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Archives (page 202 of 372)

April 21, 2008

Eye On The Ball, Folks…Hug Your CPA Today…

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

We’ll keep this first post short, sweet, and incredibly practical.  We all want that magic bullet.  That thing that gets us four more work free "deals" this quarter, right?  Well, it doesn’t exist.  So instead of whining about marketing, let’s look to the calendar for a drop dead simple, 1.0 way to get a little bit of scratch this month.

We all know what happened last Tuesday, right?  It was tax day. 

Lots of people thought about their finances, lots of people talked to their local CPAs.  Loads of CPAs saw lots of financial statements, heard why people were freeing up cash, maybe a few even heard the sugar-sweet phrase ‘1031,’ just days ago. 

And you know what?  Betcha a Starbucks they don’t all have trustworthy referral partners to work with. 

Betcha that if you grabbed a list of CPAs–now that the CPAs aren’t in tax season–and reached out via ANY authentic method (post cards, friendly calls, offering lunch, whatever you’re comfortable with that gets measurable results), and authentically offered yourself as a trustworthy person to help navigate these turbulent waters…

You’d get solid referrals in days and weeks-not months.

There are dozens of "scripts" you can use, but why not do it in a sentence:

The more direct and more honest, the better.  I’ve called CPAs (and financial planners) and uttered a run on sentence: "Hi, I’m Chris Johnson, with ____________.  I wanted to reach out and let you know that if you had clients buying a property, I would be honored to help them, and help you make sure it was congruent with their long term goals. Do you have anyone in that category?"  

Now, I’ve never once had someone jump through the phone to send me a client.  But, I’ve made (too) few of these calls to CPAs.  And every time I do, within a couple of hours, I meet someone I connect with, I want to help, and that sends people to me because I reached out.  I’m still closing loans from CPAs I Read more

April 20, 2008

Calling All Women

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

Teri’s latest post on BHB sparked a thought for me. She mentioned that BHB was not really a friendly place for women, but she plays with the boys anyway. As someone who has 3 daughters and works in an office full of women, I was taken aback by Teri’s comment. After a few moments of introspection, I realized just about every Blogger I know was male and despite my best efforts, I had failed to get the gals in my office very interested in Blogging (reading or writing). Heck, I can’t even get my wife to read my Blog.

Out of curiosity, I Googled “women blogs” to see what’s out there. I found a fair amount of Women’s Blogs. Topics such as dating, sex, art, and health with featured posts titled 10 Things You Can’t Change About Men and Mean Mom Selling Son’s Xbox 360 can be found on women’s Blog sites. Nothing, however, on real estate.

women lifting

Okay, maybe my semi-sexist-pig sub-conscious set that Google search up a bit skewed. Ah, “women real estate blogs” found much better results. Lots of good Blog sites and a Top 12 Women Real Estate Bloggers list and a post titled Top Women Real Estate Bloggers Speak Out.

To be politically correct (something I loath doing), I Googled “men blogs” and “men real estate blogs” to see what I could find. The “men blogs” search revealed expected topics like sex, sports, dating, and beer. The “men real estate blogs” search came up with a similar list called 10 Good Men, but not much else. No directory of men’s blogs or any other specific reference to the blogging men in real estate.

man lifting

So, what does this tell us? Not much, but I am curious why men are doing all the heavy lifting on BHB? Ladies, do tell. It could be all our scary faces on the home page, or titles like the one just posted by Jeff Brown – Don’t Listen to the Arrogant Attention Whores – just Skin Your Cat.

Women are starting to take Read more

April 20, 2008

Don’t Listen To The Arrogant Attention Whores — Just Skin Your Cat

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

As happens with blogging sometimes, certain topics inspire many to register their take. That’s what we do. Whether it’s real estate, loan, or tech oriented, it’s amazing how quickly certain subjects can morph into almost a spiritual debate.

Watching all the back and forth the last month or so has been, uh, enlightening — not.

I’m here to tell you, Bloodhound is all about making agents better at what they do. I adhere to that as my Bloodhound mission statement with whatever I write here, just as I do in my own house. Writing here is such an honor. The first thing readers realize is that most of us understand it’s not about us, but about you. This is a critical distinction when passing on expertise.

For example, as a youth baseball coach, (five all-star teams 🙂 ) I never told a kid he was stupid ‘cuz he hit a line drive other than how I’d taught him. On the contrary, I praised him for gettin’ the job done. There are so many ways to hit a baseball hard. But if you freeze frame the hitter at the point where ball meets bat? They pretty much look identical.

