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October 15, 2009

When you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story

Here’s what happened: I had to stop walking because I was sick. You may not know it, but on top of all the other scourges it entails, the state really has it in for itinerants. You may never have wanted to run off to Alabama with a banjo on your knee, but I’d bet you’re more than a bit dismayed to discover that you can’t. Got to have a fixed address, so they can inflict all their precious ‘benefits’ on you.

So I had to stop walking and I had to see a doctor, and of course I couldn’t. I’ve walked myself right out of society, and I have an inkling I may have walked myself right out of the human race. At least that’s the way Nurse Martinetti made me feel.

That’s really her name, but I think she must have married into it. She looked like American Gentry to me, which is to say John Bull white trash six generations from the last capital crime. Short, bottle-blonde with a cut that looks cute on smudged-nosed tomboys, thick through the ankle and the cortex. My guess is she became a nurse because she red-lined the psych profiles for meter-maid.

First, it’s not a doctor’s office, not anymore. It’s a ‘Health Services Cooperative’. We all know what a cooperative is: It’s a place where you go to not get whatever it is you came for. It would make too much sense to stay home, where you already don’t have it. In any case, Nurse Martinetti is charged with making sure that no one gets anything they came for, although they might get stuck (literally!) with quite a lot they’d have sooner done without. But I wasn’t even that (un)fortunate, because I don’t have a fixed address.

Nurse Martinetti gripped her clipboard and said, “What do you mean? How can you not have an address? Everyone has an address. Some people even have two!” She looked at me as if I were something a puppy accidently left on the carpet.

“…,” I said with a shrug.

“Are you homeless?”

“I wouldn’t say so. I sleep Read more

October 15, 2009

Why I write on the Bloodhound Blog….

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website

and on Zillow’s Mortgages Unzipped Blog and on the Straight Talk About Mortgages. I was asked that question the other day and the answer I gave surprised the person who asked it.   I found that intriguing, so I thought I’d share both the question and the answer.

Why do I write on these blogs?   The person who asked it reads a lot of what I write on these blogs and other places, so they know that even though writing comes rather easy for me, I do spend a lot of time on it.

Here’s my answer:

  • I write on these blogs because the mortgage world can be terribly confusing and I want to try to help educate people, and that’s true even in the best of times.
  • I write on these blogs because sharing my understanding and knowledge of what’s happening and what it means helps to elevate the professionalism and expertise of the mortgage and real estate professions.
  • I write on these blogs because we are in horrendously confusing times and the full ramifications of what’s happening won’t be truly felt for decades.
  • I write on these blogs because there are a lot of people who have experienced and are going through severe financial disruptions and need someone to help them understand what’s going on.
  • I write on these blogs because the economy is going through what I believe we’ll see to be “seismic shifts” in consumers attitudes toward credit, saving, investments, banking, and real estate.  I’ve based my entire mortgage career on helping people manage their money wisely and making solid decisions and this is a logical extension of that.

The person who asked the question was surprised at my response.   He said, “I would have guessed that the reason you write on these is to write more loans!”

Have I written more mortgages that I wouldn’t have otherwise?   Yes.   Is that why I’m doing it?   Nope.

And that brings me to the main point of this post.   I’m working on something new.   Let me explain:

  • There are a lot more facets to people’s financial condition than just mortgages.
  • There’s a lot of people who are struggling to understand what’s happening Read more
October 15, 2009

Dead Mac Society: Cupertino, we have a problem…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have a Macintosh IIfx that is old enough to vote and yet still runs perfectly. But just a little while ago, we lost the hard disk in Cathy’s iMac, and this morning my own precious piece of Iridium woke up by not waking up.

I saw some screen noise in my noodling about, so I’m hoping it’s a circuitry issue. That would almost certainly mean that the machine itself is slag, but, as long as the hard disk has survived, all is not lost.

But still… Macs don’t fail. And two Macs don’t fail this close to each other in time.

After Cathy’s machine went south, we added a 2 terrabyte backup server — even though I have never backed up a Macintosh in my life.

Not the end of the world, but this is going to bite a big — and expensive — hole in my day.

