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July 15, 2009

Just had to share this….

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

I was doing some research today and came across an article on Realtor.org from 12-01-2006 about The Top 25 Most Influential Thought Leaders in Real Estate. After a list of 25  builders of the status quo, they had a runner-up list of 15.

Robert Schiller made that list, here is the “why”:

Got big media coverage equating rising real estate prices with the tech bubble, but we haven’t heard the pop yet.

Robert Shiller scored instant media celebrity when his 2000 book, Irrational Exuberance, predicted the tech bubble’s explosion just weeks before the fact. Four years later, when he tried to apply the same principles to the real estate boom, he found out that all investments don’t behave alike. Shiller contended that rising home prices weren’t based in the fundamentals of population growth and supply and demand; they were bubbles, destined to pop.

To the contrary, NAR economists predicted that market slowdowns would largely be gradual—a trend that’s playing out today. Shiller’s failed bubble scenario demonstrates that sometimes even smart guys get it wrong.

Yeah, and sometimes economists who work for the status quo get it SO wrong it makes you laugh out loud.

By December 2006, wasn’t it already becoming clear that sub-prime was a the tip of the iceberg? The Kool Aid must have been strong at Realtor.org for them to tempt fate so blatantly.

July 14, 2009

On Mortgages and Moral Compunction

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

What would it take for you to walk away from your mortgage?

Kenneth Harney, in his column Nation’s Housing, reports on an interesting study recently done by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  This study took a look at homeowner’s attitudes toward mortgage defaults, specifically what’s come to be called “strategic” walkaways or decisions to bail on a mortgage due to purely economic reasons.  The study found that “26% of the record number of home mortgage defaults across the country” were strategic – the homeowner had the ability to pay the mortgage but chose not to because the debt was greater than the asset.  In other words, one in four of the current foreclosures is not due to hardship, but rather a lack of compunction.

My partner and mortgage rate expert, Brian Brady, has for some time now railed against the disappearance of moral compunction with regard to mortgages.  His contention, as I understand it, is that moral compunction was  priced into the model by lenders.  There has historically been a stigma attached to not paying one’s debts, especially one’s home mortgage debt.  This may or may not be true; I am no expert on the history of mortgage defaults in our nation, but it is certainly compelling.  If accurate, the obvious question then becomes: to what degree did moral compunction affect rates and if it is indeed gone, how much higher will rates go?

There is no real mystery to how mortgage rates are priced.  Mathematicians create models of mortgage “behavior” based on the 4 C’s: Capacity, Capital, Collateral and Credit.  Of these four, Credit is really what we’re talking about here.  Your income, your assets and the property’s value are theoretically objective but your credit… well, it’s not really credit that’s being measured here is it?  It’s your Character; your likelihood to honor your debts, although lenders don’t like to say that because it has a snooty, superiority quality.  Make no mistake though, character is most definitely being evaluated during the loan process.   So the question seems to be: How do these Read more

July 14, 2009

Viable Business Models ….

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

After reading through John Rowles’ post about Glenn turning things profitable. (Hope that sticks for you Glenn, way to go.) And reading Michelle’s comment, where she rightly noted that Glenn has made changes to his model to get profitable, I thought some further comment is in order.

When I raise my glass to toast Glenn’s accomplishment, I am toasting HIM, and not his business model. Of course he has made changes (in my opinion–they were needed). Yes, he made a hugely difficult decision to cut staff in order to GET profitable. He made many other changes as well that were equally crucial.

It was countless moves that many others in his shoes might not have done and it was agonizing (I am sure) for him at times.

There have been numerous firms that have gone under trying to see “how low they can go”…commission limbo is VERY hard on the dancers as opposed to selling value. Looks easy, but it ain’t. How many caracasses of those companies have we seen strewn along the way.

After reading Rowles’ post I then flipped over to Joost De Valk’s post on his blog about the business model for WordPress and how theme developers vs plugin developers are being treated.

He argues that there should be commercially supported plugins (read: not free) as well as free plugins (GPL- or gnu public license) on the WordPress plugins site.

I agree.

Plugin developers (if they are good enough to develop commercially viable plugins SHOULD be able to charge and charge what the market will bear.) Those who want to work for FREE are able to do so. (They will starve.)

