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February 28, 2008

Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words, but what are your pictures actually saying?

by

Realtor, Real Estate Investor

Author website

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Wouldn’t it be nice if all thousand of those words were actually in praise for the subject of the picture? Time and time again I see photos of homes in the MLS that make me NOT want to look at the house, it’s either too dark or washed out or it just doesn’t make the house look appealing. Or it’s pictures of inconsequential things, like the seller’s dog, or a squirrel in the lawn, or 5 photos of the staircase and no other interior pictures. I swear I’ve seen pictures that were made by a camera phone.

What is the point of pictures in our line of work? It is to showcase the house. In this day and age when the vast majority of folks are going online to see everything they can about a house, the photos we have are your first impression. It can make a buyer drool and want to jump in the car to go see it right away, or it can make someone simply pass over it without a second thought. What kind of photos are you taking?

The options are pretty simple. Take good pictures or pay someone that can take good pictures. I was very close to start paying a professional photographer until I learned how to make astonishing photos myself. This isn’t for everyone, but it might work for some! So let me show you some examples.

Everett House

This one is your ordinary every-day split-level house. The picture on the left was pulled from when the house was for sale 4 years ago. It has nothing wrong with it. It’s actually fairly well exposed in that you can see the house clearly. However it’s kinda plain and split-level homes here have a certain negative stigma. The photo on the right is of the same house that I am listing now. This house has a gorgeous front yard and the goal was to emphasize the overall property’s beauty and de-emphasize the split-levelness. Read more

February 28, 2008

Bebop and the brain — Thelonious Monk’s career advice to working Realtors and lenders: “We wanted a music that they couldn’t play”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We listen to Bebop Jazz in the office. If I talk about music, I tend to talk about Rock ‘n’ Roll or Country, just because they’re more inclusive. Bebop is demanding music even for Jazz, definitely an acquired taste.

Instrumental music is good at work, of course, since you can play it fairly quietly, and since there are no words (except “Salt Peanuts!”) to interfere with your thinking.

I would argue that complex compositions — like Classical or Modern, Progressive or Cool Jazz — will tend to improve the quality of your thoughts, through time, since your mind has to work so much harder to process the music. Constant exercise for the muscle of the mind should make you a stronger thinker. It seems reasonable to me that a familiarity with musical cadences will make you a better writer, as well.

Lately we’ve been tuned into the Bebop station at Yahoo’s LaunchCast on-line radio portal. Like all LaunchCast stations, the playlist could be a lot longer, but it’s a pretty nice representation of the Bebop idea in Jazz: Bird, Monk, Dizzy, Dex, Mingus, Trane, Miles. A little bit of Art Tatum, which I love, and a little Hard Bop, which I loathe. Bud Powell and Cannonball Adderley to show the world how a sound this demanding can still be fun. If you really want to listen, you have to go to your own record collection. But for the office, it’s the best solution we’ve found so far.


Creative Commons License photo credit: MikeLove

That’s all beside the point, though. You either like Jazz or you don’t, and many people don’t. But the quote from Monk in the headline

“We wanted a music that they couldn’t play.”

is practically a mission statement for Web 2.0-empowered Realtors and lenders.

Bebop was born during a musician’s union strike in 1942-43. Players who had been working as sidemen in Big Band and Swing orchestras would spend their idle days together in two Harlem nightclubs, jamming for each other. Over a very short span of time they created a brand new form of music, with a brand new music theory all its own.

The “they” in Monk’s Read more

February 27, 2008

Don’t Cut The Granite

by

Real Estate Broker, Investor

Author website

Marketeers and salespeople often use the phrase “think outside the box”.  And when the phrase is used in that way, I usually think of clever, creative marketing and promotional stuff.

People involved in the day to day operation of rental properties, tend to think in more practical and pragmatic terms.  Heaters need to be fixed, sewer drains need to be unclogged.  Drain augers exist in a world that is somehow outside of any box/unbox metaphor.

However, one of the finest real world examples of thinking outside the box I have ever experienced, came from a low budget contractor during a kitchen renovation.

The tenants had left the property, a single family home, in sorrowful condition.  The kitchen had to be gutted.

Our low budget contractor had managed to salvage a rather nice granite countertop from somewhere else.  No, I didn’t ask where.  I’m not sure I wanted to know the details.

