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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #61: Ask the Broker: How can I escape without taking a scrape . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s a truly ugly problem:

I’m being transferred and need to sell my house in a new subdivision. Unfortunately, the builder is still selling new houses. To make matters worse, I bought during the summer of 2005, and the builder has actually reduced its price from what it sold it to me for. Do I have any hope at all of not losing a boatload of money?

Probably not.

In fact, better days are coming by and by — we just don’t know when by and by is.

If you can afford to, you can lease the property until the builder is gone and homes have appreciated enough to get you out from under. This may mean that the home will be cash-flow negative — the income will be less than the outflow — which means you will have to make up the short-fall out of your income. This may become a losing proposition overall.

A second possibility is to sell it as a lease-purchase at a future value that will get you out from under. You may still be cash-flow negative, but your buyer will probably be a more conscientious tenant. If he elects not to buy, you will keep any down payment, which can help with your expenses. You could end up doing this more than once

A third alternative is to sell the property for less than you owe on it, bringing your own money to the closing table to pay off the lender. As bad as this might seem, it’s better than putting a foreclosure on your credit…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #60: RSS for people who can’t think like Oprah . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From mezzoblue.com: “What is RSS/XML/Atom/Syndication?”:

RSS/XML/Atom are technologies, but syndication is a process. RSS and Atom are two flavours of what is more or less the same thing: a ‘feed’ which is a wrapper for pieces of regularly and sequentially-updated content, be they news articles, weblog posts, a series of photographs, and more. For the purposes of this article, consider the terms interchangable. XML is the base technology both are built on, but that’s almost totally irrelevant; the orange buttons are mislabelled, and should read ‘RSS’ or ‘Atom’ instead. Strange, but true.

Syndication is the process of using RSS/Atom for automated updates, another way of getting the information you want. You no doubt have a list of web sites you browse daily for updates, whether they’re stored in your bookmarks or your head. If you find yourself loading 20 or 30 sites a day, and you notice if a few stop updating as frequently, you’ll inevitably stop checking them.

What if there were instead some way to have your list of bookmarks notify you when the sites you read have been updated? You wouldn’t waste time checking those that haven’t. Instead of loading 30 sites a day, you might only need to load 13. Cutting your time in half would enable you to start monitoring more sites, so for the same amount of time you originally invested in checking each site manually, you may just end up end up following twice as many.

Syndication provides the tools to do this. A news reader, or aggregator as they’re also known, is a program or a web site that automatically checks your list of bookmarks (which you only have to set up once) and lets you know what’s new on each site in your list.

It goes beyond simple updates though — the news reader works by pulling in the feeds of your various bookmarks. As we covered above, a feed is a wrapper for content items, so on top of notification, a feed delivers the content that has been updated itself. You may choose to read the new content in the news reader, or you may choose Read more

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #59: How to explain RSS the Oprah way . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Back in Skinny Jeans teaches us “How to explain RSS the Oprah way”:

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

I don’t know if this is actually useful for anyone, but it’s a whale of a lot of fun.

The funniest part, really, is that a good RSS-feed reader takes away almost every need you might have for a web browser. Imagine how well that flies with people who have barely gotten a grip on their web browser in the first place. Now tell ’em about the semantic web…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #58: Don’t tell buyer’s agent your reason for selling . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is another favorite from my Arizona Republic column:

“My goodness! This house is gorgeous. I don’t know how you can bear to leave it.”

That’s me talking to a seller – while I’m in the home representing buyers.

It sounds like an innocuous remark, effusive small-talk, but what I’m doing is probing for motivation.

The most important fact is this: The seller should not be in the house while I’m there. It’s a kindness to the buyers to get out of their way so they can confer in comfort. But if you hang around the house, I’m going to talk to you and I’m going to extract every bit of information I can from you.

So the seller says, “Yes, we love it, but the payments are killing us.”

Excellent! We have financial pressure, leverage for my buyers in negotiation.

Or the seller says, “We’d love to stay, but my company’s transferring me.”

Almost as good: time pressure.

Or the seller says, “We’re building a home we love even more in Surprise.”

Financial pressure and time pressure. I’ll follow up to find out the deadline. If it’s relatively soon, we’re in the catbird seat.

This all seems so obvious to me. You should not be in the house at all. The fact is, I can read the house to get a fairly clear idea of your motivation, but why give me a chance to confirm my suspicions.

But suppose you just can’t get away. How should you answer my questions?

The best answer would be something like this: “It’s just time to move on.”

No emphasis, maybe even a hint of indifference in your voice. If you are truly in a hurry, if you’re under the gun from financial pressure or time pressure, it should say so in the listing.

But if you have the time to wait to get the best possible price for your home, don’t tell a buyer’s agent why you’re moving.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #57: Weblog Review: Altos Research Blog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have nothing to say about the Altos Research Blog except, “Bring these folks to Arizona!”