In my own business at EricOnSearch, I have used several models (started with full service SEO, then went to Coaching, and now emphasize joint ventures with select partners).

There are lead generators out there who are profitable and there are many who never will be and will die or sell out due to lack of cash. (How’s the burn rate, fellas?)

I guess the bottom line is this. I like freedom. I like people who succeed. I celebrate profitability. (and there are some profitable lead Read more

July 13, 2009

Redfin Turns a profit

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

Mention “Redfin” to many real estate traditionalistas and among the “Yeah, buts…”  the closer is usually, “Yeah, but they aren’t profitable.”

That is no longer the case.

Congratulations, Glenn.

As we ponder the future of this business,  the impact that technology is having and will have, and why it is taking so long to see real change, Redfin’s success proves that, sooner or later, money talks and bullshit lets its license expire.

July 12, 2009

Halfway Through The Year (And Then Some) What Next?

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

[[Crm notes: OK, I’m not gonna give a green light to Infusionsoft, not yet.  I HAAAATE the interface. But… there are triggers & action sequences that do a lot.  It might be the real deal.  This said, especially since they are ditching or have ditched most of their upfront fees.]]

So we’re smack dab in the middle of july.  5.5 months left in this year.

How’s it going?

Making enough?   Was talking to Tim and Alexis McGee the other day.  They tell me that loads of Realtors are not chasing dreams and in are survival mode.  But, that they don’t wanna leave the business that’s not making enough anymore.

Look, 5.5 months are left.  165 days.  120 workdays.  Tick Tock.

Time is the enemy right now.  And not go go all Purcell and Brady on you, but is it gonna be EASIER, EVER to build wealth than it is today?  Tick Tock.

How many closings have you had?  If you double it, is it enough?  If it’s not, what will you do differently to get more business in the door?   Tick Tock.

Most of the industry, like it or not, makes it harder to do deals past Thanksgiving.  There are 137 days till then.  And only 106 work days, based on a 5.5 day workweek.   Tick Tock.

Now, I’m saying this because we gotta be cognizant every day that it’s go time.  Time is finite.  It’s every one’s tendency to spend some time, “planning to get ready.” Tick Tock.

Now is ready time.

Every month has an excuse not to do jack in real estate sales:

  • January- “All my clients Just got over the holidays.”
  • February- “All my clients Waiting for the spring rush.”  (Deus ex machina).
  • March- “All my clients are getting their houses ready.  Mmm doggie, summer’s gonna RAWK!”
  • April- “All my clients are waiting for summer.”
  • May- “All my clients are priced too high.”
  • June- “All my clients are expecting a deal that just doesn’t exist.”
  • July= “All my clients are on vactation.”
  • August= “None of my clients want to take their kids out in the middle of a school year.”
  • September- “You can’t get ahold of anyone around labor day.”
  • October- “This fall is unseasonably cold.”
  • November- Read more
July 12, 2009

Some questions about using DocuSign for electronic signatures

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’ve avoided DocuSign because ZipForms was so terrible in the Mac world. While the new implementation is not great, it’s better. And as kludgey and expensive as DocuSign seems, I really, really want electronic signatures.

But I have questions:

1. Can I use DocuSign to do my “broker oversight” signatures? That’s not a legal question. I’m just asking, is it possible?

2. If I receive a document — say a counter-offer — from another DocuSign-using Realtor, can I use DocuSign to get my client’s signature on that document?

3. Same question, but just an ordinary PDF? How about an ordinary fax?

4. What about added documents? We do a lot in the way of extended additional clauses, especially on listings, with each version of those clauses being unique. Is it possible to add our own forms in a DocuSign envelope?

5. What do you love about DocuSign?

6. What do you hate about it?

I’m grateful for any insights you can offer.

July 12, 2009

Sunday Morning Musings

by

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Author website

Try not to forget the simple – the majestic – the pure

My wife and I recently learned, though we had very strong suspicions before, that Beth’s dad has Alzheimer’s. He’s forgetting everything now. Not just things mundane, but things that I’m pretty sure he desperately would never want to forget.

