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Category: Disintermediation (page 9 of 43)

August 18, 2008

I Can’t Swim

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I can’t swim; not a lick, stroke or otherwise. I got pulled out of the deep end for the first time when I was 4 years old and then again when I was 14. Both times I saw my quick, up-to-that-point-in-time life, unfold before me as I flailed wildly for help, until finally sinking below surface and fading off into the ether…. Both times I awoke choking up chlorine with a male lifeguard’s mouth on my mouth trying to breath life back into my waterlogged lungs. Both times I was left with the taste of stale cigarettes. I didn’t turn out gay but I did become a smoker soon after the second incident; luck of the draw, I suppose.

I was clocked in the 100 Yard (not meters) Dash under 10 seconds in the same, much younger life, but I never gave anyone reason to save me from myself in that particular venue. I was, unfortunately, forced to run the last leg of a Mile Relay once in high school and hit the asphalt pavement, face first, on the third turn. I had to be escorted off the track and into the infield by the cheerleaders, one of whom I did bum a smoke from, so I suppose the theme continued on in its own way.

I’ve never put on a gymnast’s uniform (okay…maybe once after a heavy night of tequila shooters in Tijuana, circa 1984) so there’s nothing really exciting to report on that Olympic front, either. I don’t do horseback riding, play basketball worth a damn, or participate in soccer, softball, or syncronized anything; men, womens or Soviet Block cross-gender. I don’t do long distance unless it’s covered in my AT&T plan.

I did ride my bicycle 23 miles yesterday morning—but it took me almost 4 hours, well off any competitive pace, so it’s probably not even worth mentioning here. Oh, and I did get into a boxing match of sorts one night with someone who may very well have been a ladies weightlifter from Azerbarijan but that ended in a ‘no decision’ from what I’ve been told. As I vaguely recall, Read more

August 17, 2008

Looking for Volunteers – Not-for-Profit Realtors

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

Who wants to be a volunteer?

I received a very pleasant courtesy call the other day from a Realtor who represents a property that I showed to my client several months ago. After showing this particular property, my client and I both walked out of the showing stating that the seller obviously wasn’t reading the news – what were they smoking? Nice but over priced – NEXT!

Her upbeat message was hard to resist,

Volunteer Agent: “Hi Tom, I’m just touching base with all of the agents who’ve showed my listing in the past that my seller is now offering a 4% co-op on the sale of their property, is your buyer still in the market?”

The property in question is still listed with no price reduction.

Me:”Thanks for the call – nope, my client is no longer in the market – they’ve since made a decision, purchased and closed on a more realistically priced property.

Volunteer Agent: “What do you mean a more realistically priced property?”

Me: “Um – (wondering if she was serious) a property that is realistically priced???”

I guess from the nature of the call, her question perhaps was not necessarily a surprise. I thought that my response was fairly understandable – realistically priced means realistically priced, right? Needless to say her tone became a tad indignant.

Volunteer Agent:”Well – as you can see from the co-op commission, my client is very motivated to get this property sold!”

Me:”Yep – sounds great – the motivation is clear – thanks for the call.”

Volunteer Agent:”Ok – well, thanks again and keep it in mind.”

Yep – I sure will keep it in mind – next time I want to get paid for convincing my buyer to overpay for a property that doesn’t clearly reflect market conditions, you’ll be the first agent I’ll call. Hurray for me! I gonna make a killing!

There is nothing I love more about selling real estate than not getting paid for doing my job! I love volunteering! I honestly believe that one of rewarding aspects of being a real estate volunteer is not sharing the facts about the Read more

August 13, 2008

Give me your money, Part I: Sell locally, market nationally and build a real estate brand that actually means something to consumers

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve been interested to watch Sean Purcell, Mike Farmer and Rob Hahn talk about alternative brokerage structures, but the only structure that actually matters to me is our own. It’s possible that BloodhoundRealty.com will grow bigger in due course — all but certain given the work we’re doing this year — but I am never, ever interested in growing so large that I cannot directly control the quality of experience we deliver to each of our clients.

Cathleen Collins and I both work constantly to come up with newer ways of doing our work better, more ways of knocking the socks completely off of our buyers and sellers. This is a process I want never to stop, much less see reversed by the three-headed monster that passes for “management” in most businesses: haphazard philosophy, hamhanded preparation and tightfisted execution.

