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Archives (page 201 of 372)

April 25, 2008

We First Warned You About LendingTree A Year Ago

by

Associate Broker

Author website

As If The Mortgage Lending World Didn’t Have Enough Bad News…

I wrote about LendingTree’s practice of giving their customers information out to multiple lenders back in March of 2007. Now we find out that their nefarious plot went much further than just that.

LendingTree has told its customers that former employees helped unauthorized mortgage lenders hack into its systems and steal customer information from 2006 to 2008.

The incident reveals just how aggressive the mortgage loan business was during the height of the housing boom, and also raises fears for consumers who share their information with companies that help them shop around for the best deal. And it highlights what experts say is an often overlooked source of data theft — the inside job.

According to a letter sent to customers recently, former LendingTree LLC employees shared “confidential passwords” with lenders, who in turn used the login information to “access LendingTree’s customer loan request forms.”

The forms contained critical personal data, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, income and employment information. The company said the lenders did not use the information to commit identity theft or fraud, but simply to “market their own mortgage loans to … customers.” (read the rest of the story here)

Hat tip to Bob Sullivan over at the Red Tape Chronicles.

I can’t say that I am surprised at all, really.

April 25, 2008

The National Association Of Realtors Announces That The Typewriter Is State Of The Art Technology

by

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

Author website

 Real Estate Radio USA | National Association of Realtors Pat V. Combs

The NAR has launched a new website called Realtor Confidential. This site is “designed to educate our membership about technology-related topics and investigate how NAR can best use Web-based technology to communicate with members”.

In this, the first season of the Realtor Confidential series, the camera crew and production team have decided to follow 2007 NAR President Pat V. Combs, as she and her staff “implement new technologies”.

You know, people accuse us of Realtor bashing and it is just unfounded. We just bring to light the incredulity of what is fast becoming the laughing stock of trade organizations.

When you view the video below, you may think you’re watching a skit on Saturday Night Live, but unfortunately, you’re not.

From the “We can’t make this stuff up” department, comes a video featuring the 2007 NAR President Pat V. Combs wherein she describes the mainstays, the must haves in technological advancement.

Without further adieu, I give you the 2007 NAR President explaining to the world, that technology that is vital to the success of a Realtor.

There you have it. For all of us who did not know, it is the typewriter that no real estate agent can do without because you simply can not fill out forms in any other manner. Ummm…okay.

So, since this video was placed out there for the world to view, just what do you think the reviews will be like?

The former head of one of the world’s biggest trade organizations just allowed herself to be filmed telling the world that Realtors will be technologically advanced if they have a typewriter, a fax machine, a printer and a scanner…and let’s not forget about email.

My God what would she do if she heard about Twitter?

Is writing a story on this Realtor bashing? We didn’t make this video and put it on the Internet. This was supposed to “help” agents? Much to the contrary, this has got to be really, really embarrassing for a lot of Realtors.

Waiting with baited breath for the next informative episode! I am sure you are too.

April 24, 2008

Actions speak louder than words, so let your actions say this: “I intend to do more to earn your business.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Mike Rohrig got to hang a sold sign on the first custom yard sign he built for a listing. The sign probably didn’t sell the house, but it did sell another homeowner on listing with Mike.

He relates this in email:

I had reports from my seller of at least one person just short of slamming on their brakes to look at the sign. How do you think the sellers felt when they saw that?

From Tallahassee, Barry Bevis offers this:

Here are my first two custom yard signs.

Learned a little — as you always go the first time out. Next time they will be larger, I’ll balance the fonts out, No rivet through my logo and maybe shorten the text — but the paragraph is stopping walkers.

As I posted on your blog, the web address just sends you to the listing page on my website.

Here are Barry’s signs:

I think this rocks. From our point of view, a listing sells to three parties: The seller, the buyer and the neighbors. The idea of using yard signs to snare random buyers — in the hope of selling them something — anything! — seems sub-optimal to me. We would rather knock the socks off the neighbors, thus to cultivate a steady stream of listings.

