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January 15, 2010

Internet Conversion For The Real Estate Solopreneur

by

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

Author website

Renee Burrows is a real estate agent in Las Vegas whom I respect.  I met Renee through Active Rain and have visited with her and her family when they visit Pacific Beach in the summers.  I’ve watched her develop from an agent who was struggling with the down Vegas market into a transaction machine, putting buyers into homes in the Valley of Fire.

Renee shared her internet conversion system, written when she was building a “team”, behind the Members’ Only wall on Active Rain.  What was interesting to me is that Renee eschewed the “team” approach for a referral-based system.  She reduced her fixed costs and has the flexibility to refer buyers to agents whom “buy-in” to her servicing system.  If business slows down, Renee handles the buyers herself.

I liked the fact that she chose ubiquity by syndicating her blog posts and listings to over 100 sources on the internet.  Renee writes a lot of time-sensitive market reports so I think ubiquity trumps the fear of being penalized by the SERPS for potential duplicate content:

You have to be an internet  marketing generation machine (or have a department) to start having the leads filter in to you!   I have my hands in so many cookie jars:  craigslist, point 2 agent, active rain + outside blog (both syndicated to numerous sources and by numerous I mean 100-200, not 10-20,)  facebook, twitter, print (flyers, business cards, postcards, door knocking, etc.)  Now I don’t own major Las Vegas NV SEO keywords, but I do own quite a bit of long tail real estate (you get higher quality leads this way!)

Marketing to the masses can produce “wasteful” contact and Renee has installed a few “fences” for prospective customers to hop:

Since I have a good number of leads coming in, they come in several ways:  phone and email.  I use a good spam filter to filter out the spam (of course) and it requires a verification code to be entered for me to receive the email in my inbox.  I also use an evoice receptionist that allows me to create separate extensions and it allows up to three phone numbers Read more

January 15, 2010

Were Pat Robertson and Danny Glover separated at birth?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Click the pix.

The people of Haiti may not have food, clean water, fuel, homes, medical supplies or physical security, but at least they suffer no shortage of venal, vile, self-serving, posturing ghouls feeding on the festering carcasses of the dead and riding high-horseback on the wracked bodies of the living.

We flick around with the remote control, looking for thrilling dramas featuring ravenous, blood-thirsty vampires, not knowing, all the while, that that kind of “entertainment” is best found on the all-news channels.

But derision and contempt will only get you so far. If you cling to the outdated, irrational belief that earthquakes are caused by tectonic forces, put your shoulder beside Tom Vanderwell’s and do something good for people who desperately need your help.

January 14, 2010

2010 Mortgage Broker Renaissance

by

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

Author website

Is the business of broking mortgage loans dead?  About two years ago, Morgan Brown predicted our demise on Blown Mortgage.  His conclusion was that the industry would need a scapegoat for the poor lending practices and that “blaming” mortgage brokers was convenient (and not necessarily fair).  His conclusion suggested that the big lenders were trying to gobble up market share to the detriment of the consumer.

Morgan predicted that the brunt of the regulatory changes would be aimed squarely at the mortgage broker; he was correct.  He predicted that the big lenders would tighten up their standards and practices in the wholesale lending channel; he was correct.

That scheme backfired on the big banks. Congress is really pissed that they haven’t been doing more with the TARP funds federal largesse to make loans and they are coming down hard on whom President Obama calls the “fat cat bankers on Wall Street”.

Bawld Guy Axiom:  Lenders Lend

Brady Corollary: Lenders lend unless it’s more profitable to do something else.

Government-subsidies proved that in 2009.  The TARP funds allowed big banks to borrow money at a ridiculously low cost-of funds.  The government guarantee on all agency products indemnified those big banks from losses.  Essentially, the big banks could buy their product  (a dollar) for $1.01 and sell it for $1.05; that’s a 500% markup and a helluva business.  It would be natural for them to “crowd out” mortgage brokers, through poor pricing and horrible service, to benefit their retail lending channel.

