BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Disintermediation (page 4 of 43)

June 30, 2009

Face Down in Iceplant

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

To pluck a petal from the bloom of  friend and  recondite commenter, Don Reedy, I’ve been ‘face down in a slope of iceplant’  for 30 days. Yes, iceplant.  (I’ll let the man himself expound a little later but allow me to tempt you with the essence of his yarn—- it involves a houseboat in San Diego, a Belushi Halloween costume (including handcuffed briefcase), and a lost weekend somewhere in the bowels of the 1980s. Un huh.)

You see, I too have been on a pastoral  quest  of sorts this month and  presently find myself scurrying through the  Bloodhound shadows to slip this flimsy piece under the Big Dog’s door before the triple witching hour tonight—June’s last breath.  I take a peek around the literary pound and am relieved to  find that my WordPress password is still active and that my name and mugshot are still posted on the BHB sidebar.  Only a handful of  hours remains between me and blanking an entire month on the hallowed front post page. Hopefully I’ll push Publish before the final strike of Midnight and keep the holy streak alive.  Admittedly, I’ve been remiss in my self-imposed dogmatic duties.

So this is what has gone down since I last posted Mother Nature is not a MILF on May 30th (an essay written mostly on my iPhone that netted a total of 6 unique comments including a few of my own trite responses). I pooled my talents, sunk my literary savings into a mental Ponzie marketing scheme, and found myself  nearly wiped clean from the blogarian grid as I danced 30 days straight ‘with the one who brung me’ to this economic station in life to begin with—real estate sales.  Eleven of them to be exact.  I’ve never done eleven of anything in a single month much less an activity involving commission checks with accompanying deposit slips.  And now, after eleven hard money contracts written and/or Closed in June, I come crawling back to my digital workspace on knees and elbows on this last day of the month, famished and thirsty for Google juice; mind, gut, and Adword Read more

June 18, 2009

Data Discrimination, A Class Action Lawsuit in the Making

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

Anyone a member of the Texas Bar Association looking for Pro Bono work?  I think you may be able to rassle up a class action lawsuit in big “D”, little “a”, double “L” a, s (Dallas folks 😉 )

Texas is one of five states that do not require disclosure of sale prices, however, I believe the local MLS board in Dallas may be violating their fiduciary responsibility to their buyers and sellers.  I strongly suggest you read the following article.

Actual home sale prices are not being entered into the MLS.

Does this not blatantly fly in the face of transparency.  Moreover, how can the local board stand for this?  Without accurate data shared at least to local members, the guidance and counsel for properly pricing a property places sellers, but more clearly buyers, in a very bad position.  The article suggests that lower priced properties which have sold may be intentional left out in order to provide a perception that property values are higher.

Not only is this a direct violation of an agent’s fiduciary responsibility to his/her client, it is borderline fraud.

Real estate is local, consult a local REALTOR and find out how much your home is worth – or NOT.

Is it any reason why data aggregators are winning?

June 16, 2009

Darwin and the Notorious NAR

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

One of the most powerful outcomes of attending an REBarcamp isn’t necessarily attending the many great discussions during the day, but the great conversations and discussions which take place over a beer after the meeting is over.  I also believe that REBC – now after experiencing yesterday’s REBCCHI – is the real personification of a virtual tool – a living and breathing example of how Twitter converts 140 characters into 140+ face to face meetings and discussions.  Followers carry more weight when they transform from the virtual world to the real world.

For me, the most meaningful discussion took place at the end of the day.  Todd Carpenter, NAR’s Social Media Guru, invited the CEO of NAR, Dale Stinton, to share his thoughts and address questions posed by the group.  His initial stance was somewhat defensive, however, during his discussion I gained a somewhat different perspective regarding the challenges that NAR is seeking to address and overcome.

NAR’s largest challenges is to address the needs and the ranks of the young professional.   Attempts by NAR to try to level the playing field may be difficult because of entitlement issues with older members.  Of the 1,500 boards throughout the country, 200 or so wield the most power.  Many of the larger, more influential boards may not embrace attempts to level the playing field for younger, more independent brokers.  Hence, Dale encouraged everyone to get involved in the boards to influence change.

I think NAR is evolving.

Come the end of 2009, NAR is rolling out two intiatives that have been more than a few years in development:

  1. RPR – Real Property Repository – to all NAR members, a database consisting of the property attributes including tax records etc. for 70 million properties in the US, allowing members to provide comments and additional information to the unique property description.
  2. A consumer focused website, equivalent to Realtor.org.  It is NAR’s response to providing everything a consumer needs to know about real estate.  Again, consumer focused versus member focused.

