Archives (page 213 of 372)

March 15, 2008

Confronting Death – The Last Lecture

by Russell Shaw

Mega-Producing Realtor

A very good friend of mine, Gordon Smith sent me an email a few days ago. Later that day, when I spoke to him he told me about when the doctor told him that life_after_death he had good news and bad news. The doctor told Gordon that he had incurable cancer. Gordon responded, “What is the bad news?”. Here is a copy of that email:

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that I was diagnosed with Leukemia, and had it confirmed last week. The kind of news you just LOVE to get.

It’s not going to kill me next week or anything that dramatic, but obviously is of concern. (I literally just got off the phone with a local publisher who was asking me about writing a column. I suggested “The lighter side of Leukemia.” He laughed, but did not make a commitment to it.)

I want to thank ALL my family and friends because I’ve been so fortunate in knowing and loving you. May I confess?….. I am EXTREMELY fond of you.

I am fortunate that I have so many people that I love and that love me. I’m really not terribly upset by this diagnosis or what it potentially portends, because I HAVE had such great people in my life. Maybe I’m whistling past the graveyard, as they say, but so far I’m doing fine.

I don’t expect condolences, etc. It’s always hard to find words for that sort of thing anyway, and you have always made me feel pretty appreciated. I know how much you care! ‘Nuff said on that count. (However, I do NOT mean to discourage anyone inclined to send a handsome cash stipend.)

At any rate, thanks for all you have been in my life. (The terms love and laughter come to mind. God, it sounds like a farewell, and it’s not.) Just wanted to let you know what is going on with me.

I plan on being around for awhile…a very long while.

Gordon

___

It reminded me of a truly remarkable video I have seen several versions of: Dr. Randy Pausch’s last lecture. It is one of the most Read more

March 15, 2008

Announcing my Obama Rodham McCain universal bumper sticker

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

I could make Barack Obama jokes all day. Like this: “Bill Clinton might have been the America’s first black president, but Barack Obama is the nation’s first black Kennedy.” From this you should not surmise that I am for John McCain. I find all three of our current maladies to be just about equally repellent.

But: I did hit upon an idea for a universal Barack Obama bumper sticker.

Writing a workable bumper sticker is the hardest copywriting job there is. Writing at my voluminous length is easy. All you need are ideas and a vocabulary. Writing poetry is hard, because that economy of words is hard. Writing a matchbook or a billboard is even harder.

Here is my best-ever matchbook:

“Save the world from home in your spare time!”

But a bumper sticker… That’s a real writing challenge…

It’s almost typographic iconography: The message has to be brief enough to be big, short enough to be readable in a glance, and yet it must convey a virtual book’s worth of message. Very rare to see it done well.

And I make no claim for this bumper sticker except that it is universal. Whether you are for Barack Obama or against him, you can display this bumper sticker with pride:

my official Barack Obama universal bumper sticker

If someone wants to pony up the dough for printing — heavy vinyl and UV inks, please — I’ll provide a PDF file. ObamaNation.com is already owned, alas.

March 14, 2008

What could be dumber than sticking a Flash widget on your real estate weblog? How about sicking two Flash gadgets there instead?

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

I don’t know what to do. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “It is not my function to be a fly swatter.” And yet every time I turn around I find myself reading abject nonsense from technology vendors who have never in their lives sold real estate — who have never sold much of anything but hot air.

Should I just wince and move on to the next article in my feed reader? Or do I have a duty to point out obvious, bone-headed errors, so that y’all don’t repeat them, not knowing they are errors?

I sat on this one earlier today, but it just keeps bugging me. If you think I’m being mean for calling the author out, all I can think of to say is, “Dang!” I myself never, ever forget the ninety-and-nine. If I can spare just one person one dumb mistake, I’ll call that a win and ignore everything else.

So: Joel Burslem’s advice to build single-property widgets is truly bad counsel. The future of real estate weblogging is not widgets, and widgets are not valuable replacements for single-property websites.