Here’s what those big banks didn’t expect:  public outrage over bonus pay and a proposed “windfall profits tax” on their guaranteed profits.  While I hate excessive government interference, you gotta wonder why the bankers thought they could get paid like Gordon Gekko as wards of the Government.  One would think they’d lay low at a GS-15 salary, for a year or two, after they repaid the TARP money.

The profits party is over for bankers and now they have to EARN those bonuses.

Guess what they’re doing?  They’ve turned to mortgage brokers again as a viable loan delivery channel. How do I know this?  The biggest banks (Bank Read more

January 14, 2010

Let’s have a RE.net birthday party!

by

Realtor, Peripatetic Iconoclast

Author website

I know Teri is really busy today. But busy never stopped this crew from having a party!

Happy Birthday Teri!


 

Work hard-Play hard. Now back to work. This video was created at Animoto. Last year when our last listing sold, I terminated our visual tour account because the video upload for You Tube took forever to render and it cost $30/month. Animoto costs $30/yr. I grabbed the thumbnails from the sidebar for our party hounds. Animoto takes about 20 min to render the embed code, but they send you an email when it is ready and you can start another while you wait. They have freemium option that gives you a 90 sec. clip from your photos. Give it a try

I hope you enjoyed the party. Happy Birthday Teri!

January 14, 2010

All of the Best Features of Top Producer…for $100

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

Digital Access Pass…is amazing.  What it’s doing and where it’s going requires a good bit of configuration. But, if you’re E-only, and do more email than other stuff, it’s the way to go. I’ve got no skin in that game, other than my desire to see Ravi get really good at this.

For a basic CRM and a way to have a “gated WordPress Comunity” dap does a lot. It’s not perfect, but it’s got (now) an aweber forms parser and other things that are allowing and extending its functionality.

Dap Ain’t user friendly, quite. It requires a brain to use. It requires a commitment to THINK in advance.

Anyway, here’s an idea I did. I made this for Ravi because he is worth helping, and promoting his stuff is important to me. I want him to win….so his software can help my business.

January 13, 2010

Some Ideas For Unchained…Or…I’ll kick Your Asymptote.

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

Perfect never happens, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue it.

I am better than I was six months ago by a wide margin.  I’ll be better in six months by a wider margin, I hope.  I’m hoping that I improve at an improving rate.  I work hard to do so.  The silly math is that if you improve your efficacy by 1% each day then you double every 68 days or whatever.  Every year then you’d through five cycles and then be 2*2*2*2*2 better.   Nice theory, but it doesn’t happen that way.   Google grains of rice and chessboard.

You CAN however improve a bunch, and have times where you are like Neo.

My focus is on lead generation.  I’m good at it, and getting better.  I’ve learned bigger gains are made in other areas, but lead generation is still what I like because we gravitate to what we’re good at.  But that’s not the only area where we can get good.  Lead gen rocks because I like getting leads that are above average.  Nobody has time to sift through morons, but anyone has time to deal with motivated and interested buyers.  That’s why Search.Twitter.com is such a beautiful breeding ground.

Anyway, here’s a fun idea.

What’s the best customer experience for a loan process?

What’s the best possible customer experience for a Real Estate Sale?

For a contract negotiation?

For a listing?

What wows?  Author # 8 touched on this a while ago.  You create the perfect experience from the buyer’s perspective.

How long they’ll take.

How much they’ll know.

You make it customer focused, high touch and high tech.   And you make it utterly destructive to all of your competition.  Make it so much better than it anything that exists from the knowledge the buyer gets to the resposnsiblity you take.  Widen the gap with things that make people feel better…even if most of the effort isn’t used.

Let’s design the best experience possible.

And then, let’s figure out how to deliver it with modern tools.

After we’ve done that, let’s figure out what the most critical and different elements are. And let’s focus on building an experience with today’s tools that delivers that…level Read more

January 13, 2010

Using Social Media to Help In Haiti…..