One little problem though, the countertop was just about three inches too long to fit in our subject property’s kitchen.  And the contractor did not have any tool that could be trusted to safely and cleanly make a straight cut in the granite to lob off those excess inches.

The solution?  The kitchen wall at the side, abutting the short side of the countertop — He cut a slot slotinwallhere1.jpgin the drywall, to allow those extra three inches of countertop to just simply slide into the wall.  Then he patched up the slot, sealed the wall and caulked it.  Done!

My marketing friends will probably find a slogan here “Don’t Cut The Granite, When You Can Cut The Wall!”  And that’s great, take from it what you will. 

I personally learned a subtle little lesson about making things work.  A true moment of epiphany, if you will.  And if I could create a new topic category here on BHB, I would create one titled:  “Epiphany”.

February 27, 2008

Wanna see how to win the BloodhoundBlog Black Pearl Diver’s contest? You’re not selling us, you’re selling you . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Mike Farmer wrote a sweet note this morning about using single-property weblogs in his marketing, but his post was not an entry in the BloodhoundBlog Black Pearl Diver’s contest.

What’s the trick to writing a winning entry?

Think your benefit, not ours.

How can you write a post about an idea you first heard about here that better establishes your competence and expertise with your readers?

How about something like this?

When we list your Encanto-Palmcroft home for sale, why do we give it is own custom weblog? To make sure it sells, that’s why

We’re Encanto-Palmcroft real estate specialists. A jack of all trades is master of none. But, when we list a home for sale in Encanto-Palmcroft, we always give it its own fully-detailed custom weblog.

Actually, we build a full-blown web site, with rich color photos of everything. A floorplan. A custom Google Map of all the nearby amenities — schools, parks, shopping. We include a downloadable version of the listing sheet itself — along with the full-color flyer, the plat map, historical photos — everything we can lay our hands on.

Why do go we to all that trouble?

Because, along with all the other things we do to earn your business, custom weblogs sell houses.

We first heard about this idea on BloodhoundBlog, a nuts-and-bolts weblog for real estate professionals, but we’ve added our own unique twists…

And like that. You go on to detail those unique twists, you sprinkle in some screenshots and links from single-property weblogs you have built for past clients. And you make your call to action.

There’s more: This is a good example of how to use your most valuable keywords without being irritating. Relevance to search engines equals Title plus Headline plus Body Copy. I have written a highly relevant post about Encanto-Palmcroft — not about BloodhoundBlog — and about our real estate practice there.

You can’t win if you don’t play, but your victory is guaranteed if you play the game this way. You might win the scholarship to Unchained. You might win a spot on our sidebar. But — let the dog biscuits fall where they may — you will certainly Read more

February 27, 2008

This is not for the contest — just tipping my hat

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

The most powerful marketing Idea I’ve heard lately is to create a separate blog for listings. I’m in the process of giving area information, one area at a time on my home buyer’s website/blog with plenty of links to pertinent information.

But the idea of creating a blog for each listing is something that didn’t dawn on me. To tell the story of the listing. The 455 50th Street Blog! My provider allows categories, so I can create as many blogs as I want to create and delete them when it sells.

The possibilities are many – you could even have the owners write a guest post, you could fully explain the area surrounding the listing, you can place powerful photos highlighting the strong points; you can have one post that gives demographics, one post that gives comparables, and if it’s an older home like many in Savannah, one post that gives the history. You can highlight in one post all the improvements, in one post talk about its energy efficiency, on and on.

It’s a lot of work but it would be powerful and sellers would love it. Talk about rich content and Google love! It would distinguish the home and it would place it in a great position to compete in a tough market.

I have two new listings coming up and I’m going to try this. There may be objections I haven’t thought of, but I believe it would be worth the effort.

February 26, 2008

I’m Sick Inside Because Lani’s Sick

by

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

Author website

Lani Anglin drives me nuts. She texts, twitters, lauds shiny objects on the internet, and mostly, reminds me that I’m middle-aged and she’s not. Every time she posts about how Gen Y demands business to be done, I wake up in the middle of the night with the anxious feeling that I may be turning into a dinosaur.

