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April 13, 2009

“Let’s just say that Jim and Dustin are going to be working on a secret project…”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

…and it’s called “Dining on your dime.”…

Eighty-two comments as I write this, and not one Active Rainier can enunciate the obvious: The emperor is naked.

My take, for what it’s worth: The new hires are charged with the duty of lining up yet another sucker to buy Active Rain. It could work, too. There is no better time to buy tech companies than when they’re going broke. Dandle ’em long enough and you can buy whatever value remains for pennies on the dollar. There won’t be much to pick over among the bones, but there comes a point in life when dinner is a daily dilemma.

Now if you feel an urge to post a snippy comment about how cruel this all is, take a moment to reflect that I told you exactly what was going on with Active Rain when everyone else was lying to you. The world works the way it works no matter how much you’d rather it did not. When Inman or Trulia or Active Rain buy up big-name real estate webloggers, what they’re actually buying is you.

Breathe deep. There’s a clue in the air. If you get lucky, you just might catch it…

April 13, 2009

Facebook Advice… Straight From the Buck’s Mouth

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

One of the interesting things about reading cutting edge, real estate thinkers here and elsewhere is how, every now and then, we miss the forest for all the trees.  I think you know what I’m saying: someone will post about a new technology or share an idea or reveal a new twist or just plain inspire and the conversation will take off.  Pretty soon, an ol’ balloon-popper like Jeff Brown will wander by and yell through the ivory-framed window: “Hey!  Skinned any cats lately?”  Then he’ll pick up his pelt bag and head down to the bank.

I saw this last week on a great post by Mark Green, who wrote a piece called Please Get Out of My Face(book) that touched on some good rules of thumb for the best use of social media tools like Facebook.  There were some pretty interesting comments and the conversation expanded on some of the ideas in Mark’s post.  Then, a couple days after the comments ended, a new comment went up.  It was late and it was overlooked and it reminded me how often we resemble less a cat skinner and more Elmer Fudd in the cartoon where he’s so busy getting ready to go deer hunting – talking about how great it’s going to be with Porky Pig and sharing his newest, shiniest gizmo – that he doesn’t notice the 12 point buck meander right past the cabin.

Laura Evans wrote the comment.  For purposes of full disclosure: I’ve known Laura in the real world for some time.  Here’s her comment (I’ve edited for length & the emphasis is mine):

Mark makes some great points about how to use Social Networking tools.  I’m not in the Facebook game for marketing purposes, purely social for me.  However if I were, I think my strategy for this powerful tool would be slightly different.

First, I would establish a goal.  In your world, I presume it would be to build your sphere of influence to sell.  So, if the majority of your FB “friends” are in your industry (isn’t LinkedIn a better tool for Read more

April 12, 2009

Tony Hawk Rocks Twitter With Easter Egg Hunt

by

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

Author website

If you don’t know who Tony Hawk is,  you either:

  1. aren’t a “skater”
  2. don’t have teenage boys
  3. don’t have kids that watch Zach and Cody

I hadn’t been on Twitter in a couple of months so I checked out my Tweet stream the other day.  I don’t know how I found him but I saw @tonyhawk and decided to follow him (he’s local).   I logged into Twitter again tonight to follow back people following me.

In my Tweet Stream was a message from @tonyhawk.  As I scrolled down, I noticed that he was having an “Easter Board Deck Hunt“.  Tony autographed skateboards, hid them around the country, and was “tweeting” clues for people to hunt them down.  Tweetpics of lucky kids in NYC, LA, NorCal,  and TX were popping up.  Then, I saw this Tweet, from @tonyhawk:

  1. http://twitpic.com/38w0b – NOBODY knows where Del Mar Skate Ranch was!!?? I’m sad. Well here is another picture clue.

I started thinking that I recognized that picture; it was near Pelly’s Mini Golf. I googled “Del Mar Skate Ranch” and found out that it was less than a mile from my house.  Immediately, I clicked through to the twitpic clues, grabbed my wife and daughter, and hopped in the car to find the elusive Tony Hawk board deck.  When we arrived at the site of the old skate park, a dozen fathers and their kids were running out of their cars and hunting through the vacant lot.

I didn’t find the last Easter board deck; a cute kid around my daughter Maggie’s age did.  It was a fun and frenzied hour.

