Here’s my entry in the Al Lorenz/Don Reedy NAR tax-credit video contest.

Think you can do better? Please do. And tell everyone you know in the media to latch onto this with every tooth they have left in their dainty little lapdog jaws.

This used to be a free country. Whether or not it ever is again depends on what each one of us does now…

September 6, 2009

Queen for a Day

by

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Author website

Stop whatever you’re doing (and in this case you’re reading my post), and make sure you’ve read Al Lorenz’s most recent Pulitzer Prize winning article. Well, technically it’s not a Pulitzer Prize winner, but when you consider this year’s actual Pulitzer winners, I think Al’s expose is as clear thinking, well reasoned and as well penned as some of these touted journalists.

An Al Lorenz and Geno Petro I am not, so what you’re going to get from me is a more visceral playing out of what Al so succinctly writes about in his article.

Greg Swann commented in Al’s post with:

“And: Where is the NAR on all this? Almost always on the side of the expropriation of property rights, of course.”

And now, Greg, Al, and everyone, here’s NAR’s response to this most important, intricate and far reaching debate. I’m calling it “Queen for a Day”, based on an old TV show that used to captivate American TV viewers because of its “Robin Hood” approach to the world around us. Got a problem? We’ll take care of you. Need a helping hand? If you get enough applause (i.e. demonstrate that you need, don’t have, and want), you win.

I couldn’t make this up. Here it is, straight from NAR:

NAR wants YOU to create propaganda for THEM, to use on YOU, to benefit THEM.

Al writes near the end of his article:

“The thing to fear is what is already happening every day in both my neighborhood and yours as our property rights are peeled away by each group of citizens wishing to take something away from the others. Remember the end game when you celebrate the tax credits for home buyers and lobby for more.” (My emphasis)

Will the 1.1 million NAR members play the PR game, or will this group of 1.1 million members rebuke NAR and celebrate, discuss and learn from Al Lorenz and his expose on the government takeover of real estate?

If you’re a NAR representative who was involved in the making and dissemination of the “Let’s Read more

September 5, 2009

Bidding A Tearful Goodbye To An Old Friend

by

Associate Broker

Author website

Sometimes Life’s End Brings Meaning To Life

If you don’t like mushy posts – now is a good time to move along.

Back in the Spring of 1998, my sister was involved in some sort of charity work that prompted her to call me up one day and say, “I’ve found a cat for you!”

“What kind of Siamese cat is it?” I replied.

“Well… it’s not a Siamese cat – but she’s a really cool cat,” she shot back.

“Sis, you know I’m a cat snob…”

“Doug, the cat’s owner is on his deathbed. His family can’t take the cat. He has attended to all of his affairs – and his cat is the last detail he needs to attend to. She’s a really cool cat!” my sister insisted.

So I agreed to take on this full-grown female feline.

When she arrived, my sister couldn’t remember her name – but that didn’t matter. She was big and fat and colored black and white like a Gateway computer box… so I named her Gateway.

I took her to the vet to make sure she was okay, and the vet told me that she thought she was five or six years old at that time – and in good health… other than being rather heavy.

For the first few months, she kept to herself – often hiding under my end tables. When I would try to pick her up, she would hiss at me and act like she would bite me… so I gave her plenty of space – after all, I didn’t know how she had been treated in the past.

I remember the first time I let her go outside… a neighbor was walking his Great Dane, and Gateway ran up to that dog sideways – trying to look as big and menacing as she possibly could – with her fur standing on end. It was truly comical, as she had no claws – and that dog could’ve made an hors d’ oeuvre out of her.

Over the years, Gateway and I became the closest of friends. She asked for very little, but gave in ways that are hard to measure. She Read more

September 5, 2009

The Government takeover of Real Estate is well underway

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

Earlier, there was a discussion of the possibility of a government takeover of real estate brokerages. We had a bit of a lively discussion about the possibility of a governmental takeover of real estate brokerages.  But I’m here to tell you, it will never happen because in the end, the government will have no need for brokerages.

The government takeover of all real estate is already pretty far along.  Growth management, shorelines management, local municipalities, county, state and federal regulations have all taken unprecedented freedoms from landowners and redistributed them to government in the name of the “public.”  Many cities’ zoning codes are in the process of not only defining what uses to allow for land in their jurisdictions but they are implementing design standards that strictly control how such structures must look.  In the county that I live, government already owns 88% of all the land and that percentage is increasing.

Oppressive property taxes in many areas are themselves rent on the land from the government who believes itself to be the true owner.  Don’t pay those taxes and you quickly find out who really owns the land.  Generally based on assessed valuation, property taxes in periods of increasing value are a tax on an unrealized gain to the property title holder who is then taxed on the gain, as both a capital gain and an excise tax, when it is realized.

You may remember a Supreme Court ruling in Kelo vs. City of New London in 2005 that greatly expanded eminent domain to include seizure of privately owned property for redevelopment and resale to other, more politically favored, private owners or developers!  Since that ruling governments can, and have, taken private lands for any reason, including simply selling them to preferred private owners.

The drumbeat continues.  The new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is using Fair Housing laws as justification for new requirements he is placing on cities and developments to provide diversity of housing to obtain a “fully integrated society.”  “New Urbanism” and “Smart Growth” are simply terms for the latest planning fads of social engineering under the guise of “public” 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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