That is to say, we are a brand, no matter how small we are. We approached our business that way from the very beginning, to have the iconic idea of a Bloodhound speak for us in every possible way. We have never pursued personal promotion, preferring instead to promote the idea of this brand — not just the images but the underlying ideas.

Our market penetration is very slight so far, as must be the case for a boot-strapped brokerage. But there is no one we have worked with, either our clients or their warm networks or neighbors, who does not remember us or the ideas we stand for. We don’t hit 1.000 — although we have not missed on a listing in 2008, knock wood — but we hit the ball so hard that everyone remembers us in the neighborhoods where work.

They remember not us as people, but the brand. One of my favorite clients came to us when, frustrated that his house wasn’t selling, he turned to his wife and said, “What we need is the Bloodhounds.” He didn’t remember us, he remembered our marketing efforts and our results. Iconic ideas Google well, so he found us in one quick search.

This is the kind of branding that I think can make all the Read more

August 8, 2008

Friday Afternoon Fun: Can anyone tell me what the hell this bowl of tossed jargon-salad says — if anything?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came in my spam this morning, and I gave it nine seconds of my full attention: Babbling jargon-filled nonsense, probably with a well-hidden chokepoint to spill coins into the author’s pockets.

That was my instant take, but the truth is I don’t actually know what it says. To the extent that I actually tried to read it, it was too painful for me to pursue.

It could be you have more patience than me. If so, you might take a stab at figuring out what it says. It doesn’t actually matter, since the meatballs atop this sticky bowl of word spaghetti are the same ones who brought us Realtor.com and all the other big-hit NAR disasters. If anyone actually believes these wheezing antiques can outrun the VC-funded Web 2.0 world, I have a few dollars I might be willing to wager. The NAR will solve every problem it confronts by force of arms, as always.

But: That doesn’t mean you can’t have some Friday Afternoon Fun trying to parse the mangled prose that makes up this proposal. Plus which, I’m inclined to be very generous if you should unearth the chokepoint.

Note that this deeply heartfelt manifesto appears on a page full of advertising. Classy… Inman “News” dipped its pen in this spittoon, of course, but that’s such an obvious outcome it’s not even worth making jokes about… Oh, fine. Here’s one, just because it’s Friday:

Q: What do you need to get fawning, uncritical attention for your press release from Inman News?

A: A press release.

Read carefully and I expect you will discover how the NAR hopes to rape agents and consumers over the next decade. But remember this as you read: Divorce the commissions and every bit of this nonsense goes away, as it should.

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August 4, 2008

Another real estate model, a less-radical variation on a current theme that can work within the present regulatory context: A national franchise of real estate franchisors, each of whom is committed to sustaining the value of the brand

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I read Rob Hahn’s ideas about brokerage-as-law-firm last week. I thought that much was kind of naive — a reflection of a lack of understanding the legal realities of real estate brokerage — but I didn’t jump in because I thought some of his other ideas were interesting.

Here’s the problem: A law firm is based on 1040 employment. The real estate brokerage safe harbor makes it extremely beneficial for brokers to have nothing but 1099 employees. There is no reason to expect that to change unless the IRS removes the safe harbor — three weeks after hell has frozen over.

The Team model works, but it’s inherently small-time.

Branding could work — but doesn’t — because the independent contractor status of agents dilutes the brand to homeopathic concentrations.

Hard-branding like Bloodhound does can only work with very strict control. Redfin has this — but it also has 1040 employees.

All that notwithstanding, present-day brokers are at risk of being wiped out at any minute by several liability — the designated broker is responsible for every idiot he puts out on the street.

Here’s a solution that makes sense to me:

The ideal case would be to get rid of licensing altogether, to get rid of the broker’s level of licensing or to get rid of the salesperson’s level of licensing and call everyone a broker, but none of that is necessary.

Instead, imagine an IntegratedRealty.com business entity that consists of a franchised brand for fly-you-own-flag brokers or brokerage entities. As the owner of IntegratedRealty.com, I franchise the brand and require certain standards and practices from the franchisees. I maintain offices, so, to all appearances to the public, we’re just like Realty Executives. Except that I am not anyone’s broker, and each individual franchised broker is the head of his or her own Team. They write and own their own contracts, and they’re free to sever their relationship with IntegratedRealty.com per the terms of our contract, with their representation contracts going along with them.