As both Mike and Barry note, a custom yard sign is excellent for drawing buyer attention. And your actions will speak to your sellers much louder than any words could that you want to earn their business. And that yard sign will communicate silently to neighbors who are thinking of selling that they need to give you a call. I rate that a win all around.

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April 24, 2008

Another Happy Customer

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Below is an email I just received that I thought I would pass along.

Prey - listings

After talking with your agent this afternoon, I NOW UNDERSTAND how you can advertise that most of your propertys sell in 30 days !!!!!!

YOU PREY on the unfortunate home owners who’s property and there situation are in distress !!!!!! YOUR agent had the GALL to tell me Id have to list my home for under $ 150,000 !!! You know SHE DID NOT EVEN SEE MY PROPERTY !!!!! All her talk about bad times etc, and wanting to know why I wanted to sell was her attempt to , I GUESS , scare me into listing a property worth alot more than that BUT you people DONT want to work for your money as a true real estate person does by seeking buyers for homes priced properly. YOU JUST WANT the distressed propertys so as you can scare the home owner with your talk , get him to list with you at a drastically reduced price so as it will sell in your advertised 30 days with you people doing little to NO work and making your money !!!

Answer this IF YOU CAN !!!! How can your agent MAGICALLY put a value on my property WITHOUT even seeing it, re, condition etc BUT she can magically compare it to another property priced lower WHICH she hasnt even seen neither. How do you people MAGICALLY be able to EVEN compare the two without even seeing EITHER ONE !!! The comparison one could be a piece of #%^# !!!! Mine is not !!!!!!

How do you people even call your self realtors in what you are doing !!!!

April 24, 2008

What Did Carol Hian Do Wrong?

by

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

Author website

Carol Hian | Kris Berg | Redfin

Okay, I have taken a full 24 hours to digest this blogosphere debacle before offering my 2 cents. In addition I have spoken to Glen Kelman, the CEO of Redfin as we interviewed him today on our show about this..this..thing of ours.

Glen, the consummate professional as always, denounced the now infamous blog post by Ms. Hian and terminated his relationship with her. It was obviously the right thing to do by a business owner responsible for protecting his brand and company’s image.

As the captain of the Redfin ship, it was an expected response and the swiftness of his actions is commendable and an attribute to his character. Glen Kelman is first class.

Now let’s get something else out of the way early here. It is obvious from reviewing the post that Kris Berg wrote, that it was an orchestrated shot at Redfin. It was most assuredly a well planned hit. This can not be denied. Anybody taking the time to read the post can clearly see the two to the back of the head that she fired at Redfin. Was this act supposed to go without anyone seeking some form of retribution?

So now comes Ms. Hian, feeling a little bit more than put off by Ms. Berg’s swipe at Redfin, and Hian, seeking to avenge the assault on her beloved Redfin unleashes a metaphorical torrent against Berg personally. Some thought there was an anti-semitic inference in the post but this has since been found not to be the case.

Personally, I found Hian’s post a bit non-sensical and basically blew it off as another blogger taking an opportunity to take down another. Problem was she made an unsanctioned hit at a “made member”. Kelman saw it coming, tried to quell the anger of the five families of the blogosphere, but the upheaval was too great.

No one could have envisioned the absolute s*%tstorm that quickly ensued. It seems that almost every prominent blogger from the RE.net world was absolutely slamming Hian for what she had written about Berg. Fuhgettaboutit, she was done!

A ful fledged RE blogosphere whacking was in plain view. It culminated with Hian being taken for a ride and now Read more

April 23, 2008

A Little Chin Music

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I once knew an eccentric, rather secretive old movie buff named Don who could determine if a flick was going to be a stinker just by the musical score playing during the opening credits. “If a film starts off with a single instrument playing; one guitar strumming, one piano twinkling, one horn of any kind–I get up immediately and demand my money back from the ticket booth,” he insisted.  “The movie’s gonna stink.”

