BloodhoundBlog

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May 29, 2007

Ask the Blogger: How much is eleven months in dog years?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came in by email:

I find myself commenting on more and more of your blogs, because of my respect for some of your writers.

My concern is who are your readers?

How large is your audience?

Are we dealing with real estate professionals or the general public?

BloodhoundBlog is eleven months’ old today. We’re whipping up the batter for a first-birthday cake that — I assure you — Odysseus will be more than happy to eat.

Who are our readers?: Real estate professionals, by an overwhelming margin.

Weekdays are strong, weekends are weaker, but we average around 1,200 unique visitors a day. Those are click-through visitors, people who are actually landing on one or more of our pages. The overwhelming majority of them come from sites we know, mainly other real estate weblogs. A significant portion come from search engines, this because we tend to score very high on certain industry-related searches.

In addition, we have a very strong RSS subscriber base. How strong, precisely, I do not know, this because I don’t like routing traffic through third-party vendors. On top of that, we add new email-based subscriptions every day. For these latter, I see actual email addresses, so I know for sure we are appealing to real estate professionals.

There’s more I could say. For example, Google Analytics tells me that our readership is extremely “sticky”: Thousands of people have visited BloodhoundBlog hundreds of times. Since last August, when I installed Google Analytics, more than 42,000 individuals have visited us 9 or more times. Over 20,000 people have come here 51 or more times. Again, this ignores RSS subscribers. We are talking to a large, growing and very loyal audience.

Why does it work so well? I don’t suffer the curse of modesty, so I’ll tell the bald truth: We are as popular as we are because we deserve to be. We write wisely, wittily and well about things that matter to real estate professionals. We don’t divide our attentions trying to serve two divergent audiences, and we are so far-flung as to be completely location-independent. We are philosophically and temperamentally diverse, and yet we are able Read more

May 29, 2007

401(k)’s IRA’s & Urban Myths

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

In a recent post, Retirement — A New Class Being Created, I predicted a new class of retiree living a life tied to their free and clear home, with little monthly income. It inspired some interesting comments, and a question that is the inspiration for this post. One reader, Eric, was surprised to hear his 401(k) would be taxed when he retired and began taking distributions. So he asked the following question.

Help a young man out here – what tax bite do you speak of? Early withdrawal? I was under the impression that so long as a 401k built up to a certain age (65?) that it was relatively tax free?

Rain on my parade, I’m wearing my parka. 🙂

It’s not Eric’s fault (at least mostly) he thinks his withdrawals would be ‘relatively’ tax free. I’ve had many people in my office tell me what they know on the subject, most of it based on what some expert at work told them. But alas, it is taxed just like you’re being taxed now Eric. And if you’re not taking out what Big Brother thinks you should be by the time you’re in your early 70’s, they’ll make you take out more, or penalize your butt.

That’s when Chuchundra came in to soften things up for poor Eric. Chuchundra then offered some advice to Eric using the number one urban myth out there on the subject. In his comment, Brian Brady recognized this advise for what it was — pure urban myth. Chuchundra said:

If you have a standard, pre-tax 401K or IRA, you pay tax on your distributions. It’s considered regular income. You didn’t pay tax on the money you put in or on the capital gains that money made over the years, so you pay when you take it out. The idea being that you’ll be in a lower tax bracket when you’re retired, so the tax bite will be smaller.

Now that might very well be true for those who followed the Grandpa Economics school of How To Retire With A Free & Clear Home While Learning To Live On Coupons, Read more

May 28, 2007

Elaborating the video slideshow beyond all reason: Bert and Ernie BlogTourUSA, the movie

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I got Final Cut Express HD for the Macintosh on Friday. Call it semi-pro video editing software, appropriate to folks like me with significant commercial needs but with neither the time nor the talent to make use of a higher-priced spread.

What you get with Final Cut Express is multi-track video and sound editing with cable-channel-like titling and a blue million sound effects. It doesn’t do green-screen superimposition (I don’t think), but the fanatical home-movie mechanic has everything he needs to alienate an entire family reunion in one elaborate film.

