A not very nice person who calls himself “candybags” wrote the following:
“You all need to either get real or get off that high horse of pomposity you rode in on. Comparing a Realtor with a surgeon??? what next?? Auto appendectomies indeed! Who do you think you are kidding? You are lowly paper pushers compared to doctors and lawyers who had attended YEARS OF SCHOOLING PEOPLE to get what they have. They didn’t take an online course and sit an easy written test of 150 questions. I am sick of reading about parallels between doctors and Reel-torrrrs. The old adage is alive and well – no one thinks more highly of a Reeltorr than the Reeltorr himself. Perfect. Get real. Be prepared to be disintermediated. Dinosaurs. I won’t be paying no stinkin 6%,5% or even 4%. Try 3%. IT WONT BE LONG NOW. ”
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I don’t compare myself to a surgeon except in the income department – I make more than they do. I don’t think I am kidding anyone. You can think of me (and other Realtors) in any way you like (lowly paper pushers). I neither need nor want your approval. If you live in the Phoenix area you would not be able to pay me any amount, because you are exactly the kind of person I choose not to do business with – and if you somehow snuck in under the radar, rest assured, I would have spotted you anyway and cancelled your listing.
No matter what you write or where you write it I am going to go right on surviving quite nicely – as are all of the other Realtors. Further one of my primary objectives – why I am here posting at all – is to let the rest of the real estate community know that people like you (I’ll be much more specific in just a bit) should just be avoided, no matter what fee you would be willing to pay. So thank you for getting me to make this post at this time.
80% of all of the people in the world are Social Read more
Category: General (page 17 of 23)
So, I get to vote, even though I’m only fourteen! Earlier today my father, Greg Swann, gave me the pamphlet that contains information on all the propositions for this year’s general elections, which are taking place tomorrow. He told me that, if I told him how I would vote for each proposition, and he agreed with my opinions, he would vote that way tomorrow.
In a nutshell, here are this year’s propositions:
- Prop 100: Removing bail for illegal immigrants
- Prop 101: Modifies property taxes
- Prop 102: Denies the award of punitive damages to illegal immigrants
- Prop 103: Makes English the official state language
- Prop 104: Allows ‘communities’ to control neighborhood development
- Prop 105: Allows Legislature to seize up to 400,000 acres of land, without any compensation, and designate it as conserved land
- Prop 106: Allows Legislature to seize up to 694,000 acres of land, without any compensation, and designate it as land only to be used for educational purposes.
- Prop 107: Amends the State Constitution to make marriage a union between one man and one woman and abolish the creation of legal status similiar to marriage for unmarried people
- Prop 200: Creates a ‘voter reward system’
- Prop 201: Bans smoking in public areas
- Prop 202: Raises minumum wage
- Prop 203: Creates an early childhood health monitoring program, while taxing smokers to pay for the program
- Prop 204: Introduces fines for animal cruelty pertaining to pigs and calves
- Prop 205: Requires all elections to be mail-in only
- Prop 206: Another ban on smoking
- Prop 207: Restricts eminent domain
- Prop 300: Restricts eligibility for public programs to legal citizens of America
- Prop 301: Denies bail for those caught under the influence or in possesion of methamphetamine
- Prop 302: Raises State Legislator’s salaries by $12,000
After much reading and reflection, I voted “No” across the board, in a Metternichian style of acting. In my opinion, every proposition either was useless or gave the government more power.
Here are some more in-depth explanations for why I voted “No”:
- Prop 100: Causes overcrowded jails
- Prop 101: If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it
- Prop 102: Creates the need for more government jobs, to check the status of every person in a civil lawsuit
- Prop 103: Creates the need for more government jobs, Read more
Greg,
The issues in your post that really caught my attention were trying to become a lister as a new agent and finding much more early success working with buyers.
As many real estate instructors are failed agents, even the very best of intentions – trying to give new agents the best advice possible, winds up with some “almost useful” info.
Yes, listers last. But if a new agent starts off as a lister (non friends or family appointment) they have just stepped into the ring against a possible heavy weight champion. They then can get the idea that the only way to compete is with a lower commission. (I promise to cover the subject of defending commissions in much more detail in a later post).
But far more important is the prelisting package (EVERY lister MUST have one) and the listing presentation itself.
There is a big difference between working with buyers than in working with sellers: buyers are usually not looking for an agent, they are looking for a house. For example, most people who are going out to buy a car probably wouldn’t be thinking, “gosh, I hope I meet a really nice car salesman today” – they want information and are possibly willing to talk to the salesperson to get it. Initially, buyers for houses aren’t much different. It is the relationship building skills of the agent that makes them successful when working with buyers.
The ability to get and keep customers is the senior skill with both buyers and sellers but the specific skill set is a bit different with each group. Working with buyers is basically relationship-based selling. It is for this reason that a relatively new agent can be perceived by a buyer as being just as desirable to work with as a highly successful veteran agent. What the buyer wants most of all is someone who will be totally honest with them – so getting them to like you and trust you is THE primary thing.