What can we learn from this? Tony Hawk has some 300,000 followers on Twitter.  Can you imagine using his celebrity in your promotional efforts?  How about someone else?  I once suggested that Shawna Ebersole recruit Peyton Manning to promote her new site.  What if he “tweeted” links to it, once a month? (he’d have to sign up first)

Shaq tweets.  Perhaps Greg Swann could have  arrange for Shaq to sit an open house with him to sign autographs.  If Shaq tweeted the address to his 600,000 followers, the place would be swamped.  Okay… Read more

April 11, 2009

Wanna Piss Off The RE.net? Succeed with Online Sales Letters

by

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

Author website

I forgot how much I love Copyblogger.  Greg Swann is echoing its posts on a scene in the sidebar.  I just clicked over to the one which explains that the death of ugly long-copy is overexaggerated.  That article links to an article that asks “Is Your Tribe Holding You Down?”  When you read about “the Cool Kids”, does it remind you of the RE.net?  A few wealthy tech guys and a whole lotta bloggers with a real estate license, pontificating about how consumers “might” behave.

Then there’s the “IM crowd” who remind me a whole bunch of the BHBU grads.  Speaking of which, where are all the BHBU graduates lately? I think I know the answer to that because I’ve talked to a lot of them on the phone.  The BHBU grads are JUST like the “IM” crowd Copyblogger talks about; they’re hella busy.

If  you’re all worked up, you can skip the rest of this rant and yell at me.  Otherwise, keep reading

THIS burns my ass- agents and originators marketing the way the “cool kids” tell them to rather than doing what they KNOW works.

Take a look at this.

“EEEEWWWWWWWW” says the RE.net (usually over on ActiveRain).

Okay…but what about this?  This agent is using long copy techniques in a her video.   Is what she is doing much different than this?

Check this! This Unchained graduate is  inviting people to register for free homebuyer education courses (and building a HUGE opt-in database).  If you think he’s a genius, he’s not.  He ripped a page from the Dan Kennedy playbook.  (Scott will admit that, too- ask him in a few weeks at Unchained)

Here’s another example of ugly marketing.  I don’t know how many agents have told me that they have inventory problems.  Could you turn to CraigsList to find properties, that aren’t listed,  for your buyers?  Before you criticize the messenger, consider the message.  Few agents reverse prospect for home buyers.  While we talk about single property websites, nobody is discussing single-buyer websites.   Think old-school cover letters, accompanied with offers, to tug at the heartstrings of hard-hearted sellers…on the internet.

Which is more important to Read more

April 11, 2009

A fertility celebration from a dying city

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

An Easter egg hunt in Dayton Ohio?

There is a name for it: Detroitification. The slow urban decay and decline that leaves once glorious buildings to crumble into a state beyond disrepair. What do we do with abandoned buildings? Neglected neighborhoods? Desolate cities? This is not rhetorical, I’m asking a real question. We don’t know the answer. Bloodhound Realty would like us all to move to Phoenix. Sorry Odysseus, that ain’t happening.

I love my little city. Somewhat dejected, and neglected, and confused as it is, it’s home. It’s got an ebb and flow here that I get. It’s got a history that ebbs and flows through my blood and drives my heart and focuses my mind. It’s part of me and Phoenix will never be part of me. Or San Diego. Or any other boom town.

If you bailed out of flyover country as soon as you were mobile, you won’t understand why I would choose to live here. Without sun half the year. With the possibility of snow for 4 months. With an uncertain future for the city. Why? Why not move to where the sun shines so often you only notice when it isn’t there? Or jobs are so plentiful you are shocked at the first round of layoffs. Boo hoo. Yer best bud has to make his own damn coffee? Man up, Sparky, things are tough all over.

Dayton is a few months from double digit unemployment. We don’t flinch at this news. We aren’t boo hooing into our Starbucks, we are rolling up our sleeves. We know what y’all don’t know- that things change and you can be happy and you can survive, and there’s life and love and joy and home is any damn place you call home.

If Detroitification is your darkest fear, if none of this makes any sense to you, I can’t help you. These are extraordinary and unprecedented times- exciting in their own right, and ripe with opportunities that haven’t been invented yet. I don’t have all the answers, but something here is happening, and I feel so fortunate to live in a city that needs Read more

April 11, 2009

Do something even if it’s wrong!

by

Realtor, Attorney

Author website

I love the old cliche, “Do something even if it’s wrong!” I am a broker who needs to be creative and diligent in connecting with buyers and sellers, and rather than sit around scratching my bald head, I decided to launch my own small town online newspaper. I have a huge Internet presence already with my real estate sites, but I was convinced consumers wanted a good online newspaper that was easy to navigate, had good content (without the regular diet of negative stories), offered free classifieds (that are more powerful than Craigslist), offered a free online business directory, and gave non-profits the opportunity to publish articles and news so they can connect donors and volunteers with the needs.