They are utterly the apogee of analytical real estate weblogging. Without a perfectly telling chart, they’re completely tongue-tied. That’s not really true, but if you feel an urge to challenge their conclusions, sharpen your pencil first.

They’re running a Serendipity weblog, and their links are internally-shielded by software: You find what you clicked on without knowing what you had sought. That’s poetical, don’t you think? The trackbacks look like one of the three ways WordPress can do them, which makes me think they might be able to get rid of them altogether.

Clean, thoughtful, very detailed — with unnecessarily complicated weblogging software. Web geeks and complexity. Who’d put those two together…?

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #56: Ask the Broker: What should I look for when I’m evaluating a neighborhood to buy in . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is hard, so I’m going to make it easy:

What should I look for when I’m evaluating a neighborhood to buy in?

Because of the Fair Housing Laws, this is actually a difficult question to answer. I can give you some useful hints, though.

Visit your prospective neighborhood at 9:30 at night. Sit in your car and watch what happens. By 9:30, people in the neighborhood will be doing what they do at night.

Are they doing what you like to do? If so, you’ll like that neighborhood.

Are they doing things you don’t like to do — or worse, don’t want done around you? That neighborhood is not for you.

Obviously you’ll factor in location, structure, amenities and price. But if you don’t fit into your prospective neighborhood at 9:30 at night, you won’t fit in at any other time, either…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #55: Real estate weblogging? Get real . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here are four that I’ve had enough of:

Use lists.

Include polls, meters and other eye candy.

Do email interviews with the well-known.

Be anonymous.

Anonymity can be cool if there’s a reason for it. If you really are Deep Throat, I’ll cut you a break. If you’re hiding behind a mask to get away with being rude or vulgar — get real.

I have had it up to here with lists. It’s magazine writer crap, and they have already milked it to death. If you really have a reason to delineate something by list, I’ll go with you. If you’re trying to hook me with the top 15 ways to hook unsuspecting weblog readers — get real.

I’m not hugely crazy about graphics in weblog posts unless you’re illustrating something mere words cannot depict. If you’re throwing in a picture either because you can’t write or you think I can’t read — get real.

As for email interviews, that’s an oxymoron. If there is any reason for an interview — as against an essay or just plain email — it’s to hear the respondent under the pressure of time and circumstance. Bill Clinton’s melt-down on Fox News Sunday this week is a perfect example of why an interview must be done live. In other words — get real…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #54: How to be an unbearable co-worker . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Aspiring Spirit defines the fine are of being an unbearable co-worker:

Always show up late for meetings. Make it clear that you were busy and had to “squeeze” a few minutes out of your precious time to attend this meeting. Do not forget to regularly interrupt your co-workers in mid-sentence and disrupt their train of thought. If they try to continue speaking, raise your voice and waive your hands. While sitting in the meeting, whip out your blackberry (or any other communication device that you are carrying; the more the better) and start fiddling with it. For bigger impact, do this while speaking or listening to someone while they’re trying to make a point.

Do not agree with any of your co-worker’s points. If you have to, just say “we will have to discuss this offline”. If you see that the meeting is too focused or running smoothly, run off on a tangent. Resist every attempt to re-focus the meeting by insisting on the importance of your tangent.

Schedule as many meetings as you can with total disregard for your co-workers’ time and workload. Make sure to pick the worst time for a meeting, like just before the end of the day. And always make sure that the meeting extends beyond the scheduled time.

This is why I’m an entrepreneur…

I might be an Insufferable Bastard, but I will never ever waste your time at work — if only because that would be a waste of mine, too.

Aspiring Spirit’s article rocks, though. Read the whole thing…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #53: Vacant property requires attention . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a favorite from my Arizona Republic column:

I will walk into a vacant house and immediately the odor hits my nose. Worse than cat urine in the carpet or cigarette smoke in the walls.

“That’s just sewer gas,” I’ll say quickly, trying to take away the objection before it is raised. “This house is unoccupied, so the water in the J-pipes under the sinks has evaporated. All we have to do is run water in the sinks and the smell won’t be able to get into the house.”

All that is true, but there is more that I won’t say if I don’t have to: Those giant red cockroaches called sewer roaches can also invade a house through dried-out J-pipes. But if I don’t see any sewer roaches, I don’t want to talk about them.

This highlights just one of the special problems that go into selling your house when no one is living in it.

I much prefer vacant houses. Cathy likes things staged, but I like to be able to see the rooms. Plus, I can always work in an vacant house — provided the utilities are on:

The water must be on, and not just because of the J-pipes. People will use your bathrooms, and a toilet stores one or at most two flushes without replenishment.

The power must be on. Not only do buyers want to see that electrical fixtures and appliances work, we may be looking at the home after dark.

