There’s always something to howl about.
This is fun, but it’s not too far from wrong. Pete Townshend is 62. Roger Daltrey is 63. There are some hand-lettered signs (harkening to a Bob Dylan (age 66) video) that make Jeff Brown’s arguments all too well.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, and I will be speaking the Phoenix Area Active Rain Gathering and First Southwest Real Estate Blogging Conference, to be held on Thursday, June 21st, at 3pm.
If you’re going to see Russell Shaw speak at Arizona Real Estate Commissioner Sam Wercinski’s event, you’ll probably still have time to make the Blogging Conference. The Commissioner is providing lunch and we’ll be having drinks after the Conference, so you can make a day of it.
The event is being put together by Shailesh Ghimire of CTX Mortgage. Visit Arizona Mortgage Guru for more details.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Another clip from the discussions Cathy and I had Sunday at open house. This film explores ideas for the focused marketing of specific types of real estate products — for example, how we might take different approaches with historic versus ultra-modern versus mid-century homes. Amazingly enough, there is some actual visual interest in the movie — all of it added in post-production.
I’ve been BADD. Again. But I’m trainable.
Sometimes I write in stream-of-consciousness fashion, and sometimes it just takes more than a couple of sentences to develop an argument or idea. This style of communicating, I now know, is deplorable execrable lamentable just plain WRONG.
So, this morning, I will develop my new skills as I share my opinion on why limited-service business models might not be in every consumer’s best interest.
Tomorrow, I will be sharing my thoughts on the legal fiasco involving Natural Hazard Disclosure Statements in California, Property ID, and ostensible purported so-called RESPA violations. I am making a diorama.
(Total Word Count: 97 not counting strike-out boo-boos, Graphic Images Intended to Capture the Attention of and Entertain the Reader: 1, Lindsay Lohan References to Ensure that Post Content Doesn’t Get Overlooked in Feed Reader: 1)
“If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.” –Victor Hugo
The Russell Shaw entry What’s wrong with Zip Realty?, written in February, was the most clicked-upon post on BloodhoundBlog on Tuesday. Debunking Zillow.com, which was written last July and which often comes in first, took second place.
I’m making note of this because there is a celebration of mental indolence going on just now, reflexively offered up as the rationale and justification for mental indolence. This by itself is meaningless: Erg for erg, laziness is the hardest job there is.
But it occurred to me that the RE.net has undertaken efforts, formal and informal, to instruct novices in the art of real estate weblogging — and laziness is very bad weblogging advice.
The job is what it is. It takes what it takes. If you don’t feel up to taking on the world, that’s fine. But don’t affect to pretend to believe that goofy pictures and bold subheads can take the place of rational discourse. It is actually possible to destroy a specious pose with one onomatopoeical word, but, most often, the work of the mind requires a greater effort.
This matters because you are not writing solely for the day and the visitors thereof. If there is any importance at all to the work that you do, it will be linked and searched. The post that gets only nine hard clicks today may someday get ninety clicks every day — if it deserves them.
What you do is your business, and most of weblogging is ephemeral — of moment for substantially less than a moment. We work the way we do here because we don’t affect to admire the half-assed. If you choose instead to indulge your worst appetites, arguing that that this is the path to popularity among people seeking to indulge their own worst appetites — rave on. It means less than nothing. The work of the mind in real estate will go on — in links, in searches, in perpetuity — without you.
But: If you actually care about improving your own mind Read more
There was a delightfully obtuse article in yesterday’s Oregonian lamenting the abysmal ratings of Katy Couric and CBS Evening News. The writer’s reasoning was that it’s our fault for not watching, that we’re a country of misogynists not ready for a serious female anchor. Damn us.
The fact is that, like most markets, the ratings were entirely predictable. Not that prediction is easy — obviously some people can’t even predict in hindsight — but those who are best able to infer behavior from given cause are those most likely to succeed in whatever they do.
Some suggestions:
1. Trust your first impression.
It’s the first advice I give to buyers: You’ll know it when you see it; if you have to be talked into it it’s probably not right. Same with ideas: if it sounds nutty on first hearing, chances are it is.