Of course, the exclusive rights to advertise a real estate brokerage are mine. But this site is about so much more than just connecting with potential clients. It is about community service, helping local businesses, providing a very powerful forum for readers and writers, and much more.

I got on this before the Seattle PI shut down, and before we learned they would continue with an online presence. I’d like to think they are following my example, but I’m not so arrogant. It’s more about consumer demand and preferences, but I am having a ball with this online newspaper that has taken off like a rocket.

Call me crazy if you want to, but I’m going to do something, even if it is wrong. Oh, the newspaper, if you want to see what it looks like, is at Sequim-News.com.

April 11, 2009

The Traffic Magnet Mega Monster Multi Agent Niche Focused Broker Blog Recruiting & Retention Market Domination Tool = A Huge Company Asset [Part 1 of 365]

by

Retechulous...

Author website

Dear Large Broker/Owners,

Are you ready to enter the web publishing business?  You should be.  Because the required investment is relatively low, the potential returns are staggering, and you’ve got a huge team of columnists who will help build your asset, pretty much free of charge, if you play it right.

Huh?

In other words – If you build yourself a company blog and properly incentivise contribution from your agent partners, you will  slash advertising expenses, recruit cream o’ the crop  producers, –(even would be Mom & Pop Publishers) — and quite possibly dominate your marketplace … all while substantially increasing the resale value of your business. 

Or, maybe this is a better way to put it:  If you start viewing your company website as an online newspaper whose potential subscriber base is as large as your entire service area, a lot of good things will follow.

Grab Those Orphaned Newspaper Subscribers!

We all know the newspapers are dying–especially the small local rags providing info about local events, trash pickup schedules, and the obituary of ole Mr. Babbit.  And I think that large Real Estate Brokerages and their agents are in a unique position to pick up where these joints are leaving off.  Whether they already live in the neighborhood or they’re relocating from accross the country, people really do care that there’s an easter egg hunt at the local park tomorrow.  They always will!

So why Real Estate Agents? Well, to put it simply, real estate agents are everywhere, sorta like roaches. Take exception to this if you want, but really, we’re like walking talking RAID evaders  and though we’re being forced to evolve, we’re never going to go away.  Why? Because we existentially gather, digest, and verbal diarrhea hyper local info. We just can’t help busy body-ing around and opening our mouths whenever possible, because our very livelihood depends on it..

And love us or hate us, we exist because people really do want the nitty gritty local info (real estate related and otherwise)  that’s in our heads.   So…for you Dead Dinosaurs Walking out there…think about it. Your fear of that 25 year old Read more

April 10, 2009

Sen. Schumer’s “…merry bosom swells with the paean of the bells…”

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

What a blessing we have in Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).  Last year he single-handedly protected us from having to spend one more day in a world where IndyMac Bank was a viable institution.  Now he’s there for us again.  Did you know that traditional values were gone?  I didn’t.  Here I was walking around and thinking that hard work, honor, respect and responsibility were still in vogue –  I could have made a real ass of myself!  Thank you Sen. Schumer, once again you’ve taken that bullet for me…

April 10, 2009

How India Made Me a Better Agent

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

The following is a true story.  The names were not changed and only the mistakes were innocent.

Not too many years ago I took a month off and traveled to India (for those new to the real estate profession, there was actually a time one could take a long vacation and still be successful).  India was not so much a destination of choice as it was obligation:  I was married at the time and my wife’s family is from there.  In any case, I found myself in India.

It is common for foreigners traveling in India to become sick the first week (the malady even has a name: New Delhi belly).  When I began feeling better I wanted to go for a run.  From the tenth floor window of our hotel room I looked down upon a large, undeveloped space bounded on all sides by city streets – roughly the equivalent of a city block.  I guesstimated a lap to be just short of a half mile and headed down to get in an hour’s worth of exercise.  Seemed simple enough from the tenth floor.  Strange thing though: once on the ground the loop was not nearly as obvious and that third left turn just never appeared.  I was quickly lost:

Lesson 1: No matter how great or simple or brilliant your marketing plan, things can and will go wrong.