Her husband, Benn Rosales used to be a public relations professional. Amidst my PR challenges, I turned to Benn for some practical advice. After all, I’m trying to find my way in uncharted territory. I hammered Benn’s cell phone yesterday. I was driving up the 805, last night, and tried him one last time, before it got too late in Austin; I wasn’t prepared for what I heard.

“ We’re in the hospital. Lani’s got vertigo.”

Vertigo? What the hell is that?

I called Benn this morning to check on Lani’s condition and he communicated her condition completely. She’s at home, hopefully recovering from what be a fleeting incident. She might be dealing with something more permanent.

Benn, the consummate professional, asked “What’s up?”

“Um, uh…nothing. Just checking on Lani’s condition”

“BS, man. You got a big announcement today, right? Give me the advance notice so I can post some good news; Lani’ll be pumped”

That’s exactly what Benn did.

This is what I hate about Web 2.0; you get to really know people without meeting them. Bad things happen to good people and it sucks when those good people are one of your own.

Today was a great day but I feel like crap. Get well, Lani.

February 26, 2008

Why is Zillow.com sponsoring BloodhoundBlog Unchained? Discover the answer to that question for yourself by diving for Black Pearls — and win a link on our sidebar or even an Unchained scholarship

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Why is Zillow.com the premier sponsor of BloodhoundBlog Unchained? They can speak for themselves (as they have), but my thinking all along was that they expected that we could put them in front of the kind of Realtors and lenders most likely to make the best use of the incredible software Zillow is producing.

I said this yesterday in email to Drew Meyers of Zillow.com:

You are at or near the kind of software “universe” that is so rich that all kinds of unexpected ideas can take root. A commendable state only nerds can appreciate, but one which can yield huge harvests of new tools.

I think you might have to have the geekiest turn of mind to appreciate the difference between a mere API (Application Programmer’s Interface) and a true software universe, but Zillow is the real deal — and I’ll be teaching on this point at Unchained. (I’ll make it easy, fast and fun, I promise.)

The simple fact is, whatever differences BloodhoundBlog and Zillow.com might have, we are on exactly the same page for much of the hymnal: How can we leverage the incredible power of the internet for home buyers, borrowers and sellers?

There are 2,338 posts on BloodhoundBlog as I write this, and many of them, perhaps the majority, are about tools, tips, tricks, tactics and techniques for Realtors and lenders. We’ve written about single-property web sites, maximum-power leveraged SEO, how loan originators can thread their way through the landmines, social marketing sites from MySpace to LinkedIn to FaceBook to Twitter. I’ve taken you step-by-step through our custom yard-sign strategy. Brian and I, with help from Tom Johnson and others, pioneered the idea Tom calls “Zestifarming.” I could go on forever — and our archives do.

And that’s the point: When you hunt with a Bloodhound, you don’t have to go everywhere the dog goes. But it’s the dog who runs down the game. Why does Zillow want to sponsor us? I think it’s because we are constantly coming up with new Web 2.0 marketing ideas.

And, as I realized yesterday, that could be a good weblogging contest. Brian announced on the radio Read more

February 26, 2008

Brian Brady on RealEstateRadioUSA.com: Mortgages unchained

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Brian Brady did a half-hour interview this afternoon on RealEstateRadioUSA.com, the internet radio station for real estate. He was talking about BloodhoundBlog Unchained, but hosts Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson also probed him about the mortgage market. To top things off, there’s an extensive discussion of the “What would David Gibbons do?” philosophy.

I made a recording of Brian’s interview. Click on the link below for the MP3 podcast.

Or: If you click on this link, you’ll find MP3s of the full broadcast, of Brian’s segment and of another show segment with Mary McKnight of RSSPieces. The baton-passing is not quite perfect, but Brain and Mary manage to announce that she will be one of our guest speakers at Unchained. Thanks to the folks at RealEstateRadioUSA.com for the link to the MP3s.

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February 26, 2008

Rock Stars Aside (Please, Lord?) My Take On What Matters

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

You’re a real estate agent? You wanna be a rock star? Be my guest, as there’s room for everyone and every approach. Frankly, as a graduate (with honors) from The Old School, I’d prefer a somewhat different approach, one that has survived the last several thousand years. I’ll get to that later.

First I’ll use a present day example of a different approach.

