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Category: Casual Friday (page 19 of 25)

April 11, 2008

Unchained Melodies: Tom Waits performing “Clap Hands” and “Time”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Youtube let me down tonight.

I thought James McMurtry doing Choctaw Bingo would have been a treat for Sean Purcell, and I would have loved to have latched onto videos of Tom Waits’ Falling Down and The Part You Throw Away for Geno Petro and Russell Shaw.

Struck out in three pitches.

Instead, we have this, Tom Waits doing Clap Hands and Time, two radically different pages from the man’s catalog.

Tom Waits is an acquired taste, and he goes well out of his way to make it hard for people to figure out why they should listen to him. This particular clip is from “Big Time,” which is second only to Bob Dylan’s “Renaldo and Clara” as the most stupidly self-indulgent rock movie ever made.

And yet… The first time I saw “Big Time” I loved it despite hating dozens and dozens of painfully stupid moments. I’ve followed Tom since I was a teenager — since he was barely old enough to drink. This is the art of brutality, and it’s not for everyone. I love Clap Hands, and I’ve forced poor Cathleen to listen to it thousands of times. But, whatever you do, be sure to hang in there for Time. Despite the PoMo performance, it’s a beautiful, heart-breaking song.

April 4, 2008

All In a Day’s Work for Real Estate Agents: Humorous & Heartwarming Stories

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Seeing this post on agentgenius made me realize that I had neglected to post this email I received a few weeks ago. If you do pop over to check it out be sure and read the comments, as well.

__

From: Work Like A Dog Books [mailto:editor@worklikeadogbooks.com] Penquin

Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 3:09 PM
To: russell@nohasslelisting.com
Subject: Realtor Michael Maher suggested I contact you about a project

Russell,

I recently got in touch with Michael Maher about a book project I’m working on and he thought you would be an excellent person to contact as well for use as a possible source in the book. When he told me you used to be a stand up comedian, I couldn’t have agreed more!

Your assistant suggested I e-mail you with all the information about this funny real estate book project, so here goes!

I’m contacting agents around the country to include their stories in a humorous book I’m writing. It’s called All In a Day’s Work for Real Estate Agents: Humorous & Heartwarming Stories. Think Chicken Soup meets Murphy’s Law. I’ve spent nearly 15 years working with real estate professionals in marketing and public relations and firmly believe EVERY agent has at least one wild story. The book celebrates the real estate profession.

Would you or anyone in your company have a funny, outrageous or touching story to share from your careers? Simply e-mail a reply, letting me know the best phone number/times to contact you. I’ll then call you for the details. The whole process shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

Womandriver

Realtors with stories included will receive two free copies of the book and local publicity about being included in the book (once book is published). There is absolutely no cost to you.

For complete info., visit www.WorkLikeaDogBooks.com. Also at the site, you can click the link on the left (ARealtor Submission Updates@) to see which states I have Realtor stories for as well as which companies are currently represented. My goal is to have agents from all 50 states, Canada and beyond in the book. With your help, that can happen. As of today, I have stories from agents in Read more

April 1, 2008

Automated Valuation Models – My New Favorite

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

The quest for automated valuation is a thirst unquenched, a fire that cannot be extinguished and seeming itch that cannot be scratched. Man is forever curious about the worth of an asset. Whether it is one’s home or one’s home on the web, curiosity slays its share of felines and we all have satisfied our secret urge to automatically valuate a time or two.

Did I mention that this Automated Valuation Model is for websites? (grin). Someone at REW pointed it out to me in their blog…here’s the link to it.

OK, ready for some fun? I took a look at some interesting sites to see their automated valuation as of today.

EriconSearch.com – My SEO blog VALUATION: $135,000 and change. Huh? (Think maybe the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest skewed things a bit?) Methinks that is the case. I am officially willing to sell!

HomesinLouisville.com – Our brokerage Real Estate site… VALUATION $64,000 and change. Huh? Not on your life! This site is worth MULTIPLES of that! It generated many multiples of that in commission last year alone.

BloodhoundRealty.com – $553,807! Way to go, Greg.

TheBrickRanch.com – $71,307! Whaddya say, Teri? Deal or No Deal

Sean– is $10,500 and change fair for a website that POPS??