The same goes for real estate agents. Their success depends on one thing: How many prospects were they able to get themselves in front of on a consistent basis? In baseball parlance, how many at-bats do they get every week, month, year?

Wow, you made seven figures?! Yep. How’d you do it? The answer isn’t relevant. The target of the question did it — that’s what’s relevant. He skinned the cat. Now that you’ve discovered that fact, you can sit down with them and find out how. The next agent who impresses you with their income will have done it an entirely different way. Go figure.

We human types are funny. We figure out what works for us, then become evangelical about it. Billy Graham was never more passionate than those on either side of the discussions on SEO methods, what to call a lead (Are you serious?), cold calling/door knocking vs the internet, Read more

April 20, 2008

The Odysseus Medal competition will be postponed this week

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re busy with real estate stuff, and I’m grinding on all gears to push engenu out the door. Plus which, there were only 65 nominations, suggesting, perhaps, that the rest of the world has Teri’s Spring fever.

In the mean time, here’s a blog post from Mark Steyn illustrating why a reactive, me-too, catch-up strategy is likely to fail in the net.world:

Old media dinosaurs looking to the Internet to make up for declining print sales will find this analysis disquieting:

In the first three months of this year, the average amount of time visitors spent on newspaper sites fell by 2.9% to 44 minutes and 18 seconds per month, or less than 1½ minutes per day. In the same period, the average number of pages viewed per unique site visitor dropped by 6.6% to 47.2 per month…

The decline in the average duration of sessions at newspaper web pages suggests that visitors are not utilizing the industry’s sites as primary destinations, but, rather, as places to episodically view individual articles highlighted by Google News, Drudge, Digg, blogs or any of the thousands of other places they might be.

So, if you happen to see a link at, say, NRO to something in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, you’ll click and read it, and then go away and not return to the paper until you click another link that tickles your fancy. That’s a hard model to sell to advertisers.

American newspapers have only themselves to blame. Instead of recognizing the necessity to reinvent their approach online, for the most part they simply transferred their old dullness to the new technology. Their print drabness derived mostly from the complacency of their local monopoly, and that’s the one thing you can’t transfer to the Internet. It will take more than the web to save these sclerotic franchises.

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April 20, 2008

Will Realtors be disintermediated by on-line tools? Probably not, but tech-savvy Realtors will supplant those who do not adapt

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):

 
Will Realtors be disintermediated by on-line tools? Probably not, but tech-savvy Realtors will supplant those who do not adapt

The big news in real estate is the market, of course. My view is that the American economy is much stronger and more resilient than you might guess from day-to-day reports.

But the other big story in real estate is the idea of “disintermediation” — replacing Realtors with some combination of do-it-yourself effort and hi-tech tools. The stock retort to this notion — and I have made it myself — is that people will never buy homes like they buy books on Amazon.

Perhaps so. But I lived through the desktop revolution in printing, so I have a different take about the dreaded word disintermediation.

If the triumphant yelp is that some travel agents and some stockbrokers still have jobs, I will point out that some blacksmiths still have jobs, too. Horses still need shoes. That much is beside the point.

Here’s my take on the matter: Don’t think in terms of disintermediation. Use the word “supplantation” instead. In industry after industry, old techniques are being supplanted by new ideas. More importantly, the old technicians are being supplanted by new ones.

This is not a necessary consequence, but it often works out that the “old hands” don’t want to make the change to the new ways of doing business. Even if they do, the “first-mover advantage” can be too great to overcome.

The same goes for everything — most especially real estate. Realtors who are not all the way onboard with the way business will be done in the future will be left behind at the station.

A real estate transaction is so complex that most people will continue to want professional advice — even as they handle many of the simpler functions Realtors might have done in the past. The work we do will be superficially similar to the work others have done in the past — but those others won’t be doing it any longer.

Will they have been disintermediated? Not if you insist that they haven’t. Read more

April 19, 2008

Marketing performance: BloodhoundBlog is the last place crybabies should go when they need to have their boo-boos kissed, and, therefore, it is the last place to go looking for crybabies

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I want to talk about the idea of marketing performance as a disruptive strategy — but not quite yet. I’m using the term as a gerundive: Developing tools and techniques that by far eclipse your competition, then promoting that outsized commitment to excellence in your marketing. Not: “I’m the best.” Not even: “Here’s why I’m the best.” Simply this: “Here is everything you’ll get that you can’t obtain anywhere else.” This is the means by which we can flush most of the bums from the business even as we supplant the sclerotic dinosaurs who claim to be our leaders.