First: Off-site resources are bad, m’kaaaay? If you watch where your pages drag when they are loading, you will see that your problems are almost always the result of calls you are making to other servers. In this context, it doesn’t matter if you are calling Flash, Javascript, PHP, PERL or plain vanilla HTML. What matters most is that the other servers you are calling often will not work as quickly as your server. Even if those servers are very sprightly, there are still going to be delays from hand-shaking. Flash and Javascript can madly exacerbate these problems, since they require processing power in the client computer also. As cool as the free stuff you can get from vendors can seem to you, much of it is white noise, at best, of absolutely no benefit to advancing your marketing message. And if those widgets, gizmos and gadgets are slowing down your pages, they are acting against your marketing objectives — by coming between you and your clients.

Second: Flash and Javascript do not search. Read more

March 14, 2008

BloodhoundBlog is the most popular real estate industry blog, but for now we’re the fourth most popular real estate weblog overall

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

The last time BloodhoundBlog scored this high on BlogTopSites was May of 2007. At the time, I said: “It may not happen again for a while…”

What’s going on? Brian Brady is showing you why you will reap huge benefits by attending BloodhoundBlog Unchained. This is just the beginning…

Technorati Tags: blogging, BloodhoundBlog Unchained, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, real estate training, technology

March 14, 2008

Web 2.0 Is a Fad?

by Eric Bramlett

Real Estate

I woke up this morning to my many Google alerts, and began browsing & mentally chewing. I don’t spend a ton of time doing this, but it’s a big part of my day. Regardless, I landed on a UK story/interview with Simon Baker, CEO of REA Group. Reading the story, a few of Baker’s points really stood out:

“…today accuses real estate Web 2.0 sites of being a ‘total fad’.”
“You don’t have to look sexy to deliver,” he says, pointing out that scale, consumer traction and money to fund marketing activity are much more important than aesthetics and cute functionality.
“Sites like Zillow.com get a lot of press and they look great but will they deliver?” he asks. “I doubt whether they do more than US$3 million a year compared to Realtor.com’s US$300 million…”

It was a little comforting to learn that the “real estate establishment” is a crotchety old man the world over, and that we’re not part of a freakish business mindset distinct to the States. However, it got me into “you know what really grinds my gears” mode.

I don’t like the term “web 2.0” because it implies that we’ve released a stable platform straight from beta testing. In actuality, we’re probably on “web 2.3.2 beta.” However, nit-pickiness aside, I love, love, love to defend modern web practices against guys like Simon who are stuck in 1998.

Web 2.0 is not a fad. The internet is an evolving, organic beast. If you don’t evolve with it, you were a fad.
If you have tons of money to market an inferior product, you’re effectively throwing a match on that wad of cash. If, by “cute functionality,” he means “interactivity” then bring on the cute functionality! It will create visitor loyalty, and viral buzz that money can’t buy.
The internet is not a passive medium.
Sex always sells.
Realtor.com does an asinine volume of business due to an extremely bad business decision by the NAR years ago. If they don’t evolve, and recognize that their competition is providing far superior products, they will be a fad.

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Realtor.com 3 Read more

March 14, 2008

Arrogance vs Confidence

by Mike Farmer

Real Estate Broker

The company or individual that doesn’t understand competition and the power of imagination is already slipping into obscurity. Power in a competitive world is double-edged, one edge used by those on the throne, the other edge being sharpened by an idea that time adores. Who is so ignorant as to proclaim the end rests in this position? Every Google came from nowhere, or so it seems. Competition comes from the blind side, the side of arrogance.

Confidence is another story and no man or woman should see the need for constant bowing before power, nor do any in power need to cower in gratitude to avoid the unseemly posture of confidence. If one is good, then confidence is a natural reaction and state of mind, but….