The example I’ve chosen is not a rock star but a sports figure. I think talking about real estate agents as rock stars has been, at least temporarily turned into the third rail. 🙂

For those not into football, specifically the NFL, there’s a running back in the league named LaDainian Tomlinson. (Known universally as LT) As luck would have it he plays for the San Diego Chargers. Simply put, he’s the best running back of his generation.

One must go into the archives of the 1960’s NFL highlight films to find a football player scoring a touchdown and reacting as if maybe he’s been there and done that a few times before. No dancing, no ‘look at me’ gyrations, no asking the crowd to cheer more loudly. When LaDanian scores, he finds the nearest referee and respectfully hands him the ball. On the way back to his teammates on the sideline he humbly accepts their heartfelt congratulations, then finds the bench and sits down until called on to do his job once again.

LT let’s his on-field performances speak for him.

Back to the different approach. I wrote a post last night…What Really Matters?… approaching this from a slightly different angle.

It’s known as The Old School.

The Old School teaches so many principles which these days are under attack. I’ll deal with just one here, one of my all time favorites.

RESULTS

Nothing trumps results. Let the glitzy agents do their thing as it won’t matter unless in the end they produce results. Same goes with vendors — those who offer a service or product consistently producing the promised results are still around. They are the ones who love BloodhoundBlog too. 🙂

BloodhoundBlog is all about results. It’s what drives the bus here. In fact Read more

February 26, 2008

Zillow.com announces its sponsorship of BloodhoundBlog Unchained

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

BloodhoundBlog has grown up with Zillow.com. We’re consistently second or third on a Google search for Zillow.com, and Debunking Zillow.com is one percent or more of our traffic every day.

On the other hand, we’ve also been big boosters of the tools Zillow has built to help sellers, buyers and in-the-trenches Realtors and lenders get the job done. We’ve written more about Zillow than anyone, anywhere. They’re one of our content categories — and that category is consistently popular with our readers.

Today, Zillow.com is announcing that they will be the premier sponsor of the BloodhoundBlog Unchained Social Media Marketing Conference to be held May 18-20 in Phoenix.

Here’s David Gibbons writing at Zillow Blog:

In 2008 we are increasing our bet on Realtor 2.0 and I’m excited to announce that the Bloodhound Blog Unchained conference will be brought to you by Zillow. Bloodhound blog is read daily by thousands of real estate professionals and is arguably the most influential blog read by real estate insiders. The blog’s written by Realtor 2.0 for Realtor 2.0. From May 18th to 20th the bloodhounds are hosting a conference that will distill the best practices for profiting from the revolution in social media and real estate. BHBU is also possibly the only Mortgage 2.0 conference of the year with a separate track dedicated to loan officers and mortgage brokers. If social media is part of your marketing plan for 2008 I recommend that you get to Phoenix for this event. Conferences are a great networking opportunity but I’m convinced that you will leave BHBU with much more.

Benn Rosales at AgentGenius.com broke the story with a quote from BloodhoundBlog’s Brian Brady:

Among the many potential sponsors who contacted us about Unchained, we selected Zillow for its leadership in the Real Estate 2.0 community. Its actions have always been consistent with its stated goal of being a media company aligned with real estate professionals.

Zillow.com has publicly announced its intention to provide a mortgage offering, as well as the current property database. As a mortgage professional, I anticipate this release and hope we’ll be able to feature at at the BloodhoundBlog Read more

February 26, 2008

Once More With Feeling- Mortgage Rates Are Determined by Mortgage Bonds (MBS), Not The Ten Year T-Note

by

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

Author website

Mortgage rates are volatile today…very volatile.  There are two underlying factors contributing to the volatility: suspicion of the credit quality of the MBS market and supply/demand imbalance (more people want money than is offered).

Why am I so adamant about the fact that the ten-year treasury note is not the determining factor of mortgage rates?  The statement is factually incorrect.  While the two securities often move in concert, polarity can occur and sometimes does; this is one of those times.  The ten-year T-note is considered the benchmark, not bellwether fixed-income security.  This means that all other securities are compared to the 10-year T-note (we call that the “spread”).  It is GENERALLY a guiding indicator of ALL rates, however, in times or crisis or exuberance, it can’t be relied upon for other fixed-income securities’ direction.  Spreads to the T-note widen and narrow due to extraneous variables.