David McGregor is his name. You’ll forget it, of course, in just a matter of hours. His life was exemplary up until now by most standards. Farm boy. World War II navigator in the Pacific. Shot at. Emotionally tried. Grown up before the full bloom of youth had passed. Husband. Father. Engineer. Farmer. Christian. Words that we only really come to know by watching men like him live their lives. Men we only come to know by watching them fail, sin, prosper, behave like saints and embrace life.

So I was musing this Sunday. Wondering what I’ve forgotten, who I’ve forgotten.

The disease we call Alzheimer’s will no longer be a stranger to either Beth or myself, just as other diseases are no longer strangers in your own homes, families and friends. Amongst the Bloodhound men and women are these very same quiet bearers of either a disease or the weight of sharing that disease with a loved one.

So I was musing today, this Sunday, and I wanted to stop for a short time to let all of you, anyone reading who loves and bears and carries a burden know….

I won’t forget. Not on this Sunday morning coming down…..

July 11, 2009

What drives your fear of flying solo?

by

Realtor, Indie Broker

Author website

airplane wing & fluffy white clouds on a beautiful blue dayIn my endless quest to dispel the many myths surrounding what it takes to thrive as an independent broker, I’ve compiled a list of the top ten ways agents deceive themselves into thinking that they can’t – or shouldn’t – set up shop on their own.

1. Creating a “sense of community”

Unless you’re actively recruiting, the last thing you probably need to be doing is hanging out at an office chit-chatting with other agents. Sure there’s endless entertainment and comic relief swapping horror stories and real estate tips and yes, you’re building rapport with other agents that could help a future deal go more smoothly than otherwise. But let’s face it, ultimately you’re just wasting time. If you need to create a sense of community, being active in your local community is a far better, more authentic, alternative. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or another cause you have a passion for. Create a true sense of belonging while building a meaningful network of contacts outside of – but related to – real estate. If you want contact with other agents use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and ActiveRain to interface with agents outside your market. You may even find you feel freer to share with those who aren’t your direct competition and with whom you may wind up being able to refer business to in the future.

2. Access to real estate expertise

Early in my career I did several transactions involving options to sell that only one broker in my company knew how to handle. Since there is an endless number of ways that transactions can evolve, there are many experienced, competent brokers who don’t know or who don’t have all the answers. That’s one of the most attractive things about real estate, in my opinion. Never a dull moment. Granted, I don’t advise anyone to go out on their own until they have a critical mass of transactions under their belt. For me personally I felt that number was about 100 transactions (five years) but your mileage may vary. I am always shocked when people with six months or a Read more

July 10, 2009

Finding Perfection in Real Estate

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Earlier this week I was watching some old reruns of M*A*S*H.  What a well done series that was; funnier the first few years than it was later, in my opinion, because they got more political.  But the later years did give us a terrific character: Major Charles Emerson Winchester III.  Do you remember this guy?  What a pompous ass he was.  Speaking of pompous asses, why am I spending your valuable time reminiscing about a sitcom?  Good question, but I’ve got an even better answer.

I’m a big believer in being present.  If you’ve read any of my stuff or heard me speak, then you already know this.  As a matter of fact, if you’re anything like the agents I meet out here, you might even be tired of hearing it.  You might find the whole topic a little touchy-feely.  “There goes Sean again.  He might be a debonair, handsome, witty, intelligent, entertaining, man-of-action; but I’m tired of the Zen-happiness thing.  (I took a little license imagining what your thought about me might be;  you might not actually find me debonair…)  So today I’m going to sneak a little happiness in on you using pop culture: M*A*S*H to be specific.

Back to Major Charles Emerson Winchester III; as much of a buffoon as he was, the writers also gave him some of the most interesting lines.  I’m thinking of two in particular.  During one of his character’s early episodes, by way of explaining himself to the other doctors, he says, “I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, then I move on.”  That’s a great line isn’t it?  “I do one thing at a time…” sounds like someone who is present.  Someone who is focused on what he’s doing right then and there.  So far, so good.  “I do it very well…”  Hmmm, a little ego coming in here;  not so much about being present as it is being recognized by others for his accomplishments.  “Then I move on.”  OK, so now we see that he’s not really present at all.  He’s thinking about the next thing, but before Read more

July 8, 2009

San Diego dogs: When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to San Diego during the NAR Convention, will you be ready to stand up and howl?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

When we wrapped up BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, Brian Brady and I were already talking about doing an event in San Diego during the National Association of Realtors Convention. Since then, we’ve both gotten really busy, which makes planning for anything difficult.

