{"id":6743,"date":"2009-01-29T23:08:03","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T06:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6743"},"modified":"2009-01-30T08:55:25","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T15:55:25","slug":"the-rest-of-the-real-estate-industry-might-be-pinocchio-false-in-every-particular-but-nothing-prevents-you-from-being-genuine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6743\/the-rest-of-the-real-estate-industry-might-be-pinocchio-false-in-every-particular-but-nothing-prevents-you-from-being-genuine\/","title":{"rendered":"The rest of the real estate industry might be Pinocchio — false in every particular — but nothing prevents you from being genuine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real estate is the most unbusinesslike business in the history of business.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to defend that statement comprehensively, because it’s late and I’m tired, but I can offer some data points.<\/p>\n

When we sat down with Greg Tracy, I argued to him that licensing inhibits the kind of competition for reputation that we expect and depend upon when deciding which restaurant to go to, for instance, or which auto mechanic to use. Instead, in real estate, after 90 hours of nonsense classes, we say, “Here’s your license, kid. Get out there and wreck someone’s finances!”<\/p>\n

I met with a new buyer client on Wednesday, and we had a wonderful time cataloging all the things Realtors and brokers would do if residential real estate were organized like any other sort of business.<\/p>\n

What kinds of things?<\/p>\n

If real estate were a real business, Realtors would market the damn product, instead of engaging in two or three acts of rain-dancing and then waiting — for months or even years — for the rain to come.<\/p>\n

If real estate were a real business, Realtors and brokers wouldn’t be so transparently mercenary about using, abusing and burning through their clients. One of the huge benefits of real estate weblogging is that Realtors are openly discussing the tricks they deploy to strong-arm their “leads.” In no other business do vendors have such contempt for consumers.<\/p>\n

(Incidentally, although I say this all the time, apparently no one believes me: Consumers read industry-focused weblogs. When you admit that you do certain things to “force people to call,” you’re not telling them anything they didn’t already know about the real estate business.)<\/p>\n

If real estate were a real business, commissions would be divorced and incentives would be aligned to put the agent and the client on the same side in negotiations. The longer the real estate industry delays in reforming its practices, the greater the opening it offers to vendors offering a better or cheaper alternative to traditional real estate.<\/p>\n

I love it when I really get to talk to my clients, because I conceal nothing from them. We do well by doing good: This is Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real estate is the most unbusinesslike business in the history of business. I don’t want to defend that statement comprehensively, because it’s late and I’m tired, but I can offer some data points. When we sat down with Greg Tracy, I argued to him that licensing inhibits the kind of competition for reputation that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-real-estate","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":679,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/679\/content-piracy-on-the-renet\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":0},"title":"Content piracy on the RE.net . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"An aggregator weblog called Real Estate Chatter is resyndicating the feeds of these 25 real estate weblogs:Altos Research Real Estate InsightsAppraisal ScoopCarnival of Real EstateMike's Corner Web 2.0 For Real Estate ProsNAR in the Newsrealestate.com.au News & ViewsOverseas Property Blog :: guide to international real estate investmentPressReal.comSeattle's Rain City Real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2830,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2830\/while-the-national-real-estate-market-is-soft-google-pay-per-click-real-estate-advertising-still-going-strong\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":1},"title":"While The National Real Estate Market Is Soft – Google Pay-Per-Click Real Estate Advertising Still Going Strong","author":"Doug Quance","date":"March 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Your Online Marketing Costing You Too Much? As one of those with an online presence, I am always interested in how others attract \"eyeballs\". Back in the early days of Google, I proudly staked my claim on some choice keywords in their pay-per-click program - which brought me a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1538,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1538\/an-renet-taxonomy-identifying-types-of-real-estate-weblogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":2},"title":"An RE.net taxonomy: Identifying types of real estate weblogs","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a first strike at a taxonomy of real estate weblogs. Taxonomy is the science of categorizing things. Of course, not everything can be neatly categorized, but the elucidation of categories can focus the mind, helping us to understand where certain weblogs might fit, which are hybrids of two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":346,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/346\/how-i-feed-my-hungry-mind-my-opml-file\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":3},"title":"How I feed my hungry mind: My OPML file . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day I highlighted some real estate weblogs that I read every day, and, while that article is true, it's not the whole truth. The Republic gives me all of 350 words in which to map whatever universe I see behind my eyes, so I end up focusing on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1056,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1056\/real-estate-carnivals-nigel-swaby-wins-carnival-of-real-estate-investing-our-own-allen-butler-wins-carnival-of-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":4},"title":"Real Estate Carnivals: Nigel Swaby wins Carnival of Real Estate Investing, our own Allen Butler wins Carnival of Real Estate . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"BloodhoundBlog was this week's host of the Carnival of Real Estate Investing. Nigel Swaby from the Salt Lake Real Estate Blog was this week's winner, with Creative Financing - Conversion to Traditional Mortgages. We had a total of seven entries and four judges: Michael Cook, Cathleen Collins, Jeff Brown and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/337\/here-are-some-blogs-that-stay-on-top-of-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":6743,"position":5},"title":"Here are some blogs that stay on top of real estate","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me from today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). I wish I could deliver an SEO boost to the weblogs mentioned here, but I doubt that will happen. First, the paper didn't create links for the web-based version of this story. And second, the Republic hides everything behind a for-pay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6745,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions\/6745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}