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website

I wasn’t going to put anything up on here, but a very gracious e-mail from Greg Swann encouraged me to lay out my experiences over the last 24 hours and how we can use social media not only to further our businesses but more importantly in dark times like this, we can use them to do good for those who are much less fortunate than us.

For the last 22 hours and 15 minutes (with the exception of a 2 1/2 hour nap around 4:00 this morning,) I’ve been using social media to help in Haiti. Let me explain:

  • As many of you know, my wife and I adopted our two youngest children from Haiti in the summer of 2004. We’ve remained very involved with the orphanage that we adopted them from, God’s Littlest Angels, which is in Petionville Haiti.
  • I’ve been on the board for the orphanage since 2006 and every year since 2003 (with the exception of 2005), at least one of our family has been back down there on a mission trip to help out. My 20 year old has decided to devote her life to third world medical missions, almost certainly in Haiti.
  • Throughout those experiences, I’ve developed a pretty extensive network of people around, literally, the world who have connections to Haiti. Most of those are Facebook Friends.
  • In addition to that, I’ve developed a pretty extensive network of online friends in the real estate and lending communities literally all across the country. If you consider Seattle to Miami to be all across the country, I think I’ve got it covered.

Yesterday, those two worlds met and it’s been truly a mindblowing experience. Let me explain:

  • At 5:15 pm, I got a tweet across tweetdeck that was from @latimes (I use that as one of my news sources). It talked about a massive earthquake in Haiti, near Port Au Prince.
  • I immediately hopped on AIM and talked to God’s Littlest Angels stateside coordinator and confirmed that the orphanage was affected but that the damage appeared minor and everyone was safe.
  • I then spent the next several hours e-mailing, facebooking, twittering and IM’ng with people all Read more
January 13, 2010

The Physics of Economics Will Not Be Mocked – Just Ask YouTube

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of all the propaganda about Free being the future of ideas. Really? Let’s take that to the extreme. Ideas should be free for the asking? Not in my world. But if you listen to all the utopian crack smokers pontificating while enjoying their afternoon expressos at the local Ivory Tower Starbucks, they’ll tell ya — and I swear I’m not making’ this up — you’ve seen it everywhere — ‘information wants to be free’. Information doesn’t want anything. Duh. Folks who don’t/won’t/can’t come up with new ideas/information — they want information to be free.

Allow me a major, albeit, related detour. I promise it’ll swerve back to the whole concept of Free. I’m reading one of the best books I’ve come across in quite some time. Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, among other things, he gives some astounding examples of what he empirically proves are totally erroneous conclusions based upon false assumptions. These false conclusions are then ‘proven’ by future results. In other words, horrible analysis produced WAY wrong conclusions, which were then proven ‘correct’ years later. Confusing? Here’s an example I lived in real time.

Gladwell talked about this in his book, though he chose youth hockey as an example. Their system mirrors Little League exactly. We all know how Little League works. The kids are kept within their own ages more or less, so as to keep things on as even a keel as possible. When it comes time to pick All-Star teams, performance, merit if you will, is the criteria. It’s been the same since before I was born. It’s also been universally accepted as the best system. Why? They simply point to the kids they chose as ‘the elite’. As they grew older, a percentage became stars in high school. From there, some went to college and thrived at that level. Some eventually became Major League players. How much proof do we need, right? Those not chosen didn’t amount to a hill of beans for the most part.

Wrong, analyst breath. The entire theory is built Read more

January 13, 2010

Whoa! How did he get in here?

by

Realtor, Peripatetic Iconoclast

Author website

I have been wandering around this Acropolis for a while
now and yesterday I got an email from the proprietor.

Are you game? It’s okay to say no, but
I think you would be a fun, very irreverent
addition.

My response was: What I think- Wow. Of course I would love to contribute to BHB.
It’s like being asked to join the Delta Force middle aged, overweight and not being able to shoot straight.
I consider it a huge honor. Let me know what your publishing requirements are.

So, how did this happen? As any chubby chumley knows, the way to get past the bouncer
is to have a smoking hot chick with you.   Now, I know that Greg is head over heels in love with
Cathleen, so the short skirt ploy is probably out.

