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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #76: Ask the Broker: Is it too early for Anthem . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A local question with broad implications:

In 2004 I fell in love with Anthem, and was actually thinking of moving there. Last year the housing market went so crazy that I decided to wait. And the way things are looking today, I’m afraid now to move there. I still love the area and the houses up there. And the commute won’t hurt me because I can telecommute. But I’m afraid that my house won’t hold its value. Do you have any opinion about the outlook of Anthem?

Anthem is a beautiful master-planned community built by Del Webb. Parks, playgrounds, golf courses, a huge waterpark, a kiddie railroad — in many ways it’s heaven on earth. Heaven may be nearer, though: Anthem is a long drive from Downtown Phoenix. Still worse, there is only one road in and out. When that road is blocked by an accident, nobody comes or goes.

For this reason, Anthem was the first area to betray signs of weakness in last Summer’s buying frenzy. It is also very likely to the be last market area to recover as we get back to normal.

Does that mean you shouldn’t buy there?

Anthem may not do as well in gross appreciation as other, similar communities — for example Estrella Mountain Ranch in Goodyear.

It comes down to this: Does the investment value of your home matter more to you, or the community and amenities you love in Anthem? Your answer to that question will tell you what to do…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #75: The power of an online tool . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From SEOmoz blog, a definitive resource, how to use a unique web-based tool or service to attract readers to your real estate weblog:

Ingredients: A service that you can code into a tool to save someone time, effort, money or, alternatively, provide entertainment (plus a solid developer, preferably skilled in AJAX).

Process: Tools aren’t always able to attract visitors independently, so much like mashups, you’ll need to do some promotion. Fortunately, there are dozens of online tool lists and plenty of folks blogging about their creation (like the aforementioned Ajaxian). The tool itself needs to serve a real purpose (or make people laugh) and it needs to be unique. If you’re in the retail industry, imagine a tool that could be used to help visitors custom create a product, or organize a set of products in a useful, humorous or fun way. For B2B, cost calculators for customers can be useful, but are often un-exciting. Imagine how you can expand the use of your services to fit a wide audience, then make it fun and interactive.

Results: Tools can generate traffic slowly over time, or they can have huge bursts. Often, they spread virally through email and social networks if they’re built right (and look great — so pay attention to #4, too).

I gave one of these to my dingleberry son, but he hasn’t done anything with it. It was an idea I had over the summer, and I didn’t have time to write it myself.

It’s not difficult: What I envisioned was a PHP utility that would take a marked-up text and return it without the mark-up, but with each marked-up term or phrase having been recoded as a Wikipedia look-up. For general webloggery, Wikipedia is fiercely useful, but coding a lot of links is a pain in the butt. This, by definition is what software is for.

If you want, you can bug the little booger to get busy on this project…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #74: Five ways to piss off an entrepreneur . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, blogtrepreneur brings us “5 Ways To Piss Off An Entrepreneur”:

1) Cut off the broadband: I can’t think of anything worse than not being able to access the internet. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to have any international networking and therefore I would have to start a proper offline business. And let’s face it, these can be irritating at the best of times, and can be costly. And don’t mention dial-up to any internet savvy person (just speaking about it sends shivers up my spine!)

2) Give ’em a 9 to 5: Oh no what will they do without their morning lie in? Unlike the majority of the working population, entrepreneurs are able to have a reasonably flexible working schedule. So when they have to set an alarm to wake up early, tempers will be lost!

3) The dreaded boss: One of the main entrepreneurial benefits is the BMOB (Be My Own Boss). Once you take that away, the entrepreneur is left working under a gruelling dictator who sets your own lunch breaks and gives you special doggy treat bonus packages if you work extra hard.

4) Cell phone destruction: The cell phone (that’s a mobile for those who speak proper English!) is used by an active entrepreneur nearly 24/7. Whether they’re involving themselves in a business deal, chatting to their designer about new prospects, or giving their mothers laundry instructions, without a mobile telecommunicator an entrepreneur becomes a standard Joe who has no communication with anyone but those within a 100 metre radius. And that can’t be too good if you’re wanting global recognition?

5) Noise, noise, noise: Finally, the surest way to piss me off is to continually talk around me or have noises in the background whenever Im trying to do an important piece of work. As a general rule of thumb, I never have music on when I work, and I try and close all doors to shield out the family. Blasting heavy beats in my face, sister-brother bickering and non-peace will be sure to drive me over the edge.

One of my clients Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #73: Using Web to buy home a bad idea . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a sweet one from my Arizona Republic column:

“Save thousands buying surgery online!”

It may be a while before you see this headline. But you can’t open a magazine or a Web site lately without hearing that Realtors are about to be “disintermediated” by the Internet.

