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November 16, 2007

Wanna Go North? Stop Heading South.

by

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

Author website

Leave it to Todd Carpenter.

I was on Rain City Guide, wishing Jilayne a happy birthday, today. I scrolled through the posts to see the typical “Do Away With YSP post” that dominates the internet today. It’s another example of heading South to eventually go North.

Todd has the answer (comment #1):

I have another idea. If YSP’s supposedly stress everyone out at the closing table, just stop making brokers disclose it. Then the consumer would start focusing on the true cost of the loan.

Brilliant ! I’m actually giddy.  Todd may not realize it but he just fired the shot heard round the world.

November 16, 2007

The mother of invention: Greg’s IDX

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Our IDX bill came due today. A boatload of money for the next twelve months, even though the system is going to break itself in eight months, when the new sheriff comes to town.

So: I said kill it. The leads we get from it have stunk, and the free ARMLS solution is adequate for now.

I hate every choice that’s available to us. About fifteen months ago, I wrote a spec for a map-based search system that would appeal to me. Since then, the art has improved, with Estately.com being my current favorite.

Here’s the real deal, though: I should build a decent IDX system for Phoenix. Not me personally. I don’t have the database chops. But I should put together a start-up to build an IDX system that really delivers, instead of the stultifyingly crappy options we have now.

In the Web 2.0 world, we are all pioneers, and I am accidentally wired into a community of like minds who can help me get what I want. Plus which, like my own personal Jesus, Steve Jobs, I know what I love, I know what I hate, and I know why I hate things that don’t work.

And, face it, there is money to be made selling tools to Realtors. I am parsimonious enough in my own practice to be a good steward with a customer’s money, but I know I can deliver a better product for the money. I can build something that can go anywhere FlexMLS goes, and probably anywhere RETS goes.

Who salutes? This wants funding, and that I ain’t got. If you’re interested in putting your money where my mouth is, speak up.

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November 16, 2007

BloodhoundBlog.TV an inch at a time: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So: I have good news, bad news and worse news.

The good news is, the video linked below, an interview with Jeff Turner of RealEstateShows.com about his experiences at the NAR Convention, is a full representation of the BloodhoundBlog.TV idea as I envision it. Video captured to the size of the image window on an Apple iPhone with a decent level of audio quality.

The bad news is, this is probably as good as things will get for a while. We have something truly cool, and truly novel, but the level of quality we can achieve with existing tools is limited. A year from now we’ll be doing much better. Two years from now the flap-jaws on the Tee Vee News will be pontificating about the dangers of unfettered TV news. In other words, this is the world of desktop publishing or weblogging brought to the world of the multi-camera remote television interview. But: For now, this is as good as it gets.

The worst news is that I hit yet another audio glitch about a third of the way into my conversation with Jeff, with the result that we lost more than we retained. This is truly tragic, because Jeff covered a lot of interesting ground.

But: We’re getting there. Sunday night we’ll do a group interview with NAR Convention survivors, and this will be an even better test of this technology.

In the meantime, we console ourselves with Tennyson:

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,–
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

BloodhoundBlog.TV is that much closer to being a reality.

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November 16, 2007

Call it by its right name: It’s Friday-afternoon real estate gossip

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Glenn Kelman wonders a little too self-revealing about the hype motivating serial entrepreneurs. Guy Kawasaki jumps to exactly the wrong conclusion, asserting that VC funds are wasted if a start-up’s founders have conquered their acne. And Marlow Harris wonders if the whole thing is simply Kelman campaigning for his next job.

Loren Nason asks an excellent question: Why the hell isn’t Apple pushing product at the NAR Convention? At a minimum, the smart folks from the Apple Store at the Fashion Show Mall could be selling iPhones by the dozens.

The New York Times notes that TV is losing viewership to on-line alternatives. Ya think? Everything that exists exists in finite quantity. The more of my leisure time I spent on the nets, the less I will have to spend on other pursuits. The more my work time and leisure time blend together, the more everything looks like a nail. If you’re not selling nails, precisely what do you think you have to sell me?

Finally, in more jobs news, Vanessa we hardly knew ye. I didn’t think this was big news on the way in, so I’m less that whelmed on the way out. Much more interesting, a little bug in my ear intimates, is this:

But Fox isn’t the only one who has departed the heavily-funded company in recent months. She said there have been a few people who have left to pursue early-stage opportunities, while one Zillow employee recently set sail for Facebook. Still, she said there is by no means a “revolving door” at the company.

