I like to think that, as a secondary consequence of the things I do, I goad good people into becoming better people. This is a part of everything I do, but it’s why there is a category called “Egoism in Action” in BloodhoundBlog, and it’s why so much of what I write about is focused on the idea I call “Splendor.” As much as I can, I want to help the people I come into contact with — here and in the corporeal world — to navigate the path from rational self-interest to undiluted self-adoration — an attainable moral perfection.
I like to think I help good people become better people. I know beyond all doubting that coming into contact with me induces bad people to become worse people. I absolve myself of all guilt in the matter: I would never, ever encourage anyone to pursue any sort of disvalue. But Joseph Ferrara, as an example, seems to have wasted two years of his irreplaceable life sticking metaphorical pins into a metaphorical doll of me. How sad for him, but I am undaunted, undamaged, undiminished — quite the contrary.
Poor Joseph is an extreme specimen, but he is hardly alone. Closer to home is Jonathan Dalton, who seems to devote some huge fraction of his every waking moment to trying to vanquish me in his imagination. He does this in secret, without naming me or linking to me. I wouldn’t even know it was happening, except that people keep sending me his snarky little posts. I cannot imagine what crime the poor slob has committed, that he would punish himself endlessly with thoughts of me, but never doubt that nature is just: Whatever his crime, certainly he believes that obsessing over me — striving with all his might to shout me down inside his own mind — is the fate he has earned and deserved. How sad for him.
Here’s a recent specimen of poor Jonathan’s obsession:
So when you read that a listing agent will be checking your house every other day and will hold your house open every single weekend until it [sells] … don’t you have to ask, how is it possible that they’re available that often?
As a part of BloodhoundBlog in Phoenix, I taught a Master Class on the marketing strategies we have invented for our listings. I am very far from being perfect in many of the tasks one must undertake to be a successful Realtor, but I am far and away the foremost expert in the United States on marketing mid-market and upper-mid-market homes. No one — anywhere — does the kinds of things we do to get our homes sold. Realtors all over the country are toying — tenuously so far — with our marketing ideas, with predictably remarkable results. I love this. Remember, I like it when I can help good people become better people. And I taught our techniques in my own home market, even though I was potentially training my own direct competitors — none of whom showed up.
I don’t fear competition. For one thing, it’s raining soup. There’s plenty for everyone. But for another thing, I know that even Realtors who are working very hard to master our ideas will not catch up to us soon. As long as we have the courage to learn, to grow, to innovate, we’ll be fine.
As his bit part in the churlish, childish counter-reaction against Unchained led by Joseph Ferrara and Dustin Luther, Jonathan Dalton made a huge point of announcing that he would not be coming to Unchained in Phoenix because there was nothing I could teach him about the job of being a Realtor.
So what gives with the matter quoted above? It’s poor Jonathan reacting to ABetterListing.com, a site where I document our entire marketing strategy for higher-end listings. Among a great many other things, I discuss our policy on open houses and servicing our listings.
So: Do let’s answer the man’s questions: How can we possibly hold our listed homes open every weekend until they sell? And how do we have time to service vacant listings every other day, at the least?
The answer will require a small demonstration:
Jonathan Dalton’s listings, as documented on his web site:
- 67th Ln, ACTIVE, 157 days on market
- 111th Av, ACTIVE, 203 days on market
- Weldon Av, EXPIRED, 126 days on market
- 70th Dr, EXPIRED, 94 days on market
- 70th Dr, ACTIVE, 82 days on market (relisted 176 DOM total)
- Redfield Rd, EXPIRED, 107 days on market
It’s possible the man has actually sold a listing in the past six months, but it’s a mystery why he would keep expireds but not solds alive in his RealBird widget. Jonathan’s active listings, should they sell, are listed for $289,000 total.
