There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Brian Brady (page 15 of 27)

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

Buzz Bissinger Blasts Bloggers

In the ultimate irony, sportswriter Buzz Bissinger blasts Will Leitch of Deadspin.com for his sports blog with language more appropriate for a blog than television.

See the 15 minute video here.

TWO COOL FACTS CAME OUT:

1- The average age of a newspaper reader is 55 years old.

2- Only 19% of the 18-34 age group reads newspapers.

BISSINGER: ” This guy, whether we like it or not, is the future. The writing on blogs is despicable. ”

LEITCH: ” Deadspin is large enough to get credentialed but as soon as I start doing that, I write for the other members of the press box. ”

BISSINGER: “If you are the future, the future is going to dumb us down”

My opinion? Start a weblog, Bissinger. You’re a Pulitzer Prize winner so you’ll have access. Write daily and sell advertising. If quality is what the market demands, then let them vote with their eyeballs. Of course, life in the entrepreneurial lane is difficult; ask the folks at Curbed or Ariana Huffington. I could start a baseball weblog with Jeff Brown, Dan Green, Morgan Brown, Toby Boyce, and 15-20 other webloggers and be credentialed in two years. I dare say that the writing would pretty damned good.

So which is it readers? Are “real” journalists the guardians of quality or just another chokepoint?

PS- I’m biased. I haven’t read a newspaper box score in 10 years. While I love Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated better slap some ads around his online articles and get rid of the gated-access or he will become…irrelevant.

Canadian Housing Crash Could Induce More Investing in America

You heard it here first. Canadian real estate is in the danger zone. Well, maybe not all of Canada’s housing stock will fall but the Western provinces look overvalued. If you subscribe to my site, you heard about this over the weekend.

It all started back in 2003. A barrel of oil was trading around $30. Then, we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein. Oil spiked up then retreated to the mid 30s for the rest of 2003. Dubya landed on an aircraft carrier, proclaimed “Mission Accomplished”, and the war was over.

Kind of. Then, the “police action” started. That’s when the rapid ascent started in oil prices. By the middle of 2005, we crossed the $60 threshold. Then Dubya pushed the food for fuel policy that caused our farmers to reallocate their crops to refiners rather than grocers. In the past 18 months, the price of oil doubled. We called this commodities-push inflation at Bartley Hall. The discretionary dollars got crunched by triple digit tanks and five digit mortgage payments and America became a subprime nation….

…and Western Canada got rich….so they all bought real estate.

In commodities-rich Canada, they prided themselves on “sober” lending guidelines. No sub-prime mortgages and a heavily regulated mortgage industry insured that the irrational exuberance we displayed in The States wouldn’t mirror up north. Then, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) ripped a page from the Wall Street playbook, extended the amortizations, lowered the down payment requirements, and it was the wild, wild west, all over again. Same scene; different location.

American real estate crashed, the Fed lowered rates, and the US dollar tanked. In late 2007, the loonie reached parity with the dollar. In Calgary, the median price was $200,000 (Can), in 2000. It grew to $250,000 (Can) in 2005. It grew to $417,000 (Can) in 2007 (suspiciously with the rise in oil prices). If you bought an Calgary investment property, in 2000, you doubled your money. This chart shows that household incomes spiked along with Read more

Every Day Is A Good Day To Invest In Phoenix Real Estate

Every day is a great day to buy a single family home, even in Phoenix. That ought to rile up the analytical types here. Of course, that same principle applies to the stock market, as well.

I started my career as a “Financial Consultant” but was mentored by some fellas who preferred to be called “Customer’s Man” (title preserved with apologies to the fairer gender). My tutors would buy me a scotch in Suburban Station, then ride the R5-Paoli Local home with me. I’d receive a 70-minute lesson about how and when to buy stocks for clients. The first lesson was that every day was a good day to own a good company.

Of course, the part I’m leaving out is that price and underlying quality were important factors in the investment decision- fundamentals rule when it comes to long-term investing. These Customer’s Men weren’t the Bud Fox-type on Wall Street, churning clients’ accounts, they were more like the character Hal Holbrook played (Stick to the fundamentals. That’s how IBM and Hilton were built. Good things, sometimes, take time).