What I want, for now at least, it to insert slide-show images over live video, and I spent a bunch of time playing with those toys over the weekend. Today I built what I think will be my final statement on the video slide show: No full-motion video, but loads of fun with transitions.

I have loads to learn, but I think this hangs together pretty well. Give it a look. It’s fun.

May 28, 2007

Separating the Buyer Agent Commission From the Listing Commission is a REALLY stupid idea

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

This is a continuation of Jeff Kempe’s thoughtful post below. At first, I was going to reply to his post via a comment. But as I thought about it I realized there was way more I wanted to say.

First things first: Welcome Jeff, Lani & Morgan! I’m delighted to have you here.

__

It is common for a person to have a completely false idea of why something is good or bad and for them to still be correct that it is good or bad. This can come about when the person looks to see why something is the way it is and not knowing the correct answer (real reason why) they then make up or invent an answer. This new datum is then used to explain away some situation or circumstance they observe. This is so common that you can see examples of it in almost every profession, industry and government. Failure to correctly observe the real “right why” is THE WHY for every failure any individual, organization or government ever had. A real WHY opens the door to handling.

Man too often finds that his “solutions” become his new problems. Most of the difficulties one faces on a regular basis (problems) are, in fact, themselves solutions to earlier problems.

I do not intend to be disrespectful here towards your friend and mentor, Jeff – but several of the things he has informed you about are completely incorrect. The thinkingcapidea that a Realtor not sharing a commission was passed into law in state after state after state, across the country, to “protect Realtors” or to somehow impede discounters is just flat wrong. I can’t say that any of those laws were the best possible solutions but they had nothing to do with “protecting Realtors”. In every state where a real estate license is required to legally earn and collect a commission (all 50 in the United States, last time I checked) there is some sort of rule or regulation that states commissions can not be paid to an unlicensed individual. In most every state there is a special exception to this rule for lawyers Read more

May 27, 2007

Tennessee, Oregon, and the State of Real Estate

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

This started as a reply to Greg’s post on the Tennessee legislature, which apparently insists going backward is the new going forward. But then I had The Conversation, and it’s developed into a post of its own.

Involved is someone I respect, a friend, a mentor, perhaps the one person more responsible for getting me into real estate than anyone. In the business over twenty years, he knows RE law better than most principal brokers, and has helped me enormously in the first three years I’ve been around.

Oregon is one of the eleven states that has a “Thou shalt not share commission!” law, passed at least fifteen years ago, notwithstanding Glenn Kelman’s Sixty Minutes inference that it was all about him. I wanted to know why it was passed in the first place: Assuming consumer protection against graft or corruption, I couldn’t figure out how that worked. The answer dumbfounded me:

“That protects us, our commissions. I’m glad it’s there.”

Oh, dear. Thank you for the candor. Elaborate?

“Look, I know you’re a free market kind of guy, but there’s nothing wrong with laws protecting us from consumers. People try to hack away at my commission every day on the listing side. This prevents the same kind of hacking on the buying side.”

Wait. Aren’t you worth the commission you charge? “Of course. That’s my point.” Then when someone asks you to cut your commission, what’s wrong with: No. Why do you need a law, especially a law that reinforces the public perception that we’re all self absorbed troglodytes?

“Twenty years ago, before the internet, we didn’t have that reputation. Now 80% of transactions don’t even really need a buyer’s agent.”

Say what?

It went on, defensively and testily. The internet’s the problem, we’re the victims. When I brought up separating buyer commission from listing commission, he said he hoped he was well out of the business before that happened.

It’s occurred to me: his opinion isn’t an anomaly; as I said here the biggest problem we face as an industry is our industry. I can’t begin to get my mind around treating clients as adversaries, Read more

May 25, 2007

MySpace Should Buy Trulia, Zillow and Active Rain

by

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

Author website

MySpace, Active Rain, Trulia, and Zillow. The perfect merger.

Active Rain: The best place for B2B sales in the real estate industry. Mortgage originators, title reps, and escrow officers who aren’t playing in the “Rain” are missing out on an incredible opportunity. I’m not going to expand on that anymore in the interest of greed. Realtors can juice their SEO on Active Rain, trade war stories, and learn the art of weblogging but they really aren’t having enough conversations with a consumer to warrant the time investment to have a presence there.