Unlike most buyers, the typical seller IS looking for an agent. However some of them don’t want to have to pay Read more
Responding to Dustin’s offer to help Ardell during the Sellsius 101 Blog-a-thon (Yikes, Dustin! I know it’s the home team and all but 1. that woulda been cheating; and 2. you shoulda had more faith in Ardell; and 3. you don’t write like Ardell; and 4. that woulda been cheating!), Ardell nobly responded that she was so busy she never even saw his offer till after she had reached her goal, and even had she seen the offer she wouldn’t have accepted.
The risk of having RCG go down in the middle of competition was weighing heavy on me. Also, it wouldn’t have been fair to Greg, unless he allowed Christine in, and then we’d have to deal with Dustin wrote 35 % and Christine wrote 33% translating into something that would cloud the achievement.
She was right, of course, even if she did get my name wrong ;). But for my part, I wouldn’t have tried to help Greg out even if Dustin disguised as Ardell (picture that in your mind’s eye!) had peppered himself throughout Ardell’s Seattle Area Real Estate Blog. Why not?: 1. that woulda been cheating; and 2. I have absolute faith in Greg doing what he says he’ll do; and 3. I don’t write like Greg; and 4. somebody had to do some money work around here on Tuesday.
Actually, beyond helping out with his desk work on Tuesday, I did pitch in to wash the puppies out of the Technorati tags when those pesky critters showed up instead of Sellsius 101. But at about the time Greg was posting his 72nd entry, I was walking out the door to go to an inspection.
And about the time he was writing his 76th post, I was sitting on the side of the freeway, praying that today of all days, I wouldn’t be carted off to jail!
You see, I recently got new plates for my car. My new Pet Friendly plates cost more than the old plates. The difference goes to a fund to help defray the cost of spaying and neutering cats and dogs whose owners are having trouble affording Read more
Cathy and I watched The Path to 9/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year’s Day. The photo you see is my son crawling all over a bronze statue of a stock broker in Liberty Park, directly across from what was then the Merrill Lynch Building — on December 30, 1999.
I lived in Manhattan for ten years, from 1976 to 1986. For quite a few of those years, I worked just across from Liberty Park, in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway. At the other end of that little brick park was the southeast entrance to the World Trade Center complex.
I worked insane hours in those days, and, very often, when I got out of work, I would go sit at this tiny circular plaza plopped down between the Twin Towers. Not quite pre-dawn, still full dark, but completely deserted — and to be completely alone in New York City is an accomplishment. I would throw my head back and look up at the towers, the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony running note-perfect through my head.
Everything I am describing was either destroyed or heavily damaged on September 11, 2001. Along with the lives of thousand of innocents. Along with the comfort and serenity of their families. Along with the peace of the entire world.
I don’t believe in any heaven except for this earth, this life — the heaven we make every day by pursuing the highest and best within us. The World Trade Center had its faults. I can detail every one. But it was a piece of the sublime, a proud testament to how high, how good our highest and best can be. I don’t believe in heaven, but when I think of what was done that day, I pray there is an everlasting torment for the men who did it…
Technorati Tags: 9/11
As of now, this is what I get there:
This kind of crap only happens to the WarBlogs…
Labor Day is a day ostensibly set aside in our nation’s calendar to celebrate America’s workers by… taking off work. This has never made sense to me. Fortunately, Greg is of like mind, and so we celebrate Labor Day by working! We truly love our work, and this year, this week I am blessed with so many reasons to rejoice in the work we do.
I met Jurij and Tatiania in June 2005, as the madly escalating Phoenix housing market was racing through its two-year crescendo. I was representing buyers who were relocating to Phoenix, previewing houses for them, and Jurij and Tatiania were selling a house that had been, at the time, listed for about two months in a market where houses were looking long in the tooth after only two weeks. I was really green in this business last summer, so I couldn’t figure out why their charming house wasn’t moving… and it had already been through two price reductions, when everyone else’s houses were selling for more than asking price.
I ended up finding my clients a house that was much better suited for them, a beautiful old Craftsman bungalow that they are still thrilled about and which should eventually be very profitable for them when the time comes for them to move on. But before we found that one, my clients had me returning to Jurij’s and Tatiania’s house again and again to explore that possibility. 
Jurij was usually at home when I got there, and during my several visits to photograph and measure his house and yard, we formed a bond over our love of dogs. He has a wonderful, playful old Yellow Lab, Jake, who became my fast friend, and Jurij loved my business card, on which a photograph of our Bloodhound, Odysseus, is prominent where other Realtors typically have glamour shots of themselves.
Jurij and Tatiania’s home languished during last summer’s sizzling market, and then went through another, different, unsuccessful listing… both times, I now understand, without ever having been conscientiously represented, without ever having been actually marketed. At the expiration of their second unsuccessful Read more
It’s two months to the day and two hundred posts since we started BloodhoundBlog. Well begun is half done — or at least half-baked — so we’re going to smear some cake in our hair and get back to work. Thanks for being here with us…
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing
Daniel Rothamel at the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog hauls out that heirloom Virginia horsewhip. But is it Zillow.com he’s flaying?