October 14, 2009

Howard Brinton : A Chance To Do Something Really, Really Cool.

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

I remember a long time ago, getting Star Power manuals in the mail.  Big, 3 ring binders full of worksheets that I’d work out with fear and trembling.  I remember getting star of the month stuff.

I remember hearing stars, ordinary schmoes like Phil Herman–a former postman talk about what made him separate from the pack.  I was hooked.  There was a formula to this success stuff, and this guy went out and gathered it up.

A collection of excellence was what Star Power was about, formed in the pre-Internet days, largely, maybe a precursor to the Bloodhound Blog of sorts.  In any case, Howard Brinton has been given a most unfavorable prognosis by his doctors.

So, a tribute site popped up, and it’s a place to go and reconnect with the stars, and to leave thoughts and tributes.   There, not here.   Thanks much.

October 14, 2009

Estimate to extend the Home Buyer Tax credit? 16.7 Billion What a Bargain!

by

Realtor, Newlywed

Author website

I was passed along an article today from the WSJ discussing the cost to extend the $8,000 tax credit and to open it to all people purchasing a home would cost $16.7 Billion according to congressional analysts.

The article goes on to state that this is less than expected and could help generate momentum to continue the credit and extend it until June 30th 2010. Wow! That’s only $78,773,585 dollar a day (give or take a million) for the 212 days the extension would be in place.  Additionally this would extend the offer to anyone who wants to buy a home even if it is not their first home. Income limits would be raised to $150,000 for an individual and $300,000 for couples. The senators who are behind this are hoping to attach this to a bill for extending unemployment benefits.

I’m confused here. How on earth can we have a bill in place to extend both unemployment benefits AND a tax credit for anyone to buy a home?

I will admit that I was excited when Washington State was trying to work out a plan to loan the $8,000 tax credit to be used as a down payment. I rushed out and registered a domain name and had visions of more business than I could possibly handle. What happened though really has changed the way I look at the tax credit. First Washington State was not able to find a way to lend the money for use as a down payment.  Second the people that found my site on the tax credit advance were not qualified to buy with or without a tax credit. AND they were upset that it was only $8,000 and had to be repaid. Not a single person I spoke with was in a position to buy a house. Every person was looking for a hand out not a hand up.

Since this awakening I have been slowly building more and more momentum to suggest to my fellow Realtors that the $8,000 tax credit should be allowed to end at midnight November 30th 2009. Any extension is so expensive that Read more

October 14, 2009

Some Updates from the Marble Tower

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

Here are a few pieces of kibble from NAR that I thought the Pound might want to chew on…

 

Pent-up Demand Seen in Purchase-Ready Renters

There are more than 16 million renter households in the U.S. with enough income to buy a home at the national median price, far more than in 2000, before the housing boom, says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. This large number of renters with the financial wherewithal to buy is one indication of the pent-up demand in the housing market that can be tapped if Congress extends the home buyer tax credit. It’s also an indication that the tax credit won’t just be attracting households that would buy anyway. Hear Yun’s remarks on market conditions and the tax credit in an audio podcast.

 

New FHA Condo Process Could Face More Delay
HUD is looking at delays to its new FHA condo approval process. Changes outlined in Mortgagee Letter 2009-19 slated to take effect for case numbers assigned on or after Oct. 1 have been delayed to apply to case numbers assigned on or after Nov. 2, and that start date could be pushed back as well. Other condo rules, including permission for lenders to offer spot loans, remain in effect. NAR continues to press for changes to federal policy to make FHA financing more viable for condos. Among other things, NAR wants a reduction in the owner-occupancy requirement and an increase in or outright elimination of the concentration limit.

 

2008 HMDA Data: FHA Credit Quality Remains High
FHA’s market share of home loan originations expanded to 30 percent while the credit quality of its loans improved, latest federal mortgage data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) finds. In 2008, FHA’s FICO scores increased significantly while loan-to-value (LTV) ratios decreased. More than 60 percent of FHA’s increased purchase volume was to borrowers with prime quality FICO scores (above 660), while FHA insured mortgages with LTVs above 95 percent fell from 72 percent  to 67 percent.