Zillow: The consumers I’ve “met” from Zillow tend to be “over-educated”. They are the “know everything” engineer-types who value real estate professionals only as a functionary. Contrary to tech culture belief, a business can not be built on commodity shopping; there is no incentive for participation from the real estate professional community. Zillow’s automated valuation model, however, may very well be the best use of technology for real estate. Consumers LOVE it regardless of it’s inaccuracies.

Trulia: Perhaps the best opportunity for a real estate professional to establish a credible web presence is in the Trulia Voices section. Just two weeks old, Trulia Voices is attracting consumers and providing a forum for professionals to answer questions. Buyers flock to Trulia because of the listings. Control the listings and you control the game.

MySpace: Last summer, Myspace just registered it’s 100 millionth user. Critics claim that MySpace is for teenagers and is not to be taken seriously. That is incorrect. Over half of the visitors on Myspace are over 35 years old as the site starts to mirror the population. Any MySpace user can tell you about the cultural shift these “graying users’ have brought to the site these past two years.

Why would I propose this “merger” of RE.net media? Zillow offers tools for the seller (or homeowner looking to refinance), Trulia owns the listings platform with the participation of the professionals. Active Rain has tech-savvy real estate professionals dying to interact with consumers over the web.

MySpace has the consumers. That is who we’re missing.

May 25, 2007

MLS ‘ad’ crackdown a waste of time, expert says

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link):

MLS ‘ad’ crackdown a waste of time, expert says

Here’s an interesting conundrum: MLS rules forbid one broker from advertising another’s listings without permission. The question is this: What is advertising?

At first blush, you might say that advertising is paid space or time in a publication or on a broadcasting outlet and that the rule is devised to prevent Broker Paul from advertising Broker Peter’s listings as if they were his own.

Surely it would be sleazy of Broker Paul to do that, but the rule itself is not without stain. Why wouldn’t Broker Peter want free advertising for his listings?

Because he wants to maximize his chances for representing both the seller and the buyer, taking commissions from both.

With the advent of the Internet, though, things are getting more complicated. Zillow.com, the Seattle-based real estate portal, will permit anyone, including Realtors, to announce that a particular home is for sale. Is this advertising another broker’s listings?

Seattle’s Redfin.com, a discount brokerage, built weblogs devoted to reviews of listed homes. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has ordered the company to shut these sites down, assessing a $50,000 fine, claiming that the property reviews are advertising.

Two points to consider: First, nothing prevents ordinary people from saying whatever they choose, subject to libel laws, about a property. The only people to be restrained from speaking are MLS members, who presumably have the most information to share.

Secondly, these conversations will go on.

The Internet massively reduces the cost of sharing and acquiring information. The natural course of events for net-savvy consumers is to obtain as much information as possible before buying or selling anything.

Truly, resistance to this indefatigable quest for information is futile. So, smart vendors embrace it.

When you shop for a book on Amazon.com, at the bottom of the page you will find reviews by ordinary people, some positive, some negative — and the reviews themselves are rated by other users.

If Realtors, through the MLS, elect to exclude themselves from Net-based conversations about particular properties for sale, they will hurt no one but themselves.

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May 25, 2007

Retirement — A New Class Being Created

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

In the seminars we’ve been conducting in San Diego and out of state, we’ve been noticing a common denominator that is becoming more and more troublesome to us. It’s the number of stories being told of parents, grandparents, or the storytellers themselves.

It often begins with, “My dad is in his 70’s, healthy, and owns his home free and clear. He has Social Security, a small annuity, plus the income from his life savings. It all adds up to around $35,000 a year or so. His retirement years aren’t anything like he planned — and he’s becoming more disillusioned each year.”

That’s sad enough on its own merit. How would you like to live your so called Golden Years pinching pennies in a 50+ year old house, and enough after tax income to survive? Now imagine what his kids must think as they begin to enter their 50’s. “Is that my future? Why bother?”

Why bother indeed. Let’s crank up the way-back machine, and see if we can’t shed some light on Dad’s thinking when he was in his 20’s and 30’s.

Let’s say he was 25 in 1957. What if…..