BloodhoundRealty.com listings, YTD 2008:
- Vermont Av, SOLD, 60 days on market
- Quail Av, SOLD, 3 days on market
- Madison St, SOLD, 42 days on market
- 11th St, SOLD, 65 days on market
- Beryl Av, SOLD, 45 days on market
- White Mountain Rd, SOLD, 45 days on market (COE 9/17/08)
We’re 43 days on market, average, for the year, and we have had zero cancelled or expired listings. We deliberately took only six listings so far this year, but that’s because we won’t take a listing that won’t sell. Even so, our sold listings come to $1,285,000 for the year, not quite a million dollars more than Dalton’s still-unsold inventory. Our median price is lower this year than in years past, but we’ve turned down many millions of dollars worth of listings over the last two years.
But what’s the answer to Jonathan’s question: How can we have time to hold open houses and service our listings?
WE HAVE TIME BECAUSE OUR LISTINGS SELL!
As a Project Bloodhound moment, DO NOT use your blog as a platform for telling your prospective clients that you don’t intend to do a damn thing to earn their business. This is anti-marketing, and anti-marketing is worse than no marketing. But: If your plan is to brag to the world that you’re a lazy mediocrity, you should probably expect people to take you at your word.
But that’s all one to me. The only reason to attend to a bad example is to learn to do better, and absolutely everything within me is about doing better. If you join us for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando, I will teach you everything I know about the Bloodhound art of marketing listings SO THAT THEY SELL. Brian Brady and I are inventing new things all the time, and ours is the only net.centric real estate training event where you can learn the ideas we come up with every day.
Here’s a funny bit: Against my advice, Brian actually offered to comp Jonathan Dalton for Unchained in Phoenix. Cathleen takes criticism of me a lot more seriously than I do, so she might have boycotted the event had Dalton shown up, but, as luck would have it, he was tied up demonstrating his superior skills as a Realtor.
And the reality of the world I am consigned to live in is that I am expected to take cheap shots from the likes of Ferrara or Dalton or the innovative spellers at AgentShortbus without complaint. My assigned role is to take shit from self-made mediocrities as punishment for not being one of them. This I will not do. But I don’t care about any of this, except that I take no joy in seeing people deliberately pursuing evil in preference to doing what they can to improve their own irreplaceable lives.
But if you — in the silence of your own mind — want to learn what we have discovered about working as a Realtor or a lender in the enwebbed world, we’ll be in Orlando on November 7th. We’ll teach you everything we know. Or, if you’re too filled with resentment to admit that you can always learn more, we’ll teach your competitors instead.
Technorati Tags: blogging, BloodhoundBlog Unchained, real estate, real estate marketing, real estate training, technology
Bob in San Diego says:
I have only one question:
Would you still do your style of marketing if you were unable to charge your $1,500 non-refundable fee up front?
September 10, 2008 — 6:23 am
Greg Swann says:
> Would you still do your style of marketing if you were unable to charge your $1,500 non-refundable fee up front?
Oh, you bet. The retainer doesn’t even come close to covering our up-front costs. It’s there to socialize some of our risk to the seller, to put us on the same team. If we couldn’t charge the retainer, we’d come up with another way to achieve the same outcome. But the way we market is about selling the house, period. We were developing this style long before we came up with the idea of the retainer. FWIW — and I should write about this — the market downturn has been a boon to our way of listing. We thought we had it down cold in January of 2006, but the lessons we’ve had to learn since then have been invaluable.
September 10, 2008 — 6:49 am
Patsy Snyder says:
I might have been more interested if there was a little more about your marketing plan and a little less about Jonathan. I am always interested in new ways of doing things.
September 10, 2008 — 8:48 am
Deb Dahlberg Rowland says:
One thing struck home with me…the comment about “raining soup”, I too am not afraid of competition it just makes me work harder and I belive in ABUNDANCE and that there is enough out there for everyone to be sucessful if they work hard at it. Wish I could make Orlando!
September 10, 2008 — 9:12 am
Greg Swann says:
> I am always interested in new ways of doing things.
Follow the links. It’s what they’re there for. If you read our archives, there is much, much more.
September 10, 2008 — 9:16 am
Greg Swann says:
> I believe in ABUNDANCE and that there is enough out there for everyone to be sucessful if they work hard at it. Wish I could make Orlando!
Email me your shipping address. I’ll send you a set of Unchained in Phoenix DVDs for free. We talk all the way through the event about the economics of abundance, and yours is the kind of attitude we want to encourage.