October 14, 2009

My Best Online Find Ever

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Sometime in late 2007 I ran into a guy who wrote weekly articles about the stock market, using what he called a Super Chart. He’s what’s known on Wall Street as a Chartist, a long established school of thought. He was mentored for several years by an iconic chartist whose name escapes me.

Anyway, his name is Max Whitmore, and he’s the real deal — and a half. He’s the most unassuming guy you’d ever wanna talk to. Yet his record is second to none.

The guy hasn’t missed a major market move since 1965. Those who listened to him before this most reason meltdown still have most of their capital. He’s guest posted at BawldGuy Talking the last two Mondays, and will continue to do so until he and I, along with Tom Vanderwell launch our new site.

Here are the links to his first post, and the one this past Monday.

I began talkin’ about Max a couple years ago. Then the national site who carried his posts in subscription form, dropped him. Their loss. Then something began to happen. Whitmore followers all over the country began to email me from my blog asking if I knew where to find him. They’d subscribed to his stuff, and missed him sorely. This went on for a year at least.

Meanwhile Max and I had become email buddies. I let this be known on the blog and the queries intensified. His followers are the poster kids for loyal. Anywho, go take a look. As I said before, Max Whitmore is the real deal.

October 14, 2009

Why the Housing Bubble hit some areas harder than others.

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Randall O’Toole from the Cato Institute, but he’s much better reading than Lawrence Yun.  I was just acquainted with one of his latest works entitled How Urban Planners Caused the Housing Bubble.

If you’re in real estate, it is a must read.  I live in a strict Growth Management state from a public planning perspective.  As a freedom loving individual, it is frustrating.  But this analysis not only talks about the costs of planning, but the volatility it introduces into the market and why.  It compares different policies of various states.

The correlation between planning practices and pricing volatility is uncanny!  Fed policy, the Community Reinvestment Act and other hair brained political practices can’t explain the phenomenon without the inclusion of growth managment into the equation.  The costs for growth managment are also staggering!  For real estate nerds, it is required reading!

October 14, 2009

The passive path to active real estate investment marketing

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I was talking with Jeff Brown on the phone yesterday about how much we depend on passive marketing devices — our Phoenix real estate weblog mainly — to generate new business.

We don’t even do all that much. By now there are much better resources to turn to than me for advice on how to do real estate weblogging. But what we do is consequential, because we are constantly adding to our inventory of hard-headed real estate information.

As an example, I wrote a post this morning on the factors that contribute most to the profitability of Phoenix-area rental home investments. That post in turn supports a basic guide I have prepared on rental home investing in suburban Phoenix.

What am I up to? I’m pre-conditioning future clients, for one thing. I’m sharing a lot of hard-headed information, but I’m also letting them know what it’s going to be like to work with me. In addition, I’m splitting the herd, isolating the people I will want to work with and sending the others packing.

The weblog post will have a future in other locations. I can use the HTML to make a very compelling Craigslist ad. And, in the long run, that post will add to the content on our static real estate investments page.

Here’s the best news: The people I hear from who will have pursued all of this information will come to me pre-sold. I won’t have to cover as much of the basics with them on the phone. They will not have picked up the phone to call me until they had already committed to hearing more of what I have to say. They won’t be slam-dunk conversions, necessarily — investors never are — but their business will be mind to get — or to lose — with no significant competition.

I am not diminishing more active prospecting strategies — much the contrary — but this is the kind of thing that I can set up once that will pay me over and over again. And as others here have noted, the climate for rental home investors in Phoenix just keeps getting better Read more

October 14, 2009

Bucking up is not the answer, and even if it were, it isn’t

by

Raleigh Criminal Lawyer

Author website

In my past life, I worked in public policy. This was a pretty much disheartening experience because, whether you’re on the left, right or center, you’ll be disappointed. It’s almost never the case that policymakers (read: politicians) want to make good policy. The policies they do enact are mishmashed compromises sweetened by special interest giveaways. That’s just the logic of politics.

One of the things you frequently hear is that the economy is all psychology. That if people would just be in a better mood, they’d spend more, and then we’d get the Good Ship America righted and back under sail. That’s not so.

