Category: Casual Friday (page 7 of 25)

September 17, 2010

Do the BAD Thing…

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

A judge tells a condemned prisoner that he will be hanged at noon on one weekday in the following week but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day.

Having reflected on his sentence, the prisoner draws the conclusion that he will escape from the hanging. His reasoning is in several parts. He begins by concluding that the “surprise hanging” can’t be on a Friday, as if he hasn’t been hanged by Thursday, there is only one day left – and so it won’t be a surprise if he’s hanged on a Friday. Since the judge’s sentence stipulated that the hanging would be a surprise to him, he concludes it cannot occur on Friday.

He then reasons that the surprise hanging cannot be on Thursday either, because Friday has already been eliminated and if he hasn’t been hanged by Wednesday night, the hanging must occur on Thursday, making a Thursday hanging not a surprise either. By similar reasoning he concludes that the hanging can also not occur on Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday. Joyfully he retires to his cell confident that the hanging will not occur at all.

The next week, the prisoner is hanged anyway, despite all the above. That’s the surprise…

The lesson I draw from this is that things are not always what we think they are. The world is full of paradox and real estate is certainly no exception. On the one hand it’s a profession with tremendous freedom of time, yet to be proficient (never mind truly successful) you must become a master of time management. The field of real estate is over-flowing with practitioners and competition can be fierce, yet the key to a smooth transaction is the ultimate cooperation between two “competing” agents. Almost every day as a real estate professional feels like a sprint to put out multiple fires, yet ultimate success depends on the realization that real estate is an endurance event comprised of doing small things right on a continuous Read more

September 3, 2010

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

by Tom Johnson

Realtor, Peripatetic Iconoclast

Let’s stay away from the #RTB(tab) crowd as industry lifeguard comparison, shall we?

Have a safe and relaxing weekend.

h/t Phil Martin

August 27, 2010

It’s Not My Fault

by Alex Cortez

Realtor, Surfer-in-Training

I pride myself with being a fairly understanding person, yes, sometimes to a fault. But I just can’t understand how so many sellers are unwilling or unable to accept any responsibility for their current situation. Sure, facing a short sale is not a position in which any one would want to be in but at some point we all need to take responsibility for what we do (or don’t do).

Most recently I was on the listening end of a tete-a-tete in which the potential seller blamed EVERYONE but himself. “It’s the government’s fault!”. Yep, the government is an easy one to blame, whether it was Bush’s foreign policies or Obama’s socialism. “I didn’t know what I was signing.” Want to blame the mortgage broker who helped you get financed? Sure, every homeowner is a victim of unscrupulous lending practices. “I thought property values only go up!” Or was it the Realtor who didn’t have the Magic 8 Ball to tell you property values would decrease? Yes! How about NO! How about accepting life, successes and failures, as they come? When did accountability go out of fashion? Is it fear or embarrassment that keep people from saying ‘yes, it was my mistake’? Is it a learned skill or an inherent attribute? Oh well, I better get used to it.

August 20, 2010

How to succeed at failure . . .

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

I wrote this in the Summer of 2001, also. At the time, my friend Richard Riccelli convinced me to sit on it because it’s pretty arch. Even so, this is the counterpoint to Shyly’s delight.

How to succeed at failure

I work in sales, and while I don’t have many role models for success at my job, I am lucky enough to have an immense number of role models for failure. My co-workers fail all day, every day, and they are gracious enough to share ideas with each other about how to fail even more. Watching them and listening to them, I’ve been able to abstract the principles of a whole new self-help discipline: How to succeed at failure.

There is no better field in which to succeed at failure than straight commission sales. If you succeed at failure in education, they make you the principal. If you succeed at failure in politics, they elect you president. But if you succeed at failure in straight commission sales, you slowly starve to death… Top that!

And succeeding at failure in straight commission sales is easier than you think!

Here are a few simple rules:

First, start late and leave early. Some people try to make failure an endurance contest. This is a mistake. If you spend too much time in the office, sooner or later someone is going to buy your product from you just because no one else is around.

In the same way, when you do get to work, immediately do something useless, irrelevant and unproductive. The newspaper is a good bet. So is the restroom. The two together make for a perfect combination. Take your time. The point is to establish to yourself, to your co-workers and to the world that doing business is the last thing on your mind.

Once you get to the office — stay there. Don’t go out looking for business, make the business come to you. Show the customer who’s boss. That way you’ll have plenty of time to complain to your co-workers that customers just don’t appreciate all you’re doing for them.

Find innovative ways to waste your work-day. Do research about Read more

August 18, 2010

Unchained melodies: I’m in love with my car.