But: We’re both bursting with lots of new ideas. Brian was regaling me on the phone tonight with some incredible viral conversion ideas. I know that Teri Lussier wants me to talk about persuasive copy, but right now I’m more interested in the persuasive power of the elephant in the room. Plus which, there are a lot of Bloodhounds we can call upon to talk to us about what they’ve been doing.

As with last year’s Unchained in Orlando, the NAR has attempted to lock up every possible meeting space, and, as with last year, they’ve failed to lock us out.

My question is this: When we come to town, who is coming with us? What we’re going to do is a one-day event, an all-day marathon of ideas. I’m inclined to support freedom-loving people everywhere, so we might also stage an adhocratic mastermind session while we’re there — partly a scenius, partly a demonstration of the intellectual mettle of this little apartnership we have going. When the Bloodhounds howl, criminals and cockroaches run for cover.

This is just running a flag up the pole to see who salutes. The price is $100 for the one-day event, and, if you make the commitment, we’ll give you a $100 break on the price of our next full conference in Phoenix. If you want to join us, click the PayPal button below.

Click on the PayPal button shown below to get your $100 ticket for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in San Diego on Friday, November 13th, 2009


















Here’s a real kick in the head: I will turn 50 years old that weekend. If you’re in town with us Friday, we’ll cut you a piece of birthday cake.

July 8, 2009

What’s the End Goal To be?

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

I’ve been migrating all of my data to Infusionsoft  lately.   A little at a time.  Easy does it.  One list, suck it in, de dupe it, and on with the next.  Tag it.   Infusionsoft is powerful stuff.  A good tool.  I hate the counterintuitive interface.  I hate the fact that you can’t ‘tag’ people at account creation without saving.  I hate the fact that the Usability Team was likely ignored.  And I hate their customer service, which is of the same ethos as big boiler room refi shops from 2004.   That’s all I’m gonna say.  There are things to hate about it, just like there are things to hate about ACT!, Heap, and whatever CRM Mark Green whips out.

But, all that aside, Infusionsoft does a lot right.  It combines an auto-responder, some analytics, a project manager and a goal tracker in the same spot.  It tells you what to do, step by step.   And you can set up smart workflows for different things.  Right now, I’m underusing it.

What it taught me was a fundamental weakness in my business.  Before I can sell, before I can scale, I have to create a coherent, robust & predictable customer experience.  Meaning this: when I send people to a web page, or offer, Infusionsoft strongly suggests I know what happens next.  And in my nascent business, selling blogs and social media propagation, I don’t know what happens next.   I haven’t engineered a good enough customer experience to throw a bunch of customers at it.  Yet.  I’m tons closer today than I was yesterday, and this weekend was “what I want to happen time.”

But there’s the rub: most CRMs fill a leaking bucket.  You throw some autoresponders and newsletters at people, and yeah, they’ll perform.  The efficiency loss is never addressed:  what happens when you make a sale.

And the other one: most people, especially D’s hate to be scripted.  They hate to feel like they’re on some assembly line that they do not control.   I lose time, personally, not in my ability to sell and market but because I have so many points that need to Read more

July 6, 2009

Why Web 2.0 Still Hasn’t Mastered the Real Estate Mantra: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

So Goggle thinks it’s going to win the real estate search game.  As far as I’m concerned, there is no more meaningless a result in an online property search than a red pin designating the location of a property on a map.  Take the map above in the example – a snapshot of the the greater New York City area with little red dots designating search results.  New York’s a big city with alot of little neighborhoods.  Help me understand how this solution is any better than any of the others? How has Google upped the ante in providing a better solution?

They haven’t.

What I find interesting about the online search game is how many players fail to understand what makes a particular property unique – desirable – a one of a kind.  How does a little red dot convey the weighty significance of LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION?  I just read Joe Burslem’s post over at FOREM, regarding how Google is now getting serious about real estate.

Should Zillow and Trulia be worried?  Not if they view search as a value added activity.  SEO juice isn’t necessarily the fuel that runs an effective or valuable search.  The content around the search is key.  What makes a location important?  When consumers seek a home – not a house – what evokes the emotional response?  A view?  The possibility of walking to a farmer’s market on Sunday, while passing a Starbucks?