“Not quite sure I’m following you, Don” I remember glibly saying to him the first time we had this conversation. After all, I too considered myself a surveyor of cinematografo arte.  I paused for a moment before continuing, treading lightly onto this oddfellow’s little patch of expertise. I had been forewarned not to let the dyed gray temples and Hawaiian shirt and sandals fool me. Not even in December.

“What about Brian’s Song?” I asked, tossing a sentimental softball to the old guy.

“Stinker.” Don.

“Love Story?” The set-up.

“Open a window.”  Don.

“The Godfather?” Brushback.  A little chin music.

“Brando isn’t even Italian. Please...” Definitely Don (if not Corleone).

It was difficult not to judge the man for his quirky appearance and curious ways, or to predict how he would or would not respond to any particular topic.  A gentleman bachelor of sorts and lifelong Chicago resident, Don owned a tiny, ‘evenings only’ coffee house (called Don’s) where myself and a few close buddies would occasionally pass the remaining hours of late 1999 (and possibly existence if the worse case Y2K  scenario played out as predicted). And perhaps ‘owned’ is the wrong word anyway. After all, Don never really ever owned anything. None of us do, according to him.

Our little man group, bachelors of various sorts in our own rights at that juncture in life, would trek north and westward on Public Transit (as to save our respective vehicles from vandalism, theft, or fire bomb in the Gangster Disciple controlled ‘hood) to the tiny storefront; single and alone in its own right, tuck pointed away between tenement walk-ups and elevated train trestles, to engage in heightened conversation, cigarette smoking, and Scrabble with coffee, cake, and dictionaries–the only way to play the game as far as I’m concerned. And of course, for gentleman Don and his quirky points of view on all subjects great and small, including the ‘stranglehold’ of real estate.

“Buying property is for suckers.” Don, circa 1999.

Some old, scratchy LP or Read more

April 23, 2008

Estately.com gets $450K angel round funding, and it is barreling right down California’s throat

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Looking for the ultimate status symbol in Scottsdale? Drive a Porsche. In Manhattan? Maybe a co-op on Central Park West — and a Porsche. But in Seattle, if you want to make heads turn, get yourself some venture capital funding.

Estately.com co-founders Galen Ward and Douglas Cole join that rarefied company today, snagging $450,000 in angel round funding. What that means is that “a small group of online entrepreneurs” believes the company is worth at least $4 million on resale. The funding — to be used to expand into other states — is no doubt welcome, but it comes with an added pressure to work miracles.

From the company’s press release:

Estately.com is the leader in location and lifestyle real estate search, allowing users to search from over 45,000 Western Washington homes and condos using unique search features; users can search for properties a quarter mile from specific Metro bus and Sound Transit light rail lines, users can search inside or nearby neighborhoods, zip codes or cities, and users can use text search to narrow their MLS-based home search down to “Tudors,” “fixers,” “short sales,” or “pre foreclosures” without registering on the site. Estately.com also brings searchers information on the closest local schools (including school scores), parks, transit stops, and restaurants for every property in its database. Anyone interested in real estate can track property price changes on individual properties or on area-wide searches and can store (and search for) private notes on any property.

When a real estate seller or shopper is ready to work with a professional, they can anonymously get competing offers from pre-screened and hand selected professionals in their area – no name or phone number required. Estately rigorously screens the agents allowed to participate in the program – Estately combines a powerful in house Realtor ranking system, using the same MLS data displayed on the site, with interviews and reference checks on every agent in the program. All participating Realtors have over 5 years experience unless they come highly recommended by a verified client, have considerable experience in the locale, and have received positive reviews from previous clients. In the Read more

April 23, 2008

Sometimes Change Need Not Be Subtle

by

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

Author website

Real Estate Radio USA | Real Estate Changes

The old way is out and the new way is in. The manner in which you are presently engaged will cease to exist. You must change. You will have no choice!