But, realization of what supports power is critical to sustaining power — once a person or company thinks powers derives from an intrinsic source that transcends all other sources and is not granted by those who can take it away, it’s over. But if the realization that power exists only through the satisfaction of those who bestow power, then a person or company can ride success for a long, profitable journey.

In the service industry, power derives from consumers finding greater value in your service than in your competitors – the danger is once you rise to a successful position the temptation is to think it’s a permanent state, and then you are vulnerable to the corruption of power. Confidence tells a wise man or woman that whatever it takes, I’ve got it, but to keep it I must diligently satisfy the consumers’ ever-changing needs; Arrogance tells a foolish man or woman that they created power out of nothing and consumers are under their control.

Every day a small competitor is thinking of new ways to deliver something unique – if you aren’t thinking right along with them, and if you think you have it locked because the gods of commerce have smiled and favored you, then you might as well buckle up for a bumpy downhill ride. Confidence is a gift we give ourselves for staying in touch, honoring the achievement of excellence; arrogance is spitting Read more

March 14, 2008

Ashley Alexandra Dupree on AmieStreet.com: How To Profit When The Long Tail Search Is YOU

by Brian Brady

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

Ashley Dupree turned into a media target, in 36 hours, and AmieStreet.com immediately started selling her tracks. In the tradition of making hay while the sun shines, Ash uploaded a new single, Move Ya Body and compiled an album, “Unspoken Words“, both offered on AmieStreet.com.

Look at the world we live in; social media marketing. Ashley Dupree was “outed” through her MySpace profile (which promptly drew over 2 million hits in 18 hours- after she took my advice) and started profiting off the exposure.

AmieStreet.com is an online music download site where the community determines the price of the downloads by “bidding” the price from FREE to 98 cents. Ash is maxed out at the top bid- for BOTH of her songs. While her Myspace profile has 6 million hits, her “page views” on Amie Street are over 264,000. Here’s the cool part; her “listens” are over a quarter of a million. Virtually everyone who clicks through to Ashley Dupree’s AmieStreet.com store is listening to her music.

Would we even be talking about this in 2004?

Of course not. Social media marketing was buying advertising links on MySpace or “cold-calling” people you met on LinkedIn. I tried it a few times and was confused about the ROI so I abandoned it. I focused on building communities on both sites, instead.

I’m fascinated by this whole Ashley Dupree story because the mainstream media came into OUR world, the Web 2.0 world, to break the story. Equally as fascinating is the fact that OUR world, the Web 2.0 world, allows Ash to immediately profit from her art. Ashley Dupree disintermediated the onerous process of a recording contract, studio time, and pre-release marketing and got her product to market in less than 36 hours!

We all talk about the “long tail search” and how we can profit immensely off the consumer niches exposed to us by the internet. What I’m learning from the Ashley Dupree story is that it’s no longer the big who eats the small, it’s the fast that eats the slow…which begets this Read more

March 14, 2008

If you thought the iPhone rocked, just wait for the iPhone 2.0

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

David Pogue in the New York Times:

Before you start reading this, a word of warning: this column is about the iPhone. If you’re one of those people who are sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone, then scroll on while you still can.

Then again, if you’re one of those people, you’ve got much bigger problems than this column. Maybe you’d better take six months off to explore the Serengeti.

That’s because last week, Apple announced iPhone 2.0. It’s not a new phone model (although that will be coming this year, too)—it’s new software for the existing phone [update: and for the iPod Touch!]. And in my considered opinion, it will be an even bigger deal than the iPhone itself.

The new software, slated for the end of June, will have two parts. First, it will tap into Microsoft Exchange, the e-mail distribution system used by hundreds of thousands of corporations. You’ll get “push” e-mail, meaning that messages appear in real time on your iPhone. And when anybody changes your calendar or address book on your computer at work, your iPhone will be automatically, wirelessly updated, wherever you happen to be.