As a matter of general notice, it were well to take account of a couple of salient facts:

  1. This is not an alien message to the BloodhoundBlog audience. The people who come here are already committed to doing the best job they can do as Realtors, lenders, investors. We appeal to the elite of real estate professionals, and, not coincidentally, we tend to repel the crybabies, the mediocrities and the wannabe predators.
  2. In consequence, beating up on the crybabies, the mediocrities and the wannabe predators is probably a pretty poor strategy here. Most readers here would not just agree with but would joyously amend denunciations of specific bad behavior. But generalized complaints about unspecified groups of miscreants may have the opposite effect: The uncontested best of a group of people rising to the defense of the uncontested worst.

That’s as may be. There are no groups of people, there are only individuals. Defending a group is no less irrational than attacking that group, but I have no use and no time for irrationality in any flavor.

I’m interested in individual practitioners becoming so much better at the performance of their jobs, and so much better at marketing that performance, that they put themselves beyond competition. I want to put the bums in another line of work, and I want to put the dinosaurs in a museum, where they belong. To my ears, everything else is pointless noise.

I’ll deal with this all in detail, but not now: It’s Saturday, Realtor day, and I gotta go to work. Here Read more

April 18, 2008

It’s Raining Soup. Why Are You Starving?

by

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

Author website

I’m pretty stoked about our new contributor, Chris Johnson. I spoke with him yesterday about his new book, Loan Officer Survival Guide. He was amazed that the two people he cited as NOT needing the book, bought it. So… why did I buy his book?

I bought it for the very same reason successful people are attending the BloodhoundBlog Unchained Social Media Marketing Conference, powered by Zillow.com.

Greg Swann says “it’s raining soup” all the time. What he means is that because of the internet, we have all the information we need to be successful. Loan Officer Survival Thrival Guide (I changed the title- deal with it, Chris) and UNCHAINED are the bowls and spoons you need to more efficiently ingest the soup.

I didn’t learn one new idea from Chris’ book, just a lot of proven ones. I DID learn how to better implement the proven ideas. He’s laid them out in a “home study” format that’s as practical as scissors in a barbershop….and I’m “doing the homework”, too. It takes about 30 minutes a day to complete. The Thrival Guide (I changed the title again, to be more encompassing) moves my actions from instinctive to purposeful.

It’s raining soup and I paid fifteen bucks for a bowl and spoon, get it?

Now, instead of standing outside with my mouth open, having soup splatter my clothes. I catch it in a basin, pour it in a bowl, and eat it when I need it. This brings me to my title. The Thrival Guide will be criticized just like the BloodhoundBlog UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing Conference, brought to you by Zillow.com has been.

So be it. Let ’em get splattered in the soup rain. They’ll fill up their bellies but they’ll be eating with their hands.

Does anyone NEED to come to UNCHAINED to learn how Russell Shaw delivers consistent results? Nope. You can read Bloodhound Blog. Does anyone NEED to come to UNCHAINED to learn how to optimize your weblog for search terms? Nope. Read more

April 18, 2008

Spring fever renders me unfit to tackle big issues facing Web 2.0 and the real estate industry, so we get to play in the mud instead!

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Yeah. Well.

There are always heavy duty posts on Bloodhound and I do my best to keep up. Lately, I’ve been percolating my own brand of seriousness. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about: Web 2.0 is different for girls. I’ve been pondering this for quite awhile, and last week it dawned on me that I might not be the best person to address that issue as I don’t think like a girl. Want proof? I’m here, aren’t I? Bloodhound isn’t the most girly place to hang, but that’s fine. Here’s the thing: it’s Friday, and it is Spring in Dayton. We’ve had a long, grey, and gloomy Winter, but it’s been 70 for the last few days, and the sky is blue and the sun is shining, and the mere fact that I’m making note of that will tell you exactly how cloudy it’s been around here.

Still, I have been doing some research on my serious topic of gender differences and apparently, I’m not the only one who has been thinking about this.

How about a BlogHer Study that says women might trust blogs more that traditional media.

The survey, conducted with Compass Partners LLC, illustrates several surprising new trends in social media, specifically that 36.2 million women write and read blogs every week and approximately half consider blogs a “highly reliable” or “very reliable” source of information and advice about everything from products to presidential candidates. Fully 24 percent of women surveyed say they now watch less television because they are blogging instead.