The date of the metamorphosis has been announced. February 17, 2009 is the day of reckoning. You will either change or be left in the dark. Period!

“By law, all full-power television stations nationwide must switch from the old method of transmitting TV signals known as analog to digital television (DTV) on February 17, 2009. While the benefits of DTV are remarkable, millions of households risk losing television reception unless they take the easy steps to receive a digital signal.”

The cable industry and entertainment industry are taking the necessary, almost beyond necessary, steps to ensure that their customer base knows that in about a year, the way they currently are doing things will change forever. You either change or you will not be able to watch television.

Imagine that, an industry not debating change but mandating it. Imagine that, an industry that has decided that the manner in which they have done something is obsolete. Imagine that, an industry that was willing to embrace change because it actually IMPROVES the consumer’s experience.

Who would have thought it possible that an industry could do this? Who would have thought that an industry would want to do this?

Why make such a sweeping change? Well research determined that DTV is a “more flexible and efficient technology than the current analog system”.

Since digital television is a more efficient use of technology than analog television, the “turning-off” of the old way of broadcasting televised programming it will also free up parts of the airwaves so that incentive for even further innovation is provided to ambitious entrepreneurs.

So not only is there going to be a change to improve the consumers experience, the change is being made to facilitate the progress of future enhancement by others.

Imagine that, an industry that not only embraces change but does so in order for others in the business to succeed as well..

What if the real estate industry did this? What if the real estate industry Read more

April 22, 2008

engenu public beta test goes live: If you want to explore the software BloodhoundRealty.com uses to build our web pages and web sites, this is your opportunity to deploy engenu on your own web server

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve been talking about engenu for a couple of months now. This is the software that BloodhoundRealty.com uses to build single property web sites for our listings and other web pages and web sites that we use to communicate with clients and vendors. Our belief is that the language of real estate is photography, and that, in many cases, the most effective way of communicating real estate concepts is by means of web pages and web sites.

I have been building pages and sites like this for as long as I have been in real estate, first manually, then with a steadily improving series of software programs. engenu is a further development on those ideas, designed and written from scratch this year. We have been using it for our own jobs for the past two months — to make sure that we had what we wanted, and to makes sure everything was working properly.

Here are some engenu sites we have built, both as live work and as examples of what the software can do:

What is it, exactly? engenu is slide-show-oriented software for the semi-automated creation of web pages and web sites. It is communications software, not a presentation package. As an expression of this, even though we make very elaborate single-property web sites for our listings, we continue to use a third-party vendor for our virtual tours.

Who should use engenu? Realtors — and I mean all of them — but also handymen, roofers, landscapers, inspectors — anyone who needs to communicate frequently with digital photographs.

What will you need to run engenu? Root level access to an Apache web server, a robust FTP client that you know how to use, and a strong need to create a lot of professional-looking web pages quickly and cheaply. engenu is multi-user software, so, as soon as you have it installed, you can split the workload for large Read more

April 22, 2008

Cleaned by Capitalism: Our professed love of nature is an artifact of our enormous prosperity

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The other week Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek posted a wonderful article discussing the advent of the rule of law as a precursor to poetic rhapsodizing about the love of the natural world. The post featured a quote from Macaulay’s History of England:

Indeed, law and police, trade and industry, have done far more than people of romantic dispositions will readily admit, to develop in our minds a sense of the wilder beauties of nature. A traveller must be freed from all apprehension of being murdered or starved before he can be charmed by the bold outlines and rich tints of the hills. He is not likely to be thrown into ecstasies by the abruptness of a precipice from which he is in imminent danger of falling two thousand feet perpendicular; by the boiling waves of a torrent which suddenly whirls away his baggage and forces him to run for his life; by the gloomy grandeur of a pass where he finds a corpse which marauders have just stripped and mangled; or by the screams of those eagles whose next meal may probably be on his own eyes. . . .