“Disintermediation” is a 50-cent word that means cutting out the middleman. It has happened at the low end of the travel agency and the stock brokerage businesses, among others. Some Internet start-ups plan to automate or streamline the functions performed by Realtors, in anticipation of the glorious day when you will sell one home and buy another online.

There are problems with this idea. For example, although the book-selling business allegedly has been disintermediated, you will have plenty of time to read about that as you bide your time in the checkout line at Borders or Barnes & Noble.

Then there are these considerations: Would you say that a Realtor is more like a sales clerk at Target or Wal-Mart or more like a surgeon?

Is your home, or the one you hope to buy, more like a DVD at Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics or more like a unique work of art?

I’m not sure this column is holding up that well. I can’t imagine buying a house as though it were buying a book at Amazon, but I have sold plenty of houses that the buyers have never seen.

In the first instance, we are taking note of the consultative expertise of Realtors, full-time professionals who know how to market homes and how to effect transactions against a sea of troubles. Surely some Realtors are better than others, but it would take a pretty lousy surgeon to be worse at surgery than an amateur.

In the second instance, we are talking about the idea of fungibility — substituting one item for another with no concern for differences in value. DVDs are highly fungible, as are books, items of apparel, travel arrangements or shares of stock.

I’ve read that radiological diagnostic work is being farmed out by broadband to India. This is a very interesting time to be in the real estate Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #72: Weblog Review: The Real Estate Bloggers . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I had a tough time wrapping my head around The Real Estate Bloggers weblog at first. It’s not an agent site. Not a vendor site. Not a lender or appraisal site. Not a bubble blog or a splog. What the heck is it?

What it will be if it’s not already is an advertising-supported information site that happens to cover real estate. Rich in content, drawn from diverse sources, it nicely fills a gap in my feed reader.

The quantity of posting is good, as you might expect where traffic is — or will be — someone’s dinner. Better still, the posts are bright, readable, and informative.

The site just moved to a new host, and acquired a new weblog template at the same time. WordPress, of course, and very nicely put together.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #71: Ask the Broker: So what about the big, swanky Realtor’s house . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me, confessing:

So you drive a crappy little car. Your real secret is that you live in a McMansion, right?

Wrong. Our home would be described as modest — if only it were bigger. We bought it for the dogs, more than anyone. It has many wonderful features that we love, but the best feature of all is that it backs to the Arizona Canal, a kind of linear river park with a fake river, so the dogs have a great place to go for walks.

But, to be completely honest, we have twice been tempted by big expensive houses. Bloodhaven is still my ideal home/office. And Houndswick breaks my heart every time I drive past it.

Unlike a car, a house is an investment, and much of what we loved about these two homes was to be found in their profit potential. But, luckily for us, we were prevented by poverty from buying either house.

Now you know all my secrets…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #70: Using event coverage to good advantage . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From SEOmoz blog, a definitive resource, how to use event coverage attract readers to your real estate weblog:

Ingredients: A popular, well-attended event with a particular industry theme and a passionate writer who makes friends wherever they go.

Process: Go to the event, cover as best you can — make friends, take copious, detailed notes, go to the bars afterwards, shoot photos and videos and, most importantly, let everyone there know that you’ll have the coverage on your site in the next few days. Time is of the essence here, but once you’ve got a great writeup (with photos!), send emails to your event contacts to help boost the buzz.

Results: Depending on the size of the event and the people you form connections with, this can drive thousands or even tens of thousands to the site. Covering something private (with permission), exclusive or underground can be even more rewarding, though big, public events often make an easier starting point.

This sounds like The Property Monger to me. And I am very interested in hearing about going to bars…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #69: The language of differentiation . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Kevin Price writes on “The language of differentiation”:

Only if we are correctly positioned can a difference have the desired effect. That is, a customer must perceive our position as being relevant to his or her needs, and different from that of our competitors. The desired effect of advertising is to bring our brand and a customer together and unite them; make a connection. This requires the twofold action of separating your customer from your competitor and separating you from your competitor. Says the good book: “one must separate things in order to unite them.”

Differentiation occurs in the attributes of a product or brand, not in the benefits. A difference is a character trait of the brand that is not applicable to a competitor’s brand. It occurs because you choose to do something different from your competitors, or to do the same things competitors do but do them differently. But there are a few catches.

The difference must to be able to be translated into a benefit that is desired by prospects. There’s not a lot of point in being different if no one wants what you’re offering and the difference is meaningless. The difference has to be able to be perceived so that it can be labelled. Correct positioning depends on this combination of perception and labelling. The difference has to have life, or at the very least the potential of life. The simple fact is you cannot have drama without life, and because customers expect your advertising to tell a story that is meaningful over a period of time. The difference has to be relative to competition, even if that competition is your own brand.