I decided that I would keep going, counting on the innate, natural sense of direction all males possess… (I’ll pause for a moment while the women stop laughing).  Two and half hours later I decided I was really lost.  Nothing looked familiar and I was no longer even in town.  It was also at this point that I stopped and took a good hard look at my situation: “I am lost, I don’t speak the language, I don’t have any ID with me and I’m not carrying any money.  Hmmm, this is not good.”  I decided to enlist some help; I was pretty much all-in after running for over two hours and imagined everyone back at the hotel worried sick.  Plus, there was the ‘spectacle’.  Read more

April 9, 2009

Battle Back With Your Posse

by

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

Author website

Seth Godin calls it a “tribe”, I call it a “posse” but they are both slang words for network.  If you’ve heard me speak at any of the Unchained events, you learned about my “deliberate posse creation” using social networks.

Seth describes that we belong to many sub-groups within our network:

If you think about the tribes you belong to, most of them are side effects of experiences you had doing something slightly unrelated. We have friends from that summer we worked together on the fishing boat, or a network of people from college or sunday school. There’s also that circle of people we connected with on a killer project at work a few years ago.

Hold that thought if you’re coming to Unchained.

Look at the Government’s response to the housing mess.  Rather than accept the fact the we can’t trust everyone with a house (we tried and it failed), we’re trying to fix an amputation with a bandage. TARP and HARP are bandages, soon to be blood-soaked and soggy.  We need to cauterize the wound.

Our industries are still TARP-ing and HARP-ing about who’s to blame for the financial crisis.  What a colossal waste of time.   I can’t find one  REALTOR nor one originator who can reverse the losses the banks, investors, and homeowners suffered…BUT…if we all start doing our jobs,  we can turn this thing around.  Call it a grassroots effort to “battle back” from this mess.

Direct counseling with no bullshit.  Keepin’ it real.  Advising folks who will never be able to afford the property to rethink their priorities and filling those houses with willing and able homeowners…THAT’S how we’re gonna “battle back”.

Okay, if you’re coming to Unchained, keep that message in mind and go back to the Seth quote.  You have a network and we want to get the message out.  You’re not going to be alone in this endeavor.  Read what else Seth said today:

What would happen if trade shows devoted half a day to ‘projects’? Put multi-disciplinary teams of ten people together and give them three hours to create something of value. The esprit de corps created by a bunch Read more

April 9, 2009

The failed listing revisted: What the hell do sellers need you for…?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I keep meaning to come back to Barry Bevis and his discussion about what to do about “stale” listings, but I’ve got too much on my plate right now. In the mean time, let’s talk about this house:

Killer, huh? I mean, it’s a totally breathtaking expression of what modern architecture can be. Here it is looking back the other way:

The view is Camelback Mountain. It’s not just an incredible house, it sits on almost an acre of some of the priciest land in Phoenix.

A house to die for, not? Well, not to die for, but certainly to live for, to scrimp and save for, to dream that, one day, you might be able to own this home.

But look closely at those photos… They seem a little… schmutzy… Don’t they?

The listing for this home expired yesterday. There were a total of six photos for the listing — I’m not making this up. And all six of the photos were like the three I’m showing here.

That’s not quite true: The other three were worse.

What’s wrong with them? They’re scans… At some time or another, some magazine wrote up this home — easy to understand why. And then the listing agent made the photos for this listing by scanning from the magazine. That’s why they’re schmutzy — it’s dust on the scanner surface or perhaps damage to the paper on which the images were printed. That’s why there are moires in the images, as well. It’s the scanner’s grid of pixels creating an interference pattern with the half-tone dots of the printed images.

But wait. There’s more. This is the descriptive copy from the listing — on my honor absolutely sic:

Remarks: cHECK OUT THIS AWESOME CONTEMORARY LOCATED IN THE HEART OF ARCADIA WITH THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE VIEWS OF CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. THIS SUPER CONTEMPORARY WITH SURLY IMPRESS YOUR CLIENTS. VERY FEW HOMES LIKE THIS ARE AROUND, AND WITH LOCATION, VIEWS, AND FINISHES. GATED COMMUNITY AND GATED FRONT DRIVE WILL ENSURE YOUR CLIENTS PRIVACY REAR DRIVE OFFERS ACCESS TO GARAGE AND MULTI-CAR PARKING. AWESOME KITCHEN, KILLER MASTER SUITE, AND 3 ADDITIONAL SUITES THAT OFFER BATH AND PRIVATE Read more

April 8, 2009

Do Clients Spell Service R-E-S-U-L-T-S? Bet They Do

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Lately I’ve wondered if some of you have noticed the same thing I have. I’m talking about the how the concept of service has been elevated to somewhat of a deified state. Giving superior service is always part of an excellent business plan, but it seems to me it’s reached critical mass as it relates to the profitable use of our time.