Timeline again for both is slated for fourth quarter, 2009.

Okay – so now RPR appears to be an almost national MLS, provides data Read more

June 10, 2009

What If The Real Estate INDUSTRY Didn’t Control The Real Estate Market?

by

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

Author website

I have the heart of a trader.  If you read Mortgage Rates Report, you know that I’m fascinated with the forces that make markets move up, down or not at all.  One of the things I’ve noticed, since I started writing on Bloodhound Blog, is that the real estate industry is:

That lopsided opacity was the real reason for the eventual implosion of the real estate market. We hid market information from the buyers while the Baby Boomers moved through the home ownership life cycle.   A huge generation, yearning for “The American Dream of Homeownership”, assured strong demand for houses in the post-World War Two housing boom.  Banks were all too happy to hand out money, even when forced to lend by the Government.  Lew Ranieri saw a 25-year boom ahead and found a way to create a shadow banking system that could “bury bad loans”.  Any agent dealing with a short sale understands the problem of buried loans because she’s heard:

“Well, we aren’t quite sure WHO owns this loan”

Kind of sounds like the forensic audit of Bernie Madoff’s books, doesn’t it?  That’s what you hear when the jig is up on a Ponzi scheme:  confusion, wagon-circling, and practiced deflection.  It eventually catches up with the schemers.  I’m firmly in the camp that no matter how many incentives we offer to stave off the inevitable forced sales, or to provide a middle-class tax cut, or to bribe the next generation of buyers, the simple fact remains that we have more houses than we need in this country…and the people just ain’t buying like they used to.

It’s partly the National Association of REALTORs fault.  They’ve hoarded supply data and intentionally suppressed demand data since inception.  Suppressing the demand data resulted in a valuation system that relied on false positives (comparable sales) as a standard that contributed to the Ponzi-like atmosphere in the real estate market.   Think about it.  When we ask agents about rising demand, they point to dwindling supply as a measure of it.  Read more

June 1, 2009

Can a REALTOR Truly be a Consumer Advocate?

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

My query is sincere.  But first, I want to make a distinction between a REALTOR and a licensed real estate agent.  NAR tells consumers to seek the counsel of REALTOR – in fact, make sure they are working with a REALTOR, leading consumers to believe that a licensed real estate agent and REALTOR are synonymous.  They are not.

A REALTOR is a licensed real estate agent who is also a  member of the National Association of REALTORs, who’s mission is:

The core purpose of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is to help its members become more profitable and successful.

Clearly absent from the mission is any reference to the consumer.

The vision of the National Association of REALTORS is equally insightful:

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® strives to be the collective force influencing and shaping the real estate industry. It seeks to be the leading advocate of the right to own, use, and transfer real property; the acknowledged leader in developing standards for efficient, effective, and ethical real estate business practices; and valued by highly skilled real estate professionals and viewed by them as crucial to their success.

Working on behalf of America’s property owners, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® provides a facility for professional development, research and exchange of information among its members and to the public and government for the purpose of preserving the free enterprise system, and the right to own, use, and transfer real property.

I find NARs Vision statement to be interesting. While the concept of advocacy is referenced – It seeks to be the leading advocate of the right to own, use, and transfer real property – NARs advocacy serves first and foremost its members.  Again, distinctly absent from the vision statement is a direct reference to the consumer – ultimately the guy or gal who parts with their money to own, use, and transfer real property.

As licensed real estate agents, our behavior is bound and regulated by our state laws, written in the interest of protecting the public from unscrupulous professionals.  Licensing is the state’s way to insure that a minimum standard of knowledge and behavior is achieved prior Read more

May 30, 2009

Mother Nature is not a MILF

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

Now the hard part—fabricating an essay that somehow pertains to real estate and ties in with the above catchy title; one that popped into my head while hydroplaning through a stop sign in a downpour earlier this month.  At the next red light I quickly texted the lofty thought to myself  expecting to come up with an accompanying  point (and several hundred additional words) once I made it safely back to my desk—my writing desk that is. Not my selling desk. I have a separate hard, cluttered surface for each, you see.

More accurately, what I’ve set up are creative stations for each side of my brain;  right brain/writing desk,  left brain/selling desk.  And it’s not hard to tell when I’m performing the wrong  creative duty at the wrong desk, either; I basically suck at whichever task is at hand, I’m always running  behind schedule, and I don’t make any money.  Anyway, that  Mother Nature idea was almost three weeks ago.