The same principle can be applied to real estate. Greg Swann did his best Hal Holbrook impression with this article in the Arizona Republic. The fundamentals are fabulous for Maricopa County real estate. Three people move into Maricopa County for every two people that leave every year; that’s a growing population. The local economy is diversifying with small businesses leading the way. An expanding economic base and a growing population make for an attractive situation for landlords.

Are the long-term prospects for Phoenix real estate good? The fundamentals would have you believe that they are. Lawrence Yun predicted a 50% rise in Phoenix housing prices in a five year period; I commented that it may take ten years. Still, 50% over ten years is a helluva return, when leveraged four to one. Invest $100,000 in Phoenix real estate today, and you could conceivably receive a triple in your original investment, ten years from now. That Read more

Mitch Ribak: It’s The Contact, Not The Content

As Jeff Brown would say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”.

Mitch Ribak is a Florida real estate broker who purposefully avoids the Web 2.0 world. Well, that’s not really true. Mitch Ribak is a blogger. I met him on Home Gain Blog and I read everything he writes. Why? Because he’s VERY effective at marketing.

Mitch is extremely helpful. In the 3-4 months I’ve known him, he’s answered every single question I’ve asked and gone out of his way to explain the efficacy of his pay per click marketing success. He is extremely open with advice, sharing with whomever asks for it. Mitch designed a CRM called 100mphmarketing.com which he’ll release next month. I respect this guy a lot.

Here’s the short version of this 15 minute interview:

1- If a REALTOR is not online, he’s going to lose out.

2- Buyers control this market, not sellers. Ergo, attract buyers with your marketing.

3- Websites should offer less content, not more. The most important tool is a lead capture tool.

4- Give enough content to entice the buyer to call you.

5- The lead capture form should be prominent on every page.

6- Quality lead generation comes from attracting serious buyers; the lead capture form distinguishes their intent.

7- Traffic should be high quality. Mitch uses PPC and affiliate marketing programs.

8- No email= no access to listings. Real estate brokerage is a business and businesses must deal with serious buyers.

9- Conversion is key. It is the contact with not the content provided for the customer that is of paramount importance. Autoresponders work because they automate the marketing process. “Dripped” MLS listings buys customers’ brain cells.

Mitch has “street cred”. His team of 14 agents closed 193 transactions, last year. Last month, they closed 38 transactions. Not a big deal? He sells real estate in Brevard County, Florida; the eye of the hurricane.

I’ll ask you to listen to the interview with Mitch before you comment.

Who’s a Mortgage Fiduciary?

Are you ready for the next big argument about fiduciary capacity? It’s coming in the form of national loan originator licensing and it promises to be a doozy.

The Federal Housing Finance and Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 is proposed legislation that seeks to license anyone who quotes rates or fees to borrowers (among other things). It’s a political stunt, veiled as consumer protection that is yet another revenue racket for the government. It’s requiring a 20 hour pre-licensing course, with testing and national fingerprint registry.

Anyway, there’s a lot of talk about “acting as a fiduciary” to the borrower. The rhetoric leads me to this conclusion; it just can’t be done (at least under the current environment). A fiduciary is someone who subordinates her interests to her client’s. I just can’t determine how a mortgage banker can TRULY act as a fiduciary; they don’t have all the product offerings available.

Wells Fargo doesn’t offer negative amortization loans . Contrary to what you hear in the media, there are times when a negative amortization loan is JUST what the doctor ordered. If someone has a large amount of debt, it might be in their best interest to defer interest (at 6.75% pre-tax) so that they can free up some cash flow to pay down the higher interest debt (at 13% post-tax). In this flat housing market, it may be the only chance someone has to improve their credit score by swapping 13% money for 6.75% money. Many bankers can’t offer that product. Would they refer that loan out to a specialist (like an attorney or doctor would) or “sell” the client on the “in-house” loan program?

Conversely, would a Wachovia originator, who just cashed a check at Bank of America and noticed that they aggressively priced their 15-year loan, refer that loan across the street or write it at .25% higher?

Mortgage brokers, then, should be perfectly positioned to act as “true” fiduciaries. If transparent brokerage compensation was pre-negotiated in an exclusive right-to-finance agreement (much like a Read more

Mortgage Rates Higher at the End of May

Here’s how bad it gets when the mortgage-backed securities market deteriorates:

From May 21:

This is a chart for the last 30 days for mortgage-backed securities.  When MBS prices go up, mortgage rates come down.  In this case, I noticed a meteoric rise in MBS prices in the last week in April (off a low of 99.5).  I called for clients to lock on May 2, 2008, when the 30 year fixed rate mortgage was at 5.875%.  Today, it has improved to 5.625%.