I come with a hot chick in a fur coat.

Hot Chick in Fur Coat

Once I made it past the bouncer, like any job you have to pass the security check. Believe me, these guys are tough. Greg should consider contracting with Homeland Security. No underpants bombers here!

More secure than the TSA

So here I am, still wandering around in a daze. Thank you for inviting me, Greg. I hope that I can add something to this discussion that is worthy of my illustrious colleagues to the right.

January 13, 2010

From the what-took-you-so-long? department: Introducing Tom Johnson

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Joining us today as a contributor is a frequent commenter and long-time friend of BloodhoundBlog, Tom Johnson.

I’ve thought about adding Tom to our roster more than once over the year, but I never pulled the trigger. It was my soul’s sister in Dayton, Teri Lussier, who made the connection I had been missing.

Tom is a Realtor in Houston, which necessarily implies that he likes to drive a lot. Wife, kid, dog. What else do you need to know?

Seriously, the gift Tom brings to our conversations is a wry irony, pungent without being cynical. His bullshit detector is finely tuned, and his sense of humor is honed to a razor’s edge.

I’ll be adding another writer next week, as well as cleaning house, something I haven’t done for a while. I have mail from a bunch of folks who want to write with us, and I’m thinking I want to come up with a new way of dealing with that. I’ll announce the new policy when I figure out what it is.

Meanwhile: Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, Tom. I’m sorry that I didn’t get to this sooner, but I know we will all be delighted to have you here.

January 12, 2010

Is it time to consider creating some of your own Inventory?

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

I really like real estate.  I like the way it is such an integral part of wealth creation.  I like it so much, I can’t help but play with it.  For me, that means buying properties and doing something productive with them.  But, I don’t like real estate so much that I want to lose money for the privilege of playing with it.

I am also in a tiny market.  In 2009, there were only 125 sales of homes in the whole Lake Chelan area.  There were just 2 sales of commercial properties all year! There are about 100 agents and even with just the top few making most of the sales.  I would have to do virtually every transaction in the area to make the income I desire.  So, generally I make far more from the profits on what I develop than I do from selling other people’s properties.

That is one of the reasons that I run my own real estate agency.  I am virtually unemployable at other brokerages because my cost to pay a point or two to a broker on all the sales of inventory I created on my own would be more than I would make in commission selling other folks properties.

But, last year I didn’t create a single new parcel, home or business.  The footing just felt too unsure.  That means I have a few properties I’ve just been sitting on.  There’s not much profit in that.  So, I’ve been rethinking how to make money with those bits of real estate and found some opportunities are out there.  For me, it is time to get some projects moving.

The opportunity is as easy as taking something that isn’t doing anything and making it turn some profit.  For example, I have a bit under 10 acres along a highway and across from a large boat launching facility I had originally purchased to do some commercial development on.  Today, it just doesn’t make sense and I don’t expect it to for several, or many, more years.

But, rather than being insane and spending millions on commercial improvements that nobody would want Read more

January 12, 2010

Marketing To The Expired Listing Property Owner

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I’m the expired listing king of the hill — NOT. The only reason I’ve ever initiated a conversation with the owner of a property on the expired list, was if I had a specific buyer/exchanger who might fit. I began this policy due to the consistent and predictable dual attitude — mistrust of brokers/agents, and massive denial as to why their property didn’t set the brokerage world on fire.

Don’t get me wrong, as we all know agents who make much if not most of their living from marketing to expireds. Part of my reasoning, maybe the driving force if I’m gonna be honest with myself, is that my direct mail marketing was so reliably successful, dealing with expireds was like lookin’ for ways to get painful splinters.

When it comes to the 1-4 unit market, their are two generic classes of owners. Those who occupy, and those who don’t. I look back now and marvel at how myopic my thinking was back then. I specialized in investment property for Heaven’s sake, why wouldn’t I choose to leverage my knowledge advantage with investors who were recently unsuccessful in selling? Double Duh.