So tonight  I was reading  Jeff Brown’s latest post (and most of the 100 or so comments that were bound to ensue) when finally, the ideal segue hit me.  Transparency!  Why not try and give that clear concept a whack myself since, as hard as I tried to think of a comment to insert, I had nothing intelligent to add to Mr Brown’s already lengthy thread.  Perhaps  instead, I could unveil a few secrets of my own that the BawldGuy might feel are nobody’s fiscal business.  Actually, I  agree with him (and his grandparents) on this one but I happen to be sitting at my selling desk  in boxer shorts now so…. down they come.  Ah transparency.

* In 2006 I earned more income selling real estate than the combined government salaries of the Vice President of the United States and a typical  City of Chicago Streets and Sanitation worker on the ‘no show’ payroll.

* Last year, according to the cover of Parade Magazine, I basically matched dollar for dollar with the average preschool teaching assistant in Youngstown, Ohio (Fail perhaps, but not quite Perish).

* So far this selling season, I’m keeping  signing Read more

May 22, 2009

The End of No-Cost Mortgage Loans and Other HR 1728 Concerns

by

Las Vegas Mortgage Blogger

Author website

The H.R. 1728: Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act is a problem that all mortgage and real estate professionals need to pay attention to.

My first rule of blogging has always been to avoid political discussions, especially if I’m not an expert on every angle of the topic.

So, with my second post to the BHB, I’m breaking all of my rules…. I guess this means that I’m starting to get the hang of things around here.

The difference with this post is that I’m putting my self-consciousness and ego aside for a moment.  I believe that there is way too much at stake for me to wait around until I’m comfortable putting my neck on the line.  I’m taking Greg’s 70% approach and running with it

If I’m wrong or barking up the wrong tree, I humbly respect that the Hounds of this community will set me straight.  Matter of fact, I’ll do my best to encourage any type of discussion, rant, or other demonstration of disgust, as long as it helps us get closer to the truth behind HR 1728.

Here’s the deal, friends – HR 1728 has passed the House, which means it still has to go before the Senate and then pass Obamanomics before it becomes a law.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time reading, researching and writing about how mortgage originators can battleback against this new Mortgage Reform bill.

I’m either missing a beat, presenting the wrong info, or not yelling loud enough, because it doesn’t seem like there is much talk online about how this new Anti-Predatory Lending bill will impact our industry.

Obviously, HVCC is getting some reaction, probably because people are already feeling the pain in their wallets.

However, a lot of us may have to turn to online gaming and selling weed to make a living if H.R. 1728 makes it through the Senate without our voices being heard.

What are the main bullets of HR 1728 that I care about?

  • Mortgage brokers lose the ability to use their YSP (Yield Spread Premium) to offer No-Cost mortgage loans.  Banks, on the other hand, still don’t have to disclose their same (SRP).
May 22, 2009

Is NAR Criminal or Clueless? What difference does it make?

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

I  read the give and take between Greg and Mike DiMella (full disclosure, Mike is a client) with interest, because I respect them both, and it is always interesting when smart people agree to disagree and do so with civility and eloquence and without resorting to the ad hominem.

When that single MIBOR director derailed a policy change that went against them, even though it was unanimously approved by the NAR’s own technology committee, we were all left to discern a motive.

Was this the result of a long-standing “criminal conspiracy” (Greg)? Is this an attempt by some local MLSs, who see Google’s handwriting on the wall, to remian relevant by competing with their own members (me)? Or was this a consequence of the realities of trying to pull coherent policy from the collective mind of a large membership organization in a timely fashion (Mike)?

Its an interesting question, but the answer, it seems to me,  is irrelevant in the discussion of what to do next.

One thing we all agree on, I think, is that the MIBOR director used his knowledge of  NAR parliamentary procedure to work the system to MIBOR’s benefit and to the detriment of brokers and agents.

The prima facie evidence is that, at least for the next 6 months, Paula Henry is still being forced to dis-allow Google from indexing her site.

That means the damage is real.

Yes, it is contained to Indianapolis for the moment, but will it stay that way? My guess is that MIBOR will be huddling with other MLSs who share their control fetish over the next 6 months, and our friend the objecting director from Indianapolis will have a quorum come November.

Now that NAR has proven itself to be subject to the whims of directors who are nostalgic for a paper-bound MLS that brokers kept behind their desks, modern brokers and agents need to aggressively defend their own interests because, clearly, the organization that is supposed to do that is not.