Today, mortgage rates are over a half a point higher (in rate) :

This is panic selling that we’re seeing in the fixed-income securities market.  I knew it would happen but I was early.  The 30-year fixed rate mortgage was at 5.625%, nine days ago.  Yesterday, it went to 6.0%.  Today a 30 -year fixed rate mortgage is at 6.25%.  Expect rates to be above 6.0% for the next two weeks; we should see them creep down by the end of June to the sub-6 level.

Don’t fret- they’ll be back.

The Unchained Originator: Ken Stampe

I was disappointed with the low turnout of loan originators at UNCHAINED. There were two local originators, who attended our Mesquite library performance, and my buddy Ken Stampe. Ken and I met in 2006, on Active Rain. He was one of the first to sign up for Unchained. His only condition was that I buy him a beer in Phoenix.

Of course, a thousand bucks is a lot to pay for a cold Bud so he was hoping for a whole lot more. He got his money’s worth by showing up. That’s the name of the game in mortgage origination today; showing up. There were some 70 REALTORs at Unchained. Some are beholden to the local originators and I might have impressed a few but Ken Stampe was the Trojan Horse.

The Trojan Horse, as told in Virgil’s Aeneid, depicts the Greeks as guerrilla warriors, using the Trojans’ strength against them.

Ken Stampe is a modern day Greek. While originators were bellyaching at TAMB conferences , Ken dressed up in a Web 2.0 costume, and penetrated the walls of the RE.net. Now before some smart fella reminds us of the saying the Trojan Horse story inspired,

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts“,

let me tell why Ken’s strategy is flawless. He is ONE OF YOU, now. He’s playing on the social media marketing playground. By definition, he knows the rules of web transparency. He screws up? You blog about him. He plays the bait and switch game? Zillow’s consumers will crucify him. I know Ken so I know him to be impeccable in his business practice but good fences make good neighbors. The transparency of the Web 2.0 world makes us better originators which, in turn, makes you better REALTORs.

Here are four things Ken did by attending UNCHAINED:

1- He met me. Seriously, that’s important. Originators need support systems across the country. We call each other frequently to bounce ideas off one another. While we were phone friends, Ken cemented an already strong relationship.

2- He Read more

Unchained Hunting: A Video Summary

Mark Eckenrode does it again. He summarized my presentation, “The Way of the Hunter”, from the Unchained conference, in a 26 minute video, with mindmaps. He improved my presentation with a few thoughts about market specific platforms.

Watch it over at his house.

PS: I dig the picture of the hunter on his post.

UNCHAINED: Constructive Criticism

Mark Eckenrode of Homestomper.com offers constructive criticism of the BloodhoundBlog Social Media Marketing Conference brought to you by Zillow.com:

For being the first Bloodhound Unchained this was nothing but a success. The fact that folks flew across the country to an unproven event to see and meet folks who they’ve only known through the web… a testament to the power of what it is that we’re doing.The flow of the event and even the presentations sometimes felt a bit dis-jointed but let’s face it, this was the first event of it’s kind and these weren’t professional platform speakers.

The time schedule we had was dictated by the event location (had to be out by 4pm). Pretty crappy, in my opinion. Considering that folks came from across the country to drink from a firehose of knowledge, I’d like to see the next Unchained have marathon sessions. With SalesDogs and Rich Dad Poor Dad we’d run from 9am until 11pm.

One major thing I did find missing was a lack of discussion on strategy. There were great tactics covered but without a strategy to unify the tactics and make sure the tactics supported the overall goal then, well, tactics don’t amount to much but busy work.

Of great benefit to all would also be breakout sessions… “You just learned how to XYZ. You’ve got 5 minutes to go online and do this for your website.”

A great companion piece to the breakout sessions would be roundtable discussions. A group of attendees at a table with an expert answering hotseat questions for 15 minutes before attendees switch to another table and another expert.

Mark offers “mindmaps” which are amazing summaries of our sessions. Download them. Print them. Read them.

Bloodhound Unchained Day 2 Mindmap PDF

Bloodhound Unchained Day 3 Mindmap PDF

Thanks for the ride to Ahwatukee and the great feedback, Mark.