When a network news division with serious credibility problems hires as an anchor someone famous for her teeth and entertainment value — and with credibility problems of her own — it’s nutty.
When a company — Redfin — launches on the supposition that buyers will rush to be represented by someone they’ll never meet in their most important purchase of their lives, it’s nutty.
2. The corollary to (1): Don’t project your own bias.
Manifested in the notion that “If I think it, so must everyone.”
The Oregonian is obsessed with global warming (full disclosure: I am not obsessed with global warming). When our local MLS decided to add a ‘green’ search mechanism, apparently intended to pick up those properties with Energy Star or other ratings, The Oregonian devoted sixty column inches to the news. (See here). I still haven’t ever had a buyer ask me to find a green property, a seller who’s asked how to get a ‘green’ rating, nor have I ever talked to anyone else who has, and I live in the greenest state in the US. As of right now, there are 304 green listings in the MLS; out of 12,741.
Redfin’s (and Sixty Minutes’) bias is “Stick it to the Man!” CBS’s bias is: gender trumps merit.
Caveat: It’s Read more
Several days ago I wrote a piece talking about qualified plans, better known as IRA’s and 401(k)’s. It was titled 401(k)’s IRA’s & Urban Myths, and discussed some of the false beliefs many people have on the subject. It also brought an alternative to the table — investment grade insurance.
Though you should read the post to get context, in a nutshell here’s what I said.
By putting your tax deferred money into qualified plans you’re setting yourself up for a nasty surprise upon retirement. Your income will be taxed at a rate for which most folks won’t have planned. Therefore, they should stop contributing to those plans and begin putting that money instead, into investment grade life insurance. It’s not really for the insurance, but has some really cool results — especially when compared side by side with qualified plans.
For instance, the income produced by the insurance which from now on will be called FIUL – Fixed Index Universal Life, is tax free for life . You’ll notice maybe what it’s not – a VUL or Variable Universal Life. One guy decided I was talking about VUL’s — wrong again. He was a reasonable guy, wanting to maybe hear from my in-house expert. He will. I often find it entertaining the way some wish to compare apples to lizards when they disagree. One such example is a guy who wanted to compare the results of $350/mo into FIUL’s vs $750 into his qualifed (employer matching) plan. As good as your investment guy might be, nobody is going to beat someone who is investing more than twice the amount as the other guy. It’s a silly comparison. Now to give him the benefit of the doubt, I did compare taking $350/mo vs $500/mo — and the 401(k) lost big time. (For the record, the annual after tax retirement incomes were the same, but the FIUL income was available for life, not subject to rising future taxes, and upon the death of the taxpayer there was literally no tax owed, as it wasn’t part of his estate in the first place.)
I will tell you Read more
This is a piece of the video we shot on Sunday. There’s another segment, on marketing, that I may post, also.
This film is a discussion of the nature of discursive prose as an art form, and why video, for all its strengths, cannot supplant prose in weblogging.
This could easily be the most hirsute real estate video you will ever watch. We trip lightly between art and philosophy, taking a moment to reflect upon the Swan of Avon along the way. I started out thinking that the exercise was a complete waste, but, in the end, I think you’ll find that the content, static thought it may be, repays your time.
Signs of the times.
When the going gets tough, the tough jump ship. I am starting to see the telltale signs of a challenging market for many agents as manifested in the game of Musical Brokers that is typically played when agents sense business could be better.
I, too, have been guilty of going agent-overboard in the past, several times actually. Two of the moves were pure genius, yet another was impetuous and, in hindsight, downright stupid. In each case, Steve and I were inspired to make a change because of vision: Our vision of the future of our industry and our perception that our Broker lacked it. I have come to the conclusion that real estate companies generally fall into one of three categories: Cruise Ships, Battleships, and Dinghies. (Tiresome methaphor ensues).