More accurately, while there are psychological aspects to economic activity, simply telling people to buck up and get back out there is not a recipe for anything other than talking to yourself in the middle of the night.

You can’t will a country (or a world) out of a recession anymore than government can spend its way out of a recession. There is a psychology to a recession, but there is also a logic to a recession. And that logic is economic.

The problem with the recent bubble is that it was massive and massively inflated. Unlike the tech bubble of 2000-1, this bubble was wide-ranging, affecting not only the real estate market, but the equity markets as well. In addition, because an awful lot of real resources had shifted across the country into building homes and owning homes, this bubble was far wider in scope, affecting many tens of millions more people, than a tech bubble that was regionally isolated and industry specific.

So yes, people are psychologically depressed. But, you know, between 10 and 18 percent of people are unemployed, depending on how the government has cooked the books, so telling them to “buck up” is kind of missing the point. Even if people could “buck up,” we don’t want them to. Recent spending by both individuals and the government has been entirely debt financed. Getting people out there to spend again does them no good.

This bubble Read more

October 13, 2009

The (last) Amend

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

The Notion

In my dream I’m always gasping for air; as if the trillion or so cubic inches of ozone I’ve already blown through in my lifetime somehow counts for nothing.  I awake, step over the dog, and scramble downstairs in my boxers in search of a physical remedy to a metaphysical dilemma. Something is bothering me and I can’t quite place my finger on it. Life is short and, on this crisp autumn eve, I’m clearly too underdressed to even be considering my last breath.  Our fifteen-year old cat follows close behind, his own mousy demons no doubt,  in tow as well.

‘Dear God, please don’t let me die with money in my portion of the Charles Schwab account,’ I think as I root through the herbal medicine cabinet,  next to the dishes, above the microwave.  ‘That’s what the Prudential life insurance policy in the house safe is for,’ I obsess. It’s an odd recurring thought, I realize. Just being forthcoming.

We keep no real drugs in our house.

Ginkgo Biloba, Paranil, Senna, Licorice Root. Green Tea, White Tea, Black Tea…where the fck is the Alka Seltzer?

Over the years I’ve developed an internal ON/OFF switch of sorts; a requirement for any man whose livelihood  simultaneously hinges on rejection yet somehow also depends on the act of a total stranger purchasing something of considerable value; house, condo, etc…. every month. It’s an Acceptance thing, I’ve learned. This emotional circuit breaker has, for a long time,  assisted me in affairs of the heart,  finance,  most of  the Deadly Sins—Fear, Greed, Anger, etc… not to mention social and personal guilt.  And in case you haven’t  been following the box scores at home this season,  I’ve been in the OFF mode for a while now.

thankyouverymuchhaveanicedaybiteme….next

Over time I’ve learned to appreciate  the next ‘Next‘  in life—I just haven’t learned not to  eat Mexican food before retiring for the evening or found a way to avoid the night scares that have startled me ever since that stupid monster began squatting in my childhood closet at 39 Vineyard Road in Levittown.  And as my Life flickers before me this particular night, Read more

October 12, 2009

“Leading” With Listings, Systematically Getting (A Few Clicks) From Twitter, And Using Some Lazy Math To Justify The Effort…

by

Retechulous...

Author website

So, it looks like the Twitter.Com/229RockGlen account is generating 3-7 clicks/day back to the web page linked from the profile. I think I can see how an agent with 10 or more listings might start to see some results employing the 1 Twitter account per property approach.

I mean, why not multiply the 3-7 clicks daily by 10 and call it a potential extra 50 visitors a day, right? Or maybe 20 such accounts could yield 100 extra visitors a day.

And lets say 3% of these visitors opt in to some sort of lead capture on your site. Maybe they consent to receive your latest videos… Ok, so if you’ve got 20 listings, each with it’s own twitter account, then you could potentially generate 3 * 30 = 90… I’ve been rough with the numbers here, so let’s just call the 90, 100. 🙂

And let’s say most agents with an inventory that large could convert 1 in 100 opts to a commission sometime in the next year….Average Sales Price $200,000 …. GCI 5000?

Time spent setting up the twitter accounts – 20*15 minutes each = 5 hours….