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

August 14, 2010

Hold on tight for the rider of your life…

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Seen this morning in Surprise, Arizona. That’s a pre-printed rider, too, courtesy of the local board of realtors. I might have said “Not Bank-Owned” instead of “Not A[n] REO,” but, either way, we’re seeing the birth of a powerful new marketing message.

August 13, 2010

“…I knocked that transaction right on it’s…”

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

The Real Estate Ideal?

Sometimes the best part about being a real estate agent is the time it affords you to be with your family. Of course, other times the best thing about being a real estate agent is the excuses it provides for doing exactly the opposite: “What’s that dear? Your mother is going to be in town this Sunday and you want to spend the morning down at Begonias, Begonias and Tulips, then do a little shoe shopping? Gosh darn it all, I’ve got an Open House that Sunday.” You get the idea. But if you really think about it, the best part about being a real estate agent is the opportunity to knock someone else right on their derriere – metaphorically speaking, of course.

Last week our local football team (the San Diego Super Chargers!) held an open practice at the stadium where they play their home games. I took my two boys down there and we made an evening of it. (Mostly because I wanted my boys to see what the inside of a professional football stadium looks like without having to drop a cool $500 on parking, tickets, popcorn and a great big Styrofoam finger that implies we’re #1 at something… I’m guessing it’s separating fools from their money, but I can’t be sure.) Anyway, being there gave us an opportunity to watch Kris Dielman in action. Man I like watching this guy play the offensive line. Having been a defensive lineman myself, that’s saying something. The difference in mind-set between the two is staggering, but that’s exactly why I enjoy watching him so much: he plays offensive line like a defensive lineman… and he plays football the way we should practice real estate.

He’ll often knock his guy 2, 3 even 5 yards back; sometimes he puts the guy right on his backside. Now that’s what you call getting the job done. Even more than that: it’s what you call getting the job done very, very well. You might say he’s a Top Producer at what he does. But here’s the thing: after he knocks that guy back one yard and two cheeks, do you Read more

August 13, 2010

The Basic Laws of Stupidity – No Explanation Needed

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Greg often talks about self determination and splendor. There is a raw courage that comes with saying that a bandit can put a gun in your face and demand what they want, but ultimately that bandit cannot take from you what you will not give him.

But what about stupidity?

Here’s an interesting read from an article published by Carlo Cipolla, and summarized briefly in this post.

THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY

by Carlo M. Cipolla

1. The first basic law of human stupidity
2. The second basic law
3. The third (and golden) basic law
4. Frequency distribution
5. The power of stupidity
6. The fourth basic law
7. The fifth basic law

The first basic law of human stupidity

The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that:

Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

The second basic law

The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

The third (and golden) basic law

The Third Basic Law assumes, although it does not state it explicitly, that human beings fall into four basic categories: the helpless, the intelligent, the bandit and the stupid.

A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

The fourth basic law

Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

The Fifth Basic Law states that

A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

The corollary of the Law is that:

A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

My premise? What I see as a pandemic is the unfettered law of stupidity threatening us in every arena of our lives. Professionally it’s NAR and financial reform. Sociologically it’s the “let’s all get along” mantra. Politically it’s the apparent dismembering and misinterpretation of our Constitution. Financially it’s our socialistic tendencies. Personally it’s the lack of decorum and respect.

Are there basic laws of stupidity? Read more

August 6, 2010

Radical Chic – Oh Baby How I’ve Missed Ya

by Don Reedy, San Diego, CA

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Radical chic is a term coined by journalist Tom Wolfe[citation needed] to describe the pretentious and fashionable adoption of radical political causes by celebrities, socialites, and high society. The concept has been described as “an exercise in double-tracking one’s public image: on the one hand, defining oneself through committed allegiance to a radical cause, but on the other, vitally, demonstrating this allegiance because it is the fashionable, au courant way to be seen in moneyed, name-conscious Society.”[1] Unlike dedicated activists, revolutionaries, or dissenters, those who engage in radical chic remain frivolous political agitators. They are ideologically invested in their cause of choice only so far as it advances their social standing. – From Wikipedia

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated with much pomp and circumstance, and today, some year and a half later, remains (IMO) a polarizing figure in American politics. So, when I, as a member of the real estate community, read about the overt actions of the Federal Government under the leadership of Mr. Obama, and contemplate both the merits and missteps of his administration, I cannot but yearn for some few hours with the elite of American society who swept him into office with their own brand of ideological one-upsmanship.