The real estate industry is calling for higher professionalism among lending professionals.  Some REALTORs, however, are clinging to  the demonstrated neglect the mainstream media delivers (check the comments).  An argument that bankrate.com is the source of mortgage rate movements, because the “most originators use it”, is akin to suggesting that Zillow.com is superior in home pricing than the Multiple Listing Service.

Mortgage professionals have at least three MBS quote services available:

1- Mortgage Market Guide ($100/month)

2- MBS Quoteline ($50/month)

3- Rate Link ($45/month)

Four originators (Me, Dan Green, Rhonda Porter, Mike Mueller)  with a combined 2007 funding production in excess of $100 million, subscribe to MBS pricing.  Why?  We’re mortgage professionals.  We see the need to invest $50-$100/month in the tools that serve our clients’ best interests.

What can REALTORs do today, to help the mortgage industry improve its professionalism?  Well, you don’t have to rely on the government to make the world a better place.  Get educated by professionals in the know, and start asking loan hacks which MBS pricing service they have.  

Would you refer a client to a REALTOR that didn’t subscribe to the MLS?  Of course not.  Why?

Your clients are much too important.  Choose mortgage professionals carefully.

February 26, 2008

The Network — No Easy Duality

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

To clarify my little vision yesterday it will be helpful to explain what I see happening. I see demands for online RE companies such as Zillow and Trulia to do two things: one a demand from investors to make a profit and another demand from consumers for better, more comprehensive information. When I speak of monetization it’s because it’s a reality for them. I think RE companies will be forced to create alliances with local brokers so that good, contextual information is available for consumers to go along with pictures of homes and out of context estimates and partial information.

I’m not really overly concerned about this, it’s just interesting to think about how they will survive and change. I understand the “free” experience of searching for homes without being badgered or spammed by RE agents and vendors of all sorts.

But if they don’t make money, they won’t survive. I hear Homegain is making money and it will be interesting to see how their model evolves.

However, the Network I’m talking about is more in line with with what Greg writes about here.

The Network will not be web 1.5, it’ll be more like web 2.5 and it won’t be designed to feel good about doing good, it’ll be  about being excellent and benefitting consumers. The Network will be about individuals connected to other individuals with no power or control over one another, just a recognition of excellence. I say the Network will be 2.5 because personalization and context won’t be mastered for some time.

So it’s not an easy duality of those who are greedy looking to make a buck and those who are enlightened and open and good, it will be a complex variation of efforts that I think will coalesce along several different lines. The RE companies will compete for consumers, and many will compete mainly for traffic in order to advertise. They will have to offer value and someone will need to be charged. If they don’t offer value, there will be no one to charge. I suppose the value of the Listing Sites will be to show listings in more creative, informational ways. This can be done locally much better, once consumers fully Read more

February 26, 2008

Some Well Deserved Kudos…for some friends.

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

One of the things that the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World has taught me (or maybe re-enforced to me) is the power of relationships and the wonderful power of giving. Paying it forward is more than just being nice, or the Golden Rule. It is a powerful marketing agent as well, when practiced with sincerity.

As controversies swirl and debates rage, I have 3 people that I simply want to thank.

They may not even realize it. Actually they might, I don’t know. But either way, they have inspired me by simply giving and sharing of their time and talents…not with the intent of an ROI, but with the intent of helping the new guy along get caught up in this thing we call blogging.

If you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel…they left a trail of breadcrumbs in order to find their way home. These folks leave their trails with an entirely different purpose…so that others behind them have an easy trail to follow in catching up. In my role as a teacher (and student) of all things technology and e-commerce to those in the real estate industry, here’s to the following fine folks:

Dave Smith – His most recent posts are very typical of his understanding of WordPress and of how to drive traffic to a hyperlocal blog. Thanks for building your reputation simply by sharing. It is an honor to call you a friend. And to think we got our friendship started with a post about In-n-Out Burger. Amazing, no?

Cheryl Johnson – I had not read your stuff prior to your addition to the pack of contributors here at BHB. Thank you for the tutorials and selflessly giving of your time to those who want to learn the art of WordPress. While I can find my way through code OK, there are MANY who benefit from your straight forward and easy to follow writing. We have never spoken and yet I can assure you that when we get to meet and hang out I will be a better person for it.

Greg, lastly, thank you. You are 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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