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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #46: Ask the Broker: What do you do when you’re not drowning in text . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The is from my email, just a few minutes ago:

It’s not a real estate question, it’s a blogging question. Just wondering how much your traffic is up today during this blog off with Ardell? I know Jon Ernest is doing a live play-by-play, but how many others are tuning in and keeping up with you?

One of my favorite films is Norman Jewison’s version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and one of my favorite scenes in that movie is the pantomime of TV news reporters interviewing the Nazarene as he is being taken to his trial before the Sanhedrin.

Not to be offensive, but this is the same kind of thing, I think. I am writing to avoid drowning by now. I am nearing the halfway point, debating whether I should sleep or press on for now. I hear pingbacks hitting my mail every minute or so, but I have no idea what is going on away from my keyboard. I only read this question because I want more “Ask the Broker” questions.

What’s going on? Probably a lot. What do I know about it? Nothing.

Sorry…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #45: Real estate weblogging? Yo, Shlomo! Cut back on the promo . . .

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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 forty-seven:

Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.

This one goes miles for me. I have no objection to you telling me about your product — particularly how it solves some problem at hand — provided there is a real problem that is really at hand. But if you’re just going to give me a commercial, do it on your web-site — or on TV.

This is a hard row to how, a thin line to toe, given that most real estate webloggers are blogging, at least in part, to drum up business. The bottom line is, if you start to look like spam to me, I’ll start to treat you like spam. How is that to your advantage…?

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #44: Getting the most out of your brain . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, The Life Coaches Blog offers instruction in getting the most out of your brain:

Your Brain: it’s not just there to look good. Treat it well, feed it right, work it out, push it on, let go of the burden and give it some love, and instead of a beat-up old bicycle you’ll transform it into a rip-roaring Ferrari smokin’ down the tracks.

The article outlines a brain maximizing strategy, and also details how you can lose brain function — and not just by staying up all night writing blog posts!

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #43: The owner who blocks his own sale . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

I love this one: Not only is the home I’m showing occupied, the seller is right there. Blocking the doorway. Hovering over the buyers. And smoking — inside the house.

It’s rare to find a seller this talented at obstructing the sale of his or her home. But many sellers manage to get in their own way despite themselves.

The most common way — and it probably seems harmless to you — is by making the house unavailable to show. I call at 10 a.m., seeking to show at 10:30. You entreat me to come at noon instead, which means you’re asking me to backtrack a long way for one house. If my buyers find something else they like, your home may lose by default.

Ideally, the home should be vacant. If you can’t afford to move, move everything you can. Buyers have to be able to mentally “place” their own furniture, and they can’t do that if the house is too crowded.

Go out when the home is being shown. Don’t hang around outside — take a walk. Absent yourself all day every Saturday and Sunday. Give the buyers the freedom to explore the house.

And don’t give the buyers’ Realtor the opportunity to probe you for your motivations and level of urgency — which will be used against you in negotiation.

The article goes on to detail things that should be addressed to make the home most presentable — and therefore most market-ready: Cleanliness, pets, smoking and other odors.

The bottom line: “If you want an easy, profitable sale, stay out of your own way.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #42: Weblog Review: Copyblogger . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Copyblogger is a marketing weblog with a huge following. I like the content, to a degree. But to an even greater degree, I approach it with a certain kind of dread.

I am very aware of how easy it is to manipulate people into doing things they ought not do. I’m not accusing blogger Brian Clark of anything untoward. And yet, the motive, goal and purpose of Copyblogger is teaching people how to write manipulative copy.

There is a thin line between copy that is good, effective and useful, and copy that pushes buttons people don’t even know they have. Maybe I’m worrying too much, but this is the stuff you gotta watch.

Here’s a simple way of judging things: If you don’t want to name the motive behind the copy you’re writing — that motive is probably manipulative. Everybody’s got their own to look out for, but they shouldn’t have to be on the look out for you…

The site itself is simply gorgeous, beautifully designed. WordPress, of course.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #41: Ask the Broker: What will it take to make Phoenix a true city . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The is another one of Cathy’s questions:

What will it take to make Phoenix a true city?

It’s actually pretty simple. All Phoenix really needs, to become a true city in the way that people think of New York City or Chicago, is…

Cooler weather.

What makes other cities look and feel like cities is mass outdoor ambulation: People walking around.

People don’t do that here. It’s amazingly more convenient to drive, anyway. But even allowing for that, there is something about $1,000 suits and 115 degree heat that just don’t work well together.

Phoenix could build something like a downtown in the form of an air-conditioned indoor plaza, but there will be no true downtown life here until something like that is built…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #40: Real estate weblogging? Post on weekends . . .

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 tips number forty-one and forty-three:

Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.

Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.

In real estate weblogging, there are a lot more readers on weekdays than on weekends. So why should you bother posting on weekends at all? Because that’s your chance to draw attention to your weblog when there is less competition.