September 10, 2008 — 9:21 am
Don Reedy says:
Greg,
—Jonathan’s listings/results versus Bloodhound listings/result—
Res ipsa loquitur.
Interestingly enough, this post is FILLED with great information that should stir the mind of every listing agent in the country. Will it? While unknown, what IS for certain is that great ideas, from committed business practitioners, will emanate from Unchained Orlando.
September 10, 2008 — 10:21 am
Greg Swann says:
> what IS for certain is that great ideas, from committed business practitioners, will emanate from Unchained Orlando.
Bless you, sir. If you’re going to be in Orlando, say so. We’re renting a house for the weekend, and we’d love to have you over for dinner. Probably El Pollo Loco, but free eats is free eats.
September 10, 2008 — 10:28 am
Heather says:
Your point, I believe, is that your marketing plan is superior and people should come to your conference to learn how to replicate it themselves. I would have been quite happy to read about that and only that, and wish you had refrained from calling a fellow Realtor ‘churlish’ and ‘childish’.
September 10, 2008 — 3:33 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I would have been quite happy to read about that and only that, and wish you had refrained from calling a fellow Realtor ‘churlish’ and ‘childish’.
So your take is that when people attack you with sleazy lies, you should do nothing? Or is that a policy you would apply only to me, reserving your own right to act in self-defense? Here’s a key difference: If I found out you were being unfairly maligned, I would come to your defense without having to be asked. You’ll see me doing exactly that later today for another real estate weblogger.
It’s nice to see you with your eyes even half open, though. If you pay attention to me, I will show you how justice actually works, the justice that applies to me in the same way you would want it to apply to you.
Want to take the game to the next level? Two of Dalton’s three active listings are vacant and on lockbox. If you email me for the MLS numbers, you can go and see for yourself why they’re not selling.
Incidentally:
> calling a fellow Realtor ‘churlish’ and ‘childish’
The people I called churlish and childish are not Realtors, not that that matters. Aristotle said, “Justice is rendering unto each man what he has earned and deserved.” I’m busy and preoccupied, and so my injustice is not a matter of calling evil by its true names, but, rather, not doing so enough. Much of the RE.net is like a dysfunctional small town high school. The grownups work here, but we’re all too busy or too disgusted or too indifferent to squash the childish behavior outside our walls. I can’t see that situation changing much, but smart juveniles might take a lesson about what can happen if you pick a fight with a big dog.
Finally, in case I never hear from you again, here is my solemn vow to deliver unto you a justice you have denied to me: I promise to the end of my days that I will never come to your weblog and tell you what to say or not to say. I trust you to manage your own mind. I’ll manage mine with or without your reciprocal confidence.
September 10, 2008 — 4:23 pm
Thomas Johnson says:
Bloodhounds can serve independently.
Beagles have to run in packs and bray annoyingly to be effective.
September 10, 2008 — 5:59 pm
Greg Swann says:
You are a treasure to me, Tom Johnson.
September 10, 2008 — 8:11 pm
Bill Lublin says:
Greg;
Though you chastise a commenter above saying “The people I called churlish and childish are not Realtors” you were being inaccurate. You do in fact call Jonathan (who is a REALTOR) childish and churlish –
Your sentence was, “As his bit part in the churlish, childish counter-reaction against Unchained led by Joseph Ferrara and Dustin Luther, Jonathan Dalton made a huge point of announcing that he would not be coming to Unchained in Phoenix because there was nothing I could teach him about the job of being a Realtor.”
I make the point only to correct the record.
As far as bragging about showing others how to list and sell, with all due respect,6 active listings and $1,285,000 in sales is not exactly impressive. I was taught (many years ago) that if you don’t have any expired listings, you aren’t listing enough properties.
Even in my market where the average sales price is extremely low. and our market is down 30% over last year, I have 41 properties closed YTD at 51 Days on Market average at 97.56% of their asking price – and I limit my efforts as a real estate practitioner to specific long time clients since I am the CEO of my company and don’t compete with my agents. I’m not bragging about those numbers, but merely trying to put into perspective your claims of expertise. Are these really the numbers you want to brag about and use to draw a line in the sand with? I can’t even imagine that they would be ocmparable to what Russell Shaw’s numbers would be. Nor can I imagine he would brag this way.