What if we found Dad in ’57 and gave him a choice. He could work hard, invest in real estate, make some sacrifices early in life, and end up with a pretty nice retirement. His other choice would be in the form of a guarantee. How about we guarantee him a $35,000 annual income AND a free and clear home? The median income back then was no doubt less than $10,000 a year. I’ll bet he’d have taken the guarantee. To him it would have been a no-brainer. Yet folks who today find themselves in that exact position are leading lives far different than they ever envisioned.

True Story

I was talking with a prospect the other day, who lives in another state. His parents live in an adjoining state, are retired, and in their 70’s. They enjoy very good health, and are able physically to travel. They are living the very life described above — an old free and clear home, with a little less Read more

May 25, 2007

Newspapers are here to stay: I read all about it on-line

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Wall Street Journal On-line (you can’t make this stuff up):

Even a 30-inch screen can’t match the readability of what cheaply spits out of a printing press. I really believe that the copy protection mechanism for newspapers is their consumer interface, in the form of ink spurted on newsprint.

The author then runs down the litany of new technologies that will bust up the electronic media oligopoly, all seemingly without understanding that print is already on the other side of that hump.

The ultimate argument: Print will triumph because it shackles end-users in a prison of atoms. Print is better because it is user-hostile. You can’t copy it. You can’t extract from it and blog about it, as I am doing here. You can’t share it with a friend except in the same way you might share a communicable disease.

Breathe deep, pal. There’s a clue in the air. If you’re very lucky, you just might catch it.

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May 24, 2007

Making movies: Wrestling with science, commerce and art to sell the idea of a unique and distinctive Phoenix

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I don’t think I’m done with this yet, but it’s coming along. I mentioned last week that I’ve been making a movie in all my spare time. I’ve got about two weeks in the project by now, most of that lost to rendering and FTP. I may start over again tomorrow, but you can see where it stands for now, if you like.

The little idea is to show off how unique, interesting and beautiful homes in Phoenix can be, contrary to our bad press:

Phoenix is sometimes maligned as a vast suburb crawling with tract houses. The complaint is not without some truth, although our tract home neighborhoods can yield some very pleasant surprises. And every home is unique, no matter how similar it might seem to be to its neighbors.

But Cathleen and I get to spend much of our time in Phoenix neighborhoods where every home truly is unique — the historic and architecturally distinctive neighborhoods of Central and North Phoenix, where virtually every structure is a one-off expression of some one artist’s or craftsman’s vision.

The big idea, of course, is to learn how to make movies that will sell houses and us as Realtors and our brokerage.

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May 24, 2007

“This house don’t fit… what’s your return policy?”

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

this house don't fitThe year is 2015 and the RE online brokerages reign. Buyers search for homes online, click a button to complete a closing, and pick up their keys the next morning to see their NEW home!

Here are some sample voice messages left for the operators at the MegaOnlineBrokerage:


“I thought 13 by 13 meant feet, not inches…”
“I want to list my home online but the value keeps coming up ‘&=null’…”
“This key doesn’t work, how do I get into my house?”
“I thought they were going to fix the A/C before close- it’s burnin’ up in here!”
“The ad said there was a pool, but all I see is a dirty coy pond.”
“I have left 17 messages- will someone please call me back?”
“I must have clicked “buy” at the same time as someone else- this guy ALSO has papers on this house and our movers are fighting over who should unload first.”
“I thought all appliances conveyed- all I have here is a toaster.”
“Does the warranty cover squirrels in the attic?”
and my personal favorite, “This house don’t fit, what’s your return policy?”

What else do YOU suspect will be on the MegaOnlineBroker’s operator voicemail? And what do YOU think the scripted responses will be?

May 24, 2007

Trulia.com raises an additional $10 million

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So says BlogForward in a strange little post. That puts the San Francisco-based Realty.bot’s total VC investment at $18 million, so far.

Further notice: TruliaBlog, TechCrunch, John Cook’s Venture Blog. The BlogForward post is actually a splog of this Venture Beat article, a tendentious mess of unquestioned, uncited misinformation (e.g., “Zillow and Trulia don’t divulge their traffic”).

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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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