It was not till roads had been cut out of the rocks, till bridges had been flung over the courses of the rivulets, till inns had succeeded to dens of robbers . . . that strangers could be enchanted by the blue dimples of lakes and by the rainbows which overhung the waterfalls, and could derive a solemn pleasure even from the clouds and tempests which lowered on the mountain tops.

Today is Earth Day, and Boudreaux is back with another trenchant post, this one discussing the revolting squalor that typifies pre-capitalist communities.

Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Economics Department at George Mason University — a hot zone of free-market economic research. In today’s post, he cites an article he had originally written for The Freeman, the magazine of The Foundation for Economic Education.

Boudreaux has given BloodhoundBlog permission to print his article in its entirely. The Greek root of the word economics literally means household management, and it’s not a coincidence that Read more

April 22, 2008

Is It A Great Time To Buy, Or Just A Great Time To Be A Buyer?

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

I’ve said it my self hundreds of times in the last 12 months – it’s a great time to buy.  How could it not be a great time to buy – tons of inventory, prices have come down, interest rates are still low – of course it is a great time to buy.  Or is it?  Whenever I shout “it’s a great timehouse to buy” in a particularly loud fashion (generally quoted in the local newspaper), I get an e-mail from some intelligent sounding person saying, “no it isn’t.”  Here let me give you the latest example that was spurred by a front page story on a local promotion to promote first time home buying:

(unedited)

Let me see if I have this correct:·         House prices are falling;·         Houses are not selling at a rate which will supportrealtors, because no one wants to buy a depreciating asset;·         So, realtors want to sell more houses;·         Therefore, they target first time buyers, whopresumably know the least about the pitfalls of homeownership and are the most likely to try to ‘catch a falling knife.’ ·         The lines they use in their propaganda are the sameused nationally in every newspaper article on housing which publishes a realtor quote, to-wit “now is a great time to buy,” or “it’s a perfect storm.”Why do I find this reprehensible? 

In case you did not read the story I linked, just suffice it to say that we are doing a major local promotion to educate new home buyers on the new issues with financing and promoting them to purchase a home from the massive inventory.  Self-serving, yes, but there are also great benefits for sellers, mortgage bankers, others in the real estate business, and for the general economy.  Locally, people look to us to lead and that’s what we are doing.  Fortunately, our local economy is insulated from the national issues that are present in other areas.

The real issue in this rant is the claim that it is NOT a good time to buy because “no one wants a depreciating asset.”  Of course every market is different and prices have fallen here in Read more

April 21, 2008

I love freedom too much to be silent

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

running%20free.jpgI had some time today to write a few words. I’m waiting on a response — I spend half my life waiting on responses. Some people are prompt responders, some are slow, some are UNresponsive.

I was talking with the head relocation person for Gulfstream Aerospace this morning and she was telling me a story about one of Gulfstream’s employees, head muckity-muck of hiring, and how she made a referral to a local agent to help him with housing relocation who never called him. HEAD OF HIRING AT GULFSTREAM AND THE AGENT DIDN’T RESPOND! How does this happen?

Gulfstream is our biggest employer. She also confirmed what a lot of us have been talking about — new hirees coming to Savannah for employment are choosing to hold off on buying. We both concurred it’s the psychological effect, mostly. There is a some legimate cause for fear of the unknown in a shaky market and it’s understandable that people just starting in a new place might be afraid to make the committment to buy a home with so much uncertainty; however, underneath all that is a market opportunity to buy at the lowest point they’ll likely buy at for quite some time.

So, we wait. I am not into convincing people to buy when they are afraid. I give my opinions, identify them as such, show them some numbers and probabilities based on those numbers and let it go. In midtown Savannah this past twelve months there has actually been an increase in home prices — downtown is flat with a slight decrease. But, we wait. A few buy, but the rest, we wait and see how things go for a little while longer.