Yesterday Brian Brady commented that he had not been invited to attend the reported meeting on August 17th of the Obama’s administration’s attempt to overhaul or repair Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That got me thinking about an old essay by Tom Wolfe.

The essay, Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s “. . . It’s a tricky business, integrating new politics with tried and true social motifs . . .” from New York Magazine on June 8, 1970, got me wishing for a few hours of time with just about any of the elite of American society that ushered in and oversaw the coronation of their very own so chic, so hip, so nimble and enlightened leader. But the radical chic, those who helped elect this President, and with it the seemingly endless policy shifts away from accountability toward mediocrity and the continued Read more

July 30, 2010

You Still Here? Good. Now Get Out!

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

I was talking to a pretty large group of agents yesterday and during the break I asked my standard questions: “So, how’s business?” “Are you keeping busy?” Over and over I heard the same two answers. One agent would say, “No, it’s been slow and it’s killin’ me.” The next agent would say “Yeah, I’m real busy, but every transaction takes three times as much work and pays half what it did. It’s killin’ me.” Kind of reminded me of a classic Woody Allen joke about two old ladies sitting at a resort in the Catskills. The first one complains, “The food here is terrible.” The second one replies, “Yes, and such small portions.”

I know, I know – this space is normally reserved for big-brain posts and how-to tutorials all written to help you find your bigger, better, more passionate place in this bowl of cold porridge we call real estate. Heck, just for writing this I might get drummed out of the “challenge them till they drop” school of bootcamp real esate training that cost me $19.99 and four cereal box tops. But listen, if you’re making it right now – despite the poor food and small portions – then you are a success and when the tides eventually rise, you’re going to reap ever increasing rewards. (Unless, of course, those tides drown you, in which case your reward is in the mail… please don’t contact me.) So give yourself a pat on the back. Better still, take yourself out to dinner this weekend and make damn sure to show this post to your wife or husband. They should spend the better part of that dinner telling you how impressed they are that you’re still making it. (Wouldn’t hurt if they commented on your tremendous bouyancy either.) Oh, and make sure you order dessert too – something decadent and fattening. Just tell the waiter that no matter how bad the dessert is, you want a large portion. It’ll be okay, I promise. Besides, you deserve it.

July 24, 2010

On a Scale of 1 to 10…

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

USC is cleaning house after the Reggie Bush debacle. (For those of you with real lives, Reggies Bush is a running back for the Saints who, while attending USC, was lucky enough to receive – no strings attached – a big, beautiful new home for his family here in San Diego… It reportedly had nothing to do with his prowess on the football field.) According to a recent AP story reported in the San Diego Union Tribune, USC will be sending Mr. Bush’s Heisman Trophy back to the Heisman Committee as an expression of their shame. Apparently, they are no longer proud to display it along side the trophies of Mike Garrett, Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, Charles White, Marcus Allen and … OJ Simpson.

I’m guessing the closed-door strategy session ended with something like this: “Yes, yes, he nearly severed two people’s heads… I mean he alledgedly nearly severed two people’s heads! But Reggie cost us scholarships and bowl games. Gentleman, I believe our course of action is clear.”

July 23, 2010

A David Gibbons send off dance

by Tom Johnson

Realtor, Peripatetic Iconoclast

Dear David Gibbons: Around here we dance on bridges.
I rejoice that you are seeking splendor!
Someday, please teach us all to Diski Dance on a bridge!

July 22, 2010

GreenErections.Com

by Ryan Hartman

Retechulous...

I’ve been having a lot of fun with WordPress 3.0. One of the cool things large brokers can probably be doing with the platform is offering their agents super simple to set up lead generating landing pages.

By taking advantage of the multi user capability and tweaking a themes template files to allow for very little customization, you can build, test, deliver, (and tweak for improvement) sites that do a nice job of converting visitors to incubatable leads.

Some early Retechulous stabs at this wp 3.0 mulitsite squeeze page concept include:

PropertyBuzzer.Com
247Property.Info
FixerUpperLoan.Info

and… the site I’ve been wanting to build for years (I even bought the domain once, let it expire, then waited for it to come back available)…..

GreenErections.Com!

…An eco friendly squeeze page for real estate pros that sure to delight, offend, and most importantly differentiate!

Anyway, full disclosure. I’m letting folks fire these sites up for free as a bit of a retechulous lead generation ploy… so if you’re interested in grabbing one for yourself, there’s a form that’ll let you start the process within the eco friendly real estate squeeze page (anchor text) blog post I just fired up on the subject.

Very interested to hear whether Anyone else out there is having similar fun with WP 3.0?