A street view is a “window” into a location, but it doesn’t define it’s personality.  Location has an identity.  Zillow has already done the homework to identify the boundaries to neighborhoods.  Perhaps a valuable next step may be to better identify a neighborhood’s identity – its personality – or maybe link the characteristics of a location to the attributes of a property.

If a search result can personify a property’s location, consistent with how a consumer lives, the red pin comes alive.  Search is meaningful.

Google – you’ve got your work cut out for you.

July 2, 2009

Rotarian Socialism in action: Taking lessons from the NAR and the NAMB, Wal-Mart is using compulsory health insurance as a weapon to destroy its smaller competitors

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Today is July the Second, the date of the actual drafting of the Declaration of Independence. By now the United States is just another National Socialist oligarchy, a savage jungle of predatory pressure groups, each one looking to plunder the national treasury at the expense of all the others, each one hiding behind an elaborate camouflage of high-blown rhetoric.

Whatever the putative purpose of some piece of legislation, the actual purpose is to advantage some pressure groups to the disadvantage of others. The putative purpose and the high-blown rhetoric are for the children — for the dumb-ass voters, that is — while the legislators and the lobbyists know that its all a matter of getting in enough snout-time at the public trough.

Freedom means freedom from government — nothing else. We trade our freedom away a drop at a time, like a never ending blood transfusion, never pausing to think that the pigs at the trough might not stop at just a little blood, might not stop at the replacement rate, might not stop until every drop of blood, every dollar of excess production and every last liberty of the American people are completely exsanguinated.

The American patriots bellowed, “No taxation without representation!” We have since learned that this actually means, “We yearn to be fools and jackals in our own behalf!” And the cackle we deliver up to black humor is a premonitory death rattle. For it is obvious that the man being taxed is not represented, and the man with his snout in the taxpayer’s trough is represented in ways you know nothing about.

Consider this atrocity of Wal-Mart’s, a company once deserving of great respect, brought to us by Cato @ Liberty:

A couple of years ago, I shared a cab to the airport with a Wal-Mart lobbyist, who told me that Wal-Mart supports an “employer mandate.”  An employer mandate is a legal requirement that employers provide a government-defined package of health benefits to their workers.  Only Hawaii and Massachusetts have enacted such a law.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Wal-Mart is a capitalist success story.  At the time of our conversation, Read more

July 1, 2009

Follow me on this; I hope Cap & Trade passes for all our sakes!

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

american-flagDo I really want the Cap & Trade lunacy, its huge loss of freedoms and destruction that will be wrought to the economy, including the real estate industry?  No, not really.  But I think it might be better than the alternative.

Because WHAT I WANT is for Americans to WAKE UP!  I think Cap & Trade, HR 2454, may be just the ticket.

Surely, this will wake people up to what is happening!  Skyrocketing energy costs, tax hikes, economic stagnation or worse and the nanny state in places it should never have been considered.  Won’t that be enough to wake folks up?

I’m very concerned about what it might take to get the public to finally understand.  Has public education wrought us a feckless population that has turned off their brains and are simply cannon fodder for smooth talking thieving politicians?  Has that been the end game all along?  There aren’t too many places left in the world to go where capitalism is still valued.  When the U.S.A. is taking a more socialist stance than the People’s Republic of China on economic intervention, I have to wonder how folks have lost appreciation for why America is great.

So, back to Cap & Trade, or “Clean Energy” or whatever con they’re calling it.  You see, I figure Cap and Trade can be made to go away pretty quickly.  Sure, it will set us back and cost us just like the still to be spent stimulus money will cost us.  Call it tuition for the American public whose memory is so far gone they can’t even remember back to Jimmy Carter.  Again I digress, but that lesson was good enough to get us Ronald Reagan at the time.

What won’t be so easy to make go away is nationalized health care.  I don’t think the lobbies that would support keeping Cap & Trade in place would be anything like the uproar that would occur if Nationalized Health Care, if it happens, has to be reduced or dismantled.  So, I would rather have the populace figure out what a bad deal this whole socialist thing is with energy than 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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