BloodhoundBlog UNCHAINED Social Media Marketing Conference brought to you by Zillow.com- We start tomorrow

Today was the “bonus day” of UNCHAINED.  We were delighted by the appearance of two giants: Mary Mc Knight of RSS Pieces and Russell Shaw of Number1HomeAgent.

Jan O’Brien, a RE Coach with  of Prudential Americana, in Las Vegas, outlined today’s “bonus day”.  Read her recap and get caught up.

Monday’s Schedule:

The conference starts at 8:30 AM and ends at 4PM:

Unchained Epiphany- Greg Swann

The Way of the Hunter Brian Brady

Working Lunch- Twitter- @BradCoy & @AndyKaufman

The Way of the Farmer- Greg Swann

Real Estate Website Makeover- Mary McKnight

6PM- No Host Happy Hour at the Radisson  Light Hors D’Oeuvres Complimentary

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water are complimetary throughout the day.   Lunch will be complimetary.The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

Tuesday’s Schedule

The Conference Starts at 8:30 AM and concludes at 4PM

Traditional Marketing For A Web 2.0 World- Steve Hundley, Louis Cammarosano, Jeff Brown

Blogging For Dollars- Laurie Manny, Theresa Lussier

Working Lunch- Zillow Mortgage MarketPlace for Real Estate Agents- David Gibbons

Keynote Presentation- Glenn Kelman

Online Reputation Management- David Gibbons

Black Pearls and Commencement

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water throughout the day. Lunch is complimentary. The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

There is a morning and afternoon break for personal phone calls.

UNCHAINED Agenda; It’s Gonna Be Hot…

All presentations to be held in the Steele Auditorium at the Heard Museum. This schedule for Unchained is subject to change:

Sunday, May 18, 2008:

8-10AM Registration. The conference starts at 10AM and ends at 4PM.

Zillow Workshop

The Power of E-mail Marketing by Ron Cates

Hyper Local Blogging UNPLUGGED by Laurie Manny

Sunday is “Bonus Day” so food will not be served. The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees. Presentations on Sunday will not be included in the DVD set.

No evening events planned.

Monday, May 19, 2008

The conference starts at 8:30 AM and ends at 4PM:

Unchained Epiphany- Greg Swann

The Way of the Hunter Brian Brady

Working Lunch- Twitter- @BradCoy & @AndyKaufman

The Way of the Farmer- Greg Swann

Real Estate Website Makeover- Mary McKnight

6PM- No Host Happy Hour at the Radisson  Light Hors D’Oeuvres Complimentary

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water are complimetary throughout the day.   Lunch will be complimetary.The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Conference Starts at 8:30 AM and concludes at 4PM

Traditional Marketing For A Web 2.0 World- Steve Hundley, Louis Cammarosano, Jeff Brown

Blogging For Dollars- Laurie Manny, Theresa Lussier

Working Lunch- Zillow Mortgage MarketPlace for Real Estate Agents- David Gibbons

Keynote Presentation- Glenn Kelman

Online Reputation Management- David Gibbons

Black Pearls and Commencement

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water throughout the day. Lunch is complimentary. The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

There is a morning and afternoon break for personal phone calls. This schedule is subject to change.

Marketing Is Religion

“He’s Catholic but he’s awfully nice” was a comment you might have heard, in the 50’s. Now, I picked Catholicism but I could have picked Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, Islam… whatever. I’m using this as an example of how high the passions run when talk about a belief system. People are awfully defensive of their “mind-turf” and can be inflexible when it comes to considering a different school of thought.

Consider the RE.net. Do you like oranges or tomatoes? Did you cheer for Brady or Luther? Push versus pull? Will you call a lead a “lead”? It’s all seems stoopid yet it is ALL extremely important. Marketing is the new religion and sometimes our discussions escalate to the level of jihad.

…and that’s really okay. We’ll all get through it. Jew or Christian, push or pull, we’ll all achieve nirvana if we open our ears and listen…and be bold enough to act upon what we learn from each other.

I am a Real Estate Radio USA junkie. The Barrys are natural interviewers with just the right blend of doubt and enthusiasm. They are snaring some tremendous guests. Today, they interviewed Craig Proctor.