I don’t know…

A System For Using Twitter With Measurable ROI?

I guess what I’m saying is maybe I’ve figured out a process for configuring twitter to increase sales in an almost measurable way. That is, assuming you’re confident a set percentage of visitors to your site will opt in to something…

Steps:

1. Create a Twitter Account for Each Property Listing.

2. Make sure your website in the twitter profile links back to the property or page on your site.

3. Drop a few tweets about the property. Beds, baths, square footage, “I am way overpriced..” just a few things to give the twitter account some content.

4. Use this juicy affiliate link, to fire up a Tweetspinner Account.

5. Configure Tweetspinner to automatically follow other tweeters who might be interested in your property/area specific twitter account. (For example, anyone who tweets the words “south street” might be interested in your Philly real estate listing.)

6. Wait for eventual clicks from the twitter account to your blog/lead capture Read more

October 12, 2009

Capture Appreciation and Cash Flow

by

Real Estate Investor

Author website

The advantage of investing in today’s market is the potential to capture appreciating assets that provide strong cash flow. These investments are the holy grail of real estate investing. In strong markets, these properties simply don’t exist, but in down markets, a smart investor can pick out these diamonds among the rough.

Consider the price declines in many areas of the US. Housing prices in the strongest metro areas like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, etc. have dropped in the double digits. But what have rents done over that same time period. Honestly, they have dropped as well, but not nearly as much. Rents did not experience the same run up in values as home prices because renting or owning is a zero sum game. As more renters decided to become owners, owners of rental units had to lower or at the very least not increase their rental rates. Rent growth slowed and owner-occupied values soared.

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. Many buyers are returning back to the rental market by choice or by force. Rents are still experiencing some stress because of the increased inventory of rental units and shadow rental units (people renting their home or rooms because they cannot sell). Renters are moving back home with their families or doubling up. Despite these negative signs, rents should not be expected to decline at the pace or to the degree of the housing market.

This presents an interesting opportunity to buyers of small multifamily or single family homes as rentals. Areas that made no sense to buy for rentals now make sense again. Some areas in LA, San Diego, New York City, etc. should be re-examined. Buyers in these markets have a rare opportunity to buy cash flowing properties with the prospects of double digit appreciation. Even if that appreciation doesn’t come back for five to seven years, the buyer has the luxury to wait because of the cash flow coming off the properties.

The combination of low interest rates, level rents and Read more

October 12, 2009

Digital Access Pass: A Membership Site/CRM

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

I have–as a lot of people know–been searching high and low for a workable CRM for my business. I miss desperately the easy fun that was ACT 6.0, and hated every version after that.

I tried Highrise, but it lacked “activity serieses” at the time, schedule once, do often.   I tried HEAP, and while it has suitable features, a great developer and a good ethos, the interface was not one I could think of.

Infusionsoft was an utter rip-off.  Staffed by the same types that brought Option Arms to all of the west with nonchalance, Infusionsoft was expensive, it has a bad interface, and worst of all, you have to adopt to it.  In 20 months of being self employed, Infusionsoft was the only thing that made me feel like somebody’s bitch.  The sales staff lied about its capacity “out of the box,” and the employees that ran it wanted to teach me something about being an entreprenuer, condescendingly selling me coaching.

Still, I think that the $700 I spent was worth it just to learn some slight of hand.  The marketing was so good, so emotionally connecting that I believed, despite evidence to the contrary that they cared.   So, the lesson learned was hire a copywriter so good that you feel happy to have been ripped off, and hopeful despite evidence to the contrary.

I’ve been playing with a lot of membership site software.  And, on Twitter, a tweet about WP-Wishlist got a clever guy following me, the developer of a piece of software called Digital Access Pass. DAP is not without its flaws.  It’s not yet perfect.   But, the structure and the thought behind it is, and it’s going to power a large bit of my customer service for the foreseeable future.

Dap sees things as “product” oriented.  Each product has a group of files and emails that are sequentially released to the customer at an arbitrary interval.  Day 1, email one, file one.  Day 2, email 2, file two.  Etc.

I emailed Ravi, and suggested one feature: that the “emails” that go out can be sent to an arbitrary address, defined on each 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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