If you can get people to read even one thing you’ve written when they have a little extra time, they may just go ahead and read everything…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #39: Work for passion, not money . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, March Choon advises us that if you work for passion, the money will come of its own:

Yes you need money to run your business but that should not be the driving force though. The issue is not to lose sight of your passion, the reason why you’re doing this instead of working for a monthly pay from someone else. Lose sight of that and your work will be tedious. What’s worse is that your customers can sense that you’re not doing it for the passion but rather for the money. That is greed. And greed is the path to the dark side…

This is a long article, and quite a bit of it strikes me as happy-babble.

I like the basic idea more than I like the execution, and I’m not 100% in love with the basic idea. I do believe in working for passion, but I think it’s important to focus your passion on things that pay well. An admirable poverty is only admired from the outside. From the inside, eventually, it can come to be a tailor-made hell.

So: Passion? You bet. Money? If you don’t make an effort to snatch it, someone else will…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #38: Strategy, timing is everything in making home offer . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my favorites from my Arizona Republic column, a strategy for making an offer on a home:

What is the absolute strategic best time to write a purchase offer? I think it’s early in the day on the first Tuesday of the month.

We want the first of the month because the seller just wrote another mortgage check and wants to know when the pain is going to stop. We want Tuesday morning because, by then, the seller will know that no offer is coming in from the weekend’s showings. We are catching the sellers at the exact moment their resistance is at its weakest.

Expressed this baldly, this may sound cold – but this is strategy, not passion. You can’t do this at all unless you can abide not getting the home.

But by making the right offer at the right time, you can save yourself thousands of dollars.

The fact is, people are almost always going to make their offer at the worst possible time — Friday or Saturday afternoon — but this is the right way of getting the job done.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #37: Weblog Review: Seth’s Blog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Since I mentioned Seth’s Blog, why don’t we review it?

I think Seth Godin has very interesting, very useful ideas on marketing. But I think his weblog can be too much a Delphic Oracle at times.

Visually, it’s very clean. Even though he easily could, he doesn’t clutter up his message with advertising, other than promotion of his own products.

On the other hand, he sometimes doesn’t clutter up his message with message. There are times when his profundities are about as deep as a fortune cookie.

Commenting is normally turned off, but trackbacks — Typepad — are turned on, so you can communicate with Seth’s audience, if not with the man himself.

I love this weblog, but I wish it were as consistent about addressing issues as it can be about raising them…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #36: Ask the Broker: Why do people hate Realtors . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The question is Cathy’s, and it really plagues her:

Why do people hate Realtors?

It’s funny, truly, because almost nobody hates his own Realtor. Some people have real horror stories to tell, but most people don’t. To the contrary, most people have very happy, funny, charming stories to tell about the Realtor who helped them find their home.

Straight-commission sales people in general take a hit, not alone because we might seem to be more interested in the commission than in the work it takes to earn it. And, of course, there have been no end of unflattering portrayals of real estate agents in art — especially TV and movies.

Here’s my best answer, though:

Why do people hate Realtors…?

Because they think they’re supposed to…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #35: Real estate weblogging? Don’t be boring . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here is tip number fifty-five:

Don’t be boring.

I actually dislike much of the advice Seth is giving, if only because you see those stunts so often. I like organic search results, and I like authentic weblog entries. If I feel too much like there is a strategy or a tactic behind a post — even if it’s only “What do I do now?” — I get creeped out.

A useful mantra: When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

That doesn’t blend well with the idea of frequently updating a weblog, but that simply means you have to dig deeper…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #34: Establish your business credibility . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Nextebizguy shoes us how to establish business credibility:

1. Showcase Your Expertise

2. Establish Your Trustworthiness

3. Increase Your Exposure

I think this is exceptionally good advice for real estate webloggers. The article offers practical tips on each of these points, but the overarching point is that pedigree means nothing. To communicate with people, you have to earn their respect first.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #33: The best time to list your house? Thursday mornings…

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my special pets from my Arizona Republic column, a discussion of when to list your home for sale:

Strategically, what is the best time to list your home for sale?

My answer is as soon as possible after midnight on Thursday morning. Why? Because your house will be available to all the Realtors planning their weekend showings, but all day Thursday, the listing will show zero days on market. All day Friday, it will be one day on market. All day Saturday – the most important day of the real- estate week – your home will show only two days on market.

Obviously, the fewer days on market, the better chance the home will attract a full-price offer. But consider that even if your house does not sell until the following Saturday, it will still show only nine days on market, still benefiting from the psychological advantage of a single-digit number.

My absolute favorite question is “Why?” We have a detailed reason for everything we do, and this is a sweet example of that kind of thinking.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #32: Weblog Review: Socket Site . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The problem is surely mine, but I don’t get Socket Site. It’s beautifully executed and cogently written, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who it’s written for…

Socket Site is one of many real estate weblogs I categorize under the general heading of “listing blogs”. It seems to be — although I admit I could be wrong — a daily review of available condominiums. One could draw an analogy to restaurant reviews — except that you eat out rather more often than you buy a condominium.

So my question is: Who is the audience? A rotating population of condo buyers? A regular population of condo aficionados? Other Realtors? I just don’t get it. It’s so pretty I keep it in my feed, but I don’t understand how it’s supposed to work…

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