For the record, one of the most repeated observations we hear from prospects and new clients is how much time we spend with them answering questions, both asked and unasked. Or for how quickly they receive responses to emails or voice mails. How we take care of Murphy when he shows up. Though we do serve some damn fine coffee in our office, our clients understand where our real value resides. We get them from Point A to Point B — a lot easier said than done. They don’t waste our time, and we freely give them ours. They know we’re available to them without explanation, and it’s much appreciated. When there are problems, we don’t look for who to blame, we solve it. Then we locate the culprit. 🙂

Last week I wrote a quick post about The Eight Hour Day which generated comments taking the topic on a side trip — not an uncommon occurrence here. It was a worthy detour, as some Bloodhound contributors chimed in with their thoughts. The spinoff topic was time spent servicing ongoing clients. Tom Vanderwell asked this question — How do you balance the “maintenance” of clients with the need for marketing time?

Sean Purcell jumped in with this answer.

You don’t.

I know that sounds flippant, but the two do not balance. One is an absolute necessity, like breathing, and the other is something you do as part of your job — for now. They truly are that far apart in importance.

Marketing is the life blood of your business… (emphasis mine)

I don’t know how to say that any better. Truth is what it is.

But my gripe with all the talk about giving ‘world class’ service, or, ‘we spoil our clients’, is that in Read more

April 8, 2009

The Inman Prayer: “Deliver us not into deliberation and tempt us not into leadership, for ass-licking for lucre is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, amen…”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

You just can’t make this stuff up:

Inman News is launching a new feature: Real Estate Product Reviews.

Would you like to be part of a team of real estate professionals that reviews and rates new real estate technologies, tools and services?

We want to hear from you.

I’ll just bet you do…

I loved this bit of reptilian reciprocity:

Imagine if the digital/virtual book (Vook) knew at what point you stopped reading, and then starting sending you Tweets from characters in the story up until that point, or giving you a tease of what’s coming up next. I can riff a bunch of ideas off this but my head is going to explode!

Amazingly enough, this harshly critical review of vacuous vaporware comes from a vacuous vaporware vendor who has suffered equally harsh treatment from Inman “News” — call it quid pro lizard.

Our whole world is out of joint by now, so much has the word “supportive” come to mean “promotional.” Drew Meyers is a sweet, sweet man, but this article is nothing but vendor-pimping. The vendor might well deserve the accolades, but, if so, why bury the lead? The post is not about SEO nor about a well-optimized web site. It’s about the vendor who built that attestedly well-optimized site. Hiding that fact reeks, in my opinion.

And it wouldn’t do to forget the best little PR3 weblog in Texas. Agent Shortbus is not a whore, and don’t you dare say it is! It’s more like a big-hearted, big-haired, round-heeled gal who just happens to like a Prime Rib before and a Blue Agave Margarita after. What’s so bad about that?!?

Diogenes might as well be Cassandra, I do understand that. But we are too much at risk of becoming entirely enmired in bullshit, to the extent that we can’t even smell it any longer. When Inman News, the high temple of the vendorslut religion, can pretend to do product reviews — that seems like a good time to tune into Radio Cassandra.

We have this thing, and maybe none but few of us have understood from the first how unusual it is for real estate professionals to live Read more

April 8, 2009

IF (…for the real estate crowd)

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

A little Hump-Day fun.  (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)

If you can keep your deal when all about you
Are losing theirs and talking of failure to you;
If you can trust your client when all clients doubt you,
And understand their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of writing offers,
Or, being lied to, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being rejected, don’t deal in scoffers,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream of clients – and not make clients your master;
If you can think of volume – and not make volume your aim;
If you can meet with REO agents and short sale specialists
And take pride in what you do just the same;
If you can bear to hear the comps you’ve spoken
Twisted by appraisers to make agents fools,
Or watch the escrow you gave your all to broken,
And start again with new marketing tools.

If you can save 10% of all your winnings
And run through a prospecting plan,
And gain nothing, and start again at your beginnings
And never make complaint or show you ran;
If you can force your assistant and lender and staging pro
To serve your turn after they want to be gone,
And so hold on to that open escrow
With nothing but the Will to say: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with banks and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Brokers – nor lose the common touch;
If neither real estate coaches nor time vampires can hurt you;
If all clients count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ of marketing done;
Yours is the farm and all the transactions in it,
And – which is more – this profession will be fun!

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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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