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Author: Sean Purcell (page 11 of 11)

Real Estate Renaissance Man

April 1, 2008

As California Goes, So Goes the Nation

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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Sometimes local news is national in nature.  This is often true when it comes to California.  With such a large population and a history of “active” politics, many of the laws and regulations that California passes eventually migrate to other states; sometimes this is reminiscent of a rainbow spreading across the land and sometimes it resembles more of a virus infecting people at whim.  Get ready to feel sick.

The California legislature is currently voting on AB0401, a seemingly innocuous alteration to the licensing regulations that govern real estate here.  But, as usual, the ramifications will be unexpected and monstrous.  The stated purpose of AB0401 is to clarify the relationship between RESPA law and non-monetary remuneration between licensed real estate agents and non licensed participants in real estate transactions.  Here is the key section

All transactions falling under the penumbra of RESPA shall heretofore be subject to review and restatement. No value shall pass or be caused to pass between a licensed broker or licensed sales associate of said broker and any non-licensed agency before or after such time as a real estate transaction may occur. Transfer of value is to include, but not be limited to: all forms of currency, any property or asset of value, any service of value and any intellectual property of value. (emphasis mine)

I am already reading pundits this morning here in California describing all online websites and blogs as intellectual property of value.  So what does this mean to the average agent, loan officer, title rep, etc?  It means that if you are syndicating your posts to another person’s site, or posting on another person’s site and that site has the stated or implied purpose of generating real estate business, you are in violation of RESPA regulations and subject to fine and/or loss of license.

This from Assemblywoman Debra Brady (R-Del Mar): “I believe this will cast a chill across the Internet and is nothing short of Big Brother clamping down on the free exchange of ideas.  We must defeat this and we must take a stand for the First Amendment rights of every citizen, no matter what business they conduct.”

I am Read more

March 31, 2008

Bad Marketing Candy from RSS Pieces

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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Mary McKnight wrote an article last Friday called Real Estate Blogs are Stores, Not Websites – So Blog Like You are Selling Houses, Not Writing For Your Local Paper and it made the short list for the Odysseus Medal Sunday.  It is well written and provocative.  Mary McKnight is recognized as one of the premier web site designers and SEO experts in Real Estate.  I have a great deal of respect for her knowledge as it pertains to web sites and SEO.   If you have not read it, please do;  and then answer this question for me: How is it possible that someone so good at creating real estate web sites, can be so wrong when it comes to real estate marketing?

The Sugar Coating
Let me preface this by saying that I have a great deal of respect for Mary McKnight.  Add to which a lot of people for whom I also hold a great deal of respect use her services and listen to her advice.  But when she says Your real estate blog is a store, not a newspaper, I find myself asking the obvious question: If it is a store, what do you sell?  If you answer “homes” I am going to assume you work at a mobile home dealership.  Otherwise you clearly do not understand your product.  Here’s a hint: you see your product every day in the mirror.  You no more sell homes than you stock them… which is why you are not a store.  You are a service and your product is your expertise.

The Creamy Middle 
The point of her article is …to get you to understand that if your business is about real estate and you want to attract customers that have a real estate need you MUST write about real estate, not skateboards and restaurants.  This is true on a very grand scale:  most of your articles and certainly your “look and feel” must tell the reader that you can and will be the best agent they have ever had.  But does that mean you should only write about real estate?  When Mary says it

is inconceivable to (her) that Read more

March 28, 2008

What’s Your Six Month Plan?

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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Every now and then I get to talk to someone just coming into the real estate business or contemplating the move.  My initial response is often a surprise to them but I bet many of you would agree with me when I tell them, “Great!  This is the best time to get into real estate.  If you come in with a good plan, establish the right habits and market consistently you will become a producer while times are tough and a star when times are good.”  They usually look at me a little crooked and then smile.  I guess they have a lot of people telling them they should have their head examined for going in when so many are getting out.  Maybe they should, but I always found the party a lot more fun after the wanna-be’s and coulda-beens were done posing and said their good-byes.

The Three Questions 
Following my response the potential new agent will inevitably tell me about their past experience and how it gives them a great sphere of influence in which to market.  They share with me their personal motto about discipline and the pledge they gave their cousin – the copier salesman – to never stop marketing.  I applaud all of this.  Mottos and pledges and enthusiasm are all important, maybe even indispensible.  But the first admonition about coming in with a good plan, the one they missed, is the most important.  Where is your business plan?  I have yet to hear: “I agree with you Sean.  I have a business plan written out and I am excited to begin.”

So here are the three questions I pose to all new agents:

  1. Why do you want to become a real estate agent?
  2. Do you have a written business plan?
  3. What is your six month plan?

The first question is really just a leading question designed to get people to open up and talk about their passion.  If you do not have a passion for some aspect of this business it is going to be awfully tough to work through the rejections.  The second question is meat and potatoes.  I call it Read more

March 27, 2008

Eyeball Marketing – Are You a Pioneer?

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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What do running shoes, firefighters’ air tanks and cordless drills have in common? They are all direct spin-offs from the Apollo Space Missions (and before anyone comments, neither Teflon nor Tang was a spin-off from the Apollo missions or NASA in general).  Why is this important to practitioners of the 2.0 arts? Because Social Media Marketing is, at this time, a lot like the Apollo Space Mission.  It is young and unexplored.  It is obviously a new way of doing something and most would agree that it is quite powerful, but many more question its real use.   Apollo was questioned.  Many accused the entire program of being a boondoggle: powerful, but of little practical use.  “What is the point, even if you do succeed?”  Sound familiar?