Look, though I don’t personally care for your writing when you choose to be agressive and offensive (because life is just way to short to be so angry all the time) and I do think that you often write with a sense of unwarranted superiority (and please before you even go there,I say that after having accomplished some “stuff” in my professional life), I certainly wouldn’t suggest to tell you what to include or omit from your blog, except to point out that IMHO you have a responsibility (as does every writer, everywhere) to be honest and complete in your representations to your readers, accurate with your data, and differentiate your opinions from facts.
Oh, and Greg – Thomas is wrong – Bloodhounds (like most hounds – including the Beagle which is also a hound) by nature prefer to hunt in packs – and amusingly, according to the AKC “In temperament he (the bloodhound) is extremely affectionate, neither quarrelsome with companions nor with other dogs. His nature is somewhat shy, and equally sensitive to kindness or correction by his master.” Not quite the picture you draw – but the traits of the breed as expounded by the leading dog organization in the US. That being said, they are beautiful dogs -(though I prefer my British Lab – but did we really need to talk trash about our dogs?)
September 11, 2008 — 3:49 am
Teri Lussier says:
>I like to think that, as a secondary consequence of the things I do, I goad good people into becoming better people. This is a part of everything I do,
You know I am shy to jump into the fray, but I can’t let this post go with public comment.
In my experience in this particular, and peculiar, online world- the RE.net- this is absolutely, undeniably the truest statement I’ve ever read about you- who you are as a person, and how you conduct you life online, and offline.
You have been an extraordinary mentor and a challenging friend, and you have my gratitude for the things you are doing.
Bless YOU, sir. Thank YOU.
September 11, 2008 — 6:14 am
Greg Swann says:
Do you want to see something cool?
This is the hard-click traffic on ABetterListing.com for the 24 hours after this post went live. Many of the IP addresses you’ll see in that list are spiders — our sites get spidered constantly — but look how many people are coming and staying and reading multiple pages.
From our overall traffic yesterday, I would reckon there was a TwitStorm over this post — which is what I would expect when I speak truth to glower — but that means squat to me. People who run in herds are trying to be monkeys, hardly a rare phenomenon.
But, in this list of server accesses, you are seeing individuals. No doubt many of them came in order to talk themselves out of doing anything differently with their listings. But some of them, some of them — some of them are going to be a real threat in their local markets.
Those are the people who matter to me…
September 11, 2008 — 7:10 am
Greg Swann says:
> You have been an extraordinary mentor and a challenging friend, and you have my gratitude for the things you are doing.
Thank you, Teri. I love it that I get to work with you and people like you. The emotional response I like best is admiration, so knowing you is a boundless reward to me.
September 11, 2008 — 7:49 am
Brian Brady says:
“Even in my market where the average sales price is extremely low. and our market is down 30% over last year, I have 41 properties closed YTD at 51 Days on Market average at 97.56% of their asking price – and I limit my efforts as a real estate practitioner to specific long time clients since I am the CEO of my company and don’t compete with my agents.”
Impressive numbers but that’s without marketing effort, no? If you don’t actively market, then why are you claiming to be a superior marketer? If you do actively market, then you actually compete against your agents, and the last statement is factually incorrect.
“I’m not bragging about those numbers, but merely trying to put into perspective your claims of expertise.”
Of course you are, Bill. Displayed performance is the cornerstone of any good marketing.
“Are these really the numbers you want to brag about and use to draw a line in the sand with?”
Absolutely. In the context of the online world, the techniques used are what makes the figures astounding. Techniques that are new and completely different from your own.
” I can’t even imagine that they would be comparable to what Russell Shaw’s numbers would be. Nor can I imagine he would brag this way.”
He’s not bragging; he’s applying for a job. Russell publicly brags daily.