All of this is already on the BlackBerry, which is Apple’s obvious target here. Without an actual keyboard, the iPhone won’t kill off the BlackBerry entirely (although I do like the way the on-screen keyboard forces iPhone people to be super-concise). But it will carve away a certain chunk of the BlackBerry’s market.

The big knife is Part 2 of iPhone 2.0. That’s the SDK—the Software Development Kit—which Apple has released in beta-test form. The idea here is that any programmer can now write software for the iPhone. Not illicit, hacky apps like people have been writing so far, but authorized, tested, legitimate software, much of it free, that can tap into all the features of the iPhone.

I can’t tell you how huge this is going to be. There will be thousands of iPhone programs, covering every possible interest. The iPhone will be valuable for far more than simple communications tasks; it will be the first widespread pocket desktop computer. You’re witnessing the birth Read more

March 13, 2008

Earned Media.

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

I was working late tonight and listening to the Hugh Hewitt show ( a habit of mine) and was enjoying a new segment of his about entrepreneurs and small business when I heard those two words. I knew then and there that I was going to be working even later. This time on a blog post.

Hugh’s guest was a young man just starting a music instruction business and they promised to get around how he marketed without a budget per se’. They never made it there (although Craig’s List was tantalizingly mentioned) and the next caller to his talk show inquired further stating that she “really wanted to know how to do it”. Hugh replied (paraphrased) that today’s guerrilla marketing was mostly Earned Media and much of it online.

I thought quickly about what it is that we do. I thought of all the real estate agents and mortgage professionals out there, struggling to set themselves apart from the rest. Everyday we grapple with how to expand our reach and serve more customers, with the end goal of financial gain in the process.

Our marketing campaigns, however strategically complex (or not), derive their exposure from either the expense of time, money or a combination of the two. They are the two arbiters that determine the exposure that we generate for our businesses. Simple as that.

Blogging is Earned Media. The glory of the internet is that it affords the little guy / gal the ability to compete for eyeballs, minds and hearts in a marketing world that used to be dominated by the sheer force of money. This new found freedom to market using Earned Media is a good thing. It is more available now than ever.

Earned media is fun. The other day our little blogging group in our office got a pretty good laugh. A couple of the charter members of our team, Jon and Jennifer Karlen (Jon goes by the handle “Malok” online – a throwback from his online gaming days) got a pretty interesting voice mail regarding their horse farms blog. Here’s how it went:

“Umm…yeah…this is XXXX from Bloomberg Read more

March 13, 2008

Where’s Ashley Dupree’s MySpace? With A Few Lessons From Martha Stewart, She Could Have Been America’s Sweetheart

by Brian Brady

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

Memo to Ashley Alexandra Dupree: America is the land of “reinventing yourself”. Ask Sidney Biddle Barrows, Vanessa Williams, Donald Trump, or even Daryl Strawberry how forgiving the American public is. Americans crave drama, revere celebrity, and have a sense of justice about them.

Mac Daddy El abused the public trust, as did Pete Rose; that’s a tough obstacle to overcome. Martha Stewart did the same but carefully atoned and controlled her public image to turn the greatest of haters around; that’s what we’ll discuss today.

How can Martha Stewart’s case study teach Ashley Dupree how to become America’s Next Sweetheart? More importantly, what can you learn from Martha’s PR/Marketing strategy to boost your online marketing efforts?

Who is Ashley Dupree and why do we care about her? Ashley is a budding songwriter and singer with a compelling story. She was cast into the limelight as Eliot Spitzer’s paramour; taking a few large a month for companionship. Now I don’t want to comment on the morality of prostitution; in 49 states, it’s illegal. Whether you’re an Emporer’s Club “provider” or a sex worker trolling Grand Central, the State of New York considers prostitution a crime. The allegations against Ashley have not been proven in a court of law and frankly, I don’t care if she did it or not. Why?