However, some former Zillow engineers — Logan Bowers, Sameer Rayachoti and Greg Whelan — left to create a Seattle startup called Fridge Door. I have been tracking the stealthy startup for the past few days, but have yet to uncover a Web site or contact details. (Shoot me an e-mail if you know it or if you work at the company and are reading this.) I am told that others have left, though not sure if the churn rate is unusually high for a company of that size.

I know nothing about the world of start-up companies, Read more

November 15, 2007

What REALLY Caused the Lender Meltdown and Other Important Stuff

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

The Wall Street high finance folks who contrived a system to endlessly send money to lenders and reward them for making fraudulent loans got what they rewarded. Here are a few Letters to the Editor from Businessweek:

The Heat On Angelo Mozilo

Maria Bartiromo’s interview of Angelo Mozilo (“The heat on Countrywide,” News & Insights, Sept. 10) was tough and insightful. Clearly, Mozilo worked hard for years to build Countrywide Financial. It is sad to see many of his customers suffering under pending or potential future home loss through foreclosure. It also is an unfortunate coincidence that Mozilo has received $100 million by exercising options while many shareholders and customers suffer.This presents Mozilo with a unique opportunity: He could use some of his new riches to set up a fund to help families of customers facing home loss. Think of the suffering he could alleviate for just one child who gets to stay in his or her home. Multiply that by the tens or hundreds of families he could help by setting aside 10% or 20% of his windfall. Hopefully he will seize this opportunity.

Ed Dziadzio
Lexington, Mass.

__

It was difficult to read Angelo Mozilo’s interview because of the blinding light of his halo. In his “mission to lower the barriers of entry for…homeownership” he developed “184 programs” designed, in essence, to circumvent the historically proven risk-evaluation standards and reap huge, though temporary, profits for the corporation. The permanent benefit has been the obscene salaries and bonuses for him. The only reason Countrywide is “modifying” loans is to keep a lid on the disasters, not out of altruism. His claims are beyond absurd. Does his company not advertise as well as promote itself within the industry? Mozilo points out that “it’s important to understand that everybody has experienced substantial losses.” Not quite, Mr. Mozilo.

David Horn
Oakland, Calif.

__

The problems in the subprime lending market are due to low underwriting standards and then overvaluation of these portfolios. A key question that needs to be asked is how these mortgage originators are compensated. Many times the originator is compensated based on production of loans, which includes the good, bad, Read more

November 15, 2007

Social Networking, the pork chop and my Cuban accounting professor

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

In my undergrad days, I had an accounting professor. He was a great guy actually. He was from Cuba, (pronounced Coo-bah) with a thick, middle aged Ricky Ricardo accent.

He used to tell us all of the time:

“What you are giving! What you are getting! That is important!’

He would then hold his cupped hands out in front of himself like a balance scale to weigh the two. Funny the things that stick with you through life…Nestor Ruiz–wherever you are, thanks. That lesson has been invaluable.

I have been quietly watching and considering some things lately…I see many of the RE.net’s social networking sites get lobbied heavily by bots and their employees who proclaim to be different from the others and yet in the end, they look very much the same. They all look for creative ways to tie the pork chop around their neck just hoping for this result:

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They want the REALTOR community to like them. Why would they want to do that? When they say it isn’t about the Benjamin’s, that IMHO is exactly what it is about. Obviously these social networks that they are lobbying are full of influence on REALTORS. The pork chops dull the REALTOR’s  (read: dog’s) senses as he prepares to enjoy a nice little exposure snack.
But the cost of the snack may well affect the REALTORS livelihood long after the savory snack has passed. If I follow my accounting professor’s sage advice, I realize that recouping the X million smackers that founded some of these companies HAS to come from somewhere. And a big somewhere at that, IMO.
Logic indicates that advertising models on the web do not do it alone. It also indicates that free (often less than accurate) Automated Valuations are not enticement enough (in many locations throughout the country). Since these bots don’t enjoy universal search engine presence, there are many consumers they are NOT reaching. The clock is ticking and they need revenue. To get it, could it be that they need listings to create relevance? And once relevance and internet dominance are assured, will they will charge the REALTOR, whether via referral fee Read more

November 15, 2007

Video podcast with Daniel Rothamel from the NAR Convention

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I am too much chagrined. In building BloodhoundBlog.TV, I know what I want, but I keep running into technical glitches that leave me short of where I want to be. We are that close to getting a launch-quality product, but I’m not there yet.