September 11, 2008 — 8:14 am
Greg Swann says:
I’m not bragging, Brian. I made a point of saying that I’m not good (yet) at many of the tasks needed to succeed in real estate. But we homered with no strike-outs on every at-bat in 43 days on average. For context, ARMLS as a whole was 113 days for August — just the solds. Single-family homes in Central and North Central Phoenix took 117 days on average to sell. The homes we target-market are sliding into home — when they do — at 215 days on average. We’re not as good as we’ll be a year from now, but we’re remarkably better than the Phoenix real estate market as a whole. That’s not bragging, that’s results.
Frankly, the techniques that Brian will be teaching at Unchained will probably make Realtors and lenders more money. All I’m talking about right now is using unique marketing strategies to get your listings sold first and for the most money.
September 11, 2008 — 8:45 am
Bob in San Diego says:
Brian, aside from the fact that Bill made no such claim, you either misunderstood or you are twisting what Bill said. The kind of marketing referenced in this post is marketing active listings, not marketing for listings. Marketing his own listings doesn’t put Bill in competition with his own agents.
September 11, 2008 — 9:21 am
Bill Lublin says:
Brian:
I apologize for not responding earlier, but though I subscribed to comments, I didn’t see any until I returned here out of curiosity – and when I read your response (since Greg did not respond) I was surprised at the following;
“Impressive numbers but that’s without marketing effort, no? If you don’t actively market, then why are you claiming to be a superior marketer? If you do actively market, then you actually compete against your agents, and the last statement is factually incorrect.”
That is an incredible example of presumption, misinformation, and illogical thought – almost a perfect storm –
First, I never said I didn’t market the properties that I list –
Second I never claimed to be a superior marketer in my response( that would frankly be a different discussion)
Third How would marketing my listings be competing with my agents? In my company any buyer leads generated by our marketing would go to one of our agents who would have the opportunity to sell the listing, or sell the buyer another property.
There is a big difference between being productive and being competitive.
You also said.” In the context of the online world, the techniques used are what makes the figures astounding. Techniques that are new and completely different from your own.”
What information do you use to make that statement? How do you know what techniques I or my company use? Don’t you think that statement is rendered specious by a lack of information on your part? And with all due respect, do you really think that 6 sales in 8 months is astounding in a positive way? I am not, by the way, assuming that your techniques are not good or effective, just pointing out that an agent who has listed one house and sold it might say they “homered with no strike-outs on every at-bat”, but it doesn’t make that a record to brag about (or apply for a job with).
I agree with you that “Displayed performance is the cornerstone of any good marketing.” I just think you might want to show that you succeeded with greater frequency before you make claims about being successful.
Finally, a note to Greg – a group of monkeys is not a herd, its a troop- animal specific – you know like a pack of dogs, a pride of lions or a gaggle of geese.
September 11, 2008 — 9:55 am
Erion Shehaj says:
One lesson I’m getting out of this discussion and the one prior to Unchained Phoenix, is that if you wish to sell your listings faster, (or sell more tickets for that matter) you should stir up a blog controversy. 🙂
September 11, 2008 — 1:10 pm
Greg Swann says:
> if you wish to sell your listings faster, (or sell more tickets for that matter) you should stir up a blog controversy.
We already have a lot more traffic than any of the industry-focused real estate weblogs — no accident since I invented the category. If you’re going to concoct a bizarre conspiracy theory to impugn my motives, make a better effort. Or you could take what I say at face value, since I go to every length to tell the whole, unvarnished truth. If you look at all the tap-dancing lies a poltroon like Dalton has to tell to save face, you’ll see why I never, ever betray the truth.
FWIW, we’ve never tried it, but I can’t imagine controversy would be a very good way to sell houses. The “churlish, childish counter-reaction against Unchained led by Joseph Ferrara and Dustin Luther” in February probably cost us ticket sales, but I know it improved the quality of the event. The people who came to Phoenix came to learn in their own behalf, not to schmooze and rub blue-mud in each other’s navels to demonstrate their mutual monkeytude. If I were a better exponent of egoism, I wouldn’t bother teaching what I know. And if I were less an armadillo, I might grow to resent being maligned and insulted for coming up with radical new ideas and taking the time to share them with other Realtors. But the style of my life tends to cause other people to self-select as regards me, and so I end up, for the most part, talking to precisely those people who can best benefit from what I have to say.