The implications for marketing real estate in a blog format could fill a blog post or two- if only it was miserable outside.

Want proof that girls might looking at this whole Web 2.0 thing differently than boys? Men are from video games, women are from soc nets. h/t @BradCoy

For those under 30, women and men are just as likely to be members of social networks. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Flixster are extraordinarily popular. But we found that young women are much more active on these sites then young men. And for people above 30, men – especially married men – Read more

April 18, 2008

The practical value of living by abstract principle: “I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Why is hewing to abstract principle, which is so often derided as being “impractical”, in fact the most practical course of action you can take? Because, when you cave in to bullies — in addition to committing a grievous injustice to your own interests — you are telling them in no uncertain terms that you’ll do it again.

I saw this passionate business letter cited at Coyote Blog the other day, but it was my friend Richard Nikoley who unearthed the gem quoted below.

I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable’s modus operandi in these matters. I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle. In plaintiffs’ practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table. I am “uncompromising” in the most literal sense of the word. If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds. As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is Read more

April 17, 2008

What do gambling, pornography and real estate have in common?

by

Mapping Technology Entrepreneur

Author website

A: A lot of “SEO masters” trying to scam their way to the top of Google and Yahoo.

Is there an inverse relationship between an industry’s reputation and the number of “SEO masters” offering sage advice? It seems to hold true for gambling, pornography, payday loans, trial lawyers, mortgage brokers and real estate agents. You know you’re entering a shady industry when your industry has forums and contests devoted to industry-specific SEO (here is an awesomely not safe-for-work example).

Note to “SEO masters:” if this is true, helping politicians rank for searches is the next big thing.

April 17, 2008

Is managing your URL structure enough to achieve Truliamazing long tail search results in your target market?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s a true fact of BloodhoundBlog life: Trulia.com can be a redheaded stepchild around here. We’re always happy to pounce on Redfin.com or to pontificate about Zillow.com, but Trulia most often gets short shrift. It mainly comes across like Realtor.com’s younger, smarter, cheaper brother — and no one with a stock-option plan needs to write to me to tell me this is an unfair characterization. Trulia is certainly less adept at — or perhaps less interested in — grabbing headlines. The flip side is that the start-up is recovering its own costs, an unheard-of feat in the Web 2.0 world.

But here is another factor that sets Trulia apart, one that cuts much closer to this Realtor’s bones:

Trulia.com absolutely kills at long tail search optimization.

Mary McKnight advised us yesterday to ignore the long tail, but that advice doesn’t make sense in our business. If I were competing for prospects in Cedar Rapids, then focusing a lot of attention on Cedar Rapids keywords might make sense. But Phoenix is home to five million souls. The Metropolitan Phoenix real estate market comprises an area larger than Belgium. Moreover, our own real estate practice is focused on a tightly-defined niche. We live and die on long tail keywords.

And this is why I am hyper-aware of Trulia’s long tail efforts. I keep a constant eye on street names where we are strong or want to be strong. People cruise the neighborhoods we work at 15 MPH, looking at every house for sale. If they write down an address and Google it later, I want for them to find us. If it’s our listing, so much the better, but I want for them to find the breadcrumbs we leave behind us no matter what.

Watch this: 921 West Culver Street is for sale, but nobody told Google. In consequence, one of our old single-property web sites comes up first for that search (YMMV), giving us first crack at any buyers who Google for more information about that home.

By contrast: 714 West Culver Street is also for sale, but there’s only one dog peeing on that tree right now. Read more

April 16, 2008

Who can reinvent real estate marketing? At MikeCanDoIt.com Mike Rohrig howls like a Portland Bloodhound…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Look at this. Isn’t that…?

Yes — that’s a custom yard sign, mounted right there in the yard. Here it is up close:

The sign was made by Mike Rohrig, a Portland Realtor and Broker who is pushing the boundaries on his marketing.

Here’s a note Mike wrote to me:

The accidental brainwashing in the real estate industry is almost staggering.  The saying ,”think outside the box”, is almost cliche anymore but once I saw your custom sign on the Blog, it left me perplexed that neither I, nor anyone else in my market has created a custom sign.

It is a simple and effective tool.  It truly will get the home noticed as well as allow me to separate myself from others.  It cost me less than an typical ad in the Oregonian newspaper.  We have certain regulations that don’t allow me to make signs the same size as yours but I think I did okay for my first try.