But: The video linked below is a big step in the right direction. Daniel Rothamel of The Real Estate Zebra joined us to talk about his experiences so far at the NAR Convention, notably Seth Godin’s presentation and yesterday’s news from Zillow.com’s Rich Barton.

Jeff Turner is running a NAR Updates site that gives a peripatetic commentary on events at the show.

We will try to take another stab at BHB.TV content from the Convention before the Conventioneers are ground to a pulp by the irrepressible machine that is Las Vegas.

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November 15, 2007

Not to take anything away from the NAR Convention in Las Vegas, but this seems like the better takeaway . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This requires reasoning by analogy, never a welcome exercise. Even so, there’s a clue here if anyone cares to catch it:

“We used to fool ourselves. We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won.” — Edgar Bronfman, Warner Music

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November 14, 2007

Cribfinder and Facebook: Showcasing Listings

by

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

Author website

I’m a newbie to the world of Facebook but an old salt at social networking sites. I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2004, MySpace since 2005, and Active Rain since 2006. Facebook is my network du l’an for 2007.

It all started with my need to meet people in the San Diego area. I moved here as a mortgage sales executive in 2003 to be RIF’d after a merger in early 2005. Faced with the prospect of earning a living for my family, I turned to my first love; originating loans. In many respects, I’m only a third year originator.

My goal: to build a phat Rolodex, and fast.

I turned to the budding social networks to meet REALTORs and key referring influencers. I think Jeff Corbett got me on Facebook. I see a few of you there now. Facebook is a unique social utility because it lets independent software developers offer applications. One of those applications is a listing bot called Cribfinders. From the Cribfinders home page on Facebook:

Did you know?
* Your properties appear on your profile after adding them to CribFinder
* Updates appear on your newsfeed when you add or comment on photos (even your own!)
* You can track how many times your properties are viewed
* You can add your profile to our (searchable) realtor database
* You can add as many properties as you want
* You can get links to your “Cribs” and display them OFF of facebook

I added that application on my Facebook page and started searching around, I came upon this listing and clicked through to the REALTOR. He and I led parallel lives (both lived in Phoenix and moved to San Diego). I called him and spoke to him for 10-15 minutes and we have a connection. I have always maintained that the loan originator with the most friends wins the game so I like to make friends.
I noticed one hound using that application and wondered if others will. Comments about Cribfinders?

November 14, 2007

The Odysseus Medal: “Failure is a costly but cogent instructor”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here are the Odysseus Medal winners, finally. My apologies for being two days late, but my little hop to Las Vegas put me way behind on everything.

I run with a fast crowd here, but I don’t cut them any slack. I am never nice for the sake of being nice, and I don’t ever hesitate to tell what I believe to be the complete truth. Even so, I don’t love it when one of our wins the Odysseus Medal, because I don’t want anyone to even suspect that I might be swayed by personal considerations. But great work is where you find it, even if you find it at home. So this week’s Odysseus Medal goes to BloodhoundBlog’s own Brian Brady for HR 3915: Open Letter to Senator Dodd from a Veteran Mortgage Originator:

Dear Chairman Dodd:

Soon, HR 3915 will be endorsed by the House of Representatives and most likely referred to the Senate. The committee you chair, will have an opportunity to read, discuss, debate, and amend this bill before recommending it to the general Senate for vote. I am a 20 year veteran of consumer financial services with the last 14 years in mortgage lending. I have helped over 700 families finance their homes and closed some 1700 loan transactions. I humbly submit my expert opinion to you for consideration.

The Libertarian in me begs you to do absolutely nothing; it’s the borrowers’ cavalier attitude towards financial planning that caused this mess. While my statement is true, it is but a component of the underlying malaise in the residential real estate industry; we adopted an even more cavalier approach to loan approvals and that irresponsibility is being felt by the investors who trusted us to perform adequate due diligence. Failure is a costly but cogent instructor; to discourage failure on both the borrower and investing lender sides of the equation might be more costly in the long run.