If the home is plumbed for natural gas, the gas must be on. This one will cause a problem during inspections, too, because, by contract, all major systems must be functional.

There’s more covered in the column, particularly the idea that a vacant home needs extra security attention: “An unoccupied house is a target for thieves and vandals, so enlist one or more neighbors to keep an eye on things.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #52: Weblog Review: 360 Digest . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Marlow Harris’ 360 Digest weblog is a must-read feed. I say she’s serious, but she insists that her love of all things Elvis belies that. I say she’s serious anyway.

As with most good weblogs run by working Realtors, her site covers a lot of ground, but she seems to be more than unusually well wired-in to what is going on in the delicate dance between traditional and dot.com real estate companies. Reading her can be much more informative than prowling news sites.

If I have a complaint, it’s that she doesn’t write enough. But the quality of what she does write is so high that this seems almost like caviling.

Witness:

Lots of interesting changes and business partnerships emerging lately. I wonder how many more opportunities are still available. I checked MSN and AOL, and they’re both already hooked up with Realtor.com. Prudential has a deal with Yahoo. Seattle’s Real Property Associates is running a feed directly to Trulia (I like watching what they’re doing, as co-owner Gordon Stephenson is on the Board of Directors at Zillow.) I don’t see any reason why our other two local players, John L. Scott and Coldwell Banker Bain couldn’t also run feeds to Google Base and Trulia, but they may have their own reasons not to…

WordPress. Very clean. Very tightly coded.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #51: Ask the Broker: Do you drive a big obnoxious car . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came up in a comment from a bubble head a few weeks ago. In truth, it’s nobody’s damned business, but it is a matter of concern around here:

What kind of car do you drive?

I drive a Hyundai Elantra Wagon:

Her name is Beatrice, after the gorgeous Weimaraner in Best In Show. “BHND-01” is our brokerage code in the MLS, so “BHND ME” is me, the broker.

I have a problem with Realtors who drive big, obnoxious cars. This job pays very well, if you do it right, but I think it’s both a poor use of money and poor salesmanship to drive around in an Escalade or a Hummer. Each man to his own saints, but my Beatrice is the best girl for this job, in my opinion.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #50: Real estate weblogging? Write about blogging . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here is tip number thirty-eight:

Write about blogging.

This may well be the most self-referential medium in the history of media. That’s okay. Discursive prose is how we think orderly thoughts, and writing about weblogging is how we get better at weblogging.

The beautiful thing about this conversation is that sharing the purely introspective also amplifies it, while apprehending the amplified thoughts of others yields a better state of introspection. We become a forum, an agora — blog to blog, within a blog and within our own minds, solitarily engaged in the most blaringly public of debates. Very cool…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #49: How BloodhoundBlog breaks all the rules of punctuation . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, LearningNerd brings us “English Punctuation: Commas, Semicolons, and Colons”:

The colon introduces or restates something. Unlike the semicolon, the colon can connect an independent clause to a word or phrase.

There’s lots more, including links to other sources.

I have a certain love for punctuation. I read good writing as music, and punctuation marks are the rest notes. I have my own theories on how they ought to be used, and mastery in art consists of knowing which rules to break and how.

Like this: If a period is a full stop, I want for that colon to be a screeching slamming on the brakes. I want to hear a puff of breathe at that point, so much are you stopped short. I never know how any of this sounds in any mind but my own, but it works for me…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #48: Realtors keep process free of personal issues . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

I may write more in the future about the benefits of working with a Realtor, but this is the one that is most important to me: Realtors keep personal issues out of the transaction.

A real-estate transaction is financial, not personal. I like to say that every real-estate problem has a financial solution.

Not so personal problems. If there is a personal enmity between buyer and seller – over price, repairs or just because they don’t like each other – there may be no resolution to the dispute.

But here’s an interesting fact: They will probably never see each other again. Buyer and seller may never even meet in person, and once the transfer of deeds and funds is effected, there is no need for them to have any further contact.

The buyer wants the seller’s house. The seller wants the buyer’s money. And it is the job of the Realtor to keep any possible personal issues away from the transaction.

That particular column details many other reasons for working with a Realtor, but this one seems paramount to me. I see buyers and sellers learn how to despise each other even when they never meet. How much worse might this be, if they had to interact directly…?

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #47: Weblog Review: Poor and Stupid . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

For a change of pace, let’s talk about Donald Luskin’s weblog, The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. This is one of the few political blogs I am willing to read on any regular basis. Luskin’s is nobody’s demagogue, but he himself is very smart, as are the people who share information with him.

The site is kludgey, built who knows how. The permalinks are crap — as is the case with many older political blogs.

But: So what? Luskin has the inside track, especially on economics, and his writing, while sometimes very dense, is always engaging.

There are constantly-updated Tradesports lines, although Luskin has nothing good to say about Tradesports lately. The irregular “Joke of the Day” feature can be outrageously funny.

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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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