This could be rolled out city-by-city, like Realty Executives, or cross-competitively like RE/Max. Each new instance of IntegratedRealty.com could itself be a franchise, so you could Read more

August 4, 2008

The New Real Estate Model – Part 3.2: Patrick, Dunne & Purcell, A Real Estate Firm

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

A Real Estate Firm based on the legal model could have many looks, as do actual law firms.  But for a starting point I am going to lay out an achievable structure that will accommodate the greatest majority of agents.  The firm would consist of three distinct levels as well as an administrative staff.

  1. In the top level are the named agents: let’s say Ms. Patrick, Mr. Dunne and Mr. Purcell. These are the founders of the firm and generally speaking they are all three tremendous rain makers. They have a large and active client base from which they receive a tremendous amount of referral business.  It is also quite likely that one or more of them has a strong presence in a niche area.  They are not only the face of the firm, but it is their style and personality that colors the firm’s corporate vision.
  2. Under the named agents are the partner agents.  It is within this level that we see so much of the communal benefit that Mike Farmer has written about.  Similar to the named agents, partner agents bring in a lot of transactions.  They also may have areas (geographic, industrial, network, etc.) of specialty.  These agents have reached a level reminiscent of tenure.  They share ownership of the firm as well as decision making duties and have a say in its direction.
  3. The associate level is where the greatest number of agents are found.  From fresh beginners to agents with years of experience.  The associate level is also the workhorse of the firm.  Associate agents are not only working hard to take care of clients assigned by the partners, but are at the same time trying to impress the partners with business they generate themselves.  The presumed goal of an associate agent is to be made partner.
  4. Finally, there is an administrative staff which grows as the firm’s growth dictates.  It could be as simple as one administrator or as complex as a multiple level staff covering everything from answering the phones to creating the marketing to processing the transactions and more.  Staffing might be the one place where someone Read more
August 4, 2008

The New Real Estate Model – Part 3.1: The Solution

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

This final post (Part 3) grew rather lengthy.  Considering the fact this has already stretched into a three-part series, I chose to extend the series to five rather than attempt a conclusion of  somnolent proportions.  If brevity is the soul of wit, creating a new model for real estate is witless.  So grab a cup of coffee or your favorite bagel and settle in.  Fairly warned be thee, says I…

The Preamble
In Part 1: Disbrokeration, I looked at the problems that exist within the current, brokerage-based real estate model.  The shift to a 2.0 world is making the traditional position of broker obsolete.  The tax advantaged laws that helped create this model now create a drain on the industry and the level of professionalism is widely perceived to be at an all time low.  This is a topic of some concern, as the most popular response to the current state of affairs is more legislation, more licensing and more efforts to validate capability through pernicious membership rather than actual results.  As Big Al said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

In Part 2: Super Teams, I looked at a natural progression that is already occurring in our industry: Real Estate Teams.  I took that notion further and looked at how a Super Team might be constructed.  There was also a link to some great writing on the concept by Mike Farmer.  There are some problems with the Super Teams though.  They do not go far enough in dealing with issues of independent contractor status, education, professionalism and image.  Their success depends upon either a self-less communal work effort or a strong, unique figurehead to hold all the pieces together.  The former is not realistic across an entire industry and the latter is too uncommon.

The Outline
It is time to outline a new model for the real estate industry.  I believe the following to be a reasonable list of minimum expectations:

  • The new model should account for the natural desire in many people to achieve.  It might even embrace the concept that a great many people enter Read more
July 30, 2008

The New Real Estate Model – Part 2: Super Teams

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

In Part 1, I discussed the concept of Disbrokeration; some of its causes and effects. When I originally wrote about Disbrokeration I thought I had a pretty good idea what the next iteration of the industry would be: Super Teams.  This type of development is not new and successful Super Teams abound right now.  For me it seemed the logical next step in a 2.0 world where the Brokers have lost a great deal of their function.  Having said that, I see some flaws with Super Teams.  Especially in their ability to transcend a relatively common problem faced by many self-employed entrepreneurs.  My purpose here is to discover a model that will not just work, but work for the majority.  Let’s look at the pros and cons of the Super Teams and in Part 3 of this three-part series, I will share a model that I think may best serve the future of our industry.

Basic Real Estate Teams
Agents may have more than one reason to create a team in real estate. Some may do so for geographical reasons, some may do so to create multiple streams of income.  It can even be done simply for social reasons.  But the primary reason to create a team is economies of scale.  Simply put, a well managed team can be more efficient through intelligent design and effective division of labor.