I oppose individual originator licensing in its proposed form. It doesn’t demonstrate true expertise and might induce a false sense of security to the consumer. Read more

November 14, 2007

Feng Shui… It’s All Chinese Math To Me

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I’ve been putting clients into my car and cruising the streets of Chicago for nearly a decade now; the first three years as a leasing agent, the remainder as an actual dues paying realtor. I estimate that I’ve personally shown over 10,000 properties to almost 2,000 different people; a few of whom were clinically certifiable and dozens more on top of that, just plain peculiar. I laugh and cringe out loud (which I suppose would be COL) when I think back on some of the screwy scenarios I’ve witnessed or been a party to. Such, as they say, is life in this big city.

There was the lady who peed in the back seat of my car, the last cloth seat vehicle I’ll ever own. COL. There was the fairly well-dressed gentleman who came in just before the close of business one evening, adamant about seeing one of our rental listings (posted in the lobby window) on the far north side of Chicago.  A half hour later he bolted from my car as I was attempting to parallel park in front of the property–-a free ride home to the neighborhood being his sole intention all along.

Then, there was the transvestite who couldn’t stop weeping because she had just been dumped by her lover–poor thing. I took her into a Starbucks to calm her down and everyone in the place ended up staring at me. And perhaps the most memorable of all was the woman and her ‘attorney’ who stormed into the lobby of our ‘Free Apartment Finding Service’ (or so read the sign on the awning), demanding the ‘free’ apartment.  But to be fair, most of the above episodes occurred in the earliest days of my career when I was known to befriend any man who happened through the door with a need for housing and the first month’s rent to back it up.

My thoughts today, however, drift back to a middle-aged Mandarin couple I met earlier in this year and what they taught me about showing property to people more spiritual than myself. After several times out in the car we finally came up with a very short list of townhomes they could possibly live with (or even walk into, for that matter). They insisted we meet at sunrise to view all the listings in which they expressed any serious interest. Luckily for me and Read more

November 14, 2007

Zillow.com enables listing agents to pee on the tree perpetually

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

There has been a ton of Zillow.com “news” lately, but mainly I’ve been ignoring it. News is news when it is something other than PR — free advertising for the company pushing the press release. In other words, what’s-in-it-for-me? — or for you or for anyone other than the owners of the company.

So:

  • Zillow announces new listings from Big Bob’s Bait and Realty
  • Zillow discovers newspapers don’t know what was planned for Hansel and Gretel
  • After months of announcements, Zillow finally takes listings feeds
  • Zillow announces even more new listings from multiple miscellaneous sources
  • Zillow rapidly approaches a one-percent listings penetration; if you’re looking for a home, almost one out of hundred are now on-line!

Okayfine. I don’t care. The feed is a happening thing, but I said a long time ago they would have to have one, at which time they demurred. If they celebrate with a cupcake for each new brokerage they sign up, they may someday have to go to Costco once a week to buy more cupcakes. Good news for them. Not very interesting otherwise.

But then there’s this:

In addition, today Zillow is announcing its revolutionary Zillow Virtual Sold Sign program (VSS), to be added to Zillow Listings Feeds in the coming months. The VSS program allows a broker’s branding and contact information to permanently become part of a sold home’s Web page on Zillow, where four million people visit every month, 70 percent of whom are buying or selling in the next two years. The VSS functionality is free to all brokerages and Web vendors with Zillow Listings Feeds.

“Imagine having a permanent ‘sold by’ sign in front of every home a brokerage has ever sold — giving buyers and sellers a critical piece of information on who is selling homes in a neighborhood — today and over time,” said Rich Barton, Zillow co-founder and CEO. “Given Zillow’s focus on all homes — more than 70 million of them — and not just those on the market today, we are in a unique position to provide this historical sales information to buyers, sellers and homeowners.”

Now that’s interesting. If you list well in Read more

November 14, 2007

Irony Can Be So Ironic (Massachusetts Edition)

by

Mortgage Planner

Author website

Massachusetts was one of the first states to put anti-predatory lending laws on its books, ratifying in November 2004. The law includes provisions for borrower counseling, prepayment penalties, and financing of fees.

Presumably, somebody thought the law had a positive impact on homeowners because, recently, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank authored HR 3915, The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007. Currently in debate, HR 3915 is the first national anti-predatory lending program proposed by Congress.

And then comes the heavy dose of irony.