If you feel comfortable with your current basic investment knowledge, including pertinent Internal Revenue Code Sections, or are confident you can get yourself there quickly, here’s how you might garner some new listings. To save space I’m not gonna spend time on specific strategies implied here. You either know them or not. I’m easy though, and will freely share if you call.

First, let’s understand exactly the advantage you have with an investor vs a homeowner. Before we continue, I don’t bother with bank owned listings or short sales — merely a personal preference.

The reasons for selling/exchanging are mostly objective, not emotional. There are all kinds of solid reasons for an investor to make a move. Chances are, since they own just one or two local rentals, they’ve really never spoken to someone who knew which way was north on the investment map. You’ll stand out as a very positive exception. The best thing that could happen though, is Read more

January 11, 2010

What form should BloodhoundBlog Unchained take this May?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve heard from a number of people privately asking about the prospects for another BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix this May. So far I’ve not done anything about this — this for a couple of reasons.

First, I don’t know what to do in terms of content. We’re doing a lot of interesting things, but I’m not sure it’s the kind of material I can teach. Of course, there’s all kinds of other stuff out there, but I’m not sure how it coheres.

Second, I don’t know what to do about the show. The format we used last year — 72 hours of total immersion — was very successful, but it was also a boatload of work. (When the RE.net trolls get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they like to come here and insist that Unchained is a profit-making business. I’m sure my wife will be gratified to learn this.)

To my mind, the most satisfying Unchained experience so far was the
Scenius on Swallow Hill Road. Not the show we did in Orlando, which was good, but the more or less continuous Scenius we ran from the house we rented as our accommodations for the trip.

That’s an appealing scenario, but it’s decidedly limited in the number of people who can attend. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — for me — but it might not work so well for you.

So: I think I need to hear from you. If you want to do Unchained this year, speak up. But if you do want to do this, be prepared to put up your money. Whatever we choose for meeting space and accommodations, they’re going to want to see the dough before they commit to anything.

Here’s my pledge, in return: If we do Unchained this year, we will do it to nine decimal places, as always. We will take you places no one else is going, to put you even further beyond your competition.

But don’t dawdle. I’m going to have to make a go or no-go decision shortly. If you want to do Unchained this year, make the leap now.

January 9, 2010

Principal Reduction Or Interest Rate Decrease?

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

My stompin’ ground is San Diego. When the bubble burst here, the median price for a single family residence was within shoutin’ distance of $600,000. To give you some perspective on that number, my first ever listing was a 4 bedroom home in a blue collar area in October of 1969 — $18,100. It didn’t sell during the 90 day listing period, as it was um, a tad overpriced. Gimme a break, it was my first day on the job, and I was just 67 days past my 18th birthday.

Let’s say you and I are partners in a bank making real estate loans in San Diego. In January of 2005 we approved a couple’s application to refinance their well located 2,500 foot home with a view. Our own appraiser came in with a value of $675,000. The borrowers wanted 80% which was $540,000 — very doable considering their 770+ FICOs and impressive credit history. The interest rate was 6% fixed for 30 years — a payment of $3,237.57 monthly. Add taxes and insurance — just under $4,000!

Their home is now worth $450,000 — more than $100,000 above the current median price for the county. She’s had to resume full time work due to her husband’s job loss. He’s now workin’ two jobs at drastically reduced pay. They’re goin’ through their savings like a mower spits out grass on Saturday morning.

What do we, as the lender wanna do?

Our Board of Directors thinks either the government or the market will eventually save us. But then the White House floats a plan calling for principal reduction. Crap on a cracker.

Even if we reduce the loan balance by $90,000 (Almost 17%), the payment will only be reduced by $540 — hardly a real life solution when we consider the couple’s severely reduced income.

If we offered them a significant reduction in interest rate, say 4.5% with interest only payments for two years, then 5% the next three years, then 5% fixed for 30 years fully amortized — it would make the difference in going through foreclosure or not.

Their payment the Read more

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

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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