For single property websites I have been using WordPress and learning some tricks to make it easier.  I had an idea that you might find helpful. I added a FAQ page.  After talking to my client about some buyer feedback I realized that this would be a perfect way to answer questions, objections or concerns ahead of time.

One question was about a school boundary line that moved so I put the email response from the school in the FAQ.

I am not the wordsmith that you are so I use a lot of pictures. I take pictures of nearby parks and anything else I think will help someone make a decision.

I also make pertinent links on the side in case someone is not familiar with the area.I think I will work on business cards soon as I implement these ideas into my business practice.

Here are two of my sites that are getting compliments.
http://1140swhuntingtonave.com
http://2904seberkeleypl.com

Mike’s main weblog is the aptly named MikeCanDoIt.com.

There’s a lot that we do, at BloodhoundRealty.com, that no one we compete against does. But everything we do, in one way or another, is built upon work that came before us. We watch, listen and learn, and Read more

April 16, 2008

Making A Case For Blundering Nincompoopery

by

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

Did I spell that right? Hope so. . .

So anyway, I’m back with more “tales from the dark side.” I am going to continue on my  Saga, while throwing Papa John’s Pizza into the mix. Let me just state flat out, in as clear a way as I know how, that CountryWide’s loss mitigation department is the most incompetent group of blundering nincompoops that I have ever seen.

Case #1: I have a certain short sale that Countrywide has had in their possession since February 19th. Two loss mitigators later, and they just ordered the appraisal yesterday.

Case #2: On another active file, newly minted, fresh outta loss mitigation school comes Paul Romero (the name has NOT been changed, so as to shame the guilty) . Now Paul, bless his little heart, indicates that he’s gonna “send the file to the investor” to get their response. Uh. . .Paul? Countrywide owns the loan.  He calls me back two days later to indicate that he was wrong. Problem? He’s suddenly discovered that there is PMI on the loan, and he’s “sending the file to them immediately.” That’s great Paul, but their is no PMI on this loan. He argues with me for awhile and says he’s gonna send it to the PMI company to get their response. In the meanwhile, I’m off to demonstrate conclusively that there IS NO PMI on this loan. Within about 3 hours, I have written confirmation that there is indeed NO PMI on this loan. Fast forward 24 hrs. Here’s Paul on the phone again: “Uh. . .the PMI company has denied the short sale. They think the property is worth more than the offer you have given them”. Ok. Paul, let me explain this to you again, real slow. . .: There is no pmi on this loan. He proceeds to tell me that he’s sorry, but the short has been denied. Okay Paul. Give me the policy number, inception date, & contact information for the person handling the case at the PMI company. “Uh. . .I don’t have that information.” Well then how did you send them our offer? Read more

April 16, 2008

Raising the Bar or Bellying Up to It?

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

I hear a lot of chatter from successful REALTORS® about “raising the bar” for being a REALTOR®.  In other words, do a better job of distinguishing between REALTORS® and licensees.  This came up during a strategic planning break-out group today and we all thought it sounded like a good plan, but had no idea how to get it done.  So where do you go to figure out how to make the term REALTOR® actually mean something more than a common licensee?  A bar, of course.  Surely a few beers would generate enough creative thinking to solve this conundrum.

“Sam Adams, please.” 

The first order of business is to figure out how we got here – by “here” I am speaking figuratively and not how we arrived at the Dog House Bar and Grille.  Why is there no difference between a REALTOR® and a licensee?  I blame license law.  That’s right, license law.  It seems to me that over the years, state license law has “improved” to a point that there is very little difference in the REALTOR® Code of Ethics and state license law.  The ironic thing is that the REALTOR® organization has worked hard to strengthen license law over the years.  That’s a classic example of a raising tide lifting all boats.

Take disclosure, for instance.  I can only think of one thing that the REALTOR® Code requires to be disclosed that the license law doesn’t – REALTORS® are required to tell their seller clients about verbal offers where license law only requires disclosure of written offers.  Well there’s a strong marketing point!  Other than that, I can think of nothing significant that REALTORS® are required to do that a licensee is not also required to do.

“Another Sam Adams, please.”

So, what is the solution?  Do we think up a whole bunch of things that REALTORS® have to do or disclose that a common licensee does not?  Maybe we could require REALTORS® to disclose that the neighbor will throw potatoes at you if you purchase this home?  Or maybe we require REALTORS® to disclose all the future development plans within a mile of 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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