I have a suspicion that the psychological effect will break after the elections in November. I think many people subconsciously consider that a turning point, and end of some sort, a beginning of some sort. I don’t think anyone knows why, and most don’t consciously hold that position, but they will be affected none the less.

It WILL be a new beginning after eight years of Bush (eight years of any president makes us weary). I personally don’t put much stock in changing administrations Read more

April 21, 2008

Is The Short Sale Dead?

by

Real Estate Broadcaster and Investor

Author website

Is the short sale?

The last time I checked, the short sale was on the gurney headed for the emergency room. I looked through the windows and saw the priest administering last rites so I am not sure if it’s going to survive. I can tell you though, it doesn’t look good.

What happened? Well, doing some investigative journalism, I crossed the police caution tape and started asking the witnesses what they saw. “Bank took to long to respond and my buyer walked”, remarked one distraught Realtor.

“My homeowner could not compile or would not compile all of the information the bank needed”, lamented another Realtor; while a third said she could not even find any pulse…the bank did not even respond. It was as if they simply gave up on life.

Yet, I could not understand why one Realtor, off in the distance taking pictures, seemed to be smiling, almost guffawing at the tragedy that other Realtors have endured.

I followed closely behind as he hurried away in his newly polished Mercedes. He did not seem to notice that I was following or if he did, he did not care. Either way, he drove for a while and showed up at a property. This property looked familiar.

It appeared similar to the property wherein the short sale was just shot down. The same weedy, tall grass, the same unkempt yard, even from my vantage point I could see the curtain-less windows that indicated that there was no one home. The property was vacant. Was this another short sale prospect ready to meet an untimely end? Was the Mercedes driver the Short Sale Killer?

I had to get a closer look. I moved up closer and closer until I was in view of the suspect. Just as he turned to see me, a bus drove up. From the bus emerged a bevy of other suspects who have been on the lam for some time. I recognized these perps.

They were BUYERS! They have been hiding for what seems like years! What were they doing here? Was the killing of a short sale some kind of gang initiation? Was it some crazy Mansonish cult Read more

April 21, 2008

Nobody wants to watch SNL reruns on Turner Movie Classics

by

Mortgage Planner

Author website

NBC, Bravo and CNBC are three networks for three different audiencesThere’s a reason why certain shows play on NBC versus CNBC versus Bravo.  Different types of programming attracts different types of viewers.

Over the past 12 months ago, Bloodhound Blog has defined its programming and it’s now clear to me that the “viewers” are largely industry insiders that want to get a leg up on the competition.  There are passers-by in the crowd, too, but for them, BHB is just another channel in the 300s to flip through between commercials. 

Real estate professionals tune into Bloodhound Blog programming the same way that sports fans do with ESPN and celebrity-watchers do with E!.  And while the real estate pros are here, they’re treated to in-depth, throught-provoking programming that keeps them tuned in and coming back.

This concept is important because many Bloodhound Blog viewers have their own blogs somewhere else on the Internet and can learn from the concept of “knowing your audience”. 

When you know your audience, you never run out of things to write and you never lose relevance.  Your message is clear, consistent and constant — three goals in every good marketing campaign.  Over time, your message actually begins to define your audience. 

You soon write to your exact target audience because that is who is reading your blog.  It’s not a coincidence that people who like food watch the Food Network.

Now, as a real estate professional, you get paid in one of three ways:

  • You sell a home
  • You sell a desk
  • You sell a system to sell homes or desks

If you make your living selling desks to real estate agents and you blog, your blog programming should be written to attract your target audience of real estate agents. 

By contrast, if you make your living selling homes to people and you blog, your blog programming should be written with the consumer in mind.

Rachael Ray knows her audienceVery few network mix-and-match their programming.  Nobody wants to watch SNL reruns on Turner Movie Classics, after all.  Heck, even HBO has seven different channels for its movies.

Some bloggers know this inherently, some learn it the hard way.  Some never figure it out.  But if you look around at the blogs that you love best, it’s 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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