I see signs of this happening now, with people getting fed up enough to get involved with their boards at the local level, but is that enough?

Perhaps Read more

May 21, 2009

What would it take to reform the National Association of Realtors, to turn it from an anti-consumer cartel into a steadfast defender of the right of American citizens to own, use and enjoy real property?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Joe Loomer: > what could and should NAR do to dispell your views of it as a criminal enterprise?

In very broad outlines:

1. Stop writing and lobbying for legislation devised to churn the real estate markets.

2. Work tirelessly to eliminate all laws that serve to advance the interests real estate brokers at the expense of consumers in general as well as other people who might want to broker real estate for compensation.

3. Eliminate all coercive membership requirements.

4. Work with lenders and HUD to eliminate the co-brokerage fee so that buyers can obtain — and pay for — true, honest, untainted representation.

5. Work tirelessly to eliminate all laws impinging upon the right of each citizen to buy, own, use, enjoy, profit from and sell real property without interference.

For what it’s worth, I think number 5 is the greatest betrayal of the American people by the National Association of Realtors. Zoning? The NAR is for it. Eminent domain? The NAR is for it. Expropriation of ancillary rights such as water rights? The NAR is for it. At the national level, the grand poohbahs might issue a toothless snarl about Kelo, but at the local level, the Boards of Real Estate that make up the NAR are always working hand-in-pocket with governments and developers to rob ordinary citizens of their right to own their own property.

Soldiers are to be found everywhere in history, but freedom is won and held by citizen soldiers — which means a soldier who has his own land to return to when the fighting is done. By undermining the right to own real property, the NAR works — insidiously, corrosively — to undermine American liberty.

And, for what it’s worth, if the NAR were to apply itself and achieve item number 4 on my list, none of the rest would matter. More than anything else, the NAR and the MLS are made possible by the co-broke. Get rid of that and the rest of this ugly mess will crumble to dust in due course.

May 14, 2009

How we say_What we say_Is important

by

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Author website

This is actually a post about transparency, but as you’ll see, I am not a big fan of the ‘word’ itself. The idea of belaboring a word all of you seem to take for granted came about as I was talking with Scott Schang a few days ago. We were just enjoying each other’s company, doing real work, a lender and real estate guy talking about the industry, our own ideas, sharing and laughing, scribbling notes and taking stock of the ideas that just never seemed to quit coming.

For me transparency is about saying what you want to say, showing what you want to show, sharing what you want to share, and doing it in a manner and method that is most likely to allow the reader or listener to understand. In order for that to happen the writer or creater of thoughts and ideas, facts or fictions, must decide up front HOW they will present the information.

Let me give you some examples.

Greg Swann

“I write well. I’m a tough read here, but I can be much, much more difficult to read. I understand grammar the way other people understand cars or football or cooking, and I can build perfectly valid sentences in English that almost no one can understand, much less diagram. The English language is like Jazz to me, and it ripples and rolls through my head all the time, making connections like lightning strikes that take many paragraphs to explain to other people.

Brian Brady

“I posed this question at Unchained Phoenix ‘09 and you would have thought I asked the REALTORs to walk on coals…at first. A few bright agents listened to my reasoning:”

Geno Petro

“When I awoke from my dehydrated coma and rack focused my blurry vision toward the general direction of the deactivated alarm clock on my night stand, the numbers 7:07 burned my retinas digital red. I jumped up in a virtual panic, threw on a suit and Hermes noose, splashed on a handful of Bulgari, gargled a Red Bull and Diet Coke highball and flew out the door in search of my car. Alas, God was looking Read more

May 12, 2009

A quick, random thought

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

It’s not that I couldn’t somehow get my hands on a late model Ferrari if I really wanted one (and I doubt I’m any different than most happily married men of my demographic in this regard). After the divorce, I’d simply have to move in with relatives, liquidate whatever is left for 100 pennies on the dollar, then slap down the balance on American Express between billing cycles, that’s all. With the proceeds I could probably score a pretty decent off-lease, if not road worn,  Enzo Berlinetta…in the least desirable color—with stock rims. I’m just saying.

I want one, but ideally…I want one 20 years ago.  (Actually, I’ll just take the 20 years ago and you can keep the Ferrari and this whole real estate business.)  A 32 year old Realtor in a Ferrari is a Bad Ass but a 52 year divorcee old living at home with mother is….well, just plain sad—especially when forced to park a high mileage phallus behind her Subaru in the driveway. (God how I hate that Freud.)