Good advertising comes from understanding exactly what forces drive your prospects; what the force of your differentiation is and exactly what the right positioning is. Positioning derives from the benefit that arises out of the differentiation. Differentiation is the effect of what it is you’re doing that is different. It is the effect because it results in an attribute that can be claimed or labelled. Positioning on the other Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #68: Many factors affect home’s value . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

Buyers will try to compare homes on a price-per-square-foot basis, but this is useful only for highly comparable homes – similar square footage on similar lots in similar neighborhoods.

Same subdivision is good. Same builder is better. Same exact floor plan is best.

The more differences there are between the homes, the less comparable they are and the less useful it is to compare their price per square foot.

There are a lot of reasons for this, the three most important being location, location and location.

The desirability of the underlying dirt is the overriding consideration. Even within the same subdivision, it matters where the lots are located, how big they are and what value-added features (or value-subtracting detractions) they are near.

We go on to consider some other factors that can influence the value of a home: single versus multi-story and the amount of variety in the shape of the exterior perimeter.

But wait. There’s more.

Ultimately, though, price per square foot can be misleading because it tends to treat all space equally.

The costliest space in a home is the kitchen. After that come the bathrooms and any space with running water. Mere bedrooms, dining rooms, family rooms, game rooms, dens, etc., are very cheap by comparison.

The exterior walls of the home are expensive because they have all the framing, the heavy insulation and the wiring. Interior walls are wood framing wrapped in sheetrock.

True value-added features matter a lot: Extra bathrooms, soft-water loops, security or home-theater pre-wiring, central vacuum systems, fireplaces, etc. Relatively unimproved extra space matters a lot less in pricing a home.

This is why 1,200-square-foot homes can sell for a lot more per square foot than 2,400-square-foot homes.

And, to think! — all that comes into play before we even get to the unzillowables…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #67: Weblog Review: Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have a great affection for Daniel Rothamel of the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog. He’s my kind of serious Realtor, devoted to doing the right thing no matter what the price.

Plus which, he writes a lot, which scores very highly with me. Local real estate, national real estate, basketball, linguam latinam, real estate reality-TV — nothing escapes his purview.

The site is Typepad with its goofy trackbacks, but you can’t have everything. The pages are clean and readable.

Here’s Daniel in action:

When I’m not practicing real estate, one of the things that I do is officiate basketball (I mentioned this once before). The letters from my officiating supervisors have been coming in, the rules clinics are coming up, and the season is on the horizon. All this got me thinking about the similarities between being a REALTOR and being a referee. Officiating has helped me tremendously when it comes to business, and vice versa. Here are some things I find similar about being a referee and being a REALTOR:

1) Referees adhere to a code of ethics, too.

2) For REALTORS, a well-managed transaction brings satisfaction. For the referee, it is the well-managed game.

3) REALTORS must build trust with their clients, referees must do the same with coaches and players.

4) Referees and REALTORS must possess and constantly improve upon their skills of interpersonal relations.

5) The technology of the Internet is changing the way REALTORS conduct business, Internet and video technology is changing the officiating landscape.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #66: Ask the Broker: Homeownership and the poor . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From my sister-in-law:

Why isn’t there more opportunity for poor people to own their homes?

If you were to substitute the word “horses” for “homes”, the question would answer itself, wouldn’t it? Poor people rent rather than own because their income is too low, their credit scores are too low, or their debt-to-income ratios are too high. That much is not rocket science, and it would apply to any other expensive financed possession we might name.

People very enamored of coercive charity can imagine circumstances in which financially unqualified people are given homes — or are given heavy subsidies toward buying homes. But this can only happen by taking wealth away from other people — people who have earned that wealth and deserve every penny of it. Poor people might get more home than they have earned, but only because other people are getting less home than they deserve. This kind of redistribution of purported injustice is made possible only by force — and, by my reckoning, that force is the most vicious injustice of all.

But, even so, there are two persistent problems. First, people tend not to respect what they did not have to earn and deserve. This is nicely illustrated by the awful condition of free or subsidized housing all over the Earth.

Moreover, unless the problem is to repeat itself, the poor recipients of subsidized housing would have to be forbidden from selling it at its true appreciated value — lest it become unobtainable by other poor people in the future.

The poor do not buy homes because for whatever reason they don’t develop the attributes of mind, character and behavior that lead to homeownership. And, even if they were to be given free or heavily-subsidized homes, the restrictions that would have to be placed on the sale of those homes would prevent those poor people from profitably developing those same attributes of mind, character and behavior even after they have become homeowners — in name only…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #65: A good hot fire sheds light, too . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From SEOmoz blog, a definitive resource, how to use controversy to attract readers to your real estate weblog:

Ingredients: A passionate audience or community with strong (and hopefully misguided) feelings about a subject, person, company, etc.