Nature is just. Who could ask for more?
September 11, 2008 — 1:37 pm
louis cammarosano says:
greg what does attacking dustin, joe and Jonathan
Have to do with whether someone should
Attend unchained
Your statement that you bring out the best in people
Is contradicted by your attacks on dustin joe and Jonathan
September 11, 2008 — 8:58 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Your statement that you bring out the best in people
Is contradicted by your attacks on dustin joe and Jonathan
First, I didn’t say I bring out the best in people. This is what I said:
Second, I have never attacked anyone. I have been targeted for attacks by Joseph Ferrara, Dustin Luther and Jonathan Dalton, but I don’t particularly care about that, except as a matter of discussion. I have no opinion about Dustin Luther, but I know from direct observation that Joseph Ferrara and Jonathan Dalton have indulged the worst kinds of impulses in their sad attempts to shout me down — but that only matters to me to the extent that I abhor self-destruction. In any case, as I acknowledged yesterday, to the extent that I have acted unjustly to Ferrara, Dalton, Luther and other exponents of bad behavior in the RE.net, it’s not from holding them accountable for their evil actions, but from not holding them accountable enough. When people tell lies about me or about BloodhoundBlog, I should respond more often, more consistently as I have in this post. When people show up here in order to spit on our carpets — an outrageous abuse of hospitality — I should throw them out on their ears.
In other words: There is no reason on earth why I should accept the kind of abuse you would have no trouble identifying as abuse if it were directed at you.
> whether someone should Attend unchained
Here’s a fun question: What would a true rationally-self-interested Realtor in Phoenix do in light of this particular post? I don’t know everything there is to know about being a Realtor, but I know how to make houses sell. If you were coming up on day 130 of a 180-day listing, wouldn’t it make sense for you to pick up the phone and ask me what I think you might be getting wrong? I can do that job for any house in 15 minutes or less. For most houses, I can identify the deal-killer in seconds. The silence you hear at the end of my phone line is the sound of bad people resolving by default to become worse people. Too bad for them.
At the other end of the spectrum are the agents I write about who are taking our ideas and running with them, deploying them, succeeding with them, improving upon them — and, as a consequence, living the fully-human life.
Who should attend Unchained in Orlando? Realtors and lenders who want to live and prosper as human beings. Who should stay away? People who think spreading lies is laudable behavior but hearing the uncontested truth is an attack. But nature is just, so that’s exactly how things will sort themselves out.
September 11, 2008 — 10:33 pm
Barry Cunningham says:
Wow… and some thought my posts on BHB were incendiary!
I will say this for he who speaks his mind…Greg doesn’t run and hide and choreograph commnetary as they do on Agent Shortbus.
So his approach to discourse, as aggressive as it may seem allows for return fire and contrary opinion without banishment which is more than I can say for some Kumbiyah, hand-holding, mashed carrot eaters that inhabit some sites.
As Kevin Tomlinson would say, got my chair, my mini diet cokes and some popcorn. Please, by all means, continue!
September 12, 2008 — 6:17 am
Erion Shehaj says:
Are you serious?!
September 12, 2008 — 9:03 pm
Greg Swann says:
>> If I were a better exponent of egoism, I wouldn’t bother teaching what I know.
> Are you serious?!
Perfectly. From the standpoint of pure wealth production, I would probably be better off keeping my cards close to my chest, making our methods look as arcane and difficult as possible, thus to mow down and mop up our local competition. Instead, Brian and I are trying to create a national movement of Realtors and lenders who think like us. For ninety-nine bucks — or for free if you show up here and read carefully — you’ll get a whole lot more out of me than I’ll get out of you. In the long run, consumers will be the best beneficiaries of our efforts, and they don’t even know any of this is going on. But from here, right now — taking account of the negligible rewards and the considerable costs that go along with what we’re doing — it’s hard to argue that I am working in my own best long-term rational self-interest, which is what egoism means.
September 12, 2008 — 10:59 pm