Most Americans view her actions as a private matter; one look at her MySpace profile shows that 5 million people have shown an interest in her. Many well-wishers have sent messages of support. Ash is getting some eyeballs. Let’s look at Martha Stewart’s case study to see how Ash can go from being just another R&B wannabe to America’s Sweetheart.

Martha Stewart built an empire selling crafts and lifestyle. The “ultimate homemaker” lifestyle turned into OmniMedia Corporation, selling magazines, producing television shows, and creating her own “lines” of products. That almost came crashing down some 4 years ago when she was convicted of insider trading.

I was in Las Vegas, with my securities trader friends, when the decision Read more

March 13, 2008

Wow… Life stinks when you’ve got your head up your… community…

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Notice anything missing?

In a world without middlemen, no one can prevent you from discovering anything you want to know. That’s a freedom more complete than humanity has ever known, until now.

The counter-proposition is that no one can protect you from derision, if you insist on trying to communicate with your head up your “community.”

All of the dinosaurs are extinct.

Update: Todd Carpenter has a hammer:

This is beside my point, but now the whole of our little world is watching.

Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing

March 12, 2008

What REALLY matters…

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Today’s posts have made me quite introspective…

I have had a few health issues (nothing big, I’m fine now) that have slowed my efforts and posting. After viewing Greg’s great post this morning, I visited a place I had never gone before (seriously…for some reason, I had never read the ABOUT US page!!). If you haven’t, then now is the perfect time to check this out. With each post from now on, I intend to write in my posts the takes that you would NEVER read in the REALTOR magazine, but wish were there–and beyond.

Pithy, yes, Greg…more importantly –spot on.

Like Doug’s post in which he used the Circular Firing Squad analogy, I totally think that playing the blame game with the Housing issues we faces is a waste of time. You would not get a magazine that is bent on protecting NAR individually (different IMO from agents collectively) to say publicly that when it comes to the blame game…it doesn’t matter. We are where we are and the people affected are PEOPLE. They have FAMILIES. They have DREAMS. And Greg, as you so eloquently pointed out, they have kids…I’d add that they have kids who think an ARM is actually an appendage to the body and who want to stay kids as long as possible. We sell the American dream and it only makes sense to me that it hurts us and we FEEL it when those we have sold the dream to wake up with a nightmare…even if it is partially their fault.

One of my favorite balladeers is Gordon Lightfoot. And while the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” seems applicable at times as we watch this stuff unfold, I think the excerpts below from “The House You Live In” apply more correctly. (emphasis added)

The House You Live In

When you’re out on the road and feelin’ quite lost
Consider the burden of fame
And he who is wise will not criticize
When other men fail at the game
Beware of strange faces and dark dingy places
Be careful while bending the law
And the house you live in will never fall down
If you pity the stranger Read more

March 12, 2008

Fun With Spitzer

by Russell Shaw

Mega-Producing Realtor

Because it is so important.

spitzerblingfull1

2008_3_client91

spitzprettywoman

yugoboy

March 12, 2008

Practical dual agency in real life: It is possible to have a fiduciary duty to your sellers — that you cannot get away from — that feels like a complete betrayal of your buyers. What then?

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

There is a debate on dual agency going on at VARbuzz. This is my contribution to the conversation.

I abhor dual agency — notoriously so. I make no distinction between one licensee or two in the same brokerage, and I am more than prepared to be suspicious if there is any relationship that might seem more important to the practitioners than the fiduciary relationship to the client.

Even so, Russell Shaw convinced me in person that there could be circumstances in which I might have to do a dual agency, like it or not.

What circumstances?

Like this: I’m at open house at my listing, some buyers come in, fall in love with the house and insist they have to put it under contract right away. I would prefer they got their own representation, but my fiduciary duty to my sellers is clear: I owe them the best possible chance at these buyers.

The question is, what duty do I owe to the buyers? The state and federal governments have so gummed up the process of transferring real property that ordinary people cannot competently represent themselves. Moreover, the due diligence process demands expert oversight and advice.