Today, RealtyTrac released its foreclosure data from Q3 2007. Check out five of the six cities leading the nation in year-over-year foreclosure growth:

  1. Bethesda/Frederick/Gaithersburg, MD (1,640%)
  2. Cambridge/Newton/Framingham, MA (1,552%)
  3. Boston/Quincy, MA (1,274%)
  4. Springfield, MA (1,169%)
  5. Essex, MA (993%)
  6. Worcester, MA (895%)

It appears that three years after its anti-predatory lending laws went into effect, Massachusetts homes are foreclosing faster than in any other state in the country.

Irony can be so ironic.

November 13, 2007

Bossy Visionaries, Portland, and how to ram “Green” down the throat of an uncooperative market

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

The Bossy Visionary guide to power:

1. Sell a crisis.  It can be real, it can be almost real, it can be imaginary, but sell it apocalyptically.  Over-population/global famine has been an especially popular one, Paul Erlich having predicted it every five years since 1968 (but this time he’s serious!), following in the footsteps of Thomas Malthus, who first predicted the population would outstrip the food supply in 1798. [Now, of course, we have global warming, global cooling having proved a disappointment.]

2. Set yourself up as the one person/group/coalition/association that can solve the crisis, if only people will give you enough money and behave exactly as you instruct. 

3. Demand sacrifice, open a bank account, and wait for the marketplace to work.

4. When it doesn’t, legislate. 

The Bossy Visionary confidently knows what’s better for people than people.

Portland, Oregon is fertile breeding ground for Bossy Visionaries.

Portland doesn’t wear the progressive label; it wallows in it.  The County Commission and the City Council cattily compete with each other for the ‘most like San Francisco’ award, often to the exclusion of proposing anything actually, well, sane.  Thus the county a few years ago began unilaterally issuing gay marriage licenses, notwithstanding the fact that it wasn’t legal, wasn’t popular, and there’s nothing worse than giving someone something only to have it taken away, which the Supreme Court predictably did.  Thus the City Council is in the process of changing the name of a major thoroughfare in North Portland from ‘Interstate Ave.’ to ‘Caesar Chavez’ Ave., notwithstanding the fact the neighborhoods through which Interstate runs are an olio of Polish, Indian, African American, old, young, hip and not, but less than 8% Latino; and notwithstanding the fact that those neighborhoods, especially the businesses, are overwhelmingly opposed to the change.  [To the petulant mayor – he did the perfect ‘terrible twos’ impression and stomped out of a Council meeting when it looked like one of the key votes had changed – all that matters is the du jour grievance group, the fawning press that will be generated in the process, and one more notch in the totem erected to the politically gooey.]

So this didn’t Read more

November 13, 2007

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” — Howard Aiken

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The quote comes from WorkHappy.net this morning. Yesterday — plane-bound, casino-bound, Twitter-bound — unable to post — I reflected upon why it’s all just so much waxed fruit — for now:

Rusting in irony. I really, really want to post and I have 140 chars to work with.

That’s Jeff Turner and a newly-shorn Dustin Luther checking out Jeff’s camera at last night’s BloggerCon event at the NAR Convention in Las Vegas. The event was a lot of fun for me, much more fun than I had anticipated, but we were just so much waxed fruit to the NAR, a minor constituency to be placated.

So be it. A year ago, there was nothing of our world at the NAR Convention. This year, amidst the pageantry for MS FrontPage and MS Publisher, Dustin Luther spoke on “Understanding Your Online Competition.” Seth Godin is speaking, too, although I think he might go over like The Great Gazoo.

And: So be it. What I was ruminating on, unable to post, was Jim Duncan’s optimistic take on working within the NAR. My thoughts run in the other direction — working without the NAR — and my honest belief is that the NAR is destined to go the way of the Typographer’s Union — marching stoutly and steadfastly into an unlamented irrelevance. Sic semper tyrannosauris — thus, ever, to dinosaurs.

Organizations don’t change because they should. They don’t change because the world has changed on them. The don’t change because glib ideologues like me persuade them to embrace their better angels. Organizations change — if they do — when they have to: When a sufficient power-bloc within the group forces a change or when a force from outside the group proves irresistible. Most dinosaurs change — to a state of perpetual demise — when they get hit by a meteor.

Are we — the RE.net, the Web 2.0 world — are we that outside force for the NAR? Are we that meteor? Don’t kid yourself. We’re waxed fruit for now, up from barely negligible a year ago. But a year from now…?

I live in a very long-term world, but I live 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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