Gary Keller, in arguably the best book ever written for real estate success: The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, discusses the team concept as a matter of course.  It is simply a requirement for reaching the millionaire level.  This is due to the economy of scale mentioned earlier.  Mr. Keller’s point is that one person alone cannot see enough clients, list enough homes and work with enough buyers to achieve a million dollars in income.  One simply cannot carry the work load necessary for such a goal.

Others have written on the benefits in creating teams.  Mike Farmer looked at it from the perspective of geographical and technological symbiosis rather than a purely profit driven necessity.  I think I do Mr. Farmer no disservice when I summarize Read more

July 28, 2008

The New Real Estate Model – Part 1: Disbrokeration

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The Real Estate industry is going through some pretty rapid changes lately. We have everything from Apple’s iPhone to Zillow’s Zestimates. There is a lot of conflict too. Your local Board of Realtors is most likely still trying to throw a fence around listing information, while a wired world questions the nature and even purpose of a real estate agent. The RE.net is creating opportunities and shifting the nature of the game. The world is 2.0 and it communicates differently. A 2.0 world markets differently and rewards differently too. Throw in the most destructive credit crunch since the Great Depression and you have a recipe for… WHAT? Only one sure answer: change. But the question is this: change into what? What does the future of the real estate industry look like? Will there be agents? Will there be brokers? Will there be a real estate industry? This is the first of a three-part series that will attempt to answer some of these questions.

Back in March I wrote a post on Disbrokeration and the coming changes in the real estate industry. I suggested that Brokers, more than agents, were going to see their positions and their livelihood challenged. I still believe that to be true. In part two of this series I will run through the first evolution I saw for our industry: The Super Team. Not an uncommon idea, the Super Team already exists and the refinement of it is discussed in many areas. Mike Farmer has written about it in great fashion. I will discuss why it may work for some, but in general it simply does not solve enough problems. Worse yet, it adds new ones. In the final installment, part three, I suggest a new model for the real estate industry. A model that is easily copied, well developed and most suited to solving the issues in our industry. But first, we must understand why the current model will not last.

Disbrokeration: The End of the Current Model
The existing Broker model is actually a pretty old one, found in almost any industry that is focused around the act or Read more

July 23, 2008

What’s better than a hokey faux-video photo-based virtual tour? How about a FREE hokey faux-video photo-based virtual tour?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

One of the factors that unites the vendors who annoy me is that they tend to do things that are fast, cheap and obvious, then market them like manna from the heavens. Still worse is doing something fast, cheap and obvious as a hosted solution, charging start-up fees, per use fees and monthly hosting fees — which can turn into a boatload of money real fast.

The back side of doing things that are fast, cheap and obvious is that the product category quickly becomes a commodity, with the corresponding free fall in prices. The dipshit thing may not be worth having, but at least it doesn’t cost much.

Today the economy of abundance comes to Ken-Burns-style virtual tours. Documentarian Ken Burns and others perfected a style of cinematography that lends motion to still photos by panning across and zooming in on the images. This turns out to be a fast, cheap and obvious way to build cheesy little faux-video virtual tours.

The good news: These kinds of tours have always been pretty cheap.

The bad news: They’re video, even if there is no actual live motion, so they occupy huge amounts of disk space and consume big bunches of bandwidth.

The worse news: They suck. As with true video, they only work as virtual tours as the secondary tour, the back-up or the teaser. All virtual tour solutions suck, but the faux-video photo-based virtual tour sucks big time.

The purpose of a virtual tour is to get the viewer to commit to the home, and the only way to do that is by way of the commitment of time. Any real estate promotion that excuses the buyer after a minute or two — as all video solutions do — is sub-optimal. The ideal virtual tour will offer the buyer more and more tools to play with, more and more ways to “try on” the home.

All virtual tours suck to one degree or another, but the best of the breed right now is Obeo.com. You get the panoramas and the pro-photographer photos, the neighborhood information, all that stuff. But what you get with Obeo and no one Read more

July 23, 2008

There aren’t enough advertising dollars for Zillow.com to go IPO, but adding Google Street View makes the site a little more useful

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So far, in 30 months since Zillow.com launched, precisely one client has shown me a Zestimate. I mention the site all the time, just as a matter of casual conversation, but only the INTx types know what the hell I’m talking about. Last night on the the phone with Brian Brady, I equated the Realty.bots with model trains: We fool around with these model train layouts because they’re interesting and fun — and then we get up and go back to our real jobs on the railroad.

