{"id":897,"date":"2007-01-15T08:16:30","date_gmt":"2007-01-15T15:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=897"},"modified":"2007-05-13T20:20:53","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T03:20:53","slug":"the-plastic-pig-and-how-to-pick-your-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/897\/the-plastic-pig-and-how-to-pick-your-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plastic Pig (and How to Pick Your Agent)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A million years ago, my mother won the office football pool. It was a Pick the Winners contest, and she did it with a plastic pig. Now, keep in mind that this is the same woman that found herself relegated to her bed for a week after losing the rubber match of “Who Can Jump Over the Most Boxes in the Backyard” to my then 14-year-old brother. Evel Knievel she wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Anyway, she had this hysterically funny wind-up pig that, when activated, would spin furiously on its base, squealing all the while. Her scientific winner-picking method, the envy of any Vegas sports book, involved circling the team name which resided in the ultimate landing vector of the pig’s tail. When she collected the booty this particular weekend, a guy at the office replied in disgust, “I can’t believe I was beat by a plastic pig”.<\/p>\n

Certain events of the past week have led me to believe that too many people are relying on the plastic pig method in selecting their real estate agent. Now, an agent plays many roles, but marketing and exposure of your home is first and foremost. Without an interested buyer and without an offer, an agent’s professed superiority in negotiations and contract management will be meaningless and in fact go untested. The listings without photos or well-written text, the agent voice mail messages declaring that “all calls received after 5:00 PM will be returned the next business day” (or on the Autumnal Equinox, whichever occurs last), the show instructions which involve 24-hour notice, a silent prayer to the East and the winning lotto ticket are all things I have encountered. All, unfortunately, serve only to keep agents and their buyers away.<\/p>\n

My latest reminder that all agents are not deserving of the listings with which they have been entrusted came in the form of a phone call from a frustrated shopper. Three messages to the agent’s number in the ad and 48 hours later, she was still trying to make an appointment to see a property. Ultimately, she pulled my number off of another sign in the neighborhood in a Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A million years ago, my mother won the office football pool. It was a Pick the Winners contest, and she did it with a plastic pig. Now, keep in mind that this is the same woman that found herself relegated to her bed for a week after losing the rubber match of “Who Can Jump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"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":[21,7,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-enduring-interest","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-redfincom","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7136,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7136\/the-three-little-pigs-and-the-housing-rescue-plan-a-modern-fable\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":0},"title":"The three little pigs and the housing rescue plan, a modern fable","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Once upon a time there were three little pigs, and, although they were brothers and looked a lot a like, they could not have been more different. The first little pig was hard-working and thrifty. He spent very little of his income, saving and investing as much money as he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10749,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10749\/the-all-too-often-missing-ingredient\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":1},"title":"The All Too Often Missing Ingredient","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"December 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the weekend I was reminded of an illustration of what true commitment is. The story was about breakfast, specifically ham and eggs. You've probably heard it. Grandma first told the story to me when I was in high school. It goes like this. The chicken is involved in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":928,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/928\/the-carnival-of-real-estate-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":2},"title":"The Carnival of Real Estate . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"...is up at Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update. And the winner is... our own Kris Berg with The Plastic Pig (and How to Pick Your Agent). Kris also wins The Carnival of BloodhoundBlog, a testament to her excellence amidst the stiff competition around here. The Carnival of Real Estate Investing\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":878,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/878\/microsoft-to-add-video-games-to-zune\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":3},"title":"Microsoft to add video games to Zune . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow... Evidently news doesn't travel that fast... But seriously: This is like Greek drama. How would it feel if your absolute best effort turned out to be a complete pig on the day of its introduction? And then, only a few months later, it had every last one of its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9580,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9580\/a-pig-with-lipstick-%e2%80%93-the-financial-services-oversight-council\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":4},"title":"A Pig with Lipstick \u2013 The Financial Services Oversight Council","author":"Tony Gallegos","date":"August 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"With the push to establish the Financial Services Oversight Council, is President Barack Obama just recycling flawed regulatory measures by reshuffling the current regulatory deck and coining it with fresh \u201cchanged\u201d names? From all indications, that is exactly what it appears; or to leverage one of the presidential campaign terms\u2026\u201dit\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2598,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2598\/the-training-of-the-shrewd\/","url_meta":{"origin":897,"position":5},"title":"The training of the shrewd","author":"Teri Lussier","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wearing an outrageous Cosby sweater and sitting at a space age desk. Hand gestures that would appear to be practiced from the Floyd Wickman How-to series. I cringed when I saw the video. Andy Kaufman blogged about it, looking for\u00a0the RE.net responses,\u00a0my first thought was\u00a0\"Are you kiddin' me?\" Is the\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\/897","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}