So this middle-aged guy zooms into my rear view mirror on the freeway entrance ramp last evening, hesitates for a double-bump tach rev,  then screams past me on the right in 1st gear. He was neatly tucked into a couple hundred thou of  handcrafted, precious scarlet metal and buttery cowhide.  His straw gray, combed-over tonsure hovered in the breeze above a sun-chapped bald spot. A rose gold Chopard watch, with matching cuff links, deflected all remaining rays of Envy as he dissolved into the North Shore Chicago smogset.  Judging from the pink gold blur, I pegged his left wrist alone at around 50 grand. Clearly, our little speedster’s got more jack than any man knows what to do with. His engine sounded like an amped-up Joe Satriani guitar riff in the dusky ether.  His license plate read RAINMKR. I’ve been behind this ass clown before.  He used to double park his banana cream Bentley at a renowned Viagra Triangle watering hole during happier hours. Must have gotten a divorce. If he got a red Ferrari then somebody got a house. Read more

May 11, 2009

Free IDX from Realtor.Com!

by

Retechulous...

Author website

In response to the juicy IDX discussion going on over at Agent Genius, I figured I’d take a stab at misappropriating some property data featured over at Realtor.Com.

After 10 minutes, I had 100 of the latest Indianapolis properties listed for sale posted to my website and indexable by google.

Here’s a look at the results: Retechulous.com/Category/NAR-BLOWS

If you have a minute, check out the article over at AG and if you can find a way to get involved, please do so. I guess you could say this little scraping stunt is me contributing in my own obnoxious way. That, and I’m also now looking for a non-NAR Pa broker to hang my license with….

May 5, 2009

Wanna Help SEO My 404? – CentralPaLiving.Com/404LotsaListingLeads

by

Retechulous...

Author website

I’ve been sitting on this idea for probably about a year now, and figured Unchained was the appropriate place to let it rip. So for those of you that were there, you know where I’m going with this.

If you weren’t in Phoenix, please take a minute to visit Centralpaliving.Com/NoOneElseInYourMarketWillDoThisSoDontWorryAboutSharingItWithTheWorld

What you’ll see is basically one of the better real estate marketing ideas I’ve ever had and the latest addition to the CentralPaLiving project.

Once you get to the page, you might get the urge to thank me? Maybe you can do so by hitting CentralPaLiving.Com up with a juicy link from your own 404? Maybe do something like http://centralpaliving.com/(insertyournameorurlhere) so that you pop up when I do a google “links:” query?

Thanks in advance for your thanks 🙂 And thanks also to all the folks on the Scenius in Phoenix who helped turn a pretty good idea into the turbocharged video based squeeze page monster that it is now!

Bonus! — A Screencast Demonstrating This Thing In Action!

May 5, 2009

Reflecting (very) briefly on the Phoenix real estate market: “I got my job through the New York Times”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Last Tuesday, while racing around doing real estate work and preparing for BloodhoundBlog Unchained, I was interviewed by the New York Times about the Phoenix real estate market.

I’ve been interviewed a zillion times before, and it’s cool and fun and it means absolutely nothing. I got picked because of this article, from my column in the Arizona Republic. I spoke to the reporter for 45 minutes on the phone, and about twelve of my words made it into the newspaper.

Okayfine. That’s the way it works. I’m just waxed fruit in these tableaux and I know it.

But here’s the cool part: Yesterday I got a call from a potential client about the article. Never happened before. Real estate investor from Canada looking to balance his risk by picking up some lender-owned homes in Phoenix.

As a marketing strategy, talking to reporters is probably less productive than handing out business cards in the supermarket parking lot, but serendipity is where you find it.

 
Further notice: Today I was interviewed by MacLean’s magazine about Canadians buying real estate in Phoenix. The reporter found me where? In the New York Times. Clearly there is a difference…

May 4, 2009

A video postcard from Unchained in Phoenix

by

Realtor, Urban Jedi

Author website

Paybacks a mutha, so be careful what you ask for.  I opened up the MacBook and asked the gang to do a video postcard for Teri Lussier because she could not make it.  Much to my surprise, some bloodhounds don’t forget.   Beyond that we get a look at the scenius in action and another sneak peak at some more video footage to come from Unchained in Phoenix. Enjoy, and don’t get too many ideas. I made a promise that this factotum/guest speaker/Omega will be performing Blake from Glenngary Glenn Ross next time we meet up.

Featuring Eric Blackwell with the Omegas working on SEO and Ryan Hartman exploring Gonzo Marketing with the Alphas.

« Older posts Newer posts »

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.

Media Contacts