If a customer were to call me and ask for a property valuation, or Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), and I responded by saying, “Sure, I can do that. I think you should know, however, that there is a 38% chance that I am going to be off by at least 10%,” I would expect that person to hang up on me and find another Realtor. If I continued to do this with every customer with whom I came in contact, I would very quickly find myself looking for another profession.
The founders of Zillow.com, Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, were also the founders of travel site, Expedia.com. Do you think Expedia.com would still exist if it told customers that sure, they can book a travel package on the site, but 38% of the time, we will tell you the wrong price of your trip by at least 10%?
More:
Zillow will never be right. It isn’t capable of being right. It can’t see properties, and even self-reported data on a subject property won’t help, because it doesn’t have equivalent data on comparable properties. This will ALWAYS be a shortcoming of Zillow. And it is just the most glaring on a very long list.
And the peroration — cover your backside:
If enough of these people buy into the Zillow lie, then I suppose Zillow could become authoritative. The people who would be held responsible for such a tragedy would be the hard-working real estate professionals who know better. It is our responsibility to educate the public about property valuations, and the danger that lurks behind Zillow. The only reason that Zillow will EVER become an legitimate authority is if real estate professionals sit idly by and let that occur.
For all of me, I can’t figure out why the appraisers aren’t leading this charge. In any case, there is much more in Daniel’s post. Read the whole thing.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing
This is Ajax in action, pre-caching map segments predictively on the fly. I saw it at Google Blogoscoped. Too totally cool…
My BubbleBoys are mostly gone for the moment, no doubt off like a cloud of gnats desperate to enshroud someone else’s head. The truth is, I do have a particular kind of fun at their expense, not the least of which are their pitch-perfect echoes of the charges I make against them. They were so aghast they I called them flying monkeys that they swooped in by the hundreds to express their outrage. Surely none dare call them Brownshirts, when most of what they did was rage, swear and threaten with all their minimal mental might. A certain few of them were brighter than I expected, but not one seems to have caught on that the Heckler’s Veto doesn’t work on the internet. And for all their complaints, none of them seems to have noticed that I also compared them to the Communists.
Even so, I ended up feeling sorry for them. It’s not the specious arguments repeated over and over, not the garbled grammar, not the atrocious spelling. Those are secondary consequences. What grabbed at my heart, despite myself, was the lack of internal resources that would lead a man — and they seem to be almost exclusively men — to join a gang of thugs. Surely this is not true of each one of them, but it is true in the main, in the same way that their belief in the efficacy of browbeating is an attribute of the browbeaten and their conviction in the ubiquity of corruption betrays only too completely the contents of their own souls. This is the stuff of the Brownshirts, of the Bolsheviks, of the Khmer Rouge and the Klan. This is the stuff from which the ugliest episodes in human history are sprung.
And yet it is still a sorrowful spectacle. I’m not absolving them. If you dig deeply enough into any sort of human squalor, at the bottom of everything you’ll find some combination of laziness, deceit and envy — usually about 112% of each. But every one of these boys would be a better man if he had more to do. The curse Read more
I lived in Phoenix when the Arizona Republic was still a great American newspaper, a daily example of how good a mainstream media outlet could be if it worked from fact, not bias. The Copy Desk — the folks who write headlines and captions — was rich with poets and punsters in those days, which meant a lot to me, too.
Long gone. The paper was bought by Gannett and over the last decade has been infested if not infiltrated with ideologues. Even the smallest item is suspect, but major issues are always reported from the slant of one long-range agenda or another. For example, the repeated mentions of allegedly homeless schoolteachers and firefighters is part of a propaganda campaign to pass ‘affordable housing’ legislation. Soviet-style, the paper will run half-a-dozen glowing puff-pieces on a pet topic on one day.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, they’re really bad at it. Anyone schooled in rhetoric can see right through it. Here’s an example from today’s Editorial page:
News flash: The law of gravity wasn’t suspended in the Valley. In last year’s sizzling real estate market, home prices and sales kept going up.
And up. And up.
At least one of four sales was to a speculator. Prices skyrocketed 55 percent in 2005. Sellers raked in profits as bidding wars drove up prices.
And now, an astonishing number of people are startled to find that the law of gravity still applies to the Phoenix area.
Ignore the real estate argument, which is really no more or less stupid than the ones that erupt, Tourettes-like, from those afflicted with enbubbulation. What matters is that finance is not physics. Equating the two is specious. So much the better, the idiot editorialist doesn’t even understand the law of gravity.
So what’s the purpose? To gull the gullible — among whom the author might nevertheless be numbered — into believing that economics describes unavoidable events and relationships in the same way that physics does. Proximate masses must accelerate toward each other, the lesser toward the greater? Yup, and if a market booms it must bust, if Moneybags got richer then Penniless must Read more