The Eyeball Marketing theory is simple: if you can put enough eyeballs on you, someone will pay to access the brains (and wallets) behind those eyeballs – might even be you.  There is no shortage of people with products or services to sell that will gladly pay you to get in front of your group.  This is the basis of most large, multi-day seminars.  (You didn’t think they were paying those big names full boat to come and hock their books did you?)  Lots of people have something to sell, but few have the ability, the reach and the vision to put butts in seats and eyeballs facing forward.  Quick self quiz: how many of you have paid for leads in the past?  If you have then you are someone with a service to sell willing to pay someone else for the eyeballs they generate.

I suggest that there are two basic forms of marketing.  When we talk about past clients, sphere of influence and a community of raving fans we are talking about marketing to a target.  When we talk about hyper-locals, mass mailings and Google juice we are talking about marketing for eyeballs.  They are not mutually exclusive; in fact, the goal of eyeball marketing is to gather enough people into a specific group that you can market to a target.  Blanket an area with Read more

March 24, 2008

Commission

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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There were a number of interesting articles last week regarding the value of a real estate agent.  Essentially asking the agent to justify their commission.  I know it got heated up over on Active Rain and there was some discussion on AgentGenius as well.  Here at BHB we enjoyed two very good posts.  You can read Brian Brady’s post here and Barry Cunningham’s post here.  I disagree with both of them, which is all the more reason to recommend you read them.  That and the fact that they are both very good reads.

Let’s Clarify the Question
First things first: the timing of the whole “justify your commission” question is counter-intuitive.  It is coming up a lot lately, yet one would expect clients to question commissions when home sales are rapid and appreciation high. During those periods it appears simple to sell a home but, probably because of the prices being greater than the seller assumed, we rarely hear this conversation.  Yet times like the current, when homes are not selling and people are most in need of a professional agent, you get the most questions about commissions.  This has a lot to do with the fact that they are making less money than they expected.  So let’s start by clarifying the true nature of the question.  It has little to do with the agents’ value and everything to do with the clients’ profit.

Also, the question of value is directed primarily to the listing agent.  There are some who will question the selling agent about their commission and they will do so regardless of the market.  But for the vast majority of clients the selling agent has very little to do with this conversation.  Why?  Because the selling agent’s commission is already loosely tied to the market and so a function of supply and demand more than intrinsic value.  When homes are moving quickly and inventory is small, the seller and the listing agent discuss what to pay the selling agent and often arrive at 2.5% or even 2% because there is no demand to pay them more (supply of buyers is high).  When the market is slow like it is now, we begin to see the seller and listing Read more

March 21, 2008

Every Day a Birthday

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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Wrapping up the end to another interesting week.  Kind of a slow Friday what with Easter, spring break and so on.  I am not sure what your experience has been, but I find that not many agents want to talk training (or mortgages for that matter) while licking salt off of a margarita glass on a sunny Friday afternoon.  As I mentioned though, I do find most weeks interesting and this one did not disappoint.  I celebrated my birthday yesterday.  I am not much on birthday celebrations per se,  I figure you celebrate on the fives and leave the rest alone.  I doubt if anyone out here even knew about it.  But this year I found myself doing a lot more contemplating and a lot less writing as the odometer turned over.  One area of interest was rebirth.  This year my birthday (the first day of spring) falls particularly close to Easter.  Both the first day of spring and Easter are hardcore proponents of rebirth.

Staying fresh is a difficult concept in real estate.  Essentially, a good agent is someone who endlessly repeats the same tasks around an ever changing core – yet does so as if it were the first time each and every time.  In this way good agents are quite similar to good stage actors.  It may be the 100th time they have given their listing presentation, but the best know that their current audience is hearing it for the first time.  Embracing change and supporting a willingness to recreate yourself is a formidable weapon if you earn your living in the arena competitive – which real estate most certainly is.

Over the past few days we have been privy to posts on super real estate companies, being entertaining, virtual remodeling and, believe it or not, talking signs!  Lots of good ideas, but only really useful to those among us that are willing to rearrange ourselves; root around inside and make changes.  Sometimes a new idea will require letting go of a long held belief.  In the 2.0 world these ideas fly by us at breakneck speed and the blessing is this: when you miss one it is OK because another one is coming.  We do not have to assimilate every innovation that lights us Read more

March 18, 2008

Bloodhound by Choice

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Real Estate Renaissance Man

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I was working with a local real estate agent yesterday on a strategy to achieve one of his goals.  When we were done he declared the strategy good and decided that, barring any bad luck, success might just find him this year.

—–

A few weeks back I was driving my two boys to school.  They are without doubt the most beautiful boys in the world and I speak with the absolute neutrality of an objective father.  At five and seven they are also completely present.  By that I mean they live in the here and now the way most children do.  The recent past has no more meaning than the near future.  Their focus and their conscience are in the moment.  It fills them with a constant sense of wonder and never ceases to amaze me.

So we are in the car and singing along to the radio when my seven year old sits up in the back and asks: “Daddy, do you believe in good luck?”  As an adult long separated from the freedom of childhood, I was twelve different place in my head when he asked the question and none of them were the present.  I absent-mindedly tossed off one of my favorite sayings to placate him.  “No,” I said, “I believe that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

My son, however, pressed on.  “I believe in good luck Daddy, but I do not believe in bad luck.”  At this point I was blissfully reminded, once again, how very present children are and I snap out of my own thoughts.  I too get present and I pay attention.  I say to him “I do not think you can have one without the other.”  (At this point I must share a little background. I have taught my boys about the subconscious mind, calling it the “magic” part of their brain.  How it is always listening and recording everything we say.  How our thoughts have power and our words create our realities.)  I went on, “if you believe in the idea of good luck, I think you must accept the idea of bad 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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