Cruise Ships
These are the big boys who captain the party boat. They are large, they enjoy huge name-recognition, and they barrel blindly ahead with a full boat. Everyone is having such a good time that no one is looking to the iceberg on the horizon. Alternative business models? An evolving client base? Shifting technological and economic tides? Everyone is too engrossed with the all-you-can-eat buffet to see it coming, at which point it is too late to change course. At the first sign of rough waters, bookings decline, profitability tanks and excursions are canceled. They are used to these dry-dock periods, and they will be back the next time people are ready for a good time.
Battleships
Battleships are also huge and unwieldy, and corporate. They are in charge of the troops, they have rules (too many), and they thrive on control. They are most concerned with image, image of the company, and individual rights and privileges are routinely subordinated for the greater “good” (read “bottom line”). They have a long-range plan, yet the Joint Chiefs are too bogged down in red tape to read or react swiftly to the undercurrents of a changing industry. Battleships, like the Cruise Ships, are unable to turn on a dime, but correct course they will – eventually. In the meantime, too many sailors have gone AWOL.
Dinghies
Dinghies Read more
At my home blog, Blown Mortgage, I have the privilege of interviewing some of the best and brightest in the real estate and mortgage world. In this interview I spoke with Dan Green of Bloodhound and TheMortgageReports.com. As a blogger with over 2 years of posts logged he has a lot of experience and insight in to how blogging can help you business. Dan sources 25-30% of his business from his blog. Chew on that ROI!
This is the second Bloodhound I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and I hopefully get to talk to the rest of the gang in the near future (hint, cough, hint).
Because I don’t want to put Greg through the FTP wringer again I’ll simply provide a link to the 13 minute interview over on Blown.
I hope you enjoy it – I know I did.
I’ve always liked good puns in marketing because they’re cerebral and that’s the arena in which I like to engage my clients.
You can understand, therefore, why I am partial to my own mortgage-related tagline:
You’re not a loan with The Dan Green Team
Joke grenades work on Madison Avenue and at The Improv. I love when I get a call from a client months after our relationship starts and he says: “I just got the ‘You’re not a loan’ thing!” That kills me.
What are your favorite real estate-related slogans?
(Image Courtesy: Cambridge Now!)
I’m back in the saddle, but will have the promised post on qualified plans vs. investment grade insurance tomorrow or Wednesday, as my energy level didn’t return as quickly as I’d hoped. Ignorance can produce golden opportunities, as long as it runs into real knowledge. Again, the plan is for that to happen in a day or two. Thanks for your patience. 🙂
Meanwhile, you can take a look at what might happen if you look through the wrong end of the telescope.
I took the Bert and Ernie movie to YouTube to see how it would translate. I had read that much of the YouTube quality issue, that awful blocky MPEGulation, was caused by the quality of the source video, and I wanted to put it that notion to the test. Whatever B&EbtUSA lacks in cinematic art, it is decent-quality NTSC video. In other words, if you drove it into your television, it would look like TV-quality video. Bottom line: Not great, not awful. YouTube clearly is imposing its own compression on the source video, resulting in a significant loss of quality. Even so, the results are not nearly as bad as we resign ourselves to accepting from YouTube. My guess is that worst YouTube videos are being scaled up from iPod-sized source videos.
I think it’s funny to make a video about weblogging, so Cathy and I had our revenge yesterday at open house: We made a two-shot talking had video about video. It’s actually deeply philosophical, which is what poor Cathy has to live through when she lets me talk. But I haven’t cut it together yet, so that will have to wait.
Another project is to recut the Almeria video to try to make it a little less visually disquieting.
Recall that the original idea behind that film was to come up with an alternative to the “this… is… the… master… bed… room…” style of real estate video. In the film Cathy and I shot yesterday, we spend some time talking about the Greek idea of historia — the notion that history is not just a chronicle of events but, rather, an interpretive context — a story. I believe that real estate video works when it works as a story and not just as a visual summary of the MLS listing.
As a separate expression of that same kind of idea, BloodhoundBlog contributor Doug Quance brings forth A Study In Staging A Home In Atlanta. The home is shown to full advantage, but, by making the film about the story of the staging of the house, we don’t feel Read more
…is up at the Christian Real Estate Network Blog. Justin Smith does a nice job, and he includes a charming photo of a young superhero.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