NOW FOR THE FUN ONE:

REALTOR.com Valued at 5.7MM

SO THAT’S IT PEOPLE I AM PASSING THE PLATE. Let’s take up a collection and buy REALTOR.com out once and for all!

By the way, if you are laughing at the ridiculous automated valuations of your website right now, or maybe you are angry, or maybe you just think it is stupid. What do you think homeowners are doing when they look at AVMs like ZIllow et al?

The REAL Valuation of a REAL Valuation– Priceless.

March 28, 2008

Arizona Short Sales Not For The Faint of Heart

by

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

 

I’ve commented before about short sales on this blog, but not to much extent, and I haven’t seen many of the other contributers do it either. I wonder why? Does everyone abhor them? Are they afraid of them?

I have taken a lot of advice around here, and one of the best pieces of advise I have gleened is to write about something that interests me, and build a long tail. Well, the long tail has actually been working. I have written on my home blog about The Ins & Outs of Arizona Short Sales,  and lo and behold, people started coming out of the woodwork. And I don’t mean a few. Let us just say it’s been a fabulous return on investment.

I have agents calling me from around the country asking for short sale help. I have homeowners calling me (from around the country, no less) about the possibility of doing a short sale on their home. I refer them out. (Incidentally, if you are from some other state than AZ, and you are familiar with short sales, send your contact information to me, I may have clients for you.)

I would like to first give a shout out to the new Barry. His Real Estate Radio USA  has been very cool and helpful for me professionally, and is entertaining to boot.

When I say that short sales are not for the faint of heart, I mean that in two distinct ways: for realtors, and for sellers.

 

Realtors are running up against brick walls with “The Gate Keepers.” That’s what I call the people who protect the actual “loss mitigators” like the Swiss Guard protects the Pope. Loss mitigators are behind bullet-proof glass, tucked away somewhere in a bunker under the Potomac river, without email, without phone lines, without fax machines; they are completely incommunicado. They send messages between the bunker and the outside world by carrier pigeon. The particular brand of pigeon they use is not one of the kind where you separate it from its home turf by a thousand miles, thow it up in the air, where it circles a few times and Read more

March 28, 2008

Want to join the cool kids at Bloodhound Blog Unchained? How about the freaks and geeks?

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

There have been some fantastic posts on BHB this week. Alas, this isn’t one of them.

I whined about conferences, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never been to one.  I’ve been to enough conferences and conventions to know that what happens outside the conference can make the difference between having a good experience and a great experience. For the record, I never have a bad experience- I simply don’t allow that to happen.

I’m not picky about hotels because I don’t spend time in them. My criteria is this: No roaches, no bed bugs, and no DNA left by previous guests. That covers any cleanliness issues and that’s my biggest concern in a hotel. On the other hand, I do like to be around the people I like, so a few weeks ago I sent out a tweet asking if anyone had started looking at hotels. I have enough experience with this to know that since my hotel needs are fairly spartan, if someone else wants to do the research, I should step aside and let them. So I did.

Brad Coy and Andy Kaufman were on it, and they have more narrow criteria: They wanted free wifi, and walking distance to the Heard Museum. They talked to Brian Brady who told them about a hotel with a lovely outdoor pool- if this is a family vacation, that might be worth looking for- but I’m from Ohio and have the tan to prove it. No pool for me.

I don’t mind staying alone, but I really fall into the more-the-merrier category with these things. Packing a lot of people comfortably into a hotel room makes things interesting, if not fun, so I was game when HouseChick, Kelley Koehler, and I decided to share a room. We both conceded hotel research to the cool kids, who just this week made an executive decision: Fairfield Inn. Free wifi, walking distance, breakfast, Fairfield Inns work for me- they are not notoriously dirty. I read the Trip Advisor comments, always with a grain of salt, and the reviews were mixed, which is typical. Noise issues mostly, but no one who booked a suite complained. Sweet- they have suites. Read more

March 22, 2008

SplendorQuest: Jesus Christ Superstar

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

[I wrote this at Easter in 2003, just short of five years ago. –GSS]

Tomorrow is Easter, and all good Catholics will go to Mass. In our parish, every Mass will be packed, and there will be overflow Masses in the school cafeteria. But Catholic or not, Easter calls our attention to Jesus Christ Superstar, one of the best of the rock operas, and certainly the best of the filmed rock operas.