The Cliff Notes of what Craig Proctor said were:

1- Marketing trumps prospecting. AMEN

2- Marketing should be automated. Done properly, marketing automation allows us to spend 70% of our time doing our job rather than chasing business- AMEN

3- Direct response advertising trumps image advertising. AMEN, Brother.

4- Blogging is good to the extent that it produces leads and not to the extent that it (and I quote) “entertains or educates”. OUCH! Kinda stings, doesn’t it?

5- Marketing should produce so many leads that you should be able to pick and choose your clients. In fact, the most important thing in your real estate or mortgage brokerage practice IS lead generation. (We’ve heard that before). That is not to say that you should spend all your time on it but you must be OBSESSED with lead generation so that you CAN do Read more

UNCHAINED PodCatcher: May 12, 2008

I’m going to start offering a little update on BloodhoundBlog. I’ve been spending a bunch of time listening to podcasts about social media marketing, to prepare for UNCHAINED. I thought I’d start sharing a few of them with you. Here is what I listened to, last week:

Real Estate Radio USA did two great interviews :

Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton discussed how to use social media in your business. Laura is the foremost authority on Twitter and goes by the handle @Pistachio. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if you’re attending UNCHAINED.

Travis Greenlee owns a solo practitioner marketing business. His social media marketing tips are a must for the folks who work out of their home (sound like you?).

MediaBlather gives us “How to Promote Your Blog” (Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers hosts this weblog with David Strom). They also hosted @Pistachio in a topical interview about Twitter

Download, strap on the headphones, and jump on the treadmill. These will keep you busy for about 2 hours.

Three Words Speak Volumes About The Power Of Social Media Marketing

THIS is the brave new world.

Greg Swann and I gave two presentations as a little warm-up for UNCHAINED. Lisa Capes of Chicago Title of Arizona and Juan Chaves of Mortgage Solutions of Arizona sponsored the event. These folks did a first class job and packed the room; both are worthy of your consideration if you sell real estate in Phoenix.

I went through my presentation about how to use social media in your marketing efforts. After a complete discussion about the merits of LinkedIn, I announced that I would be moving onto Twitter. I clicked over to my Twitter stream, and saw this.

I had never met the man but I knew who he was. Nick Bastian was the guy with huge grin on his face.

Now THAT is an example of all how to use all five pillars in 20 characters. Thanks, Nick. You nailed it!

So…You’re Coming to Phoenix

All presentations to be held in the Steele Auditorium at the Heard Museum. This schedule for Unchained is subject to change:

Sunday, May 18, 2008:

8-10AM Registration. The conference starts at 10AM and ends at 4PM.

Zillow Workshop

The Power of E-mail Marketing by Ron Cates

Hyper Local Blogging UNPLUGGED by Laurie Manny

Sunday is “Bonus Day” so food will not be served. The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees. Presentations on Sunday will not be included in the DVD set.

No evening events planned.

Monday, May 19, 2008

The conference starts at 8:30 AM and ends at 4PM:

Unchained Epiphany- Greg Swann

The Way of the Hunter Brian Brady

Working Lunch- Twitter- @BradCoy & @AndyKaufman

The Way of the Farmer- Greg Swann

Real Estate Website Makeover- Mary McKnight

6PM- No Host Happy Hour at the Radisson  Light Hors D’Oeuvres Complimentary

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water are complimetary throughout the day.   Lunch will be complimetary.The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Conference Starts at 8:30 AM and concludes at 4PM

Traditional Marketing For A Web 2.0 World- Steve Hundley, Louis Cammarosano, Jeff Brown

Blogging For Dollars- Laurie Manny, Theresa Lussier

Working Lunch- Zillow Mortgage MarketPlace for Real Estate Agents- David Gibbons

Keynote Presentation- Glenn Kelman

Online Reputation Management- David Gibbons

Black Pearls and Commencement

A Continental breakfast will be available at 8AM; coffee and water throughout the day. Lunch is complimentary. The Museum Coffee Shop will be open at 9:30AM- 3PM. The Heard Museum will be open until 5PM and admission is complimentary for conference attendees.

There is a morning and afternoon break for personal phone calls. This schedule is subject to change.

Our UNCHAINED Faculty include:

Brian Brady

Jeff Brown

Louis Cammarosano

Ron Cates

Brad Coy

David Gibbons

Steve Hundley

Andy Kaufman

Theresa Lussier

Glenn Kelman

Laurie Manny

Mary McKnight

Greg Swann