That’s not completely fair. I’ve been using Zillow more and more in my own real estate practice, as one of my pre-listing tools. Because our current MLS system sucks so bad — it’s gone on July 28th — often I will go to Zillow first.

One thing I’ve wanted and missed at the site is Google’s Street View.

Guess what we’re getting today? That link is dead for now, but I’m not under any embargo, so here’s the news:

Even though it uses Microsoft’s satellite imagery, Zillow will also be adding Google’s Street View technology for exterior elevations of homes and views of the streets and surrounding areas.

The other bit of Zillow news this week was the announcement by Zillow.com CFO Spencer Rascoff that the start-up will not be going IPO in 2008.

The problem? All of Zillow’s services are built on an advertising-based revenue model, and it is struggling to sell enough ads.
 
“There’s an online advertising recession right now, and we are not immune,” said Rascoff. He did not show any signs of departing from the company’s advertising-based business model, or its eventual plans for an IPO.

Street View doesn’t seem to be turned on yet, as I write this. The IPO spigot may be turned off for quite a while.

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July 21, 2008

I Kissed Dating Goodbye

by

Real Estate Agent

Author website

I’m young. I am new to real estate, even newer to the RE.net. Inexperienced, blind, deaf, dumb, starving, full, big headed, blah blah blah. These are all adjectives that described me in my first months on the job. Heck, they probably still describe me.

As Greg recently talked about, I was one of those people lead vendors looked at as a buzzard looks at a dead possum on the interstate. (Do y’all have possums where you are? If not, substitute road kill of choice.) I bought some. I attended seminars. I admit, I learned and at least mad my money back from the seminars I went to, however, the services, advertisements, etc I bought, I didn’t make any money, just spent time with unqualified people wanting to rent a house I had for sale.

I was the most beautiful, graceful, largest uddered cow you’ve ever seen. I put out good milk as well. They called, I answered. Now I am afraid to answer a single out of area phone call. All day long, they call.

I am at a point where I am kissing dating goodbye. Forget flirting and foreplay with these companies. I want a commitment. I want a marriage. To death do us part. And if you are worth it, I will wear the ring.

However, I am monogamous. I don’t want to marry each and every ‘good’, ‘solid’, ‘worth it’, vendor that comes my way. Very few people will drink my milk, however those that do will be worth every pint.

I believe that there are vendors out there that are worth it. If you make my life easier, help me enjoy more of my valuable time, help me put more bread on the table, I invite you to have a sip.

However, if you are a worthless, trashy, mange infested buzzard remember this: I have kissed dating goodbye.

July 14, 2008

Dead Dinosaurs Walking

by

IDX Search Entrepreneur

Author website

As far as I can tell, the RE.net has been advocating for better broker Web sites for as long as there has been an RE.net. Many articles and posts focus on the twin pillars of eCommerce — Search + Content — but many brokers still have Web 1.0 sites or, worse, Web 1.0 sites tarted up with gimmicks to look like Web 2.0 sites while offering the same old stove-piped database search of the same old IDX content.

I started my company to bring common sense eCommerce strategy and Best Practices to Real Estate. To be honest, it has been harder than I thought it would be to get brokers to play ball and, lately, I have been thinking about why that is.

I’ve found that brokers are unique creatures in many different ways, but the most frustrating thing for me when it comes to improving Web marketing programs is that many of them seem to operate on the principle that ignorance is bliss because its cheap. Our clients are the exceptions that prove the rule, but even among them the pace of acceptance and progress varies widely.

Let me put a finer point on that by comparing a project in the real world with what often happens in the Oz of Real Estate:

I just started a new integration project for UVEX Sports. This project will replace the Web-based Business to Business (B2B) platform they are currently using with one that is hosted in-house and tied directly to their enterprise management software. UVEX sees a huge benefit in making the information and functionality that their software holds completely accessible to sales reps and customers via the Web.  This is a significant upgrade over the current platform and a really, really good idea.

This exercise is understood by UVEX’s management, consultants and vendors as an integration project.  Integration projects have two basic components:

  1. Technology Integration: Integrating existing systems with new software and hardware.
  2. Business Integration:  Teaching management, customer service people, sales reps, and retail buyers to use the new system and make room for it in their day to day running of the business.

Once the project is complete, Read more

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