Director Norman Jewison delivers what is very self-consciously a film, with elaborate use of long lenses, slow-motion and stop-action photography. The central character is Judas Iscariot, played by Carl Anderson, with the Nazarene cast in the role of a loud foil, always the reactor, never the actor. This cannot be pleasing to doctrinaire Christians, but it is very effective in the film. In the same way, the turmoil of Annas and Caiphus, of Pontius Pilatus, and of Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter add drama.

But the moments of highest drama are reserved for the Nazarene. First, on Palm Sunday, the massed disciples sing, “Hey, J.C., J.C., would you die for me?” Jewison freezes for just a second on actor Ted Neely’s horrified expression. Later, on Maundy Thursday, the prayer of the Nazarene from Gethsemane is excruciating, no pun intended, all but unbearable.

But the star of this movie is always the music. There are places where the lyrics clunk, a curse of rock opera, but the rock is hard and convincing, and the voices, particularly Anderson and Neely, are fantastic.

Inter alia, apparently Jewison had some kind of anti-Vietnam message in mind when he made the film, but for the life of me I can’t see it now.

For an alternate take on the same material, you might pick up Jesus Christ Superstar–A Resurrection. This is a studio-recorded double-CD crafted by a cadre of Georgia musicians who love the rock opera and wanted to make a rock recording from it. Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers sing the parts of the Nazarene and Mary Magdalene, respectively. The voices come and go, but the instrumentation is inspired.

In the Passion, Saint John bends over backwards to Read more

March 21, 2008

Every Day a Birthday

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

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 21, 2008

2008 Swanepoel Trends Report

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

This is a summary of Trend #1 from the 2008 Swanepoel Trends Report.  I have included a link below to the summary of the other 9 top trends below.  I recommend purchasing the book and getting the full boatload of information Swanepoel provides.  I left out a lot…  To purchase the report for yourself, go to www.retrends.com.

 Trend #1 Two Worlds; One IndustryThe Evolution of Online Communities & Networks 

The first phase of the Internet was surfing or browsing where you just aimlessly wondered until you stumbled onto something of interest.  Then, powerful search engines like Google and Yahoo let us sort through the Internet with ease.  Now, we are at a third stage where we use the Internet for sharing both personal and business information.  We share on blogs and social networks where users interact with the help of technology.

Social networking is not a new concept – the term was coined in 1954.  It first hit the web in 1995 with classmates.com and other sites.  Later, MySpace and Facebook came along and social networks soared.  As of September 2007, 1 in 20 visits to the Internet went to one of the top 20 social networks.  Americans spend about 12% of their Internet time on social networking sites.  Investors are betting that number will grow dramatically as the value of social sites soars.  Microsoft paid $240 million last year for about a 2% stake in Facebook.

The report lists 5 examples of on-line communities that are worth looking at:

  1. www.linkedin.com – a business oriented social networking site
  2. www.ning.com – allows users to build their own custom social networks.
  3. www.squidoo.com – this is a network of experts who are sharing their knowledge
  4. www.digg.com – users add stories and if other users like the content, they “digg” the story or rate it.
  5. www.secondlife.com – this is a virtual world in which you can live and even do business.

Blogs are great places to share and gain knowledge.  The report list several blogs, but I would suggest the following as must reads for REALTORS® in Charlottesville:

  1. www.varbuzz.com – the official Blog of the State Association of REALTORS®
  2. www.inman.com/blog – great news content
  3. www.RealTown.com – Read more
March 15, 2008

Confronting Death – The Last Lecture

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

A very good friend of mine, Gordon Smith sent me an email a few days ago. Later that day, when I spoke to him he told me about when the doctor told him that life_after_deathhe had good news and bad news. The doctor told Gordon that he had incurable cancer. Gordon responded, “What is the bad news?”. Here is a copy of that email:

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that I was diagnosed with Leukemia, and had it confirmed last week. The kind of news you just LOVE to get.

It’s not going to kill me next week or anything that dramatic, but obviously is of concern. (I literally just got off the phone with a local publisher who was asking me about writing a column. I suggested “The lighter side of Leukemia.” He laughed, but did not make a commitment to it.)