In short, if both parties are unwilling to countenance the idea of separate representation, I’m stuck. I cannot betray the seller’s interests, and I cannot in good conscience permit the buyers to betray their own interests. (And it is plausible to me that I have created an Implied Agency with the buyers in any case.)

This has nothing to do with compensation, and, if we ever have to do this, we will probably split the buyer’s agent’s commission three ways — a point each to the buyer and the seller, in consideration for suffering with limited representation, and a point to us for the extra work. But even that would be at Close of Escrow. My Buyer-Broker Agreement would specify that the buyers could obtain separate representation at any time, even down to the last minute, and I would joyfully pay the buyer’s agent’s commission.

But wait. There’s more. We had a multi-party debate about dual agency at BloodhoundBlog, and, while I would Read more

March 12, 2008

Appraisers – The Latest Target In The Circular Firing Squad

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

The Blame Game – Go Find A Scapegoat And Pin The Tail On Their Donkey

Pundits pontificate about the reasons that the real estate market is in a shamble, and the latest target in their crosshairs is appraisers.

“Those crooked appraisers jacked up the values of the properties!” they scream.

Last night, Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants, was on the Glenn Beck show. Miller agreed that there are fundamental problems regarding how some banks award appraisals to appraisers… and that roughly 80% of appraisers are “in the tank” for the banks.

While I have the greatest respect for Mr. Miller, I don’t believe that the problem with appraisers is so wide-spread. Perhaps in Manhattan – where Mr. Miller specializes – but I don’t believe that 80% of the appraisers nationwide have been corrupted. I do, however, agree that the process could use reform.

Let’s look at the role of the appraiser. S/he is in the business of providing an opinion of value… not a guarantee of value. Their services are NOT required by real estate law – but rather as a requisite of most lenders. Their job is to safeguard the lender from fraud by assuring the lender that the collateral for the loan is sufficient.

In a rising market, an appraiser takes recent sales into consideration… but must also allow for a free market causing the values to rise. After all, what is a better indicator of market value than a willing, ready and able buyer who places an offer on the table? Is that not the true definition of market value?

I have seen many transactions that are questionable, but the vast majority of them have been well within the acceptable range of value, IMHO.

While there have been – and still are – instances of fraud involving appraisers, these instances have been the exception and not the rule… and certainly not the reason for an over-exuberant run-up in real estate prices.

In reality – there is no single factor that you can attribute to this mess.

No, ladies and gentlemen, the fault does not lie with the appraiser. In Read more

BloodhoundBlog

Archives (page 213 of 372)

Confronting Death – The Last Lecture

by Russell Shaw

Announcing my Obama Rodham McCain universal bumper sticker

by Greg Swann

What could be dumber than sticking a Flash widget on your real estate weblog? How about sicking two Flash gadgets there instead?

by Greg Swann

BloodhoundBlog is the most popular real estate industry blog, but for now we’re the fourth most popular real estate weblog overall

by Greg Swann

Web 2.0 Is a Fad?

by Eric Bramlett

Arrogance vs Confidence

by Mike Farmer

Ashley Alexandra Dupree on AmieStreet.com: How To Profit When The Long Tail Search Is YOU

by Brian Brady

If you thought the iPhone rocked, just wait for the iPhone 2.0

by Greg Swann

Earned Media.

by Eric Blackwell

Where’s Ashley Dupree’s MySpace? With A Few Lessons From Martha Stewart, She Could Have Been America’s Sweetheart

by Brian Brady

Wow… Life stinks when you’ve got your head up your… community…

by Greg Swann

What REALLY matters…

by Eric Blackwell

Fun With Spitzer

by Russell Shaw

Practical dual agency in real life: It is possible to have a fiduciary duty to your sellers — that you cannot get away from — that feels like a complete betrayal of your buyers. What then?

by Greg Swann

Appraisers – The Latest Target In The Circular Firing Squad

by Doug Quance

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