Process: Create content through a blog, article, report or statistics that challenges commonly-held beliefs or assumptions or specifically challenges the views of a very popular person or organization. Be prepared to defend your positions, write about them in comments on blogs, in forums, chatrooms, online groups and wherever appropriate. Sometimes, you can even leverage the editorial section of a newspaper and re-print online.

Results: Heavy traffic levels come through multiple channels, but your biggest source is often the direct response of the disagreeing party. Be sure you’re handling the dispute in a professional and even-handed manner and you can earn a respectable following. It’s all dependent on industry and size, but a between a few hundred and a few thousand RSS subscriptions are usually on the table.

Note however, that you don’t have to do this as an SEO tactic. It could be that you just like taking a stand. I’ve heard about people like that…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #64: How to be a great public speaker . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, blargy treats us to “How to Be a Great Public Speaker, by a Former Nervous Wreck”:

Did you know that when surveyed about their greatest fear, people more often say public speaking than death? That’s right, apparently people would rather die than have to address a group of people.

Hm, must be bad.

I used to be one of those people. For me the mere thought of standing in front of a crowd made me feel like tossing my lunch. But the thing is I really wanted to be a good speaker. There’s power in it and it gives you the chance to really spread your word quickly. And let’s face it, it’s also downright cool to be able to command a whole audience.

So, how’s it done?

I’ve heard a lot of “solutions” in my time, mostly from the pop-psychology corner. Everything from “drink some alcohol right before you go on” to “curl your toes over and over as you speak.” And of course, we’ve all heard that it helps to picture the audience naked.

These are techniques for distraction, for putting your mind elsewhere.

And that’s exactly why they don’t work. They distract you at the very moment when you should be at your very best.

I think this is a great article — worth pursuing, worth printing out. If you work in sales and you can’t speak extemporaneously in front of any crowd, you need to change one or the other right away…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #63: Divorcing couples need togetherness on sale of house . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a special favorite from my Arizona Republic column:

Consider this: I walk into a home, escorting buyers. In the living room there are two pieces of furniture: a big-screen television and a lawn chair.

The bedrooms are empty, except for the master bedroom, where there is a bare mattress. In the kitchen, there are dirty dishes in the sink and half-empty takeout containers and beer in the fridge.

It’s a divorce, of course. Mom and the kids are gone. Dad got custody of the TV.

It would be funny if it weren’t so nakedly tragic.

I get paid to hear the stories that empty houses whisper. This house tells me not just about the divorce, but that the divorce isn’t a relatively smooth one. It hints that the house is in pre-foreclosure or is for sale by a judge’s orders.

It confides in the certitude of silence that my buyers can steal it for tens of thousands of dollars less than market value.

Ack! Mom and Dad own a very valuable asset. What should they do to protect their money?

Frankly, both of them should move out, leaving the home vacant. If one is to stay, then they should agree to leave the furniture behind — and clothes in the closets. I should not be able to tell that the sellers are divorcing.

Here’s the takeaway point: “It’s sad the marriage didn’t work out. But properly staging the home for sale can at least help to pay for a happier divorce.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #62: Weblog Review: Hamptons Real Estate Blog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Do you smell the salt in the air? Doesn’t it make you crave linguine in clam sauce? Welcome to the Hamptons Real Estate Blog, a place of salt, surf and sand — and huge, rambling, very expensive houses.

There’s little enough we have to go by, in reading a weblog. Style is a hard thing to develop. You write and write, and for the longest time, you write every which way. If you didn’t attach your name to your prose, no one would know it was yours.

This is not true of weblogger Michael Daly, who has a voice all his own. I’ll read just about anything he writes, simply to have read him.

Witness:

Confidence – Many of today’s agents come from other successful careers in finance, advertising, law, hospitality, and retail. But real estate is a product unto its own. I’ve seen successful bankers crumble at the rejection and lack of loyalty that a real estate agent sometimes has to swallow. I’ve seen grown women brought to tears because their best friends from childhood bought a house from someone else after they dragged them around for the past six months, looking at everything they said they wanted to see. If you don’t have the confidence to take the ups and downs, and if you can’t accept that fact that real estate agents are often held in the same regard as car salespeople (which encourages clients and customers to be less than completely truthful due to the intrinsic lack of respect for the industry in general), then you’re going to struggle. Don’t take it personally. It’s not about who you are (or who you were) – it’s about how you conduct yourself in the moment.

Commitment – Working as an independent contractor in the real estate business is different than working a 9-to-5 job on Lexington Avenue. If you don’t show up, you don’t have a chance to make a commission. Getting to know the market, attending brokers’ open houses (not just the ones with lunch), learning how to read tax maps, negotiating the web-based tools of the trade, and standing in line and begging Read more

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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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