I want to thank ALL my family and friends because I’ve been so fortunate in knowing and loving you. May I confess?….. I am EXTREMELY fond of you.

I am fortunate that I have so many people that I love and that love me. I’m really not terribly upset by this diagnosis or what it potentially portends, because I HAVE had such great people in my life. Maybe I’m whistling past the graveyard, as they say, but so far I’m doing fine.

I don’t expect condolences, etc. It’s always hard to find words for that sort of thing anyway, and you have always made me feel pretty appreciated. I know how much you care! ‘Nuff said on that count. (However, I do NOT mean to discourage anyone inclined to send a handsome cash stipend.)

At any rate, thanks for all you have been in my life. (The terms love and laughter come to mind. God, it sounds like a farewell, and it’s not.) Just wanted to let you know what is going on with me.

I plan on being around for awhile…a very long while.

Gordon

___

It reminded me of a truly remarkable video I have seen several versions of: Dr. Randy Pausch’s last lecture. It is one of the most Read more

March 15, 2008

Announcing my Obama Rodham McCain universal bumper sticker

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I could make Barack Obama jokes all day. Like this: “Bill Clinton might have been the America’s first black president, but Barack Obama is the nation’s first black Kennedy.” From this you should not surmise that I am for John McCain. I find all three of our current maladies to be just about equally repellent.

But: I did hit upon an idea for a universal Barack Obama bumper sticker.

Writing a workable bumper sticker is the hardest copywriting job there is. Writing at my voluminous length is easy. All you need are ideas and a vocabulary. Writing poetry is hard, because that economy of words is hard. Writing a matchbook or a billboard is even harder.

Here is my best-ever matchbook:

“Save the world from home in your spare time!”

But a bumper sticker… That’s a real writing challenge…

It’s almost typographic iconography: The message has to be brief enough to be big, short enough to be readable in a glance, and yet it must convey a virtual book’s worth of message. Very rare to see it done well.

And I make no claim for this bumper sticker except that it is universal. Whether you are for Barack Obama or against him, you can display this bumper sticker with pride:

my official Barack Obama universal bumper sticker

If someone wants to pony up the dough for printing — heavy vinyl and UV inks, please — I’ll provide a PDF file. ObamaNation.com is already owned, alas.

March 6, 2008

Realtor Porn?

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

What makes the following email “interesting” is I received several copies of it – at different email addresses – each of those addresses one that was was part of a purchased list of email addresses of Realtors.

___

David Slaton [davidslaton@megared.net.mx]

Adult Website Investment Opportunity

To Whom it May Concern:

We would like to offer you an investment opportunity in an adult website. If you are interested in making truly substantial profits, write us back with your name and phone number and we will have a representative contact you and explain all of the details to you.

Sincerely,
David Slaton
CBM Media

__

Doing a Google search of CBM Media I found this site. Nice looking site but the only Realtor porn I’m interested in is the accidental type, like this:

Real Estate Porn

February 29, 2008

If You Want To Be On HGTV, Read This

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

I received the email posted below the graphic yesterday. Rather than forward it to a list of handpicked people, I am posting it here so anyone who is interested can respond.

HGTV - Meet Russell

From: Conrad, Melissa mailto:MConrad@HighnoonEntertainment.com]

Subject: Hello!

Hello,

I am with HGTV’s show called “My First Place”. We chose Arizona to film our next 10 episodes and we are having a hard time finding people and realtors to be on the show. I am a casting producer and I would love your help to find some great AZ realtors with first time home buyers that would like to get an expensive gift from HGTV. These episodes will get national attention and since we are one of the top rated shows on HGTV, we hope it will bring positive attention to your beautiful city. Hopefully it will bring more home buyers in your direction! Also the realtors who are on the show get on screen credit so they can be contacted nation wide. Everyone who has been on the show has had a great time and our producers are very fun to work with.

If you are interested in being a part of the show along with your first time home buyer, I will send you over an application that we need them to fill out. It will start off our casting process so we can set up a casting interview with all of you. Thank you so much for your help and I hope to hear from you soon!

Melissa Conrad
Associate Producer
High Noon Entertainment
303-349-6800
303-712-3209

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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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